Animal Messengers

My blog post at "Witches and Pagans" discusses how animals deliver messages.

"Sometime ago, I dreamt that I was a giant squid playing with the other squids in the blue ocean. Wiggling my tentacles, I had fun jetting from here to there. When I woke up, I pondered what Giant Squid had wanted to tell me."

 "While pondering my dream, I understood that Giant Squid wanted me to play more. Moreover, She came to remind me to be more flexible. With my brain injury, I have become a fixed thinker. Since it takes me a long time to do my chores, I tend to focus solely on getting them done. Giant Squid decided to enter my dreams to have me become more fluid in my waking life. She told me to zoom away from housework and go play."

Read the rest at Animal Wisdom: Messengers

 

Raven: Duality

Often mistaken for crow, the raven is not just a big crow. A complex bird in nature and mythology, the raven is noted for her innovative solutions to problems that she encounters. For example, the raven uses stones to crack her nuts. With her diverse language of calls, the raven often engages in wordplay with her friends. Not only that, but she also incorporates the calls of other birds in her “speech”.


When the territories of the crow and the raven overlap, a distinction can be made between the two. Unlike her brother crow, the raven prefers woods to cities. She has a greater tolerance for cold than the crow, and can even withstand the Arctic winter. To identify the raven, look at the bird’s tail. The crow has a fantail, the raven a wedge tail. Also, when the raven is cold, she puffs herself up, looking a bit raggedy with a ruff around her neck.

In the areas where only the crow lives, people have attributed him with the raven’s magical qualities. In the areas where only the raven lives, people added the crow’s attributes to the raven. However, the raven is known for shape shifting, which the crow cannot do. More secretive than the crow, the raven is also associated with the night and dark magic. Since she is bigger and stronger than the crow, the raven’s magic is more profound.

The raven’s main food is carrion. Several ravens will flock around a large carcass and pick the bones clean. Because she fed on corpses hanging from gallows, people took the raven to be an evil omen with supernatural powers. In Europe, they believed her to be so evil that they killed the raven before she could do any more harm.

The Norse revered the raven since Odin, their chief God, had two ravens – Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory) who told him about everything happening on earth. Among early Christians, the raven was a messenger sent by God to feed the saints in the wilderness. Among the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, the raven was the Great Trickster. She created human beings, and brought fire to them.

People hold opposing views of the raven. She is either a creator of human beings or a harbinger of death. When she is not feeding on corpses, the raven is a messenger to Christian saints. The raven teaches life’s duality. From the light comes the shadow. With joy comes sadness. The raven helps people to embrace life in all of its complexity.
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Crow: Sanity

Crows drive some people crazy, while amusing others with their antics. Most people are familiar with these medium-size black birds. They see crows everywhere, roosting in trees, eating road kill, swooping down to grab someone’s lunch, or mobbing the unfortunate owl. Whoever they are, everyone has an opinion about crows.

What people do agree on are the crow’s intelligence, adaptability, and versatility. A member of the songbird family, this sooty black bird uses his voice for other things than singing, such as chattering and calling to his friends. One of the most highly evolved of all birds; the crow’s intelligence is on the level with primates and dolphins.

The crow uses his intelligence to good effect. To open mussels, the carrion crow will drop them on docks. Many crows use tools to crack open eggs. Other crows watch people to determine when the best time is to steal their food. Faced with a problem, the crow will think it through, and then work it out. The crow does not continue to try things that obviously do not work.

The crow may drive people with insane with his activities. But unlike people, he does not keep doing the same thing over, expecting different results. The crow does not indulge in that type of behavior. Learn how to be sane from the crow.
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Crow Family: Saving Resources

The crow family (Corvidae) includes a large group of birds besides crows and their brother ravens. Also belonging to the crow family are the choughs, jays, magpies, and nutcrackers. What do all these birds have in common? They are curious, intelligent, noisy, outrageous, and social.

Throughout the ages, people have either loved or hated Corvids, but they have never ignored them. People gave distinctive names for groups of these birds: a murder of crows, an unkindness of ravens, a tiding of magpies, a chattering of choughs, and a scold of jays. Having a property with a Parliament of rooks living there is considered to be good fortune. Raven lore ranges from North American beliefs of Raven as the Trickster to the Norse raven companions of Odin. Furthermore, many people believe as long as ravens (or rooks) live at the Tower of London, the Crown of England shall be safe. Beliefs involving other members are: magpies steal, crows foretell death, and jays bring bad luck.

What are these birds that grab people’s attention? The most familiar group is crows and ravens, who are also the most widespread of the Corvids. These sooty black birds are noted for their quick-wittedness. Crows and ravens use their intelligence to good use in finding food.

In their glossy all-black plumage, the choughs resemble crows. You find them living on cliffs or in mountains of Eurasia. Unlike the black-beaked crow, the chough has either a yellow or scarlet bill.

Meanwhile, jays are considered to be the most primitive of the Corvids. As the oldest of Corvids, They originated in Eurasia and spread throughout the New World. Jays are noted for their colorfulness, with many having blue or green plumage.

Magpies and treepies are highly social birds. These black and white birds are well known for their chatter. One part of the magpie’s name comes from mag, which is Old English for “chatterer”. Regarded as thieves, magpies like bright shiny things, which they take and hide.

Nutcrackers, which live in pine forests, are remarkable for the extent of their dependence on cached stores of seeds. Permanent residents of forests, they do not migrate but live through hard winters on their saved food. Called nutcrackers, they eat mainly hazel nuts and pine seeds.

Members of the crow family save for the future. They store food to help them through hard times. Before beginning to eat, Corvids will take the trouble to hide a large quantity of food. They carry the food in their throats until they find a hole to hide the food in. Corvids memorize where they hid their food and return to their stores when they need to.

We can learn from the crow family how to refrain from consuming everything in sight. Learn the discipline to save some for the future when lean times arrive. If we have discipline and fortitude like the crow family, our hidden stores will be there for us during hard times.
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