Ravens

[Domo67]

Hi all, I've read some really good posts here from very informed people on shamanic symbols so I'm hoping someone might be able to shed a little light on my experience.
First of all on Friday morning I was awoken by a beautiful raven clattering about in my kitchen, it made a lot of noise and at first thought it was an intruder (well it was), I opened a window and it flew away without fuss. Today, Sunday about an hour ago he/she was back, this time in the hall flapping about trying to get out again I opened a window and it took to the winds.
I have no idea how it got in other than when I left the back door open it crept in stayed overnight then decided to create a fuss so it could leave, unlikely but there is no other way for it to enter! My first question is are ravens in the UK known for this and secondly I think there is a message for me here, can anyone who has deep knowledge of shamanism and ancient belief syestems tell me what they mean symbolically? I've done the google search and found some interesting info but was wondering if anyone here might be able to further educate me.

[Mu2143]

............................

[Joanne Shepard]

Posted by Domo67 (here)
Hi all, I've read some really good posts here from very informed people on shamanic symbols so I'm hoping someone might be able to shed a little light on my experience.
First of all on Friday morning I was awoken by a beautiful raven clattering about in my kitchen, it made a lot of noise and at first thought it was an intruder (well it was), I opened a window and it flew away without fuss. Today, Sunday about an hour ago he/she was back, this time in the hall flapping about trying to get out again I opened a window and it took to the winds.
I have no idea how it got in other than when I left the back door open it crept in stayed overnight then decided to create a fuss so it could leave, unlikely but there is no other way for it to enter! My first question is are ravens in the UK known for this and secondly I think there is a message for me here, can anyone who has deep knowledge of shamanism and ancient belief syestems tell me what they mean symbolically? I've done the google search and found some interesting info but was wondering if anyone here might be able to further educate me.

Good morning Domo67

Very cool experiences. Sounds real and I would be still watching and trying to figure out how the raven got in, hope you figure it out and get back to us about it

[sheme]

A possibility that it came down the chimney, through a cat flap or open vent- have you positively identified it as a raven? could it be a Jackdaw ?they like to nest in chimney pots and often fall into the chimney You will need to install a jackdaw guard, your sweep can do this for you.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/bird...daw/index.aspx

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/raven/

Either way thanks for taking care to release it Corvids (yes I had a senior moment and said raptor) mate for life, but are often hand reared they are the most intelligent of birds and can be great company or if unlucky they can be a nuisance.



http://www.andreawansbury.com/questions.php Just found this it may be of interest.

[Domo67]

I do believe it was in fact a jackdaw today, although I'm not sure about the one on Friday. The chimney leads to a wood burner that has doors on it, they were slightly ajar so I guess that's where they accessed the property, it's shut now so if another one appears the mystery will be back on :-)
Thanks for your replies will let you know if there are any further unexpected visits.

[sheme]

You may find you have a chimney fire waiting to happen so take care as Jackdaws drop twigs down the chimney until they lodge or fill it to the pot, the chosen chimney is usually traditional, please remember to check the fire box regularly, you will find them hard to deter best to get the jackdaw guard fitted asap.

[Robin]

I would suggest that you read and study Edgar Allen Poe's infamous poem, The Raven:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15638

For more information about the poem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raven

[13th Warrior]

Everything you wanted to know and then some...

I would focus on the tradition of your people the most.

http://www.druidry.org/library/libra...mal-lore-raven

[william r sanford72]

my first born was named in honor of mother earth. Ravyn Sequoia..and clean your flue before you light the woodstove..they could have it clooged.we call em chimney swifts here on the farm..as far as your visitor the jackdaws are concerned.
truth always.
wiliam.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Posted by Domo67 (here)
Hi all, I've read some really good posts here from very informed people on shamanic symbols so I'm hoping someone might be able to shed a little light on my experience.
First of all on Friday morning I was awoken by a beautiful raven clattering about in my kitchen, it made a lot of noise and at first thought it was an intruder (well it was), I opened a window and it flew away without fuss. Today, Sunday about an hour ago he/she was back, this time in the hall flapping about trying to get out again I opened a window and it took to the winds.
I have no idea how it got in other than when I left the back door open it crept in stayed overnight then decided to create a fuss so it could leave, unlikely but there is no other way for it to enter! My first question is are ravens in the UK known for this and secondly I think there is a message for me here, can anyone who has deep knowledge of shamanism and ancient belief syestems tell me what they mean symbolically? I've done the google search and found some interesting info but was wondering if anyone here might be able to further educate me.

Dear OP -- firstly -- let my congratulate you on befriending/attracting one of these magnificent animals.
Due to their intelligence, it's sometimes hard to know what draws a raven or crow to human habitations.
It could have been anything.

(Western) Human myths and ghost stories tend to over-associate the raven with Death and the afterlife.
I feel that due to the social nature of these amazing birds, this may be partly undeserved.
Native Americans associated Raven with the awakening of the mind and experience of living.
Europeans associated the animal with more negative qualities.


However, the Nordic peoples respected Ravens a great deal, as ravens are among the chief totems of allfather Odin.
Hugin and Munin (Thought and Memory) are the names of his birds. Their role is gathering information for Odin.
When the ravens are not at his side, Odin's thoughts and memories cease to exist.
He sits on the throne like a dead man, unthinking, until the "ghost birds" return from Midgard.
Their chief task is seeking out the souls of the hanged and the drowned, translated as "the willfully slain and the helpless lost".

Friday is sacred to Frigga (Nordic love goddess) and the planet Venus. A Raven visiting you on a Friday morning isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Although it is possible that if you were about to embark on a journey or project, you might need to think about it first before jumping in headlong.
Sailors don't like to embark on a Friday, calling it the "Dies Infaustus" ("devilishly unlucky day".)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday

"Though Friday has always been held an unlucky day in many Christian countries, still in the Hebrides it is supposed that it is a lucky day for sowing the seed. Good Friday in particular is a favourite day for potato planting—even strict Roman Catholics make a point of planting a bucketful on that day. Probably the idea is that as the Resurrection followed the Crucifixion, and Burial so too in the case of the seed, and after death will come life."[9]

In the PNW native legends, Raven undertook a quest to provide humans with light and intelligence, and tricked the guardians of the Sun, Moon, and Stars into accepting him into their home. His goal was to steal the sun. He did this by transforming himself into a small seed or leaf (pine needle?) and allowing himself to be swallowed by the daughter of the Old Man who kept the sun.

A Raven visit might be an invitation to re-organize or at least evaluate your personal values and standards.
Do we desire earthly things out of a desire to help others? Should we value our interactions more than our property?

I've wondered for a while if crows and ravens would come into a house they're familiar with --
the crows I used to feed in Seattle got fairly bold and were almost willing to walk into the front door!
Your raven friend must have really trusted the "vibe" in your home to enter.

I've had crows/ravens visit though when someone important was about to die.
The first time I noticed it was before Super Bowl 2012 when Jasmin de Grazia and then Whitney Houston died under strange circumstances.
They were found drowned in the tub.

Considering Odin's ravens tend to the drowned and murdered/executed, I thought that was VERY INTERESTING. When the ravens were on the roof I couldn't stop thinking about "lady in the water" and "odin's throne". The Super Bowl show was about Odin's throne and there were two ladies in the water that week.

love

Tesla


p.s. lol

Western Jackdaws are voluble birds. The main call, frequently given in flight, is a metallic and squeaky chyak-chyak or kak-kak.[12]

This is a contact or greeting call.

A feeding call made by adults to call young, or males when offering food to their mates, has been transcribed as kiaw or kyow.

Females in return give a more drawn out version when begging for food from males, written as kyaay, tchaayk or giaaaa.[39]

Perched birds often chatter together, and before settling for the night, large roosting flocks make a cackling noise.

Western Jackdaws also have a hoarse, drawn-out alarm call,[12] arrrrr or kaaaarr, used when warning of predators or when mobbing them.[39]

Nestlings begin making a soft cheep at about a week of age. As they grow, their voice becomes louder until their call is a penetrating screech around day 18.

After this, the voice deepens and softens.[40] From day 25, the young cease calling and become silent if they hear an unfamiliar noise.[41]

[Domo67]

Thankyou everyone for your replies and tips regarding these visits, I must say the overall feeling I'm getting is that of a positive message with an underlying theme of having to claim the wisdom that these birds hold, I suppose my task will become apparent in time but I didn't get bad vibes at all from their presence and they are impressive to see close up.

Tesla what an amazing post you really picked up on a couple of themes there that struck a chord or chords, plenty to ponder on and a bit of clarity for me regarding the timing on a Friday when the first one arrived. I've been thinking about a move that I have to make in the game of life all weekend and the going over of a project before embarking makes so much sense.

[13th Warrior]

There you go; death and rebirth is the message...you are to start something new.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

a story about how smart baby crows are

P.s. My mother in law died in late 2008,a year after my dad did, if I recall correctly. My husband moved the family into his dad's place when that happened.
He told me that in the past, she loved feeding the ravens and crows, and they were trained to expect feeding at her house...

Well, before I found out about her feeding the birds, I started doing it (at the same house). Before we realized it, a crow family had "adopted" our yard.
They visited multiple times per day, sometimes staying the entire day.

This might sound really corny, but my son and I are ASD (his is very severe mostly non-verbal -- very damaged/troubled child) and had literally ZERO friends in Seattle at that time, particularly after we moved out of our Northgate apartment and into the house. The apartment contributed to me having a nervous breakdown.

Anyhow, when the crows showed up and started visiting with us -- it felt less lonely. I stopped feeling that classic "help is on the way" panic every day, and managed to enjoy their presence somewhat.

There is a point to this story: about a year before we lost the house, i.e. the summer prior, the crows had babies (or maybe one baby?).
The mother crow would bring her juvenile to our yard almost every day and the two would watch my son stim.
My three year old sat under the huge Redwood tree that Tony planted in the front yard when he was 5 years old (1975!), and played with the sand there.
The crows would watch him for hours -- and wait for our scraps.

This makes me feel guilty to admit, but feeding the crows was therapeutic for me. Feeding my son was always very hard due to his sensory issues and irritability.
Also I was a very neglectful mother. But when I fed the birds, they gave such strong feedback and reinforcement, that it helped me to see feedings as a positive thing and not just a thankless chore. Seeing the mother crow faithfully bring her baby to our yard and watch our progress every day made me feel self-conscious.

They really loved Paul (my son). They watched him closest of all. Even down to memorizing his routines.

My husband went out into the yard one day, and the baby crow decided to ham it up for him.
He (the baby crow) flew down to our sidewalk that led to the front door and patio. My son's blue toy car, about 4 inches long, was sitting there in a crack of the sidewalk.
The sidewalk had a sloping incline down toward the house.

What the baby crow did was so amazing. He approached the toy car, opened his beak, and then "bit" the car, forcing it to MOVE FORWARD.
And the crow repeated this about 5 times. It would push the car forward and hop toward it, then push it again.
The baby animal was copying my son's play routine with the miniature car.

I thought you guys would get a huge kick out of this.

Also, based on the excerpt above, we KNOW that corvids have a language.
We put them down, call it "animal noises", but it's a language just like the elephants and whales have a language.

These are creatures of intelligence and they have lessons for us too.!

(humbled by crows, lol)

Tesla

p.p.s. I forgot the important part.
When my son was placed out of home and we lost/sold the house, I was faced with a choice of giving him up or moving to Walla Walla. I decided the decent thing to do was follow my boy and be with him.

Well, I am not a perfect person and my spouse and I spent a lot of time in transition between the two places. One day we were visiting Tony's dad at the house next door to the one we lost. I waited in the car because the neighbor doesn't like me much and the house had a lot of cat hair (allergy!).

Well, while I waited, I noticed that the baby crow had landed in the Redwood tree in our former yard. He was watching me through the windshield.

And when Tony went inside the house and shut the door, an amazing thing happened. This baby crow flew down and landed on the hood of the SUV I was sitting in. And he walked right up to the glass, and looked at me.

He sat there bobbing his little head and watching me with those coal black eyes, and decided he didn't like the window glass. So then he tried landing on the passenger side mirror and couldn't hold on, and then hopped across to the neighbor's car and stood on the edge of the roof.

This little baby crow was about 4-5 feet away from me, the closest he had ever been. I wasn't sure if he was looking for Paul or if he was happy to see me, but I think it was both now.

I didn't have any good food to offer him, just an old hard piece of Twizzler candy, but he didn't seem to want food that much. He just wanted to see us again.

He was saying "goodbye".
he stayed for at least 5-10 minutes.

[raregem]

Thank you Domo67 for this thread. Fascinating lessons re: the raven MU2143 and Tesla.

would anyone be able to give insight re: the SHADOW of the RAVEN?

[ghostrider]

He was your guide , on the journey you took while in Rem sleep ... He keeps bad spirits away while you move about ... the message = well done , my good and faithfull servant ... you must have done something that day for a good cause , that few were willing to do ...

[Domo67]

There is definitely an element of re-birth going on in my life at the moment, but its more a case of the opportunity of re-birth is there for me and that I am ready to take that move. At the same the constraints placed on me by the structure of society are also still there, I think the birds are certainly guides from somewhere in my consciousness that I'm not too in-tune with, maybe its a case of them saying come on, let go, get with it, we are here waiting for you. One other thing I'll say about the intelligence of these birds that Tesla referred to in her touching story was that there was communication between us, after the initial flapping about and making a mess when I wasn't there, when I arrived and softly introduced myself, I opened the window and it was off into the daylight both times no misunderstandings no panic.

I also like the fact that they flew out of the confinement of the house and into the vastness and beauty of nature, something I'd like to do to in my own way, maybe the time has come for this, but I've still got to do it.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

That is super cool and really touching, actually --

do you ever dream about houses? because the house is our emotional state, i think.
the things that happen inside the house in the dream are very important.

the bird is a symbol of freedom as you point out.
the cute raven hopping up and out of the window was probably such a sight, lol

[sheme]

http://www.micheleknight.co.uk/artic...f-the-jackdaw/

This is a lovely little relevance for us to ponder.

[Domo67]

With regards to dreams I think you're right Tesla, I read too it has to do with our emotional state, I haven't had any of those recently and haven't knowingly had contact with ravens either although I think Ghostrider could well be be right about them coming from my dreamworld.
One dream I had recently that I did find rather curious and noteworthy was being in an airport and rushing for a plane, I got onto one of those moving walkways still rushing but taking in the sights around me, then things started to really speed up and I slowed down within myself, I became very relaxed as loads of stuff happened outside of me at such speed I couldn't keep track of what was happening but that didn't matter the moving walkway took on a life of its own and felt totally safe a lot of stuff was going on outside but didn't seem that important I really started to enjoy the experience until I arrived at the terminal where I was to take my flight.
My interpretation of that is that things are going to speed up outside but what will be important is what's going on inside and when I 'arrive' I'll be off somewhere else so enjoy the ride, whatever that ride may entail.

I want to dream of ravens tonight or baby Jackdaws

[Daughter of Time]

A number of years ago I had a session/reading with a medicine wheel shaman. Amongst other things, she told me that my animal spirit guide is the raven. I became somewhat alarmed as I'd associated the raven with death. She told me not to be alarmed but to be happy instead that the most clever of all birds would have chosen to be my animal guide.

Ravens are extremely intelligent. In medieval times they were used to carry messages hundreds of miles away (probably more reliable than our postal services)and they are very responsible as they would fly for hours, without stopping for food, knowing they would be fed when the message was delivered. Although they are part of the corvine family, unlike crows, they do not live in communities. They are loners, living alone or in pairs when they choose a mate. And yes, they are associated with the underworld, death and birth, or endings and beginnings.

Astrologically speaking, April is the most powerful month of endings and new beginnings this year. There might be something in your life which will bring dramatic changes. It would be interesting to know if any important changes take place in your life and I'd appreciate it if any such changes that might occur will be posted in this thread.

Best wishes!