Metamorphisis

originally posted Aug. 2003.


I would like to relate to you something that happened to me August 3rd, 3 days before my birthday. As a fore-note, among other things, I am known for my affinity with ravens and crows in particular. they are called the messengers of the Gods and thoughts /prayers fly on their wings from this world to the next.
--------------------------------------

Their[Crows]language is as expressive as anything we could
think of and more so. I found this out first hand as I started my clean up of the grounds where I work.

Last Sunday I had the unfortunate luck of finding a crow that had just been hit by a car. (note-I watched 3 cars drive over her before I could rescue the remains. I clearly saw the drivers faces and the 2nd and 3rd driver Did Not know she was there and yet... I saw them jerk the wheel to miss her without their eyes looking down. This I cannot/will not try explain !!!)

I carefully wrapped and boxed up the shattered body and said a sad prayer to the Spirits to accept her Spirit on it's final flight. Halfway I took her to our woods to bury her before I heard a strange very loud sound. I stopped my golf cart and heard it again clearly...mournfully. The unearthly wailing cry of what could only be its mate. I looked up and in the nearest tree he was pearched, staring directly at me and the closed box in the back with the carefully wrapped body. For at least 10 heartbeats he appraised me and the box. Back and forth the gaze went. His eyes then pierced me and he cried out again in the same unearthly call and was joined by a number of unseen others.

As tears filled my eyes and my body started to shake I felt my guards stripped away by a force unknown and scarry in its' insistence. The calling embraced and washed over and into me. Then it overtook me with a chilling clarity and I was among them. Then I felt the total joy and pain as he took my spirit in kinship. Our pride and pain truly manifested as he took me up and we lept to soar. I understood then...we were flying over her domain and I was part of their funeral rite and farewell to this mother and sister.

I had taken on the task of giving her back to the Earth with respect, instead of allowing the ignoble fate awaiting her body where she died if noone else had been around or a lesser creature had been there. They understood my respect of her and my true sadess and they included me in and showed me a glimpse of their ways. Then I undersood. I learned their understanding of death eclipses ours. They are closer to the One than us.

It is a sound and honor I can never forget and I thank them for their trust in me and allowing me into their sacred song.

She was powerful, proud and repected and will migrate back soon enough. I now know her nestmate will be alone until his end, never to pair with another, as is their way.

The lesson is simple and as old as our shared Paths.

-If you listen hard enough you can hear the voice of the Woods itself.

-If you are Honest in your reverence to the Greenman you may be rewarded in ways totally unexpected. For the Earth is alive and wishes to share with us. If we will only open our heart **see note

One could look at the omens the situation presented being it happened 3 days prior to my birthday, the things involved, etc. But by NOT doing this and simply respecting the passing of another creature I found out more than I ever could have otherwise and came closer to my Truth.

This was TRULY a birthday for me for in one day I have been through death and then my rebirth in another form. Because they now see me as friend and for a second/eternity allowed me to become one of them.

Peace,
Twig

**Note - I did/do not use Cernunnos as a "God of the Woods" for my source states that:
"He is...not necessarily representing an animal spirit but a deity closely involved with animals...and can transform instantly into animal shape."
[The Encyclopedia of Gods by M. Jordan ISBN 0-8160-2909-1}