Crow Medicine

Crows and Star Wristlet by kittyempire3 on Etsy

Welcome Crow,  who will be my teacher today!  Crow is the keeper of the sacred texts and ancient records for the Universe,  including Creator's Sacred Laws. Some examples of Creator's laws would be to love and respect all living things, and to always speak the truth.  

There are 40-plus members of the crow family and they are found everywhere except South America.  They are considered to be one of the most intelligent animals on the planet and have been known to not only use tools, but construct them as well,  from twigs and grass.  Examples of tool use would be using food as bait to fish and dropping nuts on roads so that cars will crush them.  Crows will eat just about anything and can live up to 20 years in the wild.  One crow in captivity was documented to have lived 59 years!

For a while, we didn't have any crows as they died from West Nile Virus, but they've been back for a few years now.  They are excellent "lookouts" and usually let us know if anything is amiss or if a car is coming down the road.

Watching crows care for their young can be very entertaining.  One day a mother crow and her baby were eating an apple I put on the front lawn.  The "baby" was larger than his mother and looked mature enough to take care of himself.  But he was insisting she break off bits of the apple and feed him.  The fuss he made when she tired of it was comical. She'd walk away from the apple, he'd pick it up and run after her, drop it at her feet, then cry for her to peck off some pieces and plop them in his mouth. This was repeated a number of times until the apple was pretty much eaten and "Baby Huey" was satisfied.  I could almost hear her sighing and wondering if that kid would ever grow up!

In pondering universal laws this morning and that crow mama, I'm reminded of the one that says "all things are born of women". This includes not only having babies, but other things too. In our battle to stand equal with men, sometimes the other things are put aside such as mothering children, home care, and nurturing.  The important work women did for years wasn't valued, which is a shame because those things form the backbone of our lives.

Thinking of women's roles reminds me of when Europeans came to Turtle Island, now named the United States of America.  They didn't honor the female energy of our Mother or her gifts and proceeded to destroy the Native people and the animals, neither of whom they understood and therefore feared.  They thought it their right to take anything and everything they wanted as it was written in their sacred book that their God had given them "dominion" over all.  They didn't even understand their own spiritual teachings,  and that dominion was meant to be not domination, but caretaking. 

We women and Mother Earth have much in common.  I'm not sure how all this will translate into what Crow wants to teach me today but I look forward to learning whatever it is.  Part of Crow's medicine is also shapeshifting, which can include changing form, ideas, or energy.  I've been personally struggling with my own roles in the home, caring for my husband, the dogs, my mom, myself, running my business, learning from Spirit and the animals, and creating.  It's hard to do it all.  Perhaps Crow will have some answers for me as to how to better balance the male and female roles within myself.

End of day notes:  Well...nothing really outstanding to report.  I did get a feather from the crows who were active and vocal here all day and seemed to have a high level conference before they ate the cheese off the top off the cat's kibble this morning.  The feather has holes in it like two Halloween pumpkin eyes. Am I supposed to use my eyes more for something?

The only other thing was I gave two teenagers 15 cents at the supermarket because they were short that to pay for a roll of paper towels and a Willow Tree chicken.  They seemed overjoyed and even the cashier thanked me.  But then she told me after they left that their dog was sick and that's why they needed those two items.  So I understood better why they were so happy - especially about the paper towels ) 

Anyway, I'm going to wrap it up on the computer for the night as there's still lots to do and will think about the feather, sacred texts, universal laws, and shapeshifting.  Maybe by tomorrow I'll know more and meantime I'm happy the animals are slowing down my lessons and allowing me time to think!