Not really a Thanksgiving quote

[janradder]

So I have this irrational fear/superstition about crows.

I've always felt like they are somehow ominous portents of doom and I've always chased them from our yard and trees when I see them because of this. The one time I decided to get over this and just leave the damn things alone was a couple weeks ago. The result? My dad wound up in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat at the beginning of the week and I ended it by having PTSD flashbacks of being bullied in school (real stomach-churning, tremor-inducing flashbacks). Okay, so maybe it wasn't the crows that caused it, but the fact that those things happened has done nothing to assuage my feelings about them.

Now today I went over to our friends' house to take care of their cats. In the trees, on the yards, and overhead were about thirty crows -- cawing, circling, hopping, and generally looking like that last scene in The Birds where they walk out to the car. Not good. But when I came back outside, there was something far worse. All the crows were gone, save one: a dead crow, its neck twisted unnaturally to the side, laying right next to the front steps of my friends' house. Now what the fuck is that supposed to mean?

Comments

don't be afraid young Skywalker

[(Anonymous)]

My father has been very into Carlos Castaneda for decades--Castaneda is an anthropologist who studied under a Native American "sorcerer" in the Southwest. My father once told me that in those books, if you see a lot of crows, it's an omen that there's great power or wisdom around.

I googled crows and Castaneda and got this link to Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=K7xMjWjqVmcC&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=crows+and+Castaneda&source=bl&ots=qvTTWspt_E&sig=0T-_0Ccz28AQ3SjygxxHLvIrB2w&hl=en&ei=cXjxTIewD4K2sAOg7smoCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false


which is kind of interesting. It talks about how crows like to look at dead things because there is no light in them (which could explain why in superstition they are an omen of death). If you scroll up a little bit to the prior page in the link, it talks about crows avoiding things that move too fast, and being attracted to things that move just right.

So maybe you keep seeing crows because you move just right. Or you're wise. Or are a powerful sorcerer.
(That might help with your to-do list if you're a powerful sorcerer.)

I read the first Castaneda book when I was 11 or 12. I think one of the hooks is that you can literally be walking along one day as your ordinary everyday generic self, and then you'll run into a sorcerer and learn to be super-powerful and fly and stuff. But since that hasn't happened to me yet (despite my father once telling me he was reading about crows and Castaneda one time, then looked up and saw me sitting under a tree with a hundred crows in it), I kind of realized that I wasn't going to become a sorcerer someday.

My guess is that your fear of crows comes from your need to embrace them in order to achieve your true powers. Your ancient enemies have somehow instilled a phobia in you in order to prevent you from attaining your sorcerous might. At least, that would be the case if you were in a book.

As far as your dad, I wouldn't put too much stock in it. He didn't die. So you could take that as a negative or a positive: negative--he ended up in the hospital; positive: they found out about his heartbeat and presumably have given him medication to help him overcome it in the future. And as far as the dead bird, with its neck at an unnatural angle, I think most dead birds I've seen have their necks at an unnatural angle. I'm pretty sure they can actually move their necks almost all the way around (like the girl in the Exorcist), so that's probably just what happens when they die. Their neck swerves because they're not holding it in place anymore.
As to the PTSD bullying stuff, again, I think you could see the positive there: your son was being bullied, but it sounds like the school (per Haddayr's recent Facebook post) has dealt with it in a remarkable way. So the darkness of your past is being overcome in his present.

While I am not superstitious myself, I could see crows as a sign of change for you. And change isn't necessarily bad (see the positive spins above on potentially negative events). Change can be good. And maybe the crows just like to be around to see it.

-Ben.

Re: don't be afraid young Skywalker

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Ah, Ben, you always have the positive spin on things. I read the first of the Castaneda books (The Teachings of Don Juan?) but none of the others, though I remember you talking about them a lot. Yes, it would be nice to be a sorcerer -- it would certainly make getting things done a lot easier. I'll try to look at the crows in a different light, but I still think I'm going to chase them away when I can. The thing about superstitions is that there's no good reason for them and there's really no logic to argue them away. Ah well.

Re: don't be afraid young Skywalker

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, I just found this about crows:

One curious feature of the behaviour of crows is their seeming
capacity to hold 'courts' at which, by numerous accounts, they
pass judgement and carry out summary execution of such of their
numbers as, for some mysterious reason, they consider deserving
of it. As Edward Stanley, the Victorian naturalist put it:
In the Northern part of Scotland, and in the Faroe Islands,
extraordinary meetings of crows are known to occur. They
collect in great numbers, as if they had all been summoned,
for the occasion; a few of the flock sit with dropping heads,
and the others seem as grave as judges, while others again
are exceedingly active and noisy; in the course of about an
hour they disperse and it is not uncommon, after they have
flown away, to find one or two left dead on the spot.
Another writer (in Dr Edmonston's "Shetland Isles"), says that
these meetings will sometimes continue for a day or two, before
the object, whatever it may be, is complete. Crows continue to
arrive from all quarters during the session. As soon as they
have all arrived, a very general noise ensues, and shortly
after, the whole fall upon one or two individuals, and put them
to death; when this execution has been performed, they quietly
disperse.

more crow stuff

[(Anonymous)]

There's a pretty good book (much too long, but interesting) called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, about two wizards in a fictional 17th century England. One of the secondary characters is called "The Raven King" and in these books was considered the greatest wizard of his time. I also came across the Raven King as a wizard in one of the Magic Tree House books that Noah was reading. But Google doesn't seem to have much to say about him other than references to the book I mentioned above. So I don't know if there's a mythological story he's based on or not.

I also found something about crows being extremely intelligent. They use tools to catch prey, just like the chimps and us.

Sorry about the relentless optimism. It's just my public persona. Privately, I tend to balance that out with periodic glumness. And in my head there are often visions of dread waiting just around the corner. I think this is fairly universal, but nobody really talks about it.

Re: more crow stuff

[janradder.livejournal.com]

No worries, Ben -- your optimism is quite refreshing. I really didn't mean to imply that it wasn't.

Haddayr read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell a few years back and enjoyed it quite a bit. I'd actually been looking for it earlier this fall to read it but apparently it's been loaned out or else misplaced. Whenever I find it, I do plan on reading it. As to the Raven King, that's the first I've heard mention of him, though my knowledge of mythology is far from exhaustive (and in any case, is far more limited to Greek and Roman).