Observations placeholder
Communicating with two crows, a magpie, a collared dove, a pheasant and an assortment of little birds
Identifier
021611
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The Art of Dying – Drs Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick
The ability to fly has always been regarded as a magical power, the stuff of dreams. Perhaps that is why birds have always been regarded as having an element of the supernatural and why, in so many myths and legends, they provide a link between the human world and the supernatural or divine, associated with both birth and death.
In some cultures the human soul is believed to arrive on earth in bird form, and in many, birds are seen as carriers or symbols of the human soul, flying heavenwards after death, or as guardians who guide the soul to the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul, once freed from the body, took the form of a bird, and even built their tombs with access to the open air so that these birds could fly in and out, keeping watch on the body. In Jewish tradition the 'soul guide' is a dove; in Syria, figures of eagles on tombs represent the guides that lead souls to heaven.
A description of the experience
Early May 2016
I now have two crows, a magpie, a collared dove, a pheasant and an assortment of little birds attempting [unsuccessfully] to communicate with me. It infuriates me, because I am aching to understand what they are trying to tell me. I wish there was a school of bird language I could go to.
One crow sits outside the office window, on a level with my eyes – the garden is terraced so she can look me in the eyes through the window – and she chatters the whole time telling me what to do. From where I sit adding things to the site she is only about 4 feet away. None of this caw caw stuff, a whole vocabulary of sounds, head this way and that, it is like watching my Mum – perhaps it is my Mum!
May 24th
For two days, crows flying at the windows, tapping on windows, very hard, enough to wake me up. This frightens me because at all other times it has been a warning, but because I am not any good at understanding what they are trying to tell me – other than the clear feeling I must not work on the web-site when they have done this – I don’t know why I must not work on the web-site. I feel utterly daft. How would they know I shouldn’t work on the web-site? So I’ve been reading and editing instead, productive but not exactly what I’d planned to do.
May 25th
Well, the crows were right. My cleaners came today and they were late. They said the road to our house [narrow and along country lanes] was closed by a very large BT van and they appeared to be cutting down trees and branches that were near the telephone lines. Aha, I thought so maybe it has something to do with them, perhaps damaging a telephone cable. But no, again wrong.
At 10.30, all phone lines went dead. No Internet, no phones. The crows were right.
D goes down in his car to investigate what has happened and there is the BT van and they are unwinding a long length of new cable. They are replacing the lines. No warning, no letter to say it will all go at 10.30. Our neighbour is also there incensed. She works from home and was in the middle of a big transaction – phone and Internet. D decides to leave the shouting to her, she is a good deal more formidable than he is – and angry.
The engineers say it will be back on again ‘soon’. Soon was 3 hours later, which actually wasn’t too bad.
But how did the crows know!!