NATURE IS UNCANNY: I watch as thousands of crows . . .

February 9, 2026

I’ve long had an interest in crows and ravens. In fact, the magazine Crone Chronicles (1989-2001) was ignited via a nighttime visit from a Raven, clawing my shoulders from behind, cawing “WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT’S TIME!

That was the first of a number of numinous Raven encounters (all but that first one in waking life) that guided me on that 12-year journey.

Here’s an interview in which I talk about that journey. Truly magical, the entire experience. See this for more.

THE CRONE CHRONICLES EXPERIMENT

In Wyoming, where I then lived, ravens were not rare. Here in Indiana, instead, we have crows. Investigate the difference:

Crows tend to be city dwellers, flock together and are very noisy. Besides being larger . . .

. . . ravens are more archetypal, one might say, singular, brooding.

Interesting, relevant aside: I see the deep mountain west as a land of intrepid (raven-esk) individuals; very different from here in the midwest, much more focused on (crow-like) community. Me? I’m utterly fascinated by the shifting relationship between both Individual and Community, as well as any two paradoxical polarities, always seeking to inhabit the pulsing space between them.

 

That was definitely Raven on my shoulders shocking me awake from that dream. And that raven inspired a 12-year journey into the archetypal investigation of the word “Crone,” the third and final archetypal 30-year period of a woman’s life.

 

So, crows flock together, ravens don’t.

But both ravens and crows are extremely intelligent.

 

Three evening ago, just as dusk was arriving, so did thousands of crows, literally thousands. Cawing vociferously, and settling (for how long? I don’t know) on the upper branches of nearby trees.

For two more evenings, one after another, they gathered in trees, cawing lustily, as dusk settled in. I was the grateful recipient of this seemingly uncanny, but very very natural phenomenon.

Question: do you often find, like I do, that Nature herself is utterly Uncanny?

Here are three photos, taken from a single observation point on my porch. First panoramic, then a closer view, one after another.

 

Question: why do crows gather? There are lots of theories, having to do with courtship, nesting, safety in numbers, and so on.

Actually, we humans have no idea, no idea at all. Nature IS uncanny, from our limited, all-too-human perspective!

 

REFLECTIONS ON “THE NEWS”: Have you ever popped a boil on your own body?

February 5, 2026

Have you ever popped a boil on your own body? I have. Weird. And no fun. Especially the aftermath. That area must be cleaned and cared for, lest it become infected.

Humanity is now in the process of bursting a boil that has been slowly surging from underneath for years, decades, even centuries. It’s no longer news. It’s obvious. We are undergoing a massive, historic, collective purging of evil, worldwide.

Evil, especially having to do with children. Trafficking, torture, rape, murder, adrenochrome, MK Ultra, mind control, hunting parties, on and on.

For me, the discovery of this overwhelming evil goes back to the late ’90s, when I discovered  Trance Formation of America, by Cathy O’Brien, who was first trafficked herself, as a child, by her own father, to Gerald Ford.

For me, this book plunged me into the first of many dark, difficult rabbit holes. Rabbit holes that I couldn’t talk about in public, lest I be considered crazy.

Those days are past. This ghastly and very public unrolling of what some of us have known for decades is so astonishing to me, that it feels like the prelude to a brand new beginning. To Death yielding Life! As ever. At least as long as we are in bodies, which come and go, rise and fall, like the tides. This is true, not just of the actual physical death of our bodies, but of the many little deaths along the way. A small or large plan, interrupted, failed; a supposed friend, dropping the mask of good. And then, inevitably, the slow or sudden wrenching recognition that these sudden switches entail.

None of us is immune to the continuous cycling of LifeDeathLifeDeathLifeDeathLife — a subject I wrote about in 1993, before I read Cathy’s book:

Savoring the Synchronicities 

 

Meanwhile, here we now are, finally, smack in the middle of climactic, years’ long, collective purging of evil. It’s way too early to predict what comes next; just be aware that, like day follows night, and summer follows winter, life does follow death, always.

Here’s a current example of what our collective purging entails. By an independent journalist of long standing (and a dear neighbor):

https://crossroadsreport.substack.com/p/alan-dershowitz-was-debriefed

Even as the boil is released, the aftermath is critical. Life just doesn’t just instantly replace Death. Suffering does. Grief. The emotional absorption and integration of the horror. And then, inevitably, if we are strong enough, the awareness and integration of Darkness within ourselves. Only this integration, within enough of us, will ensure that humanity can not only survive but even learn how to thrive.

Let us take care. Let us take good care of both ourselves and each other.