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!