Facts about Ravens
The Voice of the Raven
I am the Voice of the Raven Upon Wind.
My harsh cries echo long upon the Earth and Air:
Nothing is Forever, Not Life,
not Love,
not Death,
nor Loss.
Only change is eternal,
and only destruction
can the seed of creation form.
My wings bear me between
Darkness and Light,
Land and Sky,
the Garden and
the Wildwood.
I perch upon the Threshold
of the Worlds,
both flesh and spirit,
gifting the Brave Seeker
with Visions and Magick of the Otherworld.
To face me
is to face your greatest terror,
the Shadow of yourself,
the unknown and dangerous.
In chancing destruction,
your fear loses it's power to destroy.
For only in acceptance
of Mortality will you learn the ...
Secrets of Immortality as I,
the Raven,
possess.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
author unknown
The following is from th Llwellyn 1998 Almanac. This
is meant for educational purposes and no copyright is
intentionaly violated.
Ravens belong to the family of birds called corvidae.
These black birds can't sing worth a lick, though
their raucous language is quite communicative and
extensive. Live food doesn't interest ravens; they
prefer dead things, like roadkill and other birds'
eggs. In fact ravens hold funerals for their dead.
One bird will guard the body and rattle a death
song, letting the other ravens know what has occured.
They will form circle around the corpse, and dance
round and round, croaking softly from deep within
their throats. For this reason, the ancient Celts
and other tribal people associated the raven with
death Goddesses. Considering the habits of this
bird, it is easy to derive other attributes as
well.
- The black-feathered raven calls to mind the
beginning, the maternal night, the primordial
darkness, and vital primal Earth.
- Soaring through the sky in graceful, rag-winged
flight, the raven is a messanger heralding
transformation and change.
- Celtic and Germanic tribes, as well as American
Indians and Siberian people, once believed the raven
to be the creator of the visible world.
- Contemporary tribal people the world over still
associate the raven with magick, believing that
through its spririt one can divine the future.
- In Celtic myth, the rave was one of the most
important symbols of the Terrible Mother, for the
raven is a scavanger that devours corpses on the
battlefield. Fighting Celts would find ravens eating
the flesh of fallen warriors, thus adding to the
bird's mystique as gaurdian spirit of the dead.
These are just a few mythical facts about ravens. I
have a raven as a familiar both on the Earth and
Astral planes. When I venture out by myself into the
woods I can hear my raven caw when someone is
approaching or she will land on a nearby tree when
she wants me to find something or see something of
importance and beauty. Sometime when I eat outside,
a raven will come land by me and I will share my meal
with it as a token of my gratefulness for it's
help.
On the astral plane and during meditation, I know
when it is time to come back when my friend caws at
me. Or if I feel afraid when traveling or
meditating, she lands on my shoulder and touches her
beak to my ear or neck.
Ravens and their smaller cousins, crows, are among the smartest birds.
Not only can they untie knots, they can also unzip zippers and
unfasten velcro. Ravens have a highly sophisticated language with
hundreds of distinct sounds. They are highly social birds, who mate
for life and play complex games with each other.
Ravens are the largest perching birds. They can have up to a four-
foot (1.2 meter) wingspan, and they are powerful fliers with
tremendous endurance. They live all around the northern hemisphere,
from tropical jungles to the snowy wastes of the high Arctic. Their
high intelligence and endurance give them the ability to adapt to many
conditions and eat a wide variety of foods.
For years ravens were thought of as pests in the United States. They
were seen as thieves of eggs and small barnyard animals, and shot on
sight. Their numbers declined steadily until recently, but now they
are recovering across the western and northern states, learning to
coexist with the humans who were once their main enemy.
Well, this is a short thing about one of my familiars
and friends. I hope you enjoyed.
Do you think crows and ravens are the same thing?
Read my Crows and Ravens
Page to find out the difference!