A Raven
Came Calling
“Forget
your perfect offering
There
is a crack, a crack in everything
That's
how the light gets in
That's
how the light gets in...”
Leonard Cohen
A Raven came calling today. It was a
bit startling to see her swoop down from the darkened cloudy sky and
land silently on an arm of a gnarled Saguaro cactus. Yet on some
deeper level of my subconscious
I was not surprised to see her, she has
visited before. Unusually hushed, Raven fanned out her immense purple
black iridescent wings. Like royalty she perched upon the cactus
whose five arms reached upward towards the heavens in what seemed to
be a benediction. Though quiet she none the less arrived with a
message for me. I sensed it. Sitting in my reading chair I looked out
from my office door, fascinated as I observed her. Slowing rotating
her head she gazed at me and I felt as though she was looking right
into the depths of my heart and mind. Unexpectedly she flapped her
silky wings and took flight. Just like that. No longer in my view I
heard her caw and squawk. She was talking to me. Minutes later she
swooped down onto the arm of the cactus again and continued calling
me out. “Pay attention,” my mind cried. “What is she saying?
What does she want you to hear? What does she want you to remember?”
Raven continued this dance of flight and return for several minutes.
Until finally, with one last unnerving cry she was gone.
I have a choice now, I can either
ignore the call of Raven on my doorstep or heed her message. But
first I must remember. Here's what I know about the power of Raven
medicine. I know that in many indigenous cultures Raven represents
the dark mystery of the Universe. The form and the formless. Raven's
dark inky black color symbolizes the great void. However, not the
void of death, but the container that holds the unlimited potential
of the Universe, the potential of life itself. If you look closely
you can peer within Raven's deep iridescent blackness and see the
same sparkles of light that exists within the deep abyss. Raven also
holds the alchemical power of consciousness and creativity. So I
wonder again, “What does this mean for me, to my life, to my
present circumstances?”
Perhaps she came to address the cavern
of darkness I have willingly plunged myself into these past several
months. Perhaps she arrived today to reassure me that without
entering into the chasm of one's own soul an imbalance exists within
and a false sense of reality arises. I am oddly comforted by this
thought, and curious as well as to why as a culture, as a society, we
are afraid to explore this terrain? Why as children do we need the
assurance of a night light in order to keep away the bogeyman? Where
and how is the fear initiated?
Consider the possibility that the bogeyman is simply our refusal, or our inability to acknowledge and accept all the fractured pieces of ourselves? If we enter into the realm of darkness and allow ourselves to sit in the fear, to stay with the uncomfortableness long enough, maybe our eyes will adjust, and in time the soft shimmer of light will be revealed through the cracks of our brokenness and the light of awareness will grow ever stronger and more powerful -dissipating the hold we believe the darkness has over us.
Maybe Raven came calling me this day to remind me that there is nothing to fear. Maybe she came calling to remind me that the Universe is a great mystery and to trust not only in the mystery of life, but in my own alchemical process.
Consider the possibility that the bogeyman is simply our refusal, or our inability to acknowledge and accept all the fractured pieces of ourselves? If we enter into the realm of darkness and allow ourselves to sit in the fear, to stay with the uncomfortableness long enough, maybe our eyes will adjust, and in time the soft shimmer of light will be revealed through the cracks of our brokenness and the light of awareness will grow ever stronger and more powerful -dissipating the hold we believe the darkness has over us.
Maybe Raven came calling me this day to remind me that there is nothing to fear. Maybe she came calling to remind me that the Universe is a great mystery and to trust not only in the mystery of life, but in my own alchemical process.