Meet my animal spirit guide… Crow

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

I woke up this morning feeling unwell. A headache that promised a migraine if I didn’t take it seriously. I debated what to do but, in the end, decided to take a sick day. My mood could also use a lift so I considered today to be a mental health day.

Which meant I was obliged to do things that would make me happy, lift my mood, lift my soul. Thoughts of being creative with jewelry danced across my mind. Maybe sort my paintings…design a frame for them… write… All these thoughts flitted by like a butterfly, flying from flower to flower in search of the sweet nectar of life, while I was sitting on the veranda enjoying a hot tea, listening to the birds.

One bird, in particular, caught my attention. The crow. It had been calling and calling and calling and I could hear it on a subconscious level but paid it no heed. Until something shifted within and suddenly I couldn’t not hear it. I looked over to see it perched atop the old dead tree – it’s familiar perching spot. The steely blue sky behind it and the spots of yellow, orange and red surround it was too much for my creative side to ignore. Camera in hand, I stood up and began taking photos, in case he decided to leave. But he didn’t leave. He waited, patiently, for me to come closer, to the end of the veranda, to set up and take a couple of shots and then he left. Flying towards me, veering off to my left, over my old house and in front of this house. Watching through the view finder, my finger pressed on the shutter, camera panning, following his flight. It was breathtaking!

Photo of the day:

How does this make Crow my animal spirit guide? First off, I feel badly for my guides. There are times I imagine them complaining to God, asking to be reassigned. I mean, how many signs does one person need before they get it? How many times do we have to tell her “…” before she believes it, understands it, or acts on it?

I believe all animals give us signs, and from time to time can act as temporary guides. For example, today a pileated woodpecker flew by me, not once but twice. It was surreal to see this big red headed bird in flight. I knew there could be a message there and looked it up and the message had relevance to me at that time. But the pileated woodpecker was acting as a messenger for me today, not a guide.

Crow has been showing up, regularly and reliably for well over ten years. For five of those years he landed on the light post outside of my bedroom window each and every morning, cawing at me to rise and greet the morning. Whenever I had a thought, or a doubt, about my journey, I would look up and see crow sitting on the telephone wire, or perched atop the dead tree.

Then there are the ancestors. Four crows, sometimes five, but mostly four, show up regularly. Landing on the grass near me, landing on the telephone wire outside my window, in the tree at my brother’s cottage when I was on holiday.

From those experiences alone I would imagine most people would have ascertained by now that Crow is probably an animal spirit guide. But, no, not me.

My mental health was begging me to get out amongst the trees so I took a walk in the small forest on our property.

I was pretty much in my head for most of the walk and at one point, struggling to push my way through two very picky thorn bushes, Crow pushed in. I could hear him cawing and cawing and cawing but again, it was on the peripheral and I didn’t pay attention to it, until it was in front of me. Bang. Crow is speaking. Listen.

I listened. A thought popped into my head: Not this way. I looked up and saw a better way and took it. As I continued on my way, I thought to myself, I wonder if Crow is my animal spirit guide and I could hear and feel jubilation. Finally. She get’s it!