Crow medicine is the prime example of something being hidden in plain sight. People see crows every day. They are seemingly everywhere because they thrive in urban environments. They thrive around people because they are one of the ways in which the ecosystem cleans itself. They clean up other people’s messes and humans are immensely messy. People don’t like them because they poop on cars, eat garbage, and have annoyingly loud non-musical voices. Well, that’s the public image, the PR if you will. That’s what we know and that can lead us to think it’s all there is to know.
Here’s some things you probably don’t know. Crow is the keeper of the Book of Law. It’s all the laws concerning Spirit on which all things reside. In that book, amongst all the pages and the beautiful finding and the gilt edges, there is only one law: Trust In Creator. Which is why crows appear when someone is struggling at the end of their life, hovering between here and there, suffering when it is time to leave. Crows will gather, in one’s and twos until an entire flock, yes a murder, has arrived, not to steal the person’s soul or life, but to remind them: Trust. They will carry the person so that they get where they are supposed to be. So they can remember who they truly are.
Another aspect of crow is about knowing. Most people hear crows make their usual vocalizations which we think of as ‘caw, caw.’ But during mating season them make a very different call which to us sounds like “I…..know….” Somewhat like a teenager being told for the umpteenth time (technical term) that they need to do this, that, or the other or some fact that should have relevance but they are ignoring any way. Because at some point in the life of a teenager they come to believe that they simultaneously know everything, live in a world where all adults know nothing, and yet have no idea how the world actually works or what they are doing at any given moment. How do they all survive? *shudder* Crow points out that our knowing gets in our own way. Our preconceptions cause to do things that don’t match the reality. Our limited knowing about things prevents us from finding out deeper levels, layers of truth over layers of wisdom.
We have knowledge blindness because we think we know about ourselves and about our world that keeps us safe and yet keeps us caged and in danger of tripping over experiences we didn’t see coming. Learning from crow we can open ourselves to trusting that there is more to learn and become, that we don’t know everything and can still be ok, and that while it’s annoying to have to clean up after others, what they leave behind or ignore could be a font of abundance for us if we just stop griping for a minute.