A bird widely ignored and spurned by ornithologists and other amateurs of nature, crow is unjustly accused of being a predator of other sorts of birds. Although it has the capacity and it can in times of scarcity feed on a fallen or sick bird, it is rare that the crow attacks other birds.
It also has the reputation of being a thief, because some among them like brilliant objects. From time to time a nest is found which conceals number of small brilliant objects, small glass balls, rings, shiny plastics, etc.
People accuse crow of many a problem, birds of ill omen, black magic, associated with war, a scavenger, bandit, etc. Nevertheless, it also has the other side of all these attributes: it is very social, it is very communicative, it is auspicious of transformation, it sometimes carries the energies of healing at a distance, it purifies roads and fields of dead animals, it is very intelligent, being among the only one in the winged race which sometimes creates and uses tools.
This is the substance of crow medicine: nothing is as it seems to be in the universe of crows. It has two black eyes on each side of its head: so what one eye sees the other one sees different. The crow is a master of illusion and nevertheless it’s always calling us to see the truth, that of Creator.
The law and the perceptions of men are very different from the law and reality of Creator. The crow represents this capacity to see beyond human conventions and the illusions of everyday life to the immutable eternity of truth contained in reality. This reality is multidimensional in fact and contains an incalculable number of very different beings, much more than what exists on earth or even here of what we are aware. As such, formerly, among those of crow medicine there were those who had the rare capacity to be shapeshifters. They could at will take the shape of a bird, four legged or insect and go see what was happening in the camp of the enemy. They could thus travel faster and farther than with a human body. This capacity is extremely rare. In all my life spent sharing with other shamans I’ve only met this once and with a capacity limited by precise circumstances.
The crow’s medicine to always discern the truth and yet play with how other perceive it had it named guardian of the ancient sacred books, those who are too powerful to be left in the hands of ordinary people.
In my idea there are only those who have this totem who can easily appeal to this medicine. Those who use it too easily can be ostracized, because people will not understand the maybe appropriate behaviour but that may seem erratic or incomprehensible. The ways of Great Spirit are surprising and not the ways of men, especially not in our modern times.
Nevertheless, you can appeal to this medicine to see what hides under the difficult or surprising events of everyday life. Things are very different most of the time from what they seem to be. Our vision of things is almost always tinted by our programming, conditioning, education, etc., but reality and truth are often different from what we perceive. What can seem to be a negative sign can be in fact be the opposite and what can seem a happy event lead to disaster. Learn how to look at both sides of the coin and you will have a more exact vision of things.
That’s crow medicine!