Woden Wednesday: Do you ever see Crows on the side of the road watching over you while you travel?

I'm glad others are picking up questions for each pagan day! :) Hail Wodan!

Wow - this is amazing! Last night I went outside just before sunset, watching for a neighboring coyote that we're encouraging to move down the creek (non-lethal means, I swear. Whistles, rocks in tin cans rattling and a slingshot).

Suddenly a raven came in over the drive-way, circled over me twice - about five feet above me and then flew down and up along the creek, circled back and over me again.

Those who know me, know that I'm a Heathen and Odin is the deity that called and claimed me. I can spot ravens long before anyone else around me. Last night was awesome!

# # #

American Indian animal symbolism for Krist:

Raven represents Magic. Powerful medicine that can give you the courage to enter the darkness of the void, that which is not yet formed. You are about to experience a change in consciousness. You have earned the right to see and experience a little more of life's magic. Black, the color of raven, does not mean evil. It means seeking of answers, the road of the spiritual. Raven guides the magic of healing and change.

The other side of Raven isn't to be taken lightly. If you have wished harm to another, beware. Raven could be telling you that you're not ready to advance in consciousness yet. Watch for confusing messages. Clear the confusion, get back to center and move on. (Jamie Sams & David Carson)

# # #

Tyr! Yes, I wanted to work first with ANY other god or goddess than Odin when I first found Heathenism. The stereotypical image of him was just too sexist and war-oriented for me at that stage. He kept insisting. I went up on a cliff, sat down and yelled: "What?!" and a hawk and raven (two birds that don't fly together), flew up the cliff face, hovered over me (about five feet away), eye-to-eye and then flew down the cliff face again. I was left speechless, one of the few times that my mind just stopped working. I went down to the camp and bought my first valknot and work closest with Odin and Freya. I've discovered that there are so many depths to Odin that I'm still discovering. Yeah, I know, duh - but there wasn't a lot of information out there when I found Heathenism and the male-oriented lore can be somewhat shallow in describing the deities.

Hamingjusamur Óðinsdagur og heil!

I few weeks ago I felt as though my faith was gone and that the Æsir had deserted me. I parked in the station car park thinking about this and set off on my way to the train, I looked up at the trees and two huge crows watched me and I knew all was well, the day went excellently and when I got home I put new flowers on my indoor hörgr for the cofgodas and thanked Óðinn for his message.

I have had many times when things are hard and crows have visited me. When this happens I can feel the All Father's presence near by, I always say "Hello" and ask a question or two.

Waes Hael!

Ravens are VERY rare in this part of the world... You can go days and days without seeing a single one. And then all of a sudden, two of them appear from out of nowhere and sweep really low, so close to me that I can hear the wind in the feathers.

Last weekend we had a medieval reenactment practice. During the swordfighting, two ravens came and circled above us the entire time we fought. After we finished, they just flew away.

Experiences like that make me feel blessed, in a way - I know that someone is keeping an eye on me.

The are where I live has many ravens, it's not unusual to see a flock of about 50 of them getting into a dumpster or something. I guess here in the desert (American southwest) there isn't much carrion for them :) There are two ravens who come and perch in the tree right outside my window. Sometimes there are more, I've seen up to about 10 at a time, but there's always at least two of them. They sit in the tree and caw at my cat, Baldr, who sits on the windowsill and growls at them. Almost every morning I'm awakened by by a cat-raven flyting. On some mornings it's almost enough to make me Asatru and it would have already if I didn't already have a religion.

As an interesting aside, most the people who live in my area don't know that ravens are actually carrion birds.

On many occasions I've made what I thought were morbidly funny comments about the flocks of ravens we have here and normally people try to "correct" me and tell me that I must be talking about Vultures because ravens don't eat dead things (fools).

I tend to attract Ravens. Does that count?

a good 80% of the times i am feeling down i can look up and see two ravens watching over me, or doing tricks.

(Ravens are wounderful.)

Happy Odins Day! (Wodens day)

Yeah, God sends birds all the time to warn me and to watch for danger. Even if I am christian now they still come by and are an encouraging sight. I wish sometimes there messages were just more settle because this one day three morning doves flew in front of my car and made me slow down of course they died, but if they didn't make me slow down I would have ran over two children and a dog.

I'm not Pagan (Buddhist) but I had a huge black raven swoop down in front of me last night as I was leaving work. I have a friend who is into Native American spirituality- I was going to ask her the meaning of the raven-- can you tell me?

Since Raven is one of my totems, I have noticed that there are quite a few around everywhere I go. No matter where I am.

The buzzards circle and congregate,

they laughingly seal our fate,

devours of leftovers night,

they are to me such a wonderful sight.

They jump, they glide, they reel, they rake

and oh I sure appreciate

the deer carcass I left for them

they thank me by eye contact and mate.

There are no crows where buzzards abound,

they are the winners, they are what is sound.

i do no longer think of I ever have..even though it jogs my memory of the time I slammed on my brakes interior the middle of the line to enable approximately 20 adult adult males go the line (they have been a shape group) the guy in the back of me substitute into pissed, even though it substitute into 8:00 interior the morning and that i substitute into thinking breakfast