Cherokee Fables: The First Fire

In the beginning there was no fire, and the world was cold, until the Thunders (Ani’-Hyûñ’tïkwälâ’skï), who lived up in Gälûñ’lätï, sent their lightning and put fire into the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree which grew on an island. The animals knew it was there, because they could see the smoke coming out at the top, but they could not get to it on account of the water, so they held a council to decide what to do. This was a long time ago.

 

This is a preview of Cherokee Fables: The First Fire. Read the full post (689 words, 5 images, estimated 2:45 mins reading time)

Ancient Witchcraft: The Raven, Part 2

Common North American Raven

The raven, the largest bird in the Crow family, also carries the largest brain in the bird world.  It has captured the imagination of all cultures in all times and has become an integral part of folklore.  Perhaps it’s the raven’s eyes—so human looking, so inquisitive, so devious.  Perhaps it is the raven’s association with carcasses and death that contributes to the fear and often revulsion we have for them.  Perhaps it is the cleverness of this highly intelligent creature.  It is hard to rate the intelligence of non-linqual creatures.  But those who have studied Corvids place them at the top of the bird world, on a par with coyotes and wolves, and many other intelligent mammals.

They are renowned for their problem solving skills.  Watch the following videos which chronicle the ravens incredible cleverness:

[]   Clip taken from BBC animal show Clever Critters, narrated by comedienne Dawn French, 2008.  Antony Bloom sets up a complicated test for several Corvids in his garden.  They must drop stones into one water-filled tube to raise the waterline in another tube that contains their favorite food floating on top.

[] Clip from National Geographic videos.  Dr Baron Heinrich, with the University of Vermont, devised an experiment that shows ravens have the ability to make logical connections, much like human beings. 

The cleverness of the raven has been both feared and revered throughout history.  Here are some excerpts from a recent article in the Smithsonian Magazine [October 2013] about using ravens for counterintelligence:

“A raven, in espionage parlance, is a male agent tasked with seducing intelligence targets.  But avian

ravens can be spies as well.  When Bailey [an animal trainer who worked with government agencies] describes the Western raven, he sounds as if he’s talking about Jason Bourne.  “It operates alone, and it does very well alone,” he says.  Western ravens are adept at pattern recognition.  “They could learn to respond to classes of objects,” he says.  “If you’ve got a big desk and little desk, you could train it to always go to the small one.”

“… There would be a rustle of oily black feathers as a raven settled on the window ledge of a once-grand apartment building in some Eastern European capital.  The bird would pace across the ledge a few times but quickly depart.  In an apartment on the other side of the window, no one would shift his attention from the briefing papers or the chilled vodka set out on a table.  Nor would anything seem amiss in the jagged piece of gray slate resting on the ledge, seemingly jetsam from the roof of an old and unloved building.  Those in the apartment might be dismayed to learn, however, that the slate had come not from the roof but from a technical laboratory at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.  In a small cavity at the slate’s center was an electronic transmitter powerful enough to pick up their conversation.  The raven that transported it to the ledge was no random city bird, but a U.S.-trained intelligence asset.”

Just as the Raven became a code word for an espionage agent, the Cherokee also recognized the analytical and strategic talents of the raven.   From Thomas E. Mails’ book, The Cherokee People, “The … principal leader of a revenge army [was] the Great War Chief, now called the Raven because he wore around his neck a raven skin … It was said that the Great War Chief, in his guise as the Raven, watched the enemy and kept the chief speaker perfectly informed.  He directed the necessary preparations, and each night magically went forward two days’ march yet was back in camp the next morning.”

The Cherokee saw both the good and the evil of the raven and drew from their study of this very intelligent and resourceful bird.  Whether witchcraft or warfare, the raven occupied a prominent role in their lives.

 

Click here to learn more about and listen to the raven.

 

 

-- Courtney Miller

 

also author of "The First Raven Mocker",

Book One of the "The Cherokee Chronicles"

Available now.

Ancient Witchcraft: The Raven, Part 1

It seems that in ancient cultures and all around the world, the raven has played an important role in their lore.  It is the largest of the Crow family and has the largest brain of any bird.  It is renown for its cunning and problem-solving ability.  In this series, I want to explore this amazing bird and the place it holds in cultures.

In Cherokee folklore and myth, for instance, the raven is associated with witchcraft and death.   The Raven Mocker, Kalonu Ahkyeliski, is the most feared and dreaded of Cherokee witches.  This witch is the one that robs the dying man of life.  The Raven Mocker is capable of shape-shifting into the raven and flies across the sky in a fiery shape with arms outstretched like wings and sparks trailing behind.  

When a Raven Mocker comes into the house all invisible, he frightens and torments the sick man until he kills him.  Then he takes out his heart and eats it, and so adds to his own life as many days or years as he has taken from the dying man.

The following is from the PBS Nature film on Ravens:

“In the shadows of the old gray standing stones of England, there have risen many songs and stories of supernatural power.  Folk singer Maddy Prior is an expert in such lore and in the dark depiction of Ravens.  “Because they’re seen so much around death and carnage, they have become associated in Northern Europe with death and they’ve become birds of ill omen.”

“And in medieval times, Ravens earned their sinister reputation.  It was the 14th century and the Bubonic Plague was sweeping across Europe.  One out of three people would die.  Entire towns were stricken with no one to bury the dead in the all but empty streets.   Enter the Raven.  Black birds gathering for the black death.

 

“To a Raven, a dead human was just another carcass—a grim opportunity for a meal.  The sight of a Raven evoked such dread it called up ancient pagan fears from long before the counting of centuries.
“The ancient Celts associated the raven with the Morrigan, goddess of death and battle.  And she could shape-shift, seemingly, into the raven.  When they saw the raven, they thought the Morrigan was there.

“But on the other side of the world, in the rugged Pacific Northwest, the view was just the opposite.  To many Native American tribes, the raven is a celebrated figure.  Half clown, half god, full of mischief but the giver of great gifts.  His image is everywhere.  His power reveals the true nature of things.  Clever and resourceful, Raven invented the world, the mountain and rivers were all his idea.  He even placed the sun in the sky.

 

“Before there was light, there was only twilight and darkness and Raven got tired of looking for food in the dark.  He heard of an old man in the sky who had a box that contained another box.  And inside that, another and another until inside the smallest one, there was light.  A light that Raven was determined to steal. 

 

“He tricked the old man into opening the box and flew off with the light in his beak.  But the old man chased him and in his hurry to escape, Raven threw the light into the sky where it hangs to this day.
“Raven is indeed a thief, but in his mischief, he brought a blessing to the whole world. 

 

 

 

 

 

“Fitting descendants of the original trickster, wild ravens display the same curiosity and cunning.  Conservation Biologist John Marzluff has been studying these extraordinary birds for more than ten years trying to understand their amazingly complex behavior.  For though the ravens may not have invented the world, they often act as though they own it.

“Ravens are such a fascinating animal that once you start studying any of the Corvids, you can’t go back to studying something of lesser quality, its impossible.  I think one of the thing that strikes me and others who work on these animals is that when you catch something like a robin and you look at it, its just a glossed over look and theres really nothing going on inside of a robin’s head, as far as I can tell. 

“A raven on the other hand, you hold a raven  and you look at the raven and its looking back at you.  It has a pupil that’s dilating and contracting just like ours is and that bird is obviously excited about you being that close to it and you have a real tight connection with an animal like that as opposed to one that is more of a blank slate.”

 

 

In the next article, we will look at tests on the raven that show its cleverness and look at a more current affect the raven has had in the culture of espionage.

  

 

[Maddy Prior's "The Masts of Morrigan" (In the Company of Ravens 3)]

 

Courtney Miller

www.CourtneyMillerAuthor.com

Author of “The First Raven Mocker”