Tuesday, June 17, 2008

White Crow



My husband was heading up to Kettle Falls this morning and called to ask what a white crow meant. I don't consider my self a suspicious person, and really don't know anything about the significance of animal sightings in folklore, but even I know that a crow is supposed to signify death, or bad news, or something. But a WHITE crow? No idea!





"Google it." He said.

"Why?'

"Because I just saw a pure white crow standing by a regular black one on the side of the road!"


That's got to be an impressive sight, I'm sure they must be really rare!






So I looked it up, but didn't find anything that just said: If you see a white crow it means.... whatever. Instead I found a Kiowa legend about White Crow Hiding the Animals, a personal story of The Tale of Two Crows, where someone in WA first came across a dead black crow then had a vision of a white crow and some book links that it said I didn't have authorization to access. (Why is it linked on Google then?)

Finally, I found something that seemed surprisingly relevant to my life. You ,or may not, be familiar with my borderline obsession with Homeopathy. (I really should write a blog about everything I've seen it do, but not now. However, you can read how it helped us with the stomach flu.) Back to my googling... What I found was an article titled: A Proving of the Blood of a North American Crow. It proved to be confusing at first, but the story of Branwyn as related to Mr. Cope in telephone conversation with the Queen of England's own Raven master, was fascinating. So, I kept reading.



Finally, I realized that they were introducing a Homeopathic "Proving." This is where they test the original "Mother Tincture" to see what effects it has on a healthy person. According to Homeopathy this list of effects is then the guide to what symptoms the remedy (highly diluted) will help.

I am not sure of the ethical point of view of using crow's blood for medicine, even in such a highly diluted solution, but here are the symptoms listed:



Corvus sanguis



; cold, hard
DREAMS; conspiracies
DREAMS; crimes; committing
DREAMS; cruelty
DREAMS; cutting; knife, of being cut with a
DREAMS; danger SADNESS, despondency, dejection, mental depression, gloom melancholy
SENSITIVE, oversensitive; criticism, to
SENSITIVE, oversensitive; emotional
SENSITIVE, oversensitive; external impressions, to all
SENSITIVE, oversensitive; light, to
AFTERNOON, one pm -six pm.; two pm.
AIR; open; a meal.
COLDNESS; icy
EATING; after; a meal.
EATING; frequent FOOD and drinks; fresh food, desires
FOOD and drinks; fruit; desires

Most fascinating was the description of






"how the provers, one-by-one, got into the hot-seat; and reported their individual experiences to the assembled throng, and how most reported what became a similarly-hilarious experience for all.





Each prover basically told his/her story of how their appetites had GREATLY increased during the proving --one prover had even developed the habit of standing in front of his open refrigerator, methodically eating his way through it's contents, unable to stop until the last kernel of leftover rice casserole (etc.) was gone."





Now, if you know me, you know that I have an embarrassingly large appetite, never feel full, and only stop eating because it seems like it would be rude to keep eating. And my son, who has been on prednisone and corticosteroids for his health definitely has a ravenous appetite. So, now I want to find out more and see if this is actually an available remedy. So, thanks to the white crow my hubby saw, he may get a healthier family! : )

1 comment:

Teaberry Janet said...

I realize this is an old post, but I got to your post when searching on "white crow." I found the following proverb that might interest you: "There are as many white crows as good stepmothers." I find it hopeful because it's nice to see a suggestion in folklore that at least there ARE some! And it's a nice image.

I found it in a list of "Servian" proverbs (Serbian?) in an old book posted in Google Books, called "The eclectic magazine of foreign literature, science ..., Volume 2; Volume 35." It's on page 364, and here's the link.

http://books.google.com/books?id=AHDQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA364&lpg=PA364&dq=%22good+stepmothers%22+in+literature&source=bl&ots=CfcO9Nzx_8&sig=cf5tt5xugEudApBdnJtXUmYZAG8&hl=en&ei=nKSBTKnhM476sAOt9vn2Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&sqi=2&ved=0CCMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false