Back in late March 2015, I drove to work one morning, as I had for the last several weeks, working yet another contract and hoping my life would settle down and smoothen out, the prayer of my soul for the last several years, possibly my deepest wish since birth.
I parked in the same spot I always did, gathered my purse and lunchbag, and opened the car door. There on the payment stood a raven, completely blocking my path to get out of the car. It eyed me pointedly, its head at angle, as though questioning my intent. "Are you sure?" he seemed to ask.
I got out, stepping around him, expecting him to fly away as I got into his space, but he only hopped back a step, still watching me. I took a couple steps and was stopped cold by his cry, impossibly loud. It felt as though it had come from within me, as though it were everywhere in the air, as though I were listening to headphones with the volume up to concussion levels. I turned back and looked. He was still there, his head jutting forward, "I said what I said." That's weird, I thought. He jumped towards me, three little hops and then sang out again, caw caw caw, his head jabbing with each raw bark. I walked away. He followed, another three hops, another pointed three cries that raked down my bare arms in the cool spring morning. I was unsettled. Did he need help? Would he, like the ravens in the movie of the same name, attack me? I turned walked again, closing the distance to the building, my hand reaching out to swipe the security panel with the card that dangled from my lunch bag. His hops brought him within inches of my shoe. Caw! Caw! Caw! the urgency of a fire alarm. He regarded me as I swiped in, watched the light on the door turn from amber to green, and flew away.
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Raven magic is a powerful medicine that can give you the courage to enter the darkness of the void, which is the home of all that is not yet in form. The void is called the Great Mystery. Great Mystery existed before all other things came into being. Great Spirit lives inside the void and emerged from the Great Mystery. Raven is the messenger of the void.
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