Originally, I was going to write about my song “Dread Persephone,” but since Spring has passed I decided, instead, to write about a much darker vision, the awakening of the Dark Mother.
Crow Whispers is one of two pieces I wrote, inspired by an apocalyptic dream. I awoke at 3 AM that morning writing frantically almost to the dawn trying to capture it. In that dream Dark Mother strode across the landscape, gigantic, leaving everything behind Her in smoking, burning ruins. That image stayed with me, but I believed that instead of erasing the horrible plague that humans have become on Her “precious, blue, and living ball,” She would watch us, dreaming, as we destroyed our own environment. Getting closer to the end She would awaken to watch humanity’s curtain closing. Her Harbingers, the Crows, bring the dreams.
You can listen to (and purchase) the track here on my Bandcamp page: https://louisgarou.bandcamp.com/track/crow-whispers
The first lines are an introduction explaining that reality is not as it seems. When we look through the window in our mind, what is happening, what has been happening for decades, for centuries, is drawing to a Hellish close.
“Sanity is mere refuge,
Then you begin to dwell.
The mirror is a window,
On the other side is Hel.”
The chorus explains those voices and nagging feelings we have about life, these days, the premonitions, Cassandra-like, mostly ignored and forgotten.
It is coming. She is coming. In Her dream state She has seen all. She knows what we, collectively, have done. Poisoning the planet, plundering the resources, drilling and mining, consuming, and polluting. Driving other species to extinction.
Her “crown of horns” signifies Her place as the Earth Mother. The horns also signify Her connection to nature and Her “otherness” from humanity.
“The crows whisper, telling you,
Who sleeps beneath corn.
Waiting, Dreaming in the Darkness.
She wears a crown of horns.
She wears a crown of horns.”
She sleeps still, but is waking. Upon waking will She “sow chaos and past due justice?” I don’t think so, now. That scenario is too biblical; I think She will watch us stew in our own foul juices. That is poetic justice. “Because you can’t drink the water, and you can’t breathe the air.”
The Tower Times are upon us even now. The hatred and division are the cherries on top of the apocalyptic cake. And all of humanity will enjoy their just dessert.
“In the shadows of Dark, Ancient Mountains
The sunny valley lies below.
But what lies below the valley
Is the future long foretold…Soon, She will be rising
To cleanse the Earth, Her precious, living ball
Where She’ll sow chaos and past due justice…
The sound of Thunder and Tower Fall…”The crows whisper, telling me,
Who sleeps beneath corn.
Waiting, Dreaming in the Darkness.
She wears a crown of horns.
She wears a crown of horns.
“The burning skies.” We see them all too frequently these days. More harmful radiation reaches the ground, reaching us. Global climate change, flooding, drought, wildfires. It is all around us. The facts are denied and/or ignored. There will be riots and worse when the food shortages come. Dark Mother will watch, satisfied that the problem is solving itself.
Burning skies, they will produce no rain
To stop the wildfires, down below.
And with horror, comes the hunger
And the public panic starts to show…
The people fight each other as they have always done.
Dark Mother relishes their terror, Their fire and iron, and compensating guns.The crows whisper, telling you,
Who sleeps beneath corn.
Waiting, Dreaming in the Darkness.
She wears a crown of horns.
She wears a crown of horns.”
I left this next verse out, to shorten the recording, it further defines the process that will allow the Earth to heal Herself. The environment will stabilize eventually, and She will become a healthy, living planet once again… Gaia reborn.
“But they cannot fight the sickness. They choke and fall down one by one.
They disappear into the Darkness. Dark Mother’s work at last is done.
The poisoned planet burns, And floods, and greens… And flourishes again
And as the years crawl slowly past. Forgets the ravages of men.”
Humans needed the Earth, She did not need humans. Will some humans survive? Probably. Will they learn and do things differently? Probably not. “We are monkeys with guns.”
“And the crows sit on Her shoulders
And whisper in Her ears.
Please don’t bring them back again
It always ends in tears.”
“We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.” -Tom Waits
I have nothing more to add, except I hope this is not humanity’s fate. I fear it is.
For more songs featuring crows, ravens and other corvids, check out this playlist on Spotify.
For more information about Louis, including his collected articles here on Pagan Song, his bio, and links to Louis’ sites on the web, check out Louis’s author page here on Pagan Song.
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These words describe so well what is present, now. Burning skies producing no rain to quench the wildfires; people using guns to compensate for their lack of connection to the Mother. And I hope that even if it is “too late” we can still add our light, love and healing to the world.