The Goddess is Alive, and Magic is Afoot! This is more than a bumper sticker; this is the foundation of our spiritual practice. This concept was never more clear to me than a few years ago, when the Crow Goddess gave me a song, and made darn sure that I learned and taught it! It’s true; this was a magical visitation in the middle of the night, and the kindling of an awesome collaboration. It was truly a manifestation of the magic of crows.
How it all began…
At a “Magical Mountain Mabon” festival in 2017 in New Mexico, the Crow Women gave a concert, with many distant Kroz coming back to sing. To make the occasion even more wonderful, S.J. Tucker was the featured artist, and she shared with us her fabulous music, and led a workshop in songwriting. Now, this woman is an impressive Pagan songwriter, and her recommendation was to be open to receive inspiration from our Muse, from the Goddess or from any magical or mundane source. You bet I was going to take her advice!
My creative juices began flowing; later that afternoon, I began thinking that we, the Crow Women, did not have a special song about Crows, our totem guide and symbol. Accordingly, I thought that I’d write that song, and experimented with a few simple words (“Queen of the High Skies, Lord of the Wind Rise…”) and a very easy repeated melody line. This was a beginning! Knowing that I’d work more on this song, I continued with the evening ritual and other events of the festival.
A magical sleepless night
Finally tucked into my camper, I fell asleep. When…“WAKE UP, HERE’S YOUR SONG” brought me instantly awake. Confused, I noticed an inner awareness, a voice inside my head. I was being instructed, taught, schooled, in a song…and what a song it was! My brain was buzzing with words and music, and what I was getting was definitely not what I would come up with on my own, in a normal, even inspired, waking state of creativity.
Strange and discordant, notes and words tumbling on top of each other, weaving in and out of each other’s phrases… the song came to me like a large group of crows, flying together in the sky, diving and swooping past and around each other… yes, that’s what the song sounded like! A MURDER of Crows! (and yes, murder is the proper term for a group or gathering of Crows, as Herd is the term for a group of cows, and so on).
“Goddess, what has gotten into you?”
I realized that there were three parts–high pitched, middle, and low–and within each there were distinct and separate melodies, overlapping and complementing. This was complex! And confusing! And it was the middle of the night, and I just wanted to roll over and sleep…but when I did, that voice came to me again, over and over; “WAKE UP AND LEARN THIS, MEMORIZE THE TUNE, WRITE DOWN THESE WORDS”. So I did. Falling back to sleep, waking up again when the Voice of the Crow Goddess called to me. Here’s what she gave me:
“It’s a murder of crows, crows, crows, crows, crows…” And, “See them fly, watch them fly, fly, fly, fly…”
Although the melody and rhythm were quite complex, these were simple words, repeated many times. There was a special emphasis on speaking or singing the word CROWS at the beginning of each of these lines, in tempo and in rhythm, but this word (called by the Goddess “The Statement”) was absolutely necessary. She kept on waking me up to ensure that I was writing the words down for each part, and drilling on the melodies, which were, again, quite different for each part. Whew! This was a sleepless ordeal, and in the morning I felt quite exhausted.
The song is structured, taught and learned
Once at home, I recorded the parts of the song and interspersed the Goddess-given chorus with the verses that I wrote using my original simple and repetitive melody. Good thing the verses are straightforward, as the chorus is so complex.
Teaching this song to the Crow Women was a trip! Each part had to be drilled separately, and the rhythmic overlap was daunting. It is to the credit of the Krow singers that we all persisted, and eventually felt that we had “mastered” this song. We performed it at Covenant of the Goddess‘ Merrymeet in 2019, held in Albuquerque, NM as part of the concert we offered to the assembly.
And, here’s the song!
So, now are you curious about what this song sounds like? I hope you are! Here’s a recording we made at that concert in 2017. Please excuse the sound quality, our audio feed failed us. But still, this will give you an idea of what the song is like. So, transport yourself to our concert and watch the Crow Women perform live:
Crows is now on our 4th album, Pantheon: Honoring the Pagan Divine. We keep it in our repertoire and for me, in my heart, as an amazing and majickal gift from the Goddess.
Songs about Crows are everywhere!
There are other songs about crows, and their corvid cousins such as ravens and magpies. Many pagan artists have created songs about these cunning birds, whether majickly inspired or not. Here are a few examples, in case you’d like to explore the world of CrowSong!
And now it’s Your turn
For you songwriters or poets out there, have you ever been zapped by Magical Energy with a song or poem? Or, if you are an artist, what’s your experience with inspiration for an art form that might have come in a dream, or in a ritual, or in some other special manner? Please share with us all, and let us encourage an openness to intervention in our lives from a Higher Plane. Please leave comments and stories for us, so that we can all feel the blessing of being touched by deity.
The Raven is Calling, by Gwydion