Birds – General

[JanCarolSeidr]

From Scott Alexander King’s Animal Dreaming:

Black cockatoo — The void

Bowerbird — Dowry

Brolga — Dance

Butcherbird — Arrogance

Crow — Law

Cuckoo — Freeloading

Dove — Peace

Eagle — Spirit

Fig-bird — Conception

Frogmouth — Secret keeper

Galah — Joy

Hawk — Messages

Ibis — Sacredness

Jabiru — Vigilance

Kookaburra — Healing the self

Lyrebird — Genetic memory

Magpie — Balance

Owl — Deception

Raven — Magic

Wagtail — Motion

[JanCarolSeidr]

Drongo – Spangled Drongo (in Australia)

Spangled Drongo is a migratory bird – but unlike most, he comes to Queensland for winter, and goes to New Guinea for summer. It’s called a “backwards migration” and gives the drongo his reputation as a head-shaking fool. 

BUT – he is not stupid – he catches his food on the fly, insects in the air mid-flight! 

In our lingo, a “drongo” is a fool, but in shamanic terms, that is sometimes the best teacher of all. In North America, we call it “coyote teaching” or backwards teaching, where the best way to learn is with the fool, the clown, the idiot. The king keeps a fool on hand, often the only one who will tell him the truth. 

Backwards learning is sometimes “the hard way” as the fool often shows you what not to do. Sometimes you need to “play the fool” in order to learn the same thing. It could’ve been learned another way – but not for you. The backwards way is a deeper way of teaching, once you have learned the lesson, it sticks, or, at least, you recognize it better next time around!

[JanCarolSeidr]

Many birds together:

I was reminded of the way all the birds come together at Lake Eyre, when the waters flow. When the emotions are moving, and overflowing with fertility, then, all the birds, of all the nations of birds, come to this place. This place was in you.

[Author]

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