We touched on Japanese mythology awhile back, skimming over the several ways in which crows and ravens have spiralled their way into Japanese art, culture, and religion throughout the centuries. With World Cup fever sweeping the land, the "Samurai Blue" color of Japan's national soccer team can be seen everywhere. Equally familiar is the team's black crow emblem. Few people,
In this series, I explore a few ways in which Crows have been seen as fortune tellers, farseers, and omens. Be sure to read Part 1: Divination According to Medicine Men and Part 2: Divination According to the Druids As we have discussed, the practice of divining from bird calls, properly called auspicy in the English language, appears to actually
Photo by Vail Joy In this series, I explore a few ways in which Crows have been seen as fortune tellers, farseers, and omens. Be sure to read Part 1: Divination According to Medicine Men Divination According to the Druids Divination was an important part of pan-Celtic life. The Mediterranean accounts tell of extremely superstitious Celts studying the bloody, warm,
As discussed previously, Crows and Ravens (and sometimes magpies too) have been a consistent source of spiritual focus throughout history. Here, I wish to explore a few ways in which they have been seen as fortune tellers, farseers, and omens across Native American, Druid, and Tibetan culture.
In the middle of the 15th century, Hungary had bad luck hanging on to its foreign kings: Two of them died unexpectedly within seven years. They suffered amidst plague, treachery, and foreign encroachment and seemed all but doomed to lose their hold on bloodline and border.At this dark moment, the Hungarians looked to a 15 year old boy, Mátyás (or
One of the oldest symbols in Japanese mythology is the 3-Legged Bird, called Yatagarasu (å…«å’«çƒ) in Japanese. This legendary bird was said to have led the Emperor Jimmu from Kumano no kuni (熊ã®å›½), which is present-day Wakyama Prefecture, to Yamato no kuni (大和国), which is present-day Nara Prefecture. The three-legged (or "tripedal") bird is a creature found in various mythologies