Scavengers

Scavengers

"As I was walking all alane (alone),
I heard two corbies making a mane (moan);
The tane unto the tither did say,
"Whar sall we gang and dine the day?"
    ___ "The Two Corbies", anon. Scots Folk Song


   The two corbies in this song are ravens who are conferring about where they are going to dine. One tells the other that he knows where there is a newly slain knight and predicts that they will dine sweetly. Birds of prey, many kinds of insects, and other scavenging animals clean away the carcasses of the dead. Their very necessary way of life keeps our world free of decay and corruption. The work of the raven and other scavengers helps keep our world clean, as many of our prehistoric forebears realized: the practice of excarnation, whereby bodies are left in high places on remote platformsto be stripped of flesh by the elements and the scavengers, was widely practiced throughout the northern hemispheres in early times.

  We can learn from the action of the scavengers by applying its priciples to our own lives. If we think for one moment about what our world would look like without decay, we shudder. The same work of decay needs to be applied to ourselves. Without periodic clearing out and rooting up of old concepts, ideas, and burdens, our being would soon become as noisome as any bloated carcass by the highway. When we investigate what is hindering our spiritual path, we often find that it is something we have been holding onto, rather than any external circumstance.

"What is hindering you? What needs to go away? Meditate upon this and write down one major burden or worn-out notion that is obstructing your progress. Go outside and burn the paperon which you wrote, letting go of your burden as the ashes fly free on the wind."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]