The Language of Birds

The Language of Birds

"Birds.....now represent the continued presence of the past..... [which is] evoked by the singing, whistling and calling that fell into millions of ancestral ears and there left images that we all inherit."
   ___ Jacquetta Hawkes, "A Land"


   The Celtic peoples held birds in high esteem, as the mouthpieces of Spirit. Their flight and calls were widely used in divination. The term 'language of birds' is used to mean the secret knowledge that runs beneath the web of words; it implies an almost magical intelligence that does not depend upon the help of any kind of human communication system. It is innate, subtle, coded knowledge that we can somehow understand.

  The idea of the unchanging song of the birds singing in our ears as well as the ears of our ancestors conjures a potent image of the continuation of life - an inheritance so subtle that we must immerse ourselves in the sound birdcall in order to enter into its richness. The oracular calling of birds speaks directly to our hearts, bypassing our minds; it is a mode of divination that both we and our ancestors had to learn - an unchanging language of meaning.

   The little songbirds who make the sweetest song, the crows and ravens whose raucous call is most vocal, the estuary and marsh birds with their lonesome sound, the hawks and owls shrieking and signaling - all have their own language and special symbolism, essential elements of our living world.

   If we wish to understand the flight and calling of birds, we must listen, near dawn or in the late afternoon, to their song; and listening, enter a place of stillness within in order to comprehend their message to us.

"Listen to the singing of birds today, at dawn or twilight. Meditate with a clear mind and listen to what you are told."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Let's not forget the birds who have been silenced in the

ongoing Gulf disaster and in other other areas affected

by oil drilling around the world.

S.