The Crane

This morning, as I sat here in my home office, I was given a visit by a pair of cranes. One did not stay long, the other, however, stayed for almost an hour. He sat on-top of my shed, right outside my window, and stared at me, as I stared back.It is a dreary, rainy day outside, and the camera on my phone is, well, a two year old camera on a cell phone. But I did get this pic taken:

Now, as unusual as this may seem, this is not the first time the Crane has popped up in my life recently. I have been seeing this omen quite often, and ignoring it. As I sat here this morning, and made eye contact with this beautiful bird, I thought, “well, maybe I should listen for a change..” So I went on a hunt for knowledge (as is my want). I came across a LOT of information regarding the crane from Gaelic folk lore. Most of it I have included below. The biggest chunk of this information comes from Philip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm, who created “The Druid Animal Oracle – Working with the  Sacred Animals of the Druid Tradition.” Really neat deck (thanks Feithline for allowing me to borrow it this morning) with some very interesting in-sites and information.

Crane

(Corr)

Secret Knowledge, Patience, Longevity

The card shows a crane fishing in a pool. Its legs are crossed to show the Ogham letter Muinn, and it gazes into the water, patiently waiting for the sight of a fish. Behind the pool is a cave entrance to the Underworld, and in the evening sky the full moon is seen rising. In the foreground grow bitter vetch and bloody crane’s bill.

Corr brings the quality of patience and perseverance. The crane will stand for hours peering into the water until the time is right for it to dart at its prey. Combined with the ability to be patient, the crane conveys the capacity to be focused and to be able to concentrate without distraction. It brings an ability to guide others into the Underworld, to help them with their transition at the time od dying, or with their journey into the inner realms. As well as conveying an ability to work in the Underground, the crane symbolizes arcane science, or Secret Knowledge, which in the Druidic tradition is represented by the Ogham script – the tree language of Druidry. In its widest sense, learning this language involves learning to read the “Book of Nature”.

“Comely Conaire slept on the side of Tara of the plains; when the cunning well-made man awoke, the crane-bag was found about his neck.” ~from the Fionn Cycle

On the island of Inis-Kea, off the coast of County Mayo, lives a lonely crane who has been there since the beginning of the world – and who will continue to live there until our world ends. This ancient bird is known in the Irish tales as “one of the wonders” and has come to symbolize longevity.

The crane, or heron, is one of the four most frequently mentioned birds in ancient Gaelic tradition – the others being the raven, swan and eagle. Since it was a sacred bird, to eat the cranes flesh was taboo, although later this reverence was set aside and it became a delicacy. The crane was said to be one of the first birds to greet the sunrise, and was accorded the ability to predict rains and storms.

The association of the crane with knowledge comes not only from its link with the sunrise, and therefore the East, the place of knowledge, but also from its association with the Ogham, the tree alphabet of the Druids. The Ogham was given to humanity by Ogma Sun Face, who purposely intended it for the use of the learned only. Later, when further Ogham glyphs were added, Greek mythographers credited Palamedes with their invention, saying he received his inspiration from observing a flock of cranes in flight “which make letters as they fly.” Since it was known only to the Druids, the term “Crane Knowledge” came to be used to denote knowledge of the Ogham in particular and of arcane science in general. As Druidry gave way to Christianity, the term “Crane Cleric” came to be used to signify a high level of wisdom in certain priests, such as St. Columba of Iona.

An early Irish text tells us how the sea-god Manannan possessed a bag made from the skin of a crane. In this crane-bag he carried his own shirt, a strip from a whales back, the King of Scotland’s’ shears, the King of Lochlain’s helmet, the bones of Assail’s swine and Goidne’s smith-hook. Some say that the crane-bag became the Druid’s medicine-bag, in which he carried his Koelbren lots – carve Ogham sticks used for divination. The crane-bag is a powerful symbol of the womb or fetal sac, and this symbolism is deepened when we learn that the Crane was considered a bird of the Goddess. Cranes often appear in threes. In the Irish Book of Leinster, a god of the Tuatha De Danann, the divine Midhir, has three cranes guarding his castle. They had the magical ability to rob any attacker of the will to fight. Three cranes protect the entrances to Annwn, the Underworld; three cranes stand on a bull’s back in Gaulish carvings. All these cranes probably symbolize the triple-aspect of the Goddess: the Three Muses, the Three Fates, the Sisters of the Wyrd.

The association of the crane with the bull is reinforced when we read in the Irish tale “The Hag of the Temple”  that the Hag’s four sons have been turned into cranes who can only become human if the blood of an enchanted bull is sprinkled over them. In other stories the crane is a symbol of the dark aspect of the Goddess, and, like the raven, it becomes a bird to be feared as a harbinger of death or bad luck. With its harsh and raucous cry, it came to typify the nagging, scolding hag and to be associated with mean and unpleasant women. Here the association is with the Cailleach, the crone or the hag, but a more positive representation of this aspect of the Goddess is depicted in the Irish tale which tells of Fionn falling over a cliff as a child. His grandmother saves him by turning into a crane and breaking his fall.

As a bird of the Cailleach, the crane is a bird of old age, and hence longevity, and is also a psychopomp – a guide in the Underworld after death. The symbolism is found both in the West and the East: cranes are shown ion church carvings sucking the spirit from dieing people to carry it safely away, and in China the soul of the dead was represented as riding on the cranes back to the “Western Heaven” – in the Celtic and Druidic tradition the soul would be taken to the “Isles in the West”.

Cranes dance in circle: and the ancients associated this ring dance both with the movement of the sun and with the cranes role as Underworld guides, leading souls out of incarnation and back again into birth (in their variant of the stork). Ritual crane dances were known in China, Siberia, and Greece, and may have been enacted by Druidic shaman as well, using, significantly, nine steps and a leap to a basic theme, and weaving in and out of a maze or labyrinthine pattern to symbolize the journey of the soul. 

So.. what does that all mean for me? I am currently filling out job applications online. I've been with my current company for over two years, which is a LONG while, in the realm of this company. My only options at this point are to go for Supervisor, or go somewhere else. Of the two, I am looking forward to finding a job with a new company, and staying there for a long, long time. I have the knowledge needed to do the job I have my eye on, and the wisdom of how to excel at it.. So, I am taking this as a good omen.

Of course, there are other areas in my life that I am applying this beautiful birds appearance to, but those are of a more personal nature, and this *IS* a public blog, after all..