Magic of the Dark Raven

 

Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning 

May bear the raven’s eye ~ Cymberline, by William Shakespeare

 

 

They slept until the black raven, the blithe hearted

proclaimed the joy of heaven – Beowulf

Raven is the Great Mystery of the Void both the symbol of the sun and the symbol of a moonless night. It is the light that is the giver of life at the centre of our galaxy, and the black hole in the centre of the universe, to where all energy is drawn to before it’s release as new creations.

 

Ravens’ glimmering black feathers shimmering in blues and greens represent night especially the dark New Moon when her deep magic is very powerful. In China the three-legged Raven lives in the sun, representing the sun’s three phases. In Greece Raven is the messenger of the Sun gods, both Helios and Apollo.

In Native American cultures black is a colour of magical power. Raven is the guardian of both ceremonial magic and healing circles, and is deemed one of the oldest and wisest of animals, intelligent and adaptable. Her element is air, and she is a messenger spirit. Whilst Raven is said to represent the irreverent, the devil, evil spirits, the trickster and thief, war and destruction, death and disaster, the void, none-the-less in many societies such as Native Americans and Norse Shamanism Tradition Raven also represents profound magic, the mystery of the unknown, death and transformation, creation, healing, knowledge, protection, and foresight.

 

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Ravens are carrion eaters; and they have a symbiotic relationship with oldest enemy of man, the wolf…

“craving for carrion, the dark raven shall have its say, and tell the eagle how it fared at the feast, when, competing with the wolf, it laid bare the bones of corpses.”~ Beowulf Anglo Saxon poem

Raven represents winter, because of their ability to endure the cold. Likewise wolves also thrive during this time, being equally well equipped for the brutal conditions.

 

   

Raven was connected with the Celts Triple Goddess, Morrigan, Chooser of the Slain and Protector of Warriors flying over the battlefields in the shape of the Raven.  

When the Welsh God, Bran the Blessed Protector of Britain was decapitated, during battle with Ireland, he asked to have his head buried in the what is now known as  “Tower Hill” in London. His Ravens are kept there even today, as protection against invasion. During World War II, Tower Hill was bombed, and the ravens vanished. Mindful of the ancient legends Winston Churchill, immediately arranged for replacement ravens to be brought in, which they were from the Celtic lands to London’s Tower Hill .

Jupiter’s Moon Europa-Home World of the Ice-Wolves

The Ice Wolves of Europa layer into this, the concept of alien evolution, the search for extra terrestrial intelligence, and the cool softness and also the harsh ruthlessness of life on an alien world.

   

According to Greek mythology Europa was a beautiful Phoenician princess abducted to Crete by Zeus, who had assumed the form of a white bull. Zeus later re-created the shape of the white bull in the stars which is now known as the constellation Taurus.

A unique and fascinating world Europa is one of a rare number of locations in our galaxy with an environment where it is possible that life may exist.

Europa is largely an icy frozen world. Its surface is one of the brightest in the galaxy, and also one of the smoothest. It is a unique and fascinating ice world and to date is unlike anything else found in the inner solar system. It is possible that beneath Europa’s surface ice there is a layer of liquid water. If this is so, it would be the only place in the solar system besides Earth where liquid water exists in significant quantities. The evidence is now strong for a subsurface ‘ocean’.

  

Water is an essential ingredient for the existence of life on any world. Combined with heat and organic-rich molecules there is a heightened possibility of life originating.

                                      

Wolves are one of the world’s most fascinating animals and the wild beauty of these haunting creatures of the night captures the human imagination in a thousand different ways. As the wild ancestors of domestic dogs, wolves seem both familiar and exotic to humans, which might explain their continuing fascination

Earth’s wolves are found in a wide variety of habitats: Mountains, forests, plains, deserts, tundra and taiga. The largest North American wolves live in: West Canada and Alaska.

Native Americans revere the Wolf Totem in a different light. Within the Native American cultures, wolves are considered to be Pathfinders and Guardians. In parallel to this the Ice Wolves of Europa have long been regarded as Guardians of the Wolf Gates and Pathfinders of the Wolf-Ways. They are the celestial wolves, the star chasers, the ‘moon dogs of the night’ – the most direct descendants of the original Pathfinder – the one known as ‘Star of the Celestial Wolf,’ their haunting howl echoing across the wolf ways and through the rifts in time and space.