After forty days Noah opened a window and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone. Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down, but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to light. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in. He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again. It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.
--Genesis 8:6-12 (TEV)
In the universal language of symbol, birds bring messages from the spirit world. Around the globe, across cultures and all along the time line, this is so. The eagle, the owl, the heron, the crane, the raven, the dove, all have been assigned spiritual attributes in various cultures. I remember an Anishinaabe elder explaining that when the loon makes that victorious yodeling call, it means a warrior has entered the spirit world.
In this old, old story of the flood and the ark, we have a tale of birds bearing a message from God. Four messages actually: 1. Wait. 2. Not yet. 3. Almost. 4. Now, it's going to be alright. In other versions of the story, God and Noah speak directly to each other, but in this version, the birds are the intermediaries. The birds carry the hope of humanity up to the heavens, and return with the gospel, the good news from the Great Spirit. Peace.
Even though we humans have almost forgotten the old language of the spirit, even though we have nearly forgotten how to read the signs of nature, because we have fixated on our own languages, as if we are the only sentient beings on the planet, even now, if we listen, we can hear it-- the spirit who speaks through the birds.
Listen to the brown pelican, in the gulf. It says, "I'm dying out here."
Listen to the loon on Gull Lake. It says, "These mercury levels are higher than they ever have been."
Listen to the passenger pigeon... oops, too late!
Remember how the story of Noah ends? God says, "I'm never going to destroy the earth again. Ever. That was a stupid idea and I will never do that again."
God has given us everything we need, and messengers to help us get it right. Do we listen?
