[vilturj] The Raven and the Spider
Apr. 26th, 2006 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonvoiceThe Raven and the Spider
Raven knew all languages because he got bored so easily. He learnt snail and moved onto wolf, he learnt wolf and moved onto cloud, he learnt cloud and moved onto narwhal, and soon he knew the languages of all the trees, animals and gods that he could meet. He even knew the language of dry desert sands and the movements of seeds in the air. There was one language he did not know, and that was the language of Spider, who knew all things.
Raven tried talking to Spider, but Spider merely watched Raven with her little eyes. When Raven said,
‘teach me your language, little one, because I know all other languages already.’
Spider simply weaved and orb-web and sat in the middle of her creation. Raven cocked his head to one side and then sighed in different tongues. He sighed a summer breeze and a spring gale, he sighed a bear’s groan and he human sighed.
Soon he was occupied sighing in all the different languages he knew. Spider watched him calmly, her web smiled at him, from all the angles.
Eventually Lesavny came along, walking the paths that only he could see, and happened upon Raven and Spider.
‘Raven! What is so interesting about this tiny spider?’
‘I am trying to learn her language, I’m bored.’
Lesavny laughed.
‘If you eat her, you will absorb her language and her knowledge of all things into you, brother. You don’t need to listen to her! You just need to eat her! She will taste nice too, I bet.’
Raven looked at the spider, who was clearly not going to say anything more, and then walked up and ate her. As he did, he tore her orb web, and it broke and blew in the wind.
Raven fluffed himself up imperiously as he waited for the knowledge to fill him. He closed his eyes and started thinking of all the languages that he knew. He knew eagle, so he could trick eagle into giving him fish. He knew human, so he could trick man into thinking that he was a God. He knew tree, so he could make any tree beg him to nest and tear their branches.
But he did not know Spider.
Lesavny was laughing so hard that Raven opened his eyes.
‘Stupid Raven! You’ll never know all things now! Spider isn’t going to teach you a language from inside your belly! You learn by listening, you old black bird, not by eating!’
But as Lesavny laughed, Raven felt something shift inside of him. It moved into his spirit, and became one with his spirit. He looked from side to side and cackled loud and long.
‘Wrong! I know Spider language now! Watch me call the spiders from their eves.’
And Raven, being a master manipulator, called all the spiders from the eves of their trees, from the roots and leaves and the forest paths.
‘I have listened to the spirit I have absorbed. For her sacrifice, I have gained wisdom. And through my wisdom, I am sad and joyful for her sacrifice.’
‘Do you know all things?’ Lesavny asked calmly.
Raven clacked his beak together and gave a beady eyed smile.
‘I know enough to know that I will always have more to learn.’
To this day, Raven still tries to eat an awful lot of things that are not good for him, and are not food, because he cannot stop looking for knowledge and language. Sometimes he finds something special and new, and he is wiser. But Lesavny still laughs at him every time he eats something that teaches him nothing. You may see Raven poking and prodding at plastic, or mouthing a piece of bark, but do not be so quick to mock him. Raven knows that in order to find knowledge in strange places, he must be willing to try strange things!
And to this day we still believe that we absorb the spirit of everything we eat, and if we listen hard enough, and long enough, we will learn its language, and the value of all things. Everything we place in our mouths has a language if it came from the earth, and its spirit moves into our spirit. If we listen hard enough, we may learn the languages of a great deal if we are willing to turn our Urt inwards and listen.
-
(Incidentally, it is also part of one of the initiatory rites for adolescents to consciously eat an orb-weaving spider. This custom continues into the life of an Orai’ma or Orai’ka if they continue their training.
This story, and many different versions of this story (some which involve other animals and the goddess Vasilia) is often told to remind us that we don't only learn through listening and through seeing, we also learn from turning within and examining what is inside us, not only metaphorically but LITERALLY. It's an apt lesson in today's day an age, when most of us who truthfully looked inside of our spirits would find a lot of impressions of saturated fats unattached to any well-treated animal, or synthetic sugars eroding our cells.
Everything we eat has a sense of sacrifice to it. Everything we absorb into ourselves moves into our spirits, and sometimes beyond our spirit. It is assimilated, and sometimes 'cleaned out.'
Fasting can lead to a clearer mind, and there are many different theories for this, but we believe that abstaining from food lets our spirit become our own once more. And allows us to see clearly through the eyes of our core before we take in the spirits of anything else. Likewise, there are specific rituals which must involve the ingestion of certain plants, fungi, or sacrificed animals to induce specific trance states or to encourage certain states of energy around the shamanic practicioner.
I've retold this story for myself, because it's a favourite, and because I'm slowly working through slightly modernised - mainly through dialogue - retellings of quite a few of the myths that I know and love. This one is an obvious, because it has Raven, my primary and familial totem, as well as my spirit-helper, brother and twin.
Raven is an occasional trickster in Vilturj, but he is just as often portrayed as a serious, knowledgeable, but slightly vague bird who is close to Lesavny (they are considered brothers), the Laskowice (forest 'elves' for lack of a better description) and Vavale. Raven is also considered sacred to several sky spirits.
Raven does not get along with Eagle, and in our mythos, tends to treat other songbirds very very poorly.
Anyway, mostly, this is just boredom...*g*)
Raven knew all languages because he got bored so easily. He learnt snail and moved onto wolf, he learnt wolf and moved onto cloud, he learnt cloud and moved onto narwhal, and soon he knew the languages of all the trees, animals and gods that he could meet. He even knew the language of dry desert sands and the movements of seeds in the air. There was one language he did not know, and that was the language of Spider, who knew all things.
Raven tried talking to Spider, but Spider merely watched Raven with her little eyes. When Raven said,
‘teach me your language, little one, because I know all other languages already.’
Spider simply weaved and orb-web and sat in the middle of her creation. Raven cocked his head to one side and then sighed in different tongues. He sighed a summer breeze and a spring gale, he sighed a bear’s groan and he human sighed.
Soon he was occupied sighing in all the different languages he knew. Spider watched him calmly, her web smiled at him, from all the angles.
Eventually Lesavny came along, walking the paths that only he could see, and happened upon Raven and Spider.
‘Raven! What is so interesting about this tiny spider?’
‘I am trying to learn her language, I’m bored.’
Lesavny laughed.
‘If you eat her, you will absorb her language and her knowledge of all things into you, brother. You don’t need to listen to her! You just need to eat her! She will taste nice too, I bet.’
Raven looked at the spider, who was clearly not going to say anything more, and then walked up and ate her. As he did, he tore her orb web, and it broke and blew in the wind.
Raven fluffed himself up imperiously as he waited for the knowledge to fill him. He closed his eyes and started thinking of all the languages that he knew. He knew eagle, so he could trick eagle into giving him fish. He knew human, so he could trick man into thinking that he was a God. He knew tree, so he could make any tree beg him to nest and tear their branches.
But he did not know Spider.
Lesavny was laughing so hard that Raven opened his eyes.
‘Stupid Raven! You’ll never know all things now! Spider isn’t going to teach you a language from inside your belly! You learn by listening, you old black bird, not by eating!’
But as Lesavny laughed, Raven felt something shift inside of him. It moved into his spirit, and became one with his spirit. He looked from side to side and cackled loud and long.
‘Wrong! I know Spider language now! Watch me call the spiders from their eves.’
And Raven, being a master manipulator, called all the spiders from the eves of their trees, from the roots and leaves and the forest paths.
‘I have listened to the spirit I have absorbed. For her sacrifice, I have gained wisdom. And through my wisdom, I am sad and joyful for her sacrifice.’
‘Do you know all things?’ Lesavny asked calmly.
Raven clacked his beak together and gave a beady eyed smile.
‘I know enough to know that I will always have more to learn.’
To this day, Raven still tries to eat an awful lot of things that are not good for him, and are not food, because he cannot stop looking for knowledge and language. Sometimes he finds something special and new, and he is wiser. But Lesavny still laughs at him every time he eats something that teaches him nothing. You may see Raven poking and prodding at plastic, or mouthing a piece of bark, but do not be so quick to mock him. Raven knows that in order to find knowledge in strange places, he must be willing to try strange things!
And to this day we still believe that we absorb the spirit of everything we eat, and if we listen hard enough, and long enough, we will learn its language, and the value of all things. Everything we place in our mouths has a language if it came from the earth, and its spirit moves into our spirit. If we listen hard enough, we may learn the languages of a great deal if we are willing to turn our Urt inwards and listen.
-
(Incidentally, it is also part of one of the initiatory rites for adolescents to consciously eat an orb-weaving spider. This custom continues into the life of an Orai’ma or Orai’ka if they continue their training.
This story, and many different versions of this story (some which involve other animals and the goddess Vasilia) is often told to remind us that we don't only learn through listening and through seeing, we also learn from turning within and examining what is inside us, not only metaphorically but LITERALLY. It's an apt lesson in today's day an age, when most of us who truthfully looked inside of our spirits would find a lot of impressions of saturated fats unattached to any well-treated animal, or synthetic sugars eroding our cells.
Everything we eat has a sense of sacrifice to it. Everything we absorb into ourselves moves into our spirits, and sometimes beyond our spirit. It is assimilated, and sometimes 'cleaned out.'
Fasting can lead to a clearer mind, and there are many different theories for this, but we believe that abstaining from food lets our spirit become our own once more. And allows us to see clearly through the eyes of our core before we take in the spirits of anything else. Likewise, there are specific rituals which must involve the ingestion of certain plants, fungi, or sacrificed animals to induce specific trance states or to encourage certain states of energy around the shamanic practicioner.
I've retold this story for myself, because it's a favourite, and because I'm slowly working through slightly modernised - mainly through dialogue - retellings of quite a few of the myths that I know and love. This one is an obvious, because it has Raven, my primary and familial totem, as well as my spirit-helper, brother and twin.
Raven is an occasional trickster in Vilturj, but he is just as often portrayed as a serious, knowledgeable, but slightly vague bird who is close to Lesavny (they are considered brothers), the Laskowice (forest 'elves' for lack of a better description) and Vavale. Raven is also considered sacred to several sky spirits.
Raven does not get along with Eagle, and in our mythos, tends to treat other songbirds very very poorly.
Anyway, mostly, this is just boredom...*g*)
