The Raven - Part 1

According to American Indian mythology, the raven can be many things; a bird (flying freely in the air), or a trickster (stealing things it finds pretty), and even a god (looking down upon the earth). Imagine this story being told by the first Americans, to a group of children gathered in a small circle around a fire, with the dim light of the fire dancing on the faces of the children, and on the faces of the adults standing in an outer circle. A large elder is moving around the children, between them and the adults, interrupting the dancing light with shadows cast outward toward the wall of adults; her arms waving, her body turning and stooping as she makes faces to illustrate the story of the raven. After a similar short introduction, our story teller for the evening began this story.

"Every day the black raven took to the sky and flew high above the earth, surveying all that he saw. One day, while flying over the sea, the raven saw an island that was not there the day before, and becoming very curious he flew down closer. Near the shore was a small hut and the smell of smoked salmon was too much of a temptation for the raven. He wanted some of that delicious salmon, and he landed near the hut and walked in. The hut was unguarded and empty except for the smoked salmon that was hanging everywhere; large fish on one rack, medium fish on a second rack, and small fish on a third rack."

"He chose the biggest fish he could find and carried it to a table, but before he could take a bite, it shot back up onto the rack. So he chose a medium sized fish and carried it to the table, but before he could take a bite, it too shot back up onto the rack. He tried again, choosing a small fish, but just like the first two times, before he could take a bite the fish shot back up on to the rack. This was too much for the raven to understand, so he left the hut and took to the sky again."

"Almost immediately, he noticed something following him and becoming frightened he began to swerve, and dive, and climb, but he just couldn't lose that smooth black object. Terror overwhelmed him as he suddenly realized that what was following him was his shadow. He cawed and cried loudly that it wasn't fair; he never had a shadow before and he certainly didn't want one now. Realizing his mistake he looked back, but it was too late, for the raven saw that the island was gone."

Here the story teller in our midst abruptly ended the story, pointed to her audience and accused each of us of being ravens. The raven, you see, was given a shadow because it was trying to steel something that didn't belong to it. The moral of the story is that because each of us has a shadow, then we too have stolen something that didn't belong to us. In my modern re-interpretation of this story Satan is the trickster, the accuser who opposes and challenges our faith, the island represents the kind of opportunities that pop up out of nowhere presenting us with temptations that are sometimes difficult to resist, and our shadow is … well … just a shadow. Nevertheless, although our shadow isn't a telltale sign of failure, we might see it as a reminder of our past mistakes.