Pagan Eye: A Murder of Crows in my Local Park

I saw a murder of crows in my local park and stopped to take this photo. Traditionally, crows are an omen of death in English folklore. This is probably because they are scavengers and congregate around dead or dying animals, but it grew into the belief they could also predict death, especially if they were focussing their attention on a specific place or person. Another superstition is that they peck out the eyes of corpses in order to gain these visionary powers. 

No one really knows why the collective noun is called a "murder", although it could be because they were thought to hasten death as well as just recognising a dying animal. Interestingly, according to Steve Roud in The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, seeing a single crow is often thought of as more unlucky than seeing a group of them, despite the murder epithet. In Norfolk, the well-known number rhyme associated with magpies was also attached to crows:

One crow sorrow
Two crows joy
Three crows a letter
Four crows a boy
Five crows silver
Six crows gold
Seven crows a secret
That must never be told

For farming communities, crows could, of course, be a threat to livelihood because they eat both seeds and ripe crops - hence the making of scarecrows.

Personally, I like crows, and I think many other witches do too. As well as being rather gothic, they're intelligent birds, much smarter than owls, which are traditionally associated with wisdom. Am I worried at seeing this murder of crows in my local park?  Is some doom soon to be visited on someone there, or the little building you can see at the edge? No, I don't think so - but my reason is a secret, never to be told...

On each Pagan Eye post, I show a photo that I find interesting, with a few words about it. I'm not quite sure what I'll be including - it could be a seasonal image, a pagan site, an event, or just a pretty picture.

If you want to send me a photo for a Pagan Eye post, please email it to badwitch1234@gmail.com Let me know what the photo shows and whether you want your name mentioned or not. For copyright reasons, the photo must be one you have taken yourself and you must confirm that you are submitting it for A Bad Witch's Blog.

Previous related posts:

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/01/birds-divine-messengers-big-garden.html

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/01/bird-watching-portents-and-ornithomancy.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/02/pagan-eye-crow-on-cliffs-in-springtime.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/06/pagan-eye-eagle-owl.html