Why "eagles?"
Most years find me, with husband and extended family and friends, at the Copper River, a 300-mile glacier-fed torrent that drains into the Chugach and Wrangell mountains in Southcentral Alaska. It is undoubtedly the most stunning place on earth. Many who travel all over the state and world agree. It is also a treacherous place, and the ever-present sense of impending tragedy probably contributes in no small measure to its grandeur.
If you've ever had really expensive salmon, it probably shouted proudly on its wrapper or box that it was "fresh from the Copper River!" The runs here are incredible, and not fished by as many people as rivers that are easier to reach, such as the Kenai, and therefore thronged with tourists.
We camp on the same mud flats on the Copper every year, next to a fresh water feeder stream. Dozens of eagle nests dot the trees around the flats, where salmon are easier to pluck from the water than other places on the river. If you climb about the flats and the camp, there is a spruce and a large flat rock that place you level with the eagles. I climb up there to watch and escape all kinds of things. I write poetry there; I stretch; I breathe. The place to me in inexolerably linked with the eagles and creativity. Some years there are more eagles; some years there are more paintings, more dreams, more words. But the three are linked, eagles and mountains and my creative mind.
A few years ago I was given a print of a painting by an artist named "Joann George" called "Eagle Dreamer." The image has become part of my thought patterns in ways I still want to explore. You can learn more about JoAnn George and see some of her work through these links:
http://www.takugraphics.com/apgeorge.html
angoonartists.org/gallery_site/joann_george
Here is the picture of "Eagle Dreamer" from Angoonartists.org:
Why "ravens?"
In all honesty, I do not know. By that, I mean that I do now know how ravens fit into my personal journey.... they have always seemed to me, however, to be a proper balance to Eagle. Perhaps more research and more adventures will yield an answer.
Ravens are a thriving, visible species throughout Alaska. They do not shy away from man. In folklore Raven is often a messager; it can be difficult to distinguish whether the bird is good or evil in any particular story. Raven is often revered as a type of prophet with supernatural abilities. Though prophecies can be either tragic or uplifting, ultimately balance is restored or maintained, and Raven's true character remains obscured.
I am beginning to research Alaska's folklore and myths more thoroughly in preparation for several longer writing projects. Every time I read about Raven, I find my thoughts turning to healers, medicine men, and wise women.... would Raven's doomsday predictions worry them, or would they take them in stride and accept Raven as a balancing force in the universe, with whom we are blessed to interact as "lowly" humans?
I like Raven. Maybe soon I will learn why.......
