Recently, a cardinal came to me and in only a few seconds and without words conveyed to me a simple message that brought comfort and solace, but also expressed how the boundary between humans and non-humans is fluid and our connection is intuitive, deep, and compassionate. I was gazing out my window while waiting for some stressful medical news and thinking about how red had become a personal symbol of good health outcomes for me. Just then, a cardinal landed in a bush directly in front of me and we stared at each other for several moments before he (only male cardinals have bright red plumage) flew away. I thought “how coincidental!” but mostly dismissed the incident as obviously not meaningful, though I certainly did feel more hopeful (and the medical situation did end positively).
But yet, I already often send messages to non-human beings, intentionally or not, when I plant food for birds and insect pollinators or take care not to disturb woodchucks, chipmunks, squirrels, or foxes who make my yard their home. I am relaying to them I love them and want them to thrive in my garden, that they have as much a right to dwell on the land as I do. I often speak to plants to welcome them to my garden or apologize if I damage a leaf or bloom. If I routinely communicate with non-humans, why do I think they do not communicate with me? In fact, there is an American folklore belief that “Cardinals appear when angels are near”1 and that cardinals bring messages from loved ones who have died, especially giving good news2. So, taking heart from the cardinal’s appearance is at least centuries older than my own time’s dismissal of it.
In fact, communication between humans and non-humans is essential to many societies all over the world. For example, Gregory Cajete of the Santa Clara Pueblo, notes in his book Native Science that in the emergence story of the Pueblo Nation, people sent sparrows to ask “the powers of this world” if they would welcome them, which they did3. He also explains that “The metaphor of the land where the Huichol originated is recounted in rituals and the oldest tales of human existence when humans, plants, animals, and natural phenomena could communicate”4. He further notes that “Every act, element, plant, animal, and natural process is considered to have a moving spirit with which humans continually communicate”5.
Birds, in particular, seem to also be frequent message-carriers in Celtic traditions that may retain remnants of attitudes and practices from millennia ago. In Scottish Highland tradition, the landing of a magpie or crow on a roof meant death would soon come to the home6 and the same could be said of hearing the call of a cuckoo, golden plover, or curlew or the sight of a heron7. But messages can also be more positive. According to Caitlin and John Matthews, “The Irish Goddess Cliodna… also has three birds: one blue with a crimson head, one crimson with a green head, and one speckled with a golden head which give guidance, entertainment, and the sleep of forgiveness”8.
In a number of Celtic cultures, birds and humans also once exchanged messages in each other’s languages. One Scottish Highland folk story tells the tale of how “a youth named Alasdair is sent to the Isle of Birds to learn the language of the birds — a synonym for magical, otherworldly speech and knowledge”9. The Carmina Gadelica, a book of Scottish Highland oral tradition collected 150 years ago, documents poems about birds speaking, with mavises, corncrakes, crows, cuckoos, and pigeons all saying things like “ Poor Big Donald! You are thirsty! Drink it off! Every drop!” and “O God of the powers! Put food in the field!”10. Another poem imitates the vocalizations of swans and other birds11 while in daily life people learned bird song so accurately that birds would sometimes see which of their kin were hailing them12.
When we truly begin to witness and understand the level of communication that already happens, or could happen if we just paid closer attention to non-human beings, we begin to see that the boundary between humans and non-humans is actually rather porous. Caitlin and John Matthews note that in traditional Celtic culture “souls of the blest take the form of doves and swans; lost souls become ravens or birds of ill-omen”13. And according to Walter Evans-Wentz, who collected the Celtic fairy faith oral tradition more than a century ago, fairies, who are sometimes associated with dead human souls, often appear as birds14. Patricia Monaghan tells the story of the Irish heroine Dechtere who could transform herself and her 50 maidservants into birds so they cold travel more quickly15 and Cerridwen who turned herself into a greyhound, otter, hawk, and hen in her pursuit of a young man who tasted a special potion she was saving for her son16. How much less lonely our world becomes when we realize that our species is not so isolated from the rest of living beings.
As we look at our world and the challenges we face, it seems to me that the cardinal was bringing two messages, beyond my personal one, that we all need to hear. First, we need to believe that the non-human world still cares about us humans as individuals in our daily lives. I’m sure that cardinal had many better things to do that morning that fly over to that bush and stare at a scared human as reassurance. But fly to me he did. Was it because berries of the dogwood tree in my yard that I had fed a flock of cardinals last winter? Or the plant material I leave on the ground to help birds winter over? Suddenly, my relationship with the non-humans in my yard became much deeper as I realized that what I did made a difference to their lives, and their actions make a difference to mine. That web of connection between all life we so often talk about suddenly became real.
But also, we humans need to do as the ancestors did and heed the warnings of the non-human world. The gesture of the cardinal happened against the backdrop of the fact that our world has 3 billion fewer birds now than it did in 197017. And this is only one of the warnings flashing red in our world. Along with scientifically-based climate actions we also need a new, healthy, closer relationship between the human and non-human worlds to protect our environment and the beings who live in it, including ourselves.
A few weeks ago a cardinal came to my window at a time of distress and provided comfort and caring. His visit was also a gateway to a new understanding of the need to deeply listen to the non-human world on many levels, to remember that humans and non-humans of ancient times and many cultures seem to have often known how to communicate with one another, and to understood that we were all connected in a loving matrix of being. Communication between human and non-human beings seems to be part of the workings of nature and it is we, modern humans, who have forgotten. Now it is our turn to speak back to the non-human world with our actions to build a foundation of respect and commitment to repair the damage we have done to the Earth we share. Establishing new channels of human and non-human communication is one important way to begin.
Sources:
Axelson, Gustave, “Vanishing: More Than 1 In 4 Birds Has Disappeared In The Last 50 Years.” September 19, 2019. CornellLab All About Birds. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/vanishing-1-in-4-birds-gone/
Cajete, Gregory. Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Clear Light Books, 2016.
Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations Collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the Last Century, Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1992.
Evans-Wentz, W.Y. The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. New York: Citadel Press, 1966.
Hobson, Donald. “The Facts and Myths about Cardinal Birds.” March 21, 2021. Natural History Society of Maryland. Natural History Society of Maryland. https://www.marylandnature.org/the-facts-and-myths-about-cardinal-birds/
Matthews, Caitlin and John Matthews. Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom: A Celtic Shaman’s Sourcebook. Rockport, MA: Element Books., 1994.
Mayntz, Melissa. “Cardinals: Legends, Lore, and Spiritual Symbolism.” May 2, 2022. The Farmer’s Almanac. https://www.farmersalmanac.com/cardinals-legends-lore-and-spiritual-symbolism.
Monaghan, Patricia. The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines. St, Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2000.
Ross, Anne. Folklore of the Scottish Highlands. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1976.
Footnotes
- Hobson, “Myth and Facts about Cardinal Birds,” 2021. ↩︎
- Mayntz, “Cardinals: Legends, Lore, and Spiritual Symbolism,”2022 ↩︎
- Cajete, “Native Science,” 37. ↩︎
- Cajete, “Native Science,” 80. ↩︎
- Cajete, “Native Science,” 69. ↩︎
- Ross, “Folklore of the Scottish Highlands,” 96. ↩︎
- Ross, “Folklore of the Scottish Highlands,” 47. ↩︎
- Matthews and Matthews, “Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom,” 325. ↩︎
- Matthews and Matthews, “Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom,” 149. ↩︎
- Carmichael, “Carmina Gadelica,” 325-326. ↩︎
- Carmichael, “Carmina Gadelica,” 327. ↩︎
- Carmichael, “Carmina Gadelica”, 637. ↩︎
- Matthews and Matthews, “Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom,” 87-88. ↩︎
- Evans-Wentz, “The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries,” 334. ↩︎
- Monaghan, “New Book of Goddesses and Heroines,” 99. ↩︎
- Monaghan, “New Book of Goddesses and Heroines,” 82. ↩︎
- Axelson, “Vanishing: More Than 1 In 4 Birds Has Disappeared In The Last 50 Years.” ↩︎