Spirit Animal - Sparrow

"Sparrow Waiting" by S. Roger Joyeux, copyright August 2008

Several days ago, I was feeling sad because my Dad was gone, and I was feeling glad because he was now released from the body that was starting to weigh him down. As he said, "It just doesn't work right anymore!"

I went out and sat under the arbour and mountain ash tree.  I relaxed my body back into the swing chair, and closed my eyes.  Within minutes, I could feel something watching me and there was bird song all around.  I thought the birds were eating the berries in the tree.  I looked up.  There were about half a dozen sparrows hopping around the tree and looking at me, like they were concerned. Yes, I do put birdseed out, however, it's not like they are dependent upon me for food. 

I wondered what was up.  Then they started flying past me, quite close to my face.  The dogs came and sat with me, and watched the birds.  Pretty soon they were swooping over the dogs.  It was quite a show!  They were trying to tell me something.  I started to watch them more carefully and mulled over what I knew about sparrows.

Many people see these birds as pests. They do congregate early in the morning and sing very cheerfully, even as early as 4:30 and 5:00 AM.  They will eat all seeds and can get messy.  They are flock birds and love company.  Their colours are brown and white and grey and black.  As a flock, they will chase off much larger birds and terrify squirrels.  Several flocks hang out in our yard and provide a constant commentary about what is to eat, where the cats are, and where the insects are easy prey. 

Sparrows are noted for eating a wide variety of insects, and will fly up around the house.  This year, they have kept our garden quite free of the normal pests that eat our lettuce and spinach and tomatoes.  Chairman Mao Tse-Tung learned, with disastrous consequences, what happens when one dishonours the sparrow.  He calculated that a sparrow could eat almost ten pounds of rice per year, and that if he killed a million sparrows, he'd have enough rice to feed an additional 60,000 people. The Chinese people were commanded to kill as many sparrows as possible.  In Shantung province, the locals killed an estimated 2.7 million sparrows.  The amount of rice did not increase with the death of the sparrows.  It diminished.  The insects that the sparrows normally killed, ate and damaged rice well in excess of what the sparrows ate.  Chairman Mao decided he'd had a bad idea and ordered the people to be friends with the sparrows so the population would return to normal.

Sparrows are noted for representing abundance - both substantial and spiritually.  The Japanese have a story about a sparrows gifting an old woodsman with gold and silver.  There is also a story about a sparrow singing to Jesus as he hung on the cross.  Songs have been written about the relationship between God and the sparrow.  In ancient times, sparrows were thought to carry the souls of the dead up to the Gods. Our ancestors believed it was bad luck to kill a sparrow because this stopped them from fulfilling their task.

Taking all of this information into context, it seemed to me that the sparrows were telling me to cheer up.  They were saying that I was well taken care of, and that Dad was also well looked after.  Sparrow song was a reminder to stay grounded (as are the colours) and stay in the present moment.  The present is full of joy and peace and wonder.  Their aerial acrobatics were reinforcing that I should use my gifts of my third eye and connect with the Divine to see the perfection in everything. 

It is good advice! 

Judith