St. Catherine’s Hill May Celebration

May 11, 2021May 10, 2021 / gaiamethod / Leave a comment

We were finally given our instructions to go to St. Catherine’s Hill to conclude the lessons of the Spring rites. I wondered why that day had been chosen, a week into the month of May, especially as the 1st of May has always been the traditional day for celebrating the Spring ritual. Perhaps it was because the sun was shining, or maybe it lay in the influence of the stars, or… who knows? I don’t question the instructions. I am simply the witness, the learner, the student.

On the drive there, having picked up a Freecycled chicken coop, I received messages about Mary Wollstonecraft, and the rise of Feminine power. I could feel this power. It was not the rise of women who used male power models as their own, but a true feminine power. However, I didn’t quite understand what this had to do with the Rites of May. I was still no clearer by the end of the day!

We parked along Five-Bridges Road and walked towards the River Itchen. It was important that we came from this direction, rather than the canal end, which was not only full of parked cars but also because the canal was man-made. But I knew, before we came, that we had to be close to the river. When we got to the bridge over the Itchen, it made sense. I had already been told to bring a bottle of water, for an essence, so when prompted, I opened the bottle.

As I stood watching the river flowing towards me, the clouds and blue skies reflected in the water, the fish symbol flowed into my centre (behind my navel). I saw a hand popping a young fish into the bottle I held in my hands. The fish is the symbol of male fertility as it flows through the water and on a previous earth-working with the river, Chris, Eartha and I had anchored that energy to the river from the Brooks centre in Winchester.

So, with bottle in hand, infused with the male energy of the river, we followed the path to St. Catherine’s Hill. It was a lovely sunny day and as we walked, I could smell nettles, Angelica, and May blossom. My sense of smell seemed more sensitive than usual, making the walk so much more pleasant. We stopped briefly at the canal lock where the water was rushing through it like a waterfall, creating a mist of cool moist air, then we made our way up the steps to St. Catherine’s Hill.

Chris had the remnants of a cold so he stayed beside the river while I headed upward to the summit. It isn’t a mountain, but it felt like one! My thigh muscles burned and my hip complained mightily, but I knew this had to be done if I wanted to understand the significance of the hill to our ancestors. I need to walk up hills more often!

As I reached the innermost bank, I saw the creative energy in the center of the hill, in the form of a dragon. I heard myself call the dragon awake and watched as it emerged from the ground beneath where the remains of St. Catherine’s Church lay. As the dragon pulled itself from the earth, it shook the soil from its great wings, surfacing eventually and taking flight above the hill. Its colour was a combination of gold and red, making it look nearly orange. I haven’t seen one this colour before, two colours combined in this way. It was beautiful. Once again, I heard myself call the dragons to awaken, to take flight, to soar in the air. This felt like a resurrection of sorts.

I walked towards the top of the hill, and into the beech tree copse which now had new Spring leaves open, creating shifting patterns on the floor below. I had an impulse to pour some of the Itchen water in my bottle onto the rise in the centre, bringing the fertile river, energetically, to the hill, connecting them both. I was told to infuse the water in my bottle with the energies of the hill and so I tuned in and watched to see the energies move into the water. Now, along with the fertility of the water, it also contained the heart of St, Catherine’s Hill.

An energy band came from the left of me, then another one came from the east. The western one was masculine and the eastern one, female. They flowed into me and then rose in twin columns high into the air, through my head, where they coiled upwards together like a candy-cane. I waited until that was stable and wandered around the top of the hill, but saw no more. Until, walking out of the clearing, I heard a woman’s voice say: ‘Join with us, sister.’

I turned to look back into the trees, and saw a circle of young women holding hands, and dancing in an anticlockwise direction around the centre of the hill. They were dressed in while linen and all had a circlet of May flowers around their heads.

Inside their circle, dancing in a clockwise direction, were the young men. Circles within circles, sunwise and widdershins. The pair who had been chosen to hold the creative energies for the year, and who represented the male and female energies of creation, appeared in the centre of the dancing circles. They did not participate in the dance but appeared to be ‘holding’ the energies that the dancers were building.

When they had completed their dance, both groups of dancers moved in a line and took their place behind each of the pair, the girls in one line, the boys in another. Then they moved forwards, following their leader in a procession, separating once they had reached the outer limit of the hilltop. The girls moved east, and the boys west, still in a line, moving to the eastern and western bottom of the hill where they encircled the base of the hill and re-joined, taking the energy down to the flood-plain.

The rites were complete and they would spend the night feasting and celebrating.

Once I had witnessed this, I walked back towards the outer boundary, but glanced back towards the summit and saw a huge flame burning, the same colour as the dragon, red and gold. I heard the words: ‘the flame burns for another year’.

Reaching the inner bank of the hill, the dragon appeared again. It was only visible from the bank, for some reason, as I had not been aware of it while I was inside the trees. But now, it was large and alive, and I was told to open the essence bottle. This large dragon then popped a miniature version of itself into the water and once it was inside, I replaced the cap.

I returned to the river, where Chris was waiting, and we walked back the way we had come. When we were crossing the river again, I was instructed to pour some of this essence back into the water, completing the circle of fertility.

The most important aspect of this entire season’s learning, from February through to May was the marriage of water and earth. The Hill, the pregnant mound of the Mother, marries the water energies of the River to maintain the fertility of the land, so that food was assured for the coming season. In the past, the Itchen overflowed at certain of the years, bringing fertile silt from up-river. This reminds me of the Nile flooding, when rituals like this were also carried out at the Temple below the great pyramid. Many sacred Mother sites, to do with fertility, were connected to a river. Stonehenge, Stanton Drew, and of course, Winchester, etc.

The observance of these rites kept the energy flowing, each element dancing together. There was no sense of male energy, or female energy, being more important than the other, but a recognition of the necessary interplay between the two. To our detriment, we have lost this understanding but perhaps it is time we resurrected it, like the dragon.

The Seven Layers of the Earth’s Energy Field.

August 23, 2015August 23, 2015 / gaiamethod / Leave a comment

During a recent weekend spent with Eartha Luck in her gorgeous caravan in Dorset, I finally understood the seven layers of the Earth’s magnetic field, as it pertains to the work we do as Gaia Method Healers. As healers we learn to work within each of these seven layers. These energies are about ‘Creation’, both on a physical level and on finer, upper dimensional levels. In working with these layers we are working with the thoughtforms which will influence mankind’s experience into the future.

Everything we do, as Gaia Method healers, involves creating. We are channels for energies to flow through into manifestation. We channel the new thoughtforms, on each of the levels, connecting the different levels in different ways so that new thoughtforms can be anchored into the collective unconscious. Some of the older thoughtforms which were anchored in the past might need upgrading, or tweaking, so that they reflect the growth that humanity needs to experience, or they might need to be completely removed. We don’t do this in a controlling way, but rather as our Souls, allowing these things to be channelled through us. Often we don’t actually know why we are doing a particular work, but we have to trust our Soul’s knowledge.

We also change the frequencies of the earth’s lower layers, so that new souls being born onto the Earth, are born into the newer frequencies. Different sites require different connections and so these connections work vertically, upwards and downwards, as well as horizontally, through the earth. Lower layers are often connected to upper layers so that an upper layer adds its energy, or the higher energy influences the lower one being connected to it.

These connections influence every belief on the planet, from religious to cultural. Usually, when we are training to work with these elemental energies we are trained in one or two at a time. As we become more efficient in working with these energies we begin to train in another another, until we have mastered all of them.

The three ‘Earth’ layers are the processes of nature, which effect our living experience on the planet. But they are also energetic. We are reshaping our future physical experience, even though we might struggle in that future until all is resettled into its new patterning and humanity learns to respect this planet we live on.

The First three layers, which are beneath the surface of the earth, are:

1) The core of the Earth. This often appears as a dense black and is the magnetic centre of the planet. This is represented by the Black Dragon and the black dragon lines. The deepest unconscious of human thinking.

2) The Lava layer. This is the layer of fire energies, the outer core, of the core of the planet. This is represented by the Red Dragon and the red energy lines; it influences our creative abilities. But is also lava.

3) The Water layer. This is all of the water of the earth, including underground water sources. This is the blue dragon and the emotions of the world.

Here the energies change frequency, and this is the point at which I was stuck, until working with Eartha on Nine Barrows Down, near Corfe Castle. I had known of all of the layers bar one, the Emerald, but this is one she has been working with for a while. We both have had the emerald in our Haras for a number of years but didn’t understand what it meant. Now it is clear.

4) The Emerald energies, the Green Dragon, represents the surface of the earth and its vegetation. It is represented by the green dragon and the green energy lines. The Emerald crystal is anchored in your Hara, when you are given it as an energy and it is a ‘transducer’. It contains both the energies of the physical earth and the energies of the upper crystalline layers. The Green Dragon energies are usually associated with springs and vegetation together.

5) The Ruby energies. This is the layer of Mother’s Divine Love. This is often accessed from sites built on hilltops, such as Uffington, or it can be connected to while connecting earth sites to upper layers. This crystal energy is anchored in the heart.

6) The Diamond energies. This is the layer of Father, or pure Masculine Thought. Any of the earth energies can be connected to these upper layers through energywork. When you anchor an earth energy-line to the diamond energy layer you are connecting that level of human consciousness to Divine Thought. The Diamond energy is anchored in the head.

7) The Amethyst Layer. This energetic layer is of a soft lilac colour, light and fine. It is above the Diamond layer, and it is anchored above your head. It contains the highest thoughtforms for humanity’s development.

As you learn the Gaia method, and go through your healing, you are gifted with the ability to work within these layers as you progress. There is no ‘rule’ as to who gets what and when, but often your own gifts will dictate what energies you work best with. I work with the Ruby energies and Eartha’s work resonates with the Emerald energies.

Some Elements of Earth Energy-Work. The ‘Umbilical’ Cord.

February 23, 2014February 23, 2014 / gaiamethod / 2 Comments

There are some elements of this work that can feel very strange, such as energy-tubes emerging form our ‘centre’ and moving into vortices or rivers. To my ‘mind’s eye the tube looks like a fireman’s hose and its purpose is to either ‘fill up’ your centre with energy or to deposit that energy someplace else. Often it has happened around rivers or other sources of water. I get a strange pulling sensation in my belly and I ‘see’ and feel the hose emerge and move into the water. It then starts to ‘suck’ water up, like an elephant’s trunk, until my centre is ‘full’. I then have to carry this energy until it is ready to be deposited someplace else. This is also happened while driving, although I am usually the passenger! As we pass the body of water my fire-hose emerges and moves quickly into the water we are passing. More often than not we are usually in a traffic jam, which I imagine is for that very purpose! I never know where the water is for however, I just have to trust it. Sometimes, along with the water, come small diamond energies which also stay in my centre until they are required elsewhere.

Once when this happened I had to deposit the water energy of the River Itchen in Hampshire into Luxor. My friend and fellow Gaia Method healer Chris, were staying for three weeks in a flat we had bought a 20yr lease on (whole other horrible story) and the swimming pool had not yet been built. Our flat was on the third floor looking out onto what would soon be the pool area. This is the journal entry for that time:

“I was sitting on the balcony having our usual million cups of tea when I stood up and looked over the balcony. I felt the familiar pulling sensation of my stomach wanting to connect with the ground. This had happened the first day we arrived here. The swimming pool has still not been built and Jamal is growing vegetables in the space. I felt the pulling sensation in my navel and my umbilical unwound like a hose and moved down to connect with the ground. Then all the water I had accumulated from the rivers and wells in Ireland and England flowed through it and filled the space with a pool of water. Then it wound itself back up into my navel. Process complete. I wondered what was going to happen with all that water I had absorbed!”

As it turned out that was the exact spot where they eventually built the pool! But I still don’t know what its purpose is.

On another occasion I was with my friend Eartha, another Gaia method healer who I have done a lot of work with. She spends a lot of time living around Corfe in Dorset, one of my most favourite places in England. We were spending the weekend in her teepee and she took me to a place which she ‘works’ regularly, a beautiful ancient trackway beneath Nine Barrows Down. This is journal entry for that occasion:

“…we wandered back but we continued down Eartha’s priestess path until we came to a sand pit. I was explaining to Eartha how we can access ancient energy here because it is exposed, and we went to stand by the bank. While I was talking I suddenly felt the odd sensation of my umbilical cord moving out like a hose and moving deep into the earth to some ancient water source. My ‘hose’ is now about 6inches in diameter and is golden. It pulled up lots of liquid from deep in the earth and I had to stand there until it was complete. This entire area is ‘priestessy’ for Eartha and it feels very ancient, more Atlantean really! She was having to pull energy into her field which looked like green and then gold like wings. When we were finished the gold hose came up and at the opening of it there was now a facetted ruby egg. When my umbilical coiled itself back the ruby stayed at the end and inserted itself into my centre. It feels like it needs to go somewhere else, to be planted like I planted the water in the Flat! “

(When I speak of Atlantis I am speaking of the time when the continents were joined in one landmass, Pangaea, millions of years ago. I am not speaking of the mythical Atlantis of Plato.)

This ‘umbilical cord’ also connects to other people when they need healing or replenishment and seems to activate from that other part of us who knows what it is doing. Often I feel like a ‘witness’ to what happens when I do energywork but it is the accumulation of all of my soul training which is being used and me, as Ann, doesn’t often understand what the energy part of me is doing until much later; I just have to trust it. Other energy-work healers say the same thing!

On a visit to Cornwall with Chris in 2006 we found that many ancient settlement sites were also set up to fulfil the same function:

“Our next visit was Carn Euny Iron Age settlement site. It was a terrific place and the fougou was amazing. My first impression, before entering, was a layer of fear which had been added later. It could have been to keep people out, a little like a powerful magus using it for his own purpose rather than as its original intention.

As I walked into the fougou itself I instantly saw a group of council elders/druids and it felt like a kiva. A place of power originally intended as a place of law and ritual, the hub or centre of the community.

Originally there was nothing ‘precious’ about the fougou it was just seen for what is was, the navel of the community, and given its due respect. But it was an accepted part of the community. People lived around it, got on with their lives around it. It was part of their everyday lives. The fougou entrance symbolised the umbilical cord, the source of nourishment for the community. They were well-fed and taken care of and had a good community spirit, like the Hopi Indians. From this place you can see the sea and it feels like a beautiful place, a perfect place to live.

I sat on stone slab and closed my eyes. An Arabic woman dressed in black appeared and in her arms she held a naked boy-child, sickly and thin. She placed the boy on the ground in front of me and stood back, silently asking me to heal her sick child. Initially I wasn’t sure what to do and then I saw my umbilical cord move down into the earth beneath me, feeding the settlement with the energy I’ve been carrying from Men an Tol since yesterday! I didn’t even know I’d been carrying it but they had said something about a download but I didn’t realise what they meant, until now! No wonder I felt so bloated.

Anyway, when this process of ‘feeding’ had finished my cord was retracted and I saw a tribal runner sending communication to other settlements, letting them know that the Mother’s energy has returned at last, the lines are flowing once again. There was great excitement and it felt really good.”

Working with the ‘umbilical’ cord seems to be a natural part of Planetary Healing. Once, while at a workshop in Wales with Jhadten Jewell I was speaking to another healer and I was trying to explain to her what happens with the umbilical energies. She said that that was part of Vortex Healing. I have never had, or learned Vortex healing, but it would be interesting to see if it is the same thing.

(The image above is the channelled creation of Jhadten Jewell, of the energies of 2014. Clicking on the image will take you to his site. A wonderful and very fun channel!)

The Vain Rook.

August 28, 2013 / gaiamethod / Leave a comment

Sometimes stories ‘pop’ into my head and it is only when writing them that I realise what they are about. They usually reflect situations with people around me, teaching me,or someone else, how to deal with a situation or how a situation will evolve. I hope this helps the person it is destined for!

Once upon a time there was a very vain rook. He spent most of his days gazing at his reflection from a branch high up on a tree which grew on the side of a very large river. The river was so large that he couldn’t actually see where it began or where it ended.

His branch overhung the water in a particularly quiet part of the river, where two little channels separated from the main river and created little islands, which were then surrounded by clear, slow moving water.

Every day from his perch he would sit and gaze at himself, admiring his long shiny black feathers and his grey feathered chest.

“I must be the most beautiful bird in the world”, he would say to himself as he turned his head this way and that to see as much of himself as he could in the reflection of the water. He spent so much of his time preening and admiring himself that often he would forget to eat and the other rooks that spent time in the tree thought that he was the craziest bird that they had ever seen.

His parents, whose nest lay high above his branch, despaired of him, wondering how on earth they had raised such a vain chick. They shook their heads and sighed and worried about what would become of him.

One day, while he sat above the water, admiring himself as usual, he spotted a fish swimming below him. The fish was looking for flies as she was very hungry and she created ripples in the water distorting the mirror-like quality of the water’s surface.

“Hey” cawed the rook loudly. “What do you think you are doing there? Can’t you see I am doing something?”

The fish looked up in surprise. “I’m sorry. Were you talking to me?” she asked, her mouth gulping in a large fly that just happened to fly by her.

“Yes I’m talking to you!” the rook said indignantly, and he stuck his neck out trying to bring his beak closer to the water to get a closer look at this rude intruder.

The fish went on looking for flies and other tasty morsels and as she was so hungry didn’t really have much interest in the rook or his behaviour.

“Are you listening to me?” the rook demanded, becoming more and more irate with this selfish fish. The fish was swimming around so much now, and creating so much rippled water, that the rook could only see the dark shadowy outline of his body. Gone was the shiny lustre of his feathers and his long sleek wings and dark piercing eyes.

“Can’t you stop?” he yelled loudly in an angry caw. “I can’t see myself anymore”.

The fish stopped swimming and looked up at the angry young crow, her curiosity overcoming her need for food.

She poked her head up out of the water and took a couple of gulps of air. She stared up at the crow, whose beak was now right in front of her little face. She had to twist her head slightly sideways to get a better look!

“So…what are you doing?” she asked the crow who was by now hopping up and down and doing, what to the fish, looked like a very comical dance on the branch.

“What am I doing?” screeched the crow, “What am I doing? What does it look like I’m doing?”

The fish looked puzzled. All she could see was a young black crow hopping up and down on the branch of a tree and staring into the water.

“Are you …fishing?” she gulped warily, thinking that she might be crow food at any minute.

“Do I look like I’m fishing?” asked the crow in the kind of voice only reserved for the stupidest of animals…or fish.

“Well, come to think of it, no you don’t.” answered the fish. “ I mean I’ve seen those beautiful kingfishers flying high above the water and then diving deep to catch smallfry, but no, you don’t look like one of them.” she reflected. “I mean” she added with relieved grin, “I sure am glad you don’t look like one of them. So…if you are not fishing…then what are you doing?”

“I am taking care of myself”, answered the crow imperiously, thinking to himself that this was the most ridiculous fish he had ever come across. Didn’t she know anything?

The fish frowned a fish frown, which was barely perceptible to the crow. Not that he was looking at the fish anyway as he was too busy trying to see his own reflection.

Taking care of yourself…” the fish repeated, trying to ascertain exactly what this might mean. “Em…I don’t mean to sound stupid,” she added after a short pause, “But how does sitting in that tree, looking at the water all the time equal you taking care of yourself. I don’t get it”.

The crow, now believing entirely in the fish’s stupidity, explained in a slow manner, just so that the fish would understand what he, the clever and vain rook, meant by taking care of himself.

“Well,” he said, puffing himself up, “I look at my reflection in the water so that I can see how I look. I have to look my best you know, as do all birds. But,” he nodded his head in the direction of the other birds, “they don’t seem to understand that”.

“Riiight” said the fish slowly, still not really understanding what on earth the bird was talking about. She thought about this for a minute, then she asked carefully “So why do you need to look your best?”

The crow looked up to heaven, exasperated beyond measure. But at the same time, a little doubt was starting to creep into this mind. He had done this since he could leave the nest, in fact, he reflected, since even before he left the nest. He remembered sharing the nest with his brother and two sisters and as he grew older and bigger he would peer out over the edge of the nest and see himself reflected in the water below. He thought then that he must be the most beautiful of birds as he never could see the reflection of his brothers and sisters in the water. Only his. He felt that this must surely be because he was the most beautiful and so the river only wanted to see him. He must be the special one. And so it was important that he look his best at all times, otherwise the river might lose interest in him and then he would be…just ordinary…like the other birds. “No”, he thought, feeling now a little worried, and stating aloud, forgetting that the fish was beneath him in the water “I am the most beautiful. I am special”. He looked down at the water and saw the fish, who was looking up at him with a quizzical expression on her face.

“You’re special?” she repeated, curious now as to what this crow saw in himself. All she saw was a crow, and not a very handsome one at that, if handsome was a word one could use with crows! “And beautiful?”

“Yes, yes I am” stated the crow, straightening his neck to create the best profile.

The fish laughed, she had to go beneath the water to get her breath back as she was laughing so hard now that she thought she might drown with laughter. Once she had composed herself she rose again to the surface.

“What do you mean by laughing”? screamed the crow, flapping his wings and bobbing his head up and down angrily. “What is so funny about that?”

“I just don’t see what makes you the most beautiful…or the most special of all the birds,” the fish answered chuckling. “I mean…you’re a crow. What’s so special about that?”

The crow was furious. “I’m not just a crow”, he sputtered, “I am the most beautiful Crow. And that is why” he added breathlessly, “the river loves me so much. She sees me everyday and shows me how beautiful I am. Just look” he said pointing his beak at the water. “See, there I am, right there. How wonderful I look”.

And the crow leaned out over the water trying to prove to the fish just how much he was loved for his beauty.

The fish was by now in hysterics. After all she lived in the river, she knew that the river was just water and didn’t love anyone. Water was water!

She began to swim and swim in circles and the water became very agitated.

“Stop, stop,” screamed the bird wildly. “You’re ruining everything!!! Now I can’t see anything. Not even my colour! STOP”.

The fish suddenly stopped and let the water settle into quietness once again. It became the calm mirror-like surface it had been before. The crow heaved a sigh of relief and gazed anxiously into the water to see himself.

Then the fish asked the crow quietly “If the river loves you so much how come I can make ripples in it and waves so that you cannot see yourself in it any longer?”

The crow stopped gazing at himself and stared at the fish. Fear gripped his belly like a vice. He had never considered that before, believing that the river was all there was and that her reflection of him must be the truth.

“What do you mean?” he asked shakily. He gripped the branch tightly with his talons lest he fall off the branch.

“If the river loves you so much, which you believe it does, and that that is why she shows you such a wonderful reflection of yourself, how come I can come and change it all in an instant? How come I can make her change what you see?”

The crow became lightheaded. This thoroughly confused him. He had never thought of this before. He believed what he saw in his reflection and never for one minute thought that there might be another reason for it.

He felt that he was going to faint. What if the fish was right and he wasn’t the most special of all the birds..or the most beautiful? Then what? Would that mean that he was just like the others? Drab and boring, not shiny and black as he was? No, no that can’t be true.

“I don’t believe it” he said finally, sticking his head in the air and refusing to acknowledged the fish. “Its just not the truth. I am special. I just know it.”

“Oh you might be special” the fish said, “But no more special than any other crow.”. Then she added, just to torment him further as she liked the effect her words were having on this conceited young bird. “I , on the other hand, am special. Look how I can change the water and make you look ugly and distorted.” And she laughed at the bird who had now turned a whiter shade of grey!

She spotted a fly and darted for it, catching it deftly in her mouth and swallowed it whole. She turned then and looked at him. “You see crow, I live in the river and I know all of her moods and I know that in order to survive we must respect her and be grateful for what she gives us. But you, you will never understand that because you are a bird of the air and you do not know how to live in her…as the other crows do. They know where they belong but you don’t.”

She looked long and hard at him and then said “I wish you well, young bird, and I hope you find your true source of happiness one day.” And with that she dived beneath the water and was gone, her tail creating a splash behind her.

The rook sat on the branch, his wings drooped low and his head fallen on his chest. He couldn’t bear to look in the water, to see the reflection which no longer meant anything. After a short while he raised his head and watched the other birds in their nests. He watched too the other crows flying to and from their tree searching for food and he realised that he was hungry. He realised that he had spent so much time looking at himself that he really hadn’t been taking care of himself at all. He hadn’t been feeding himself but starving himself, and for what? Adoration? Love? He didn’t know. But he did know this. He knew that he would never trust what he saw in the river again, knowing that the reflection could change at any time and it didn’t tell him who he truly was. He was a crow, and he was supposed to be flying free above the trees and the earth. Something, he realised with gleeful surprise, that the fish couldn’t do. And with a loud and exultant ‘caw’ he flew into the air and soared as high as his wings could take him.

He flew so high that his parents, who had been watching him, wondering what on earth had been going on, were suddenly struck with fear that he might fly too high. But then they stopped and looked at each other. They each had the same thought, “Our son is flying…FLYING”. They cawed wildly and excitedly and threw their wings around each other. “Our son is flying” they cried together. “He’s become the crow he is supposed to be.” And they hugged each other and watched as their son soared through the clear blue skies where he was soon joined by the other crows. Their heart swelled with joy and they settled down in their nests glad that their son had finally found his wings.