“Just Ask Crow”
There are many stories on the internet about the “borrower” phenomenon, or disappearing object phenomenon (DOPler effect). In these cases, a commonly used object goes missing and the owner searches in vain for it everywhere. Then later – sometimes hours, sometimes days or even weeks later – the object inexplicably reappears, either in an obvious spot that had been searched before, or in some impossible location.
In the following story, we are given a Native American twist on the phenomenon with a tradition that asks the crows to return the missing object. In myth and lore, the crow is a symbol of mystery, magic, prophecy, creation, cunning and trickery. They earned these attributes, at least in part, because of their mischievous nature: crows like to steal shiny objects and that might explain why asking the crows to return a missing object makes sense – they might have taken it!
“It was the summer of 2009, where the west coast of Vancouver Island felt tropical in heat waves. I went to a Cree Sweat Lodge led by my trusted mentor, whom I had known for years. I was now the fire tender for his lodges. I was surprised to see a different couple come to the lodge this time; surprised by the fact they were both skinny, pale, covered in tattoos, and they were obviously skeptical about native culture.
Now I must note that I knew my mentor was a very powerful man; however, I always had doubts because his arrogance, as sometimes he became cocky and would attempt tricks of magic to prove he was powerful. This is exactly what I was thinking as soon as he said, “Aho aho, the great spirits have just told me that someone here lost their car keys.” As soon as I heard that I was thinking, “What the —-?” The new couple were scared and yelling, “Oh my god! That is so weird because this morning we just lost our house keys! This is freaky! What is going on?”
I was just as confused as they were. I had no idea what was going on, and I was the fire tender! What I did know was that my mentor would have a splendid time getting a jolt out of some random skeptics. I decided to play along with it, not believing anything he said.
“Aho,” he continued, “if you just ask Crow to help you find your keys, he will do what you ask. Just remember…” his voice deepened with mystery for his climax, “to thank Crow generously after.” It was so odd. I knew my mentor had a fun personality and liked to mess around now and then, but I knew he would never stoop to the level of stealing someone’s keys. Besides, he had been busy with preparing ceremony for the day before and all day that day, and my eyes had been on him the whole time – but I was still considering that. Even if it was true that crows would help locate lost objects, I still found it odd that anything spiritual should be based on material objects in the first place.
Later that same day, I decided to attend an evening movie. I accidentally stumbled upon the same odd couple from the sweat lodge earlier. I was just as shocked as they were when we noticed we were standing in the same line waiting for popcorn. They stampeded into me with wide eyes, talking loudly. They told me they were afraid and shocked because once they had returned home, their house keys were just laying perfectly sprawled out on their table. “Needless to say, we did thank Crow a lot after that!” they told me. The frightened couple giggled.
I still wasn’t convinced. Maybe my mentor did steal their keys and somehow miraculously made it to their house before they arrived? I tried to make sense of it, no matter how little sense my reasoning was.
~.~
A few weeks later, I was at a birthday party in Cumberland. I was wearing three bracelets, my silver native one, a beaded one and my favorite leather mask one. I drank too much wine and ended up having to induce vomiting to remove effects of alcohol poisoning. Thus, when I was in the bathroom, I took off all three bracelets and put them in the corner. I was too tipsy that I did not remember I had left them there. I passed out for a short while on a couch.
Later, my friend’s ex-girlfriend approached me and handed me two of my bracelets. Not three. I distinctly remember noticing there were two bracelets, but I must have been too out of it to realize she had stolen my beloved leather mask bracelet. I left for home that night. I did not remember until the next morning. I did not want to immediately blame her as a thief, but the situation did not look good for her because in the past she had stolen the exact same bracelet, but my best friend had taken it away from her and given it back to me.
I contacted a few friends on Facebook to hound them for my bracelet, demanding to know if I had accidentally left it at her house. When I found out the girl who I believed had stolen my bracelet had ditched to Hornby Island, I knew I would never see it again.
This is when I decided to put the whole crow theory to the test. I did thorough searches for my bracelet everywhere to make sure I had not made a mistake in my drunken state and thought I was wearing three when it had been really only been two. I even had my whole family mad, tearing up the house and the car to make sure it was nowhere to be found.
Throughout this, I just became more disappointed that I would never see my bracelet again, and I wanted to hunt that thief down and seek revenge. So here I was talking to crows outside. Yes, I asked Crow every single day. Every time I saw a murder of crows, I asked if they would please help me find my bracelet. I knew this was the biggest test; perhaps they could find missing and misplaced shiny objects. But could they return an object that was stolen, and somewhere all the way on Hornby Island?
Two weeks went by. The first day I did not talk to the crows and lecture them about my leather bracelet. In fact I was mad at the crows because the theory turned out to be bogus, and now I just missed my bracelet even more.
I was floating down the Oyster River on a tube with my friend. My mother came to pick us up at the end of the river. The look on her face was a mix of astonishment, fear, awe and excitement when she said, “I have something that will make your day. You know that something you have been looking for desperately?” She knew how I had been talking to crows about finding my bracelet (she had thought I was crazy).
“OH MY GOD! MY BRACELET?” I yelled with wide eyes. My mom shrugged in disbelief and pointed to the car. “It was just there… just sitting there when I came to pick you guys up. It wasn’t there earlier today when we were in town! It was just sitting on the car seat. I have no idea how it got there. I searched the whole car myself….”
My mom would not have lied to me about that. She was never one to encourage odd beliefs. She was utterly blown away about this event. The creepiest thing about this was the state my bracelet was in. The leather was wet, cold and smelled of forest. It looked badly weathered, faded and bits of leather were crumpled off. It looked kind of squished, as if it had been on a really long journey.
I thanked Crow for months afterward. I always felt to try again would be disrespectful unless it were something I really needed. Because of that, I somehow learned that most objects are unneeded. Anyway, this is a story of a true event that happened to me. I’m not sure if it is really paranormal, but I know crows are powerful beings!” ~S.D. Geiger, Cree Tribe, B.C.
