The Crow Moon is the last full moon before the arrival of Spring, when the snow and ground begin to thaw. … The full moon in March was known as a Crow Moon or Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of the crows signaled the end of winter.

One of the wild familiars of choice for magical work is the Corvus family—crows, ravens, and jackdaws. These keen, crafty, and sharp-eyed birds are renowned as intelligent messengers.

Odin, for example, received the news of the world every day from his two crows or ravens (accounts give both types).

There’s a legend about a saint, Meinrad of Swabia, whose murder by thieves in 861 was witnessed by two crows (or ravens) whom he fed daily, and who pursued the murderers cawing away until the scoundrels were caught.

Sybil Leek had a jackdaw who attended all her coven meetings with her.

Associated with life mysteries and magic. Sign of luck, crow supports you in developing the power of sight, transformation, and connection with life’s magic.

Anyone who has had a close relationship with an animal knows their intelligence and their ability to understand people and respond accordingly. Therein lies the basis of the familiar: an animal who forms an intelligent psychic and magical bond with a person, creating a rewarding personal relationship and a working partnership.

Familiars have a special psychic attunement and rapport that makes them valuable participants in raising power, setting and clearing space, spellcasting, scrying, healing, and other rituals and magical activities.

Together with the witch they form a power, allowing them to perform magic in the material realm and the otherworld. The witch and the familiar are committed allies, and as the familiar is part of a group animal consciousness, the spirit energy of the entire species is contained within one form. The familiar helps the witch connect to a higher power, or consciousness.

Crows and ravens have been both loved and reviled as they have flown next to humans for thousands of years. It is small wonder the Goddess Morrigan and other Deities such as Odin, Apollo, Bran, Baba Yaga, as well as the Raven of Native American and Siberian mythologies favored these notorious carrion birds for their intelligence and cunning.

They represent death, the underworld, and the darker aspect of life most mortals fear.

Their magickal qualities included prophecy, knowledge, eloquence, and trickery. In Ireland, the popular phrase “raven’s knowledge” refers to an oracular gift to see and know all things, and to possess strong intuition.

Crow feathers are a powerful anchor for a divination altar, as these are the messenger wings into the In Between and Other Worlds. When getting ready for divination of any sort, open the working with a deep meditation on the wings, asking them to fly you into the spaces where the Unseen can become Seen by you.