Seeing a crane
Seeing a crane, a tall gray wader that travels with its neck stretched straight out, often comes with its rolling call. In an old Greek legend, cranes passing above a crowded theater made a guilty man give himself away.
What it may mean
In an old Greek legend, the poet Ibycus was attacked by robbers on his way to the games at Corinth. As he lay wounded, he saw cranes flying overhead and begged them to avenge him. Later, in a crowded theater, cranes passed over again, and one of the killers blurted out a remark about the witnesses of Ibycus. He was overheard, and the crime came out. The birds did nothing at all; a guilty mind did the rest. Cranes are hard to ignore: the rolling call carries far, and a flock overhead makes a whole street look up. A sight like that can lift something buried to the surface before you have decided to speak of it. In Hindu practice, as Daniels and Stevans record, the crane played a kinder part: its name was spoken at bedtime for protection.
Depending on how you saw it
Thousands on a river in March
Each spring, hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes stop along the Platte River in Nebraska to rest and feed in the fields before flying north. The stopover is part of the trip, not a delay. Where do you stop to refuel on the way to something bigger?
A crane with rusty feathers
Sandhill cranes are gray, but in spring many look rust-brown, because they preen mud rich in iron into their feathers. The color comes from where they live. What have you picked up from your surroundings that now colors how others see you?
Cranes high in a still sky
Cranes circling silently high in the air foretold fine weather, as a weather list of 1903 has it. A circling flock still makes people stop what they are doing and look up. Which slow thing in the sky has recently made you stop and look?
Why it happens in nature
Cranes fly with their necks stretched straight out, while herons fold theirs back into an S. A sandhill crane's windpipe is long and coiled, which helps its rolling call carry for miles. In early spring huge numbers of sandhill cranes gather on the Platte River in Nebraska, feeding on leftover grain before heading north to nest.
What folk beliefs say
Hindu tradition (India)
When a Hindu lay down to sleep, a 1903 collection says, he repeated three times the name Gai-rooru, the name of a crane, to be protected from snakes.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 605. View the page
Ancient Greece
The Greek poet Ibycus, murdered by robbers, begged the cranes flying overhead to avenge him; later, when cranes passed over a theater in Corinth, one murderer cried out about the witnesses of Ibycus and was overheard and caught.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 3 (1903), vol. 3, p. 1242 (file v 3). View the page
To reflect on
Which old matter still rises to the surface for you whenever a certain sight or sound comes along?