Ravens are cast in various shades of black throughout the historical record of human magic and folklore. These cunning old birds find themselves interpreted through the mysteries of mouths, of feeding, speaking, and crying; of carrying and hunting, calling and conveying; of sepulchral waters and burying the dead, and of giving up the ghost.

These prophetic black birds fly between the wild and the civilized, carrying messages and materia magica between the lands of the living and of the dead. Ravens are the sacred winged eyes of Óðinn as well as the Morrigan and other corvid patron deities. Ravens appear in astrological images and alchemical encodings alike to impart mysteries and magics of the interactions of the Sun and Saturn. Many an unclean spirit catalogued in the grimoires of black magic bear raven forms in their goetic heraldry.

In this class-bundle contemporary cunning-man and historian of magic Dr Alexander Cummins will lead us on an exploration and celebration of the natural magics, occult zoology, and nigromantic folklore of these exceptionally intelligent avians. Along the way, we will consider how such raven magics may help us better understand our sorcerous and spiritual roles and responsibilities in our ever-shifting ecologies of animal, human, and spirit exchange, interaction, and mutual aid.