CROW + NEW MEXICO

Crow 

New Mexico

I remember standing in front of a very large original Frank Howell Painting at a gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the late 1980’s on a visit.   It was mesmerizing and peaceful at the same time, filled with subtle nods to perhaps the elders of the Lakota tribe.  It was the symbol of crows bundled in the painting that stayed with me.  A metaphor for hidden creative work or intuitive knowledge that sits dormant until the right time comes to unwrap it and let it fly. 

In the 1990’s I moved to Santa Fe and had several readings during that time frame, one with the late Astrologer Alan Oken who was clever and told me that there would be a point when I would not travel as much but would move around a lot in a small area …which is me these days walking down every street in San Francisco.

Another reading with a spirit guide teacher that I met when working at Rancho Encantado, in Tesuque. During that reading I was told my Totem Animal was the Crow which resonated with me. I accepted it and I’ve been mindful of it ever since.

[New Mexico]

I’ll veer off course a moment since I’m talking about Santa Fe and Tesuque. 

Rancho Encantado in the 1990’s was rough around the edges and the old Hollywood stars loved that.  New Mexico is a sensual, tough and religious experience at the same time, adobe homes, pinion pine smell that hangs in the air and the closeness to God or the “Great Above’ sitting at 7,000 ft in altitude. What I love and miss about living in New Mexico is the snow and how it would not only stop all the locals in their tracks but the entire town would stay home on a big snow day. A stillness and  silence with 9 inches of snow perfectly balanced on top of an adobe wall is pure beauty.

The guest list at the old Rancho and Pueblo Encantado was very old Hollywood and I found myself in situations where Robert Redford would call the front office and say ‘Good Morning Nicholas’ then make his request. 

Laurel Birch the Jewelry Designer would stay and I still have a rock that she hand painted for me with a Butterfly on it.  

Days when Ali McGraw would come to visit the Gell-Mann’s, Murray Gell-Mann the American Theoretical Physicist was one of the nicest men, I did not know who he was at the time and looking back I was surrounded by Brilliant and Famous people who must have influenced me - even short moments in their presence was powerful.  

I did spend a bit of time at the Santa Fe Institute with my friend Stan who knew so much about Wilson Hurley and loved his work.  We walked the grounds of Hurley’s family home now the Institute on a late fall morning with yellow aspen trees blazing against the turquoise sky. The vista looked out over Santa Fe across to the Jemez Mountains which always look dark blue to me, not just one shade but an at times dark purple blue that changes with the light.

I can see the connection my friend had with Wilson Hurley and his love of luminous light in painting.  Wilson Hurley is not well known with less than 1k paintings - most in Private Collections that is how sought after and well known he is in the artistic and painting communities of the southwest. 

I also knew the famous ceramicist/pottery maker Richard Masterson who commented on my homemade Pasole one Christmas at a small party we held. He loved that batch and could taste what my grandmother and my mother taught me about cooking - both native New Mexican women. 

I have a large pottery work he gave me. It was packed away when I moved to San Francisco and I took it out and put an orchid plant in it and went online to see about him and found he had just passed away a few weeks prior. Powerful stuff.  I liked him - a good soul with lots of grit. 

At a large gathering in a huge modern adobe in the foothills I had a great conversation with Godfrey Reggio. I also did not know who he was until my friend came up after we finished talking and told me he was the director of the film Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out of Balance).

I look at where we are in society now- both the title and film make total sense.

I often meet famous people and then talk about common things. I briefly met Ron Howard and we talked about the enchiladas in front of us at a buffet during an after party in Santa Fe.

Simple moments.

Not all these people remember me but I was in their presence and felt the vibe that surrounded them - a lot of grit and beauty. 

It's the best mix.  

[Crow]

Which leads me back to the Crow, another Famous Brilliant character that is also full of grit and beauty - and I have a hunch smarter than we think. In mythology they walk between two worlds: the threshold between physical form and subtle spirit, light and shadow, the material world and the unseen.

Being in two places at once is the ability to maintain absolute presence in the everyday world while keeping one foot planted firmly in intuitive awareness.

The Gatherings.

Society mistook their black feathers and association with carrion as sinister, coining the collective noun a "murder." But in truth, that gathering represents collective intelligence and high organization. A group of crows operates as a unified mind—communicating across miles, sharing situational awareness, and posting sentinels to watch over the group.

Here in San Francisco there are large groups of crows that assemble and disassemble all over town.  I lived in a high rise for years with an eastern view of the downtown and the waterfront, on full moon nights the crows would gather and assemble on any random building en masse.  Before writing this one morning just after the noisy Telegraph Hill parrots had left our area the crows took over and a murder of crows was circling above me and my block. They are not quiet.  

A Sign. 

This is what I like about crows and do feel akin to the strategist nature of the bird. I work with what God gives me and heed the Rudyard Kipling line ‘If you can build again with worn out tools”. I did not say I liked it but I am grateful for the work at my door.

A Crow could build with worn out tools any day of the week and not complain like me. 

Note: 

Science now confirms what ancient traditions knew: crows possess cognitive abilities on par with great apes. They manufacture tools out of twigs, pass down face-recognition data through generations (a crow’s child remembers a face it has never seen), and solve multi-step mechanical puzzles. They are nature’s ultimate strategists.

At my mothers funeral in the countryside, the church looked out to a rocky Japanese garden with a pasture and vineyards.  I had a complex relationship with my mother and when the pastor's words became flowery, sweet, full of kindness, forgiveness and joy like a disney movie a crow flew to a rock in the garden.  

Some kind of balance.  

I learned to portray a false image to please my mother. Now I’m gritty like Clint Eastwood in Grand Torino. My mother was a beauty who wanted refinement. My grandmother was a beauty who built her own adobe house with my grandfather and was full of grit.  Hopefully I am both - the best of all the parts. I put on a good image but I’m so truthful in my writing - that’s the grit and that’s where you can find motivation because of the authenticity of what I’m writing about. 

As I conclude we both know that in my instagram feed a crow will appear.  In yours too or in your real world and if so it’s a sign.  It’s time to strategiZe, remember the faces, especially the good ones.

Nicholas Vitale San Francisco California