Signs and symbols: The Crow That Healed My Postpartum Depression

Chapter 10: Sea of Miracles

Hello again, Love.

As we continue to reread Sea of Miracles together, I’ve been thinking about the many ways the angels were already touching my life - long before I began writing miracle stories for the magazine. In this chapter, I share one such story — about a non-human friend who arrived on my front porch just when I needed him.

But first, we explore how imagination acts as a living force within us—a bridge between the symbolic language of guidance and the meaning we are able to make from it.

Photo by Joshua Reddekopp on Unsplash

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From Chapter 10
The Crow That Healed My Depression

After my second child was born, I struggled with postpartum depression. One day, a crow with a broken wing landed on my porch. Moved by its plight, I began to feed it.

It surprised me that the crow, a wild bird, didn’t seem frightened by me. In fact, it moved closer each time I came outside. I never told anyone about my winged visitor, and one day, my husband, alarmed to find it on the porch, chased it away with a broom.

When I found out, I cried. But of course, my husband hadn’t meant any harm. When I explained that the crow, unable to fly, was my friend, he smiled.

"But it can fly," he said. I went outside and sure enough, there was my friend, sitting on a branch about twenty feet from the porch.

The crow never came back to the porch — and I stopped feeding it. Still, it stayed nearby, visiting that branch all spring. When I came outside, it would fly closer.

It was only later that I realized: helping the crow to heal it’s broken wing had also helped me recover the connection to myself that I’d lost in postpartum depression.

Ever since, crows have been a symbol for me — a totem, representing the generous love with which nature holds us in the embrace of the divine.

Photo by Jan Zinnbauer on Unsplash

The angels support us in infinite ways. Drawing on a deep and limitless pool of ancient wisdom.

Sometimes, students ask me:

What if I receive symbols I don’t completely understand?

I tell them: Ask for more guidance — and search for meaning. There is a whole world of meaning at our fingertips. If you encounter a symbol in a dream or waking experience, simply type the words “symbolic meaning of [your symbol]” into a search engine.

The internet has become a virtual pool of symbolic ancient wisdom — a mirror of the "collective unconscious" described by Carl Jung, out of which all cultures may have drawn their symbols and stories.

That said, I’m editing in a few notes as I re-read this chapter:

1. Don’t believe the first interpretation you find.
   Symbols mean different things to different people: You are the best interpreter of the symbols and signs you receive. Always begin by asking: What does this mean to me? In the story above, I didn’t know that, in many traditions, Crow is a powerful symbolic totem. All I knew was my friend needed tending.

2. What does it mean to you?
   What does it remind me of? Does it look like or sound like someone I know - or someone from a film or television program? Does it spark a memory? Notice also, how am I relating to this symbol, this messenger. As if my crow story, I noticed that I was responding with tenderness. At first, I didn’t make the connection about my own ‘broken wing’ needing tending. But as my heart softened toward the crow, it softened also toward myself.

3. Gather several interpretations and lay them out before you.
   Does one feel especially true? Keep that one. If one feels just plain wrong, discard it. Then, do a reading. As if you were laying out a tarot spread, let the symbols build a ‘reading.’ Let the pieces come together like a puzzle. Put the different interpretations into relationship with each other.

Back to the book . . .

Important: You will not receive guidance that frightens you.

The first time I read a letter from a woman who’d awakened from a sound sleep to find an enormous angel beside her bed, I shuddered. Good heavens! I thought. I hope that doesn’t happen to me!

Now I understand that it never will. I don’t need that kind of high-drama guidance. The angels have communicated just as powerfully with me through the appearance of a single feather.

Each of us has a personal style, an energetic signature — a way of meeting the world. The angels know this and tailor their messages to meet us in the most comfortable way they can.

So if you’re a practical joker, don’t be surprised if your angels are too!
If you prefer no-nonsense communication, your angels will send messages that are clear and unmistakable.

If, like me, you have a strong connection to words and language, they may use license plates, overheard conversations, street signs, and other “word” signs.
If you love television or radio, they will use broadcast media to reach you.

The angels don’t do this to be coy or cute or to trick you.

They customize their communication because they want you to receive their messages — and the easiest, most effective way to ensure that you do is to work with what is already familiar to you.

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Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Our imagination is not a childish thing to outgrow — it is the organ through which we understand the divine conversation that is always unfolding around us. When we trust what we see and feel symbolically, when we welcome the images that come, we open the door to a richer, more meaningful life.

In the next post, I’ll share a Grace Note, one of the first moments when I caught a glimpse of this unseen world — and it changed everything for me.

Until then, have a magical week, loves.
And if you receive a sign, I’d love to hear about it!

xxoo
Amy