So, why choose a raven?
I see the raven’s made her nest in your eyes
Dan Fogelberg, “As the Raven Flies”[2]
She’s got you thinking that her love is a prize
And you’ll go under from the weight of her lies
As the raven flies
In popular culture, ravens symbolize many things. They are very commonly associated with death and loss, because they are scavengers. They also represent ill omen, secrecy, deception, and even prophecy, depending on the cultural setting. A group of ravens is even referred to as an “unkindness” or “secrecy” (although a “murder” of crows still sounds cooler).
In Dan Fogelberg’s song “As the Raven Flies” (excerpted above), the “raven” symbolizes his girlfriend at the time – it was an unrequited love, as Fogelberg states: “She didn’t even give me the time of day. It was an absolutely fabricated childhood crush[3]“. The raven is a representation of her, deceiving the subject of the song (himself) into believing that her love was valuable enough for him to endure her suspicious actions. You’ll probably be seeing/hearing a lot of Dan Fogelberg in my musical analysis or symbolism, just because I find he was a great artist, and that he crafted better, more meaningful lyrics than most artists I’ve listened to.
Anyway, I chose a raven for this blog because they seemed cool. There’s not much more to it than that. Maybe they seemed cool because all of the enigma and symbolism, as well as the cultural representations. A lot of games that I play use ravens as symbols – symbols for surreptitiousness, bad luck, or anything morbid.
However, if you turn to the Bible, ravens symbolize something quite different. In Luke 12:24 in the King James Version, The Lord states, “Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?” In the Bible, ravens are not symbols for death, ill omen, or deception – they are actually symbols of God’s provision for us. This is shown to us in several points in the Bible – in one example, Elijah the prophet, in his fugitivity, was granted provision by God, by means of – you guessed it – ravens.
And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
1 Kings 17:2-6, King James Version
So, as a symbol of God’s provision, we can recognize that so long as we turn to God, we will have no need to worry about His capability of providing for us. Maybe ravens are cooler than you once thought?
[1] Mosco, Rosemary. (2017) Bird and Moon – Science and Nature Cartoons. Retrieved from https://www.birdandmoon.com/comic/raven-vs-crow/
[2] Fogelberg, Dan. “As the Raven Flies.” Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/track/7CazsP2vPnnM4CzbZU6s9B
[3] “Dan Fogelberg Song Meanings Page.” Unmask Us, Incubatus, LLP, https://unmask.us/songwriters-f-j/dan-fogelberg. Accessed 4/7/2022.