Experience of March 20, 2005
She sits in the dogwood tree outside my window waiting for me to waken and come downstairs. She positions herself so that she can see me clearly but somehow I feel that she does this so than I cannot fail to see her. We are beginning to know each other and to bond in a way that is beyond the scope of words.
Yesterday she waited silently for me to come out on the deck with the chicken leg. I came out and looked for her but did not see her in any of the surrounding trees. Then I spotted her, not twenty feet away. She had flown noiselessly to the higher branches of the same dogwood tree and was looking down at me so intently and eyeing the chicken leg. She was motionless and blended so well with her surroundings (even though the trees are still bare) that I missed her when I first looked around.
Now I called to her and she moved slightly at my call. I placed the leg on the railing of the deck and took two steps back. Immediately she flew down and lifted the meat in her talons as easily as we would pick up a pencil. What a magnificent sight! So swift and effortless are her movements that there is no wasted energy. Innately she is far more conscious of her body than I am of mine, always poised and attentive, prepared to act in an instant with the spontaneous movements evolved through generations of the genius of the species.
Her beauty and her power bring back Nolini’s words to me and Mary Helen and those of Madhav Pandit and Amal Kiran about the gold hawk in Savitri.
“ Nolini: “The hawk is a symbol of the vital; the ‘gold hawk ’ is the vital soul transformed.”
Madhav: “Gold represents Truth, Divinity. The Hawk is the high soaring bird, the soul embodied in higher nature.”
Amal: “‘The gold Hawk’ is the spiritual-mental being.”
The Hawk – Part 3
She was back again today. I thought she might come every
other day but perhaps she is feeding a family. I don’t know much about
raptors though I know that today was very special. When I go downstairs
to work in the morning I pass the big windows at the steps and as I was
walking downstairs I saw the her looking at me through the window. She
flew closer and I walked back upstairs to the refrigerator and took out
a chicken leg. I was to the door of the deck and held the leg above my
head and called to her. Immediately she swooped down in an arc and I
think she was almost ready to take the leg from my hand but at the last
moment flew up into the tulip poplar. I called to her and said, ‘It’s
alright, now come.’ I placed the leg on the railing but only stepped
back about 3 feet from the rail when at great speed she flew down,
picked up the leg and made a sharp turn into the woods.The Hawk – Part 4
Today my new friend came to the house and perched on the railing of the deck. She looked at me through the window so I walked into the room and called to her saying I would give her a chicken leg soon. Since she had not come for two days I had to freeze all the meat. I began defrosting the chicken leg and then thought I would see if I could photograph her. I slowly took the camera off the tripod. It was in the ‘keeping room’ (where she was looking at me) and I began taking a few shots. Then I moved closer to her, about 8-10 feet away and asked her if I might take her photo (fairly close-up) and, believe it or not, she knew what I was doing and would turn her head different ways and pose for me. I took about eight photos through the glass windows but did not open the door because I thought it would frighten her.
When the chicken leg was defrosted I put on a leather glove. I was not conscious enough last time and did not realize she would swoop down so quickly and her razor-sharp talons slightly cut my thumb (very slightly) and just nicked the index finger. The moment I opened the door she lifted off so effortlessly and so beautifully, making two circles not three feet above my head (a way of blessing, perhaps?) and then as I was extending my hand with the meat she swooped down and took it cleanly out of my hand. For me these are moments of communion, inexplicable and mystical.
The Red-Tailed Hawk