My creative exploration in 2020 on the image and energy of two magpies was inspired by this gem…
Five years go by fast! I also had this lovely gem saved. I do love the way the artist has captured the flight of the magpie and the stance of the second bird.
Do other cultures have magpie mythology and rythms? Superstitions were a real thing when I was growing up. I tried not to pass that on to our kids… I wonder why now.
Religion and superstition seemed inextricably linked in Ireland of the 60s, 70s and 80s. By the time I’d left college, started working and moved to Dublin we’d mostly shrugged the two off. Like bad magpie energy of old.
But those ingrained songs
One for sorrow
Two for joy…
Until recently they sang on an automatic loop in my head every time I saw a magpie.
Magpies and Corvids, crowd and ravens make me curious.
They were given a bad rap in the house I grew up in, always being run from the garden. A protection mechanism of the vegetable growers and small garden bird love.
In the last year or so I’ve watched local magpies in pairs, come and go. Bringing their young here in the land that we steward, the place we call home.
The young bird comes by itself now.
I don’t warn it off. It’s welcome. There is plenty in our garden for it and all the other birds. Even the pigeons.
I’ve recorded the magpies around our place with plenty of other birds on the merlin app.
It’s useful to be able to identify birds, in part that’s why I stared recording birds in the garden to identify them and get to know them.
We have plenty of them around here. In Cornwall last year we saw Choughs for the first time and have seen magnificent Jays in the last few years in different Irish places.
In a recent Tiktok video I shared two young magpie feathers I found in the garden https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd5uDTWv/ really magnificent colours. The black with the iridescent colours of blue, green and pinky purples are so striking.
As a kid I was fascinated by stories of mischievous magpies and their love of shiny things. Labelled thieves. They really did not get good press. Perhaps it’s their striking plumage or distinctive movements in flight that now still hold my attention.
The young single magpie that frequents our space now, without a mate makes me further intrigued in both how I relate to it as a part of our shared living landscape, the biodiversity and ecosystem it represents and of a world from its perspective I know so little about.
Our stories, art, song connect me through my own identity to wild nature and the story of two birds the sight of which brings a foretelling of joy. What’s not to love and share about that?
During the heyday of twitter I got to know a quilter in the US, Rose Hughes of Raven Art Quilts, she worked with the energy and images of these birds. She connected me more deeply to her culture of quilt making, stitch and story. Sadly we lost touch, just looked her up, the RavensartQuilt blogs stop around 2013. In 2014 my whole world was definitely one magpie energy & for a few years after that. Rose, I wonder what you are up to these days and how your life is?
The internet has shared stories of crows minding and gifting families treasures, just go to youtube and type in crow.
Some talks about Corvids that are good
In the last few years I notice a different kind of story and knowledge emerging. A scientific understanding bringing new appreciation to old stories and mythology. A deeper relating to these intelligent beings, perhaps it’s not new but very old wisdom we are relearning.
Also some beautiful art that I love
In Irish myth and legend The Mórrígan is linked to the image of a crow on Cú Chulainn’s shoulder as he dies on the field of battle. But I wonder whose mythology this is? is it mine? the hero’s journey dismisses me. But as these spoken word traditions were documented and recorded what was lost? Who held the pen? What was those men’s bias, traditions, funders criteria, and they were men.
The wonderful Seán Royanne, of Irish Wild Life Sounds and Bird Boy fame shared this on his instagram recently
It is indeed dark times of war and death, genocide playing out across our screens, lives and the horror of it still continuing that ties in with the marauding death of the Mórrígan. Gaza and the Palestine people being eradicated it is utterly heart breaking. Nothing seems to work ~ marching, protesting, singing, writing to TDs, signing things, posting things. It’s so awful, criminal, I can’t bear it.
As I sit privileged in a country not at war, with its own crisis, but with huge social and climate justice action towards Palestine 🇵🇸 and all genocides across the world. All I want is peace and justice. Not just for the children robbed of growing old but for generations murdered in tents, trying to get food, sleeping, going about their lives. I want accountability and better global instruments to stop the current carnage. The economic systems that hold up the fact that this is possible must fail and we have to create a different kinder world where all lives are cherished and we care deeply for each other and the world.
I’ve been to the futures, I know it’s possible.
This post is about channeling the energy of two magpies. I’d like to have a two for joy energy present in my work and my life. Not just on my wall. I’m hoping that joy can be the bedrock of sustained activism and change.
An enamel badge or perhaps a two for joy club or coop where we’d practice radical joy, mutual care and extreme encouragement as we do the work and need to resource ourselves. Would that be your jam?
Wishing you all the positive energy of 2 for joy and peace in a free Palestine.
Roisin Markham 
Leave a reply to Studio Notes Week 28 – Roisin Markham Cancel reply