Bending Life
from
B-flat to C.
Those crazy crows!
Explore the weird, wonderful and sacred world of crows and ravens in Rick’s new book: Crows and Ravens: Mystery, Myth, and Magic of Sacred Corvids.
As evidenced in myths, legends and even historical accounts, the uncanny abilities and behaviors of crows and ravens, part of the family of birds known as corvids, have led cultures around the world to regard the birds as sacred and supernatural creatures. Some cultures see them as emissaries from the Gods, Goddesses, and the Other Realms.
Tales from the ancient Norse, Celts, Native Americans and other cultures have revealed how those peoples forged mystical connections to corvids, while contemporary accounts from individuals tell of synchronicities, eerie encounters and even magical manifestations involving the birds.
Rick’s book explores all this and more, including ways, both practical and mystical, that we humans can create personal communion with these amazing creatures.
Crows and Ravens: Mystery, Myth, and Magic of Sacred Corvids is available at Amazon, llewellyn.com, and major booksellers everywhere. See Rick’s Llewellyn author page here.
Rick de Yampert is a freelance writer, musician, artist and lecturer. He has been following a Pagan spiritual path since the early 1990s.
Rick writes on arts and culture for various websites in Central Florida. His book “Crows and Ravens: Mystery, Myth, and Magic of Sacred Corvids” was published by Llewellyn on March 8, 2024.
Previously Rick was the arts and entertainment writer at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a daily newspaper, for 23 years, and he also served a three-year stint as the rock and hip-hop music writer at the Tennessean in Nashville. He has interviewed such creators as Kurt Vonnegut, Yoko Ono, Ray Manzarek of the Doors, Janet Jackson, Shirley MacLaine and many others.
As a professional musician, Rick plays sitar, Native American flutes, djembe (African hand drum), guitar and Moyo drum (a type of steel tongue drum). He has performed at art festivals, cafes, yoga sessions and sacred events throughout Central Florida.
With his girlfriend, artist/musician Michelle Davidson, who plays crystal singing bowls, tongue drums and bass, they perform as the music duo Wandering Spiral. Find them online at wanderingspiral.com.
As a lecturer, Rick presents programs on various spiritual topics to Unitarian Universalist churches, Pagan gatherings and other organizations and events. His lectures are multi-media presentations that often feature musical performances, and explore such topics as shamanic drumming, the Hindu sacred sound known as Om, Taoism, agnosticism, and the role of crows in the world’s mythologies and folklore. For his upcoming performance and lecture schedule, go online at rickdeyampert.com.
As an artist, Rick selects some of the thousands of photos of crows he has taken around his home in Palm Coast, Florida, and shapeshifts them using a half-dozen digital processes, including a digital “paint” program in which the mouse is used as various “brushes” to apply colors and lines. The results, he says, “transport the crows of my photographs into phantasmagoric, trippy and magical landscapes.” He then has the images printed on canvas for sale. To explore his crow art, go online at mistercrowart.com.
More rickdeyampert.com coming soon.
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