Bird Magic: Wisdom of the Ancient Goddess for Pagans & Wiccans - Sandra Kynes 2016

Cormorant: Double-Crested Cormorant, Great Cormorant
The Profiles

Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Unusual as it may seem for a seabird, the cormorant’s feathers are not waterproof, which is why they are frequently seen sitting on rocks with their wings outstretched to dry. This practice gives them an eerie appearance and perhaps gave rise to their being regarded as the spirits of those who had perished at sea. While the lack of oil in their feathers may seem like a drawback for a bird that spends so much time in the water, cormorants actually use this to their advantage. They give their feathers a good soaking while hunting for fish, which helps them sink faster when diving after them.

From approximately 1600 to 770 BCE in China, jade carvings of cormorants holding fish were placed in graves, which is believed to have carried the intention of providing food for the deceased.⁵² Both the Chinese and Japanese trained these birds to catch fish, and images of cormorants were used as talismans by fishermen. Native people of Kodiak Island, Alaska, also used an image of a cormorant for luck in hunting and fishing. Training cormorants for fishing became fashionable in England when King James I (1566—1625) kept a flock on the Thames River alongside Westminster. Later in the seventeenth century, this bird acquired a negative connotation when John Milton portrayed the devil as a cormorant in his epic poem Paradise Lost.

Two eighteen-foot copper cormorants grace the top of the Liver (rhymes with diver) building and serve as the symbol of the city of Liverpool, England. In South America, cormorants were frequently depicted on Mayan pottery, and they may be one of the morphing creatures portrayed in the ancient Nazca lines of Peru.

The common name cormorant comes from the Latin corvus marinus, which means “raven of the sea.” ⁵³ In Ireland and Wales, this bird was regarded as a magical sea raven that wove together the forces of air and water. I can understand this connotation when I kayak in the Gulf of Maine and see cormorants on rocky outcrops. Standing in groups with their wings outstretched as though in the epiphany gesture, they look like they are engaging in some kind of mystical ritual.

Magical Workings

At Samhain or anytime someone you love passes to the other side, place an image of cormorant on your altar. This will symbolize your wish that they find nourishment and plenty in their new state of being.

Cormorant can help us find where we belong in our communities, as well as bolster our courage for independence. As an expert diver, cormorant teaches us to go deep within ourselves for a profound sense of who we are, especially if we seek spiritual transformation.

Call on this bird for guidance in finding and developing your skills, especially those related to prophecy and divination. For ritual and magic, cormorant can aid in drawing on the forces of nature, particularly the elements of air and water.

Make Connection

To connect with cormorant energy, pour water into a bowl on your altar. Raise your hands in the epiphany gesture with arms out to the sides, elbows bent, and hands raised with palms facing forward as you say: “Corvus marinus, raven of the sea; I call on you to visit me.” Visualize that you are standing on a rocky outcrop surrounded by water. Reach out with your energy and in your mind’s eye watch for a cormorant to approach. If one joins you, sit down beside it and allow events to unfold.

Associations

Element(s): Air, water

Sabbat(s): Ostara, Samhain

Ogham: Onn

Bird Identification

Double-Crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)

Size: 27 to 35 inches

Wingspan: 45 to 48 inches

Comparative size: Goose

Description: Small head; long, hooked bill; long, kinked neck with orange throat pouch; black all over; short tuft of white feathers over the eyes during breeding season

Range: From the Alaskan coast, across southern Canada to Newfoundland, and throughout the United States

Habitat: Lakes, rivers, swamps, and coastal areas

Eggs: Pale blue-green

Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Size: 33 to 36 inches

Wingspan: 51 to 63 inches

Comparative size: Goose

Description: Long, glossy black body; thick neck with yellow throat pouch; blunt, hooked bill; white patch at base of bill; shaggy head plume

Range: Along the Atlantic coast from Georgia to the Canadian Maritime Provinces

Habitat: Rocky coasts, sea cliffs, and inland waters

Eggs: Pale bluish-green with white, chalky covering

Collective noun(s): A flight, a gulp, a paddling, or a swim of cormorants

52. Hope B. Werness, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art (New York: Continuum International, 2006), 105.

53. Wells, 100 Birds and How They Got Their Names, 34.