From Darkness to Light

Blackbird Brings Death?

If you haven’t read the first article in this series, Witch, Brujo or Bruja, Shaman, Demon; Satan’s Workers? it’s best to do it now.

To sum up, a man is telling of a story wherein a blackbird is fluttering outside his bedroom door and then a few nights later, actually enters the bedroom and flies around before being ushered out by the man’s wife. A baby bird is found a few days later and is brought into the house where it subsequently dies.

The story is interesting on its face but gets even more interesting as other details are added. The same man has a dinner where he has invited a doctor and his doctor wife along with another friend and his wife. This occurred roughly 3 weeks before the bird incidents. During a discussion about witches, Brujos, Shaman and the like, the doctor tells about a tenant in one of his father’s buildings in Panajachel. The building is located just in front of where the doctor lives and apparently, on several occasions he witnessed voodoo type ceremonies wherein doll figures were stuck with pins as the witch doctor placed spells and curses on different people.

As he was telling this story one of the other guests grew antsy as he waited for an opening to speak his piece. He went on to say that just a few days prior he had had a dream where this man with the birds in his bedroom was being stuck with numerous pins in his body. He had told the man’s kids about the dream shortly after it happened. The doctor then validated the hypothesis that this kind of thing happens frequently in this area of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.

As the story gets more intriguing it is discovered that a common belief among the people in this area and indeed around the world is that blackbirds are associated with evil. The story goes that if a bird flutters about the outside of your house or enters your house it is because a death is immanent. It is widely believed that the Shaman or witch doctor has the ability to change into an animal or bird and many of the local people have stories to validate this. A close friend of mine related her own story in a previous post on this site.

So what does all this mean? What do you think? I am interested in your comments please.

Now go to part III where we will tie it all together!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Strange Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.