The language of the birds : tales, texts, and poems of interspecies communication

Ed. with an intro. and notes by David M. Guss.

Introduction: Movement into form. First songs. Visions, dances, and divinations. Interlude. The third word: the forest wall. The third word: the clearing. The third word: the city gates. Prophecies

'...There was a time when animals and humans conversed freely with each other: the time of the Old People, dream time, "long ago when the world was new." This primordial language shamans call "the language of the birds," and today it is the language of transformation and the unconscious, of art and religion, of a lingering vision of lost coherence. This unusual and exciting anthology documents the relations between humans and animals as recorded by the great storytellers, shamans, and artists of the world....Guss has gathered texts, poems, and translations from throughout the world, from ancient times to the present....''

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