One day I came home from work and there was what I thought was a red tailed hawk lying in my driveway. It was dead, but in its death it was perfect and quite beautiful. I was going to bury it but I got the distinct feeling it wanted ceremony. I did not possess the skills or training to do this so I called my friend, Sandy, who is Cherokee and is trained in preparing animals for ceremony. Sandy works with a medicine woman, and told her about the hawk.

She said to meet her at her studio the next day, so I put the hawk in the freezer for the night and went to bed. The next morning I got up early, did a morning meditation in preparation for the day, gathered up the hawk and left.

The road to Sandy’s is a winding country road through the lush green terrain of upstate NY. My mind was drifting as my little beaten up car took on the ups and downs of the hills with all the gusto it could muster, when I noticed feathers by the side of the road. Going with my gut, I turned the car back and pulled up beside the bird. It was an owl that had just been hit. Its blood was still flowing. As I knelt beside it I felt this overwhelming sense of honor and purpose. This creature was also ready for ceremony. I covered it with a newspaper I had in the car and put it on the floor next to the hawk and continued on my way - only now I couldn’t stop the tears. They were not tears of grief. They were tears of humility. I am involved in so many spiritual things; meditating, ceremony, drumming, church but everything paled next to the honor of being the caretaker for these birds on their journey to ceremony.

I arrived at the studio early so I set the birds up in her space with sage and a crystal. The energy in there was very intense. While I was waiting for her to arrive, three people walked into the studio to look at her art. This really wasn’t that unusual except one had a service dog in training with her. Now, it is strange enough to have the dog in the studio, but also, it was a white boxer. The people made a point of telling me how they had saved it from being put down because of it being white, not the accepted color for a boxer. Its name was Champagne.

It felt like the perfect balance to have the dog energy, loyalty and unconditional love, that was a purposeful energy being a service dog, casually strolling around the space as if helping to protect the energy there and being blessed itself to both be different and protected.

Champagne and her owner strolled out as my friend Sandy walked in. She came with a basket ready to take the hawk. I told her that there was one more being that had wanted to be involved. When she walked into the room, she froze. She had been prepared to receive the red tail hawk, and when she was presented with an owl as well, it was so profound for her. It took her a while to take it in. The hawk is her power animal and she had worked with it for many years but she had been given to start working with owl and had been doing so over the winter. But now to have one before her to take to ceremony seemed a distinct message and extremely profound. As she only had the basket for the hawk, she sent me off downstairs to find a cardboard box for the owl. On getting downstairs I found myself amongst dozens of boxes of all sizes, so I asked them, which one of you is for transporting the Owl? I grabbed the one that seemed to feel right, and headed upstairs.

When Sandy saw the writing on the side of the box she burst out laughing. It said Staples and apparently as the time she was given the message to start working with owl energy, she was working at Staples, trying to make enough money to support herself and her daughter. Spirit does have a sense of humor.

I did hear back from Sandy, that the red tail hawk was actually a drummer bird, a member of the grouse family. I apologized for my mistake but she said it was just perfect as she was about to prepare her drums for the ceremony, so its energy was perfect, and apparently it had had a heart attack. The owl she said was still very present when she started to work with it. There was no sign of disease, and it had a full belly from eating. Sandy believes that owls don’t just fly into cars unless they are sick or there is another purpose, and she truly believes this bird wanted to be part of the sacred ceremony for which she was preparing.

For me, I don’t know for sure. I only know the energy in the room where the birds were while we waited for Sandy was alive and electric. The divine power of the whole process overwhelmed me more than anything else I have done on my spiritual path and confirmed for me that there is something much greater than ourselves at work, and it is our humility and human wonderment for workings that will make it possible for us to be a part of it - even if just to be the caretaker and driver for a drummer bird and an owl on their way to ceremony.

Editor’s note: This story was sent to me anonymously due to the oppressive nature of the laws regarding possessing raptors - dead or alive, even a feather.