Cranes & Herons are long-legged wading birds, usually associated with willow trees and water, mysterious as the fringed marshes along which they dwell.  Within the Celtic tradition, birds are soul carriers between the worlds, and the White Crane is particularly associated with the spirit of the trees.  There are many stories within Celtic mythology of beautiful young women enchanted into Crane form by jealous rivels, and ill-natured women transformed  into the large bird with the bony toes and uncanny shriek.  Manawydan ab Llyr  the Welsh Sea God (Manannán mac Lir in Irish), makes his Shaman Crane Bag from the skin of a crane that was once a young woman.  The Druid’s Bag holds Otherworldy treasures -  spiritual power objects such as stones and sticks for divination, herbs and plants for healing and giving wisdom, nets and strings for spirit traps. When the sea was full, its treasures were visible, when the fierce sea was in ebb, the crane - bag in turn was empty.
Original Design and Text by Jen Delyth ©2001



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