#vulpinebones

“when you first left me I didn’t know what to say, I’ve never been by myself that way, just sat bymyself all day”

Star Butterfly

Tom

Associating Black Witches with Black Birds

I think the raven and corvids is a better option than a crow alone. Not too bad if included as one of the various black birds, though. While I can see crow associations being reclaimed or re-imagined, that’s usually best for the affected group to play with unless well-researched, examining the stereotypes and the pitfalls there might be with associating the Black character with a crow and the ways to avoid it. Also, since she’s not transforming into a crow, it’s not as harmful, but the association is there upon her being able to control the given birds and having a close connection with them.

Besides that, watch out for associations of black = bad in general. From what you’ve written, black reads as neutral which is a nice change, but I don’t know the extent of how it is represented in your story.

If your birds are bad then maybe you would want to change them to blue jays, or throw some non-black birds in the mix, or at least not include all black birds in the negative association. I suppose their being bad would depend on how the witch controls them, though.

Personally, I think it’d be refreshing to see these Black birds highlighted for the complex, intelligent creatures they are and even demonstrating affection towards the Black witch. Maybe she feeds them delicious treats and they bring her shiny gifts! :P

More reading:

Black and White Symbolism - Discussion and Alternatives