Birdsongs can uplift us because birds move in a higher sphere. Their flight lifts them above themselves into heights that inspires them to sing.
Everything living reflects something of what we are. We have a connection with everything we encounter in nature. That is why everything speaks to us, and every situation tells us something about ourselves. Nature reveals to us images of individual aspects of our soul and body. This is why the wise have always addressed themselves when they perceive something, and said: ‘This is you (tat tvam asi)’. Birds are not cheerful in the same way as we humans are, bees are not as industrious in the same way we can be, a tree trunk is not strong in the same way we experience strength – but they all represent this to us. Resonances are created through connections. Through them we have access to each other, can help, unite, separate, fight – and redeem each other. |
The word ‘cheerful’ is connected to the image of light. We call bright sunny weather ‘cheerful’. Not because an increased number of lumens can be measured externally, but because light can put us in a more cheerful inner mood. When the sun rises in the morning or in spring – a light is also ignited within us, and our mood is uplifted. As the sun rises, so also a ‘sun’ rises within, and our moods are uplifted – we become more radiant. We sense the serenity in the atmosphere. This may invoke a memory, a longing for the purity of our origin, for our soul. It can be an initial response to our seeking, and lead us on a totally different path in life.
Invisible exhilaration
Light is know through its appearance to the senses, and by uplifting our spirits – but is itself invisible in nature. What makes us radiant, what cheers us up, is the spiritual, invisible light that illuminates us inwardly. We can experience a momentary spark of it when we are immersed in a ‘realisation’ for instance; more lasting is the experience of light gained during meditation: the expansion of the soul in an inner illumination, or the light of the sun that makes the earthly world visible, all prove to be powerful beyond measure for our soul through its hidden spirit-soul quality.
Loved by the genius
Writers repeatedly use the uplifting power of birdsong in their work. The Swiss author Albert Steffen (1884-1963) describes this in a classical way – probably with an autobiographical sideways glance:
At the end of one day, the unemployed poet found an aphorism from a time when he had still been allowed to indulge his creative urges without restriction. It read: ‘When you go out, you have to choose the way and the hour carefully. Walking through the garden villas at sunset is the most favourable time. Friendly spirits hover on the wings of the evening glow and urge the beautiful experiences of the day that you have collected in your soul, to embrace the good gods of the night.’
The poet was unable to rise to this maxim. However, when a blackbird began to sing outside his window, the delight that gripped him gave him the strength to let go of the images of the past day with all its disappointments. He distanced himself from everyday life and let his misery fade into nothingness. … The poet knew one thing straight away: his genius loved him, and that was enough.[1]
God’s mouth
Birdsongs can uplift us because birds move in a higher sphere. What we alone accomplish inwardly and spiritually, they express outwardly and physically. The sunlight that rises with the spring mornings, fills them with song. Their mood is elevated, and they rise into a sphere that lifts them above themselves, that inspires them to sing. Something higher takes hold of them, lifts them up to itself, and finally sounds from their throats. Christian Morgenstern (1871-1914) summarised this incident in a poem:
In the tree, you dear little bird there,
what is your song, your song at the bottom?
Your little song is God’s word,
your little larynx is God’s mouth.
‘I sing’ does not yet sing from you,
the eternal creative power sounds
still unclouded in pure splendour
in you, you sweet little ornament.
The songbirds express something higher that seizes their being, and this elevation is revealed through their singing. Who would not want to experience the beauty of a bird song as cheerful?
A short extract from the book: Warum singen Vögel? (Why do birds sing?) by Hans-Christian Zehnter (ed.) and Wolter Bos, Hägendorf (Switzerland), 2018
One could perhaps surmise that songbirds and sunlight are made for each other. A full and polyphonic, even uninhibited jubilation accompanies the sunrise. No bird is held back any longer; with the rising of the sun everything begins to sing! This is how the bird turns to the spiritual or divine being that belongs to it.
Ultimately, we feel the same way. We sing when we feel relieved of our everyday worries, free in spirit and therefore uplifted – be it in the shower or doing the daily washing up. I sing when it uplifts me; and when I am uplifted, I am inspired: It sings in and with me. What appears to be a rather incidental event here is, however, more consequential on further reflection than perhaps initially realised. Because: What are we rising into? And conversely, who or what elevates us? Who or what makes us sing?
[1] Albert Steffen: Merkbuch, Dornach 1982, p. 164 ff.
