The Seba library treats Sparrow in 5 passages, across 5 authors (including von Franz, Marie-Louise, Abram, David, Eliade, Mircea).
the raven did all the creative work, but the sparrow was there first. The sparrow is rather more active than Coyote because at least he goes down on Father Raven’s orders and explores the earth below
Von Franz identifies the sparrow as a paradoxical primordial figure — surpassed in creative activity yet declared ontologically prior, embodying the depth-psychological principle that the most ancient and fundamental layer may appear most ineffectual.
, Creation Myths, 1995thesis
the man became weaker and weaker, until finally he collapsed in the snow and died. At that moment he was transformed into a white-crowned sparrow, and then he flew on toward his destination.
Abram presents the sparrow as a vessel of mythic memory in Koyukon tradition, the bird’s song and markings permanently encoding a human death-story, making the sparrow an animate archive of the Distant Time.
, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World, 1996supporting
snake; sparrow; sparrow-hawk; spider; squirrel; stag; swan; tige
Eliade catalogues the sparrow among the animal forms into which shamans transform or with which they ally themselves, situating it within the broad shamanic complex of animal-familiar and spirit-helper traditions.
, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, 1951supporting
Aurora, trans. by John Sparrow, p. 423.
A bibliographic citation noting that Böhme’s Aurora was translated by John Sparrow; the name ‘Sparrow’ here refers to the translator rather than the bird, representing no symbolic content.
, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1951aside
Black Sparrow Press, 495
An index reference to Black Sparrow Press, a publisher associated with Hillman’s work, containing no symbolic or psychological treatment of the sparrow as such.
, Life and Ideas of James Hillman, 2023aside