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Pagosa author blends raptors, shamanism

Gracious Wild, 272 pages, Turning Stone Press, $21.95, paperback.

Opening the pages of Gracious Wild by Stacey Crouch is to enter into a world foreign to most readers. Couch shares her journey from a seemingly unfulfilled life as a scientist working in the wilds to a new life as a contemporary shaman who continues to work with animals, although on a different plane. Her newfound path is aided and eased by her relationship with two special hawks, Thalia and Graccia.

For readers unfamiliar with shamanism, Couch uses her introduction to offer several explanations of this centuries-old practice. There are many variations on the definition, but a simple interpretation is that shamanism is a spiritual practice where the shaman enters into an otherworldly state usually with the help of spirit guides to heal members of his or her community from mental, emotional, spiritual and physical ailments. Couch also explains terms like journey, other worlds, soul loss and retrieval, as used in shamanism.

Gracious Wild is presented in three parts. Part I Sacred Wild is where Couch begins her tale. She is isolated on an island and is charged with feeding and caring for a small, threatened group of foxes. She is conflicted by having to keep the foxes in cages – a necessary evil to keep them safe while the population is trying recover and grow in numbers.

Couch appears to have doubts about her current life course and seems to be besieged by periods of fear and depression. While on the island, she discovers harrier nesting hawks. There is something about these raptors that lead her to take a new direction in life.

She moves off the island to a northwestern state and begins to volunteer at Willow Brook Wildlife Rehabilitation Center where she meets Thalia, a harrier hawk. At this point, she introduces readers to the fascinating world of raptors, specifically hawks. Couch shares the terms common to falconry and how to work with these special breed of birds. She also educates readers about several aspects of a rehabilitation center. Some animals are expected to be taken into the community to educate the public about their specie and to be ambassadors. This raises awareness and money to help continue the work of saving abandoned and injured animals.

When Thalia’s physical and emotional health declined, she had to be euthanized. This was traumatic for Couch but was tempered by her deepening journey into the shamanic world. Couch had been working with a mentor to heal her soul loss. After Thalia passed from this world, she became a spirit guide for Couch.

Part II, called “Gracious One,” introduces Graccia, a red-tailed hawk. Couch had a close relationship with her, and Graccia became a good ambassador under her care. Eventually, the injury that brought Graccia to the rehabilitation center becomes terminal and she has to be euthanized also. Part III, “The Pink Blanket,” describes how reverently and gently both Thalia and Graccia are wrapped in pink blankets and are returned to the earth by Couch.

Wrapped up in her stories of the hawks is her transformation from a scientist with degrees in biology, ecology and conservation to a person who can provide shamanic healing and conduct workshops. She also decides to live close to the wild and natural world. Couch lives near Pagosa Springs with her husband and numerous much-loved animals.

“Gracious Wild” will appeal to people who are interested in raptors and rehabilitation of injured birds. The book also will interest readers who want to learn more about shamanism or want to know more about communicating with nature and her wild beings.

sierrapoco@yahoo.com.

Leslie Doran is a Durango freelance reviewer.

If you go

Stacey Couch will read from her book Gracious Wild at 6:30 p.m. today, Earth Day, at Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave., 247-1438.



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