The Steenscrabe is a mythical creature on a mission. It means well, but it doesn’t always get it right.

The Steenscrabe only comes out at night. Essentially well intentioned, it flies around looking for people who need help with something. When it finds someone, it takes their spirit on a journey, through the night, to visit sites and situations that it thinks will help the person gain useful insight into whatever it is they need help with (this explains why many of our dreams can seem strange).

It might visit states that no longer exist (Yugoslavia, trust in authority, or Prussia for example), things that should never have happened (e.g. processed food, removal of the Guard’s van on railway trains, white chocolate), useful ideas (dog leads, coffee shops, holidays), and bad ideas (banning dogs from coffee shops, bigotry, the invention of white chocolate).

There is no rhyme or reason to the things that it selects for the spirit to be exposed to. Driven by centuries-old intuition, it goes where it will, guided by a powerful instinct for fun, frivolity, and disrespect for authority. Its only aim is to help the human spirit soar above the daily grind, and the things that keep it nailed to the ground.

The Steenscrabe does not judge, advise nor direct. It takes the worthy individual’s spirit to a kaleidoscopic exhibition of concepts, images, ideas and memory-joggers. If it makes mistakes in selecting what the spirit sees, they usually turn out to be fortuitous errors where everything turns out for the best anyway.

Few people know about this mythical creature, whose origins are lost in time. Even the all-seeing Google can’t find a reference to it, so it is not at all surprising if you have never heard of it.