Birds in the Spiral's Fool

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 02 Apr 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Athara	02 Apr 2003
I was studying The Fool in the Spiral Deck just now, and I wondered... Those birds diving into the depths, what birds are they? One moment they seem like eagles to me, the other like birds of prey, heck sometimes even like swans. What do you think?

Maan	02 Apr 2003
Well i got my deck out and i indeed the birds could be anything..so i got out the book too and there they are called eagles. So your first impression seemed to be right :)

Athara	02 Apr 2003
Hm, thanks. Though I feel that the species will switch along according to the meaning in readings... I like that! :D

Maan	02 Apr 2003
yeah i know that feeling.. Somtimes a certain queen in a certain deck looks nasty and the other time she almost seems to smile :)

Pollux	03 Apr 2003
Isn't it a nice image? Big Fish eats small fish = Big eagle stalks small bird. Small bird stalks something else that looks like a fish? And the Cat is like... "WHAT?!"

Athara	03 Apr 2003
Yep, it's a great card. I just started a journal, and I never looked that closely at it before. So...much...detail! :) It's nice that the meanings shift with each reading...but very confusing nonetheless. Love, Athara

KelarSkye	04 Apr 2003
I don't have the Spiral Tarot...but that is my next deck as soon as I find it :-) With The Fool I would suggest they are supposed to be ambiguous because he is embracing the unkown to an extent. No path or outcome defined. Those could be birds of courage, love or adversity. I am assuming they are on the horizon. So I guess the fact that they aren't defined accentuates the fact that The Fool is stepping off on his journey without getting all the facts. If he had them, we would know what the birds are. Just my thoughts in the dark...**singing** oh where or where is a spiral deck, I want to buy it now... :-) Kelar

Trogon	04 Apr 2003
I actually hadn't looked real close at these birds before, so this thread definitely caught my eye. First, I will say that there is a good chance that these "Eagles" probably appear on this card because the Eagle appears as a symbol on The Fool's purse in the RWS deck. It is, depending on which source you read, a symbol of power, renewal, regeneration, imagination, the spirit, Scorpio, so on and so forth. To me an Eagle, as a symbol, carries many of these, as well as freedom, intelligence, perseverance and far-sightedness as well as self-reliance and (a little bit ;) ) scavenging - finding what you need when you need it. But these are my own ideas and are somewhat based on the actual behavior of these birds. Back to the Spiral's Fool. First off, I feel that all of them are probably meant to be the same species of bird, if not actually the same bird at different stages of a stoop on it's prey. (Stoop, in this context, is when a bird of prey makes it's dive onto it's prey.) I tend to waffle a bit back and forth (one bird - many birds) as I look at this card. Unfortunately, there is not enough detail to be able to really narrow these down to any particular species. They could be just about any of the family Accipitridae - this family includes all of the Hawks, Eagles and Kites. However, some birds can be ruled out. To start with I think we can rule out, in general, another family of birds of prey - Falconidae. These are the Falcons and are mostly smaller birds and not know as symbols of "power" - speed - yes, but not particularly power. I think we can eliminate the Kites as they are also, generally, smaller birds (compared to other birds of prey) and, for the most part, don't have the long, heavy beaks shown in this card. The Genus Accipter can also be ruled out. They tend to be somewhat smaller hawks and are primarily hunters of other birds - as such they are seldomly seen stooping in the way seen on the Spiral Tarot's Fool. Instead they chase their prey and snatch it out of the air. Now... the Buteos are a possibility. This Genus includes some of the largest hawks in North America. This is the Genus which includes the Red-Tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk and the Osprey. All of these are large hawks and all of them prey, primarily, on either small mammals or fish (the Osprey). As such all of them are commonly seen in a stoop. However, we have to look at what is commonly known about these birds by people who don't know a lot about birds. Most people would look up at one of these and say "oh... there's a hawk". These birds are not well known and as such are probably not good choices for a symbol in a Tarot deck. This brings us back to the Eagles. There are 2 species of Eagle which are common in North America. Only one of these is likely to be commonly recognized and is known as a symbol throughout the world. That is the Bald Eagle. Primarily a fish eater, it will take other small animals as well. Hence, it is almost always seen in a characteristic stoop when it takes prey. There are other Eagles which would also fit (Golden Eagle or Steller's Sea-Eagle, for example), but I think that the lack of specific detail in the picture may be intentional - these birds are meant to be "Eagles" - generic - as opposed to a definite species. However, if Kay Steventon is from North America, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is the most likely. You can read more at http://www.enature.com ; Bald Eagle. Now... do not get me started on birds again! I get sooooooo long-winded... :D

MrLucid	04 Apr 2003
Thanks for enticing me to look alot closer at the Spiral deck than i had been previously. I use it alot, but often the intuition style of reading kind of by-passes details on the conscious level.. Anywho, what i particularly thought was funny to me is something about the artwork itself. A (way too close) examination of the cards revealed to me that in many of the cards, the jewel "things", pearls (like on the moon card), and various other small doo-dads were attached to the canvas of the painting.. its mixed media.. for some reason i didnt realize that. Cool, i like that. -MrLucid-

The Birds in the Spiral's Fool thread was originally posted on 02 Apr 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.