Universal Fantasy- Ace of Chalices

.traveller.

This one is a little odd to my eyes. An enormous flamingo in an equally gigantic cup sit on top of a fortress with a Myst/Riven/Uru feel to it. My first response was "Eww, there's going to be birdy poo in my cup!" Fortunately, (I love it when this happens) there was a new thread on flamingos!
You can find that here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=76698

In the second post, Thirteen quotes some great info regarding flamingos that may be relevant to the avian inclusion to this card.

I just wonder about the huge size of both the bird and cup, the impressive waterfalls, and the significance of the fortress. The landscape looks like canyon country, quite similar to the area in which I live.
Any ideas? I am going to have to work with this one a bit before I have anything intelligent to say. I just have a mental block when it comes to flamingos... ya know, lawn ornaments and all that.
 

.traveller.

Okay, I was poking around the internet and made a stop at wikipedia and PBS. Wiki didn't yield much info of the ahHA! variety, other than the flamingo in the picture may be a Caribbean flamingo rather than a lesser flamingo of lawn ornament fame.
My visit to PBS was much more edifying. Here I found that these birds are the only birds to thrive in volcanic pools. Since the coloration of these birds is directly related to their food consumption, you can tell (in the wild) how healthy a bird is by how pink it is. The pale colored flamingos are considered less desirable as mates (presumeably by the other flamingos) than the brightly colored ones. Well fed = healthy = bright pink = a good catch
So now I would relate these birds as a symbol, to taking care of yourself, eating right, grooming, and how we treat ourselves contributes to how others perceive us.
 

EarthAngel2911

Oooh Those are great thoughts likening the flamingo in this card to what it could mean. I confess that when I studied this card, I kinda glazed over the flamingo, and didn't give it much of a thought. And to be honest, I just read over my notes from last week, and I didn't really have much to say about the image. (The other group I'm in that's working on this deck uses the LWB as a reference, so most of my notes are on the link between the LWB and the image.)

Actually, I take back what I said about not giving the flamingo much thought. One thing that struck me almost at once was the fact that we only see one leg of the flamingo. Now, I know that flamingos are known to stand on one leg and raise the other one, but I don't even see a second leg in this card. And I'm thinking that this must have some kind of significance.

The one leg looks like a good foundation, as long as it's straight. But if it were to bend even slightly, it doesn't appear as if that leg would be able to support the flamingo without the other leg for support. (Which makes me think that one person cannot keep a relationship going; it needs two.) But I thought "steady as she goes" at the beginning of a relationship.

Just some thoughts...
 

.traveller.

That's interesting about the leg, I'm going to have to think on that.

I was noticing the other day (card keeps coming up, eventually I'll figure it out) that the card is divided into three, one third flamingo, one third cup, and one third fortress. Perhaps this is suggesting that there are three vital things involved in the creation of something?

*edit
I keep coming back to the threefold nature of the symbols. They are not shown in equal proportions and I feel that it means more than compositional convenience. Perhaps the fortress represents the strong foundation and basis in reality that is required to support the "Cup". Now just what is this cup that it needs a stable environment in order to thrive?

Ach, it's past my bedtime. More on this later.