Swan vs. Pelican
Aeon418 said:
If you scroll down the page of that wiki article you will find Harris' inspiration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican#Symbolism_and_culture
If you want to see a swan look at the Princess of Cups. Notice the difference? Pay particular attention to the beak (bill).
If Arrien thinks the bird in the Empress is a swan I have to ask if Arrien has ever seen a swan?
Well, I can tell you that I've seen a swan. I lived with Swans for almost ten years. I have also spent many months in south Florida where the pelicans dive for fish right in front of you. The image on the Empress card is definitely a swan whether it was intentional or not on the part of Harris.
Here are two links. You can compare them yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan
Here are the distinctions between a swan and a pelican which you can easily spot on the two pictures. The swan has a graceful neck that is often curved in a U shape when it is in a rested position, whereas the pelican not only has a much longer neck, it is rarely seen in the same U position as a swan. The swan's head is actually bent down towards the throat which is not something the pelican does in the same way. The pelican also has a huge beak and a huge crop/pouch which are it's distinquishing marks. The swan does not have these and neither are seen on the Empress card. The bird in the Empress card has a small head and the U neck of a swan and no visible crop. But the most telling of all really is the plumage. A swan's wings turn up with an arch forming a graceful curve from neck to wings. The pelican's wings turn downward. If you closely examine the two photos, you can clearly see what I'm referring to.
The questions are:
Was Lady Harris a bit sloppy when choosing her image of a pelican or did she actually mean to paint a swan? Had Crowley actually told her to include this image or was it done on her own?
Did Arrien mistake the so-called pelican for a Swan and run with it or did she actually believe that Lady Harris intended to paint a Swan and not a pelican?
And also...a question we might be able to ask Mary or Angie is....Was Arrien aware of the fact that Crowley claims this is a pelican and if so, why did she choose to represent it as a swan?
I guess the last question might be revealing as to Arrien's competence as an author but more interesting would be if she actually believed that contrary to Crowley's description of the bird, the bird was indeed a Swan....and why.
I have no interest in discrediting or defending Angeles Arrien. If she made mistakes ...so what. Who hasn't? If she wrote a book on Thoth and didn't respect the creator (well, one of them) of Thoth, at least she was upfront about that. Once alerted, we read things knowing what we're getting into.
I sense there is more afoot than we are able to get at here.
Rima