In which I speculate wildly

I posted this photo yesterday: the double-headed bird we picked up at the antique fair.


Normally, Laurie collects antique Japanese porcelain and Chinese jade, and I look out for vintage salt-shakers and anything Mexican, especially Tonalá and Oaxaca pottery. But sometimes something else catches our eye. This was one of those "somethings".

It is a cast-iron vase, about 8 inches high, unpainted except for the red centres of the peacock feathers. The seller insisted that it came from Gibraltar; which means little, since sellers are frequently wrong.

It reminded me, in pattern and concept, of the designs I have often seen used in Mexican woven and embroidered textiles. But I know of no Mexican village that makes this type of cast iron.

In the fluidity of the lines, I saw hints of India. Where peacocks are common. But was it Indian? It didn't feel like it.

Are those central creatures dragons? Is this Asian? Or feathered serpents, from Latin America? I couldn't tell.

So, back at home, I headed for Google. Searched and searched and searched. I could find nothing similar. Not in Gibraltar, not in Latin America, not in India. There was mention of double-headed birds in Turkish rug patterns, in Chinese paintings, and all over North and South America. None were like this.

I found eagles (the Roman eagle), thunderbirds, quetzales, even double-headed chickens. No double-headed peacocks. Stylized bird-ish shapes, aggressive arrow-bearing raptors. Whimsical ducks.

I looked over my own collection:


A peacock, certainly. The "tree of life" from Metepec, Mexico. A very traditional design. Not double, except that it has 4 feet.


A Huichol gourd, from the north of Mexico. This is more like an eagle. Two heads, one body.

In Mayan textiles (like the huipil the new addition sits on), a double-header is common; from the Guatemalan Maya Centre (London), I picked up some sample designs.


Here there are three two-faced birds, eagles, probably. Definitely not peacocks.

So: a mystery bird.

In Mexican traditions, the double-headed birds speak of past and future; looking forward, looking back. The two are indivisible. Hope and memory, planting and harvest. Sometimes this looking back is associated with good and evil, or life and death.

In some Asian traditions, I learned, the birds reflect the story of Prometheus, whose liver, in punishment for giving humankind fire, is eaten daily by eagles, and regenerated every night. Japanese birds are similarly divided; one half lives; the second, eternally attached, eats at his companion, attempting to kill him.

The Turks used the double-headed eagle as,

"a sign of grandeur and magnificence and it was to support the claim of Turkish rulers over the Roman imperial inheritance."

But that's the eagle. A peacock is an entirely different story. Here's a take on it from Persia;

"The motif of two peacocks, one on each side of the Tree of Life, is a well-known feature of Persian decorative arts. A pair of peacocks stands for the "psychic duality of man" similar to the role played by the Gemini in western astrology, says Cirlot (A Dictionary of Symbols.)"

This interpretation resonates with the Mexican tribal view. It all makes me wonder how much mixing of stories and traditions there has been over the centuries.

And as for our new acquisition, since nowhere, so far, have I found its own story, I think I will give it the gentle one that most seems to fit its beauty; memory and hope.