[Art] White Dove as Animal Teacher

For the Iconics deck. This was a last moment addition, and researching the symbolism of the white dove over millennia, and across many different cultures, was really interesting. It's one you could definitely subversively work with if you wanted to, especially if your praxis has anything at all to do with Inanna.

As always, I'm late with putting this up. I finished the illustration weeks ago, but I've been so fatigued lately that the prospect of listing the artwork with all the right hyperlinks on two Facebook accounts, two Tumblr accounts, DeviantArt, Etsy, Twitter, Instagram and Dreamwidth is very daunting. I did, however, add the artwork and the meaning/descriptions to Wildspeak a while back.

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White Dove || Columba livia domestica || Etsy || Wildspeak Animal Dictionary




Keywords:

Higher powers. Religion. God and godhood. Connection to spirit. Connection to the upperworlds. Messages from the gods or god. Peace and peacetime. A need for hope. Hope. The end of hard times, punishment or judgement. A settled soul. Contentment. Love. Messages. A connection to Inanna. The soul. Working with the shadow in relation to sexuality or war. World peace.

Description:

Also known as the white dove, or white pigeon, this description focuses primarily on the symbolism associated with white doves rather than rock doves in general.

White doves have been favoured in religious iconography from paganism, through Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is often seen as a symbol of peace and hope, as well as love, the soul, sexuality, war and sacrifice. It has been utilised by military and pacifist groups over the years.

In the New Testament, the white dove has been considered the spirit of god who approached Jesus during his baptism. The white dove is also associated as a symbol of the end of divine wrath, such as when the dove flew from the ark following god’s punishment. In art, it has regularly been depicted alongside baptisms, as well as later being associated with political peace. Around this time, it was also depicted in art that showed conflict, such as art which illustrated Noah and the Ark, Daniel and the lions, Susannah and the Elders and so on. The white dove in Christian iconography is often depicted carrying an olive branch, which is connected to the story of Noah in the Hebrew Bible.

In Judaism, Rabbinic literature interprets the olive leaf as ‘the young shoots of the Land of Israel’ as well as the symbolic message of an animal willing to eat bitter rather than sweet food in the service of deity. The dove here did not symbolise peace, so much as sacrifice, service and love through service, among other things. At this time, it was not an olive branch, but the leaf itself that was the important symbol associated with the dove.

In Islam, doves are respected because they are believed to have assisted the prophet Muhammad by the cave of Thaw’r, in distracting his enemies.

Doves were symbols of Inanna-Ishtar in ancient Mesopotamia, associated with her traits of love, sexuality and war. Objects – including lead doves and frescos – associated with Inanna show dove depictions for thousands of years. Some of the depictions show the dove in place of Inanna, representing her directly. Doves have also been used to symbolise the mother goddess Asherah, Ishtar, and were sacred to Venus, Fortuna and Aphrodite (who gained her connection to doves from Inanna-Ishtar). Doves were sacrificed to Aphrodite during Aphrodisia, so that an altar could be purified in their blood. In Japan, doves are the familiar spirit of Hachiman, deity of archery and war.

White doves are now found as a common icon everywhere. They are recognised in political cartoons, on protest banners and anti-violence protests, at events promoting peace, and have been used to symbolise the promotion of world peace such that even the World Peace Council adopted it as its emblem in 1949. The dove continues to be used readily and familiarly as a symbol of pacifism worldwide.

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[Art] Egg Yolk Jellyfish as Animal Teacher

For the Unusuals Deck. A jellyfish that eats other jellyfish, perfect. I've never quite been happy with how I've drawn jellyfish in the past in this style, until now. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to illustrate this guy, and I'm really happy with the outcome.

The fact is I really love jellyfish. I own books on them, listen to podcasts about them, eat them (delicious!), and generally otherwise stare at them very happily. If I could do a deck just on jellyfish, I really would.

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Egg Yolk Jellyfish || Phacellophora camtschatica || Etsy || Wildspeak Animal Dictionary




Keywords:

Searching deep meanings. Thriving where others struggle. Conserve your energy. Drifting. At the mercy of life’s currents. Do what you can, learn to let go. Balance. Give a little, take a little. Unintentional generosity. Are you being taken advantage of? Ocean wisdom and magic. Deep sea wisdom. Trust, not gullibility.

Description:

The egg yolk jellyfish (Phacellophora camtschatica) is also known as the fried egg jellyfish. Its bell distinctly resembles a sunny side up fried egg. It is very large, with bells of around 60 centimetres (2 ft) in diameter, and tentacles that can trail for 6 metres (20 ft). They are sometimes confused with other species of jellyfish that look similar or have similar common names. Like many jellyfish, its range of motion is limited and influenced strongly by the currents, though it can actively swim. As with many jellyfish, they have no respiratory, circulatory or excretory systems. They lack a mesoderm and use mesoglea.

It is primarily a jellyfish hunter, collecting smaller medusae, as well as plankton. As a tentacle feeder, it will bring its food to its mouth to digest it. Its tentacles are covered with stinging sells (nematocysts) that help it capture its prey, and protect it to a degree from predators, though its stinging cells are weak compared to some of the more dangerous jellies.

Its life cycle contains many stages, but overall begins with a polyp that attaches to rocks and piers that reproduces asexually, followed by a medusa form (the more familiar jellyfish we’re used to seeing) that reproduces sexually.

The medusae prefer cool waters, such as those in the Northern Pacific, though they prefer to reproduce in warmer water. It has also been found in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk. It prefers to aggregate over deep basins. They have shown some population increase in areas with degraded ocean environments, and large numbers are indicators of poor ecosystems. Egg yolk jellyfish move faster during the day. They also engage in vertical migrations. To avoid competition, they will sometimes dive into hypoxic zones where less oxygen discourages other lifeforms. They are able to withstand these environments for hours.

It is not uncommon for the egg yolk jellyfish to be a host to symbiotic and parasitic lifeforms, such as crustaceans (larval crabs, amphipods) and young jack fish, who will even steal food off the egg yolk jelly’s arms. Generally, larval crabs are symbiotic, eating the parasitic amphipods to benefit the jellyfish, and gaining motion through the waters as well as exposure to warmer water at the surface which helps them grow faster. When the crab is older, it will begin to feed on the egg yolk jellyfish itself. Its main predators are crabs, deep-sea octopus and turtles. They live for approximately six months.



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[Art] Coastal Peacock Spider as Animal Teacher

For the Unusuals deck. So this little guy (and I do mean little!) lives about two hours away from me. Probably closer to an hour and a half, like most of the world's Peacock Spiders actually. They're all small, easy to miss, and dance like Birds of Paradise for their partners.

I get to be biased and put some locals into my Unusuals deck, because hey, it's still an unusual animal - and certainly an unusual spider! - but look at that fuzzy wee cute face. So happy with how the fur texture came out on this one. I went back in with a white marker to bring out the details and I'm really happy with it.

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Coastal Peacock Spider || Maratus speciosus || Etsy || Wildspeak Animal Dictionary




Keywords:

Unexpected brilliance. Dance like you mean it. Having faith, taking leaps. Standing out from the crowd. Be brilliant, hide when you need to. Grounded glamour. Dancing. Learning complex skills out of love. Pushing to always improve. Delicacy. You are overlooking something special.

Description:

The coastal opal peacock spider (Maratus speciosus) is a member of the Maratus family of peacock spiders, which are largely found in Australia (with one species at the time of this writing found in China). They are known for being very small, and for the males having a very colourful upper abdomen used for elaborate courtship dances to woo females. These dances have been likened in complexity to those found in many birds of paradise, featuring different stages, as well as documentation of males practicing their dances when the female isn’t around.

The coastal opal peacock spider is found primarily on beaches and among vegetative sand dunes in Bunbury, Western Australia. They are most active in August, September and October, as that is when the males are seeking females to perform their courtship dances for. They have a distinctive iridescent blue, red and black upper abdomen with lateral flaps and bright orange bristles, these flaps can be extended, and the bristles shown during courtship. Their abdomen is raised and then ‘danced about’ to best show off the iridescence. Females are white-grey-brown, camouflaging well. They release pheromones to indicate when they’re receptive to mating. Females lay egg sacs in December in a nest, and will stay with the sac until they hatch.

Peacock spider dances include physical movements, but also vibrational signals. They have an extra long pair of decorated legs which assist in the dancing movements. Their iridescence, particularly the blue shades, use nanostructures not seen in any other animal. The blues in the coastal opal peacock spider do not fade over time. They are able to see in red, blue, green and ultraviolet. It is thought that their long legs assist with avoiding predation by females. Males have been known to dance for up to fifty minutes for a female. They can also be aggressive in courtship, and will even pursue uninterested and pregnant females, and even females of different species.

Like most jumping spiders, peacock spiders do not make webs to hunt, instead actively searching their prey of flies, moths, winged ants, grasshoppers and other insects. They can take down prey four to five times their own size. They can also jump twenty times their size. They are predated upon by many other animals, though their ability to jump helps them escape quickly. They live primarily solitary lives until breeding season.

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