I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is a parrot for everything. Oh, I bet you are thinking, there’s no parrot for like, I dunno, the Hanged Man. Ah, sir, you’d be wrong. Yes, there is one and they are called, wait for it, the Hanging Parrot.
But this isn’t about Hanging Parrots, this is about ground and digging parrots, because that is a thing as well, and this is about the Decans of Taurus. If I had to use one word to describe Taurus it would be Earthy. While one would generally assume that all parrots are more air types, you would be sadly mistaken. I chose for the Major card, The Hierophant, which is the trump of Taurus, the famous ground dwelling nocturnal parrot, your favorite, and mine, the Kakapo.
As a refresher:
The Kakapo, my friends, is not the only ground-dwelling or nocturnal parrot in the world. It was my great glee and joy to feature three more Earthy parrots for these decans and I will describe them in detail below. The Hierophant is represented in these cards by its plant correspondence, the Dandelion so keep an eye out for that in each of the cards below.
The Hierophant with the three decanic rulers below.
The first decan of Taurus is ruled by Mercury, which is the Magus card represented here by its plant correspondence, Lily of the Valley. The parrot on the card is a Ground Parrot, Pezoporus wallicus. They are related to the Kakapo, the Antipodes parrot (my Queen of Fruit card), and the Night parrot, whom we shall see shortly.
This card is titled “Worry” in the Thoth deck because the idea is that Mercury can’t really do its thing in slow and steady Taurus, so all of that inactivity creates a whirling mind and too many thoughts which definitely does not help the situation. Today we would probably call this the Anxiety card and personally, I find that word slightly accurate for what is happening when I pull this card in a reading.
The Ground Parrot hangs out as their name suggests, on the ground, and it is often only in their distinctive dusk and dawn calls does anyone know they are even there. They are not flightless, like the Kakapo, and fly on silent wings when they are disturbed. Due to their large range distribution in Australia, their conservation status of “Least Concern” isn’t altogether clear, which is why I chose them for this card (among that they are ground-dwelling, Taurus, and they can fly, Mercury). They are obviously vulnerable because they are on the ground and this security of population size could easily dwindle or collapse if something happened to their grasslands.
Next up we’ve got the adorable Burrowing Parrot, Cyanoliseus patagonus, a native of Argentina and Chile. They excavate their elaborate burrows in rock cliffs and happily live in the mountains up to 2000 feet above sea level. Fun fact, the males and females look similar until you shine black light on them: the males are brighter green and the females fluoresce bright blue. I included them on this card, which Crowley calls “Success” because in all of my research, they are the only parrots who get an annual festival dedicated to them by the local Mapuche people when their babies fledge the nest. A party in your honor just for leaving the nest, like a graduation party? That sounds like Success to me.
The 6 of Fruit is ruled by the Moon, so the High Priestess (not The Moon card, which is Pisces). Moon in Taurus is exalted which means that the Moon is pleased to be there in astrological terms. This is a tremendously positive card and is named well. It really is a “Woot! Hell yes!” when you pull it in a reading.
For the 7 of Disks, the last decan of Taurus, we have the utterly elusive and mysterious bird, the Night Parrot, Pezoporus occidentalis. This decan is ruled by Saturn and certainly does not get along with Taurian energy much. Crowley calls this “Failure” which I think is a bit harsh as are all of his 7’s. When you parse out the meaning in readings, it doesn’t mean that something has failed hard stop, it means that you are worrying over it failing so I actually think “Worry” is a better title for it. If you look at the Rider Waite Smith deck imagery, it’s a guy with a worried look on his face staring at his crops wondering if they will be ok when harvest time comes. It’s talking about an unknown outcome, but fearing the worst. This is definitely not a great card to pull for a question in any reading but there is definitely more ambiguity in its meaning than straight-up “Failer” indicates. I am debating on renaming this one and the 5 above in my deck when I actually print the cards.
Anyway, the Night Parrot is really interesting. There were no confirmed sightings of even a single individual from 1912 until 1979 and there is a specific and detailed record of every sighting since then. Some of these are contested. No one knows how many there are in the wild and there is a rather large swatch of Queensland and Western Australia where they could be. They are also nocturnal which makes it even more obscured.
This is the only card in the deck so far where the parrot is flying away from the viewer. It definitely points to the difficulty this card can represent but it highlights the fact that the outcome is still yet to be determined.
With the completion of these three, I now only have 12 cards total to go. I can’t even believe it. I’m definitely in the final stretch.
My most recent YouTube video is out. I describe how I draw in my paintings when I begin a new piece.
If you are local to the Bay Area and are an artist or know someone who is, the next Call for Art is live for the upcoming show at The Berkeley Alembic! Find out more details and deadlines HERE.