• rhetoric and poetic

". . .there is a blue peacock, blue and green and all the denser modulations of these colors, with gold and silver fans, which it turns to and fro as if to exhibit the brilliance of its mere presence and thereby to command. On the peacock's head, there is a diamond crown, like a coxcomb of darting light and darting fire. As this image of the imagination passes us, we are impressed by the manner of its attendant persons, silent and obedient, as if they were grateful for some expectation of their labor, of which they seem to feel sure." --Wallace Stevens, From the second draft ending to "A Collect of Philosophy"

There is a religious/ethnic group in the Middle East known as the Yezidi who worship a Peacock Angel. They've been victims of Muslim genocide for over a thousand years. Wikipedia has a good article on them, including a picture of the angel.

I'm not sure where I'm going with, except that I once had a dream of a ruined city in which one solitary peacock feather waved to and fro in the wind. My affect in the dream and on waking up was very calm and enlightened. This was before I had read this statement by Stevens, or heard of the Yazidi. Odd. I think we're in the presence of an Archetype here.

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