Okay, I haven't read Castenadas but to me, these images are shot through with Chinese ying/yang. The technology/nature. The serpent/eagle. And finally, we fall through the looking glass and see that one is the inverse of the other. female/male. emotion/intellect. These are all classic ying/yang.
She kinda gives it away with "snake kite-flying on a string". Isn't that one of the features of Chinese New Year parade? Lama np: "Three Sides Live" by Genesis, a wonderful set to which I keep returning "done me wrong- same old song!" From: Little Bird <[EMAIL PROTECTED]><edited> >>> I agree that American ideals (or their disintegration) do seem to be a part of the song's message. The inclusion of lines from The Star Spangled Banner and this dandy: "Here in good old God save America, the land of the brave and the free, We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards of some duality, of restless multiplicity." She also seems to want to point out the industrialization of nature, comparing birds to planes and serpents to trains: eagles in jet trails, snakes along the railroad tracks/rivets in this eagle, boxcars on your snake. And in a beautiful little twist she reverses the natural environments of both bird and snake with this line: "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust, snake kite flying on a string." Almost as if the world has gone a bit mad with "coils around feathers and talons on scales."
