Dragons, Dogs & Amadillos?

[R. Sale]

The point I am hoping to make about the VMs illustration and the discussion of animal identification is that it is not just a matter of finding an animal that is the best subjective match. This is a tewfer - double or nothing. Most attempts to identify the VMs animal have simply ignored the wobbly lines as if they were irrelevant. And those who have named them them have called them a pillow, a filter, an alter or a cushion. According to heraldic tradition however, this is a nebuly line. And given the traditional interpretation, these lines represent clouds.

I believe that the presence of the lines is as important as the identification of the animal. Therefore the requirement to match the VMs illustration is to have both elements: the animal and the clouds. This criterion admits few examples.

Of the illustrations I have seen, it is my opinion that the example of the Tubingen Ram, as posted by Darren Worley, is the closest in matching both elements. Though the lines, similarly colored, are a better match than the animals, it is still within the realm of possibility.

As to the latest image from MarcoP, do two lions beat a ram? Well, I'm not sure. I've got no credentials in art interpretation, not a single one. What I see under the lions is a band of text. I can't make it out. Is there a better interpretation? Is there something about 'beginning' and 'ending' at certain dates? Then there is the nebuly line across the page, representing the cosmic boundary, and under it the sun etc.

My view is that the band of text is a separate, independent and intervening element. It stands between the lions and the nebuly lines. The lions are a sort of heading, the text is a label, the rest is a picture. The lions and the nebuly line are almost juxtaposed. But they are not ideologically connected. And that stands in contrast to the VMs and Tubingen ram comparison, where the animal and the nebuly lines are actually and ideologically connected within the illustration according to traditional, medieval interpretation. And that is simply that this is not just a ram, or some animal of another sort. This is a celestial ram, above the clouds. This is Aries. Have you looked at VMs Aries lately? Maybe it's a subtle hint.

In the image posted by VViews, the lines in the image are a bit irregular and wavy at best. They do not display the bulbous character that is the defining quality of a nebuly line. Wavy lines are an alternative representation used in some illustrations, but the VMs images use nebuly lines in several locations as the apparent preference.
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