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A faun was half-man and half-goat, it was also known as a satyr. The Latin god Faunus was the protector of shepherds. They were often regarded by poets and painters alike as symbolic of mischievousness and fun-loving, occasionally slight, but playful, malevolence.

“ In fact, we can speculate that if the faun had been a party-political creature, its unruly grouping would have been steadfastly on the side of malevolence, mischief and a general duty to harass and harry the status quo”.

As we see in this painting, fauns do not actually actively do anything, but their role is to mock.

“They are perhaps a little too beastly for their own good, and they are certainly too beastly for the good of a repressive morality-strapped or obsessed world.”

The blackbird has one of the most beautiful voices of any of the songbirds.  The functions of heaven can be heard as music and the programs can be heard as songs - songlines  -  beautiful melodies, harmonic and often haunting.

Thus the songbird, the blackbird, nightingale and so on make magic, change the way things are.  They are the magicians of the spirit world and they can be living souls.  They can heal, inspire, and change functions to help a person learn and grow. 

And the faun and the blackbird in Bocklin’s painting are making music together, weaving their act of changing the world.

The hand position is actually a V sign – but the V-sign has a special spiritual meaning.

There is confidence here that Bocklin may lose later as things became worse and worse.  The confidence of a man who thinks – with the help of his friends– that they can change the world for the better using art – music, poems, paintings, and literature.

But they were wrong.  The materialistic and profane opposition ended up poisoning the blackbirds – and from this we obtained a Silent Spring.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night – Beatles

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise