oh @kayanem thank you for pointing this out.
Now that we’ve seen the episode, I’m wondering if it might be specifically a rendering of a Lakota Thunderbird? since Derek seems to be Lakota (he says the word wasi’chu) and they are in that area. It seems most likely to me. I wiiiish they would give Kaia a specific ancestry. I don’t really want to speculate on that, though I will say that I’m fairly certain Yadi has Latinx ancestry… anyway, so I’m thinking Lakota is what they would go for if they like, were directing the artist to do specific Thunderbird symbols/imagery. My dad’s side is First Nations but I don’t have any authority whatsoever on Lakota legends (though a lot of it has similarities to many other Thunderbird stories). I can share what I’ve researched, recognizing, of course, the spiritual context, which I don’t wish to denigrate or misrepresent.
As far as I can tell, Thunderbird could be called wankinyan in Lakota. At least one source (John Lame Deer in 1969–so I don’t know anything about the context of his interpretation, but it does seem to be just about the easiest semi-reliable source to find, so if one art department was looking, this would likely be what they find) has said that there are actually four thunderbirds, one for each of the cardinal directions. Going off of that, this seems to fits best as a representation of the thunderbird of the south, which is said to be white and/or blue. (and also to have no eyes or ears, though the thunderbird can still see and hear).
But there’s no telling if it was meant to be that specific. It could be just a symbol of great power. Thunderbirds are generally considered very powerful, even to have the power of life and death by some. And, according to John Lame Deer, if you dream of them, you get a little of their power.
Also according to John Lame Deer, sometimes they scare you, but they do it to test your courage during a vision quest (which he calls “crying for a dream”), and they are good spirits that like to help people.
In more than one version of the myth, thunderbirds show a protector capacity by defeating water monsters (specifically in this myth it’s Unktehi and her little water monsters) that are threatening humans (in John Lame Deer’s explanation of the myth, the thunderbirds defeated them with fire).
(It’s interesting then that the Bad Place seems a sort of Purgatory 2.0 when the Thunderbird seems to me basically the antithesis to the Leviathan, which were essentially water monsters that came from Purgatory)
But anyway, thunderbirds are connected to rain (storms, thunder, lightning), fire, and the truth. So this mural could be pointing to something having to do with one of those; it could also just be representing a link between the natural and supernatural worlds, as thunderbirds are (in my understanding, and I think in the Lakota tradition), a more spiritual being than physical. It’s even said that it’s impossible to see a thunderbird, or at least the entire form at once. And finally, the Thunderbird is said to have a contrary nature (like the weather), and thus, in the Lakota tradition, if one dreams of a thunderbird they are destined to become a heyoka (described as a sacred clown that does the opposite of what is expected). It is also said that if you have a vision of regular birds, you are destined to become a medicine person. (Interestingly, there are also regular birds in the mural (or perhaps little thunderbirds like those that joined in the fight against the water monsters)). (Those are birds, right? I know in some Pacific Northwestern traditions the Thunderbird has what I guess could be described as yellow lightning snakes that come out of the wings, so I suppose it could be an abstract representation of that, but I think they’re supposed to be birds). (Also according to my shoddy googling on the Lakota, yellow is also sometimes cited as the “color” of the southern direction (though sometimes of East..), so that’s two things possibly pointing south although I have no idea what the relevance of that could be).
So yeah. I don’t really know where the idea of a thunderbird fits into the show, but I love the idea that that’s what this is meant to represent. I think it’s just a little nod and not really going to go anywhere, although now that I’m thinking about it, I suppose the giant footprint we saw in the Bad Place could be from a giant bird… though I sort of… hope not…
Though, TPTB have hinted that Kaia has a connection to this world which she doesn’t understand yet. I suppose this could be foreshadowing.. maybe she draws her power from her dreams of the bad place, or maybe through the creatures there, she will learn about herself. Or it could be just a one-off symbolic representation of Kaia and her powers, or nothing I’ve brought up. Just thought I’d put forward some thoughts on the subject.
