I was fooling around typing various words into google image search, and under ‘unicorn carthorse’ was annoyed to see a picture of my avatar in the top slot, but no sign of the Rainbearer himself. So I decided to try and remedy this by uploading the image itself, rather than a link to it, and having done so I guess I should write something about it.

The figure perched on top of the horse is Rain, who represents harmony, or better sympathy (in the old sense) in the Unconscious. The device on his shield is the reversable loop - as I call it - because you can, without stopping, begin in either direction, pass to the opposite direction and then back again. With a single figure-of-eight, this doesn’t work.

The unicorn carthorse, aka Rainbearer, is standing on a cricket pitch, and is in fact in the process of trampling the stumps - those pieces of wood - which must be correctly in place for the game to be played. The unicorn carthorse is, in short, a spoil-sport. This means that he refuses to play by the rules of the establishment: in this case the cricketing establishment.

This attitude sits well with that of his rider, who seems intent on attacking, with his cricket bat, the person riding the not-bull. This person, with the air of an English farmer, is in fact John Bull, which according to Merriam-Webster online refers to ‘the English nation personified’ or ‘a typical Englishman’ - the English everyman, if you like. No Bull ought to mean the absence of bull, baloney, fakery etc, but it is complicated by having another meaning. This second one refers to the whole Zen culture and all spin offs, where the goal of human existence appears to be to disappear up one’s own rear end - otherwise known as ‘enlightenment’ - a devious little male-side manoeuvre of which I have written elsewhere. So, the unicorn carthorse is apparently carrying his rider into battle against all that - whatever exactly that is…

There are other things in this image too. I wanted to set a puzzle here involving old cartoon images, but half an hour’s search on the web by me knowing what I’m looking for has proved fruitless, so what chance do you have? Instead, I’ll do further research and hopefully let you have the results.