Plumed Serpent/ modern icon

Q: I recall a reference you've made to the plumed serpent in today's symbology.  Will you please say something about that?  P.D.

A: There is an excellent essay at http://spiritualgenome.com/plumed_serpent/htm which details aspects of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed or feathered serpent.  The article includes meaningful quotes from D. H. Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent, and scientific references to our DNA, crop circles, and the cutting of the umbilical cord which plummets us all at birth into a world of loss.

The swan is not referenced in this article, nor have I seen it referenced anywhere else in this context.  It seems to me that the plumed serpent has been preserved in our westernized, Christianized culture in the ubiquitous figure of the swan, which is most usually depicted with wings lifted, though not in flight.  In nature, the swan is a bird seen only occasionally with wings lifted, and often on water.  When we wiped out the symbols and literature of pre-Christian civilizations, we did not, and could not, destroy the deep impulses in our subconscious mind.  I speculate that the image of the plumed serpent lives on in our common depiction of the swan.