There are also some alchemical themes here, in that there is a fixed, or salt form, for the serpent, and a flying or sulfur form for the eagle. Odin starts out as fixed, undergoes the change after uniting with the female principle, and then gains the ability to "fly" afterwards. Thinking about the themes in The Seed of Yggdrasil, where women are the inner motivating principle within solid things, this makes sense of what is going on.

I also agree that the book is an editors nightmare. Argh.