Serpent.

image:davidrankineart.com


A Serpent is a very popular, potent and ancient symbol and I'm deeply interested to find out what is hidden behind it.
I'm born in the year of the Serpent , according to the traditional Chinese calendar. Furthermore , I saw a couple of times a Serpent in my dreams. Once it was quite interesting, because two or three days after that dream, something happened exactly like that picture I saw during the night, symbolically I mean. Man have to " read " the vision and I must say it is quite easy ... after the happening.
It was on Easter last year. I work with many people and I know many of them quite well, we are almost " friends ".Because of this I become a victim of a flagrant deceit - you just don't expect it from people you know. I must say that at that moment I didn't think about the dream at all. I dream a lot, strange things, but man never knows what's a fruit of his mind and what's something...different. Now I have another point of view and I've started to trust my dreams. For the record, the end was good for me.
Another time I've dreamt that I fall between millions of small snakes, like these on Medusas head. I still remember that awful, repulsive, creepy feeling. Pfuuu.
That was a good sign, according to the things that have happened after that.
Once I've found an old skin of a Serpient and I took it. Don't do this, people! It was a big mistake , which brought many disastres after it. Of course, it could be just a coincidence, but my advice still is - don't take it!
And one more thing - as I work as a pharmacist now, the Serpent is a modern emblem of healing and medicine.

So let's see what I've found out about this amazing creature:

Serpent is a word of Latin origin (from serpens, serpentis "something that creeps, snake") that is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some potent symbolic value. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to humankind.

Serpents in world mythology are seen as ruling the underworld, protecting great treasure, and possessing secret knowledge. They represent both good and evil.
Ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Scandinavia, Greece, and Pre-Columbian America, to name just a few, all shared the symbolism of the snake in their religion and folklore. Snake gods and goddesses are seen throughout different ancient cultures such as the Greek Medusa with snakes for hair, or the Minoan Snake Goddess, or the Sumero-Babylonian Enki, the Serpent Lord of Wisdom and trickster god. They are significant deities with fierce and fearful power.

Snakes were an extremely popular representation of deity, of magical powers, and of regeneration and life. Indeed, serpents are life-giving and life-affirming. The Arabic has related words for serpent (hayyah) and life (hayat), both coming from the same root with the implication of the serpent being a life-giver.

Snakes were often affixed to the sterns of boats of many cultures to guide the seafarers and frighten any who might attack. The snake is seen as a modern emblem of healing and medicine still used in the form of the medical star of life symbol, the caduceus of Hermes and the rod of Aesclepius.


Serpents represent both good and evil in mythology. Worship and fear of serpents has been seen throughout religious history, as the snake represents a male, a female or androgynous god. Throughout the world the serpent may symbolize opposing qualities to different peoples, such as death, destruction, rebirth, authority, sin, trickery, temptation, wisdom, prophecy, mystery, fertility, healing, medicine, poisoning, warning, renewal, mortality, and immortality.

Snakes serve as guardians in folklore. Symbolically they can represent the earth and the underworld. Snakes are thought of as secretive and are equated with the hidden and most sacred aspects of religion. Early religion used the serpent as a phallic symbol, and also as a symbol of the mother goddess. Their forked tongues are thought to show duplicity, and their words cannot be trusted.


Cosmic Serpents

Much folklore worldwide depicts a great serpent that encircles the world. In this case where the snake swallows its own tail to form a circle, it is known by the Greek term Ouroboros, although the symbol first appeared in Ancient Egypt. Such a cosmic serpent is found in the Norse Jormungandr which encircled the world in the deep of the oceans, swallowing its own head.

In Mesoamerica, Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent deity represents both the earth and the sky. Quetzalcoatl has a father known as Mixcoatl. Mixcoatl is the Cloud Serpent deity who is identified with the heavens and the Milky Way. The Feathered Serpent is a popular iconographic symbol found throughout the Americas as seen, for example, among the Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans, those from Peru, Chile, and Hopis of the American Southwest, as well as the ancient mound builders of America and Europe.




The serpent is often found associated with a sacred tree, perhaps guarding some sacred fruit. This chthonic serpent may be coiled at the bottom of the tree. The snake as protector at a sacred tree is seen in Biblical and Norse mythology, as well as in the tales of the Bodhi tree of Buddhism.

The snake also inhabits the subterranean earth or the underworld, where he is a guardian of sacred entrances. Serpents are found throughout Egyptian mythology, usually as females. The cobra is a symbol of the goddess from antiquity and appears on the crown, the Uraeus, and in the hieroglyphic names of female goddesses. The cosmic chthonic serpent of Egypt is a male, however, known as Apep. Apep, an evil demon, represented darkness and chaos. Apep, who appeared from the Middle Kingdom onward, was considered the enemy of the Sun God, Ra.

The Egyptians practiced many rites to aid the god Ra to make his successful journey through each night undefeated by Apep. During the New Kingdom, the serpent Apep became associated with the god Set. The great antiquity of the place of the cosmic snake against the solar god was found in Egypt with a snake figure shown as an enemy of a solar deity. This was depicted on an ancient pottery bowl, now in the Cairo Museum (Naqada I, ca. 4000 BCE).

Sources:

Black, Jeremy & Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, An Illustrated Dictionary University of Austin Press (1992)

to be continued:

the Serpent in the different ages and mythologies