Dream Of Snake Wrapped Around My Leg? All Answers

Just the thought of a snake snaking its way into your dreams can make your skin crawl. And according to astrologers and dream interpreters, just the thought of a snake snaking into your dreams can give you goosebumps. And according to astrologer and dream interpreter Stephanie Gailing, author of The Complete Book of Dreams, “a snake in your dream is… a big deal.” But, she’s quick to qualify, a big deal doesn’t necessarily mean a big, bad, or nightmarish deal . In fact, dreams about snakes can symbolize a range of benign or even outright positive events in your life, such as transformation, creativity, and fertility.

However, the meaning largely depends on the person who is dreaming. To find out what certain dreams about snakes mean to you, Gailing advises dreamers to take a two-pronged approach. First look within: ask yourself what your interpretation of the snake in the dream is and how does it make you feel?

Next, consider what the snake is doing in your dream. “Is the snake attacking you? Are they just on your bookshelf? It’s all about the context for each dream,” she says.

Here’s how to find out what dreams about snakes mean to you

Not all people come from the same background and this helps to figure out what dreams about snakes mean. For example, someone who grew up outdoors might have a less anxious relationship with a snake. Perhaps they can even welcome the snake into their dream and see it as a positive omen.

If a person has a positive relationship with snakes, or at least isn’t afraid of them, it’s possible that they’ll wake up feeling like they have a direction in life.

“For them, snakes are power,” says Gailing. “There’s mystery and companionship—there’s no fear.” If a person has a positive relationship with snakes, or at least isn’t afraid of them, it’s possible they’ll wake up feeling like they have direction in life. On the other hand, someone who grew up in the city—with minimal snake interactions—may have more fear of snakes even in their dreams.

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4 common snake dreams and their meaning

There are tons of dreams about snakes that a person could have. Some of the most common snake dreams Gailing has heard can have a handful of meanings – depending on the person, of course.

Before attributing meanings to dreams, however, Gailing encourages dreamers to take a moment and think about what they think about snakes in real life, but also how they made you feel in the dream. Once you understand what you think about the creature, you can combine this with common snake archetypes to see what the dream means to you.

1. The snake sheds its skin: death and rebirth

According to Gailing, this dream reflects the transformation. “This release of a sense of self is necessary in order to then regenerate to the next level of self,” she says. “The snake is such a powerful symbol of that.”

If someone who is afraid of snakes has this dream, it can mean that they are afraid of change or transformation.

2. You go for a walk and see a snake: There is something in your life that is worth reconsidering

A snake crossing your path on a walk while you sleep is not as scary as it is in real life. According to Gailing, this could be a sign that something in your life needs more attention.

“You go about your life and you have to see something. Maybe look at your fears — if you’re scared of [the snake],” says Gailing. “You may realize that in your pursuit you may need to let go or go through some kind of transformation.” You could use this as an opportunity to assess which areas of your life bring you happiness and which…well, not so much. It could also be a sign that some effective self-care practices are in order.

3. There’s a snake in your bedroom: creativity and sexuality

It’s safe to say that even if you grew up in the Arizona desert and are very comfortable with the idea of ​​being around snakes, you would probably be uncomfortable having one in your bed . But what if you don’t loathe it? What if you were somehow… intrigued?

In this case, dreams about snakes in your bed may reflect “your creative life force or your sexuality,” says Gailing. Some questions to ask yourself to educate yourself about creativity are: Is there an area in my life where I lack creativity? Is there an area in my life that I’m putting too much creative energy into?

When it comes to sexuality, the Snake might prompt you to ask yourself the following questions: Am I honest with myself about my sexuality? Does my current situation satisfy my sexuality?

4. The recurring snake dream

“In general, the power of the recurring dream — whether it’s about a snake or something else — always seems important because something is really trying to get your attention,” says Gailing. “It’s something that needs to be reconsidered.”

If you’ve had a long string of recurring dreams, think again about how you feel about this snake. “Have you made friends with your fear? Have you completed your transformation? Have you become an ally in the healing process?”

4 other possible meanings of snake dreams

If your specific dreams about snakes don’t fit into any of the specific archetypes above, that doesn’t mean your dream means nothing. Rather, Gailing outlines four general concepts represented by snake dreams below.

1. Healing

“Snakes are an incredible symbol of healing — we just have to look at the caduceus staff with the serpents intertwined,” says Gailing. (According to research, the caduceus dates back to 1400 BC and has been the symbol of the medical community in the United States since the late 19th century.) In fact, Gailing says, “Back in the Romano-Greek period, dreams were the heart of healing.” In addition, the Celts often associated dreams of snakes with healing pools and water.

2. Temptation (biblically speaking)

“Of course we can’t think of the serpent in the Bible enticing Eve to eat the apple,” says Gailing of the Old Testament. “The serpent is considered to be temptation or the creator of chaos.”

3. Fertility and creative vitality

“In many cultures, snakes are [also] a symbol of … creative life force,” says Gailing, adding that the term “life force” extends to fertility as well. Cultures such as the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Native Americans view snakes as symbols of fertility, rebirth, renewal, and even immortality.

4. Something beyond our control

“When people think of snakes, it’s usually out of our control,” says Gailing. “It slides, it’s mysterious. It kind of comes out of the bushes and can kill or poison us.” So think about what might be causing you to feel a lack of control in your life.

In order to ultimately interpret what dreams about snakes mean to you, it is crucial to first find out what you think about the snake – in reality and in the dream – and then to put it in a historical context.

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If a snake appears in your dream, what does it mean? Many people panic when they dream of a snake, fearing that it is a symbol of misfortune and the arrival of danger. This is, of course, a knee-jerk reaction out of self-protection. In fact, you don’t have to worry too much. To dream of snakes usually means good luck.

The snake is sixth in the Chinese zodiac. Chinese horoscope claims that people born in a snake year have many similar qualities to snakes in the animal world: for example, contortionists are indifferent, cold and calm.

To clear your confusion (or at least give you an oriental perspective), take a look at our in-depth interpretations of snake dreaming according to Chinese dream theory.

Chinese dream interpretation theory

“Zhou Duke Interprets Dreams” (周公解梦Zhou Gong Jie Meng) is the classical Chinese text that forms the basis of most traditional Chinese dream interpretation theories. It is traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou (reign 1042–1035 BC), worshiped as the ‘God of Dreams’ and ‘First Sage’.

Common meanings of dreaming about snakes

The snake symbolizes the spirituality of wisdom or keen intuition. In myths and folk tales of many countries, such as China, snakes appear as sages and gods. So when the appearance of a snake in a dream is “mythical” in context, it often represents wisdom.

Dreaming of snakes sometimes symbolizes “intuition”. Snakes are considered sensitive animals, similar to humans in intuition. Therefore, in their dreams, people often receive a “revelation” from snakes. If you believe in religion, it may indicate that your understanding is growing.

Colored snakes in dreams

To dream about a black snake shows that you have a good relationship with the people who help you in life and your reliable work is also the main reason why many people will trust you. Your work will be fine.

To dream of a white snake means that you will have good luck and a stroke of luck in the near future.

To dream of a yellow snake means good luck is coming, everything around you will sail smoothly. You can do whatever you plan or want to do and you will get good results.

The dream of a green snake symbolizes vitality, good luck and good opportunities. It indicates that life is stable, your career is thriving, and your relationships with colleagues are growing.

To dream of colorful snakes means you look good in life on the surface, but there may be a potential hazard, such as a trap, that you should be particularly aware of.

Types of snakes in dreams

To dream of large snakes represents good luck and indicates that there will be other people who will help you in your career. Your income is also very good and your skills are rewarded.

Dreaming about small snakes indicates that you treat some people as friends, but they will secretly slander you. They want to destroy your future.

To dream of an anaconda means that you will engage in extravagant behavior and that you will regret it later when you think about it.

To dream of a cobra indicates that the dreamer will have a clear mind, be able to make judgments with agile reason, and become a person of principle.

Dreaming of many snakes indicates life has been busy lately or is a sign of wealth.

Dreaming about dead snakes indicates that bad things are far from you and your luck will improve.

Dream about snakes doing things

To dream of snakes in water implies that your bosses value you and may encourage you. You earn all of this on your own. Colleagues will really look up to you and work very well with you to keep your work running smoothly.

To dream that a snake bites you indicates that you will succumb to the influence of evil forces, and an enemy will destroy your career.

To dream that a snake bites your hand indicates that there are bad things in your career and the ideas of others are contrary to yours, so there are many things that are not going well in your career. You must think of others when you face problems and you should not make your decisions alone.

To dream of someone killing a snake indicates that troubles will be resolved and everything will go well.

To dream of a snake that is walking indicates that you will be lucky in the near future. Being more collaborative in your work and having a long-term plan will benefit your career development.

Dreaming about snakes that do nothing to you indicates that your fortune is quite good and you will get the help of friends to solve problems successfully.

Luck and Fengshui for Snake Dreamers

Love rating: 62%

Wealth Index: 82%

Health index: 65%

Success Rate: 91%

Lucky color: green

Favorable orientation: north-west

Suitable activities: funeral, funeral

Taboos: Use of waterway traffic, first nail care for newborns

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What do you do when a python tries to kill you?

I think about this scenario far too often. A few times I was near thick foliage and undergrowth and heard something coming my way. I couldn’t see it, but it was in there. Ha! I sound paranoid, don’t I? You spend 3-4 hours alone in Thailand’s rainforest and see what your mind is doing.

Most nights I’m absolutely fine. I’m not afraid of ghosts. I’m not afraid of the people I meet in the jungle – mostly. I’m not afraid of venomous snakes because I think anything I do that gets me into trouble is largely within my control. There is a very small chance that I’ll die from a poisonous snake bite in the forest, and I’m not afraid of that at all.

However, I fear that something is chasing me. Tigers, leopards, bears and big pythons.

Recently, a rubber tapper in Indonesia went out alone at night to collect latex from the plantation’s rubber trees. He didn’t come back. Friends went looking for him. They found him in the stomach of what was said to be a seven-meter-long reticulated python. That’s a big snake. People were incredulous, could one REALLY eat it?

Are you kidding me? You can eat ALLIGATORS. What makes you think a person is different?

Wait, here’s the best line from the entire BBC article covering this story… “Pythons rarely kill or eat humans, although there have been occasional reports of them swallowing small children or animals.”

Wait, there are “OCCASIONAL reports of them swallowing animals? There are thousands! Happens a thousand times a day. Pythons eat dogs, cats, birds, chickens, pigs, alligators, small deer and many other animals!

Here’s another silly thing they said: “Reticulated pythons are among the longest reptiles on earth and will suffocate their victims before swallowing them whole.”

Just a few minutes of research would have turned up the fairly new study showing that people who die as a result of a python attack die because their blood pressure rises so high – the heart can’t beat. The heart stops and death occurs. Suffocation is not the cause of death.

Anyhow… here is the BBC article on this story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39427458

So the purpose of this article is WHAT TO DO IF IT’S BITTEN A PYTHON – AND QUICKLY WRAPES AROUND IT.

Find ALL the best Midwest / Tom’s Reptile Snake Gear online HERE >

How to Survive a Big Python Bite and Full-on Attack

Python bites you. Pull out a knife as quickly as possible. The knife should have a cord that you can wrap around your wrist so you can do #3. Don’t let the python wrap itself around you at all costs. If possible – stab the snake in the side or abdomen repeatedly and in many different places. Do not stop. Stop when the snake lets go and you can run away as fast as you can. Hopefully the snake will let go.

That’s been my plan for about the last decade. I’m not sure if it would work. I wish I had a better plan. If you can think of anything LET ME KNOW.

Some other ideas… and yes, these are bad – awful – but when you’re in a life-or-death situation, you have to do whatever it takes to stay alive, right? I mean who wants to be snake fodder.

If the eyes were visible at all – jab a knife, pen, rock, stick, or anything – into the eyes repeatedly – and pluck the eyes out if possible. Bring a container of strong mouthwash or isopropyl alcohol and keep it in your shirt pocket — easy to access. Snakes have been shown to let go whenever they encounter a face full of mouthwash. If you could keep a bear trap handy and just place it the size of the beast’s body, that might be enough to make them reconsider biting you. I know you would seriously risk closing it on your arm trying to catch the snake with it. I wonder if a small saw would be the best weapon. A saw with a blade capable of sawing through 2-3 inch branches might be ideal. I’m not sure where you would keep a saw like this handy, but you’d be damn glad to have it when the time came. I think this might be the best violent way to remove the snake. With the right saw, you can saw through a python’s spine in seconds.

Anyway, that’s what occurred to me.

WHAT DO YOU think is the best idea?

TELL ME WHAT WOULD YOU DO…

Find ALL the best Midwest / Tom’s Reptile Snake Gear online HERE >

Snakes can make great pets because they are generally fairly easy to care for, especially when compared to cats, dogs or birds, and because they are beautiful and have fascinating demeanors. However, determining whether your snake likes you or not can be more difficult than it is with a cat or dog.

You can know your snake likes you when it is generally calm and unhurried around you, willingly eats and explores in your presence when you are around, comes to the front of the enclosure, and is calm and relaxed. if you deal with it.

Here’s what you need to know about some other signs your snake likes you, plus important information about how snakes interact with people and what to do if your snake doesn’t seem to like you very much.

Signs that your snake likes you

This infographic will show you seven signs your snake likes you. Below this infographic we explain these signs in a bit more detail.

1. Calm, leisurely movements.

Snakes that are frightened or afraid of being near a person will generally attempt to escape, generally using quick, frenzied movements. Therefore, a Snake who is calm and relaxed in their movements around you is unlikely to be afraid of you.

2. Takes food from you or while you are present.

Eating makes a snake vulnerable to predators, so a snake is unlikely to take food from you or eat it when you’re around if it thinks you pose a potential threat.

If your snake eats while you are around or willingly takes food from you, they probably trust you.

3. Will explore you quietly when you hold it.

A snake that gently grabs you and explores your arms, shoulders, etc. rather than trying to get away or grabbing you very tightly is likely trusting you to hold it gently and not let it fall, indicating that you like you .

4. Come to the front of the enclosure when you are present.

A very telling sign that your snake likes you is if it will come to the front of the enclosure when you approach it.

A snake that is afraid of you will likely seek a hiding place if you approach, and an indifferent snake will likely not move at all.

5. Lies on you.

A Snake that likes to hang on your shoulders or your arm and soak up your warmth shows clear trust in you. Snakes willing to sleep in this position are even more trusting.

6. Explores when you’re around.

A concerned snake will remain silent or seek a hiding place when you are around, while a snake, very comfortable with your presence, will happily explore new surroundings when you are around.

7. Behaves differently with you.

If your snake comes in front of the enclosure or wants you to handle it, but not when other people are around, you can know that your snake recognizes you and prefers to be around you over other people.

Are snakes really capable of liking a person?

Snakes seem to seek the company of other snakes and even prefer some snakes to others. Snakes can also learn to work with one another to achieve a common goal of capturing prey.

If snakes are able to discriminate between other snakes and have preferences in relation to the company of other snakes, it may be obvious that they are also able to prefer the company of humans.

People who own snakes often find that their snake seems to be showing signs of liking them. They often feel affection for their snakes and feel that their snakes have affection for them as well.

Since some snakes not only seem to prefer the company of other snakes but are also able to protect their young, they seem capable of a certain level of affection.

It can be very difficult to scientifically determine affection. Even animals that we now think clearly show affection, like dogs and cats, were not necessarily considered affectionate until relatively recently.

As such, it remains debatable whether snakes are capable of liking a person, but there is certainly some evidence that might indicate they do.

Can snakes distinguish between different people?

Snakes use sight to understand their world better than people previously thought. Therefore, it would be logical to assume that snakes can visually recognize a person.

When it comes to smell, a snake is even more likely to be able to tell you apart from someone else. Snakes have a nose that allows them to smell, but they are even more adept at smelling with their tongues.

They have a pair of organs on the palate known as Jacobson’s or vomeronasal organs that are dedicated to smelling.

The probability is very high that snakes can distinguish between individuals with their strong sense of smell.

They’ll probably be able to tell you apart from someone else once you’re in the room, but if they’re able to flick their tongues at you, they’ll be even more sure of your scent.

Snakes can also sense vibrations and may be able to distinguish the vibrations in their voice and movements from those of other people.

This could explain why wild snakes sometimes seem much less frightened when they hear the footsteps of a person they recognize who hasn’t given them any trouble before but can quickly flee from unfamiliar footsteps.

Are snakes more comfortable with one person than another?

As said, snakes can probably tell people apart, and it stands to reason that they would be more comfortable with one person than another. The experience of individual snake keepers certainly confirms this.

Many people find that their snake gets excited and comes forward when they enter the room, but that same snake is indifferent when someone else enters the room.

Many people also find that their snake seems to enjoy being handled by you, but is reluctant to be handled by others.

Similarly, people often find that if they ask someone else to take care of their snake while they are away, the snake will be unwilling to take food in the presence of a stranger, even though it will happily accept food from its owner.

All of this evidence suggests that Snakes are more comfortable with someone they know well and trust than with other people.

Signs your snake doesn’t like you

Snakes are very different from humans or most other pets, which can make it difficult to determine if they like you or not. It can be helpful to understand some of the signs that your snake might not like you very much:

Move quickly for cover when you’re close

Refusing to take food from you or to eat when you are around

Hissing at you, snapping at you, or shaking the end of the tail like a rattlesnake

Hitting to get out of the grip while lifting

Taste the air very quickly and flatten your body when you’re around

Form an S-shape or punching position when attempting to pick them up or while holding them

Don’t explore your surroundings at leisure, only seek shelter when you’re around

Your snake doesn’t like you? So make your snake like you

It can be very frustrating when you find that your beloved snake doesn’t seem to like you as much as you do them.

Whether your snake gets along well with someone else in the family but seems indifferent to you, or you’re the only person who interacts with a snake but she wants nothing to do with you, you’re no doubt wondering if there’s anything you can do about yours snake likes you more.

Luckily, you’ll be happy to know that there are a number of things you can do to encourage your Snake to be more positive about you.

Be confident with your snake

You should strive to be as confident as possible when interacting with your snake. If you are unsure or anxious, you may tend to shake your hands or body, be hesitant to approach, and otherwise show your fear to your snake.

This fearfulness, in turn, causes your snake to behave more fearfully as well.

Connect to food for your snake

Food is one of the most important things in your snake’s life, so it should come as no surprise that creating an association between you and food will make your snakes like you more.

You can hand feed your snake with tongs (we recommend long tongs like these) or simply remain in the room when your snake is being fed so that it gets used to the food around you and associates your presence with the food.

“Break the hunt” when handling your snake

Most snakes are ambush predators. They might mistake your hand for food in their enclosure. Needless to say, a bite from your snake doesn’t encourage the snake to like you, nor does it encourage you to like the snake.

You can use a snake hook (like this one) to pick the snake up, or use an object to wipe the snake’s nose before you pick it up so it knows there’s no food involved in the interaction.

Support your snake’s entire body

When holding a snake, it is very important that you provide good support for the snake’s entire body. If you dangle the snake from a single support point, it will become very fearful and unlikely to trust you.

Don’t hold back your snake’s head

If you are unsure about handling a snake, you may want to hold your head up to prevent it from biting you. However, if you hold your snake by the head, it will see you as a predator and violate the trust between you.

If you are unsure about holding a snake and want to avoid being bitten, you should wear gloves or use a hook to support the first half of the snake’s body near the head.

We recommend using these gloves here as they are made for handling snakes and will protect you from stings.

Don’t touch your snake immediately after or just before it eats

After a meal, snakes just want to relax and digest their food. Handling a snake right after it has eaten can strain its stomach and cause belching, which can be both harmful and stressful for your snake.

On the other hand, if you handle your snake just before it is normally fed, it may be more likely to view your hands or other body parts as potential food items.

Let your snake explore

Most snakes enjoy exploring a new environment. Transporting them to a new place and being close to them as they explore can associate you with an enjoyable experience and make your snake like you more.

A good way to do this is to let your snake explore a household plant while you supervise it.

Enjoy a positive relationship with your snake

Knowing the signs of whether or not your snake likes you can make it much easier to understand how they’re feeling and encourage them to like you more when they seem insecure.

With patience and plenty of positive reinforcement, you can enjoy a great relationship with your pet snake.

For fans of cheesy pop music, someone else’s heartbeat is a symbol of romantic connection. For a boa constrictor, these hits are simply a sign that it’s not done killing.

A constricting snake like a boa or python kills its prey by suffocation. It uses the momentum of its punch to throw coils around its victim’s body. Then it pushes. Each time the prey exhales, the snake squeezes a little harder. Soon the victim can no longer breathe.

We’ve known this for centuries, but amazingly no one has figured out how the snakes can tell when to stop constricting. Scott Boback of Dickinson College has the answer. Through their thick coils, a boa can feel the tiny heartbeats of their prey. When the heart stops, the snake begins to relax.

It would be virtually impossible to measure the heartbeat of a live rat while being crushed by a snake, so Boback decided on a macabre alternative. He outfitted the bodies of dead rats with artificial hearts — two tiny water-filled lightbulbs connected to a pump — and pressure sensors to measure the snake’s bruises. In this way he was able to isolate the influence of the heartbeats; He didn’t have to worry about other movements that might skew the results, such as B. Sore muscles or panic breathing.

Boback clearly demonstrated that boas fine-tune their coils to the beats of their prey. When the artificial hearts were beating, the boas constricted the rats twice as long and with twice as much pressure as when the hearts were still. And meanwhile they tightened bit by bit. If Boback stopped the hearts after 10 minutes, the pythons stopped lacing a few minutes later.

Some of Boback’s boas had been caught in the wild, others had been raised in captivity and had always fed on dead rats. They had never killed a victim with a real heartbeat, but they responded to the artificial beats just like the wild snakes. However, they exerted less pressure than the savages. This suggests that constrictors have an innate ability to respond to a victim’s heart, but experience tells them how strongly they should do so.

Squeezing the air out of an animal takes a lot of energy. The snake’s metabolism can skyrocket up to sevenfold, and all the while it’s vulnerable to attack. It makes sense that the snake would know exactly when its prey has breathed its last.

But there’s something about this logic that doesn’t quite add up. Birds and mammals need plenty of oxygen to fuel their burning metabolism, and a constrictor should be able to kill them in just a few minutes. Is it really worth feeling a victim’s heart if it saves just a few seconds of effort?

Boback thinks so. He speculates that the earliest snakes, from the Late Cretaceous, often fed on cold-blooded prey, which could go much longer without oxygen. For example, like an iguana, a lizard can slow its heart to just one beat every 5 minutes and stay underwater for up to 4.5 hours. In such animals, the line between dormant and dead is much finer, and stranglers would need keener senses to confirm the time of death.

There is an alternative explanation. Perhaps the ability to feel the ground beneath their limbless bodies made it easier for early snakes to spot their prey’s signs of life. A constrictor’s sensitive side may have evolved from sensitive sides.

Reference: Boback, Hall, McCann, Hayes, Forrester & Zwemer. 2011. Snake modulates constriction in response to prey heartbeat. Biology letters http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.1105

More on constrictors:

snakes in the bible

“Great dragon” redirects here. Not to be confused with Velikiy Drakon

Snakes (Hebrew: נָחָשׁ, romanized: nāḥāš) are mentioned in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The snake symbol played an important role in the religious traditions and cultural life of ancient Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan.[1] The serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld, as well as a symbol of fertility, life, healing, and rebirth.[2]

Nāḥāš (נחש), Hebrew for “snake”, is also associated with divination, including the verb form meaning “to tell or practice divination”. Nāḥāš occurs in the Torah to identify the serpent in the Garden of Eden. It is also used throughout the Hebrew Bible in conjunction with seraph to describe vicious serpents in the wilderness. The tannin, a dragon monster, is also found throughout the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Exodus, the staffs of Moses and Aaron are turned into serpents, a nāḥāš for Moses, a tannin for Aaron. In the New Testament, the book of Revelation uses the ancient serpent and dragon several times to identify Satan or the devil[3] (Revelation 12:9; 20:2). The serpent is most often identified with the arrogant Satan and sometimes with Lilith.[3]

The tale of the Garden of Eden and the fall of mankind presents a mythological tradition shared by all Abrahamic religions,[3][4][5][6] with a presentation more or less symbolic of the Judeo-Christian Morality and religious belief is ,[3][4][7] which has had an overwhelming impact on human sexuality, gender roles and gender differences in both Western and Islamic civilizations.[3] In mainstream Christianity (Nicaea), the doctrine of the fall is closely related to that of original or ancestral sin.[8] Unlike Christianity, the other major Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam, have no concept of “original sin” and instead have developed various other interpretations of the Eden narrative.[3][5][8][9][10] [11]

Serpents in Mesopotamian mythology[edit]

In one of the oldest stories ever written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the main character and eponymous protagonist Gilgamesh loses the power of immortality, stolen by a snake.[1][12] The serpent was a common figure in ancient Near Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean mythologies.[1] Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail, representing the eternal cyclical renewal of life,[13] the eternal return and cycle of life, death and rebirth leading to immortality.

Archaeologists have uncovered snake cult objects in Bronze Age strata in several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two in Tel Megiddo,[14] one in Gezer,[15] one in the Holy of Holies of the Area H Temple in Hazor,[16] and two in Shechem. [17] In the surrounding region, a Late Bronze Age Hittite shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other.[18] In sixth-century Babylon, a pair of bronze serpents flanked each of the four entrances to the Temple of Esagila.[19] At the Babylonian New Year, the priest was to commission two images from a woodworker, a metalworker, and a goldsmith, one of which “is to hold in his left hand a serpent of cedar wood and raise his right [hand] to the god Nabu”. [20] At least seventeen early Bronze Age Assyrian bronze serpents have been recovered from the tell of Tepe Gawra.[21] Sometimes depicted as a human-headed serpent, the Sumerian god of fertility, Ningizzida, eventually became a god of healing and magic.

Hebrew Bible[ edit ]

In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Genesis refers to a serpent that caused the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-20). Snake is also used to describe sea monsters. Examples of these identifications are found in the Book of Isaiah, where reference is made to a serpent-like dragon named Leviathan (Isaiah 27:1), and in the Book of Amos, where a serpent dwells at the bottom of the sea (Amos 9:3). Serpent figuratively describes biblical places such as Egypt (Jer 46:22) and the city of Dan (Gen 49:17). The prophet Jeremiah also compared the king of Babylon to a serpent (Jer 51:34).

Eden [edit]

The Hebrew word נָחָשׁ (Nāḥāš) is used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to the serpent appearing in the Garden of Eden at Genesis 3:1. In the first book of the Torah, the serpent is portrayed as a deceptive being or deceiver[1] who praises as good what God has forbidden and shows special cunning in his deception. (cf. Genesis 3:4–5 and 3:22) The serpent has the ability to speak and reason: “Now was the serpent more subtle (also translated as “cunning”) than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made”.[22] There is no indication in the book of Genesis that the serpent was a separate deity, although it is one of only two instances of animals speaking in the Torah[23] (Balaam’s donkey is the other) .

God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to tend to it and warned Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”[ 24] The serpent tempted Eve to eat from the tree, but Eve told the serpent what God said.[25] The serpent replies that it would certainly not die (Genesis 3:4) and that when it eats the fruit of the tree, “its eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) Eve ate the fruit and gave some to Adam, who also ate. God walking in the garden learns of their transgression. To prevent Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of the tree of life and living forever, they are banished from the garden where God places an angelic guard. The snake is punished for its part in the fall by being cursed by God to crawl on its belly and eat dust.

There is debate as to whether the serpent in Eden should be viewed figuratively or as a literal beast. According to a Midrashic interpretation in rabbinic literature, the serpent represents sexual desire;[26] another interpretation is that the serpent is the Yetzer Hara. Modern rabbinic ideas include interpreting the story as a psychological allegory, with Adam representing the logical abilities, Eve the emotional abilities, and the serpent the hedonic sexual/physical abilities.[27] Voltaire, drawing on Socinian influences, wrote: “It was so decidedly a real snake that all its species that had previously walked on its feet were condemned to crawling on their bellies.” No serpent, no animal of any kind is called Satan, or Beelzebub, or the devil in the Pentateuch.”[28]

Twentieth-century scholars such as W.O.E. Oesterley (1921) were aware of the differences between the role of the Eden serpent in the Hebrew Bible and its connection with the “old serpent” in the New Testament.[29] Modern historiographers of Satan such as Henry Ansgar Kelly (2006) and Wray and Mobley (2007) speak of the “evolution of Satan”[30] or “development of Satan”.[31]

According to Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament scholar, Lutheran theologian, and Heidelberg University professor, who employed form criticism as an adjunct to the Hebrew Bible documentary hypothesis, the serpent in the Eden narrative was more of a device to represent the temptation impulse of mankind (i.e., disobedience to God’s law) and not an evil spirit or the personification of the devil as later Christian literature erroneously portrayed it; Furthermore, von Rad himself explains that the serpent is neither a supernatural being nor a demon, but one of the wild beasts created by God (Genesis 3:1), and the only thing that distinguishes it from the others in Eden is ability speak to:

The serpent that now enters the narrative is identified as one of the beasts created by God (chap. 2:19). In the eyes of the narrator, therefore, it is not the symbol of a “demonic” power, and certainly not of Satan. The only thing that makes him a little different from the rest of the animals is his greater intelligence. […] The mention of the snake is almost incidental here; In any case, the “temptation” is a completely unmythical process, presented in this way because the narrator is obviously trying to shift the responsibility as little as possible from people. It’s all about man and his guilt; therefore the narrator has been careful not to objectify evil in any way, and has therefore personified it as little as possible as an external force. His transferring the temptation impulse to temptation outside of man was almost more of a necessity to the story than an attempt to make evil something that existed outside of man. […] In the history of religion, the serpent is indeed the sinister, strange animal par excellence […], and one can also assume that a myth long ago formed the basis of our story. But as it is now transparent and clear before us, it is anything but a myth.[23]

Moses and Aaron[edit]

When God revealed himself to the prophet Moses in Exodus 3:4-22, Moses recognized that God’s calling was to bring the people of Israel out of slavery, but expected the people to deny or doubt his calling . In Exodus 4:1-5, Moses asked God how to respond to such doubts, and God asked him to throw the staff he was carrying (possibly a shepherd’s staff) [32] to the ground, whereupon it became a snake became (a nachash). Moses fled from it, but God encouraged him to come back and grab it by the tail, and it became a staff again.

Later in the book of Exodus (Exodus 7) the rods of Moses and Aaron were turned into serpents, a nachash for Moses, a tanniyn for Aaron.

Fiery Serpents[ edit ]

“Fiery serpent” (Hebrew: שָׂרָף sārāf; “burning”) occurs in the Torah to describe a type of vicious serpent whose venom burns on contact. According to Wilhelm Gesenius, Saraph corresponds to the Sanskrit Sarpa (Jawl aqra), snake; sarpin, reptile (from root stripe, serpere).[33] These “burning serpents” (YLT) infest the great and terrible place of the desert wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9; Deuteronomy 8:15). The Hebrew word for “venomous” literally means “fiery,” “flaming,” or “burning,” like the burning sensation of a snakebite on human skin, a metaphor for the fiery wrath of God (Numbers 11:1).[34 ] ]

The book of Isaiah explains the description of these fiery serpents as “flying Saraphs” (YLT) or “flying dragons”[33] in the land of tribulation and anguish (Isaiah 30:6). Isaiah points out that these saraphs are like vipers (YLT), worse than common serpents (Isaiah 14:29).[35] The prophet Isaiah also sees a vision of seraphim in the temple itself: but these are divine agents, with wings and human faces, and are likely to be interpreted less as serpent-like and more as “flame-like.”[36]

Bronze serpent[ edit ]

In the book of Numbers, while in the wilderness, Moses fastened a bronze serpent to a pole to serve as a remedy for the bite of the “Seraphim,” the “burning ones” (Numbers 21:4-9). The phrase in Numbers 21:9, “a bronze serpent,” is a play on words, since “serpent” (nehash) and “bronze” (nehosheth) are closely related in Hebrew, nehash nehoshet.[2]

Mainstream scholars suggest that the image of the fiery serpent served to function like that of a magical amulet. Magical amulets or spells were used in the ancient Near East[37] to practice a healing ritual known as sympathetic magic to attempt to ward off, heal, or lessen the effects of diseases and poisons.[2] Copper and bronze snake figurines have been recovered, showing that this practice was widespread.[37] A Christian interpretation would be that the bronze serpent served as a symbol for each individual Israelite to take to heart their confession of sin and the need for God’s deliverance. Confession and forgiveness were both a corporate and an individual responsibility. The serpent plague remained an ongoing threat to the community, and the erected bronze serpent was a constant reminder to each individual to turn to the healing power of God.[2] It has also been suggested that the bronze serpent was a kind of intermediary between God and man[37], serving as a test of obedience in the form of free judgment[38] and standing between the dead who were unwilling to look to God chosen instrument of healing, and the living who willed and were healed.[39] Thus this instrument testified to the sovereign power of Yahweh over the dangerous and uncanny character of the desert.[38]

At 2 Kings 18:4 a bronze serpent, said to be the one that Moses made, was kept in the sanctuary of the Jerusalem temple[2].[35] The Israelites began worshiping the object as an idol or image of God, offering sacrifices and burning incense until Hezekiah was made king. Hezekiah called it Nehushtan[40] and had it torn down. Scholars have debated the nature of the relationship between the bronze Mosaic serpent and Hezekiah Nehushtan, but traditions link the two.[2]

New Testament[edit]

Gospels[ edit ]

In the Gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist calls the visiting Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7). Jesus also uses this imagery, remarking, “You serpents, you serpent family, how can you escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33). Alternatively, Jesus depicts the serpent with a less negative connotation when sending out the Twelve Apostles. Jesus admonished them: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; So be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Wilhelm Gesenius notes that even among the ancient Hebrews the serpent was a symbol of wisdom.[41]

In the Gospel of John, Jesus mentioned the Mosaic serpent when prophesying his crucifixion to a Jewish teacher.[39] Jesus compared the resurrection of the Mosaic serpent on a pole to the resurrection of the Son of Man on a cross (John 3:14-15).[42]

Temptation of Christ[ edit ]

In The Temptation of Christ, the devil quotes Psalm 91:11-12, “For it is written: He will give his angels command concerning you, and they will carry you on [their] hands, lest you crush your foot against a stone. “[44] He interrupts before verse 13: “You will step on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon (tanniyn)[45] you shall trample underfoot.”[46][47 ]

The serpent at Psalm 91:13 is identified by Christians as Satan:[48] “super aspidem et basiliscum calcabis conculcabis leonem et draconem” in the Latin Vulgate, literally “The adder and the basilisk you will trample underfoot; you will step on it the lion and the dragon”. This passage is commonly interpreted by Christians as indicating that Christ conquered and triumphed over Satan. The passage gave rise to the late antique and early medieval iconography of Christ stepping on the beasts, in which two beasts are often shown, usually the lion and the serpent or dragon, and sometimes four, usually the lion, the dragon, and the asp ( snake) are. and basilisk (which was depicted with different features) of the Vulgate. All represented the devil, as explained by Cassiodorus and Bede in their commentaries on Psalm 91.[49] The serpent is often depicted coiled around the base of the cross in depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus in Carolingian art up to about the thirteenth century; often it is depicted as dead. The crucifixion was seen in Genesis 3:15 as the fulfillment of God’s curse on the serpent. Sometimes it is pierced by the cross and in one ivory bites Christ’s heel, as in a curse.[50]

Ancient Serpent[ edit ]

Serpent (Greek: ὄφις;[51] Trans: Ophis, /ˈo.fis/; “snake”, “snake”) occurs in the Book of Revelation as “old serpent”[52] or “old serpent” (YLT). used to describe “the dragon”,[20:2] Satan[53] the adversary, (YLT) who is the devil.[12:9, 20:2] This serpent is represented as a red seven-headed dragon with ten represented horns, each provided with a diadem. The serpent fights Michael the Archangel in a war in heaven that results in this devil being thrown to earth. On Earth he pursues the woman of the apocalypse. Unable to reach them, he makes war with the rest of their seed (Revelation 12:1-18). Whoever has the key to the abyss and a great chain over his hand binds the serpent for a thousand years. The serpent is then cast into the abyss and sealed there until released (Revelation 20:1-3).

In the Christian tradition, the “old serpent” is commonly identified with the Genesis serpent and with Satan. This identification redefined the Hebrew Bible’s concept of Satan (“the adversary,” a member of the heavenly court acting in God’s name to test Job’s faith) so that Satan/serpent became part of a divine plan divergent from the Creation to Christ extended the Second Coming.[54]

Religious beliefs[edit]

Biblical Apocrypha and Deuterocanonical Books[edit]

The first deutero-canonical source linking the serpent to the devil may be the wisdom of Solomon.[55] The theme is further developed in the pseudopigraphical apocryphal apocalypse of Moses (Vita Adae et Evae) where the devil works with the serpent.[56]

Christianity [edit]

In Christianity a connection is made between the serpent and Satan, and Genesis 3:14-15, where God curses the serpent, is seen in this light: “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done these things thou art it curses all cattle and beasts of the field; you shall walk on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life / And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel” (KJV).

Following the imagery of chapter 12 of Revelation, Bernard of Clairvaux had called Mary the “slayer of dragons” and she was to be shown for a long time crushing a serpent underfoot, also a reference to her title as “New Eve”. “. [57]

Gnosticism[ edit ]

L’antiquité expliquée et représentée en figuren may be a depiction of the Demiurge. A lion-faced, serpentine deity found on a Gnostic gemstone at Bernard de Montfaucon may represent the Demiurge.

Gnosticism arose in non-rabbinic Jewish and early Christian sects in the late 1st century AD.[58] In the emergence of Christianity, various sectarian groups, dubbed “Gnostics” by their opponents, emphasized the spiritual knowledge (gnosis) of the divine spark within over the belief (pistis) in the teachings and traditions of the various communities of Christians.[ 59] [60][61][62] Gnosticism distinguishes between the supreme, unknowable God and the demiurge, the “creator” of the material universe.[59][60][61][63] The Gnostics considered this personal knowledge to be the most essential part of the salvation process, as opposed to belief as a worldview along with belief in ecclesiastical authority.[59][60][61][63]

In Gnosticism, the biblical serpent was praised and thanked in the Garden of Eden for bringing knowledge (gnosis) to Adam and Eve, thereby freeing them from the control of the malevolent Demiurge.[63] Gnostic Christian teachings draw on a dualistic cosmology, implying the eternal conflict between good and evil, and a conception of the serpent as a liberating savior and bestower of knowledge to mankind, as opposed to the demiurge or creator god identified with the Hebrew god of the ancients will.[60][63] Gnostic Christians regarded the Hebrew God of the Old Testament as the evil, false god and creator of the material universe, and the unknown God of the Gospel, father of Jesus Christ and creator of the spirit world, as the true, good god. [59][60][63][64] In the Archontic, Sethian, and Ophitic systems, Yaldabaoth (Yahweh) is viewed as the malevolent demiurge and false god of the Old Testament who created the material universe and imprisoned souls in physical bodies holds captive in the world of pain and suffering that he created.[65][66][67]

However, not all Gnostic movements viewed the Creator of the material universe as inherently evil or malevolent.[64][68] For example, the Valentinians believed that the demiurge is just an ignorant and incompetent creator trying to make the world as good as possible, but lacking the proper power to preserve its goodness.[64][68] All Gnostics were considered heretics by the proto-Orthodox early church fathers.[59][60][61][63]

See also[edit]

Mythological symbol

A snake in Kyyjärvi municipal coat of arms

The snake is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word derives from the Latin serpens, a creeping animal or snake. Serpents have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to man[1][2] and represent the dual expression[3] of good and evil.[4]

In some cultures, snakes were symbols of fertility. For example, the Hopi of North America performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a heavenly spirit) and Snake Girl (an underworld spirit) and to renew the fertility of nature. Live snakes were handled during the dance, and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee a good harvest. “The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of clouds, thunder, and lightning that rain may fall on the growing harvest.”[5] To the Hopi, snakes symbolized the umbilical cord that connected all humans to Mother Earth.[6 ] The Great Goddess often had serpents as her familiars – sometimes coiled around her sacred staff, as in ancient Crete – and they were revered as guardians of her mysteries of birth and rebirth.[7]

Evolutionary origins[ edit ]

Anthropologist Lynn Isbell has argued that the snake as a symbol of death as primates is built into our subconscious because of our evolutionary history. Isbell argues that snakes were the only significant primate predators for millions of years and that this explains why fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias worldwide and why the symbol of the snake is so prevalent in world mythology; the serpent is an innate image of danger and death.[8][9]

Furthermore, psychoanalyst Joseph Lewis Henderson and ethnologist Maude Oakes have argued that the serpent is a symbol of initiation and rebirth precisely because it is a symbol of death.[10]

Using phylogenetic and statistical methods on related motifs from folklore and myth, the French comparativeist Julien d’Huy succeeded in reconstructing a possible archaic narrative about the snake. In this Paleolithic “ophidian” myth, serpents are associated with rain and storms and even with water sources. With respect to the latter, it blocks rivers and other water sources in exchange for human sacrifice and/or material offerings.[11]

Values ​​[edit]

Fertility and rebirth[edit]

Historically, snakes and snakes represented fertility or a creative life force. Because snakes shed their skin through molting, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing.[12] The Ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and the constant renewal of life.

In some Abrahamic traditions, the serpent represents sexual desire.[13] According to some interpretations of the Midrash, the serpent represents sexual passion.[14] In Hinduism, Kundalini is a coiled serpent.[15]

guardianship [edit]

Meditating Buddha under the Protection of the Naga Mucalinda Cambodia, 1150 to 1175

Snakes are depicted as powerful guardians of temples and other sacred places. This connection may be based on the observation that when threatened, some snakes (such as rattlesnakes or cobras) will often assert and defend their ground, first resorting to threats and then fighting rather than retreating. As such, they are natural custodians of treasure or sacred sites that cannot be easily removed from harm’s way.

At Angkor in Cambodia, numerous stone carvings depict multi-headed hooded nāgas as guardians of temples or other premises. A favorite motif of Angkorean sculptors from about the 12th century AD was that of the Buddha seated in a meditation posture and his weight off the convolutions of a multi-headed nāga, who also shields him from above with his flared hood. This motif is reminiscent of the story of the Buddha and the serpent king Mucalinda: while the Buddha sat under a tree deep in meditation, Mucalinda came up from the roots of the tree to protect the Buddha from a storm that was just coming up.

The American Revolution Gadsden Flag depicts a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike. Below the image of the snake is the inscription “Don’t step on me”. The snake symbolized the dangerousness of colonists willing to fight for their rights and their homeland, and was also a symbol of their separation from Europe, as it was an animal unique to America. The motif can be found in the First Navy Jack of the US Navy.

Poison and Medicine[edit]

Snakes are associated with venom and medicine. The snake’s venom is associated with the chemicals found in plants and mushrooms[16][17][18] which have the power to either heal through divine poisoning or increase consciousness (and even the elixir of life and immortality ) to provide. Due to its herbal knowledge and its entheogenic association, the snake was often considered one of the wisest animals, as it came close to (the) divine. Its divine aspect, combined with its habitat in the earth among the roots of plants, made it an animal with chthonic qualities associated with the afterlife and immortality. The deified Greek physician Asclepius, as the god of medicine and healing, carried a staff around which a snake was coiled, which has become a symbol of modern medicine. Moses also had a replica of a serpent on a stake, the Nehushtan, mentioned in Numbers 21:8.

Associated animals[ edit ]

Chthonic Serpents and Sacred Trees[ edit ]

In many myths, the chthonic serpent (sometimes a pair) lives in a tree of life or is coiled around a tree of life located in a divine garden. In the Genesis story of the Torah and the biblical Old Testament, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stands in the Garden of Eden along with the tree of life and the serpent. In Greek mythology, Ladon wrapped himself around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides and protected the golden apples.

Níðhöggr gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil in this illustration from a 17th-century Icelandic manuscript.

Similarly, Níðhöggr (Nidhogg Nagar), the dragon of Norse mythology, feeds on the roots of the Yggdrasil, the world tree.

Under another tree (the Bodhi tree of enlightenment) the Buddha sat in ecstatic meditation. When a storm blew up, the mighty serpent king Mucalinda rose from his place under the earth and wrapped the Buddha in seven coils for seven days so as not to break his ecstatic state.

The vision serpent was a symbol of rebirth in Mayan mythology, originating in earlier Mayan concepts and lying at the center of the world as the Mayans conceived it. “It’s in the central axis on the world tree. In essence, the world tree and the vision serpent, representing the king, created the central axis that communicates between the spiritual and terrestrial worlds or planes. It is through rituals that the king could bring about the central axis in the temples and create a gateway to the spiritual world and thus to power.”[19]

Sometimes the Tree of Life (in combination with similar concepts such as World Tree and Axis mundi or “world axis”) is represented by a staff of the kind used by shamans. Examples of such staffs with coiled serpents in mythology are the caduceus of Hermes, the staff of Asclepius, the staff of Moses and the papyrus reeds and the deity staffs entwined by a single serpent Wadjet, dating to before 3000 BC. come from. The earliest known depiction of two serpents coiling around a staff is that of the Sumerian fertility god Ningizzida, who was sometimes depicted as a human-headed serpent and eventually became a god of healing and magic. It is the companion of Dumuzi (Tammuz) with whom it stood at the gate of heaven. In the Louvre is a famous green steatite vase carved for King Gudea of ​​Lagash (dated to 2200–2025 BC), with an inscription dedicated to Ningizzida. Ningizzida was the ancestor of Gilgamesh, who according to the epic dived to the bottom of the water to recover the plant of life. But while he was resting from his work, a snake came and ate the plant. The serpent became immortal and Gilgamesh was doomed to die.

The Sumerian deity Ningizzida is accompanied by two griffins Mushussu; It is the oldest known image of two serpents coiling around an axial staff, dating to before 2000 BC.

Ningizzida was popularized in the 20th century by Raku Kei (Reiki, also known as “The Way of the Fire Dragon”), where “Nin Giz Zida” is believed to be a fire serpent of Tibetan rather than Sumerian origin. “Nin Giz Zida” is another name for the ancient Hindu concept of Kundalini, a Sanskrit word meaning either “curled up” or “curling like a snake.” “Kundalini” refers to the maternal intelligence behind the yogic awakening and spiritual maturation that lead to altered states of consciousness. There are a number of other translations of the term, usually emphasizing a more serpentine nature of the word – e.g. “Serpent Power”. It was suggested by Joseph Campbell that the symbol of snakes coiling around a staff is an ancient representation of Kundalini physiology. The staff represents the spine, with the serpent(s) being energy channels. In the case of two coiled snakes, they usually cross each other seven times, a possible reference to the seven energy centers called chakras.

In ancient Egypt, where the earliest written cultural records exist, the serpent appears from the beginning to the end of their mythology. Ra and Atum (“who perfects or perfects”) became the same god, Atum, the “counter-Ra” associated with earth animals, including the serpent: Nehebkau (“who strains the souls”) was the two-headed serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld. He is often seen as the son of the snake goddess Renenutet. She was often confused (and later absorbed) with her original serpent goddess, Wadjet, the Egyptian cobra, who was the patron saint and protector of the land, all other deities, and the pharaohs from the earliest records. Her is the first known oracle. She was depicted as the crown of Egypt, entwined around the staff of papyrus and the staff signifying the status of all other deities, and had the all-seeing eye of wisdom and vengeance. She never lost her position in the Egyptian pantheon.

The image of the serpent as the embodiment of the wisdom transmitted by Sophia was an emblem used by Gnosticism, particularly by those sects who referred to the more orthodox as “ophites” (“snake people”). The chthonic serpent was one of the earth animals associated with the cult of Mithras. The basilisk, the poisonous “king of snakes” with the deadly gaze, was hatched by a snake, Pliny the Elder and others thought, from a rooster’s egg.

Outside of Eurasia, Oshunmare was another mythical regenerating serpent in Yoruba mythology.

The Rainbow Serpent (also known as the Rainbow Serpent) is an important mythological creature for Aboriginal peoples across Australia, although the creation myths associated with it are best known from Northern Australia. In Fiji, Ratumaibulu was a serpent god who ruled the underworld and made fruit trees bloom. In the northern Flinders Ranges, the Arkaroo, a serpent that has drained Lake Frome, taking refuge in the mountains, carving valleys and waterholes, rules earthquakes by snoring.

Cosmic Serpents[ edit ]

The serpent, forming a ring with its tail in its mouth, is a clear and widely used symbol for the “all-in-all”, the totality of existence, infinity and the cyclical nature of the cosmos. The most famous version of this is the Egyptian-Greek Ourobouros. It is believed to have been inspired by the Milky Way, as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light living in the heavens. The ancient Egyptians associated it with Wadjet, one of their oldest deities, as well as another aspect, Hathor. In Norse mythology, the World Serpent (or Midgard Serpent) known as Jörmungandr orbited the world in the ocean abyss and bit his own tail.

In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu is said to sleep while floating on the cosmic waters on the serpent Shesha. In the Puranas, Shesha holds all the planets of the universe on his hoods and constantly chants the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. He is sometimes referred to as “Ananta-Shesha” which means “Endless Shesha”. In the Samudra-Manthan chapter of the Puranas, Shesha unties Mount Mandara so that it can be used by the Asuras and Devas as a stirring rod to stir the ocean of milk in the sky to create Soma (or Amrita), the divine elixir of immortality. Another giant snake named Vasuki is used as the tangled rope.

In pre-Columbian Central America, Quetzalcoatl was sometimes depicted as biting his own tail. Quetzalcoatl’s mother was the Aztec goddess Coatlicue (“she with the snake skirt”), also known as Cihuacoatl (“The Lady of the Serpent”). Quetzalcoatl’s father was Mixcoatl (“Cloud Serpent”). It has been identified with the Milky Way, the stars, and the sky in several Mesoamerican cultures.

The demigod Aidophedo of the West African Ashanti is also a snake that bites its own tail. In the Dahomey mythology of Benin, West Africa, the serpent that carries everything on its many coils was called Dan. In Benin and Haiti vodou, Ayida-Weddo (aka Aida-Wedo, Aido Quedo, “rainbow serpent”) is a spirit of fertility, rainbows, and serpents, and a consort or wife of Dan, the father of all spirits. When Vodou was exported to Haiti through the slave trade, Dan became Danballah, Damballah, or Damballah-Wedo. Because of his association with serpents, he is sometimes disguised as Moses carrying a serpent on his staff. He is also believed by many to be the same entity as Saint Patrick, known as the Snake Banisher.

The serpent Hydra is a constellation representing either the serpent thrown into the sky in anger by Apollo or the Lernaean Hydra defeated by Heracles for one of his Twelve Labors. The Serpens constellation represents a serpent being tamed by Ophiuchus, the serpent leader, another constellation. The most likely interpretation is that Ophiuchus represents the healer Asclepius.

dragon [edit]

An ancient painting by Nüwa and Fuxi unearthed in Xinjiang

Occasionally snakes and dragons are used interchangeably and have similar symbolic functions. The snake’s venom is believed to have a fiery quality resembling a fire-breathing dragon. Greek Ladon and Norse Níðhöggr (Nidhogg Nagar) are sometimes described as serpents and sometimes as dragons. In Germanic mythology, “snake” (Old English: wyrm, Old High German: wurm, Old Norse: ormr) is used synonymously with the Greek loanword “drache” (OE: draca, OHG: trahho, ON: dreki). In China, and especially Indochina, the Indian serpent Nāga was equated with the Lóng or Chinese dragon. The Aztec and Toltec serpent god Quetzalcoatl also has dragon-like wings, like his equivalent in K’iche’ Maya mythology Q’uq’umatz (“feathered serpent”), which had previously existed as a deity called Kukulkan since the Classic Maya period .

Mythology and religion[edit]

African mythology[ edit ]

In Africa, Dahomey was the main center of snake worship, but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By conquering Whydah, the Dahomeyans came into contact with a people of snake worshipers and eventually adopted from them the faith they initially despised. At Whydah, the main center, there is a snake temple inhabited by about fifty snakes. Any python of the Danh-Gbi species must be treated with respect, and death is the penalty for killing it, even accidentally. Danh-gbi has numerous women who, until 1857, took part in a public procession from which the profane crowd was excluded; a python was carried around town in a hammock, perhaps as a ceremony to banish evil.

The Ashanti rainbow god was also conceived in the form of a serpent. Its messenger was said to have been a small species of boa, but only certain individuals, not the whole species, were sacred.

In many parts of Africa, the snake is considered the incarnation of deceased relatives. Among the Amazulu, as among the Betsileo of Madagascar, certain species are designated as the abodes of certain classes. The Maasai, on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe.

Ancient Middle East[edit]

In ancient Mesopotamia, Nirah, the messenger god of Ištaran, was depicted as a serpent on kudurrus, or boundary stones.[22] Depictions of two intertwined serpents are common in Sumerian art and Neo-Sumerian artwork[22] and appear as late as the 13th century BC. sporadically on cylinder seals and amulets.[22] The horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) appears in Kassite and Neo-Assyrian Kudurrus[22] and is invoked in Assyrian texts as a magical protective being.[22] A dragon-like creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the front legs of a lion, and the hind legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian period to the Hellenistic period (323 BC – 31 BC). [22] This creature, known in Akkadian as mušḫuššu, meaning “angry serpent”, was used as a symbol for certain deities and also as a general protective emblem.[22] It appears to have originally been the attendant of the underworld god Ninazu, but later became the attendant of the Hurrian storm god Tishpak, as well as later Ninazu’s son Ningishzida, the Babylonian national god Marduk, the writing god Nabu, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.[22]

Snake cults were well established in Bronze Age Canaanite religion, for archaeologists have uncovered snake cult objects in Bronze Age strata in several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo,[23] one at Gezer,[24] one in the sanctum sanctorum of Area-H -Temple in Hazor,[25] and two in Shechem.[26]

Snake cult objects appeared in other cultures in the surrounding region. A Late Bronze Age Hittite shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other.[27] In sixth-century Babylon, a pair of bronze serpents flanked each of the four doors of the Temple of Esagila.[28] At the Babylonian New Year, the priest was to commission two images from a woodworker, a metalworker, and a goldsmith, one of which “is to hold in his left hand a cedar serpent and raise his right [hand] to the god Nabu”. .[29] At least seventeen Early Bronze Age Assyrian bronze serpents have been recovered at the tell of Tepe Gawra.[30]

Bronze and Iron Age United Arab Emirates[ edit ]

Significant finds of pottery, bronzeware and even gold depictions of snakes have been made in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Bronze Age and Iron Age metallurgical center of Saruq Al Hadid has produced probably the richest trove of such objects, although finds bearing serpent symbols have been made at Bronze Age sites at Rumailah, Bithnah and Masafi. Most depictions of snakes are similar, with a uniform dotted decoration applied to them.

Although archaeologists believe that the widespread depiction of snakes at sites in the United Arab Emirates has a religious purpose, this remains a conjecture.[31]

Abrahamic mythology[ edit ]

Jewish symbolism[ edit ]

The Brazen Serpent (watercolor c.1896-1902 by (watercolor c.1896-1902 by James Tissot

In the Hebrew Bible, the serpent in the Garden of Eden lured Eve with a promise to be like God, deceiving her that despite God’s warning, death would not result if God withheld her knowledge. Although the serpent is identified as Satan in the book of Revelation,[32] the serpent in Genesis is presented merely as a deceptive creature or deceiver, promoting as good what God has directly forbidden, and being particularly cunning in his deception (Genesis 3 Cor : 4-5 and 3:22).[33]

Moses’ staff turned into a serpent and then back into a staff (Exodus 4:2-4). The Book of Numbers 21:6-9 provides an origin for an archaic copper serpent, Nehushtan, associating it with Moses. According to the biblical text, this copper serpent is put on a stake and used for healing. Book of Numbers 21:9 “And Moses made a copper serpent and fastened it to a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten a man, when he saw the brass serpent, he lived.”

When the reformer King Hezekiah at the end of the 8th century B.C. ascended the throne of Judah, “he removed the high places, shattered the holy pillars, shattered the idols, and shattered the copper serpent which Moses had made: for up to those days the children of Israel burned incense on it, and he called it Nehushtan .” (2 Kings 18:4)

Christian mythology[edit]

In John 3:14-15, Jesus directly compares the resurrection of the Son of man to Moses’ act of raising up the serpent as a sign, using it as a symbol associated with salvation: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be exalted, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”.

Muslim mythology[ edit ]

Ancient Iran[ edit ]

Snake on a jewelry box from Shahdad, Iran, 2700 BC

Snakes are sacred and powerful in the thinking of Iran’s prehistoric cultures as they were depicted in the ancient objects of Iran as patrons of fertility, water and wealth. They seem to exist along with the goddesses of fertility from the fourth to the first millennium BC. To have been revered as their presence as powerful patrons and source of life and immortality can be seen in the art of Tall-i Bakun, Chogha Mish, Tepe Sialk, Jiroft Culture, Shahr-e Sukhteh, Shahdad, Elamite Art , Luristan art etc.

However, it seems that the symbolic concept of the snake in the cultures of the Iranian Plateau has been corrupted by Western influences over time. In Abrahamic traditions, the serpent represents sexual desire as it lured Eve into the Garden of Eden with promises of forbidden knowledge. As a result of such influence, Aryan religions call the snakes devilish; Azhi Dahake in the Avesta is a sinister serpent, and Zahhak in the Shahnameh is an infernal creature with two serpents on its shoulders. This replacement could be due to the communication between the inhabitants of Iran and the believers of the Abrahamic religions and, moreover, to the transformation of matriarchy into patriarchy as the social structure of Iranian highland cultures.[34]

Chinese mythology[edit]

In Chinese creationism mythology, Nüwa is the mother goddess who created humans from clay. She is portrayed as half a serpent.

Greek mythology[edit]

The Minoan snake goddess wielded a snake in each hand, perhaps more reminiscent of her role as a source of wisdom than her role as mistress of animals (Potnia Theron) with a leopard under each arm.

Snakes figured prominently in archaic Greek myths. According to some sources, Ophion (“snake”, also known as Ophioneus) ruled the world with Eurynome before the two were crushed by Cronus and Rhea. The oracles of the ancient Greeks are said to have been the continuation of the tradition that had begun with the worship of the Egyptian cobra goddess Wadjet.

Typhon, the enemy of the Olympian gods, is described as a vast grisly monster with a hundred heads and a hundred serpents emerging from its thighs, who was conquered by Zeus and cast into Tartarus or imprisoned beneath volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions. Typhon is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces. Snake elements are among his descendants; among his children by Echidna are Cerberus (a monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail and a snake’s mane); the snake-tailed chimera; the serpentine chthonic aquatic animal Lernaean Hydra; and the hundred-headed serpent dragon Ladon. Both the Lernaean Hydra and Ladon were killed by Heracles.

Python was the earth dragon of Delphi. She was always depicted as a snake in vase paintings and by sculptors. Python was the chthonic enemy of Apollo who killed her and made her former home his own oracle, the most famous in classical Greece.

Medusa and the other Gorgons were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes whose origins predate the written myths of Greece and who were the protectors of the oldest ritual mysteries. The gorgons wore a belt of two intertwined serpents in the same configuration as the caduceus. The Gorgon was placed in the center, at the highest point, of one of the pediments of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu.

Asklepios, the son of Apollo and Coronis, learned the secrets of keeping death at bay after watching one snake bring another (which Asklepios himself had mortally wounded) back to life with medicinal herbs. To prevent all mankind from becoming immortal under the care of Asclepius, Zeus killed him with a bolt of lightning. The death of Asclepius at the hands of Zeus illustrates man’s inability to challenge the natural order that separates mortal man from the gods. Serpents were often used in healing rituals in honor of Asklepios. Nonvenomous snakes were allowed to crawl on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. The Bibliotheca claimed that Athena gave Asklepios a vial of blood from the Gorgons. Gorgon blood had magical properties: if taken from the Gorgon’s left side, it was a deadly poison; from the right side, the blood was able to bring the dead back to life. However, Euripides wrote in his tragedy Ion that the Athenian queen Creusa had inherited this vial from her ancestor Erichthonios, who was himself a serpent and had received the vial from Athena. In this version, Medusa’s blood had the healing power, while the deadly venom came from Medusa’s snakes.

Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great and a princess of the primitive land of Epirus, had a reputation as a serpent leader, and in serpent form Zeus is said to have fathered Alexander with her.[36] Aeëtes, king of Colchis and father of the sorceress Medea, possessed the Golden Fleece. He guarded it with a huge snake that never slept. Medea, having fallen in love with Jason of the Argonauts, charmed him to sleep so Jason could grasp the fleece. (See Lamia).

When the chariot of the Greek sun god is not powered by horses, it is described as being drawn by fiery draconic beings.[37] The most notable example of this can be observed in the episode where Medea receives her grandfather’s chariot, which is pulled through the sky by serpents.

In works of art, snakes are occasionally associated with Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft.[38]

Hindu mythology[ edit ]

Naga (Sanskrit: नाग) is the Sanskrit/Pāli word for a deity or class of entities or beings that take the form of a very large serpent and are found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The naga primarily represents rebirth, death and mortality, as she sheds her skin and is symbolically “born again”.

Hindus associate Naga with Shiva and with Vishnu resting on a 100-headed Naga and twining around Lord Shiva’s neck. The snake represented freedom in Hindu mythology because it cannot be tamed. In Buddhism, the snake Mucalinda is associated as the protector of Lord Buddha. In Jainism, the snake is associated with the 23rd Tirthankara Parshvanatha.

Nagas of Indochina[ edit ]

Schlangen oder Nāgas spielen eine besonders wichtige Rolle in der kambodschanischen, isanischen und laotischen Mythologie. Ein Ursprungsmythos erklärt die Entstehung des Namens „Kambodscha“ als Ergebnis der Eroberung einer Naga-Prinzessin durch einen Kambuja-Lord namens Kaundinya: Die Nachkommen ihrer Vereinigung sind die Khmer.[39] George Cœdès schlägt vor, dass der kambodschanische Mythos eine Grundlage für die Legende von “Phra Daeng Nang Ai” ist, in der eine Frau, die viele frühere Leben in der Region gelebt hat, als Tochter von Phraya Khom (Thai für Kambodscha) wiedergeboren wird und den Tod verursacht ihres Gefährten in früheren Leben, der als Prinz der Nagas wiedergeboren wurde. Dies führt zum Krieg zwischen den “Geistern der Lüfte” und den Nagas: Nagas Amok sind Flüsse in Flut, die ganze Region wird überschwemmt.[40] Der Mythos des Krötenkönigs erzählt, wie die Einführung buddhistischer Lehren zu einem Krieg mit der Himmelsgottheit Phaya Thaen führte und in einem Waffenstillstand mit Nagas endete, die als Wächter der Tempeleingänge postiert wurden.[41]

Mythologie der amerikanischen Ureinwohner [ bearbeiten ]

Alte nordamerikanische Schlangenbilder zeigten oft Klapperschlangen.

Einige Indianerstämme verehren die Klapperschlange als Großvater und König der Schlangen, der in der Lage ist, gute Winde zu geben oder Sturm zu verursachen Klapperschlange wurde im Sonnentempel von Natchez verehrt, und die aztekische Gottheit Quetzalcoatl war ein gefiederter Schlangengott. In vielen mesoamerikanischen Kulturen galt die Schlange als Portal zwischen zwei Welten. Die Stämme Perus sollen in den Tagen vor den Inkas große Schlangen verehrt haben, und in Chile machten die Mapuche in ihrem Sintflutglauben eine Schlangenfigur.

Eine gehörnte Schlange ist ein beliebtes Bild in der Mythologie der nordamerikanischen Ureinwohner.

In einer Geschichte der nordamerikanischen Ureinwohner tötet eine böse Schlange einen Cousin der Götter, also tötet der Gott die Schlange aus Rache, aber die sterbende Schlange löst eine große Flut aus. Die Menschen fliehen zuerst in die Berge und treiben dann, wenn die Berge bedeckt sind, auf einem Floß, bis die Flut nachlässt. Die bösen Geister, die der Schlangengott kontrolliert, verstecken sich dann aus Angst.[42] Die Hügelbauer verbanden der Schlange einen großen mystischen Wert, wie der Schlangenhügel zeigt, obwohl wir nicht in der Lage sind, die besonderen Assoziationen zu enträtseln.

Nordische Mythologie [ bearbeiten ]

Jörmungandr, auch Midgardschlange oder Weltschlange genannt, ist eine Seeschlange der nordischen Mythologie, das mittlere Kind von Loki und der Riesin Angrboða. Laut der Prosa-Edda nahm Odin die drei Kinder von Loki, Fenrisúlfr, Hel und Jörmungandr. Er warf Jörmungandr in den großen Ozean, der Midgard umgibt. Die Schlange wurde so groß, dass sie die Erde umkreisen und ihren eigenen Schwanz greifen konnte, und als Ergebnis erhielt sie den alternativen Namen Midgard-Schlange oder Weltenschlange. Jörmungandrs Erzfeind ist der Gott Thor.

In der Poetischen Edda erzählt Odin von acht Schlangen, die an den Wurzeln von Yggdrasil nagen: Nidhöggr, Gravvitnir, Moin, Goin, Grábakr, Grafvölluðr, Svafnir und Ofnir.

folklore [edit]

In Volks- und Märchentraditionen auf der ganzen Welt treten die Schlange und die Schlange als Figuren in mehreren Märchen auf, entweder als Hauptfigur in Tierfabeln und Zaubermärchen (Märchen), oder als Spender, der dem Protagonisten eine besondere Fähigkeit verleiht oder vermittle ihm geheimes Wissen.

Gemäß dem Aarne-Thompson-Uther-Index kann die Schlange in dieser Eigenschaft in den folgenden Märchentypen auftreten:[43]

Moderne Symbolik [ bearbeiten ]

Moderne Medizin [Bearbeiten]

Schlangen verschlungen die Stäbe sowohl von Hermes (dem Caduceus) als auch von Asklepios, wo eine einzelne Schlange den groben Stab umschlingte. Auf Hermes Caduceus wurden die Schlangen nicht nur aus Symmetriegründen dupliziert, sie waren gepaarte Gegensätze. (This motif is congruent with the phurba.) The wings at the head of the staff identified it as belonging to the winged messenger Hermes, the Roman Mercury, who was the god of magic, diplomacy and rhetoric, of inventions and discoveries, and the protector both of merchants and that allied occupation, to the mythographers’ view, of thieves. It is however Hermes’ role as psychopomp, the escort of newly deceased souls to the afterlife, that explains the origin of the snakes in the caduceus, since this was also the role of the Sumerian entwined serpent god Ningizzida, with whom Hermes has sometimes been equated.

In Late Antiquity, as the arcane study of alchemy developed, Mercury was understood to be the protector of those arts too and of arcane or occult “Hermetic” information in general. Chemistry and medicines linked the rod of Hermes with the staff of the healer Asclepius, which was wound with a serpent; it was conflated with Mercury’s rod, and the modern medical symbol—which should simply be the rod of Asclepius—often became Mercury’s wand of commerce. Another version is used in alchemy where the snake is crucified, known as Nicolas Flamel’s caduceus. Art historian Walter J. Friedlander, in The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine (1992), collected hundreds of examples of the caduceus and the rod of Asclepius and found that professional associations were just somewhat more likely to use the staff of Asclepius, while commercial organizations in the medical field were more likely to use the caduceus.

Modern political propaganda [ edit ]

Following the Christian context as a symbol for evil, serpents are sometimes featured in political propaganda. They were used to represent Jews in antisemitic propaganda. Snakes were also used to represent the evil side of drugs in such films as Narcotic[59] and Narcotics: Pit of Despair.[60]

Imperial Japan depicted as an evil snake in a WWII propaganda poster

Automobiles[ edit ]

The automobile brands AC Cobra, Ford Mustang Shelby, Zarooq Motors, Dodge Viper, and Alpha Romeo all feature snakes on their logos.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

quotes[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

If quarantine is providing you with some vivid dreams, you are not alone. Maybe you’re here specifically because you’re having a recurring nightmare of confronting a boa constrictor and wondering what that could mean.

Well, if you dream about snakes (*especially* when they’re bitten) and you wake up and think, “this must be about my ex ~slithering~” into my DMs during quarantine, you’re not wrong.

Most likely, this is your subconscious sending you a message that a person or situation you’re involved in is pretty toxic, says certified medium and dream analyst Nicole Bowman, a consultant called Live the Light on Keen. com.

However, that is not the only meaning. The snakebite or apparition could be a wake-up call for something in your life that has slipped your attention, or it could be a sign that you’re about to “shed a layer of skin” (where we all have a post-2020 rebirth) in some aspect of your life could use). “In general, when you dream about animals or nature, it’s usually because you’re going through some kind of transformation cycle,” says Bowman. And those first hike dates you attended might have something to do with it, too.

Regardless of what exactly is going on, this is not a dream to forget. Discover all possible explanations for why you might have snake dreams.

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What do most snake dreams mean?

In a situation where the snake is chasing you or biting you in your dream, it is a warning to be aware of your surroundings, says Bowman. In particular, you could have treason or infidelity on your hands. (Color me surprised my cheating ex appears in the form of a snake). “Snakes are low to the ground and what they do is hidden. So if you’re not looking, you might miss it,” says Bowman. Basically, it is a sign to listen to your gut feeling.

The size and type of snake could indicate the magnitude of the problem at hand, Bowman adds. For example, if it’s a garter snake, it could mean something fairly harmless is going on, she says. But if your dream involves a rattlesnake or some other type of deadly snake, do not leave your bed without evaluating what TF is going on in your waking life.

Sometimes the “bite” could be inflicted by the snake itself, Bowman points out. You might be going through a number of changes, which is perfectly normal and nothing negative, but this is just a call to be mindful of your own life choices and their implications.

Ultimately, these types of dreams represent our fears coming to light, Bowman points out. Worries about health (and work, politics and relationships) are perfectly normal during this quarantine period. To dream of snakes could even be related to your breathing or lungs and the stress that comes with it, which isn’t so far-fetched during a global respiratory pandemic and reckoning with racial injustice.

Eek, what if I keep dreaming about snakes?

If the snake dream is just a one-time thing, it’s just a tiny warning sign of something going on in your life and probably nothing to worry about, says Bowman.

On the other hand, if it happens repeatedly, there might be something more going on. “Look at your inner circle and who you can trust,” says Bowman. It’s especially important to be vigilant in the workplace, as not everyone there will always have your best interests in mind. This isn’t meant to make you paranoid, Bowman says, but to make you aware of your surroundings.

Is there a positive meaning of a snake dream?

The negative stereotypes almost always associated with snakes consist of biblical references, Bowman notes (thanks, Eve). But it’s not necessarily a sign of evil invading your inner circle. “If it doesn’t bite you, a snake represents rebirth and renewal — snakes shed their skin and then get renewed,” says Bowman. This can bode well for a new job or relationship, or a sense of relief and healing after getting out of a relationship, she adds.

It’s important to have a mental reset, especially during the pandemic when we’re being forced to slow down, Bowman says. “We need to reevaluate who we want to be.”

Also, interestingly, when a snake bites you, it’s not always a bad omen, Bowman points out. In certain cultures and traditions, snake venom is said to have healing properties. This type of dream could symbolize that something you are going through is exhausting and challenging but you will heal and make it through. “What seemed like your downfall could be a triumph,” says Bowman.

How can I prevent snake nightmares?

The whole point of this dream is to get your attention. So the first step is not to ignore these signs! Bowman suggests meditating and journaling on this question, which you may be ignoring or neglecting in your life. But if those dreams cause you to have trouble sleeping or get back to sleep, try peaceful essential oils or tea with lavender, she says.

Also, try tracking your dreams by keeping a journal to analyze the meaning. As soon as you wake up from such a dream, write it down, Bowman says, so you can remember the message your subconscious is trying to send you when you’re less groggy. It often slides right under your feet all the time.

Mara Santilli Mara is a freelance writer and editor specializing in culture, politics, wellness and the intersection between them whose print and digital work has appeared in Marie Claire, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Airbnb Mag, Prevention and more.

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Mythological symbol

A snake in Kyyjärvi municipal coat of arms

The snake is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word derives from the Latin serpens, a creeping animal or snake. Serpents have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to man[1][2] and represent the dual expression[3] of good and evil.[4]

In some cultures, snakes were symbols of fertility. For example, the Hopi of North America performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a heavenly spirit) and Snake Girl (an underworld spirit) and to renew the fertility of nature. Live snakes were handled during the dance, and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee a good harvest. “The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of clouds, thunder, and lightning that rain may fall on the growing harvest.”[5] To the Hopi, snakes symbolized the umbilical cord that connected all humans to Mother Earth.[6 ] The Great Goddess often had serpents as her familiars – sometimes coiled around her sacred staff, as in ancient Crete – and they were revered as guardians of her mysteries of birth and rebirth.[7]

Evolutionary origins[ edit ]

Anthropologist Lynn Isbell has argued that the snake as a symbol of death as primates is built into our subconscious because of our evolutionary history. Isbell argues that snakes were the only significant primate predators for millions of years and that this explains why fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias worldwide and why the symbol of the snake is so prevalent in world mythology; the serpent is an innate image of danger and death.[8][9]

Furthermore, psychoanalyst Joseph Lewis Henderson and ethnologist Maude Oakes have argued that the serpent is a symbol of initiation and rebirth precisely because it is a symbol of death.[10]

Using phylogenetic and statistical methods on related motifs from folklore and myth, the French comparativeist Julien d’Huy succeeded in reconstructing a possible archaic narrative about the snake. In this Paleolithic “ophidian” myth, serpents are associated with rain and storms and even with water sources. With respect to the latter, it blocks rivers and other water sources in exchange for human sacrifice and/or material offerings.[11]

Values ​​[edit]

Fertility and rebirth[edit]

Historically, snakes and snakes represented fertility or a creative life force. Because snakes shed their skin through molting, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing.[12] The Ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and the constant renewal of life.

In some Abrahamic traditions, the serpent represents sexual desire.[13] According to some interpretations of the Midrash, the serpent represents sexual passion.[14] In Hinduism, Kundalini is a coiled serpent.[15]

guardianship [edit]

Meditating Buddha under the Protection of the Naga Mucalinda Cambodia, 1150 to 1175

Snakes are depicted as powerful guardians of temples and other sacred places. This connection may be based on the observation that when threatened, some snakes (such as rattlesnakes or cobras) will often assert and defend their ground, first resorting to threats and then fighting rather than retreating. As such, they are natural custodians of treasure or sacred sites that cannot be easily removed from harm’s way.

At Angkor in Cambodia, numerous stone carvings depict multi-headed hooded nāgas as guardians of temples or other premises. A favorite motif of Angkorean sculptors from about the 12th century AD was that of the Buddha seated in a meditation posture and his weight off the convolutions of a multi-headed nāga, who also shields him from above with his flared hood. This motif is reminiscent of the story of the Buddha and the serpent king Mucalinda: while the Buddha sat under a tree deep in meditation, Mucalinda came up from the roots of the tree to protect the Buddha from a storm that was just coming up.

The American Revolution Gadsden Flag depicts a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike. Below the image of the snake is the inscription “Don’t step on me”. The snake symbolized the dangerousness of colonists willing to fight for their rights and their homeland, and was also a symbol of their separation from Europe, as it was an animal unique to America. The motif can be found in the First Navy Jack of the US Navy.

Poison and Medicine[edit]

Snakes are associated with venom and medicine. The snake’s venom is associated with the chemicals found in plants and mushrooms[16][17][18] which have the power to either heal through divine poisoning or increase consciousness (and even the elixir of life and immortality ) to provide. Due to its herbal knowledge and its entheogenic association, the snake was often considered one of the wisest animals, as it came close to (the) divine. Its divine aspect, combined with its habitat in the earth among the roots of plants, made it an animal with chthonic qualities associated with the afterlife and immortality. The deified Greek physician Asclepius, as the god of medicine and healing, carried a staff around which a snake was coiled, which has become a symbol of modern medicine. Moses also had a replica of a serpent on a stake, the Nehushtan, mentioned in Numbers 21:8.

Associated animals[ edit ]

Chthonic Serpents and Sacred Trees[ edit ]

In many myths, the chthonic serpent (sometimes a pair) lives in a tree of life or is coiled around a tree of life located in a divine garden. In the Genesis story of the Torah and the biblical Old Testament, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stands in the Garden of Eden along with the tree of life and the serpent. In Greek mythology, Ladon wrapped himself around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides and protected the golden apples.

Níðhöggr gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil in this illustration from a 17th-century Icelandic manuscript.

Similarly, Níðhöggr (Nidhogg Nagar), the dragon of Norse mythology, feeds on the roots of the Yggdrasil, the world tree.

Under another tree (the Bodhi tree of enlightenment) the Buddha sat in ecstatic meditation. When a storm blew up, the mighty serpent king Mucalinda rose from his place under the earth and wrapped the Buddha in seven coils for seven days so as not to break his ecstatic state.

The vision serpent was a symbol of rebirth in Mayan mythology, originating in earlier Mayan concepts and lying at the center of the world as the Mayans conceived it. “It’s in the central axis on the world tree. In essence, the world tree and the vision serpent, representing the king, created the central axis that communicates between the spiritual and terrestrial worlds or planes. It is through rituals that the king could bring about the central axis in the temples and create a gateway to the spiritual world and thus to power.”[19]

Sometimes the Tree of Life (in combination with similar concepts such as World Tree and Axis mundi or “world axis”) is represented by a staff of the kind used by shamans. Examples of such staffs with coiled serpents in mythology are the caduceus of Hermes, the staff of Asclepius, the staff of Moses and the papyrus reeds and the deity staffs entwined by a single serpent Wadjet, dating to before 3000 BC. come from. The earliest known depiction of two serpents coiling around a staff is that of the Sumerian fertility god Ningizzida, who was sometimes depicted as a human-headed serpent and eventually became a god of healing and magic. It is the companion of Dumuzi (Tammuz) with whom it stood at the gate of heaven. In the Louvre is a famous green steatite vase carved for King Gudea of ​​Lagash (dated to 2200–2025 BC), with an inscription dedicated to Ningizzida. Ningizzida was the ancestor of Gilgamesh, who according to the epic dived to the bottom of the water to recover the plant of life. But while he was resting from his work, a snake came and ate the plant. The serpent became immortal and Gilgamesh was doomed to die.

The Sumerian deity Ningizzida is accompanied by two griffins Mushussu; It is the oldest known image of two serpents coiling around an axial staff, dating to before 2000 BC.

Ningizzida was popularized in the 20th century by Raku Kei (Reiki, also known as “The Way of the Fire Dragon”), where “Nin Giz Zida” is believed to be a fire serpent of Tibetan rather than Sumerian origin. “Nin Giz Zida” is another name for the ancient Hindu concept of Kundalini, a Sanskrit word meaning either “curled up” or “curling like a snake.” “Kundalini” refers to the maternal intelligence behind the yogic awakening and spiritual maturation that lead to altered states of consciousness. There are a number of other translations of the term, usually emphasizing a more serpentine nature of the word – e.g. “Serpent Power”. It was suggested by Joseph Campbell that the symbol of snakes coiling around a staff is an ancient representation of Kundalini physiology. The staff represents the spine, with the serpent(s) being energy channels. In the case of two coiled snakes, they usually cross each other seven times, a possible reference to the seven energy centers called chakras.

In ancient Egypt, where the earliest written cultural records exist, the serpent appears from the beginning to the end of their mythology. Ra and Atum (“who perfects or perfects”) became the same god, Atum, the “counter-Ra” associated with earth animals, including the serpent: Nehebkau (“who strains the souls”) was the two-headed serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld. He is often seen as the son of the snake goddess Renenutet. She was often confused (and later absorbed) with her original serpent goddess, Wadjet, the Egyptian cobra, who was the patron saint and protector of the land, all other deities, and the pharaohs from the earliest records. Her is the first known oracle. She was depicted as the crown of Egypt, entwined around the staff of papyrus and the staff signifying the status of all other deities, and had the all-seeing eye of wisdom and vengeance. She never lost her position in the Egyptian pantheon.

The image of the serpent as the embodiment of the wisdom transmitted by Sophia was an emblem used by Gnosticism, particularly by those sects who referred to the more orthodox as “ophites” (“snake people”). The chthonic serpent was one of the earth animals associated with the cult of Mithras. The basilisk, the poisonous “king of snakes” with the deadly gaze, was hatched by a snake, Pliny the Elder and others thought, from a rooster’s egg.

Outside of Eurasia, Oshunmare was another mythical regenerating serpent in Yoruba mythology.

The Rainbow Serpent (also known as the Rainbow Serpent) is an important mythological creature for Aboriginal peoples across Australia, although the creation myths associated with it are best known from Northern Australia. In Fiji, Ratumaibulu was a serpent god who ruled the underworld and made fruit trees bloom. In the northern Flinders Ranges, the Arkaroo, a serpent that has drained Lake Frome, taking refuge in the mountains, carving valleys and waterholes, rules earthquakes by snoring.

Cosmic Serpents[ edit ]

The serpent, forming a ring with its tail in its mouth, is a clear and widely used symbol for the “all-in-all”, the totality of existence, infinity and the cyclical nature of the cosmos. The most famous version of this is the Egyptian-Greek Ourobouros. It is believed to have been inspired by the Milky Way, as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light living in the heavens. The ancient Egyptians associated it with Wadjet, one of their oldest deities, as well as another aspect, Hathor. In Norse mythology, the World Serpent (or Midgard Serpent) known as Jörmungandr orbited the world in the ocean abyss and bit his own tail.

In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu is said to sleep while floating on the cosmic waters on the serpent Shesha. In the Puranas, Shesha holds all the planets of the universe on his hoods and constantly chants the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. He is sometimes referred to as “Ananta-Shesha” which means “Endless Shesha”. In the Samudra-Manthan chapter of the Puranas, Shesha unties Mount Mandara so that it can be used by the Asuras and Devas as a stirring rod to stir the ocean of milk in the sky to create Soma (or Amrita), the divine elixir of immortality. Another giant snake named Vasuki is used as the tangled rope.

In pre-Columbian Central America, Quetzalcoatl was sometimes depicted as biting his own tail. Quetzalcoatl’s mother was the Aztec goddess Coatlicue (“she with the snake skirt”), also known as Cihuacoatl (“The Lady of the Serpent”). Quetzalcoatl’s father was Mixcoatl (“Cloud Serpent”). It has been identified with the Milky Way, the stars, and the sky in several Mesoamerican cultures.

The demigod Aidophedo of the West African Ashanti is also a snake that bites its own tail. In the Dahomey mythology of Benin, West Africa, the serpent that carries everything on its many coils was called Dan. In Benin and Haiti vodou, Ayida-Weddo (aka Aida-Wedo, Aido Quedo, “rainbow serpent”) is a spirit of fertility, rainbows, and serpents, and a consort or wife of Dan, the father of all spirits. When Vodou was exported to Haiti through the slave trade, Dan became Danballah, Damballah, or Damballah-Wedo. Because of his association with serpents, he is sometimes disguised as Moses carrying a serpent on his staff. He is also believed by many to be the same entity as Saint Patrick, known as the Snake Banisher.

The serpent Hydra is a constellation representing either the serpent thrown into the sky in anger by Apollo or the Lernaean Hydra defeated by Heracles for one of his Twelve Labors. The Serpens constellation represents a serpent being tamed by Ophiuchus, the serpent leader, another constellation. The most likely interpretation is that Ophiuchus represents the healer Asclepius.

dragon [edit]

An ancient painting by Nüwa and Fuxi unearthed in Xinjiang

Occasionally snakes and dragons are used interchangeably and have similar symbolic functions. The snake’s venom is believed to have a fiery quality resembling a fire-breathing dragon. Greek Ladon and Norse Níðhöggr (Nidhogg Nagar) are sometimes described as serpents and sometimes as dragons. In Germanic mythology, “snake” (Old English: wyrm, Old High German: wurm, Old Norse: ormr) is used synonymously with the Greek loanword “drache” (OE: draca, OHG: trahho, ON: dreki). In China, and especially Indochina, the Indian serpent Nāga was equated with the Lóng or Chinese dragon. The Aztec and Toltec serpent god Quetzalcoatl also has dragon-like wings, like his equivalent in K’iche’ Maya mythology Q’uq’umatz (“feathered serpent”), which had previously existed as a deity called Kukulkan since the Classic Maya period .

Mythology and religion[edit]

African mythology[ edit ]

In Africa, Dahomey was the main center of snake worship, but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By conquering Whydah, the Dahomeyans came into contact with a people of snake worshipers and eventually adopted from them the faith they initially despised. At Whydah, the main center, there is a snake temple inhabited by about fifty snakes. Any python of the Danh-Gbi species must be treated with respect, and death is the penalty for killing it, even accidentally. Danh-gbi has numerous women who, until 1857, took part in a public procession from which the profane crowd was excluded; a python was carried around town in a hammock, perhaps as a ceremony to banish evil.

The Ashanti rainbow god was also conceived in the form of a serpent. Its messenger was said to have been a small species of boa, but only certain individuals, not the whole species, were sacred.

In many parts of Africa, the snake is considered the incarnation of deceased relatives. Among the Amazulu, as among the Betsileo of Madagascar, certain species are designated as the abodes of certain classes. The Maasai, on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe.

Ancient Middle East[edit]

In ancient Mesopotamia, Nirah, the messenger god of Ištaran, was depicted as a serpent on kudurrus, or boundary stones.[22] Depictions of two intertwined serpents are common in Sumerian art and Neo-Sumerian artwork[22] and appear as late as the 13th century BC. sporadically on cylinder seals and amulets.[22] The horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) appears in Kassite and Neo-Assyrian Kudurrus[22] and is invoked in Assyrian texts as a magical protective being.[22] A dragon-like creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the front legs of a lion, and the hind legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian period to the Hellenistic period (323 BC – 31 BC). [22] This creature, known in Akkadian as mušḫuššu, meaning “angry serpent”, was used as a symbol for certain deities and also as a general protective emblem.[22] It appears to have originally been the attendant of the underworld god Ninazu, but later became the attendant of the Hurrian storm god Tishpak, as well as later Ninazu’s son Ningishzida, the Babylonian national god Marduk, the writing god Nabu, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.[22]

Snake cults were well established in Bronze Age Canaanite religion, for archaeologists have uncovered snake cult objects in Bronze Age strata in several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo,[23] one at Gezer,[24] one in the sanctum sanctorum of Area-H -Temple in Hazor,[25] and two in Shechem.[26]

Snake cult objects appeared in other cultures in the surrounding region. A Late Bronze Age Hittite shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other.[27] In sixth-century Babylon, a pair of bronze serpents flanked each of the four doors of the Temple of Esagila.[28] At the Babylonian New Year, the priest was to commission two images from a woodworker, a metalworker, and a goldsmith, one of which “is to hold in his left hand a cedar serpent and raise his right [hand] to the god Nabu”. .[29] At least seventeen Early Bronze Age Assyrian bronze serpents have been recovered at the tell of Tepe Gawra.[30]

Bronze and Iron Age United Arab Emirates[ edit ]

Significant finds of pottery, bronzeware and even gold depictions of snakes have been made in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Bronze Age and Iron Age metallurgical center of Saruq Al Hadid has produced probably the richest trove of such objects, although finds bearing serpent symbols have been made at Bronze Age sites at Rumailah, Bithnah and Masafi. Most depictions of snakes are similar, with a uniform dotted decoration applied to them.

Although archaeologists believe that the widespread depiction of snakes at sites in the United Arab Emirates has a religious purpose, this remains a conjecture.[31]

Abrahamic mythology[ edit ]

Jewish symbolism[ edit ]

The Brazen Serpent (watercolor c.1896-1902 by (watercolor c.1896-1902 by James Tissot

In the Hebrew Bible, the serpent in the Garden of Eden lured Eve with a promise to be like God, deceiving her that despite God’s warning, death would not result if God withheld her knowledge. Although the serpent is identified as Satan in the book of Revelation,[32] the serpent in Genesis is presented merely as a deceptive creature or deceiver, promoting as good what God has directly forbidden, and being particularly cunning in his deception (Genesis 3 Cor : 4-5 and 3:22).[33]

Moses’ staff turned into a serpent and then back into a staff (Exodus 4:2-4). The Book of Numbers 21:6-9 provides an origin for an archaic copper serpent, Nehushtan, associating it with Moses. According to the biblical text, this copper serpent is put on a stake and used for healing. Book of Numbers 21:9 “And Moses made a copper serpent and fastened it to a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten a man, when he saw the brass serpent, he lived.”

When the reformer King Hezekiah at the end of the 8th century B.C. ascended the throne of Judah, “he removed the high places, shattered the holy pillars, shattered the idols, and shattered the copper serpent which Moses had made: for up to those days the children of Israel burned incense on it, and he called it Nehushtan .” (2 Kings 18:4)

Christian mythology[edit]

In John 3:14-15, Jesus directly compares the resurrection of the Son of man to Moses’ act of raising up the serpent as a sign, using it as a symbol associated with salvation: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be exalted, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”.

Muslim mythology[ edit ]

Ancient Iran[ edit ]

Snake on a jewelry box from Shahdad, Iran, 2700 BC

Snakes are sacred and powerful in the thinking of Iran’s prehistoric cultures as they were depicted in the ancient objects of Iran as patrons of fertility, water and wealth. They seem to exist along with the goddesses of fertility from the fourth to the first millennium BC. To have been revered as their presence as powerful patrons and source of life and immortality can be seen in the art of Tall-i Bakun, Chogha Mish, Tepe Sialk, Jiroft Culture, Shahr-e Sukhteh, Shahdad, Elamite Art , Luristan art etc.

However, it seems that the symbolic concept of the snake in the cultures of the Iranian Plateau has been corrupted by Western influences over time. In Abrahamic traditions, the serpent represents sexual desire as it lured Eve into the Garden of Eden with promises of forbidden knowledge. As a result of such influence, Aryan religions call the snakes devilish; Azhi Dahake in the Avesta is a sinister serpent, and Zahhak in the Shahnameh is an infernal creature with two serpents on its shoulders. This replacement could be due to the communication between the inhabitants of Iran and the believers of the Abrahamic religions and, moreover, to the transformation of matriarchy into patriarchy as the social structure of Iranian highland cultures.[34]

Chinese mythology[edit]

In Chinese creationism mythology, Nüwa is the mother goddess who created humans from clay. She is portrayed as half a serpent.

Greek mythology[edit]

The Minoan snake goddess wielded a snake in each hand, perhaps more reminiscent of her role as a source of wisdom than her role as mistress of animals (Potnia Theron) with a leopard under each arm.

Snakes figured prominently in archaic Greek myths. According to some sources, Ophion (“snake”, also known as Ophioneus) ruled the world with Eurynome before the two were crushed by Cronus and Rhea. The oracles of the ancient Greeks are said to have been the continuation of the tradition that had begun with the worship of the Egyptian cobra goddess Wadjet.

Typhon, the enemy of the Olympian gods, is described as a vast grisly monster with a hundred heads and a hundred serpents emerging from its thighs, who was conquered by Zeus and cast into Tartarus or imprisoned beneath volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions. Typhon is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces. Snake elements are among his descendants; among his children by Echidna are Cerberus (a monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail and a snake’s mane); the snake-tailed chimera; the serpentine chthonic aquatic animal Lernaean Hydra; and the hundred-headed serpent dragon Ladon. Both the Lernaean Hydra and Ladon were killed by Heracles.

Python was the earth dragon of Delphi. She was always depicted as a snake in vase paintings and by sculptors. Python was the chthonic enemy of Apollo who killed her and made her former home his own oracle, the most famous in classical Greece.

Medusa and the other Gorgons were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes whose origins predate the written myths of Greece and who were the protectors of the oldest ritual mysteries. The gorgons wore a belt of two intertwined serpents in the same configuration as the caduceus. The Gorgon was placed in the center, at the highest point, of one of the pediments of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu.

Asklepios, the son of Apollo and Coronis, learned the secrets of keeping death at bay after watching one snake bring another (which Asklepios himself had mortally wounded) back to life with medicinal herbs. To prevent all mankind from becoming immortal under the care of Asclepius, Zeus killed him with a bolt of lightning. The death of Asclepius at the hands of Zeus illustrates man’s inability to challenge the natural order that separates mortal man from the gods. Serpents were often used in healing rituals in honor of Asklepios. Nonvenomous snakes were allowed to crawl on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. The Bibliotheca claimed that Athena gave Asklepios a vial of blood from the Gorgons. Gorgon blood had magical properties: if taken from the Gorgon’s left side, it was a deadly poison; from the right side, the blood was able to bring the dead back to life. However, Euripides wrote in his tragedy Ion that the Athenian queen Creusa had inherited this vial from her ancestor Erichthonios, who was himself a serpent and had received the vial from Athena. In this version, Medusa’s blood had the healing power, while the deadly venom came from Medusa’s snakes.

Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great and a princess of the primitive land of Epirus, had a reputation as a serpent leader, and in serpent form Zeus is said to have fathered Alexander with her.[36] Aeëtes, king of Colchis and father of the sorceress Medea, possessed the Golden Fleece. He guarded it with a huge snake that never slept. Medea, having fallen in love with Jason of the Argonauts, charmed him to sleep so Jason could grasp the fleece. (See Lamia).

When the chariot of the Greek sun god is not powered by horses, it is described as being drawn by fiery draconic beings.[37] The most notable example of this can be observed in the episode where Medea receives her grandfather’s chariot, which is pulled through the sky by serpents.

In works of art, snakes are occasionally associated with Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft.[38]

Hindu mythology[ edit ]

Naga (Sanskrit: नाग) is the Sanskrit/Pāli word for a deity or class of entities or beings that take the form of a very large serpent and are found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The naga primarily represents rebirth, death and mortality, as she sheds her skin and is symbolically “born again”.

Hindus associate Naga with Shiva and with Vishnu resting on a 100-headed Naga and twining around Lord Shiva’s neck. The snake represented freedom in Hindu mythology because it cannot be tamed. In Buddhism, the snake Mucalinda is associated as the protector of Lord Buddha. In Jainism, the snake is associated with the 23rd Tirthankara Parshvanatha.

Nagas of Indochina[ edit ]

Serpents, or nāgas, play a particularly important role in Cambodian, Isan, and Lao mythology. An origin myth explains the origin of the name “Cambodia” as the result of the conquest of a Naga princess by a Kambuja lord named Kaundinya: the descendants of their union are the Khmer.[39] George Cœdès suggests that Cambodian myth is a basis for the legend of “Phra Daeng Nang Ai”, in which a woman who has lived many previous lives in the region is reborn as the daughter of Phraya Khom (Thai for Cambodia). and causes the death of her past-life mate, who was reincarnated as a prince of the Nagas. This leads to the war between the “Spirits of the Air” and the Nagas: Nagas amok are rivers in flood, the whole region is flooded.[40] The Myth of the Toad King tells how the introduction of Buddhist teachings led to a war with the sky deity Phaya Thaen and ended in a truce with nagas who were posted as guardians of temple entrances.[41]

Native American mythology[edit]

Old North American snake pictures often showed rattlesnakes.

Some Native American tribes worship the rattlesnake as the grandfather and king of snakes, able to give good winds or cause storms. The rattlesnake was worshiped in the Natchez Sun Temple, and the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl was a feathered serpent god. In many Mesoamerican cultures, the snake was considered a portal between two worlds. The tribes of Peru are said to have worshiped large serpents in the days before the Incas, and in Chile the Mapuche made a serpent figure in their belief in the Flood.

A horned serpent is a popular image in Native American mythology.

In a Native American story, an evil snake kills a cousin of the gods, so the god kills the snake in revenge, but the dying snake unleashes a great flood. People first flee to the mountains and then, when the mountains are covered, float on a raft until the tide subsides. The evil spirits controlled by the serpent god then hide out of fear.[42] The Mound Builders attached great mystical value to the serpent, as the Serpent Mound shows, although we are unable to decipher the specific associations.

Norse mythology[ edit ]

Jörmungandr, also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent, is a sea serpent from Norse mythology, the middle child of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki’s three children, Fenrisúlfr, Hel, and Jörmungandr. He threw Jörmungandr into the great ocean surrounding Midgard. The serpent grew so large that it could orbit the earth and grasp its own tail, and as a result gained the alternative name Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. Jörmungandr’s archenemy is the god Thor.

In the Poetic Edda, Odin tells of eight serpents gnawing at the roots of Yggdrasil: Nidhöggr, Gravvitnir, Moin, Goin, Grábakr, Grafvölluðr, Svafnir and Ofnir.

folklore [edit]

In folk and fairy tale traditions around the world, the serpent and serpent appear as characters in several fairy tales, either as the main character in animal fables and magic tales (fairy tales), or as a donor, giving the protagonist a special ability or imparting secret knowledge to them.

According to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index, the serpent can appear in this capacity in the following fairy tale types:[43]

Modern Symbolism[ edit ]

Modern medicine[edit]

Serpents devoured the staffs of both Hermes (the Caduceus) and Asclepius, where a single serpent entwined the crude staff. On Hermes Caduceus, the serpents were not just duplicated for symmetry, they were paired opposites. (This motif is consistent with the phurba.) The wings at the tip of the staff identified him as the winged messenger Hermes, the Roman Mercury who was the god of magic, diplomacy and rhetoric, invention and protector of both merchants and this Allied occupation, according to the mythographers, the thieves. However, it is Hermes’ role as psychopomp, the companion of newly deceased souls to the afterlife, that explains the origin of the serpents in the caduceus, since this was also the role of the Sumerian entwined serpent god Ningizzida, with whom Hermes was sometimes equated.

In late antiquity, as the arcane study of alchemy developed, Mercury was also understood as the protector of these arts and of arcane or occult “hermetic” information in general. Chemistry and medicine connected the staff of Hermes with the staff of the healer Asklepios, entwined with a serpent; it was merged with Mercury’s staff, and the modern medical symbol – meant to be simply the Staff of Asclepius – often became Mercury’s wand of commerce. Another version is used in alchemy where the serpent is crucified, known as Nicolas Flamel’s Caduceus. The art historian Walter J. Friedlander, in The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine (1992), collected hundreds of examples of the caduceus and the staff of Asclepius, noting that professional associations were only slightly more commonly used by the associates of Asclepius, while commercial organizations in the medical field tended to use the caduceus.

Modern political propaganda[edit]

Borrowing from the Christian context as a symbol of evil, snakes are sometimes mentioned in political propaganda. They were used to represent Jews in anti-Semitic propaganda. Snakes have also been used to portray the evil side of drugs in films such as Narcotic[59] and Narcotics: Pit of Despair[60].

Imperial Japan is portrayed as an evil snake on a WWII propaganda poster

Automobiles[ edit ]

Car brands AC Cobra, Ford Mustang Shelby, Zarooq Motors, Dodge Viper and Alpha Romeo all have snakes in their logos.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

quotes[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further Reading[edit]