Ancient Attitudes towards the Snake
It is difficult for those of us who have grown up in a world of opposites, of good and bad, to understand how one can accept a concept embodying both; for in our world good and bad are opposing dualities. Life is good, and death is bad. We strive for life, and would just as soon do away with death. In fact, our religions attempt to do just that by informing us of "life after death." Many cannot conceive of a divinity or deity creating both life and death, embodying both; for the gods we worship, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. all created life and good, but not death and evil.
In another time there were belief systems that were not composed of opposites, but of cycles of a never-ending spiral of life and death and life. The creator was perceived as being both creator and destroyer, and life was perceived as being made up of birth/growth/maturation/decay/death/rebirth/etc. Thus, the whole life cycle was accepted. And the serpent symbol was part of the whole cycle. For the snake was a symbol of life: shedding its skin, immortality, rebirth; and it was a symbol of death: one bite of a cobra (?) could kill in fifteen minutes. Yet, it was not hated because of the negative aspect. It was revered as a symbol of reality: that which is. We are born, we grow, we reach maturation, we decay, we die. Of course, ancient peoples, just like us, desired immortality, so the idea of rebirth is an ancient one. It can be seen in the vegetative cycle as well: seedling (birth), sprouting and growing (growth), full bloom (maturation), decay (decay), rotting (death); then out of the rotted matter a seed and birth once again as seedling. So the snake was neither "good" nor "evil" in our sense. It was a symbol of the life process.
Many snakes were female. Tiamat of Babylon was a female snake or dragon who "was recorded as the first divine being. ... [She] originally possessed the Tablets of Destiny" (Stone 1976, 200). The Sumerian goddess Nidaba was sometimes depicted as a snake and was "the first patron deity of writing" (Stone 1976, 199). Ninlil had the tail of a snake and was said "to have brought the gift of agriculture and thus civilization to Her people" (199). Inanna was "the Divine Mother who reveals the laws. Nina, another form of the name Inanna, ... was esteemed as an oracular deity and an interpreter of dreams" (199). Ishtar of Babylon, later than the deities described above, was depicted as a female holding a staff "around which coiled two snakes" (200), and Ishtar is called "Lady of Vision of Kisurru" and "She who Directs the Oracles" and "Prophetess of Kua" (200). In Egypt the Cobra Goddess was Ua Zit. "We later see Her as the uraeus cobra worn upon the foreheads of other deities and Egyptian royalty. The cobra was known as the Eye, uzait, a symbol of mystic insight and wisdom, ... always written in the female form" (201). In Crete, one of the largest of the Greek Islands, female goddess statues from 1600 BCE stand holding snakes in their hands. And finally, in later times, e.g. 500 BCE, in Greece, Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and of Civilization, was always in the form of a female statue accompanied by her snake, which had its own building on the Acropolis near her Parthenon (temple). Women and snakes were compared as divine and eternal, because snakes shed their skin, seeming to be "reborn" and women menstruated every month, shedding their blood.
So the snake is connected to wisdom and civilization and goddesses as positive. In addition, the snake is connected with divine prophesy. Even in today's dictionaries a pythoness is described as a prophetess or witch.
The reason a snake may be depicted as prophetic was described by Stone. Supposedly snakes licked Cassandra the prophetess' ears when she was a baby. Snakes were kept at the temples of the Goddesses and at the temple at Delphi, supposedly providing the priestesses/prophetesses--women--with prophetic insight and divine counsel, sought after and used by politicians even in Greek times. The reason snakes might be the means to prophetic vision is that the venom of certain poisonous snakes, if one is made immune to it, can provide a person, when bitten, with similar experiences provided by mind-altering drugs like LSD. Thus, it is possible that "mind-expanding powers" were perceived by the priestesses who prophesied. Thus the snake may have been a real link to certain kinds of altered states and experiences.
In other myths the serpent is a living phallus created by the Goddess for her own pleasure. Thus the serpent can be perceived as a symbol of sexual pleasure for women. The snake was also depicted in the myth of Asclepios the healer as a symbol of healing.
Two additional lines of thought regarding snakes are also revealing as to the multifaceted nature of snake-serpent symbolism. In England the ley line philosophy has been described. In English tales and legends, in Chinese beliefs, and supposedly actual experience, it is thought that there are serpentine-like underground lines of some kind of magnetic energy which are found across the earth. These are called ley lines and supposedly were known by ancient peoples as underground currents that converged at holy places, places where, for example, at some point the energy was helpful to women for easier childbirth, where even animals would go for the same thing (see Hitching 1976). There were also human-made mounds in England, "re-shaped, probably for religious reasons, or for some use in that religion, perhaps for storing or controlling some sort of static electrical current, in a similar way that stone circles may have been used. One can feel the current sometimes at sacred sites and churches, variously described as a tingling sensation in the fingers, in the spine or back of the neck. Or it can be a sense of great peace, or just a strange feeling about a place. Whatever this energy really is, it is very strong when concentrated--strong enough, so legend has it, that when the dragon's blood is spilled--or when something goes wrong with the energy--no grass will grow on the site. This is said to have happened at Dragon Hill...." (Hoult 1987, 22). Simarly, according to Walker, The "Ouroboros (snake) was still pictured under the earth in certain European areas, and some people claimed to be able to feel his slow movements through their feet when they stood in the ancient shrines" (909)--very reminiscent of the dragon energy described by Hoult. Some traditions identified the Great Serpent as a male "with the Earth's intestines. ... Serpents understood how to restore life to the dead, according to the myths of Crete..." (907). Furthermore, the Anglo-Saxon word 'drakan,' according to Hoult, "is probably a Greek derivative, either from 'draco' meaning a dragon or large snake, or from the verb 'derkein,' which means to see clearly. Dragons were credited with clear sight, wisdom and the ability to foretell the future, the same characteristics that the Mediterranean and Near Eastern snake deities possessed!
Finally, there is an interesting connection between Eve and the serpent, one not told in the Christian bible. The name Eve means "Mother of All Living." The name YHWH, which supposedly stands for Yahweh, actually when broken down is Y (for "I") and HWH, which when translated into Latin letters, forms E-V-E (Walker, 288-9)! In addition, HWH means both "life" and woman." In the Gnostic Scriptures "life" is Hawwa. According to Walker there is an Aramaic pun in the Gnostic accounts of Eve identifying "Eve, the Teacher, and the Serpent: Hawah, Mother of All Living; hawa, to instruct; and hewya, Serpent. Eve's name in Arabic still combines the idea of "life" (hayyat) with the name of the serpent (Hayyat)" (904). Thus, we come full circle. The serpent, wisdom, and the female were all aspects of deity in Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek religion (among others). Eve represents the same: female, primordial deity, wise one, and serpent!
In fact, it may be that Eve, the Minoan Snake goddess (or priestess?) holding a snake in each hand, and the Serpent Holder constellation (Asklepios) represent the same deity. It could be, too, that Eve and Hera are related. The chapter which describes the serpent holder details such possible connections.
So in some accounts the serpent and the female deity are the same. In others she is accompanied by the serpent. In still others the serpent is the phallus made for her pleasure. However, the serpent in all the legends has to do with life. In most it also has to do with wisdom, rebirth, woman, and in some legends is symbolizes healing. Thus, while the snake can indeed be a symbol of death because of the poison venom that some snakes possess, in most pre-Christian legends, the snake, or dragon, is perceived as something quite positive, or for some peoples, both positive and negative. "It is notable that in the whole world, it is only in the areas which have been converted by the Christian church that both the serpent and the dragon have jointly come to signify evil. Everywhere else (including the Old Testament) they are either beneficial, or embody in their powers both good and evil, or potentially are capable of either" (Hitching 1976, 253).
The serpent, finally, is symbolized as the spiral, as a circle, as a conjoining of female and male. The snake truly symbolizes many things to many peoples down through the millenia.
It is difficult for those of us who have grown up in a world of opposites, of good and bad, to understand how one can accept a concept embodying both; for in our world good and bad are opposing dualities. Life is good, and death is bad. We strive for life, and would just as soon do away with death. In fact, our religions attempt to do just that by informing us of "life after death." Many cannot conceive of a divinity or deity creating both life and death, embodying both; for the gods we worship, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. all created life and good, but not death and evil.
In another time there were belief systems that were not composed of opposites, but of cycles of a never-ending spiral of life and death and life. The creator was perceived as being both creator and destroyer, and life was perceived as being made up of birth/growth/maturation/decay/death/rebirth/etc. Thus, the whole life cycle was accepted. And the serpent symbol was part of the whole cycle. For the snake was a symbol of life: shedding its skin, immortality, rebirth; and it was a symbol of death: one bite of a cobra (?) could kill in fifteen minutes. Yet, it was not hated because of the negative aspect. It was revered as a symbol of reality: that which is. We are born, we grow, we reach maturation, we decay, we die. Of course, ancient peoples, just like us, desired immortality, so the idea of rebirth is an ancient one. It can be seen in the vegetative cycle as well: seedling (birth), sprouting and growing (growth), full bloom (maturation), decay (decay), rotting (death); then out of the rotted matter a seed and birth once again as seedling. So the snake was neither "good" nor "evil" in our sense. It was a symbol of the life process.
Many snakes were female. Tiamat of Babylon was a female snake or dragon who "was recorded as the first divine being. ... [She] originally possessed the Tablets of Destiny" (Stone 1976, 200). The Sumerian goddess Nidaba was sometimes depicted as a snake and was "the first patron deity of writing" (Stone 1976, 199). Ninlil had the tail of a snake and was said "to have brought the gift of agriculture and thus civilization to Her people" (199). Inanna was "the Divine Mother who reveals the laws. Nina, another form of the name Inanna, ... was esteemed as an oracular deity and an interpreter of dreams" (199). Ishtar of Babylon, later than the deities described above, was depicted as a female holding a staff "around which coiled two snakes" (200), and Ishtar is called "Lady of Vision of Kisurru" and "She who Directs the Oracles" and "Prophetess of Kua" (200). In Egypt the Cobra Goddess was Ua Zit. "We later see Her as the uraeus cobra worn upon the foreheads of other deities and Egyptian royalty. The cobra was known as the Eye, uzait, a symbol of mystic insight and wisdom, ... always written in the female form" (201). In Crete, one of the largest of the Greek Islands, female goddess statues from 1600 BCE stand holding snakes in their hands. And finally, in later times, e.g. 500 BCE, in Greece, Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and of Civilization, was always in the form of a female statue accompanied by her snake, which had its own building on the Acropolis near her Parthenon (temple). Women and snakes were compared as divine and eternal, because snakes shed their skin, seeming to be "reborn" and women menstruated every month, shedding their blood.
So the snake is connected to wisdom and civilization and goddesses as positive. In addition, the snake is connected with divine prophesy. Even in today's dictionaries a pythoness is described as a prophetess or witch.
The reason a snake may be depicted as prophetic was described by Stone. Supposedly snakes licked Cassandra the prophetess' ears when she was a baby. Snakes were kept at the temples of the Goddesses and at the temple at Delphi, supposedly providing the priestesses/prophetesses--women--with prophetic insight and divine counsel, sought after and used by politicians even in Greek times. The reason snakes might be the means to prophetic vision is that the venom of certain poisonous snakes, if one is made immune to it, can provide a person, when bitten, with similar experiences provided by mind-altering drugs like LSD. Thus, it is possible that "mind-expanding powers" were perceived by the priestesses who prophesied. Thus the snake may have been a real link to certain kinds of altered states and experiences.
In other myths the serpent is a living phallus created by the Goddess for her own pleasure. Thus the serpent can be perceived as a symbol of sexual pleasure for women. The snake was also depicted in the myth of Asclepios the healer as a symbol of healing.
Two additional lines of thought regarding snakes are also revealing as to the multifaceted nature of snake-serpent symbolism. In England the ley line philosophy has been described. In English tales and legends, in Chinese beliefs, and supposedly actual experience, it is thought that there are serpentine-like underground lines of some kind of magnetic energy which are found across the earth. These are called ley lines and supposedly were known by ancient peoples as underground currents that converged at holy places, places where, for example, at some point the energy was helpful to women for easier childbirth, where even animals would go for the same thing (see Hitching 1976). There were also human-made mounds in England, "re-shaped, probably for religious reasons, or for some use in that religion, perhaps for storing or controlling some sort of static electrical current, in a similar way that stone circles may have been used. One can feel the current sometimes at sacred sites and churches, variously described as a tingling sensation in the fingers, in the spine or back of the neck. Or it can be a sense of great peace, or just a strange feeling about a place. Whatever this energy really is, it is very strong when concentrated--strong enough, so legend has it, that when the dragon's blood is spilled--or when something goes wrong with the energy--no grass will grow on the site. This is said to have happened at Dragon Hill...." (Hoult 1987, 22). Simarly, according to Walker, The "Ouroboros (snake) was still pictured under the earth in certain European areas, and some people claimed to be able to feel his slow movements through their feet when they stood in the ancient shrines" (909)--very reminiscent of the dragon energy described by Hoult. Some traditions identified the Great Serpent as a male "with the Earth's intestines. ... Serpents understood how to restore life to the dead, according to the myths of Crete..." (907). Furthermore, the Anglo-Saxon word 'drakan,' according to Hoult, "is probably a Greek derivative, either from 'draco' meaning a dragon or large snake, or from the verb 'derkein,' which means to see clearly. Dragons were credited with clear sight, wisdom and the ability to foretell the future, the same characteristics that the Mediterranean and Near Eastern snake deities possessed!
Finally, there is an interesting connection between Eve and the serpent, one not told in the Christian bible. The name Eve means "Mother of All Living." The name YHWH, which supposedly stands for Yahweh, actually when broken down is Y (for "I") and HWH, which when translated into Latin letters, forms E-V-E (Walker, 288-9)! In addition, HWH means both "life" and woman." In the Gnostic Scriptures "life" is Hawwa. According to Walker there is an Aramaic pun in the Gnostic accounts of Eve identifying "Eve, the Teacher, and the Serpent: Hawah, Mother of All Living; hawa, to instruct; and hewya, Serpent. Eve's name in Arabic still combines the idea of "life" (hayyat) with the name of the serpent (Hayyat)" (904). Thus, we come full circle. The serpent, wisdom, and the female were all aspects of deity in Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek religion (among others). Eve represents the same: female, primordial deity, wise one, and serpent!
In fact, it may be that Eve, the Minoan Snake goddess (or priestess?) holding a snake in each hand, and the Serpent Holder constellation (Asklepios) represent the same deity. It could be, too, that Eve and Hera are related. The chapter which describes the serpent holder details such possible connections.
So in some accounts the serpent and the female deity are the same. In others she is accompanied by the serpent. In still others the serpent is the phallus made for her pleasure. However, the serpent in all the legends has to do with life. In most it also has to do with wisdom, rebirth, woman, and in some legends is symbolizes healing. Thus, while the snake can indeed be a symbol of death because of the poison venom that some snakes possess, in most pre-Christian legends, the snake, or dragon, is perceived as something quite positive, or for some peoples, both positive and negative. "It is notable that in the whole world, it is only in the areas which have been converted by the Christian church that both the serpent and the dragon have jointly come to signify evil. Everywhere else (including the Old Testament) they are either beneficial, or embody in their powers both good and evil, or potentially are capable of either" (Hitching 1976, 253).
The serpent, finally, is symbolized as the spiral, as a circle, as a conjoining of female and male. The snake truly symbolizes many things to many peoples down through the millenia.
2 comments:
A phallus symbol huh?
I like the picture of Milky, when did you take that?
Thank you for posting these words of wisdom and the time you took to research. Mankind has the most awesome responsibility to take care of this beautiful planet and all in it.
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