The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

230 serpent
Angels fly over the Serpent of Eden. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
identify Jesus with the serpent in Eden because they were
both condemned for giving humans more godlike status.
Serpent in Mythology
In mythology, serpents are powerful, magical, and mystical
creatures. They are universal symbols of renewal and
rebirth because of their unique ability to shed their old
skin for new. The ouroboros, the serpent that forms a circle
by biting its own tail, symbolizes the eternal cycle of
life, death, and rebirth. In its carnal aspect, the serpent
represents a phallus and its associations of the life force,
sexuality, and sensuality. As a phallic symbol, the serpent
often is associated with pregnancy in imagery and
mythology.
As a creature that crawls along the earth and lives in
holes in the ground, the serpent has connections to the
underworld, the unconscious, and humankind’s instinctual
drives. Mythical serpents guard the sleep of both the
living and the dead; thus, they are creatures at the gateway
to new consciousness. The serpent also is a universal
companion to goddesses and thus can symbolize the feminine,
the anima, the womb, the dark, intuition, emotion,
and all the aspects of the Great Mother.
The coils of the serpent represent the cycles of manifestation:
life and death, good and evil, wisdom and blind
passion, light and dark, healing and poison, protection
and destruction. In kundalini yoga, a psychic force called
the “serpent power” resides coiled near the base of the
spine. In spiritual transformation, the energy rises up the
spine to the crown chakra. The appearance of serpents in
one’s life can presage or accompany the rising of kundalini
energy.
The dark aspect of serpents rules chaos, night, and
death. Deities that wear serpents are depicted with headdresses
of crescent Moons.
Serpent in Alchemy
In alchemy, the serpent is the serpens Mercurii, the quicksilver
that represents the constant driving forward of psychic
life forces: living, dying, and being reborn. The serpent
is the prima materia, the unformed and dark chaos,
from which order and life spring. Alchemical art often
shows the serpent wearing a gold crown, gem, diadem, or
light to depict its expanded spiritual consciousness. This
is another way of expressing the activated kundalini or
serpent power.
Serpent in Healing
The serpent is a potent symbol of healing, which also is part
of the transformation process. Asclepius, the Greek god of
healing, appears in the form of a serpent, and domesticated
serpents were kept at the sacred healing temples of the
classical world. Dream experiences were an integral part
of the healing therapies at these temples; it was especially
good to dream of serpents, because it portended healing.
The healing power of serpents is cited in Numbers 21:8,
in which Moses is instructed to set a fiery serpent upon a
pole, so that all who look upon it shall live.
Serpent in Dream Symbolism
To be bitten by a serpent in a dream can represent an
initiation or an infusion of wisdom—being “bitten” by a
new awareness, a gift from the gods. It is the equivalent
of an injection administered by a doctor: One is forcibly
administered a substance that will bring about some kind
of healing or new spiritual awareness. To be stalked or
pursued by a serpent intent on biting indicates that the
unconscious is attempting to introduce something into
waking awareness.
Serpent as Archetype
The serpent represents great power indicating change, renewal,
and transformation. Carl G. Jung considered the
serpent to represent a potent archetype of psychic energy,
power, dynamism, instinctual drive, and the entire process
of psychic and spiritual transformation. When serpents
appear, they may indicate a transformative process
that already is under way, or they call attention to the
need to move to a new level of consciousness.
Serpents also are associated with water, the symbol
of the unconscious, and trees, the symbol of wisdom and
knowledge. A serpent climbing up a tree represents the
process of becoming conscious or going through psychic
transformation. Two serpents twine up the caduceus staff
of Hermes (Mercury or Quicksilver), the classical god