Symbols - What does heaven look like
Serpent
See Creation and Destruction to understand this section. It may also help to understand the role of the Abyss.
The Serpent is a symbol of spiritual/software creation and destruction. In effect, one of the principle symbols used to represent energy being recycled is the serpent. Here is a useful quote
A Dictionary of Symbols – J E Cirlot
If all symbols are really functions and signs of things imbued with energy, then the serpent or snake is, by analogy, symbolic of energy itself – of force pure and simple; hence its ambivalence and multivalences.
Thus the serpent is symbolic of the creation and destruction of Energy, but perhaps more specifically ordered energy - software/spirit. See System and Spirit.
The 'cosmic serpent' is a symbol found in Amazonia, Mexico, Australia, Sumer, Egypt, Persia, India, the Pacific, Crete, Greece, Scandinavia, India, North America, South America and so on. The symbolism seems to be almost universal …..
Joseph Campbell – The masked god; Primitive Oriental and Occidental Mythology
Throughout the material in the Primitive, Oriental and Occidental volumes of this work; myths and rites of the serpent frequently appear and in a remarkably consistent symbolic sense. Wherever nature is revered as self moving and so inherently divine, the serpent is revered as symbolic of divine life
Ouroboros
In numerous cultures, the symbol used to represent the endless cycle of ordered energy recycling via construction and destruction is the Ouroboros. The Ouroboros is one of the enduring symbols of the recycling of energy – the dissolution of ordered energy which is then used to feed the creation process – the creation of ordered energy. The symbol shows a serpent which is consuming its own tail.
In some myths and legends, the concept of the serpent is used as a symbol of just destruction, for example, the serpents nibble at the tree of life – they destroy life, souls and so on.
Dissolution and creation can take place at every level of creation, the vision of a serpent may refer to
- copies of the software of your functions,
- copies of the software of a group of souls,
- copies of the software of a species
- copies of the software of the planet
- copies of the software pf the entire universe!
Here the word copy is important. Generally speaking much of the creation and destruction that goes on is to the copies of the software – the implemented part of the Trinity - not the Creator and Created themselves.
This is why we see serpents associated with Water in so many legends and myths
Patterns in Comparative Religion – Mircea Eliade
Serpent genies did not dwell only in the seas and oceans but also in lakes, pools, wells and springs. The worship of serpents and serpent genies in India and elsewhere, in whatever setting we find it, always preserves its magico-religious bond with water. Serpents and serpent genies are always found close to water, or in charge of it….
‘Earth’ when it is dissolved symbolically becomes a higher vibrational level - Water
And conversely if we wish to create ‘Earth’ we need ‘Water’ – symbolically of course.
The bigger the serpent, the greater is the power of the serpent to create and destroy. In other words, the size of the serpent provides an indication of what level of creation and destruction is being described.
EAST COKER - (No. 2 of 'Four Quartets') - T.S. Eliot
In my beginning is my end.
Satan
Satan is Saturn - the planet. Because Saturn is so close to the abyss [see Map of the Egg] it is often associated with the serpent - the ouroboros - the area where energy is recycled.
If you look at the astrological meaning of Saturn it stands for the Intellect, Reasoning and Memory. Thus the supposedly 'evil' nature of the serpent in all Biblical sties and texts is the association of the serpent with the Intellect and 'cleverness' - the egotistical, the big I am. In effect, when man became physical, the last thing that would help him was to take on solely the attributes of Saturn as he 'fell'. And the reason is that the Intellect blocks spiritual experience.
Thus Eve, by choosing the apples of knowledge [as opposed to wisdom] and taking the advice of Saturn [the serpent] with his cleverness and Intellect, she succeeded in stopping spiritual experience - Adam and Eve 'fell' - became physical and lost their connection with the spiritual world.
Observations
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- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 05 - 2 Serpent
- Ancient Egyptian - The symbolism of the god Seker
- Apuleius and Isis
- Aurora Consurgens - 03 An allegory of disorder
- Ball, Dr Martin - A kundalini experience
- Beowulf - The Hero's Sword
- Bhagavad Gita - Vasuki and the Ocean of Milk
- Blake, William - And Elohim created Adam
- Blake, William - In deluge o’er the earth born man, then turned the fluxile eyes
- Blithe spirit - Sees a sea serpent
- Cadmus
- Cameron, Norman - From lands where all the flowers have teeth
- Cernunnos
- Chagall - birds
- CICOM Museum - Mayan - The sorceror
- Cirlot on snakes and serpents
- Cirlot on the caduceus
- Cirlot on the Ouroboros
- Copan - Mayan - Overview and plan
- Copan - Mayan - Stela H
- Copan - Mayan - Stela P Temple 16
- Crowley - 16 The Tower
- Dionysos - The Dionysian frenzy
- Dixon, Jeane - A vision of the snake
- Egyptian Book of the Dead - Spell 007
- Euripides - The Bacchae and the fates
- Eusebius - Praeparatio evangelica
- Father Bernabe Cobo - Inca Religion and Customs - Eclipses of the Moon
- Father Bernabe Cobo - Inca Religion and Customs - Serpents
- Flamel, Nicolas - Uraltes chymisches Werk A Eleazar 1760 5th illustr.
- Flamel, Nicolas - Uraltes chymisches Werk A Eleazer 1760 3rd illustr.
- Gaudi - Professional work - 11 The Artigas Gardens
- Grant Gronewald - HTML flowers - Anywhere I lay my head
- Grant Gronewald - HTML flowers - Chance meeting 'hind the shrubs
- Hammond, Bill - Head
- Harivamsha Purana - Akura's vision
- Harivamsha Purana - Overcoming the serpent Kaliya
- Hatha Yoga Pradipika – Kundalini description
- Healer H - I’m the Fagan with the kids
- Hennell, Thomas - Great serpents
- Hokusai - Octopus
- Hopi - Native American Indians - Snake dance
- Ibn El-Arabi - The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq - Flashes of lightning gleamed to us
- Jacolliot, Louis - Occult Science in India - THE FRONTAL SIGN OF THE INITIATES ACCORDING TO THE AGROUCHADA-PARIKCHAI
- Jeremy Narby – Cosmic serpent
- Judee Sill - The Lamb Ran Away with the Crown
- Kahuna - Bakunawa as Ouroboros
- Kish - The Myth of Etana – Tablet 2
- Klimt - Nuda Veritas
- Klimt - Hygieia
- Krishna receives reflexology stimulation
- Krishna, Gopi - the kundalini experience No 3
- Lawlor - Australian Aborigine - Crystals
- Levy-Dhurmer - Eve
- Lewis, C S - Dawn Treader - The underwater city
- Loyola, Ignatius of - Hallucination of a serpent with glittering eyes
- Lyall Watson - Snakes
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian shaman’s dress
- Michelangelo - 1508 Sistine Chapel - 02 Fall of Man
- Michelangelo - 1508 Sistine Chapel - 10 The Four Pendentives 1
- Michelangelo - Sonnet XXI - To others merciful and only to itself unkind
- Mircea Eliade - Australian Aboriginal Initiation ceremony
- Mircea Eliade – Mishna and the Tree of Knowledge
- Misc. source - Australian aboriginal – Rainbow serpent
- Misc. source - The yacu-mama
- Moreau - Jason 1865
- Morrells, Luce and the angel of annihilation
- Morrells, Luce and the large house surrounded by water
- Mutwa, Vusamazulu Credo - Serpents
- Myōe – The Dream of Shanmiao
- Norse - Jelling
- Ogotemmeli - Ostriches, the Egg and teeth
- Ogotemmeli - Serpents and wavy lines
- Ogotommeli - Order of creation
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – M. de Fleuriere the importance of symbolism in understanding images of the past present and future, as well as character
- Paul Devereux - Australian aboriginal – Flying through the sky
- Pauli, Wolfgang - Dreams of Rings, Circles, Eggs and Stars
- Persian caves
- Poetic Edda - Hymir's poem [extract]
- Poetic Edda - Völuspá [extract]
- Popol Vuh Museum - Guatemala city - 'Priest'
- Rosary of the Philosophers - 10 The Union
- Rosary of the Philosophers - 17 Demonstration of Perfection
- Rubens - Hygeia, Goddess of Health 1615
- Saint-Exupery, Antoine de - Le Petit Prince
- Samavedas – Book 07 Chapter 03, XII Soma Pavamana
- Schwabe, Carlos - Lotte and Nude amongst Flowers
- Schwabe, Carlos - L'Homme et la Mer
- Shaivism - Concepts and symbols - Bull
- Shaivism - Concepts and symbols - Column or lingam and Serpent
- Snakes slithering throughout the bed and a figure walk down the hallway
- Soustelle - Aztecs and Mexica - The Steam bath
- Surdas - Fatephur Sikri manuscript - NPS 1744
- The cult of Asclepius
- The Knights Templar - Royston Cave
- The Serpent power – Arthur Avalon
- The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine - Key 09
- Tirgereh - Prayer to the Celtic goddesses
- Tree, Isabella - Sliced Iguana – 04 The ceremony
- Villoldo, Dr Alberto - Animals as symbols
- Von Stuck, Franz - 1891 Sensuality
- Yeats, W B - Anima Hominis - The Path of the Sun
- Zosimos of Panopolis - The Vision of Zosimos - 06