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myth : the
serpent
The serpent has been a symbol of long life,
healing, and knowledge among almost all cultures and
religions since the
beginning of recorded history.
The
serpent was revered by the Aztec, Chinese and Native Americans.
The single serpent staff
appears on a Sumerian vase of 2000 BC representing the healing god Ningishita,
model for the Greek god of healing
Æsculapius.
The medical professions in America use the caduceus - a
pole entwined with 2 snakes, which originally was a symbol of heralds and
commerce.
Ironically, this is the staff of Mercury (Hermes) who is
the god of
thieves.
The traditional symbol of medicine is the staff of
Æsculapius with a
single serpent encircling a staff, classically a rough-hewn knotty oak tree
limb.
"The serpent represents magical power, which also
appears
where animal drives are aroused imperceptibly in us."
Carl Jung,
Liber Novus, Page 366
In rejuvation of life the serpent sheds
skin, as the moon sheds its shadow.
The Serpent sheds its skin to be
reborn, as the moon its shadow to be reborn.
Life sheds one generation after
another, to be reborn.
The Serpent represents
immortal energy and
eternal consciousness
of the Creator engaged in
the field of time,
throwing off death and being
reborn.
The serpent is a traveling
alimentary canal, that's about all it is.
It gives you that
primary sense of
shock, of life in its
most primal quality.
Sometimes
the serpent is represented as
a circle eating its own tail.
The
serpent represents the primary function of life, mainly eating.
Life lives on Life. The
essence of life is this eating of itself !
The Ouroboros, also spelled
Oroborus, Uroboros or Uroborus, is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent
swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.
The Ouroboros is one of
the oldest mystical symbols on
Earth.
There are two of us talking
in circles
and one of us who wants to leave
in a world forged for only
us
an empty cage that has no key
don't you know we're working
with flesh and blood
carving out of jealousy
Crawling into
each other it's smothering
every little part of me
What kind of love is this that keeps
me
hanging on despite everything it's doing to me
what is this love that keeps me coming
back
for more when it will only end in misery
I know too many people
unhappy
in a life from which they'd prefer to flee
watching
others get everything offered
they're wanton for discovery
Oh
my brother my sister my mother
you're loosing your identity
can't
you see that it's you in the
window shining with
intensity
What kind of love is this that keeps me
hanging on
despite everything it's doing to me
what is this love that keeps me
coming
back for more when it will only end in misery
Sarah
McLachlan
Life continues by
casting off death and being reborn.
The serpent in most cultures is
given a positive interpretation.
In India
even the most poisonous snake, the cobra, is a sacred animal and the
mythological serpent king is the next thing to the
Buddha.
The
serpent represents the power of life engaged in the field of time, and of
death, yet eternally alive;
the world is but its shadow - the falling skin.
The serpent is a very
powerful friend in the American
Indian traditions.
Go down to the pueblos and watch the
snake dance of the Hopi,
they take the snakes in their mouths make friends and then
send them back to the hills.
The snakes are sent back to carry the human
message to the hills, just as they have brought the message of the hills to the
humans.
The interplay of man and nature is illustrated in this serpent
relationship.
A serpent flows like
water, but its tongue continually flashes
fire.
So you have the pair of opposites together in the
serpent.
Now at that time a priest had
been killed by the bite of a snake.
When they announced the matter to
The Blessed One, he said:
"Surely now, 0 priests, that priest never
suffused the four royal families of the snakes with his friendliness.
For if, 0 priests, that priest had suffused the
four royal families of the snakes with his friendliness, that priest, 0
priests, would not have been killed by the bite of a snake.
And what are
the four royal families of the snakes?
The Virilpakkhas are a royal
family of snakes;
the Erapathas are a royal family of snakes;
the
Chabyaputtas are a royal family of snakes;
the Kanhagotamakas are a
royal family of snakes.
Surely, now, 0 priests, that priest did not suffuse the four royal families of
the snakes with his friendliness.
For surely, 0 priests, if that priest
had suffused the four royal
families of the snakes with his friendliness, that priest, 0 priests, would
not have been killed by the bite of a snake.
I enjoin, 0 priests, that
ye suffuse these four royal families of the snakes with your friendliness; sing
a song of defense for your protection and safeguard.
After this manner,
0 priests, shall ye sing:"
'Creatures without feet have my
compassion,
And likewise those that have two feet,
And those
that have four feet I care about,
And those, too, that have many feet.
'May those without feet harm me not,
And those
with two feet cause no hurt;
May those with
four feet harm me not,
Nor those
who possess many feet.
'Let creatures all, all things that
live,
All beings of whatever category,
See nothing that will
bode them ill!
May naught of evil come to them!"
"Give ear,
0 priests ! The Eternal Life has been gained
!"
"I will instruct you, and
teach you the Doctrine.
If you will live according to my instructions,
in no long time, and in this present life, you shall learn to live for
yourselves, and shall realize and live
in the possession of that highest bliss to which the holy life
conducts."
"Let The Blessed One teach the
Doctrine.
Some having but little defilement though not hearing the
Doctrine perish.
Some
will be found to understand the Doctrine and they will not
perish."
-from the CullaVagga, Buddhist sacred
text
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