Familiar Fauna
.
Billy Capra

Midsummer 1998

II. The Serpent

The cosmic Serpent has been depicted most clearly throughout history as creatrix and most ancient manifestation of the emergent spirit of life. 'Whatever you do, wherever you pass by, tread carefully, beware of the Oldest of the Old.' In Egypt, Neith - in egyptian hieroglyphics the word "goddess" is expressed by the image of the cobra, is Goddess of life and fate (symbolised by the shuttle). "Goddess of magic and weaving. She is the unborn goddess who originates in herself...the eternal female principle of life, which was self-sustaining and self-existent, and was secret, unknown and all-pervading." Her cult was considered old in the First Dynasty and she carries the title of  'Oldest One' . Plutarch transcribes the inscription on one of her statues: "I am all that is or has been or that will be and no mortal has yet raised my veil", an inscription often accredited to Isis, a much more recent deity. As Isis, Neith is the gaurdian serpent of the Djed column, the spine of Osiris. A rearing heraldic cobra was often placed on either side of a sacred person or object. The rearing snake is a sign of the 'uprightness of the universe' - Iaret 'the upright one'.

A Pelasgian creation myth tells of Eurynome, Goddess of All Things who rose from Chaos. She divided the sky from the waters and danced on the tossing waves. Out of the wind generated by her dance, she created a great serpent named Ophion. Aroused by Eurynome's movements, Ophion coiled about her divine limbs and coupled with her. Eurynome then assumed the form of a dove and, brooding over the face of the waters, layed the Universal Egg. Ophion coiled about the egg to hatch it. From the egg tumbled the sun, moon, planets, stars, earth and all living creatures.

The Omphalos (baetylic or meteoric Earth Navel) of Delphi, a sacred stone of celestial origin, is surrounded with the serpentine coils of Python, son of Demeter, to whom the oracle was originally sacred. Megalithic and Neolithic imagery introduces many Goddesses to the world in snake form. The Goddesses tend to be striped or chevroned and are most often Goddesses of fertility and prophecy. Renenutet, the 'Lady of Aat', an Egyptian harvest Goddess was also a deity of childbirth and nursing, and Mertseger, who has a human head and snake body gaurds the Theban necropolis, 'She who loves Silence'. Eilythyia, a Cretan Goddess of childbirth and prophecy carried a torch reminding that fire, the first principle, is associated with women through the hearth. Some claim that Zeus is actually a chthonic deity, an Agathod Daimon, who in earlier times, represents the power that fertilizes the earth. Lightning has a profound and immediate electro-magnetic affect on nature - the earth Dragon may as easily be depicted as an electro-magnetic spiralling coil, the same coil as cone which may be 'welled' in stone circles and channelled...  Egyptians said of the snake ..."they have power - Hike - but Geb (God of the Earth), with his written instructions, has knowledge.

A near Eastern Serpent Goddess Anat, sister and consort to Baal, God of Storms and Rain and Lightning (Zeus) was both a creator and destoyer. As a monster which has to be overcome in order to establish order, Neheb-kau, 'the Provider of Attributes Serpent', the primordial Serpent Spirit at Hermopolis was overcome by Atum in the shape of a mongoose.'This thing is the claw of Atum which grasped the claw of the Neheb-kau Serpent, to drive away the confusion in Hermopolis'. Another name for the primordial serpent was Amun, 'Invisible One', because it came into being before the Sun.

As the Serpent God who encircles the world, the 'Son of Earth' with its tail in its mouth, the serpent marks the rulership of the passage of eternity and fate or destiny. As the spirit and guardian of the Underworld,  'I am Sito, dilated with years, I die and am reborn every day, I am Sito, who dwells in the farthest regions of the world.' As the personification of darkness, Apophis is overcome at dawn by Bast or Bastet a Cat Goddess and Isis.

Cobra symbolism became absorbed into that of the eye, as a distinguishing mark of the non-human wisdom and power of the ancient earth forces, Ejo, Goddess of the North. Atargatis Dea Syria from Syria who was introduced to Italy in the early Christian period epitomizes the fructifying spirit of water which produces and nourishes life.

Other Goddesses associated with the Serpent include the Greek Triple Goddess of the Moon, the Underworld and the chthonic forces of the Earth Hecate, Her priestess in Greek mythology Medea, the Mexican Coatlicue and Coyolxauhqui, the Aztec Green Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl, the Japanese Uga-Jin,  the Chinese Nu Kua, the Indian Nagas, Kali and Kundalini, the Guinea Niniganni, the Australian Rainbow Serpent Ngalijod and the Babylonian Goddess Gula-Bau.

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