Probably everyone knows about the role of the Biblical Serpent in the history of the human fall. But there is a beautiful theological interpretation of the events of the book of Genesis, which cannot be considered either a fiction or a simple metaphor of "evil incarnate."
But why exactly the Serpent becomes a symbol of temptation, whispering forbidden desires? Why exactly the Serpent is opposed to God or, as we will see from other versions, to the higher spiritual principle? An explanation immediately comes to mind that the snake is considered the most resourceful and, as a result, cunning, "wriggling" creature among all animals. But if we recall the origins of this mythological attribution of cunning to the snake, then we will understand that it all comes from the same biblical legend (“the snake was more cunning than all the beasts of the field”). In addition, in other countries of the world, for example, in China, the snake is associated not so much with cunning and temptation as with wisdom and some kind of hidden knowledge. By the way, the biblical Serpent is not devoid of these features - it really "knows", in the biblical interpretation it is Satan, possessing great power.
The Chinese ancestors of humanity, brother and sister Fuxi and Nuiwa, are often represented as snakes with a human body and tied tails. So, it is the snake in one form or another that generates all of humanity in ancient legends, and a number of researchers believe that the myths about the snake are one of the most ancient on earth. This is supported by patterns and paintings on the most ancient earthenware and ceramic dishes.
A bizarre mixture of a multi-armed deity and a snake is the seven-headed snake, images of which can be found in different parts of the world, but the most famous, of course, is the multi-headed Naga snake from Cambodia. Among the Maya people in Yucatan she was called Ahakchapat, in India she performs under the names Kaisha and Narayana. And if the connection between Indian and Cambodian multi-headed snakes can be easily traced through Buddhist influence, then strange parallels with a snake from Central America will make us think again about some common source of this symbol.
Without a doubt, the seven-headed snake is some very important esoteric symbol. One way or another, such a snake symbolizes the Creator and the very act of his creation.
The image of the snake as a creative act can also be seen in the amazing South Indian images of the 17th – 18th centuries: a huge snake crawls out of the womb of a yogini (a female tantric deity). What is this - the symbolism of the act of birth and, as a consequence, creation in general, or … of carnal sin, which immediately reminds us of the biblical story of Eve and the Serpent?
In India, the snake (more precisely, the snake) has always been associated with the symbolism of sexual energy, and this energy could manifest itself both in the global act of creation of the Cosmos, and in a very specific sexual intercourse. For example, images of two or more snakes coiling around a lingam (phallus) have become very common in southern India. It is noteworthy that in a number of images the phallus is absent, and only thanks to the intertwining snakes can it be understood that they symbolize the lingam between them.
Do not all these symbols remind us of some very famous story associated with the serpent and the relationship of the sexes? Naturally, we are talking about the biblical Serpent. With all the difference in legends and, even more so, their interpretations (in Asia, there can be no talk of the Fall through the contact of the sexes at all) there are strikingly many common places between the legends. First of all, both in the Old Testament story and in South Asian legends, the snake symbolizes precisely the woman, and not the unions of the sexes in general. Let's pay attention: the snakes coiled around the lingam cannot mean anything other than female sexual energy, as if supporting the energy of a man. In other images, it is from the womb of a woman that a snake crawls out. And it is Eve (woman!) Who becomes the embodiment of the tempting idea of the Snake. And is it a snake at all? We are accustomed to talking about the "snake" - a creature, in the esoteric sense, although asexual,but masculine. But in the original version of the Bible we are still talking about the "snake" - about the feminine principle. As you can see, there are so many common places in the biblical classics and "pagan" Indian (as well as Central American, Chinese and other) legends that they can hardly be attributed to an accidental coincidence.
Promotional video:
There are entire peoples whose image is associated with the legends of the mystical snake, and above all the Naga people. Nagas are generally one of the most mysterious peoples on earth. This is a group of tribes that live along the border of India and Burma, who speak Tibeto-Burmese languages. The stories about them are associated either with the terrible "headhunting" of people from other tribes, or with the struggle of the Nagas against the British in the 60-80s. XIX century. It was the British who made a lot of efforts to exterminate many terrible and bloody rituals of the nagas, including the "headhunting", converting this people to Christianity. By the end of the 80s. the population of the Naga was approximately 1 million people, and these people are still trying to gain independence from India. It is noteworthy that the very name of the people is no different from the name of the sacred snake - Naga,which is considered not only some kind of distant progenitor or symbol of this tribe, but in general is no different from them.
Who is Naga? Most often it is a snake with a human head, which is the keeper of large pearls, the elixir of immortality. Nagas live in caves deep under water. According to ancient legends, naga women have the ability to transform into ordinary people and in this form they seduce ordinary mortal men, taking away their life-giving energy and forcing them to die in terrible agony. You can still hear stories about how a young man, having married a beauty who brought him a son, once saw in the cradle not a beautiful baby, but a coiled snake that bit him.
True, naga snakes often acted as positive heroes, for example, according to Buddhist legend, nagas protected Buddha during a storm, after he received enlightenment, and even brought him a begging bowl as a gift.
What could be the hidden symbolism of the snake? First of all, let's pay attention to several functions that are attributed to it by different peoples, and even opposite features can coexist painlessly in the same legends.
So, the snake is the progenitor of people (among the nagas), it is associated with the reproductive principle or simply gives life (in tantrism). At the same time, it mystically lives in a person either in the form of temptation and evil (biblical tradition), or as some kind of energetic substance - Indian yogis and tantrists have the practice of "awakening" the kudalini snake, which initially lies curled up in the lower abdomen, and then along the spine it goes up to the head, opening the body's energy centers - chakras. One way or another, this is due to the realization that the birth of a person, the transfer of great knowledge to him and some kind of misfortune (the fall) are mystically linked together. But there is another feature of such a snake - in many legends it is associated with the sea element - either lives in the water, or is born there, or suddenly disappears in the depths,taking with them some value.
We meet the symbolism of the snake as the embodiment of the sea element in Crete and Santorini, and it is connected in many respects with the same rituals as in Egypt and even in India, which is very remarkable in itself. At the same time, the Quechua Indians in Central America claim that their ancestors from the disappeared land "were snakes" covered with hair (this partly coincides with the description of the ancient Atlanteans as long-haired people), the same cult of snakes is exactly how we see our ancestors in Africa, and the ancestral home of these people is also considered "eaten by the sea." It seems that we are talking about the same source of this legend.
Summarizing, we can say that all this again brings us back to the symbolism of a certain country, which occupied a central cultural position on earth, and then disappeared into the depths of the sea.
A. Maslov