The serpent is a symbolic animal that has an extremely ambiguous, often contradictory, interpretation.
It is such a rich symbol that it would be impossible to trace here all of its meanings.
Yet, to penetrate in the general symbolism of the serpent, it’s important to understand that this animal is often conceived in opposition (either to another animal – which can be the bird) or to itself. The serpent contains then both light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, the masculine and the feminine.
Having this in mind, maybe it’s normal that we first assimilate the serpent to the Ouroboros, the tail-devouring snake: being the beginning (“materia prima”) and the end (the spirit), androgynous as well as unique and multiple.
It was also believed that the Ouroboros would rest at the base of the world – at the conjunction of chaos and cosmos, the unseen and the manifest.
Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the serpent?
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My son Mathias taught me about the serpent when he was five years old. He explained to me that snake is the symbol of eternal peace because he is one part humanity and one part nature. He said that when people see evil in a snake they are seeing the humanity. When they see the good they are seeing nature”
Anytime I see a serpent now, I cannot help but see it as a symbol of hope and a reminder to stay grounded.
Dear Catherine,
As Thelma explained, the serpent staff as a symbol of many medical organizations today goes back to Greek Mythology.
Asclepius – God of Medicine (Greek Asklepios) was the son of the Greek God Apollo (the God of Healing) and the nymph Coronis. According to Pindar Coronis, being with child from Apollo had an affair with Ischys. Therefore, Apollo asked his sister Artemis to kill her. As Coronis was being cremated, Apollo had second thoughts and saved his son by cesarean section. His son received the name Asclepius that means, “to cut open”. Apollo placed him in the care of the Centaur Cheiron from whom he learnt surgery and the arts of a Chiropractor.
One day Asclepius saw a snake coming out from a crack in the earth and it crawled up his staff. Asclepius killed the snake but at once, another snake appeared with an herbal leaf in its mouth. It placed this leaf on the dead snake and the snake immediately came back to life. From that day, the serpent became his companion and traveled with him on his staff.
Zeus killed him after he had brought back to life a dead person.
His sanctuaries or temples were places of healing. The sick persons slept there and the god would induce cures during their sleep or tell them remedies during their dreams.
Actually, there are two symbols used in medicine. One is the staff with a single serpent the Aesculapius and the other the Caduceus the staff with two snakes and wings on top – this is associated with Hermes (Mercury) – the messenger of the Gods. Apollo gave him this staff and it is to bring peace and to overcome disease. Snakes like medicines can be very poisonous and they rejuvenate by shedding their skin, just as we rejuvenate by rest and sleep.
Doctors swear the HIPPOCRATIC OATH and in ancient times, it started like this: “I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant”…
I hope this is helpful.
With kindness,
Satora
objectively,a serpent doesnt represent anything to me,they just are.
like every other animal,they have a role in nature.
emotionally,it represents fear.primal fear of the unknown,unfamiliar territory.
spiritually,it takes many shapes and notions,i think power sums them up somehow.power through fear,power through medicine,power through wisdom,and power of change.
Hi Paulo and Everyone,
Snakes appear on the Caduceus – the wand of Hermes and are linked to the symbol of healing. Also they are entwined around the tree of life.
In their mouth-catching-tail version they remind me of the tarot cards “la roue de fortune” and “le monde” both of which have circle motifs.
These can be associated with two cycles: la roue de fortune is ten and symbolises the impeccability that don Juan suggests to Castaneda is very important for a warrior.
le monde is 21 and is peace and success- the end of a second cycle.
Snakes are very economical with their food and don’t waste the gifts that they get when they hunt. We could learn from them.
The prime association for me is of the rainbow serpent, the one that marked out the land, and the song lines of the dreaming in Aboriginal belief. That sense of being connected to all things in the dream time.
Best wishes,
Alan
Dear Catherine, in my post above there is the reason how and why the snake is the symbol of medicine and healing. Ancient Greek mythology!
LOVE,
THELMA
Aha, so I finally discover the WHO logo has the snake on cross/pole image incoporated. Yet this still leaves one wondering how the snake/serpent is linked to health/care.
Anyone?!?!
Aha, so I discover the WHO logo has indeed the snake on a cross/pole logo incorporated… yet I remain perplexed at how snake is relative to health. Anyone?!?!
http://www.leb.emro.who.int/search/who%20logo%20final%207.bmp
It´s beautiful,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El86ED1sPK4
I`ve heard a legend,when I was a child :In Romania peopel say that every house, have in front ,under the first entrance step, a snake.For years I thaught is just a Legend!
For two years cca.,I whent to the place where I lived in the childhood ,and i spoke with an maybe 34-6 years old gipsy man, who told me he had to left his house,because he awake one time with a snake on his stomach;he was convinced that he have to bild anouther house to live in peace.Altough for years I`ve maked a trance Session to a psihoterapeut doctor lady,when I met my mystic animal that cames from my solar plexus chakra:it was a beautieful yelow-orange colour snake.
Third situation was happening to me in Toscana,in a very beautiful old castel aranged in a few appartaments.I was going in the morning, to pick up some rose petals to make me and my family a delicious breakfast tee when I saw direct near to the wall under the rosebush,a snake!
Now I know for myself, that what I`ve heard in the childhood was not a fictive storie .
The serpent is a mystical animal thats have a great power to open up our eyes ,the whole humanbeing!
It`s have the ancient knowledge!
Love
Mirela(the woman in lift)
It’s just to correct the link to my website, under my name.
Thanks!
Marta
Hi Paulo! Atma Namaste!
How have you been, sweetheart?
For me, the snake means power, the kundalini power balanced.
Good to be back here, in your blog!
Beijos mil!
Marta
The symbol of a snake serves the same purpose as all symobls. It only serves to hide the origional truth of an idea. Try and look beyond the symbol and search for the true meaning. Because, in truth, a snake is just a snake.
I think that in one year, one has left considerable of the humanity already has waked up for the quiet transformation spiritual that this happening, that many are acting and in it practises making a better world. Kiss. Homesicknesses. Sonia
A phallic symbol.
The serpent in the garden of Eden, the kundalini, the ouroboros, serpent enchanters, flute, clay pot, rattle.
I have been fascinated by snake imagery for most of my life. It means so much to me on a personal level, that to put it in to words is impossible.
I have worn a snake since I was fifteen, and always felt immense protection and still do.
Briefly, the Coiled Serpent, represents the Goddess to me, her energy and wisdom. The Double Headed Serpent represents duality, male and female, born from one source, but divided.
Before patriarchy in ancient Greece (when the snake symbol became demonized) the snake was a symbol of the Goddess, Minoan statues have been found in Crete with women (Priestesses) holding two snakes in either hand.
Rachel Brice, who is a fantastic dancer reminds me of a 21st century Minoan Priestess, her movements are very snake like, as this video demonstrates : http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gCB8WLJ2GYg
On a mundane level, all Ace-inhibitors treatments for High Blood Pressure are derived from the venom of the Brazilian Bothrops Pit Snake, and even in tiny quantities the side effects of the drug can be hard to tolerate.
Maybe Paracelsus was right when he said : “All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.”
The snake is a very good example of those things/animals where the thought of it is so different to the look of it and especially to the touch of it. Many people think of poison or strangling, i.e. danger, when they think of a snake. When you see a picture of one with its shiny scales, you could think that they are cold and slippery. When you see its movement it suddenly starts to be a graceful animal. Once you get to (safely) touch one, you learn that they are beautifully strong, smooth and soft animals.
I like snakes. In paradise it was the snake who asks Eve why she’s not allowed to eat from the tree of knowledge because it “was more subtil than any beast of the field”. So, in our Christian mythology, the serpent is the embodyment of the inquisitive mind of a scientist.
g.
http://www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/human-body-energy-centers.html
The Kundalini awakening. A very interesting video.
In Hindu mythology Kundalini is a serpent goddes who lies asleep at the base of the spine.
There is negative symbolism of the serpent in Genesis. The snake who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Serpents are also connected with renewal or regeneration.
The image of the serpent is considered as the embodiment of the wisdom, Sophia and the Ophites, meaning the serpent people in Gnosticism.
The most common symbolism internationally is the ‘knotted wooden staff encircled by a single snake’, which is the symbol of Asclepios the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology.
LOVE,
THELMA
Nanci, you are right. No need to kill the snakes. The way I see it, we have moved into the desert, to their territory, not the other way around.
Deep, old wisdom. Inner growth. Secrets to discover. Aides and helpers if you want to develop further in your life. I love snakes.
Hello Mr. Coelho!
The serpent can be seen in several ways. In many ancient spiritual traditions, the serpent is the primordial force, the chaos before creation (Cipactli in pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, Tiamat in Sumer, Jörmungandr in the Norse mythology etc.) and it can be viewed as both feminine and masculine, or androgyne.
In the Indian Tantric tradition, the feminine dynamic power Shakti, when inside the human body is called the Kundalini Serpent. In this form it is lying dormant and once awakened, the serpent rises the Chakras towards higher states of consciousness. Another feminine example is the gnostic Sophia, wisdom, the serpent of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. In both these cases, the serpent is associated with the inner, esoteric Alchemical process.
The Ouroboros serpent biting its own tail is indeed the beginning and the end, the cyclic nature of things. Ouroboros can also be seen as the serpent coiled around the Garden of Eden, defining the borders of creation. This is the state before the serpent enters the Garden, and thus changes the cosmic order.
Perhaps it’s easy for us to project the fear of the unknown in serpents and other reptilian animals, as they can be seen as prehistoric and alien. As in ancient Egypt, the serpent is associated with e.g. Apep and is seen as a symbol of chaos and disorder (Isfet). On the other hand, something in the serpent can remind us of a calm, quiet, yet constantly alert state of consciousness, “silentium est aureum”, and thus the snake can take us all the way to Zen philosophy and to the not-thinking mind of wu-hsien.
The serpent represents for us what we want it to represent. But in any case, the serpent is a symbol that always touches something inside of us.
-Coatlicue- (Serpent Skirt)
PS. I have to mention that I greatly admire your books “The Alchemist” and “Warrior of the Light”.
Thank you Savita, but no thank you. I think I will live with my phobia for snakes.
Have a nice day.
Nelson
Well snakes for me represent lots of things – transformation – growth -sensing -hearing what is going on around you – birth -death -never ending cycle -also I think snakes inspire deep thinking and they help if we see them as a chance to solve any knotty problems we may be having ,as we can unravel them -let go and move on .
Blessings Tania
1. Power
2. Beauty
3. Evil
4. Slickness
5. Hypnotizing
Olá sou do Brasil.
Sou muito fã de Paulo Coelho,é deslumbrante ler seus livros,principalmente O Alquimista,meu preferido.
Ainda quero ter a oportunidade de ler todos os livros de Paulo Coelho.
Obrigada!
Dangerous, Blind – as it is said that snake cannot see, fear, I just feel fear whenever I hear about snakes.
Reading this I remembered once my mum told me about her dream which was associated with snakes. She actually saw, she was wearing snakes in her hairs, which quite scared me.
Love,
Iqra (UK)
Dear mr Coelho,
There are number of things that makes me wonder about origin of your messages. You are associated with a secret sociaty that “J” seems to be its leader. In your books you rather mention about a supreme being but i dout it is the same god as it’s in the bible. You seem to be associated with witchcraft and magic. The cover page of the book “alchemist” the one eyed person with the pyramid in his heart just reminds me the freemasonry sign of the pyramid and the all seeing eye which can be found on the back of one dollar bill. now you are somehow defending serpent which we know in the bible is the symbol of satan. ofcourse serpent in the bible is a symbol and there is nothing wrong with the poor snakes as they are god’s creatures. but it makes me wonder what are you trying to say behind you texts. Please reply if you like. if not I just say : may god bless your soul!
I associate myself.
Hace varios dias, decidi hacerme un tatuaje, desde que murio mi padre pense en tatuarme algo que tubiera significado para ambos… pense en letras kanji, o en arabe, hasta que descubri la serpiente que se devora la cola, buscando su significado, encontre que simboliza la eternidad, el principio y el fin, reencarnacion entre otros… ya decidi tatuarme la serpiente que se come la cola… porque aunque no tenga a mi padre… sus enseñanzas y sus recuerdos permaneceran con migo hasta que yo viva.
Snake stories….
When I moved back to Texas a couple of years ago, it had been a very long time since I had encountered a snake. Since that time, I cannot count the number I’ve seen just in my own yard. Most are quite harmless – chicken snakes, kingsnakes, grass snakes, etc. – but there are also quite a few very deadly snakes in our area: timber rattlers, coral snakes, copper heads and water moccasins.
When I first moved back, I would’t have dreamed of going within several yards of even the most innocuous variety. Then, after at least a half dozen encounters with all sorts of snakes, one day my daughter, screaming, called me out into the yard to show me a snake that the dogs had killed (which happens surprisingly often). When I saw it, I knew immediately that it was a water moccasin, one of the deadliest varieties around; however, the way it was coiled up, turned on its back, I also assumed that it was quite dead. So, I took the stick I brought out to kill it with, in case it were a poisonous snake (I admit, I’m not as pacifist as Nanci, not when it comes to deadly snakes in my yard) and I quickly scooped the snake up on the end of the stick. (Now this is not a very long stick – about 130cm, a little over four feet – similar to those used in the martial arts.) And suddenly, as soon as I scooped it up, the creature came to life – it was not dead at all! In an instant, it coiled around the end of the stick, which I held in the air, turned toward me, writhing, and opened its mouth wide, baring long white fangs. At this point, the snake’s head was not more than a couple of feet from my own, and I really wasn’t sure what to do with it. I couldn’t put it down, because three of my dogs were at my feet, and I knew with certainty that the youngest would dive for it as soon as I did. She had already killed several non-poisonous snakes and left them on the walk, like presents for me, but I wasn’t sure she would fare so well in a battle with this huge water mocassin that was, in that instant, hissing and writing, dangling just inches in front of my face. Finally, I managed to make it to the tool shed, with the dogs circling me and barking, where, once inside, I flung the snake on the floor, grabbed the axe which hung on the wall, and without hesitancy, chopped off its head.
I know that many of you, like Nanci, would likely be horrified at this story, saying that I might have done better to attempt to relocate the animal instead. And I would agree, except that in an encounter with a snake such as that, as deadly poisonous and aggressive as this species is, and considering the circumstances, I have to admit that relocating it was about the furthest thing from my mind.
Still, even in the midst of such an encounter, and even after, I would say that I feel this certain reverance for snakes quite unlike anythig that I feel in regards to any other animal on earth. When they come into my life – whether poisonous or harmless, whether passive or aggressive – I always know that these encounters have great significance on a spiritual level, and are never to be taken lightly.
I once chopped a coral snake into the three pieces, trying to kill it with an axe. (It was in the sand beneath my daughter’s treehouse.)When I did, the head and the tail left. Yes, left! As in crawled away quickly into the underbrush, never to be found again. And there I was, left with just the mid-section of this snake. I can’t describe the state of awe I was in in that moment, as I had always heard tales of this nature growing up, but would have never thought such a thing possible. In fact, legend has it that when such a thing occurs, the head and the tai go off into the forest and rejoin to live another day. Just a few weeks ago I saw another coral snake, this time a very large one, near the same spot where I killed the first a couple of years ago, when I first moved back to Texas. When I saw this one, I did not run for the axe, however, because in my mind – despite what science might have to say about it – this was the same snake I had encountered before: the head and the tail rejoined and “reborn.” Both incidents, I marked in my personal journal as being of great portent.
And as for your curiosity, Nelson D’Silva, I’d be happy to introduce you to one of the snakes in my yard if you’d like…one of the live variety….
Perhaps it will help you to overcome your fear.
Savita
1 asociacion:Un anillo, con usted me enteré que el significado es distinto si se muerde la cola o no, mi anillo no se muerde la cola, casi no parece una serpiente, me lo compré en recuerdo de uno que tuve muy distinto, muy grande y claramente se identificaba desde lejos la serpiente (se me perdió),
¿Por qué me comprè un anillo de serpiente? Me identificaba con él,me distinguía o eso lo creía yo, creo que era para mi símbolo de búsqueda, búsqueda de saber, ideales..Al fin y al cabo había leido en algún sitio que la serpiente significaba sabiduría.
Por esta època, y por su recuerdo volví a comprarme otro,una serpiente más pequeña que es ocultada por otro anillo, quizás por estética, y quizás porque ya ha perdido parte de si significado. Aunque jamás me desprenda de él.
2 asociación: La serpiente que la Virgen pisa.
Si para el hinduismo la serpiente es sabiduria, entro en contradicciòn:
Intentando explicar: Quizás dios (AMOR) sea mayor que toda sabiduria, conocimiento, inmortalidad e intelectualidad.
3 asociación: El anillo de la portada de su libro el Alquimista, portada de 20 años de conmemoraciòn.Preciosa, por cierto.
How much meat on fire that you kept Parabombastus!
Wonderful…
Written on the front page of the Ghanain newspaper, Daily Mirror’s
is the heading “Woman turns into Cobra?”
which is reportedly about witchcraft and domestic violence.
I have also recently come across a symbol representing health care: a snake wrapped around something almost like a cross or sometimes a sword. It’s a suprising combination of elements.
Sachamama, Mother of the Waters, the great serpent, binding and unbinding matter in her great coils of light, showing us how to walk softly with beauty on the belly of the earth – a serpents belly is never out of contact with Mother Earth – and to shed our past the way the serpent sheds its skin.
Serpent is gravity where everything is as it is. Serpents are cold blooded and through continual contact with the earth and matter they also teach dettachment. To see through the eyes of serpent is to see everything as it is with no desire to have it be other than that. There is no attachment to sensation, feeling or outcome, to history or to future.
The people of the West are the only peoples who have a creation story that casts them out of the Garden of Eden. Most other cultures around the world have never seen themselves as cast out, but as still part of it.
Rebecca
In the Chinese horoscope, the snake is seen as wise and beautiful. As I was born in the year of the Snake, I naturally subscribe to that. I grew up in northern Namibia, and it was quite normal to see snakes, some very poisonous – I cannot say I ever felt any fear of them.
People in trance states very often see snakes and serpents – with the implication that they bring knowledge, and wisdom. Jeremy Narby wrote a book called ‘The Cosmic Serpent’ – referring to the structure of DNA. I think the serpent is more mysterious than we in the Western world realise.
I am terrified of snakes, but I would love to see the one tattooed on Savita. OK, OK, please don’t ostracize me.
Love to you all, hope to me,
Nelson
I just read about Heart’s encounter with the rattlesnake. Very awesome encounter, Heart! About a year or so ago, my husband called me to the back gate (it leads onto our back porch) to check out a snake he had found. Upon further inspection, we found that it was a baby rattlesnake, and my husband wanted to kill it. I wanted to relocate it (of course, not in our garden, LOL!). I swear that snake could feel the intent of both of our energies and was very aggressive toward my husband but allowed itself to be calmed by my voice and in fact turned its head to gaze at me while I talked to it, saying that we wouldn’t harm it, etc. Unlike the garter snakes that I pick up in my hands, I did not pick up this snake, bue we we were able to capture it and relocated it to a safe place and it was released.
One of the things that comes to mind when thinking of snakes is my cat, and how he hunts garter snakes during the summer. My husband won’t touch snakes and so when he sees my cat has caught one, he calls me to come and rescue it, which I do, and I release it into the garden.
This week end I had the pleasure of reading the free online version of your ‘Veronica decides to die’, and noticed a statement about the statue of Our Lady with a snake at the base, was suggested to mean that Our Lady doesn’t need to care about good or evil. A common interpretation of these statues also has been, that when Our Lady is threading on the snake, She does so because she has triumphed over sin.
In psychology, Freud thought that the snake was a phallic symbol. If a person dreams about snakes and feel anxious about it, it means he/she suffers from sexual anxiety.
To this day, if a snake is found near the house of a Pima Indian family, (which happens quite often being located as they are, in the desert), they believe the snake represents an evil spirit, and they leave their house, call for a medicine man/chief to do a ceremony, and don’t move back, till this is successfully done, and their home has been cleaned.
Personally, I grew up in a country without any snakes (unless you call a small worm; ‘Huggorm’ a snake). A co worker from Pakistan told me how he would confuse snakes on the fields where he grew up, by always bringing a scarf. He’d wave the scarf to get the snake to bite for it, and then stab the snake in the head with his other hand, and so to speak tricked the dangerous snake.
A while back, during a camping trip, suddenly after getting water in a river, on my way back to the tent, I stood face to face with a Diamondback rattlesnake. By that time I had a lot of knowledge about how a rattlesnake, rattles his tale, if he is getting ready to strike. Since this one didn’t rattle, I felt pretty sure he wasn’t planning to attack me. In fact, these snakes very rarely waist their poison on human beings, unless one step on it. So, there I stood eyeballing this rattle snake for some time, both him and me pretty much froze, and just looked at each other. I literally had eye to eye contact with this two meter long snake. Of course I was a little bit scared, and looked for escape route, but my conclusion was, he did not look aggressive at all, he was just there to get some water, just like myself.
I quite like snakes. They are very graceful.
I associate snakes with spiritual transformation/awakening, the shedding of skins, getting closer to the core. I also associate them with health as per the snake symbol in medicine.
In dreams I find that snakes can sometimes represent dubious people. People who hide their motives under rocks and then strike out at you.
Kathleen xx
It is very ironic (or is synchronicity at play here) that you follow up last week’s “Ring” association with a “Serpent.” I never had a chance to reply to last week’s free association, but the serpent is precisely what comes to my mind when you say “ring” – the ring of the Ouroborus.
The serpent is also a very personally sacred symbol for me; indeed, the most sacred of all perhaps. So important to me that I had an image of a snake tattooed at the base of my spine (half hidden, half visible) as to me it symbolizes, among other things, the rising of the Kundalini-Shakti energy – the movement toward spiritual growth and enlightenment. It is also closely relatedwith Lord Shiva.
For me, snakes have always been very powerful portents, as well. Snakes always appear in my life when big changes are about to occur. Depeding on the type of snake, the circumstances and the outcome of my meeting with the animal, I interpret the event as having this or that specific meaning in my life.
LOVE
Savita
The shedding of the skin is why the snake is a universal initiation symbol. “This is rebirth, O son, no longer to identify with the body.” Corpus Hermeticum Also, real alchemy involves sublimated sacral energy. The brazen serpent of Moses. Here are some quotes to get you started.
These blear’d eyes
Have wak’d to read your several colours, sir,
Of the pale citron, the green lion, the crow,
The peacock’s tail, the plumed swan.
Thou hast descry’d the flower, the sanguis agni?
Ben Jonson
The Alchemist
Three things suffice for the work: a white smoke, which is water; a green Lion, which is the ore of Hermes, and a fetid water… the stone, known from the chapters of books, is white smoke and water.
Michael Maier
Atalanta Fugiens
Of this self-same body, which is the matter of the Stone, three things are chiefly said; that it is a green Lion, a stinking Gum, and a white Fume.
Having twelve pounds of Green Lion thus brought into gum, thou mayst believe…
St. Dunstan (pseudo)
Philosophia Maturata
A green Gum called our green Lyon, which Gum dry well, yet beware thou not burn his Flowers nor destroy his greenness.
Sir George Ripley
The Bosome-Book of Sir George Ripley
You will see marvelous signs of this Green Lion, such as could be bought by no treasures of the Roman Leo.
Paracelsus
The Treasure of Treasures
Beware therefore of many, and hold thee to one thing. This one thing is naught else but the lyon greene..
Bloomfield’s Blossoms
I know well this Lyon Greene…
Hunting of the Greene Lyon
Upon the delicate leaves thereof it retaineth for our use that sweet heavenly honey which is called the manna, and, although it be of a gummy, oily, fat, and greasy substance, it is, notwithstanding, unconsumable by any fire.
Rabelais
Gargantua and Pantagruel
This is called the blessed stone; this earth is white and foliated, wherein the Philosophers do sow their gold…
The fourth color is Ruddy and Sanguine, which is extracted from the white fire only.
Jean d’Espagnet
The Hermetic Arcanum
O how many are the seekers after this gum, and how few there are who find it! Know ye that our gum is stronger than gold, and all those who know it do hold it more honorable than gold… Our gum, therefore, is for Philosophers more precious and more sublime than pearls…
Turba Philosophorum
Therefore I affirm that the Universal Medicine for bodies is the philosophic gold, after it has been separated and drawn to the highest state of perfection. Our common gold has absolutely nothing in common with the philosophic gold we use to begin our task. In that respect common gold is dead and clearly useless.
Philip a Gabella
Consideratio Brevis
By gold I mean our green gold- not the adored lump, which is dead and ineffectual.
Thomas Vaughan
Aula Lucis
Take the fire, or quicklime, of which the philosophers speak, which grows on trees, for in that God himself burns with divine love.
Gloria Mundi
It appears then that this Stone is a Vegetable, as it were, the sweet Spirit that proceeds from the Bud of the Vine…
Count Bernard Trevisan
Verbum Dismissum
Trust my word, seek the grass that is trefiol. Thou knowest the name, and art wise and cunning if thou findest it.
The Sophic Hydrolith
You ought to know concerning the Quintessence, that it is a matter little and small, lodged and harbored in some Tree, Herb, Stone, or the like…
The Tomb of Semiramis
It contains the fire of Nature, or the Universal Spirit; with Air as its vehicle it contains Water, which must be separated in the beginning of the work, and also earth which remains behind in the form of caput mortuum, where the fire has left it, and is the true Red Earth wherein the fire dwelt for a while. The subject, duly collected, should not be less than eight nor more than sixteen ounces: place it in a china or glazed basin and cover it loosely to keep the dust out.
Sigismond Bacstrom
Rosicrucian Aphorisms and Process
Long have I had in my nostrils the scent of the herb moly which became so celebrated thanks to the poets of old… this herb is entirely chemical. It is said that Odysseus used it to protect himself against the poisons of Circe and the perilous singing of the Sirens. It is also related that Mercury himself found it and that it is an effective antidote to all poisons. It grows plentifully on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia…
Michael Maier
Septimana Philosophica
Our secret fire, that is, our fiery and sulfurous water, which is called Balneum Mariae… this water is a white vapor.
The Secret Book of Artephius
Know the secret fire of the wise, which is the one and sole agent efficient for the opening, subliming, purifying, and disposing of the material.
Letter to the True Disciples of Hermes
Study, then, this fire, for had I myself found it at the first, I should not have erred two hundred times upon the veritable material.
John Pontanus
The Secret Fire
No philosopher has ever openly Revealed this secret fire, and this powerful Agent, which works all the Wonders of the Art.
The Hermetic Triumph
Mercury, i.e. the white flower, can be used and applied to the tinctures of all planets.
The Little Peasant
Our true and real Matter is only a vapor…
This Green Dragon is the natural Gold of the Philosophers, exceedingly different from the vulgar, which is corporeal and dead… but ours is spiritual, and living…
Our Gold is called Natural, because it is not to be made by Art, and since it is known to none, but the true Disciples of Hermes, who understand how to separate it from its original Lump, ‘tis also called Philosophical; and if God had not been so gracious, as to create this first Chaos to our hand, all our Skill and Art in the Construction of the great Elixir would be in vain.
Baron Urbigerus
Aphorismi Urbigerani
“This stone is of delicate touch, and there is more mildness in its touch than in its substance…. Of sweet taste, and its proper nature is aerial.”
Khalid said: “Tell me of its odor, before and after its confection.”
Morienus answered: “Before confectioning, its odor is very heavy and foul.
“I know of no other stone like it nor having its powers. While the four elements are contained in this stone, it being thus like the world in composition, yet no other stone like it in power or nature is to be found in the world, nor has any of the authorities ever performed the operation other than by means of it. And the compositions attempted by those using anything else in this composition will fail utterly and come to nothing.
“The thing in which the entire accomplishment of this operation consists of the red vapor, the yellow vapor, the white vapor, the green lion, ocher, the impurities of the dead and of the stones, blood, eudica, and foul earth.
“Begin in the Creator’s name, and with his vapor take the whiteness from the white vapor.
“The whole key to accomplishment of this operation is in the fire, with which the minerals are prepared and the bad spirits held back, and with which the spirit and body are joined.
“In answer to you question about the white vapor, or virgin’s milk, you may know that it is a tincture and spirit of those bodies already dissolved and dead, from which the spirits have been withdrawn. It is the white vapor that flows in the body and removes its darkness, or earthiness, and impurity, uniting the bodies into one and augmenting their waters.
“Without the white vapor, there could have been no pure gold nor any profit in it.”
The Book of Morienus
Let it be sublimed in an high body and head…
Geber
Search of Perfection
Our Subject cannot be called the fiery Serpent of the Philosophers, nor have the power of overcoming any created thing, before it has received such Virtue and Quality from our Green-Dragon…
Baron Urbigerus
Kundalini, Elegance, Eternity.
I am taking a greek mythology class and there are several “monsters” portrayed as serpents. There is Pytho who guards a temple, Hydra, a nine headed serpent that is defeated by Heracles. There is also Ladon who guards the golden apple tree. In every myth story these monsters are serpents and are portrayed as negative characters. I find it interesting that because we have read them as bad monsters, that we think that way. I think it is only knowledge, but that doesn’t mean it’s the truth. It only means it is what we know. We know serpents as monsters so we portray them in that way, but really, we can look at them with a different perspective.
Quetzalcoatl.
The astrological sign of Scorpio. Which is also sybolized by a bird, the pheonix… that must burn in it’s own flames and be reborn out of the ashes. Transformation….and perhaps as described in Paulo’s book Brida, The Dark Night. I could see it also being likened to the River Styx. It symbolizes to me death and rebirth. A crossing from one world to the next and the seprent being the space in between the two. A guide? Maybe man is the serpent eating it’s own tail transforming from life to death to life again. Reincarnation. A ring. The seasons of the year. Yin and yang.
The Nagas brought wisdom in Hinduism.
The serpent brought temptation into the Garden of Eden. Is it wisdom, then, to sin and go against God’s dictum?
To eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is to lose the fruit of the Tree of Life.
Yet, as we stumble back from knowing things to being, to living, comes wisdom, a finer appreciation of God, no?
We have that wide-eyed innocence as children without understanding. It is only after we return to that wide-eyed innocence as people who have experienced pain, loss, betrayal, disappointment as well as success, joy, comfort and momentary fulfillment do we begin to understand and value the Tree of Life and its fruit.
Or maybe not…
The snake link it with the challenge, with a surprise test that will take place in our lives.
(If the Enemy sees …
Snakes at the entrance
of your house …
You will be Protected)
Protection.
When I was child I saw my uncle that kept the skin of a serpent in a little bottle of glass because, he said, it use to stop the blood in wounds.
I think the serpent is elegant and much instinctive.
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