The Myths of Shintoism
After his banishment from heaven, Susanoo descended to earth and encountered an eight-headed serpent known as the Yamata no Orochi.
The Secrets of Ancient Knowledge Buried for Centuries
She discusses the symbolic meaning of the serpent as a representation of Kundalini energy, a spiritual force lying dormant within humans, symbolizing the potential for enlightenment.
In earlier traditions, the serpent and the tree were symbols of wisdom and empowerment, but patriarchal traditions reshaped these stories into narratives of punishment and control.
Flood Stories from Around the World
Atum will remain, in the form of a serpent, with Osiris.
The deluge occurred as stated; Janardana appeared in the form of a horned fish, and the serpent Ananta came in the form of a rope.
Manu, by contemplation, drew all creatures towards him and stowed them in the ship and, after making obeisance to Janardana, attached the ship to the fish's horn with the serpent-rope.
During the deluge, Vishnu preserved the ark by again taking the form of a giant fish and tying the ark to himself with a huge sea serpent.
Sesha, the serpent who supports the world, withdrew his energy from Balarama; in a jet of light, Balarama's spirit entered the sea, and his body fell over.
Ling-lawn sent serpents to devour them, but there were too many to eat.
Batara Guru sent his son Layang-layang-mandi ("Diving Swallow") to bind Naga Padoha's hands and feet, but the serpent still struggles and causes earthquakes, and it will again throw the earth into the sea when it breaks its fetters.
Once, when much of a ripe harvest was found despoiled, a watch was kept, and a great serpent was seen to lower itself from the sky and feed on the rice.
The rainbow serpent Yurlunggur smelled the blood and crawled out of his well.
The children, always hungry, cried so much that a ngaljod (rainbow serpent) rose from his waterhole and flooded the countryside.
Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent ate them, first the people who were calling out and the orphan who was crying.
Nanumanga (Tuvalu, South Pacific):A deluge was dispelled by a sea serpent who, as a woman, married the earth as a man.
Menaboshu warned the wolf to stay away from a certain lake, knowing that his worst enemy the serpent-king lived there.
Menaboshu waited five days for the wolf's return; then he began wailing, knowing that the serpent-king had got him.
Menaboshu could not get the serpent-king in the winter, so he came to the lake in the spring.
This attracted the attention of the serpent-king, and when Menaboshu saw it stick up its head, he immediately turned himself into a tree stump.
The serpent-king and other serpents saw nothing unusual but the new tree stump.
Suspicious of it, the serpent-king sent one large snake to it.
Menaboshu emerged from his disguise, grabbed his bow and arrows, and shot dead the serpent-king and three of its sons.
The evil serpent Meshekenabek carried off Manobozho's cousin into a deep lake.
When they emerged, Manobozho shot an arrow into the serpent's heart.
The serpent, in his dying rage, stirred up the waters of the lake and spread waves over the land.
When they returned the next morning, the manidoes were suspicious of the tree, so the sent for Grizzly Bear to claw it and Serpent to strangle and bite it.
Algonquin (upper Ottowa River):Long ago, when men had become evil, the Strong Serpent Maskanako came.
The Strong Serpent resolved to destroy all men, and the Black Serpent brought the snake-water rushing, spreading everywhere, destroying everything.
But Palatkwapi, the two-hearted maiden, taught others her sorcery, until the great water serpents flooded and destroyed her town.
Here they lived many centuries and raised two boys who had the power to transform themselves into eagles and serpents.
Araucania (coastal Chile):Two great serpents made the sea rise to determine which of them had the more powerful magic.
The Rainbow Serpent, A Chromatic Piece, Mouton Publishers, The Hague, 1978.
The Encircled Serpent, Arthur Richmond Company, New York, 1955.
"The Rainbow-Serpent Myths of Australia", in Buchler.
The God Odi, Woden, or Wotan
He built a great city in America called "Nachan," City of the Serpents (the serpent that tempted Eve was Nahash), from his own race, which was named Chan, a serpent.
He wrote a book containing a history of his deeds, and proofs that he belonged to the tribe of Chanes (serpents).
The Kings of Atlantis become the Gods of the Greeks
And here we find a tradition which not only points to Atlantis, but also shows some kinship to the legend in Genesis of the tree and the serpent.
This tree was put in the care of the Hesperides, but they could not resist the temptation to pluck and eat its fruit; thereupon a serpent named Ladon was put to watch the tree.
Hercules slew the serpent, and gave the apples to the Hesperides.
The Origin of Our Alphabet
All these forms seem to be representations of a serpent; we turn to the
valley of the Nile, and we find that the Egyptian hieroglyphic for n was the serpent, ; the Pelasgian n was ; the Arcadian, ; the Etruscan, .
Can anything be more significant than to find the serpent the sign for n in Central America, and in all these Old World languages?
Following the precedent established for us by the Mayas in the case of the letter m, let us see what is the distinguishing feature here; it is clearly the figure of a serpent standing erect, with its tail doubled around its middle, forming a circle.
It has already been remarked by Savolini that this erect serpent is very much like the Egyptian Uræus, an erect serpent with an enlarged body--a sacred emblem found in the hair of their deities.
We turn again to the valley of the Nile, and we find that the Egyptian hieroglyphic for k was a serpent with a convolution or protuberance in the middle, precisely as in the Maya, thus, ; this was transformed into the Egyptian letter ; the serpent and the protuberance reappear in one of the Phœnician forms of k, to wit, ; while in the Punic we have these forms, and .
Now suppose a busy people trying to give this sign: instead of drawing the serpent in all its details they would abbreviate it into something like this, ; now we turn to the ancient Ethiopian sign for k (ka), and we have , or the Himyaritic Arabian ; while in the Phœnician it becomes ; in the archaic Greek, ; and in the later Greek, when they changed the writing from left to right, .
So that the two lines projecting from the upright stroke of our English K are a reminiscence of the convolution of the serpent in the Maya original and the Egyptian copy.
And yet I have shown that the closest resemblances exist between the Maya alphabet and the Egyptian signs--in the c, h, t, i, k, m, n, o, q, and s--eleven letters in all; in some cases, as in the n and k, the signs are identical; the k, in both alphabets, is not only a serpent, but a serpent with a protuberance or convolution in the middle!
Genesis contains a history of Atlantis
i., 2), "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Quiche legend says, "The Creator--the Former, the Dominator--the feathered serpent--those that give life, moved upon the waters like a glowing light."
Lord Kingsborough says: "The Toltecs had paintings of a garden, with a single tree standing in the midst; round the root of the tree is entwined a serpent, whose head appearing above the foliage displays the face of a woman.
Both had a species of serpent-worship.
Compare our representation of the great serpent-mound in Adams County, Ohio, with the following description of a great serpent-mound in Scotland:
"Serpent-worship in the West.--Some additional light appears to have been thrown upon ancient serpent-worship in the West by the recent archaeological explorations of Mr.
GREAT SERPENT MOUND, OHIO.
a curious earthen mound in Glen Feechan, Argyleshire, referred to by him, at the late meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, as being in the form of a serpent or saurian.
The back or spine of the serpent, which, as already stated, is 300 feet long, was found, beneath the peat moss, to be formed by a careful adjustment of stones, the formation of which probably prevented the structure from being obliterated by time and weather." (Pall Mall Gazette.)
American Evidences of Intercourse with Europe Or Atlantis
He finally returned to the land in the East from which he came: leaving the American coast at Vera Cruz, he embarked in a canoe made of serpent-skins, and 'sailed away into the east.'" (Ibid., p.
"The base is formed by the head of Cukulcan, the shaft of the body of the serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to
The Indentity of the Civilizations of the Old World and the New
"The usual symbol of the Phallus was an erect stone, often in its rough state, sometimes sculptured." (Squier, "Serpent Symbol," p.
Channeling a Mohican Elder: Unveiling Ancient Wars & The Battle for Earth
The elder recounts an ancient story involving two figures: "The Great Bird" and "The Feathered Serpent." These figures played central roles in the religious and cultural development of ancient human civilizations, particularly in the Four Corners region (modern-day Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico).
Selestor’s Men of Atlantis
The taint of cruel blood ran all adown the line like foulest taint of dread disease, to lift its head on some uncertain day, or like to serpent hid it lay beneath the smiling calm—beneath the kindly deed and kingly courtesy.
The rabble, creatures of the outcast-man in that young age when first the cities rose where serpents whirr in deadly stroke, and wolves howl long when night shuts down, and red men creep to labor or sun-warmth on sight of greatness that hath struck with awe the men of worlds now passed away.
Long years have made the tangle; serpents vicious, poisonous, dwelt not there in that young age, but out of "India" came the serpent mass, a treasured "curiosity" for one vicious priest to torture with wild fright his rebel followers in time of war, and thus they multiplied as forests grew, became a menace and ye see today results of one man's vicious mood …
Yea, wolves did howl among the temples vast where serpents multiplied and warred on weakened man, and many died by poison fangs.
"The serpent sacrifice" ’twas called, and in a pit were nurtured poisonous snakes by thousands, and upon a "platform" in that sullied pit was placed the victim and the serpents twined and struck at one who shrank and shrieked for aid and prayed to heedless gods who represented wanton cruelty.
The years passed by and serpents grew and multiplied, but at the last the Mayan "gods" did weary of that mode of sacrifice and lost the habit; yet until the last a sacrifice of man and virgin fair was made to satisfy a senseless thirst for lust and power.
Her braids of jet and gloss, enstrung with jewels—like twin serpents fell inert and fragrant to her lithe, arched feet, and on her gorgeous rug, by
Thongs, made from the creepers of the jungle, serpent skin and sinews of the bear, borne far with skins from Northern lands, were aids to make the galley strong.
Those yellow forms thou namest first came to shape, and soon a nation formed, in that dim morn when in the time of dearth Atlantis drew her bread supply from plains now rank with growth of trees—with bloom that cloys the sense, where serpents twine amid the broad, lush leaves, and beasts prowl greedily among coarse reeds which stand where once great grains of maize did grow.
"Ah, son!" so spake the creature, tattered, long of hair and beard, a thing of skin which tightly clung to bone—"My son, why fearless wander on the steppes where prowls the tiger that doth live by blood, and serpents, which do sting the prisoned soul to Light?
“Some of the tribe died early, stung by serpents.
He passed as wandering sunbeams smote the rocks and sand and called the serpents from their sleep and sent to lair the graceful leopard.
Of how at last the river, long and serpent-wise that spews its clear, sweet waters in the sea, that giveth life to banks all decked with green which feeds the multitudes, was made from straggling brook by hands of men who rent the toughened sod and formed a channel broad and deep.
But serpent winding way will show each face to him who peereth from his window low or high.
Thus their ears were open to the wiles of those bold men of Asia, strong in mind and subtle as the serpent; brains were theirs condemned to carry guile, to plot, to hold in keen abhorrence any state of mind that dealt with pity where an enemy was held in bonds.
Zambesi hath the serpent, eye of fire—the palms at prow.
The serpent of the forest lends his fleet to other nation!
By the light of day let warriors wander through those aisles of green where serpents lurk and beasts, for ivory slain, go crashing.
The serpent-shapen caskets took for aiming the clayed, death-dealing matter, great spears were set and staves made ready in the hands of slaves and silent-lipped as wings of Death fold down swept every galley—each for every foe.
A trembling of the waves, that dance and gleam, show but the quiver of the serpent form before it striketh.
And flashes fierce as fiery serpents spun across the sky which but an hour before was like a dome of turquoise turned with beryl.
The Story of Atlantis
In like manner in both hemispheres the worship of the sun-disk or circle, and of the serpent, was universal, and more surprising still is the similarity of the word signifying "God" in the principal languages of east and west.
Both continents have their great serpent-mounds; compare that of Adams Co., Ohio, with the fine serpent-mound discovered in Argyleshire, or the less perfect specimen at Avebury in Wilts.
After having taught them many peaceful arts and lessons he sailed away to the east in a canoe of serpent skins (see Short's North Americans of Antiquity, pp.
Prophecy of Hermes
For instance, when you see the winged serpent symbol on medical staff insignias, that symbol is connected to Hermes.
Initiates of the Flame (1922)
The serpent on the Pharaoh's crown symbolized the raised kundalini energy, representing spiritual mastery.
Alien Reptile Gods, Giants & Super Machines
Praveen explained that Nagas, serpent-like beings, are worshipped in Hinduism.
Praveen noted that the word "Naga" denotes a serpent-like or reptilian being and highlighted that references to serpent-like figures appear across various cultures, including ancient Israel and the Bible, where the term "serpent" has similar connotations.
12 Dimensions of Naga
Sadhguru begins by mentioning a 400-meter-long Serpent Mound, a structure found in Ohio.
The serpent symbol has appeared where people have sought deeper experiences and mystical knowledge.
The Naga is central to mysticism, and wherever people have closed their eyes to withdraw from the external world, the serpent has been a significant symbol.
Sadhguru emphasizes that serpent imagery is present across different cultures worldwide, including in places like India, Africa, Egypt, Greece, South America, and North America.
He highlights the serpent’s role in mysticism, evolution, and human consciousness.
The Mistake of a Life
As the atmosphere is around about us, and, inhaled, becomes our breath, so the Will of the Spirit is around us and, entering into the heart that hath determined to strangle into submission the serpent, suffers us not to know defeat.
Out of all the glorious systems of worlds, only Earth denieth, for acknowledging Him by words and crying, "Lord, Lord," they yet hate one another in their serpent-dominated hearts.
Think not that I use any figure of speech when I say "serpent"; microscopists know better.
Contain Thyself (7-1)
Her hand slipped from its grasp on the fruit and its side was torn out, so that its seed dropped on the earth and became flint-stones, while the fruit, still adhered to the tree, and became of the likeness of a great fiery serpent, whereof the breath scorched the hands of the culprit.
Caiphul (2-1)
The palaces were ornate, with complex designs including serpent sculptures, vast gardens, and multi-storied buildings with verandas and towers.
The next, or third section, was separated from those on either side by a sculptured serpent of huge size, fashioned from sandstone and as faithful to life as art could make it.
The succeeding division was a quadrangle in the steps, and the next, another serpent, and so around the building.
It is hoped that this description is sufficiently perspicuous to give an idea of the tremendous parallelogram, encompassed with steps, guarded by monstrous ornamental, as well as useful, serpent forms, religious emblems, signifying not alone wisdom but also the appearance of a fiery serpent in the skies of the ancient earth, initiating the event of the separation of Man from God.
As not uninteresting, it may be noted that the yawning mouths of the stone serpents recently described served as doorways (of the usual size) to certain apartments in the basement, a fact which gives an accurate idea of the enormous size of these lithic saurians.
The Legend of Etana
In response to his prayers, the god Shamash directs Etana to seek out an eagle that has been trapped in a pit by a serpent.
The eagle had previously betrayed the serpent, leading to its imprisonment.
Yahweh was replaced by a human king
The serpent, on the other hand, argued that humans should be conscious and aware, leading to the so-called "fall" in the Genesis story.
The worship of Crawling things
Apep (Apophis): A giant serpent and enemy of the sun god Ra, Apep symbolized chaos and was feared as a force of destruction.
The Nāgas, semi-divine serpent beings, are also worshipped in various forms across India.
The Phoenician history
“So Taautos himself regarded as divine the nature of the serpent and snakes, as did the Phoenicians and Egyptians after him; for this animal, according to the tradition established by him, was fiery and the most filled with breath of all crawling things.
They built temples and consecrated, in the temples’ innermost shrines, the first letters, those created by serpents, and for them, they celebrated feasts and sacrifices and rites.
So much, then, for serpents.”
Atlantis, Queen of the Wave (1-1)
Entering this crevice by crawling, serpent-fashion, the venturesome explorer would find that for several hundred paces he must needs descend a rather sharp incline, albeit the crevice in the first dozen steps so widened, or heightened, that a more or less upright posture could be assumed.
The vailx, powered by currents derived from the Night-Side of Nature
Nevertheless, this do and fear not; be of good cheer, for how shall a serpent bite if it hath lost its fangs?"
Mound Builders in America
Known for the "Great Serpent Mound," a large earthen structure in Ohio shaped like a serpent.
Associated with the construction of the Great Serpent Mound, although the site predates them.
The Baal Cycle
Yam (Yamu): The serpent god of the sea and a chaos dragon, who is Baal’s rival.
The story unfolds with Kar, the craftsman god, fashioning two maces for Baal to defeat his adversary, Yam, the chaos serpent.
In the earlier episodes, we explored Baal's rise to power, highlighted by his victory over Yam, the chaos sea serpent.
Is there a relationship between snakes and the Asherah pole?
The bronze serpent (Nehushtan) made by Moses, as described in Numbers 21:4-9, was a symbol of healing and divine intervention.
Both the worship of Asherah (with the Asherah poles) and the veneration of the bronze serpent took place within the broader religious landscape of the ancient Near East, where symbols of fertility, life, and healing were prevalent.