Serpent gods and goddesses were once worshipped in almost every corner of the world. In early cultures all over the globe, temples and rituals dedicated to the Earth and the Goddess respected the Serpent as a powerful teacher of healing, transformation, and unconditional love. However, across the bloody pages of human history serpent temples were often targeted by conquerors, tyrants, and oppressors intent on destroying or claiming this powerful energy for their own purposes. Serpent temples were violently destroyed and spiritual leaders executed, while these sacred beings and rituals were forbidden by conquering religions, or recast as monsters, villains, and demon worshippers.
Examples of the subjugation of Serpent Energy abound. In the wake of early Judaism and Christianity, Mesopotamian goddesses such as Ishtar, Innana, Tiamat, and Ningishzida disappeared from the mythos, leaving only a single goddess Lilith, who was painted as a corrupt being disobedient to God’s will. When Lilith’s Divine Feminine power eventually proved still too threatening Lilith diminished even further, becoming the modern legend of Eve—the Weak Woman, antithesis of a truly empowered feminine principle.
During the period of India’s early conquests, snake deities called Nagas were worshipped by the indigenous people of modern day Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. When confronted by the armies of Koundinya the conqueror, Soma the Queen of the Nagas fights for her people and is defeated. She is offered the choice of marrying Koundinya to avoid total annihilation, and as a result the Khmer people of Cambodia became the descendents of this violent union. The systematic Christian destruction of snake-worship in Native American cultures is well-documented in conquistador manuscripts and offers innumerable examples of the abuse of Serpent energy and its allies.
Yet Serpent medicine is not so easily overpowered or destroyed. Although the forces of violence and ego have attempted to erase or corrupt the energy of the Serpent throughout history, casting serpents as traitorous, deceptive, and evil, modern mythology is filled with serpent magic and traces of the Serpent’s original symbolism of love, transformation, and healing wisdom remain. The Great Truth, the Knowledge of Good and Evil, has been maintained. And as we peel away these corrupted stories that have been passed down to us, just as the Serpent sheds its skin, we become able to see past old beliefs to receive the Serpent’s true medicine message again. This is the work to which we dedicate ourselves.
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