I' ve been thinking about the photograph above, which shows my friend Mana Youngbear portraying DAWN, standing before the "Evolutionary Cauldron" for the Winter Solstice ceremony created by Ann Waters and the Community of Willits on December 21, 2012. There was much talk about that particular day, as it was considered to be, according to the Hopi and Mayan Calendars, the end of the 4th Age, and the beginning of the 5th Age. Of course, there was both great hope of a "golden age" from that prophecy, and also fearful ideas (such as the movie "2012") proclaiming that the world was going to end on that day.
But Mana and Annie were concerned with neither Prophecy; they sought just to create a communal Blessing and Invocation of the Goddess for the Return of the Light on that shortest day, when the Earth turns again toward it's Star, and the days begin to lengthen. This, of course, is the source of Christmas and the birth of the Child Christ, who is preceeded by the births of other Sun Gods.
And the photo above is, well, mystical. It is not photoshopped. Rising from that "Evolutionary Cauldron" is a snake, formed by the fire inside the Cauldron. Few symbols, identified with the ancient Goddesses, are as ubiquitous and universal as the Snake.
Having had some dramatic "spirit photographs" occur
in my own ritual theatre performances in the past, I pay
attention to visual "signals" that occur when we enter the sacred circle
of ritual, the realm of the Goddesses and the Archetypal Powers. Carolyn Myss talks about Symbolic Thinking, and no where is it more dramatic than when we enter the collective, and yet deeply personal, Mythic Realm. And the language spoken is the language of metaphor,
dream and oracle..........
2012 was the Year of the Snake in Chinese reckoning. Above is a very old Greek bas relief of Demeter, who became Ceres in Rome, the Goddess off nature and the cycles of nature that produce, ultimately, the grains (she hold wheat in her hands) that sustain life. Just a few days ago, on Valentine's Day, women around the world danced and demonstrated against violence toward women for Eve Ensler's One Billion Rising. In the old kingdom of Egypt, the word for "snake" and the word for "goddess" was the same. I cannot help but reflect, seeing the image above, that what is rising in Dawn's Cauldron is a snake, the ubiquitous symbol in the ancient world for the serpentine energies, the winding waters and cyclical seasons of the Goddess, of Mother Earth.
Snake may have been diabolized in the Bible, but elsewhere snake is an ubiquitous symbol for the feminine divine, the interwoven forces of nature, for healing, and in the East, "Raja Naga" is associated with Tantra, the snake of the Kundalini force of generation and sexual/spiritual union. Snakes received a bad rap in Biblical terms, with the "fall from grace" occurring because snake (sometimes identified with Lilith) tempted Eve with an apple. Which is too bad indeed, as the life/death/rebirth cycle represented by snake, whose shedding skin is a symbol of regeneration and rebirth, is among the most primal metaphors. The Biblical "Fall from Grace" of Eve, and of Snake, represents the fall from grace with nature we have inherited which at this time in hisstory is becoming catastrophic.
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| Klimpt's HYGEIA |
Snake is good MEDICINE. apparently, and the conversation in the garden of Eden may have been misunderstood!
In ancient Egypt, in the earliest of iconography, the word for Cobra and for Goddess were virtually the same. The Uraeus (from the Egyptian jʿr.t (iaret), "rearing cobra") is the upright form of a cobra used as a symbol of royalty, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt. The Uraeus was a symbol for the goddess Wadjet, one of the earliest Egyptian deities. She was the patroness of the Nile (and here again one sees the personification of the serpentine movements of water identified with snake and with the feminine).. The pharaohs wore the Uraeus as a head ornament: either with the body of Wadjet atop the head, or as a crown encircling the head; this indicated Wadjet's protection and reinforced the Pharaoh's claim over the land. There is evidence for this tradition even in the Old Kingdom during the third millennium BCE.Snake has so much to teach us.........here's to her arising in 2012, the Year of the Snake!
***"The “Bowl of Hygeia” symbol is the most widely recognized international symbol of pharmacy. In Greek mythology, Hygeia was the daughter and assistant of Aesculapius (sometimes spelled Asklepios), the God of Medicine and Healing. Hygeia's classical symbol was a bowl containing a medicinal potion with the serpent of Wisdom partaking it. This is the same serpent of Wisdom, which appears on the caduceus, which is the contemporary symbol of medicine."
"The caduceus is often incorrectly used as a symbol of healthcare organizations and medical practice, particularly in North America, due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the Rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and is never depicted with wings. According to the Greek myths, Asclepius, the god of medicine, learnt the art of healing from both his father Apollo and the centaur Cheiron. In time, he became so skilled that he was revered as the founder of medicine. It was believed that Asclepios had the power to rise from the dead. A major sanctuary was dedicated to him at Epidaurus, the place where he was born.
Temples were built for Aesculapius, and Hygieia, goddess of health, tended to his temples. Over time, seemingly dead serpents were found inside. When these serpents were picked up and dropped, however, they slithered away. To people this was interpreted as if the serpents were brought back to life by the healing powers of Aesculapius, which ultimately caused them to be associated with healing. Tame snakes were kept in his temples as this animal was regarded as a symbol of regeneration.
Modern people associate the snake with poison, but the animal had a powerful symbolic meaning to ancient people. Snakes have been used for worship, magic potions and, medicine, and they have been the symbol of love, health, disease, medicine, pharmacy, immortality, death and even wisdom since ancient times.
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