The Snake Priestess
My only comfort is my little one. I wear her twined around my wrist and arm like a bracelet. I stroke her protectively, as I remember the day that she was given to me. I was nothing more than a little girl then, hoping to be a great and awesome Priestess someday, but having no idea what that truly meant. She has grown since then – a little – but a small snake suits a small Priestess. Actually, I had been terrified of the striking of snakes before I met her, but she was so tiny that all I could do when I saw her was to love her. Learning to feed her was one of my first lessons in the importance of death as it supports life and new growth
It is an appropriate memory on this day. I am reminded that our fears often dissolve away when they are faced straight on. With renewed resolve, I pick up the hems of my flowing robes and cloak to walk forward into the temple with my head held high
Today is the day that I become the highest Priestess of all, the Queen. No, more than that, today I become a Goddess. Today I become Immortal. But first, I must die.
I enter now with eyes straight ahead. Everyone is looking at me. Some kneel already. I let my skirts drop to trail behind me as I walk directly forward and down the long hall to the inner chambers. Refusing to be distracted by those around me, the journey is first long and then suddenly all too short. First, I am stripped nude. Then Nanna is unwrapped from my wrist and ceremoniously placed in her basket. From this moment on, I will be escorted to my fate. As in the sacred tradition, I spent last night in solitary meditation at the feet of the Gods, but if I survive this I will never be truly alone ever again – guards, servants and demands of state await me as my reward. Why? Why does the Lady ask this of me.
I kneel down and my hands are bound behind my back and a hood placed over my head. As I stand again, my feet are also tied loosely, so that I can walk slowly, but cannot run. Where would I run anyway? I know enough of initiations to understand that the point is to humble me by hobbling me. The stairs ahead only serve to reinforce the lesson. As we proceed slowly downward, we enter places where I have never been. These chambers are reserved for the Priests in their preparation of the Dead and no one leaves their depths untouched. Somehow they manage to be rough and respectful with me at the same time as they guide me forward. I am tied down on a cold stone table and left for … I know not how long. I fall asleep for a while, awaking only temporarily strengthened and renewed. I know that I am being watched, but I know not by how many or for how long. I only know that when I finally give myself over to my fate that it will begin again
Eventually, I lose track of not only time, but also space. In the midst of the darkness, I float, disturbed only when they start to anoint my body. Ointments are applied to my body and amulets placed on me, and even inside me via shallow cuts and orifices. Then I am wrapped with a linen-like material. First binding together my legs and then my arms to my sides. The hood is removed in muted darkness and amulets applied to my closed eyes, before the wrapping continues. All is done in silence except for the far off sounds of those mourning my death and praying for my rebirth. I am placed in a gold and lapis coffin, fitted to my shape. I was measured for it with the same efficiency that I was fitted for my new royal robes, and the greatest artisans of the land prepared both for my ascension. The lid is closed and sealed. I hear a final “click” as the buttons are pushed on the traps. The scents surround me and lull me to sleep. If and when I awake, I will be a Goddess
It is said that the first Goddess came to us in this way. The Gods and Goddesses descended in the great silver ship, each of them lying asleep in his or her own sarcophagus. Their faces looked very different from ours, while their bodies were varied. Some of them were tall with hair of spun gold, while others were short and dark. They divided up the world between them, each going to the portion that they preferred: the Northern Islands, The Great River, the Land Between The Rivers, the Far East, etc. Our Lady of Light settled here on this island. Each of them gave birth to those people who were known in their lands as the Great and Shining Ones; the Old Ones; the Ancients or the Ancestors. However, something about this world did not suit them. In some places, they died out or retired to hidden cities, but in this place our Lady found a way to flourish. She mixed her blood with those already of this world in order to create a people who could survive in this place and yet carry on the ancient lineage. I am of those she created. We were made to serve her and carry on her teachings, and we have dedicated our lives to her service ever since. In our language, they are known as “the Stars,” while I and my line are “the Moons,” for we reflect their glory. You see the secret teachings tell us that those lights in the night sky known as the Seven Sisters were once eight. As the missing light fell, those who lived around her had to leave and some of them found their way here. None ever returned, but they looked longingly night after night at their sisters, still sparkling brightly in the sky. Since that time, all those who have become Goddess of this great land have made this journey of death and rebirth to remember their own great journey here.
Somewhere Nanna is fed the ritual dinner and her basket is then placed on the altar in the temple above. I smile slightly. It is right and good that I named her after one of the Ancient Ones. When she sheds her skin, then I will be released from my prison and reborn. Be well my little one – for both our sakes. (From “Immortality” by Lady MoonDance, written May 28, 2001
The words “Snake Priestess” inherently bring to mind statues like the replica shown above (available from Mythic Images), and along with them, visions of what life must have been like for the priestesses in ancient Crete
Like other visitors to the ruins of the temple-palace at Knossos, I have tried to imagine the communal rituals as they were enacted three-and-a-half or four thousand years ago, during the Palace Periods, c. 2000 to 1450 B.C.E. Fortunately the architecture, ritual objects, wall paintings, and the beautiful and powerful figurines of the Goddesses or Priestesses of Knossos are rich finds that aid the intuitive and imaginative reconstruction of the ancient practices. The temple-palace walls were covered with marvelous frescoes–of dolphins and birds, monkeys and lilies, flowers and fishes. Two of the most memorable are the fresco of the Great Procession, with celebrants bringing their gifts to the PriestessQueen, or Goddess; and the Bull-Leaping Fresco, with its women and men leaping over the horns of the giant wild bull. I believe that the fresco of the Great Procession depicts the Harvest Festival honoring the Mother Goddess, and that the bull-leaping games were part of this Harvest Festival. The ritual celebration may then have culminated in the celebration of the Sacred Marriage by the High Priestessand her Consort.
In my mind’s eye I begin to see the dancing groups of women in the fields and groves surrounding the Palace of Knossos, then the formation of the procession of the townspeople in their best clothing, bringing music and offering gifts. The procession reaches the west courtyard with its walled pit kouloures, where celebrants throw flowers, fruits, and ceramic votives, returning a portion of the gifts of the Mother Goddess again into her depths. It is there that the people are first greeted by the priestesses and then led on their way through the palace, along the corridors and down the stairways, deep into the dark depths of this sacred home of the Goddess, then back up again along the porches overlooking the fertile valley, gazing toward the horizon with its sacred mountain top–the mound of the Goddess–framed by the huge Horns of Consecration, then finally arriving at the Great Courtyard for the main rituals and festivities presided over by the priestesses representing the Goddess. Here all join in the enjoyments of music and dancing, feasting and merrymaking, and the amazing bull-leaping games.
However, long before this, I had observed that most of the major positive changes in my life have come through major loss. During my early college days, I believed that I lived as a Phoenix due to my own fiery Aries nature � repeatedly dying an emotional death, and then being reborn from the ashes. As I have grown older, I worked to learn balance and groundedness, and have found that while I do not have to ride a roller coaster of emotion, that I do learn best through the cycle of loss and rebirth. Over the years, the symbol of Snake has come up again and again for me, and I have come to question if it might be my totem.
the summer of 1994, after the end of my marriage, I had gone to see a Shaman in Chapel Hill. That night, I asked him what animals he saw around me as my spirit guides. He named quite a few – some that I was expecting and some that I was not. When I asked him about Snake, he said that Snake was coiled inside of me, and that at that moment, its head was that of a king cobra, above my own.
Unbeknownst to him, I had just come from seeing the movie Little Buddha, in which a cobra does exactly that, spreading his hood above Siddhartha to protect him from the elements as he sat meditating. I was not sure at that time whether, it was just the vibrations from my seeing the movie, and of course the spiraled serpent, laying at the base of the spine, which arises out of the head, is also a symbol of kundalini energy.
The fall of 2001 found me once again emerging from the results of the ending of my next primary relationship, and in great need of new direction. At the end of 2000, I had spiraled in to the depths of depression, after the suicide of a friend and undergoing major emergency surgery myself, leading to the breaking of my engagement with Star. I was once again feeing akin to the snake, and I was ready to find rebirth. Ironically, the pain of September 11 actually helped to cry again and therefore to begin to find release. By that point, I had signed up to take a four-day workshop retreat by Snake Dancer and Priestess, Le’ema Kathleen Graham, entitled “Finding the Inner Serpent: Becoming A Snake Priestess.” The workshop marked the one-year anniversary of my last visit to California, which had been a trip to see Star, for his birthday. (At the point I lived in Cary, North Carolina, and he lived in Sunnyvale, CA.) I was here to reclaim my original purpose for visiting California – the reason I had been here on the trip when we met for the second time and things “clicked” between us – to consider grad school, and took the opportunity to visit the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) before driving up to Geyserville to attend the Snake Priestess workshop. The photos throughout this paper are from that weekend, which included a ritualized shedding of our skin, several opportunities for snake dancing, a workshop in “emotional release” (which I know as a technique for achieving “Fire Breath Orgasms”) for clearing our charkas and raising kundalini energy, and a ritualized performance and acceptance of our vows.
Looking at this experience through metaformic glasses, I began to wonder why we, especially Priestesses and other women, first began to keep snakes. Reasons include their menstrual and associated initiatory symbolism, their healing properties and their connection to the Divine.
Snakes are a well-known metaform. The ecdysis, or shedding of their skin so closely echoes menstruation – each being a regular and natural sloughing away of the old surface so that the new can grow. In Blood, Bread and Roses, Judy Grahn tells us that “Of all the creatures used as metaform, the richest and most versatile, the most widespread over the earth, the most often described in drawing and story, perhaps the most meaning-filled for the emerging mind, is âÂ?¦ Snake” (57). During ecdysis, a snake is at its most vulnerable, lethargic and almost immobile, its eyes clouded over as their old outer layer is also shed. When one considers the process of initiation, a ritual death and rebirth, so that one can shed ones past and be reborn upon a new path, it is easy to see how Priestesses came to feel a sisterhood with snakes. In Bradley’s book, far from the Temple of Apollo where she first felt an affinity for the sacred snakes, Kassandra also faces the Snake as she descends into the underworld as part of an Amazon initiation.
This is the second Gate of the Underworld, where you must give up your fears or whatever holds you back from traveling this realm as one of those whose feet know and tread the Path in My footprints
The serpent’s eye was close now; it moved, caressing her, and in a flicker of memory – centuries ago, in another life perhaps? – she remembered how she had caressed the serpents in the Sun Lord’s House, and embraced them without fear. It was as if she embraced them again, and the eye came closer and closer; the world narrowed further until there was nothing in the dark with her except the serpent’s embrace. Pain stabbed through her until she was certain she was dying, and she sank into death with relief
But she was not dead; she was moving through the fiery darkness alone�
Having the power of death and rebirth, also inherently means having the power of creation. Just as the womb is the source of life, so was Snake, who we see again and again in creation myths around the world. According to the Pelasgains, the pre-Hellenic people of Greece, the first Goddess formed the great Rainbow Snake, and then merged with him to create the World Egg.
The mother of all things in the Pelasgian creation myth,… Eurynome arose from Chaos and immediately divided the sea from the heavens. She playfully danced upon the newly-created waves and turned to embrace the north wind Boreas. Through this union was born the serpent Ophion, who then coiled around Eurynome while Boreas gave his seed. Taking the form of a dove, Eurynome laid the Universal Egg and had Ophion break it open. Out of the shell flew all living and unliving things.
After the creation, Eurynome and Ophion lived on Mount Olympus until Ophion angered the Great Mother by claiming to have been the true creator of the universe. For such disrespect, Eurynome kicked the serpent’s teeth out and banished him to the black depths of Tartarus. She then proceeded to create the seven planets and assigned a Titan and Titaness to rule over each… She had a cult centered at Phigaleia in Arcadia.
The “wide-ruling one,” Eurynome had a temple in wild Arcadia, difficult to reach and open only once a year. If pilgrims penetrated the sanctuary, they found the image of the goddess as a woman with a snake’s tail, tied with golden chains. In this form, Eurynome of the sea was said to have been the mother of all pleasure, embodied in the beautiful triplets, the Graces
In addition, like many metaforms, some of the most worshipped and owned snakes also had medicinal properties. Consider the two listing for snakes on Frank Bambang Yuwono’s “Herps in Traditional Medicine” from his website
Part of body used for medicine: venom and meat.Pharmacology: Cobra venom can be used as pain-reliever. At a dosage of 0.168 mg/kg its pain-relieving power is 3-4 times that of morphine at a dosage of 1 mg/kg. Does not induce dependence. Very effective against neural pains, malignant tumors, heart problems, neural problems and leprosy. Can have beneficial effects for Parkinson’s disease.Function in traditional medicine:Relieves blood vessel restrictions, relieves pains of rheumatism and arthritis etc. 0.3 kg of snake meat in 0.18 kg of wine. Drink the liquid.
Python molurus bivitattus (Burmese Python)
Part of body used for medicine:
gall bladder. Function of python gall bladder in traditional medicine: to dry dirty fluids from body, kill parasites, brightens vision, cures belly aches caused by worms, cures neural problems, haemorrhoids, cataracts. In the ancient book, it is noted that powdered python is good for wounds. Powder is put in wine or water and drank. As topical treatment: used as a cream. Other uses: skin ulcers (gall bladder mixed with civet cat musk), periodontitis (used with almonds), haemorrhoids (used topically with olive oil. Useful for ritual, providing companionship as a pet, and offering self-protection, the use of python as a treatment for wounds and many other problems, meant that by keeping a snake, a Grecian Priestess was also effectively keeping an emergency medical kit in her bosom or basket.
Similarly, is it any wonder that the Egyptians kept cobras? National Geographic’s King Cobra site tells us that
“The Indian system of Ayurvedic medicine has tested various cobra venoms for use in treating diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera
In the United States, the study of cobra venom has yielded pain relievers such as Cobroxin, used to block nerve transmission and Nyloxin, used for severe arthritis pain.�¯�¿�½
Cobra venom is also still used today in homeopathic medicine. A search of various homeopathic databases, found an interesting metaformic entry detailing additional uses, including success with cobra venom as a cure for dysmenorrhea and related painful symptoms
The poison of the deadly cobra has been used from ancient times, says P. C. Majumdar (Ind. Hom. Rev., vi. 6), by Indian practitioners in many nervous and blood diseases.
Flora A. Waddell (H. R., viii. 445) relates a case in which heart pains were concomitant with left ovarian affection. The pains came on a week before menses, increased till the flow appeared, and then disappeared till next month. Naja [Cobra venom] entirely relieved.
The following case was cured by Bunn (H. W., xxxi. 501): Miss S., 22, dysmenia since the function was established. Dilatation, galvanism, &c., had been tried in vain. She had shooting frontal headache, pains in eyeballs necessitating rubbing. Cramp pain in region of left. ovary. Faintness. Hypogastrium extremely sensitive to touch at time of menses. Examination revealed nothing abnormal except sensitiveness of ovarian region. Extreme restlessness with the pain. During the menses the pains suddenly became very severe. The flow stopped when the pain was at its worst, and returned next day with relief from pain. Naja x30 was given, and the next period passed absolutely free from discomfort.
Finally, both of these snakes were associated with the Gods, especially those of the sun and of healing, such as Apollo, and carry with them the association of Divine Power.
Omphalos – World Navel. Located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, the Oracle of Delphi stood at the crossroads of the ancient world. The story goes that – once upon a time – Zeus, the chief Olympian god, released two eagles. One he released from the East (the Ascendant), the other he released from the West (the Descendant). At the point where the two eagles met, Zeus then threw a Sacred Stone marking the center of Earth – the navel of the world – at Delphi.
For thousands of years, the Sacred Stone of Delphi was zealously guarded by a fearsome snake, Python. Moving forward in time… Zeus and the goddess Leto became lovers. After the goddess Leto became pregnant by Zeus – Hera, the wife of Zeus (some versions say soon to be wife), became outraged with jealousy. Being married to Zeus, Hera quite often found herself getting outraged at all of her husband’s many lovers. Anyway… Hera forbid all places on Earth – whether on terra firma or on islands out at sea – to give shelter to Leto.
As a result of Hera’s decree, the only place on earth where Leto was finally able to seek out shelter was on the floating island of Delos. Technically, because Delos was a floating island, it was not considered to be breaking either of Hera’s prohibitions. So … after striking a deal with the floating island of Delos, Leto was able to give birth to the twins gods Apollo and Artemis.
During Leto’s search for a place to give birth, the snake Python of Delphi (having been warned that Leto’s son would be the snake’s undoing) attempted to kill Leto as she had passed by on her way to Delos. In Homer’s hymn we’re told that after the birth of Apollo on Delos, he then – in revenge for his mother’s near death experience – went to Delphi and killed the snake Python with his bow. Then Apollo appropriately, for justice sake, went into exile for many years to make atonement for his crime of killing of the snake. Upon his return, the Sun god Apollo took his place as the god and conqueror of Delphi.
The Oracles of the Delphi were given through the intermediary of the Pythia, priestesses of Apollo. The Pythia entered into an altered state of consciousness and then uttered what some say were unintelligible verbalizations. These were then composed into verses by the priests and interpretations were rendered to provide meaning. Oddly enough, this practice was quite similar to the later phenomenon of the Christian charismatic spiritual gifts of Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½speaking in tongues’ and the Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½interpretation of tongues.’
In India and Southeast Asia, societies have long revered cobras and king cobras and placed them at the center of their most sacred rites. major religions pay tribute to the king and smaller common cobras in their stories. In Hinduism, cobras are considered manifestations of Shiva, the god of destruction and regeneration. A Buddhist story describes how a massive cobra (probably king) spread its hood over the Buddha to protect him from the sun while he meditated. Cobra images guard the entrances of many Buddhist and Hindu temples.
King cobras have also been worshipped as sun deities with power over rain, thunder, and fertility.National Geographic)
In addition, Barbara Walker tells us that:
The uraeus was the Egyptian cobra symbol of the Goddess as the Creator. The symbol was worn on the foreheads of deities and rulers in the position of the “third eye” of insight. It stood for royal spirit, healing and wisdom
The uraeus was a hieroglyphic sign for Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½Goddess,’ derived from one of Egypt’s oldest deities, the Serpent Mother variously called Uatchet, Uachit, or Ua Zit. To the Greeks, she was Buto, after her sacred city Per Uto. Together with the Vulture Goddess Kekhet, she represented the cycles of birth and death, beginning and ending. These archic Goddesses were known as the Two Mistress, by whose authority all pharohs ruled and the cycles of nature [Maat] were constantly renewed.
Snakes worn by the Priestesses at Crete were probably also a way of connecting with the Divine, and with the (pro)creative energy of the snake, and pulling that essence within them. While in the Greek world, pythons and similar snakes could be safely worn, in Egypt, where the power of symbolism was well understood, it was considered safer to wear the representation of snakes, while keeping the living animals in baskets or other containers
Snakes were tended by humans, and often worn, in order to make use of their creative symbolism, their healing powers and their connection to the God/dess. By working with snakes, and reclaiming them as positive symbols for today, we can also seek to reclaim these and other powers of these beautiful reptiles, as well as our own power as their Priestesses.
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Works Cited
�¯�¿�½Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Firebrand. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1987.
Clarke, M.D., John Henry. “Naja.” A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. 2000. HomÃ?©opathe International. MÃ?©d-T. Dec. 27, 2002. http://homeoint.org/clarke/n/naja.htm
Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Times. . San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco , 1989. London: The Aquarian Press
Graham, Le’ema Kathleen. GoddessWork: Rev. Le’ema Kathleen Graham’s Web Site. 2001Dec. 27, 2002. .
Grahn, Judy. Blood, Bread and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
Keller, Mara Lynn. “Crete of the Mother Goddess.” Big Chalk Library. Dec. 22, 1998. Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. http://library.bigchalk.com. No direct access to URL without password.
Know Thyself: The Delphi Oracle and Astrology.” About.com. 2002. About, Inc. Dec. 27, 2002.<
Monaghan, Patricia. The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1997.
Mythology: Eurynome.” Forum Romanum. Ed. David Camden. 2002.
National Geographic: Interactive King Cobra. 1997. National Geographic Society. Dec. 27, 2002.
Walker, Barbara. The Women’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1988
Yuwono, Frank Bambang. “Herps in Traditional Medicine” Ver. 3, Aug 97.
Herpetology of black”>http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6785/medherp.htm>
