Serpents and Women
Serpent worship may be the oldest form of worship along with mother worship. To the ancient mind the snake was deadly, silent, invisible (due to camoflage) and imortal due to the shedding of its skin. Its poison would burn you like fire. It was a most impressive animal and survived without claws, wings, fur, or anything else. Quite unique, also it looked like a penis (often a sign of good luck, and verility [look up ashera poles]). The mother was a symbol of love, wisdom, prophesy, divine knowlage (due to them typicaly taking the role of the local shaman or healer) and good fortune. In minoan culture her symbol was the labry (a double bitted axe) that is reminicent of vaginal lips (labia). Infact, the word “labryinth” in the story of the Minotaur is derived from Labry (an uber feminine word) which makes a maze a female aspect some how and its winding, confusing, corridors reminds me of a winding snake. A throne guardian and snake goddess who later was introduced to greece as Athena was on notible example of divine feminine meets snake worship. Another is Wadjet who was known as “The Lady of Flame” for her ability to call down fire on the enemies of Egypt. Also had her own Oricle. I’ll post a photo of the snake goddess later.
