Snakes in the Bible

I have a question for all you snake people out there. Some of you might have read in the Bible about how snakes were cursed back when Adam and Eve were alive. Now, most of you might or might not know the story, but whats your take on it? My Grandma is always drilling me saying my snakes are evil and they are demonic, but I think not. I love my snakes. Any opinions? Jeremy

 

Well being a Buddhist myself it really does not mean a thing to me.

 

youre buddhist shrap?? thats pretty awesome lol

 

Snakes were originally a Pagan symbol of women and feminity. Not evil, but of the earth. Snakes were considered powerful and magical, and feminitity was regarded as mysterious and magical; as primitive humans might not have had the science to explain how women could create life. Somehow, that symbol became one of evil, probably because the snake was also a symbol of Pagan religions (once again, not a bad one at all! We know and they knew that snakes are very good things!). The metaphor of the Virgin Mary (mother of Christ) crushing the head of the snake (aka Satan or the Devil) has also been viewed by some scholars as the Christian defeat of Paganism. Feminists also liken it to Christianity's patriarchal system.

I am not a Pagan; so apologies if I screwed it up a little. Most of this I gathered from literature classes where we discussed the symbolism and the feminist angle of greek plays, like the Oresteia. I take it with a grain of salt. Biblical stories on the other hand are hard for me to take literally; so many of them (Old Testament) seem to be retellings of even older stories and legends from other traditions and religions, but in the end the message is the pretty much the same.

Maybe I've been at college too long

 

One of my friends says that kind of stuff to me and calls my snake 'Satan' but he also has a pretty serious phobia of snakes so I think that could be part of it. I don't feel like my snake is evil or demonic, I adore the little guy and he is so sweet. That was not even an issue for me, I mean...it's really hard to play with a rosy boa and believe snakes are demonic. I don't even think it even crossed my mind until my friend started saying that...my parents definitely never said anything of the sort and my grandma loves him!

 

lol if anyone tells me my snake is demonic i will laugh in their face.. or to joke around i might get him out and start chanting and then roll my eyes back in my head and... you get the picture lol that would be funny

 

hey im pagan. i love snakes and as you say that is mostly correct. im wiccan/pagan

 

I know this is a different subject than most, but I just figured I would ask. But hey, do any of you know the story in the Bible about Adam and Eve eating the apple? I am Baptist by the way..... later

 

what do pagans do?

 

I am sure most people know the story. I was raised Catholic, and even then I did not think it meant that snakes were evil.

 

I don't know, ask a pagan.....

 

i was... lol then you replied

 

Well, pagans believe females are the highest, and everything godly is female. Mother earth, etc, etc. I can't expain everything, because I am not pagan. Pagan was a religion before Catholicism, and Christianity. And when Christianity was trying to dominate, pagan beliefs were deemed evil. Mid-wives were burned at the stakes as witches. Most signs we relate to the devil, are originally pagan.

 

o i c so according to christians they are devil worshipers?

 

I wouldn't call a pagan a devil worshiper. I don't understand their beliefs, or anything in paticular about them. I do know they worship more of things that are ON the earth than what actually created the earth.

 

Exactly MX. Christians basically ran a propaganda campaign against them to try and convert more people to Christianity and against Paganism. It was Christians that basically lied and who created the myth that Pagans were evil devil worshippers. It could not be further from the truth.

Paganism is the broad term used to describe any religion or belief that is not Christian, Jewish or Muslim. Paganism can be traced back to Neolithic times and survived up until the middle ages when Christianity became powerful enough to erase it from existence. Paganism is an earth based religion which lays emphasis on the worship of all aspects of nature. Paganism appeared very early on in the history of the world. Examples of early paganism, can be seen in ancient Greek and Roman religions.

Pagans held no belief in heaven and hell as Christians do, rather they believed in reincarnation. One of the newer forms of Paganism is Wicca. Again, another nature worshipping religion that the Christian controlled churches and media has tried to influence people into thinking is evil when it could not be further from the truth.

 

Snakes in past times were not considered evil or bad, in fact they were considered a sign of knowledge, regain health/youth, fertility and power.

Shrap is right in that snakes got their bad rap with the Christians needed to overtake the Pagans. There are some interesting stories how they did this, some by false statements, but mostly by combining the Pagan beliefs into "new" beliefs, holidays or rituals. A few symbols that were strong in the Pagans beliefs they (the Christians) made to sound bad, such as the snake.

A Ram horned serpent in Celtic mythology is associated with knowledge or the lead Celt carries a rod with the symbol on it.

When the Christians arrived in England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland they immediately portrayed anything related to snakes as evil to over come the Pagan, because the Celts used this as a symbol of their faith. The horned serpent guarded the tree of life and the gateway to the underworld, contrary to Christian beliefs, they needed to remove this symbol and thus claimed it evil. They attached that symbol to being bad and this is were the story of the Serpent tempting Eve of the fruit of the Tree of Life comes from. St Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland, they were never there to begin with...... that story comes from the driving out of the Celts who used the snake symbol, not actual snakes.

Christians again used this symbol as a fear symbol to over come the natives in the new world, The Aztec Quetzalcoatl (a snake deity) who was claimed to be was exiled by the gods for his gift of knowledge to the Aztec people was a good source to them a symbol of political power. The Spaniards who objected to many of their rituals almost totally destroyed the people and terrorized them into accepting that the snake god was evil and must be abandon.

Remember it was in the early 1600's AFTER the new world was settled and much of Europe was taken over by Christians and had driven out the Celts or caused them to hide, that the bible was first translated into English. Prior to that they were being hand written my monks who adapted many of their text so that it explained things to the prior pagans in those countries.

Going back as far as your can, there was nothing evil about snakes, to the contrary there were a source of political power, female power, legitimacy of rule and knowledge. Both the Caduceus and the Asclepius symbol is of two snakes and related to medical or physicians, again good, knowledge and power, not evil.

It is only when one group is trying to overpower another in their long held beliefs that the snake emerges as something evil or bad.

The forked tongue has a whole other meaning than of a snake. The sign and dialect meaning forked tongue had nothing to do with the snake, but a deeper double tongued or a speaker with two meanings. Indians communicated among the many different tribes in a common hand sign language, fingers were the mutual tongue of all the tribes, a "V" shaped with two fingers mean two paths. One the stated one, the other the actual action taken. Thus white man to the Indians said one thing, but did another and this is where the White man speak with a forked "two divided fingers" = tongue

 

Wow, thats a lot of info there CheriS! Thank you. Whats does "super moderator'' mean? Are you the head moderator? thanks again, bye

 

Well, my understanding is that Genesis mentions the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not specifically an apple.
It mentions that Satan came to the garden as a serpent, but not specifically as a snake.
If Satan was "possessing" the serpent, then the creature itself was not evil.
Satan is referred to as the Serpent, and it is that serpent that Christ has crushed.

Believing that all snakes (or black cats) are evil/bad luck is what you call superstition.
Pagans do not necessarily believe Satan is real, but worship the gods of the earth.
"Satanism" is a separate religion.

Personally I would rather worship the Creator, not the things or beings He created.
His creation is totally awesome, though.

I don't believe any of God's creatures are evil, but the Bible talks about
rebellion against God as being evil/self destructive/witchcraft.
The only two creatures I know of that make their own choices regarding God are men and angels.
I studied world religions and also occult practices in the seventies.
I was raised in the Catholic Church, but became a Christian in 1980.
From head knowledge to heart knowledge, as it were.

 

Again the Book that states serpert or Tree of Life was written by Christians, who translated it in the 1600 to "their" words, that could be understood or accepted by people in their time... that was 500 years ago, not from the dawn of time did they state these things.

The tree of life in the Christian bible comes from the Celtic belief of their "tree of Life" and knowledge. The Serpent in that book also comes from the Romans driving the Celts (represented by the ram headed snake symbol) and their beliefs out Europe. ei, St Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland... he drove the celts out... saying snakes is symbolic, same as serpents, tree of life and other things including most of the christian holidays. It was 1600's men that wrote these words into what is called the "good book"not that it really ever was a serpent or a snake or was this ever prior in written history. People, animals and stories existed long before Christians

Also, this discussion is why snakes are being giving a bad name or associated with evil, it is NOT a religious discusion. So lets try to keep it on that avenue. Its a fact that the christians in trying to impose their beliefs on other that came up with these ideas of what represented good and evil and also blending christian holy days into the pagan's already existing ones and beliefs