The Lion Motif in the Middle Eastern Art Generally Is Seen as a Symbol of

Everywhere the symbol of the serpent and dragon is connected with the (d)evil. That does hurt me a little bit, every bit I am Serpent in the Chinese Zodiac – which is the least favored sign. The snake has a bad rap not only according to my married woman, just certainly within Christianity. In defense of myself (and the snake), I wanted to look at the serpent in symbolic terms, in Jungian terms and to explore this from all possible angles.  In alchemical symbolism dragons are associated with fire and the primal cluttered material. The Western concept of dragons is to portray them equally to be feared, and destroyed, whereas in the Near East these negative traits are minimized, Furthermore in the  Far East the dragon possesses different aspects, in that information technology is simultaneously a creature of water, of globe, of the underworld, and of the sky. A self depicting serpent or dragon eating its own tail ( Ouroboros) is an ancient symbol which is often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism. Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypal significance. Jung gave the snake an important role in his Quaternio Series Diagrams in his book "Aion".

The Dragon

This is one of the about easily recognized mythical beasts. Information technology is too a pervasive symbol in a diverseness of cultures, giving rise to many interpretations virtually exactly what a dragon is, what it represents, and how information technology behaves. Information technology tin exist associated with good luck, fortune and wisdom, or with bad luck, elemental evil and heresy. Carl Jung would have chosen the dragon a symbol of the universal unconscious, since so many cultures have myths associated with a dragon, or dragon like beasts.

The dragon is for Carl G. Jung the personification of Sulphur and is by far the male chemical element. Since the dragon is said to impregnate himself by swallowing his tail, then the tail is the male organ and the mouth is the female organ.  The winged dragon represents personal obstacles that must be overcome to insure a more than-perfect being; thus, leading to the saying: "Yous conquer the dragon or he will conquer you."   We run into that Jung did, certainly, inspire awareness of the connections betwixt mod psychology and ancient spiritual practice.  Some credit the Chinese as the inventors of dragon. The origins of dragon lore are a matter of some argue. Information technology is known that at least every bit far back as 300 BCE, some bones of prehistoric animals were labeled as coming from dragons. In Christianity the dragon is mostly a symbol of evil, a demon or the devil. The most famous Christian legend is that of St. George slaying the dragon.

Much of dragon lore tells united states of america that dragons were loathsome beasts and evil enemies to humankind. But dragons were born of a time other than men, a time of chaos, creation out of destruction. The dragon is a fabled and universal symbolic figure found in about cultures idea the world.

Symbology of the dragon:

Gnostics: "The way through all things."

Alchemy: "A winged dragon – the volatile elements; without wings – the fixed elements."

Guardian of the 'Flaming Pearl" symbol of spiritual perfection and powerful amulet of luck.

Chinese: "The spirit of the fashion"' bringing eternal change.

In Scripture the term dragon refers to whatever great monster, whether of the land or sea, unremarkably to some kind of ophidian or reptile, sometimes to state serpents of a powerful and deadly kind. Information technology is also practical metaphorically to Satan.

• M breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. — Ps. lxxiv.13.
•  Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young king of beasts and the dragon shalt thou trample nether anxiety. — Ps. xci.13.
•  He laid hold on the dragon, that quondam serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. –Rev. xx. 2.
•  In the New Testament the discussion "dragon" is constitute simply in Rev. 12:3, four, seven, 9, sixteen, 17, etc., and is there used metaphorically of "Satan."

The Ophidian.

Aroused snake by the archway to a Yezidee-temple. It is blackened by soot.

Dr. Jolande Jacobi signifies in her chapter "The Dream of the Bad Animal" the serpent initial textile, in need of transformation, the chthonic, moist chemical element of water, female person, standing for unconscious  symbol for many things depending on the context, also wisdom. In the famous Houston Interviews (Bollinger, C.G. Jung Speaking or youtube) he talked about a  28-year-onetime woman who told Jung that "she had a black serpent in her abdomen."  The adult female was "only intuitive, entirely without a sense of reality." Then she announced that the snake, which had been dormant, had suddenly go active. "One twenty-four hours she came and said that the serpent in her abdomen had moved; information technology had turned around," Jung says. "Then the serpent moved slowly upwards, coming finally out of her mouth, and she saw that the head was gold"  Jung amplifies the image of the ophidian in the belly by reference to the serpent in Kundalini Yoga. "I told you," Jung says, "the example of that intuitive girl who suddenly came out with the statement that she had a black snake in her abdomen." He situates the ophidian in the context of the collective unconscious. "Well now, that is a collective symbol," he says. "That is not an individual fantasy, it is a collective fantasy." The image of the snake in the belly, Jung says, "is well known in Republic of india." Although the woman "had cipher to do with India" and although the image "is entirely unknown to us," he says that "nosotros accept information technology too, for we are all similarly human being." When the woman get-go told Jung about the serpent in her belly, he wondered whether "perhaps she was crazy," but then he realized that "she was merely highly intuitive." She had intuited a typical, or archetypal, image. "In India," Jung says, "the serpent is at the basis of a whole philosophical arrangement, of Tantrism; it is Kundalini, the Kundalini serpent" (1977: 322).

Of form, everybody knows the Biblical story of the fall of human tells of how Adam and Eve were deceived into disobeying God by a snake (identified as Satan past both Paul and John in II Corinthians and Revelation, respectively). In the story, the snake convinces Eve to consume fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Expert and Evil, which she then convinces Adam to do besides. As a outcome, God banishes Adam and Eve from the garden and curses the snake.

Fighting with them – The Hero Myth

In the fight with the dragon the hero battles the regressive forces of the unconscious, which threaten to swallow the individuating ego. The forces, personified in figures like Circe, Kali, Medusa, Body of water Serpents, Minotaur, or Gorgon, represents the Terrible side of the Great Mother. The Hero may voluntarily submit to being swallowed by the monster, or to a witting descent into Hades so as to vanquish the forces of darkness. This mortifying descent into the abyss, the sea, the dark cavern, or the underworld in guild to exist reborn to a new identity expresses the symbolism of the night-body of water journey through the uterine belly of the monster. Information technology is a fundamental theme in mythology the world over — that of death and rebirth. All initiatory rituals involve this basic archetypal pattern through which the old order and early on infantile attachments must die and a more mature and productive life be built-in in their place.

The mythological goal of the dragon fight is almost e'er the virgin, the captive, or more mostly, the 'treasure hard to attain.' This image of the vulnerable, cute, and enchanting woman, guarded by and convict of a menacing monster gives u.s. a pic of the inner core of the personality and its surrounding defenses. The hero's task is to rescue the maiden from the grasp of the monster and, ultimately, to marry her and establish his kingdom with her. This dragon fight and liberation of the captive is the archetypal pattern that can guide u.s. through those major transitional passages in our personal development where a rebirth or reorientation of consciousness is indicated. The captive represents the 'new' element whose liberation makes all further evolution possible. In response to the call the hero undertakes  a dangerous journey to an unknown region full of both promise and danger.

Getting there – the night bounding main journey.

The night sea journey is a kind of descensus ad inferos--a descent into Hades and a journeying to the land of ghosts somewhere beyond this world, beyond consciousness, hence an immersion in the unconscious ["The Psychology of the Transference," CW xvi, par. 455.]. Mythologically, the nighttime sea journeying motif usually involves beingness swallowed by a dragon or sea monster. It is likewise represented past imprisonment or crucifixion, dismemberment or abduction, experiences traditionally weathered by sun-gods and heroes: Gilgamesh, Osiris, Christ, Dante, Odysseus, Aeneas. In the language of the mystics information technology is the dark night of the soul.  Sometimes, as with Jonah, Aeneas, Christ, and Psyche, it is a descent into the depths — the ocean, the underworld, or Hades itself. Always there is a perilous crossing. Sometimes the faintheartedness of the hero is balanced past the appearance of guardians or helpful animals that enable the hero to perform the superhuman chore that cannot exist accomplished unaided. These helpful forces are representatives of the psychic totality that supports the ego in its struggle. They acquit witness to the fact that the essential function of the hero myth is the development of the individual'due south truthful personality.

Symbols of Spiritual Growth and Transformation

Uroboros

The Ouroboros, the snake forever swallowing its own tail, is a famous alchemical symbol of transformation. Jung saw the Ouroboros much like he saw the mandala, as an archetypal template of the psyche symbolizing eternity and the law of endless render – and individuation.

This Ouroboros symbol was get-go created in 1682. Nonetheless, the idea of a snake/ophidian eating its own tails can be referred to as far dorsum as Ancient Egypt.

The image, according to Dr. Jolande Jacobi, "shows a sinful world of cosmos, surrounded by the Serpent of Eternity, the Ouroboros, and characterized by the four elements and the sins corresponding to them; the whole circle relates to the center, the weeping eye of God, i.eastward., the bespeak where salvation, symbolized by the dove of the Holy Ghost, may be accomplished past compassion and honey."

Ouroboros symbol in Abracadabra

The Uroboros symbol in Abracadabra, was too seen as a symbol of assimilation. Consumption of the reverse. This sign was likewise regarded equally a symbol for immortality as the snake never dies and is ever reborn.  The ophidian is seen every bit a sacred animate being in Africa, especially in W Africa. The Ouroboros symbol is prevalent in many religious aspects in the form of the Oshunmare. The Oshunmare is besides seen equally a symbol for rebirth.

Quaternio series: Moses – Shadow – Paradise – Lapis Quaternio

In the Quaternio series; Man culminates in the of a skillful God, but rests beneath on a nighttime and evil principle (Devil or serpent). The ophidian has its complement in the Paradise Quaternio which leads into the earth of plants and animals. Indeed, this ophidian actually dwells in the interior of the earth and is the pneuma that lies hidden in the rock. The point of greatest tension between the opposites…(is)…the double significance of the ophidian, which occupies the center of the arrangement. Existence an allegory of Christ equally well as of the devil, information technology contains and symbolizes the strongest polarity into which the Anthropos falls when he descends into Physis. Symbols of fear and cunning

A lack of first hand experience with snakes makes the snake a creature representing a fear of the unknown. As such, snake symbolize that unknown fright. The fear can exist an intuitive warning or an unfounded anxiety about some undefinable, something subconscious. Honest analysis provides the key to deciphering the snake symbol. In Christianity, the symbol pertains to Satan and the world we currently live in. It also refers to the men and women of this planet equally being cocky-centered and "fallen". The whole thought of the serpent itself is that information technology reflects something that is re-creating itself.  Exist wise as serpents … – Serpents have always been an emblem of wisdom and cunning:

Genesis 3:1. Now the serpent was more than crafty than whatsoever beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall non swallow from any tree of the garden'?" 2The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the copse of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or impact information technology, or you volition die.'" 4The serpent said to the woman, "Yous surely will not die! 5"For God knows that in the day you lot eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing expert and evil."

Snakes as Sexual Symbols

Sexuality greensnake

Snakes are usually symbolizing sex and sexuality. The feelings the serpent evokes is key to its interpretation. Feelings of revulsion signal sexual dissatisfaction.
The Fable of the White Serpent is ane of the most famous folk tales in Chinese civilization. Legendary actress Brigitte Lin, is a serpent spirit who has come into the homo world with her sis Dark-green Snake. Human scholar Xu Xian  immediately catches White Snake's attending from afar, and the two quickly fall in dear and go married. However, a Taoist priest sees the two spirit sisters returning to their truthful cocky. There is an enigmatic seduction scene in there. Maggie Chung is the lusty maiden & titular graphic symbol Green Snake, flirting erotically with thrilling, dynamic, not to say with perverse personality. Despite having accumulated 500 years of merit, her ability to remain in human guise is restricted by her delight in her own snakey sensuousness. She frequently reverts to her serpent course, in whole or in function. Dark-green Snake in her unrestrained mode finds that she is attracted to the monk, & every bit White's Snake disciple, she thinks it but right that she find a human being partner as admirable equally Xu Xian has been for White Ophidian.

Symbols of Wisdom

The Egyptians used the ophidian in their hieroglyphics as a symbol of wisdom. Probably the thing in which Christ directed his followers to imitate the serpent was in its caution in fugitive danger. No animal equals them in the rapidity and skill which they evince in escaping danger. So said Christ to his disciples, You lot need caution and wisdom in the midst of a world that will seek your lives.

My Chinese sign of the snake serves as embodiments of intellectual, elegance, wisdom and sensuality, but describes the bearer of the sign also as common cold, arrogant and feared by many. For Chinese astrologers, the ophidian is a revered creature of  intuition, and spiritual evolution. The very aforementioned mystery and elusiveness causing fear in some gives rise to a fascination or intrigue in others. I connect to the sign of the snake every bit embodiments of elegance, sensuality,  the intuitive, introspective, refined and collected of the Animal Signs.  But am I night  and  cunning,  plotting and schemes to make certain things turn out exactly every bit I want them to? I guess that would be similar to the "dark-green snake",  would exist my shadow.

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Source: https://stottilien.com/2012/06/03/the-symbol-of-serpent-and-dragon-an-jungian-view/

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