Divine Feminine Symbol?

DavidMcCann said:

The snake is generally an auspicious symbol, but not particularly feminine. In Greece it was one representation of Zeus Meilichios (bringer of prosperity) and also of Zeus Ktesios (guardian of the family's food). On Roman domestic altars, it often appears and is believed to be a guardian spirit. In Egypt there was a very popular goddess, represented as a cobra, a guardian of grain stores (keeping the mice away?) and a personal protectress: Renenutet in Egyptologist-speech, although Cleopatra would have said Remuti.

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Snake Cults Dominated Early Arabia - Red Ice

Pre-Islamic Middle Eastern regions were home to mysterious snake cults, according to two papers published in this month's Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy journal. From at least 1250 B.C. until around 550 A.D., residents of what is now the Persian Gulf worshipped snakes in elaborate temple complexes that appear to have been built for this purpose, the studies reveal.

Snake Cults Dominated Early Arabia

excerpt:

The first paper, by archaeologist Dan Potts of the University of Sydney, describes architecture and relics dating to 500 B.C. from Qalat al-Bahrain in Bahrain.

Two rooms in what is now known as the Late Dilmun Palace each contain 39 pits, some of which surround what appears to have been an altar. At least 32 of the pits housed ceramic vessels containing bones from rat snakes and sea snakes.

The remains showed no signs of mutilation.

The article, YHWH, Snake God of Israel, discusses the origins of the Hebrew god, who is YHWH (generally pronounced Yahweh). YHWH has been depicted as a Semitic creator god with no known idol image. However, history and the Bible tell a very different story. In the Biblical book, Numbers, 21:9, YHWH’s image as a snake coiled around a pole was carried by Moses before the Hebrews who fled Egypt, an event labeled as the Exodus.

Later, according to 2 Kings 18:4, the Israelite King Hezekiah destroyed this snake image of YHWH because the populace was worshiping it. However, the Israelites continued to display YHWH’s image in numerous other places as on Hebrew altars, as epigraphic images in the Negev desert, on synagogue stones and on various cult objects as offering jars and vases. The origin of the cult can be traced to several locations in the Middle East. However, there are 2 main trajectories for the entrance of YHWH into ancient Canaan now known as Palestine.

The first trajectory was from the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula where occurs the earliest form of the name YHWH which is Ya/Yh. Ya/Yh may be a form of the Semitic word ‘hy/hw’ which means to live, life.

The Negev inscriptions are an early form of Semitic writing which appears in the Negev Desert or southern Palestine.

Archaeologists have assigned dates for these inscriptions anywhere from 2000 to 1000 BCE. Later Hebrews combined the word ‘yh/ya’, with the ancient West Semitic word for snake, ‘hwh’, to form the name of their god YHWH, which literally means ‘Yah, the snake’ or ‘the living snake god’ .

The combination seems odd until one considers that the early Hebrews adopted the Sanskrit word for snake, ‘nagas’, from their northern Indo Aryan neighbors, the Mitannis. The Hebrew word for snake became ‘nachash’.

However, the ancient Semitic word for snake, ‘hwh’ (pronounced both as chawa and hawa), was appended to the name Yah, thus making it clear to all that Yah was a snake god.

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Synopsis of Israel’s Serpent/Moon God, Yahweh (YHWH), the Biblical Snake God | Arabian Prophets

stellaluna said:

Hi, I literally have no idea where to ask this, so I'm choosing this folder.

I read once that the serpent/snake was a symbol of female divinity in ancient civilizations/religions. Is there a way to find out if this is true? I've done some searching and I haven't found anything particularly academic.

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Not all ancient civilizations used the serpent/snake to represent the exact same thing in the exact same way. So perhaps you should figure out what ancient culture you are researching first and then focus on finding out the collective symbols of that culture. You could search for the meaning for the 'serpent/snake' or you could search for 'female divinity' depending on what you really want to know. If you do a broad search of generically 'ancient civilizations/religions', then you are going to get either something very generic and watered down or a mess of confusing and possibly contradictory ideas. Symbols exist within a context. So one serpent/snake might represent the (primordial) chaos and another might represent fertility and another might be a guardian.

Ponder This said:

Not all ancient civilizations used the serpent/snake to represent the exact same thing in the exact same way. So perhaps you should figure out what ancient culture you are researching first and then focus on finding out the collective symbols of that culture. You could search for the meaning for the 'serpent/snake' or you could search for 'female divinity' depending on what you really want to know. If you do a broad search of generically 'ancient civilizations/religions', then you are going to get either something very generic and watered down or a mess of confusing and possibly contradictory ideas. Symbols exist within a context. So one serpent/snake might represent the (primordial) chaos and another might represent fertility and another might be a guardian.

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Yes one could search this and that, but it doesn´t really matter and it doesn´t gives clearance if you don´t have the overall meaning of symbols at hand when you make the search.

Ancient Symbols of Creation of course describes the factual cosmological conditions in the creation, which contains these facts:

We all live in the same planet Earth; in the Same Solar System; in the same Milky Way galaxy and in the same local part of the observable Universe.

Then the task is to connect the relevant symbols to the relevant celestial objects and motions. And here, the Serpent is specifically connected to the Milky Way band and it´s contours observable all around the Earth .

This is also why the Serpent in some cultures is mentioned as "The Winged Serpent". It simply represents a figure "up in the air".

stellaluna said:

Hi, I literally have no idea where to ask this, so I'm choosing this folder.

I read once that the serpent/snake was a symbol of female divinity in ancient civilizations/religions. Is there a way to find out if this is true? I've done some searching and I haven't found anything particularly academic.

Click to expand...

The Egyptians have quite a few different Goddesses who use serpent imagery. These include: Wadjet, Meretseger, and Renenutet.

stellaluna said:

Hi, I literally have no idea where to ask this, so I'm choosing this folder.

I read once that the serpent/snake was a symbol of female divinity in ancient civilizations/religions. Is there a way to find out if this is true? I've done some searching and I haven't found anything particularly academic.

Click to expand...

In Hinduism, it is the Sri Yantra that is the symbol of feminine divinity.

Sri Yantra - Wikipedia


As for animals and birds, there is the lion/tiger for Durga, the swan for Saraswati and owl for Lakshmi.

I am not aware of snakes as a symbol of female divinity.

You can see the symbol of Venus on the shield of the Empress in tarot.