Negro_Ntns:


I wish to contribute that there are other animals that have similar symbolism but do not approach that of the snake. They are Bull, Eagle, Ram. . . .and so on.

Negro_Ntns:

. . . oh forgot to mention that:

the rituals of sex itself act as a harmonic balancer (healing) or for a transcedental rebirth or renewal.

InesQor:



There is no snake that is spiritual. No, not one.

If we must argue that a snake or snakes is/was or are/were spiritual, we must a priori define the term spiritual. Let's back up a bit please.

#okBye

InesQor:

^^^



My definition of "spiritual" is "that which a snake cannot be". 

Come on, lighten up. . . (didn't you see the smileys?)

When we discuss these topics I suggest that we attach or associate the practical lesson or its application to life so people are not only acquiring knowledge but are also gaining wisdom through their own individual encounter and circumstance.

Deep Sight:

. . .Indeed ritual copulation has formed an integral part of many ancient religious systems, and I recall advancing the idea of the balancing powers of s.ex on this forum. I was almost stoned to death.

Negro_Ntns:

. . . oh forgot to mention that:

the rituals of sex itself act as a harmonic balancer (healing) or for a transcedental rebirth or renewal.  

Negro_Ntns:

. . .  

I started in my earlier post to relate the Moses/Pharaoh confrontation when the former's staff became a serpent and swallowed the illusions created by the latter's preists but I figured Pastor was sure to mention it so I did not.  

That miracle itself was a plague. . . .it was the lead-in to all the other pestilences that went into Egypt.

When the spiritual Ori is afflicted, the individual is plagued with all kind of losses.    

There is a lesson in this and it is well narrated in several Odus in Ifa.  When the spiritual Ori and the temporal Ori are in conflict, the individual need divination.  Divination will identify where the incompatibility is emanating from and guide on the appropriate corrective step to take to reinstate balance and harmony.  

InesQor:

Mr Pastor AIO, in my previous posts, each one was a joke.




Snakes are spiritual. Hoorah. As spiritual as the very mice they feed on.

I ask this because religious, spiritual, mythical and legendary lore all across the world seem so interwoven with this creature - almost to the degree of universal obsession.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?"

Genesis 3:14-15 The LORD  God said to the serpent,  “Because you have done this,  Cursed are you more than all cattle,  And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, (that is for another thread ) And dust you will eat  All the days of your life; And I will put enmity  Between you and the woman,  And between your seed and her seed;  He shall bruise you on the head,  And you shall bruise him on the heel.

Numbers 21:4-9 And The Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

"Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run! See how they run! They all ran after the farmer's wife, she cut off their tails with a carving knife! Have you ever seen such a sight in your life, as the three blind mice?

lagerwhenindoubt:


Later on we see the Snake's significance in the Magick-play of the Pharaohs Magicians and Moses rod-turned-snake. in later passages it is used to heal snake-bitten Israelites as quoted below

In other references outside the Bible the Serpent has rich spiritual history, reverence and purpose ranging from creation, protection, wisdom, fertility, medicine, guidance into the after-life in Greek Mythology. Interestingly another commonality that is often seen is the connection between the Woman and the Snake from Eve in the Garden of Eden to the famous Medusa of Greek legend, Minoan Snake Goddess, Snake Witches of Sweden, Blessed Mary an so forth.

My most strongest volition is to accept that a Spiritual connection exists between the Snake (Material or Spiritual Symbolism) and GOD at the instance of creation and till this day, wild as it seems, the Serpent is not the Devil. but then again i am straying from the topic.

InesQor:


(1) Snakes, physically and essentially, are as spiritual, to the same manner or token, as any other creature; from green grass to elephants.

Speaking for Christianity, the snake is used to represent a manifestation of sin.

Snakes are spiritual. Hoorah. As spiritual as the very mice they feed on.

The best-known and most popular hero in the mythology of the ancient Near East, Gilgamesh was a Sumerian* king who wished to become immortal. Endowed with superhuman strength, courage, and power, he appeared in numerous legends and myths, including the Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic, written more than 3,000 years ago, seems to be the earliest work of literature. It is an adventure story that explores human nature, dealing with values and concerns that are still relevant today.



Search for Utnapishtim. After Enkidu's funeral and burial, Gilgamesh sets out on a long and hazardous journey to seek a man named Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim had survived a great flood and was granted immortality by the gods. Gilgamesh travels through various strange lands and meets people who tell him to end his search and accept his fate as a mortal. Refusing to give up, Gilgamesh finally reaches the sea and persuades a boatman to take him across the waters to the home of Utnapishtim.

Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the Great Flood and of the boat that he constructed to save his family and various animals. He then offers the hero a challenge: if Gilgamesh can stay awake for seven days, he will be given the immortality he desperately desires. Gilgamesh accepts the challenge but soon falls asleep. When he awakes seven days later, he realizes that immortality is beyond his reach, and with sorrow, he accepts his fate. Utnapishtim tells him not to despair because the gods have granted him other great gifts, such as courage, skill in battle, and wisdom.

[b]In appreciation of Gilgamesh's courageous efforts to find him, Utnapishtim tells the hero where to find a plant that can restore youth. Gilgamesh finds the plant and continues on his journey. Along the way, while he bathes in a pool, a snake steals the plant. This explains the snake's ability to slough off its old skin and start afresh with a new one. [/b]Disappointed and tired, but also wiser and more at peace with himself, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk to await his death.

The last part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, thought to be a later addition, tells how the spirit of Enkidu returns from the underworld and helps Gilgamesh find some lost objects he received from Ishtar. Enkidu also tells his close friend about the afterlife and describes the grim conditions of the underworld.

Jachin and Boaz are the pillars in the masonic temple, modeled after King Solomon’s Temple. Boaz meaning in strength and Jachin he establishes or stability; Boaz on the left and Jachin the right. Solomon’s temple faced the East. Boaz faced the North and Jachin faced the South. Boaz was the great-grandfather of King David and Jachin was the high priest who aided in dedication of Solomon’s temple.

The two pillars are at the entrance of every Masonic temple. They also played a role in the order of the Golden Dawn. In the Golden Dawn rights Boaz was black and Jachin was white. The two representing the principles of positive and negative in much the same way as the yin and yang. These pillars could be further expounded upon in that they are not actual pillars but part of the tree of life or the Cabala.

Joachim and Boaz

1 Kings 7:13-22 (KJV) describes part of the architecture of Solomon's Temple relating to the Columns placed in front of the temple.
13. And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.

14. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naph'tali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.

15. For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.

16. And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:

17. and nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter.

18. And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.

19. And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.

20. And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.

21. And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Joachim: 1 and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. 2

22. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.
1 Kings 7:46

1. In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.
Jachin (Joachim) means "He shall establish." Boaz means "In it is strength."

Jachin (Joachim) means "Justice." Boaz means "Mercy."

Commentary:

The Building of the first temple of Israel (King Solomon's Temple) was the first major public works organized and executed by the United Kingdom. The two columns as described in scripture would have qualified to be one of the wonders of the ancient world, the shear size and magnitude in scale of the project made the technology that went into making these columns an engineering marvel.

The two columns in there original form represented an artistic metaphor for the balance between the male and female aspects of nature. They make a statement about the creative nature of god in the human equation as the divine union between the male and female. The Pomegranate and its seeds are a reference to the union and seed of the sexual act. The water lily (Lotus) capitols are a reference to the females vulva and the column itself represents the male phallus. In this metaphor it is demonstrated how God embraces our human sexuality but places the emphasis on its divine nature in the creation and evolution of his kingdom.

The creative aspect of God's plan on earth places its empathizes on/in the generational histories represented in the scriptures. The classic example of this are the opening lines to the New Testament which outline the genealogy of the Christ. If you have spent some scholastic time trying to put these genealogies into a Julian calendar you will understand the scriptural emphasis on the hereditary nature of the Biblical plot.

Pastor AIO:


I don't think that the title of this thread is a very good one. It should perhaps say, the symbolic significance of the Snake, not the spirituality of the snake.

InesQor:

The thread is a misnomer.

I doubt I misapprehended anything, though.

InesQor:

@Deep Sight:

The curse upon the Eden Snake spanned both spiritual and physical realms, just like Eden itself was an intersection of spiritual and physical realms.

The physical attributes of the curse on the physical snake dealt accordingly with Lucifer in the spiritual as well, because the snake was used by the devil to carry out counsel against God.

When God said the snake will crawl on its belly, that's equivalent and simultaneous spiritual import as the decree placed upon Lucifer to be the spiritual lowlife skunk that he now is. The woman's seed crushing his head refers to the triumph of Christ as much as it refers to InesQor crushing a physical snake's head in his  neighbour's backyard, etc.

Taking the Eden event literally, there were four entities involved in the fall. Adam, Eve, Lucifer and the snake that represented Lucifer. Each one got its own punishment.

Genesis 3:14 The LORD  God said to the serpent,  “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle,  And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go,