The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I'm curious how others would interpret the metaphorical meaning behind the following:

In this myth, there's an entrance to an underworld palace; inside the palace lies all the contents of the mind, the unconscious, the realm of thoughts, dreams, and nightmares. The entrance is flanked gigantic snakes, one on each side, that serve as guardians of the threshold. One snake is venomous; the other is not.

A spiritual leader approaches and is felled by the venomous snake before he can enter. Later, a scholar approaches and with her learning recognizes which snake is venomous, thus taking extra pains to avoid its strikes...but she falls prey to the nonvenomous snake. An innocent ultimately defeats both snakes by feeding them rodents; they lie sated and immobile as they digest their food, and she passes unmolested to enter the palace.

What do you think the snakes represent?

Our own sacred monsters. We can't defeat them. We can only love them, and accept them.

(That doesn't mean we let them run free, though.)

 
And even those that may seem harmless at first can hurt us, if we don't pay enough attention to them and don't "feed" them.

Thank you all for the excellent feedback. It occurred to me like a thunderbolt the other day that there was more to these snakes than mere generic impediments; that they had a more specific nature than that. (The way Odin's two ravens aren't just generic helpers.) Your thoughts have helped my own take further shape.

What do you think the snakes represent?

I like the way Maps puts it very much.


It reminds me of how best to approach a kid's learning. If I know the kid is a hard case and treat him or her that way only, it is often a miss in getting to the goal of learning. And the same goes for a kid who's regarded as a good student. If my expectations are set already set, I am not seeing the students for who they are in the here and now and thus not best able to see the best solutions for success. If I see them as they are without preset expectations and skewed perceptions, I can better see what they need. I should not be surprised when a supposed baddie wants brain food and I should not expect that the goodie to always behave and neglect their needs thinking they will fend for themselves.

It's a good reminder for me. And it applies to those with special needs as well.

Thank you for the interesting thought provocation.