Editing Serpent symbolism (section)

==Values==

===Fertility and rebirth===
Historically, serpents and snakes represent [[fertility]] or a creative life force. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}} As snakes shed their skin through [[sloughing]], they serve as symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Sa-Sp/Serpents-and-Snakes.html |title=Myths Encyclopedia: Serpents and Snakes |publisher=Mythencyclopedia.com |access-date=December 7, 2012}}</ref> The [[ouroboros]] is a symbol of [[eternity]] and continual renewal of life. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

In some [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic traditions]], the serpent represents [[sexual desire]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VD1YAAAAMAAJ |title=The American Journal of Urology and Sexology |page=72 |date=January 1, 1984 |access-date=December 7, 2012 |last1=Spooner |first1=Henry G.}}</ref> According to some interpretations of the [[Midrash]], the [[serpent in the Bible|serpent]] represents sexual passion.<ref>Barton, SO "Midrash Rabba to Genesis", sec. 20, p. 93</ref> In [[Hinduism]], [[Kundalini]] is a dormant energy lying like a coiled serpent.<ref name="MetaModernEra">Her Holiness Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Srivastava: "Meta Modern Era", pages 233–248. Vishwa Nirmala Dharma; first edition, 1995. {{ISBN|978-81-86650-05-9}}</ref>

The [[Hopi]] people of [[North America]] performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a Sky spirit) and Snake Girl (an Underworld spirit) and to renew the [[fertility]] of [[Nature]]. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}} During the dance, live snakes were handled, and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. "The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of the clouds, the thunder and the lightning, that the rain may fall on the growing crops."<ref>{{cite book |last=Monsen |first=Frederick |title=Festivals of the Hopi, and dancing and expression in all their national ceremonies |url=http://www.adwr.state.az.us/Adjudications/documents/HopiContestedCaseDisclosure/Hopi%20Initial%20Disclosure/HP1535%20-%20HP1549.pdf}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> To the [[Hopi]], snakes symbolized the [[umbilical cord]], joining all humans to [[Mother goddess|Mother Earth]]. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

===Guardianship===
[[File:Buddha shielded by Naga.jpg|upright|thumb|Meditating [[Buddha]] being shielded by the naga [[Mucalinda]]. [[Cambodia]], 1150 to 1175]]
Serpents are represented as potent guardians of temples and other sacred spaces. This connection may be grounded in the observation that when threatened, some snakes (such as [[rattlesnake]]s or [[cobra]]s) frequently hold and defend their ground, first resorting to threatening display and then fighting, rather than retreat. Thus, they are natural guardians of treasures or sacred sites which cannot easily be moved out of harm's way.

At [[Angkor]] in [[Architecture of Cambodia|Cambodia]], numerous stone sculptures present hooded multi-headed [[nāga]]s as guardians of temples or other premises. A favorite motif of Angkorean sculptors from approximately the 12th century&nbsp;CE onward was that of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], sitting in the position of meditation, his weight supported by the coils of a multi-headed nāga that also uses its flared hood to shield him from above. This motif recalls the story of the Buddha and the serpent king [[Mucalinda]]: as the Buddha sat beneath a tree engrossed in meditation, Mucalinda came up from the roots of the tree to shield the Buddha from a tempest that was just beginning to arise.

The [[Gadsden flag]] of the American Revolution depicts a rattlesnake coiled up and poised to strike. Below the image of the snake is the legend, "Don't tread on me." The snake symbolized the dangerousness of colonists willing to fight for their rights and homeland, and was also symbolic of their separation from Europe, as it was an animal unique to America. The motif is repeated in the [[First Navy Jack]] of the US Navy.

===Venom and medicine===
Serpents are connected with [[snake venom|venom]] and medicine. The snake's venom is associated with the chemicals of plants and fungi<ref>{{cite book| author=Virgil| author-link=Virgil|title=[[Aeneid]] |page=2.471}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = [[Nicander]] Alexipharmaca 521 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Pliny Natural History 9.5}}</ref> that have the power to either heal or provide expanded consciousness (and even the [[elixir of life]] and immortality) through divine intoxication. Because of its herbal knowledge and [[entheogen]]ic association, the snake was often considered one of the wisest animals, being (semi-) divine. Its divine aspect combined with its habitat in the earth between the roots of plants made it an animal with [[chthonic]] properties connected to the afterlife and immortality. The deified Greek physician [[Asclepius]], as god of [[medicine]] and healing, carried [[Rod of Asclepius|a staff]] with one serpent wrapped around it, which has become the symbol of modern medicine. [[Moses]] also had a replica of a serpent on a pole, the [[Nehushtan]], mentioned in Numbers 21:8.