Wicca Pack - SERPENT ( Power)

How appropriate that this card should be the one sitting atop the deck as I pulled it out of it's bag . I was just last night reading a meditation by Diane Stein about Python energy . I will have to go back and read the background information on it again and see what correlations might emerge.

This card is rather Adam and Eve-ish , with the couple standing beside the tree and the snake winding down it towards an apple. They aren't naked though. His garment has leaves on it and hers might be - pomegranite? Someone will have to clarify that one. She has the leaf crown on her head though. And he has the stang ,- the forked staff , and it has a feather on it. They seem a bit suspicious.

Nobody is offering the apple as in the Biblical story . The apple is cut open, revealing the natural pentagram shape of the seeds . This might seem to say that knowledge is offered to all and is not a sin . Knowledge and power are available and reflected in nature , and are our natural right.

Hum...the couple doesn't seem happy. The snake slithers down from the tree and......protects the apple? blocks the couple from being together? makes them think now, how can we get around this serpent? how can we get that apple...temptation?

THe Pentacle-combo of all the Elements, lifeforce as one,protection.....
What/does something need to be shed to move forward.
He wears leaves on his dress/toga thing...what's on her's, it almost looks like raindrops?

I have often dreamed of snakes (and sharks) and usually in my dreams they are FEAR...I see them and are afraid to move forward....what if I/we kept going anyway?......

When Adam ate the apple - and he ate the apple because he WANTED to; to say it was Eve's fault is just too easy - he commited his first act of free will. And free will is power.

For me, the serpent in the card is offering us our power - are you going to eat it because you WANT to have this power, and are willing to accept all the responsibilities it brings? The couple standing behind - they could be Adam and Eve, as they could be any human couple - look like they have already chosen the path they want. Now it's your turn.

Eating the apple is also related to the sexuality...and the sexuality is a kind of creative power, and also brings responsibility. Creative because it inspires and because it creates something - a child, a piece of art etc.

I see this card as is the serpent was daring you - will you eat the apple, or not? Are you prepared, or do you need more time? Can you enjoy, and at the same time be responsible for your sexuality, for what you create?

If you think yes, now it's your turn, the apple - the power - is just waiting for you.

The couple could also be the Goddess and the God, meaning they are with you, watching you, in the moment you feel you are ready to have the 'power' in your hands.

PS. Yes, i think the woman's garment has pomegranates on it. The pomegranate's seeds are a symbol to the male seed, as the fruit is also called 'the fruit of the dead'. When Persephone (in the Greek Myths) eats the seed of pomegranates, it's a metaphor for her losing her virginity, and also getting started in the secrets of the underworld, the dark side of the moon. It makes sense in this card

FantasyWorld said:

I have often dreamed of snakes (and sharks) and usually in my dreams they are FEAR...I see them and are afraid to move forward....what if I/we kept going anyway?......

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Fear...yes, the power comes with fear. What do we do now? Did i choose well? Was it the right time? Any new steps brings fear and uncertainty, and that's why the snake looks at you, saying that you must only come when you are ready to face your feras, your uncertainties, and the responsabilities wyour choices bring...

The snake is also in the 'Green Man' card...

~Yuko~

miss_yuko said:

PS. Yes, i think the woman's garment has pomegranates on it.

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Oh thank goodness, I was beginning to think my brain was backing up on me ..

They can't be really Adam & Eve of course, because there is no Adam /Eve/all that biblical stuff in Wicca. I am assuming it is some earlier version from a different culture before it was co-opted and changed into the whole sex/sin/female badness- temptation configuration.

Dark Inquisitor said:

They can't be really Adam & Eve of course, because there is no Adam /Eve/all that biblical stuff in Wicca. I am assuming it is some earlier version from a different culture before it was co-opted and changed into the whole sex/sin/female badness- temptation configuration.

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I said Adam and Eve because they are the known archetypes for this situation. Of course in Wicca there are no Adam and Eve...possibly they too were aspects of other cultures misunderstood by the bible.

Still, personally, when i read this card, i don't try to simply delete the Adam/Eve idea because it's not in the Wiccan pantheon. Mainly because i don't see them from the biblical point of view, but from the archetypical one...it says a lot to me.
The man and the woman could have any name; Paul and Lisa, Prometheus and Pandora, Pablo e Emiliana...whatever. The idea behind it is important...the fact that not only in the bible, but in many cultures both 'eating the fruit' and the 'serpent' are related to the sexuality, to the freedom, to the wisdom. And many of those are things that empower us.

Our mistake might be seeing it as a sin.
Our mistake might be seeing it as a light thing...it is not. Having power never is because power brings...responsability.

I really hope i'm not making you confused

No , you're not confusing Yuko - I think it's culture that is putting out the confusions . There are big contradictions about power . Who has the right to have it and use it , how it is obtained , whose power is the right and just power, etc. But the snake imagery is raw and ancient , which could be scary to most people. I made a sculpture of a woman holding a snake once . Women hated it , men loved it . Maybe there is still some deep seated feeling even among women themselves that women shouldn't have the power , and if they do they are naturally evil and frightening .

Which brings to mind the stereotypes of witches , and the thought that any paranormal power if off limits and wrong . This card feels to me like it is saying the powers are supremely natural , and the primal relationship of the sexes is part of the forces at work .

Dark Inquisitor said:

I made a sculpture of a woman holding a snake once . Women hated it , men loved it . Maybe there is still some deep seated feeling even among women themselves that women shouldn't have the power , and if they do they are naturally evil and frightening .

Which brings to mind the stereotypes of witches , and the thought that any paranormal power if off limits and wrong . This card feels to me like it is saying the powers are supremely natural , and the primal relationship of the sexes is part of the forces at work .

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I think you are absolutely right! Maybe it's a cultural idea that women don't have enough intelligence (remember in Greek they weren't seen as citizens equal to men, but inferiors, closer to the animals) or the responsability to have power. And the witches showed differently. They had their power, the manace of the imposed 'Hell' didn't scare them - they stayed true to their path.

And women were teached they don't have what it takes to hold the power - the snake - in their hands. They are scared by the idea of power just as they are scared by the idea of the snake. I believe the idea of power in this card trancends out usual notion of power.

I'd like to see your sculpture someday

Maybe I can post it if I get it scanned again . When the computer crashed thanks to my *nemesis* hacker , all the scans went with it.

Marina said:

I said Adam and Eve because they are the known archetypes for this situation. Of course in Wicca there are no Adam and Eve...possibly they too were aspects of other cultures misunderstood by the bible.

Still, personally, when i read this card, i don't try to simply delete the Adam/Eve idea because it's not in the Wiccan pantheon. Mainly because i don't see them from the biblical point of view, but from the archetypical one...it says a lot to me.
The man and the woman could have any name; Paul and Lisa, Prometheus and Pandora, Pablo e Emiliana...whatever. The idea behind it is important...the fact that not only in the bible, but in many cultures both 'eating the fruit' and the 'serpent' are related to the sexuality, to the freedom, to the wisdom. And many of those are things that empower us.

Our mistake might be seeing it as a sin.
Our mistake might be seeing it as a light thing...it is not. Having power never is because power brings...responsability.

I really hope i'm not making you confused

Click to expand...

I see this card and all the symbolism as with each action we take we will inherit the new knowledge that we will experience and no longer be innocent of not knowing (unless of course we get amnesia),or be able to go back to that innocent state of not knowing.So be wise and protect yourself in any creative endeavors and acknowledge from here on out you will have to live with your decision and actions you have created and you really cannot go back to that innocence.