Serpent of Mexico

Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent of Mesoamerica, if dreamt of represents a mighty force in each of us. Having feathers shows it links the highest with the lowest – earth and the sky.

The picture shows how some dreams see the meeting of two elemental forces in our dreams and in our self.  The snake is the force of primal and potential life in us, and the bird is the force of wider awareness that can be woken when the two meet. How we relate to this is shown by the actions in the dream. See kundalini

Because it is a primal part of human life we find it shown in cultures all throughout history – except our own Western thought which has not yet reached this realisation. To describe it simply, the snake is the process of life that lies behind the growth of the body and the evolution or transformation of our human personality. The snake is the source of invention, of religious insights and a wider awareness. In a sense we can say humans sometimes have access to the mother church/temple. This is the source of all human realisations about their place in the creative order, all religious feeling. For humans have a built in sense of religion, their sense of relationship with creation and what creates it. However, it needs a certain form of awareness to be able to sense it. But as it is received by humans from different cultural and environmental situations, it is expressed according to the culture and needs. That is why we have such different religions – yet they have much similarity.

Although Christianity has defined Christ as a historical event, yet other periods of time have seen it as a function of the natural order. So, although Christian missionaries, Franciscans such as Toribio de Benavente “Motolinia” saw elements of Christianity in the pre-Columbian religions and therefore believed that Mesoamerica had been evangelized before, possibly by St. Thomas whom legend had it had “gone to preach beyond the Ganges”. Their attempts to show Christian influence never gained ground, and it seems clear that the influence of a wonderful healer and teacher was, and is, a part of the human unconscious.

But Christianity was simply a new expression of an ancient theme. The older roots of this are from 3500 years ago and was named Mithraism. Mithra was born in a cave, on the 25th December. He was born of a Virgin. He travelled far and wide as a teacher and illuminator of men. His great festivals were the winter solstice and the Spring equinox (Christmas and Easter). He had twelve companions or disciples (the twelve months). He was buried in a tomb, from which however he rose again; and his resurrection was celebrated yearly with great rejoicings. He was called Savior and Mediator, and sometimes figured as a Lamb; and sacramental feasts in remembrance of him were held by his followers.

Also Osiris was born on the 361st day of the year, say the 27th December. He too, like Mithra and Dionysus, was a great traveller. As King of Egypt he taught men civil arts, and “tamed them by music and gentleness, not by force of arms”; he was the discoverer of corn and wine. But he was betrayed by Typhon, the power of darkness, and slain and dismembered. “This happened,”says Plutarch, “on the 17th of the month Athyr, when the sun enters into the Scorpion” (the sign of the Zodiac which indicates the oncoming of Winter). His body was placed in a box, but afterwards, on the 19th, came again to life, and, as in the cults of Mithra, Dionysus, Adonis and others, so in the cult of Osiris, an image placed in a coffin was brought out before the worshippers and saluted with glad cries of “Osiris is risen.” “His sufferings, his death and his resurrection were enacted year by year in a great mystery-play at Abydos.” Quotes from Pagan and Christain Creeds by Edward Carpenter