Pentacles and Serpents

Pentacles and Serpents

I photographed this wonderful statue of
 St Mary and Jesus in Heidelberg, Germany.

Pentacles:  In etymology, the word pentagram derives from the Greek word,' pentagrammon', as 'pente' translates to five, and' gramme' means line, thereby the five lined star.  Babylonians and Pythagoreans of ancient Greece wore these amulets as essential religious symbols.  
There is often mass confusion between a pentacle and a pentagram.  When placing a pentagram within a disc or encircling it, the pentagram becomes a pentacle, and then considered as sacred, or magical.  The circle then represents the encompassing circle of life, and the five points refer to the elements being, earth, air, fire, water, and the fifth being ether, or space.  

Early Christians wore the pentacle to represent Christ's five wounds, until Satanists stole the pentacle and wore it in a reversed position to demonstrate the fall of Christ, soon after Christians feared the pentacle, irrespective of which direction it faced.  Personally, I wear the pentacle, as a means of repossessing the revered.The astrologically the pentacle represents the five planets, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Venus, also known as Queen of the Heavens. Pentacles are found among the Onmyoji, the wizards of Japan, and depict the five various elements and the various flows of energies found among them.Cyclic balances represented within the pentacle.Controlling:  Wood breaks earth, earth absorbs water, water douses fire, fire melts metal, and metal splits wood.Generative:  Wood feeds fire, fire makes earth, earth bears metal, metal collects water, and water nourishes wood.Destructive:  Wood absorbs water, water corrodes metal, metal destroys earth, earth smothers fire, and fire burns wood.

Serpents and Snakes

Paganism, Religion, Christianity, what would any of these be, if Ego were to be removed?                                                                                                      

The world without ego would be Godly, as everything experienced and appreciated with love and respect.  Man has written and emphasised that the serpent deceived Eve, and thus the snake became the ‘devil’.   If we turn to the said text, found in Genesis 3 we see that the Lord God himself created this snake.  He created the snake more cunning than any beast of the field, yes more cunning.  Cunning as an adjective, as is in this case can also translate to being clever, ingenious, inventive, and resourceful.  Which would then mean the serpent is creative, the same traits found in man himself, as both man and the serpent are ‘created’ by the Creator.

Furthermore, what did the serpent say to ‘deceive’ Eve?  Everything the serpent said was truthful.  “You shall surely not die”.  That was truthful.  “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.  Nowhere in the ‘temptation and fall of man is there any record of the serpent being deceitful, other than what has been indoctrinated into society to believe. On the contrary, if one is to turn to Numbers 21:8, we can see evidence that God, Himself instructed Moses, “create a ‘fiery serpent’ and set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”  Moreover, it was so. Not only did God instruct Moses to build snakes, but in Exodus 7:8 it reads, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying”Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, “Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’ “  The Pharaoh then called his magicians to do the same, which they then successfully turned their rods to serpents too, but Verse 12 brings in a difference, “But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”
Matthew 10:16, 'Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves'.Having said this we can feel free to look around the world and accept that in various interpretations of the Creator, serpents have been the protectors of wisdom and knowledge.  Serpents represent the Maternal, the Great Mother.  The most popular would be the Egyptian hieroglyph of the Goddess, which is the cobra.  In Germany, Unke, the crowned serpent, often portrayed with keys, represents the protector of infants.Concluding that the snake is not the enemy, but a healer, a protector and yes, a creation of God, and as such, God does not create mistakes or errors, only man’s ego does.  It is only later, when man’s ego surpassed his wisdom that snakes and serpents became demonic representations of man’s ego.
To encapsulate, serpents shed their skins, which represents immortality, healing, rebirth, and rejuvenation.  It therefore makes sense as to why the snake remains in the medicinal emblems.