Oceania
Though not
as well known, other ancient societies have also paid homage to the
humble snake. Estimates date the Australian Aborigine mythology, the
Dreamtime, between 50,000 and 65,000 years old. In the Dreamtime, the
sacred area where the world was created, and where patterns for
living were set down, the Rainbow Serpent is known as Mother of Life,
the creator, life giver, the law maker, the protector of the people
and the punisher of those who break the laws.
In the
Dreamtime, the land was lifeless and flat. When the appropriate time
came, the Serpent woke from her sleep and came out of her under
ground lair to travel the land. Striking the ground with her head,
the Mother of Life created the mountains, and with her body, winding
her way across the country side, she created the valleys and river
beds; passing through rock she created water holes, and filled them
with water. The Serpent brings the rainy season each year, and
appears in the sky in the form of the rainbow. With the water she
brings, the Rainbow Serpent allows all life to multiply; when tempted
by those who break the laws, she brings the floods to punish them.
As with all mythology, there are variations of the Dreamtime adapted
to reflect conditions, and locality of each Australian tribe of
Aborigines.
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| Aboriginal Snake painting |
Storytelling
is the way Aborigines pass the Dreamtime from one generation to the
next, and sand painting is one of the most artistic forms to express
what is known as the Journey, or the subject of their stories.
Originally, the paintings were done on the ground, in the desert, as
the tribes moved from place to place, using seeds, stones feathers,
flowers, and other natural materials to tell the story of the
Dreamtime. The paintings were done to the accompaniment of the tribe
elders chanting through the process, and passing on their knowledge
to the younger members of the tribe, as they described each of the
symbols in the paintings.
From the
desert floor, the sand paintings acquired a new life as dot paintings
on canvas. These dots are created with different size rods which are
dipped in paint. The dots and colors are arranged on the canvas in a
particular pattern to depict a specific message. These messages, at
times relating ceremonial details of a region, are often hidden
within the design from the casual viewer, who is not familiar with
Aborigine Dreamtime, and its symbols.
Aborigines'
lack of written language was compensated with the use of songs and
art to pass on their culture to future generaions. Because of the
value place on their art, the Aborigine culture is validated and
saved from extinction, as it is passed on through the purchase of the
dot paintings.
Africa
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| Mami Wata as a snake charmer |
The Mami
Wata worship celebrated in Africa and areas of the African Diaspora,
with its endless female and male personifications, is associated with
water spirits, and more often than not portrayed as a mermaid or as
having a female head and torso with the body of a snake, or as a
snake charmer. Part cult part religion, Mami Wata is set of diverse
beliefs and practices which guide and reflect the ever changing
social and religious practices with its mixture of African, Hindu,
Muslim and Christian faiths; its personification is not devoted only
to a single image, nor is its identity constant: Mami Wata refers to
the embodiment of the many water deities, and as with
many mythological beings, she embodies complete opposites both good
and evil, wealth and poverty, a healer and the source of ailment, a symbol of fidelity as well as lust and promiscuity.
The origins
of Mami Wata are lost to history, though in the Dogon creation
mythology, the world was created over 4,000 years ago by female and
male mermaids called Nommos. The modern Mami Wata is believed to
have originated as a “capitalist” deity in the fifteenth century
as European commerce, in particular slave trade, brought wealth to
various African countries. Mami Wata was thus brought to the
Americas where it flourished under different names depending on the
local culture.
Mami Wata's
association with water is intrinsic to the religion and its worship.
Water is the everlasting and ever changing link to the present world,
life, death and afterlife; it is the vehicle which carries the soul
back home to Africa, and its distant relatives.
Western
scholars attribute the name to derive from two African words with
origins in ancient Egypt and Ethiopia. Mami derives from “Ma”
which means truth or wisdom, and Wata is a corruption of “Uati”
which means ocean water. In Mesopotamian mythology and in
Babylonian prayers “Mami” is the first great Water Goddess and
the creator of human life, and in ancient Egypt, the oldest name for
the goddess Isis is Uati.
In art, Mami
Wata is portrayed in as many forms as the beliefs which make up the
religion allows, and is often dressed in the contemporary attire of
the time when the art was created. This contemporary interpretation of Mami Wata as a Samoan Snake Charmer, c. 1926, is attributed to a German artist by the name of
Schlesinger.
Mexico
While few
ever think of snake mythology or its worship in the New World, it may
come as a surprise to learn that, among the Indigenous Americans, and
perhaps more than in any other culture, the snake was most widely
worshiped in pre-colonial Mexico, and extending into Central, and
South America.
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| Turquoise mosaic Double Headed Snake, 15th-16th Century CE |
The snake
held a significant place in the Indigenous Mexican mythology as
demonstrated by the many gods whose incarnation was the snake:
Xiuhcatl (Fire Serpent), Mixcoatl (Cloud Serpent), Coatlicue (Female
of the Serpent Skin) Tlaloc (god of Rain and Fertility),
Quetzalcoatl, (feathered serpent) also worshiped by the Mayan and
other Mesoamerican cultures (Q'uq'umatz), and many others fill the
pantheon of Aztec, Maya, Inca, and other minor tribes' gods. As with
other civilizations, the snake, whose cult in Mexico started around
400 B.C.E., was a symbol of rebirth and continuity through its
ability to shed its skin and appear to be “reborn,” again. The
snake also represented the “bridge” between the underworld, water
and sky.
One of the
greater gods, Quetzalcoatl, attained its name from two words in
Náhuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Quetzal means, aside from the
bird whose feathers were symbolically used as decoration, tail
feather, and precious;
cóatl has the multiple
meaning of snake and twin. Combined, the two words became the name
of the god, the feathered snake.
This double
headed serpent made of wood and covered in turquoise mosaics, oyster
and conch shell, and colored resin, was brought back to Europe by
Hernán Cortéz, as part of the gifts given to him by Montezuma.
Cortéz, according to Aztec mythology, was believed to be the new
Quetzalcoatl; instead of saving their culture, as the Aztec believed,
Cortéz brought about its end. The back of the snake is hollow and
unfinished, though the heads are decorated in front and back. The
serpent, 17” x 8” is at the Mexican Gallery, British Museum.
Today,
Mexico still honors the snake, giving it prominence in the country's
coat of arms and flag since 1821. Legend has it that the god
Huitzilopochtli, son of the goddess Coatlicue of the Serpent Skin,
told the Aztecs to build the central city of the empire of
Tenochtitlan at the location where they saw an eagle, perched on a
cactus, with a rattle snake in its claws. When they found the eagle,
it was in the middle of the lake Anáhuac. In order to build their
city, the Aztecs proceeded to fill the lake by diverting the water,
and building reed rafts on which to live and grow food. Today, Lake
Anáhuac is Mexico City.Aboriginal Painting: Robert Hagan
Mami Wata: Wikipidea
Double Headed Snake: British Museum
Mexico's Coat of Arms: Newspaper Tree
