The anthropologist Lynne Isbell has argued that, as primates, the serpent as a symbol of death is built into our unconscious minds because of our evolutionary history. Isbell argues that for millions of years snakes were the only significant predators of primates, and that this explains why fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias worldwide and why the symbol of the serpent is so prevalent in world mythology; the serpent is an innate image of danger and death. [7] [8]

In 1990 Hamish and Ba launched into an epic 10-year journey across Europe with Paul Broadhurst and Vivienne Shanley, this time following another pair of intertwining currents which they named the “Apollo” and “Athena”. This 2,500 mile journey took them from the Skelligs off south-west Ireland to Cornwall and across Europe, to Mount Carmel in Israel. The record of this extraordinary dowsing adventure resullted in The Dance of the Dragon (2000), now sadly out of print, but a set of beautiful, hand-illustrated maps produced by artist Vivienne Shanley, is still available to buy.Once a physiotherapist and a researcher for Hamish’s projects, Ba Miller continues to participate in local dowsing activities. Always energetic, she is able to beat anyone walking up the slopes of Trencrom hill, still plays a mean game of tennis and remains undaunted by the care of the land that she and Hamish planted with trees over the decades. Frazer, James G. "The Language of Animals". In: Archaeological Review. Vol. I. No. 3. May, 1888. D. Nutt. 1888. pp. 166 and 175-177. In many myths, the chthonic serpent (sometimes a pair) lives in or is coiled around a Tree of Life situated in a divine garden. In the Genesis story of the Torah and biblical Old Testament, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is situated in the Garden of Eden together with the tree of life and the serpent. In Greek mythology, Ladon coiled around the tree in the garden of the Hesperides protecting the golden apples. Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 144.

John Bathurst Deane, The Worship of the Serpent, London: J. G. & F. Rivington, 1833. ( alternative copy online at the Internet Archive) Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index tale type ATU 433B, "King Lindworm": a childless queen gives birth to a boy in snake form. Years later, he wishes to marry, but either devours his brides on their wedding night or cannot find a woman brave enough to accept his serpentine form. The snake prince is disenchanted by a maiden who wears layers of clothing in their nuptial night to mirror his layers of snakeskin. [53] Example: King Lindworm, a Danish fairy tale. The Minoan Snake Goddess brandished a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role as source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals ( Potnia Theron), with a leopard under each arm. The Egyptian symbol of a snake in a circular shape, eating its own tail, represented renewal and resurrection. It was called the Ouroboros and was depicted on a shrine on Tutankhamen’s tomb. In alchemy, the Ouroboros symbol appears again. The alchemical cross also features a crucified snake and represents the mythical potion, the Elixir of Life. In India Rituals surrounding Apophis continued through the Late Period, in which they seem to be taken more seriously than they were previously, and on through the Roman Period. These rituals, in which the people struggled alongside the gods against the forces of darkness, were not particular only to Apophis. The festivals celebrating the resurrection of Osiris included the entire community who participated as two women, playing the parts of Isis and Nephthys, called on Osiris to wake and return to life.

See also: Dragons in Greek mythology The archaic Gorgon at the pediment of the Temple of Artemis as shown at the Archaeological Museum of Corfu. She wears a belt of intertwined snakes, a fertility symbol. [35] Hamish gave lectures and workshops, and took part in radio and television programmes, in many different countries. With film-maker Tim Walter, and collaborations with other dowsers, he also produced the DVDs Spirit of the Serpent (2003) and Diverse Dowsing (2009). When not driven by horses, the chariot of the Greek sun god is described as being pulled by fiery draconic beings. [37] The most notable instance of this is observed in the episode in which Medea is given her grandfather's chariot, which is pulled by serpents through the sky. According to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, the serpent can appear in this capacity in the following tale types: [43] Savior, Satan, and Serpent: The Duality of a Symbol in the Scriptures". Mimobile.byu.edu. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013 . Retrieved December 7, 2012.

Under yet another tree (the Bodhi Tree of Enlightenment), the Buddha sat in ecstatic meditation. When a storm arose, the mighty serpent king Mucalinda rose up from his place beneath the earth and enveloped the Buddha in seven coils for seven days, so as not to break his ecstatic state.Naga ( Sanskrit:नाग) is the Sanskrit/ Pāli word for a deity or class of entity or being, taking the form of a very large snake, found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The naga primarily represents rebirth, death and mortality, due to its casting of its skin and being symbolically "reborn".

This understanding was maintained, and these rituals observed, until the rise of Christianity in the 4th century CE. At this time, the old model of humanity as co-workers with the gods was replaced by a new one in which human beings were fallen creatures, unworthy of their deity, and utterly dependent upon their god's son and his sacrifice for their salvation. Behr-Glinka, Andrei I. "Змея как сексуальный и брачный партнер человека. (Еще раз о семантике образа змеи в фольклорной традиции европейских народов)" [Serpent as a Bride and an Intimate Partner of a Man. Once more about the semantics of serpent in European folk-lore]. In: Культурные взаимодействия. Динамика и смыслы. Издательский дом Stratum, Университет «Высшая антропологическая школа», 2016. pp.435–575. Jörmungandr, alternately referred to as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent, is a sea serpent of Norse mythology, the middle child of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki's three children, Fenrisúlfr, Hel and Jörmungandr. He tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so big that he was able to surround the Earth and grasp his own tail, and as a result he earned the alternate name of the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. Jörmungandr's arch enemy is the god Thor. Hamish died on Burn’s night, 2010. We are continually meeting people who have their own treasured memories of him, all individual stories but with one common thread, that of an unassuming but wise man with a great sense of humour. He is greatly missed.In many parts of Africa the serpent is looked upon as the incarnation of deceased relatives. Among the amaZulu, as among the Betsileo of Madagascar, certain species are assigned as the abode of certain classes. The Maasai, on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe. The Rainbow Serpent (also known as the Rainbow Snake) is a major mythological being for Aboriginal people across Australia, although the creation myths associated with it are best known from northern Australia. In Fiji, Ratumaibulu was a serpent god who ruled the underworld and made fruit trees bloom. In the Northern Flinders Ranges reigns the Arkaroo, a serpent who drank Lake Frome empty, refuges into the mountains, carving valleys and waterholes, earthquakes through snoring. Felton, Debbie. "Apuleius' Cupid Considered as a Lamia (Metamorphoses 5.17-18)." Illinois Classical Studies, no. 38 (2013): 230 (footnote nr. 4). doi: 10.5406/illiclasstud.38.0229. In Ancient Egypt, where the earliest written cultural records exist, the serpent appears from the beginning to the end of their mythology. Ra and Atum ("he who completes or perfects") became the same god, Atum, the "counter-Ra", associated with earth animals, including the serpent: Nehebkau ("he who harnesses the souls") was the two-headed serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld. He is often seen as the son of the snake goddess Renenutet. She often was confused with (and later was absorbed by) their primal snake goddess Wadjet, the Egyptian cobra, who from the earliest of records was the patron and protector of the country, all other deities, and the pharaohs. Hers is the first known oracle. She was depicted as the crown of Egypt, entwined around the staff of papyrus and the pole that indicated the status of all other deities, as well as having the all-seeing eye of wisdom and vengeance. She never lost her position in the Egyptian pantheon. At Angkor in Cambodia, numerous stone sculptures present hooded multi-headed nāgas as guardians of temples or other premises. A favorite motif of Angkorean sculptors from approximately the 12th centuryCE onward was that of the 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.