frankzeppelin
01-09-2003, 09:14 AM
I was reading this book the other day ("The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers) and a passage reminded me of H. Before I go into it, I have to ask if anyone else was watching the screens during the live shows, where the snake is eating it's tail. It all ties in. Anyway, the interview goes into how Genisis is very similar to other stories of creation particularly a Bassari legend. The whole interview is loaded with talk of symbolic content, much of it related to Jung, and to Tool themes (shadow, life force, moon, light, etc.). It goes like this:
"Moyers: What do you make of it - that is these two stories the principle actors [humans] point to someone else as the intiator if the fall?"
Campbell: Yes, but it turns out to be the snake. In both of these stories the snake is the symbol of life throwing off the past and continuing to live.
M: Why?
C: The power of life causes the snake to shed it's skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow. The serpent sheds its skin to be born again, as the moon its shadow to be born again. They are equivolent symbols. Sometimes the serpent is represented as a a circle eating its own tail. That's an image of life. Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. There is something tremendously terrifying about life when you look at it that way. And so the serpent carries in itself the sense of both the fascination and the terror of life.
Furthermore, the serpent represents the primary function of life, mainly eating. [Life feeds on life, feeds on life... this is necessary...] Life consists in eating other creatures. You don't think about that very much when you make a nice-looking meal. But when what you're doing is eating somethign that was very recently alive. And when you look at the beauty of nature, and you see birds picking around - they're eating things. The serpent is a travelling alimentary canal, that's about all it is. And it gives you that primary sense of shock, of life at its most primaly quality. There is no arguing with that animal at all. Life lives by killing and eating itself, casting off death and being reborn, like the moon. This is one of the mysteries that these symbolic, paradoxical forms try to represent."
Campbell goes on to tlak about how in most cultures the snake is seen as a postive symbol. I recommend checking out this book, or anything by Carl Jung, cause a lots of the symbolism ties in here.
"Moyers: What do you make of it - that is these two stories the principle actors [humans] point to someone else as the intiator if the fall?"
Campbell: Yes, but it turns out to be the snake. In both of these stories the snake is the symbol of life throwing off the past and continuing to live.
M: Why?
C: The power of life causes the snake to shed it's skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow. The serpent sheds its skin to be born again, as the moon its shadow to be born again. They are equivolent symbols. Sometimes the serpent is represented as a a circle eating its own tail. That's an image of life. Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. There is something tremendously terrifying about life when you look at it that way. And so the serpent carries in itself the sense of both the fascination and the terror of life.
Furthermore, the serpent represents the primary function of life, mainly eating. [Life feeds on life, feeds on life... this is necessary...] Life consists in eating other creatures. You don't think about that very much when you make a nice-looking meal. But when what you're doing is eating somethign that was very recently alive. And when you look at the beauty of nature, and you see birds picking around - they're eating things. The serpent is a travelling alimentary canal, that's about all it is. And it gives you that primary sense of shock, of life at its most primaly quality. There is no arguing with that animal at all. Life lives by killing and eating itself, casting off death and being reborn, like the moon. This is one of the mysteries that these symbolic, paradoxical forms try to represent."
Campbell goes on to tlak about how in most cultures the snake is seen as a postive symbol. I recommend checking out this book, or anything by Carl Jung, cause a lots of the symbolism ties in here.