This past New Moon marked the beginning of the Chinese Lunar Year. We have entered into the year of the Wood Snake which lasts until the New Moon in February 2026. For these next few weeks until the next coming Full Moon, Chinese all over the world will be celebrating this new year phase, which is the coming of Spring in the Northern hemisphere, with food, drink, fire-crackers/works together with family and friends. This is the time when all the astrological predictions and anticipations for the new year start to get thrown around. The Snake is not one of the most “popular” versions of the 12 animals. The Dragon or the Tiger are especially popular years, if one is not female; Tiger female children are/were often considered undesirable as they are said to be proud and willful. But why would the Snake not be well liked?
In western Judeo-Christian-based culture, the Snake is considered vile and is loathed, as it is the being responsible for the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Most humans and mammals possess a possible evolutionary-based fear of Snakes, with an estimate of one third of humans having a fear and only 3 to 4 percent have actual ophidiophobia (Snake phobia). The ancient Chinese and many other traditional cultures around the world however have honored this animal; the fact that the Snake is one of the 12 animals on Chinese horoscope is one proof of this.
In Chinese mythology, after the Universe and the Earth were created, the goddess,
Nǚ Wā 女媧 descended to the Earth. Mountains, rivers, trees, plants and animals already existed, however humans did not. It is said that she felt lonely and as she knelt down by a river, she saw her own reflection and decided to create human beings out of clay, in her own image. Nǚ Wā is described as having the upper body of a human and the lower body of a serpent. The Chinese creator of humans is half Snake and half human. Why would Snakes be revolting to the Chinese if the Mother of human beings was half one herself? I believe the repulsion of the Snake comes not from the Chinese themselves but the syncretizing of Eastern with Western belief systems. This is a common occurrence in the modern world, where there is often a merging of traditions and ideas from across the globe, as cultures collide with one another.
In fact, if we look at many cultures from North and Central America, to Africa, to Asia, to Australasia and even to Europe we will observe that the Snake is a creature that is traditionally honored. It is often associated with fertility, renewal, wisdom and are protectors as well as messengers of the Divine. Even the Greek God of Medicine, Asclepius, carries a staff with a serpent entwined on it, which was later adopted by Western medicine as the symbol of medicine and is still in use to this day. In ancient Egypt, Greece and India, the Ouroboros, the symbol of the snake eating its tail, is a representation of the unending cycle of life, death, rebirth. The Snake, as it physiologically sheds its skin, represents the ability of life to transform.
The Snake exists on every continent on the Earth except Antarctica, in dry desert environments, tropical, humid ones, flatlands as well as mountains. There over 3000 different species of Snakes, of which 600 are venomous but only 7 percent can actually kill or wound a human. Maybe instead of fear or loathing of the Snake, we can appreciate it as a living being on the Earth and give it its due respect for its remarkable abilities. For this year of the Snake, let us learn to embody the Snakes qualities of flexibility, resilience, to learn to shed our skins by letting go what has not served us, so that we may transform our lives as well as our world around us.
Image Year of the Snake by ICM
Image Tutanchamun from Wikicommons
Ouroboros encircling Tutanchamun
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