The Wisdom of the Serpent

The Myths of Death, Rebirth, and Resurrection.

Joseph Lewis Henderson, Maud Oakes

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780691216171
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Folklore & Mythologie

The tribal initiation of the shaman, the archetype of the serpent, exemplifies the death of the self and a rebirth into transcendent life. This book traces the images of spiritual initiation in religious rituals and myths of resurrection, poems and epics, cycles of nature, and art and dreaming. It dramatizes the metamorphosis from a common experience of death's inevitability into a transcendent freedom beyond individual limitations.
"This is a classic work in analytical psychology that offers crucial insights on the meaning of death symbolism (and its inevitably accompanying rebirth and resurrection symbolism) as part of the great theme of initiation, of which [Henderson] is the world's foremost psychological interpreter. This material is really the next step after the hero myth that Joseph Campbell has made so popular, and provides an understanding of how not to use the hero myth in an inflated way as a psychology of mastery, but as an attainment progressively to be died beyond. [Henderson] is helped by the presence of Maud Oakes, who is a trained anthropologist with exquisite taste in her choice of mythic materials and respect for their original contexts."--John Beebe

MYTHS OF DEATH, REBIRTH, AND RESURRECTION

A NOTE ON THE MYTHS

I have tried to localize the different myths and assign them their places in history. On the other hand, the reader must bear in mind that the very nature of mythology is its capacity for spontaneously regenerating its themes irrespective of time, place, and external causality.

The history of mythology might be compared to a vast river that gradually grew and spread out over the earth. From its wellspring, the fathomless human psyche, this river has carried its archetypal motifs throughout the world and the development of man.

Students of mythology do not agree as to whether the archetypal motifs of myths rose from a common source or from many sources that sprang into existence in different parts of the world simultaneously.

They both may be right. For we now know that apart from the main stream of mythology, there are also primary streams or brooks. These have risen locally and independently and have contributed their own unique mythology. Where and when these divergent waters met and mixed, and what emerged from the contact is of increasing interest to the mythologists.

MAUD OAKES

DEATH AND REBIRTH AS COSMIC PATTERN:¹ THE MYTHS

The archetypal images of death and rebirth are mirrored in a type of myth which is expressed as a cosmic occurrence. Although the cosmic patterns frequently are personified, the actors in the drama provide a picture of destruction and creation affecting the visible earth, the stars—even the whole universe. But we are brought back again and again through these stories to their source in the imaginative capacity of human beings for observing themselves and for changing their inner lives in accordance with a basic pattern of psychic transformation. The cosmic imagery of these myths merely calls attention to the universality of the archetypal image as a form of truth accessible to all. Modern psychology has called this type of universality the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS.

The student of mythology may take several different avenues to learn more about the origin of such myths and their function in the cultural life of the people. One of these approaches is provided by the theory of a ritual origin for mythology elaborated by Jessie L. Weston in FROM RITUAL TO ROMANCE.¹ A second is expressed by the religious historian Mircea Eliade in THE MYTH OF THE ETERNAL RETURN,² who sees in mythology a statement of religious faith or philosophic conviction. Another approach is given by Joseph Campell in THE MASKS OF GOD.³ He provides a clear history of the significant recent findings of archeologists and anthropologists and, to some extent, of biologists and psychologists, in an attempt to correlate these findings in the great mythologies of the world.

J.L.H.

THE DANCE OF SHIVA
(Hindu, 1500 B.C.—1000 B.C.)⁴

The god Shiva is known as the Destroyer. But because Hinduism views death as the passing into a new life rather than into nonexistence, Shiva becomes a creator as well. He represents the energy of the universe in producing and destroying forms.

Amongst the greatest of the names of Shiva is Nataraja, Lord of Dancers, or King of Actors (Plate 2). The cosmos is His theatre, there are many different steps in His repertory, He Himself is actor and audience. . . . Shiva is the Eros Protogonas of Lucian, when he wrote:

“It would seem that dancing came into being at the beginning of all things, and was brought to light together with Eros, that ancient one, for we see this primeval dancing clearly set forth in the choral dance of the constellations, and in the planets and fixed stars, their interweaving and interchange and orderly harmony.”

I do not mean to say that the most profound interpretation of Shiva’s dance was present in the minds of those who first danced in frantic, and perhaps intoxicated energy, in honour of the pre- Aryan hill god, afterwards merged in Shiva. A great motif in religion or art, any great symbol, becomes all things to all men; age after age it yields to men such treasure as they find in their own hearts. Whatever the origin of Shiva’s dance, it became in time the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of. . . .

The Nadanta dance of Nataraja before the assembly in the golden hall of Chidambaram . . . the center of the Universe, first revealed to gods and rishis after the submission of the latter in the forest of Taragam, as related in the Koyil Puranam. . . .

In the forest of Taragam dwelt multitudes of heretical rishis. . . . Thither proceeded Shiva to confute them, accompanied by Vishnu disguised as a beautiful woman, and Ati-Sheshan. The rishis were at first led to violent dispute amongst themselves, but their anger was soon directed against Shiva, and they endeavoured to destroy Him by means of incantations. A fierce tiger was created in sacrificial fires, and rushed upon Him; but smiling gently, He seized it, and with the nail of His little finger, stripped off its skin, and wrapped it about Himself like a silken cloth. Undiscouraged by failure, the sages renewed their offerings, and produced a monstrous serpent, which however, Shiva seized and wreathed about His neck like a garland. Then He began to dance; but there rushed upon Him a last monster in the shape of a malignant dwarf, Muyalaka.² Upon him the God pressed the tip of His foot, and broke the creature’s back, so that it writhed upon the ground; and so, His last foe prostrate, Shiva resumed the dance, witnessed by gods and rishis. . . .

What then is the meaning of Shiva’s Nadanta dance, as understood by Shaivas? Its essential significance is given in texts such as the following:

“Our Lord is the Dancer, who, like the heat latent in firewood, diffuses His power in mind and matter, and makes them dance in their turn.” (Plate 1.)

The dance, in fact, represents His five activities (Pancakritya), viz: Shrishti (overlooking, creation, evolution), Sthiti (preservation, support), Samhara (destruction, evolution), Tirobhava (veiling, embodiment, illusion, and also, giving rest), Anugraha (release, salvation, grace). These separately considered, are the activities of the deities Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshvara, and Sadashiva. This cosmic activity is the central motif of the dance. . . .

Unmai Vilakkam, verse 36, tells us: “Creation arises from the drum: protection proceeds from the hand of hope: from the fire proceeds destruction: the foot held aloft gives release.” It will be observed that the fourth hand points to this lifted foot, the refuge of the soul.

We have also the following from Chidambara Mummani Kovai:

“O my Lord, Thy hand holding the sacred drum has made and ordered the heavens and earth and other worlds and innumerable souls. Thy lifted hand protects both the conscious and unconscious order of Thy creation. All these worlds are transformed by Thy hand bearing fire. Thy sacred foot, planted on the ground, gives an abode to the tired soul struggling in the toils of causality. It is Thy lifted foot that grants eternal bliss to those that approach Thee. These Five-Actions are indeed Thy Handiwork.”

The following verses from the Tirukuttu Darshana (Vision of the Sacred Dance), forming the ninth tantra of Tirumular’s Tirumantram, expand the central motif further:

“His form is everywhere: all-pervading in His Shiva-Shakti:

Chidambaram is everywhere, everywhere His dance:

As Shiva is all and omnipresent,

Everywhere is Shiva’s gracious dance made manifest.

His five-fold dances are temporal and timeless.

His five-fold dances are His Five Activities.

By His grace He performs the five acts,

This is the sacred dance of Uma-Sahaya.

He dances with Water, Fire, Wind and Ether,

Thus our Lord dances ever in the court.”

Visible to those who pass over Maya and Mahamaya
(illusion super-illusion)

“Our Lord dances His eternal dance.

The form of the Shakti is all delight—

This united delight is Uma’s body:

This form of Shakti arising in time

And uniting the twain is the dance.

His body is Akash, the dark cloud therein is Muyalaka,

The eight quarters are His eight arms,

The three lights are His three eyes,

Thus becoming, He dances in our body as the congregation.”

This is His dance. Its deepest significance is felt when it is realized that it takes place within the heart and the self. Every-where is God: that Everywhere is the heart. Thus also we find another verse:

“The dancing foot, the sound of the tinkling bells,

The songs that are sung and the varying steps,

The form assumed by our Dancing Gurupara—

Find out these within yourself, then shall your fetters fall away.”

. . . Shiva is a destroyer and loves the burning ground. But what does He destroy? Not merely the heavens and earth at the close of a world-cycle, but the fetters that bind each separate soul. Where and what is the burning ground? It is not the place where our earthly bodies are cremated, but the hearts of His lovers, laid waste and desolate. The place where the ego is destroyed signifies the state where illusion and deeds are burnt away: that is the crematorium, the burning ground where Shri Nataraja dances, and whence He is named Sudalaiyadi, Dancer of the burning ground. In this simile, we recognize the historical connection between Shiva’s gracious dance at Nataraja, and His wild dance as the demon of the cemetery. . . .

The conception of the world process as the Lord’s pastime or amusement (lila) is also prominent in the Shaiva scriptures. Thus Tirumular writes, “The perpetual dance is His play.” This spontaneity of Shiva’s dance is so clearly expressed in Skryabin’s Poem of Ecstasy that the extracts following will serve to explain it better than any more formal exposition—what Skryabin wrote is precisely what the Hindu imager moulded:

The Spirit (purusha) playing,

The Spirit longing,

The Spirit with fancy (yoga-maya) creating all,

Surrenders himself to the bliss (ananda) of love . . .

Amid the flowers of His creation (prakriti), He lingers in a kiss. . . .

Blinded by their beauty, He rushes, He frolics, He dances, He whirls. . . .

He is all rapture, all bliss, in this play (lila)

Free, divine, in this love struggle.

In the marvellous grandeur of sheer aimlessness,

And in the union of counter-aspirations

In consciousness alone, in love alone,

The Spirit learns the nature (svabhava) of His divine being. . . .

“O, my world, my life, my blossoming, my ecstas...