Faith with Fangs – Didactic Poem – July 23, 2015

Buddha being shielded by the naga Mucalinda

Wisdom and knowledge
Slither through time
In the guise of a serpent
Silver or gold
Auryn to some
Symbol of universal renewal …
The only creature to defeat the proud dragon
In Chinese mythology …
The full cycle of re-incarnation
Guardian of the mysteries of birth
The God of Medicine
Carried on a staff …
Rainbow-god of the Ashanti
and to the Aborigine …
Symbol of fertility
And sexual desire
Sacred Kundalini …
Umbilical cord that joins all
That live to the Great Mother Earth
But to some
A symbol of trickery and spite
The most subtle beast of the field
The rod of Moses
That led his people to freedom …
To the first Christians
Symbol of salvation and eternal life
And yet now, the symbol of Satan …
So many names
So many qualities
I could go on and on …
From the beginning of time
The snake
Has walked close to mankind …

© G.s.k. ‘15

The other day I read a great article at  The Muscleheaded Blog about snake worshipping among some Christians in the United States … the article was really very informative and went beyond the oddity of that specific Christian sect and touched upon snake symbols throughout history and in different cultures … I mentioned that it would be interesting to write a poem about that subject, a stuck my foot in it as it were … so I decided to write a brief Didactic Poem about Faith with Fangs … the title of Chris’ original post.