J G Fraser on "Serpent God" magic.

by hamsterbait 5 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  hamsterbait

  "The Golden Bough" discusses a West African Tribal practice not unlike that done by Israel in the wilderness.

  Chapter 52 "Killing the Divine Animal" subheading "Killing the Divine Serpent":

  West Africa appears to furnish another example of killing the sacred animal and its preservation. The negroes of Issapoo in the island of Fernando Po, regard the Cobra-Capella as their GUARDIAN DEITY, who can do them good or ill, bestow riches or inflict disease and death. The skin of one of these reptiles is hung tail downwards from the highest tree in the public square, and the placing of it on the tree is an annual ceremony. As soon as the ceremony is over, all children born within the past year are carried out and their hands made to touch the tail of the serpents skin. The latter custom is a way of placing the infants under the protection of the tribal god.

  The Psylli, a snake clan of ancient Africa used to expose their infants to snakes in the belief that the snakes would not harm true-born children of the clan."

  I thought this deserved another thread. It is quite clear now that the Exodus was actually a whole series of emigrations over many centuries, by different tribes and peoples. This is hinted at in the account which says a "vast mixed company" left Egypt.

  The episode of Aaron shows that people who had a Bull as totem came that way, and examination of the clean and unclean animals of the law reveal the approved and disapproved totems of the emigrating clans which eventually became the "historical" (I use the term advisedly) Nation.

  Snake cults would no doubt have been one group leaving Egypt at some point, and their own tales of deliverance by their god have no doubt been adapted and corrupted over many centuries into the biblical account.

  I forget the name of the Egyptian snake god, and its meaning.

  HB
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  Rapunzel

  Hi Hamsterbait - There were various snake/serpent gods and demons in the ancient Egyptian pantheon; these gods varied from region to region. For example, the ancient Egyptians worshiped snake gods such as Nehebkau [Nehebkaw]; Apep [Apophis]; Renenutet; Meretseger; Wadjet; and Amunet;
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  Rapunzel

  I forgot to add that, in the Bible, there are legends that connect Moses and Aaron to snakes I'm relying solely on my very poor memory here, but I seem to recall a passage in the Bible in which Moses [or maybe Aaron] tosses some [sticks?] on the ground and they are transformed into serpents. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems to me that there is such a passage in the Bible. Maybe you or someone else could verify this. At the moment, I have no access to a Bible.
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  peacefulpete

  Yes the Exodus 7 tale has Moses and Aaron having a showdown with the Egyptians. Everybody, including the Egyptians, conjures up snakes with their rods but Moses' and Aaron's rods/snakes were bigger and ate up all the others. It's one of the less refined stories in the OT. Clearly the authors of this story had no issue with suggesting the power of foreign deities was real. This is often called monolotry. Tribes and cultures respected the deities of their neighbors but focused their rites on the local one who was deemed vested in them. In the other story with a copper serpent idol the reformist writers seem to be thinnly rewriting some memory of one of the many healing deities being worshipped in the land. Serpents were felt to have power of regeneration / healing because they shed their old skins periodically.
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  parakeet

  Hamsterbait, "The Golden Bough" is outdated.
  
  For everything and anything related to mythology, read any work by Joseph Campbell. His work is outstanding.
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  hamsterbait

  I agree that the "Golden Bough" is very old. But as a vast repository of information on magical and religious customs its 13 volumes are invaluable. many of these were dead by the beginning of the 20th cent. with no living people to describe them. The account I quote simply describes a ritual, and as such is just a fact.

  Joseph Campbell is excellent, although he tends to interpret what he sees through his own Jungian beliefs. Fraser is very convincing showing how religious practices develop, but with much less subjective interpretation. Campbell himself quotes the "Golden Bough" so often that he evidently did not view it as outdated.

  Personally I take issue with Campbell when he sticks labels taken from Jungian theories onto folk tales, simply because they remind him of archetypes such as "the old one" "the trickster" the "animus" the "shadow" etc. This is no more accurate description than a Freudian pinning labels of "penis substitute" or "oedipus complex" onto the tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk", or menstrual symbolism onto "Little Red Riding Hood".

  We need to remember too that anthropologists who oppose Jungian or Freudian theory do not agree with these kinds of interpretation.

  Campells work was very inspirational, and helped a lot of people find their own happiness, I particularly enjoyed"Hero with a Thousand Faces", but this is his own very personal approach to a wide selection of myths, chosen to support his Jungian agenda.

  I prefer to decide on my own interpretations of myth and religion, taking whatever tools from Freud, Jung, Campbell, TA that seem to fit what is in front of me.

  HB