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and sea urchinlike fossils, even a dull ruby, have been sold as serpents eggs.
Pliny described the Celtic or Druid s egg as about the size of a small apple
with a bonelike pock-marked shell. He complained that the Celtic Druid
priests wore or carried them for unfair advantage in dealings with the
Romans. Pliny reported that Claudius Caesar ordered a Romanized Gallic
noble of the Vecontian family to be executed because he brought one of these
eggs into court and so was seen to be attempting to corrupt justice.15
In Celtic myth the serpent s egg, made from adder spittle, could be found
on the morning of the Spring Equinox, another rebirth festival, and would
endow the finder with great prophetic powers.
Another unsourced version says that the egg is instantly created by mating
serpents as it flies into the air. This egg should be caught in a cloak but the
person catching it must ride off on a horse and cross water before the angry
snakes retrieve it.
SNAKE HANDLERS IN MODERN
AMERICAN TRADITION
Snake spirituality has survived in diluted form in the modern world. It may
be that snake handling was part of a number of religious cults worldwide and
the snake charming still demonstrated to tourists in India and the Middle
East may be a relic of this. However, snake handling still forms part of church
services in a few hundred Pentecostal Churches in the United States, usually
in rural locations. The practice is based on verses from the St James s Bible in
the gospels of Mark and Luke,  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink
any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and
they shall recover (Mark 16:17 18). And  Behold, I give unto you power to
tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and
nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19).16
32 Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols
Snake handling, therefore, in mastering the serpent, became linked with the
power to overcome Satan and his evil. In 1910, inspired by these verses a
member of the congregation, George Went Hensley in Grasshopper Valley in
southeastern Tennessee, took a rattlesnake box into the pulpit, lifted the snake
out and challenged the rest of the congregation to hold snakes as a test of faith.
He was unhurt and remained so until 1955, when he died from snakebite. The
practice of snake handling in church spread in the area for ten years and was
revived more widely in 1943 by Raymond Hayes, one of Hensley s converts.
The practice has continued in spite of various laws forbidding it.17
Existing congregation members of the Oneness Pentecostalism, who han-
dle rattlesnakes, cobras, and copperheads and who are bitten, often have
other causes given by relatives on death certificates as the reason for any sub-
sequent deaths. Only those who are anointed as chosen ones during the cer-
emony and so considered protected by god will handle the snakes .They may
allow more than one venomous snake to slither over their bodies and may
enter an ecstatic trance in which prophecy and healing powers may appar-
ently emerge.
Snake-handling churches today, which number several hundred with about
5,000 snake handlers in total, are based mainly in Kentucky and Tennessee.
But there are congregations in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas,
Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Texas. Since 2004, four snake-handling
congregations have been established in Canada in Alberta and Columbia.
Once it was the traveling preachers who spread stories of the healing mira-
cles of the snake handlers. Now (the) media has helped fuel interest among
the public. Some church members also handle fire and drink water to which
strychnine is added, in accordance with biblical verses promising protection
against poison.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Woodward, S., and J. McDonald. Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley.
Granville, Ohio: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, 1986.
2. Wilkinson, R. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames
and Hudson, 2003.
3. Isaacs, J. Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History. Sydney:
Lansdowne Press, 1995.
4. Kinsley, D. Hindu Goddesses, Visions of the Divine Feminine in Religion. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1988.
5. See note 4.
6. Mountford, Charles P. Winbaraku and the Myth of Jarapiri. Adelaide: Rigby
Publishing, 1968.
Serpents in Myth 33
7. Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1 V111. Translated by F. J. Miller. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1916.
8. Holy Bible, King James s Version of 1611. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishing,
2003.
9. Hurwitz, S. Lilith, the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Divine
Feminine. Translated by G. Jacobson Einsiedein, Switzerland: Daimon Books,
1992.
10. Keats, J. Complete Poems (Lamia). New York: Random House, 1994.
11. Rees, E. Celtic Saints in Their Landscape. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2001.
12. Michael, J. Encyclopedia of Gods. London: Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002.
13. Barber, R. Bestiary. Rochester, NY: Boydell and Brewer (Boydell Press), 1993.
14. Beagon, M., trans. The Elder Pliny on the Human Animal: Natural History, Book V,
Clarendon Ancient History series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
15. See note 14.
16. See note 8.
17. Sims, P. The Snake-Handlers: With Signs Following,  Can Somebody Shout Amen!
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
CHAPTER 3
Dragon Power
Dragons are mythical creatures that have fascinated humans in many cultures
and ages. Until about 1500 CE it would seem that people still believed in their
existence. Accounts of the dragon-slaying saints and heroes were probably
taken literally. It was assumed that the lack of existing dragons could be
explained by the fact that they had all been killed by the saints and heroes at
some unspecified time in the past.
The only known existing dragons in the world today are Komodo dragons,
the world s heaviest living lizards. Komodo dragons are very aggressive. The
male dragons can grow to a length of 10 feet (over 3 meters) and weight of
200 lbs (91 kg.). They may still be found on islands in central Indonesia.
Accounts of these creatures may have been carried back to the west by early
travelers who circumnavigated the globe. Of course, their actual size and
ferocity may have been exaggerated.
Dinosaur bones may also have been mistaken for dragon bones. For exam-
ple, Hua Yang Guo Zhi, a book written by Zhang Qu around 300 CE described
dragon bones being excavated at Wucheng in Sichuan Province. It would
seem to anyone unearthing dinosaur bones that the living dragon must have
been gigantic.
The Latin word draco, after which the northern constellation Draco the
-
dragon was named, is derived from Greek drakon which means huge serpent.
Though descriptions of dragons differ, in myth they are generally depicted
as huge reptilian or lizard-like scaly creatures with claws, legs, and a long [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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