Dragons and Serpents: Water as The Mythopoëtic Symbol for Life

Serpents and dragons get short shrift in Western culture. In actual fact, they symbolize the life-giving properties of water, fertility and immortality.

In certain aspects of world culture, serpents represent immortality as seen by the water cycle of where evaporation of water from bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, streams, and the sea causes clouds to form and then rain to fall, only for the raindrops to mingle into many streams which flow into many rivers into the sea.

In Chinese mythology, Nüwa is said to have created humankind. She is also a repairer of the four pillars that are said to hold up the heavens (the sky); a wife or sister, and usually depicted ass what the Indians call a naga, a half-human, half-snake demigod; and a goddess of the Miao people.

In Chinese symbology, the serpent and especially the dragon represent water, especially clouds, rain and rivers. Its association with fertility has to do with the life-giving properties of water, without which all life on Earth would perish.

With Nüwa being half serpent and half human, this represents fertility and reproduction. As well, Nüwa may also be viewed as a dragon. Yet this is mythopoëtic language, which includes also the snake's association with the Tree of Life from Greek and earlier Babylonian mythology and the Tree of Knowledge and Immortality in Judeo-Christian symbology.

In ancient Egyptian symbology, a serpent represents the land and its fertility as governed by the waters of the Nile. The common theme of Renenutet and Wadj have is the serpent as a symbol. The most ancient of Egyptian goddesses is Wadjet (or Wadj), the Green One of Lower Egypt, yet even more ancient is Renenutet, the Snake Goddess who represents birth and child-rearing, as well as the true name of the soul (Ren).

Renenutet is seen as a symbol of fertility, harvests, and thus of good fortune and riches, while Wadj is associated with Bast, the fierce warrior goddess, usually depicted with a cat's head in ancient Egyptian art.

What Nüwa and the Egyptian goddesses Renenutet and Wadj share in common is the serpent i.e. Nüwa and her brother are half-human and half-serpent, while both Egyptian goddesses' symbol is the cobra.

Regarding Nüwa and association with the naga, the Nagas as a race supposedly worshipped the Indian cobra, which has a weak association with Wadj. In ancient times, an ancient king of Egypt had laid siege to the ancient Indus Valley city-state of Mohenjo-Daro in the Late Harappan period circa 1900 BCE. This civilization might be a collaborative effort between Babylonian, Mediterranean and Dravidian people.

This is more indicative of a serpent totem than a race of half-serpent, half-human peoples. Naga represents freedom, because a snake cannot be tamed.

In Indochina mythology (Cambodia, Laos and Thailand), the Rocket Festival in mid-May is a reminder of the Sky God to honor his peace treaty with the bodhisattva known as the Toad King. In this myth of the Toad King, the Toad King angered the Sky King with his popular sermons, thus causing the people to neglect their worship of the sky. In response, the Sky King withheld the rain, instructing the Rain Princess to stop letting water fall on the land. Acting without authority and support of the Toad King, the Naga King Mekong declared war on the Sky King, only to lose. Once persuaded to act by Mekong, the Toad King got termites to build mounds to the heavens so that centipedes and scorpions could pester the Sky King and bring him and the sky down to earth. Once on the earth, the Sky King sued for peace. In celebration, rockets were fired. Now every year throughout Southeast Asia the Rocket Festival is performed to remind the Sky King to honor his promise of rain. Indeed, the Rocket Festival happens during the first rains of mid-May.

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Reference:

• Ancient Egyptian Mythology:
  • Nüwa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nüwa
    
  • Wadjet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadjet
    
  • Renenutet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renenutet
    
  • Bast: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bast
    
• Indus Valley Civilization: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation
  Nagas and their relation to Babylonian and Mediterranean people:
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga
    
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_%28symbolism%29#Nagas
• Serpent totem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagavanshi#Serpent_Totem_and_Naga_race
  Myth of the Toad King: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Festival#The_Myth_of_the_Toad_King