The snake is a powerful creature boasting multiple references in art, literature, and religion. Jewelry couldn’t escape snake images either. Despite the fact that so many people associate this symbol with evil, the snake has a multitude of fairly positive meanings. If you're considering a snake ring or necklace, you ought to learn what meanings they carry. Below is a brief guide to the significance of this multifaceted symbol.
Danger and Risk
Although most serpents around the world are not venomous, they are still associated with venom. Whether they are venomous or not, all snakes are predators. In fact, they are right at the top of their food chain. They live to turn small mammals and other animals into a tasty snack. Hence, if you put on snake jewelry, the meaning you consciously or unconsciously convey is danger, dominance, and supremacy. The same meanings can be found in Medusa Gordon, a beautiful women with snake hair who turned everyone who dared to look at her into stone.
The Power of Rebirth
The snake needs to shed its skin so that it can grow and survive. In this context, the serpent represents change, healing, and rebirth. Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must also change and transform our body and mind to live further.
At the same time, the snake as a species has undergone little change over the millennia. This makes it one of the oldest animals on the planet on a part with sharks and crocodiles. A snake is as old as the hills; it lived at the same time as dinosaurs and witnessed the dawn of humanity. The snake is our past and history.
People who enjoy snake jewelry tend to change their appearance. That being said, they demonstrate commendable stability when it comes to their personality and things they deem important.
Original Sin and Temptation
In Christianity, the snake represents original sin and temptation. The snake tempted Eve to take the forbidden fruit, and here we are, banished into the desert and forced to live like sinners. So, if you have a snake on your finger, it may represent your willingness to succumb to temptation and try all the delights that life presents to you. Conversely, with such a piece of jewelry, you may say that you want to free your life of temptations and anything that distracts you from reaching your goals. The specific meaning depends on how the snake is depicted.
Fertility
The snake is smooth and long. It comes as no surprise that it became a phallic symbol. The snake symbolizes the fertilizing male power. It is "the husband of all women". Images of a snake are often associated with pregnancy. The snake accompanies all female deities and is often depicted in their arms or as if embracing them. At the same time, it tends to acquire feminine features, such as mystery and intuition. Its symbolic meaning is unpredictability, as it suddenly appears and vanishes in the same manner.
The snake symbolizing fertility was often depicted with the head of a ram. This image is also an attribute of all ancient horned gods.
This snake ring holds a symbol of Aries on its forehead. It provides a delicate way to showcase your male power.
So, what a piece of snake jewelry may say about you in this context? If you’re a man, you possess great virility and sexual energy. If you’re a woman, you’re a caring mother and voluptuous lover.
Eternal Symbol
The snake has been a vital part of belief systems in many world cultures. For the ancient Egyptians, the snake symbolized an endless and eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The symbol of Ouroboros - a snake eating its own tail - personifies eternity.
A coiled snake is also associated with the cycle of phenomena. It represents a variety of diametrically opposite principles - solar and lunar powers, life and death, light and darkness, good and evil, wisdom and blind passion, healing and poison, guardian and destroyer, spiritual and physical rebirth. The snake as a belt or bracelet symbolizes the eternal cycle of centuries, continuity, the cycle of decay, and new integration.
Egyptian pharaohs used to wear a headpiece called Urey. It had the form of a cobra with a body and a tail surrounding the head as a symbol of the pharaoh’s power. Simultaneously, the snake became their patron. A similar cobra headpiece was also an attribute of goddess Wadjet.
Native Americans treat rattlesnakes as sacred animals. They believed that snakes were responsible for the weather change. In particular, they could invoke rain and lightning. Many African cultures also believe that the snake is a patron of rain and storm.
Knowledge and Wisdom
If you've ever been to a hospital or other medical facility, you might be familiar with the symbol of medicine, the Rod of Asclepius. It looks like a staff entwined by a couple of snakes. The snakes featured in it represent healing, rebirth, and knowledge. Asclepius was the son of mortal woman Coronis and god Apollo. As a demigod, he patronized medicine and healing. Interestingly, Asclepius had a daughter named Hygieia. If this sounds familiar, it's because the word "hygiene" is a derivative of his daughter’s name.
The serpent became the symbol of wisdom for alchemists and wizards. It was common to see an image of a serpent around a pole in treaties dedicated to alchemy. This picture symbolized the subjection of the vital force. Along with that, a reptile crawling through a circle indicated alchemical fusion.
So, if you seek knowledge, wisdom, and enlightenment, a snake accessory will come in handy.
Symbol of Duality
A snake coiled around a tree or any other axial symbol means the awakening of force, the spirit of all that exists, anima mundi, as well as the cyclical nature of existence. If a snake appears next to the Tree of Life, it acquires a positive meaning. However, if it sits on the Tree of Knowledge, it becomes an adverse symbol representing the poison of evil inherent in the world of phenomena.
A snake that wraps around a woman (especially the Great Mother or the moon goddess) is a solar symbol. Together, they represent the male and female principles. When a snake is depicted next to an eagle or a deer, the latter two symbolize the sun and light, while the serpent is darkness and chaos. Together, both symbols personify cosmic unity, the struggle of opposites, and the balance of the universe.
Birth of the Universe
Myth and legends of virtually every ancient civilization talk about the snake who witnessed the origin of life. Cosmology views the serpent as is the primordial ocean that gave birth to everything in the universe. In some myths, the reptile preserves the world and becomes its support. A curled snake takes care of a cosmic egg, which is the secret of life and birth, the cyclical nature of phenomena, and hidden power. Creatures that blend features of humans and serpents are considered our mythical ancestors, and they possess primordial wisdom. Such creatures are met in the ancient Indian legends of the Nagas or the Chinese myth of Fu-Hsi.
Nagas are semi-divine creatures with a serpentine body and one or more human heads. Nagas are revered as powerful sages and wizards. The ancient Chinese ancestor Fu-Hsi taught people to hunt and fish, helped to make fire, showed how to cook food on it, taught how to craft musical instruments, created hieroglyphic writing, and established laws. The people of China revere half-human half-snake Fu-Hsi as their hero.
Symbol of Earth and Water
Due to the fact that snakes live in holes and not far from water, they have always been associated with earth and water elements. Both personify the feminine principle. Numerous legends describe how snakes absorb water and send droughts. Great downpours and floods happen because a hero slew an evil serpent.
On the other hand, the snake can represent fire and the masculine principle associated with it. These reptiles symbolize lightning, sunrays, and the path of the sun in the sky. The sexual duality of snakes makes them a fitting symbol for men, women, people who’ve changed their gender or have not yet decided on their gender identity, as well as those who reject genders altogether.
Treasure Keepers
Because snakes live under the surface, our ancestors perceived them as chthonic animals that had something to do with the underground and nether world. They were guardians and protectors of the souls on their way to another world. Simultaneously, they served as intermediaries between the earth and the world of the dead.
Having access to the wisdom and wealth of the underworld, the snake or dragon was the treasure keeper. Initially, this treasure implied secret knowledge. Reptiles voluntarily gave it to a person who has passed all the tests and was worthy. Later, however, myths and legends abandoned the original meaning and treasures became material, i.e. gold and jewels. It was a matter of honor to kill a serpent to get hold of its wealth. However, this feat rarely brought happiness to the slayer.
Snakes and Other Symbols
The image of two snakes symbolizes the dualistic pair of opposites. They oppose each other but ultimately unite. If the snakes are intertwined, they stand for Time and Destiny, two great binding forces. Two snakes or two dragons biting each other's tail means that forces contradicting each other actually arise from the same source.
This anakona bracelet is an excellent example of two opposing snakes
Snakes and roses (or other flowers) represent death and life. At the same time, they signify beauty because every creature, even as ominous as a snake, is beautiful. Indeed, nature did a great job at giving serpents their amazing scale patterns. One more meaning inherent in such an image is temptation.
Jewelry displaying the snake and the eagle symbolizes the opposition between temptation and resilience. The snake represents lust and passion while the eagle speaks of nobility and morality. Oftentimes, an eagle lifts a snake in its claws, and this imagery symbolizes the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, heavenly over earthly, and spiritual over corporeal. The image of a deer trampling a snake with its hooves carries a similar meaning.
A piece of jewelry in the form of a snake entwining a sword suggests that life is an eternal struggle. The sword is a symbol of a battle, internal or physical one. The snake represents the constancy or cyclical nature of life. Sometimes this imagery may feature a dagger or knife instead of a sword.
A serpent is a close relative of a dragon. Asian cultures don’t differentiate between these scaled creatures. Along with that, when a serpent and dragon are pictured together, they represent balance. While dragons stand for the wild and passionate side of nature, the snake signifies its calmness and cunning.
The image of a skull in tandem with a snake that crawls out of its eye sockets can represent immortality, wisdom, and knowledge that humanity carries throughout its existence. Another common interpretation says that this duo implies the transience of human life. In Japanese culture, it is believed that a skull with a snake brings good luck and prosperity.
Meanings of Snakes in Jewelry
If a snake is depicted with huge eyes, it becomes a symbol of vigilance and wisdom. The same meanings are inherent in snake jewelry featuring gemstones for eyes.
If your jewelry or accessory happens to depict a child playing with a snake, its meaning is a newly acquired paradise and liberation from enmity.
The snake engulfed in flames is a solar symbol. It signifies purification and transformation on the levels of body and soul.
Wave-like or coiled snakes or dragons in jewelry personify the cosmic rhythm or the might of the water.
Winged snakes or dragons symbolize the union of spirit and matter. It unites the opposites and brings balance. In addition, it helps accelerate cognition and understanding.
An aggressive snake with venom dripping from its fangs is a powerful image. Only strong personalities can pull it off. If you lack strength, this image may subject you to its will. If a snake is calm, it represents a measured life, poise, and inner harmony. If you wish to bring peace into your life, pick jewelry featuring a sleeping or meditating snake.