A single creature doing two opposite jobs. Note whether it is bound, killed, or eating itself.
Twelve works here carry a serpent, and the archive can show the same animal being used for two flatly opposed purposes.
In the Apocalypse it is the enemy and it is named as one: “And there was seen another sign in heaven. And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven diadems.” Later the same text collapses four names into one creature: “And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world.” That verse is why a picture can put a dragon and a chained serpent on the same sheet and mean one thing by both, which is what the painter of the king with three crowns has done.
Dürer's woodcuts follow the text exactly. The dragon fights on both sides of Michael in the sheet of 1511, and the seven crowned heads appear again beside the woman clothed with the sun.
The other use is not an enemy at all. On the Magician of 1909 the serpent is worn: Waite describes “About his waist is a serpent-cincture, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail”, and the creature has become a belt, a closed system, a thing the figure has mastered rather than fought. In the Abraxas plate the serpents are structural. Hall quotes a reading in which they are “the two supporters, Nous and Logos, expressed in the serpents”, so the legs of the god are made of the animal that elsewhere is the adversary.
That contradiction is the entry. A serpent is not good or evil in this material. It is whatever the picture has decided to do with a thing that renews itself and has no limbs. See also the ouroboros, which is the same creature turned into a diagram.
Contested
The sentence about Nous and Logos reaches the archive at second hand: Hall is quoting another author in his own book. Two of the twelve works carry a serpent that no source in the archive explains, the fire-breathing beast on the Flamel sheet and the snakes in Death's hair on the Knight, and both are recorded as observed rather than read.
Sources
- The Apocalypse of Saint John, Douay Rheims, Challoner revision, : Quoted from the Challoner revision, the English text the archive uses for the Apocalypse throughout.
- Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, : Waite commissioned the 1909 designs and wrote the key to them, so his account is the closest thing the deck has to an author's statement.
- Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, : Hall's text and plate captions, 1928. Transcribed here, not yet read against a printed folio.
- William Martin Conway, Literary Remains of Albrecht Durer, : Conway's translations and commentary. A nineteenth-century scholar reading the prints, not Durer explaining himself.
Where it appears
Across the archive · 15
Plates that carry the symbol, tagged by eye and not yet decoded: first where it is the central motif, then where it plays a secondary part. Each opens in the viewer; the key and the notes come with the entry.
Central motif · 6
The Virgin with a Dragon at Her FeetDenis Molinier, after Nicolas Flamel, 1772She stands on a crescent moon; the golden glory behind her is not counted as a sun.Apocalypse 12:2, “And being with child, she cried travailing in birth: and was in pain to be delivered.”
Rivers in the Wilderness, with Serpents and FireFrom the figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel, hand-coloured, date not recordedrivers run down a wilderness in blue bands; serpents and flames between them; a small bush at the foot; the Serpent and the Dragon as the central motif, Fire by eye
Saint Michael Fighting the DragonAlbrecht Dürer, 1511the archangel spears the seven-headed dragon while three angels fight beside him; by eyeApocalypse 12:8, “And they prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in heaven.”
Hic est Draco caudam suam devoransMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the dragon coiled and eating its own tail before a ruined arch: the ouroboros drawn plainlyMichael Maier, 1618 “Hic est Draco caudam suam devorans.”
DRACO non moritur, nisi cum fratre & sorore sua interficiatur, qui sunt Sol & LunaMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the serpent between the sun-headed and moon-headed figures, each raising a weaponMichael Maier, 1618 “DRACO non moritur, nisi cum fratre & sorore sua interficiatur, qui sunt Sol & Luna.”
Draco mulierem, & hæc illum interimit, simulque sanguine perfundunturMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the dragon coiled over the fallen woman before a ruined archMichael Maier, 1618 “Draco mulierem, & hæc illum interimit, simulque sanguine perfunduntur.”
Secondary motif · 9
Abraxas, a Gnostic PantheosJ. Augustus Knapp, colour plate, 1928a rooster-headed figure in armour, whip raised and shield on the arm, stands in a chariot drawn by four white horses, his legs two serpents; the sun at the upper left, a crescent moon at the upper right, the name ABRAXAS lettered below; the Sun and the Moon as the central motif by Hall's reading of the figure as solar, the Serpent and the Horse by eye; one body made of a rooster, a man and two serpentsHall, 1928 “The seven-lettered name of ABRAXAS is symbolically significant of his seven-rayed power.”Central motif: the Sun and the Moon
Three Riders on Black, Red and White LionsAfter the figures of Abraham the Jew, from Nicolas Flamel, date not recordedthree armed riders on a black, a red and a white lion charge across the clouds under the sun and the moon; below them figures fall or lie on the ground and a beast crouches at the left; the Lion as the central motif, by eyeApocalypse 6:1, “And I saw that the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals: and I heard one of the four living creatures, as it were the voice of thunder, saying: Come and see.”Central motif: the Lion
A Crowned Woman with a Rose-Topped Caduceus, in a Circle of WaterAfter Nicolas Flamel, attributed, date not recordeda crowned woman in red holds a caduceus topped with a rose, standing on a flower within a ring of water, a winged head in a cloud above her; the Crown as the central motif, the Serpent by eyeCentral motif: the Crown
The Three-Headed Monster in the FlaskEdith A. Ibbs, after Splendor Solis, 1900 to 1909a crowned flask holds a three-headed beast, the heads red, white and black on a yellow, serpentine body; the Vessel as the central motif, the Serpent and the Dragon by eye; three heads on one body, sealed in the glassCentral motif: the Vessel
The King with Three Crowns and the Seven-Headed HydraAfter the figures of Abraham the Jew, from Nicolas Flamel, date not recordeda king wearing three crowns is enthroned on a cloud at the right while a green many-headed hydra rises before him; below, a red horned figure kneels and a winged figure in blue holds a key; riders on clouds at the upper left; the King and the Queen as the central motif, the Serpent and the Dragon and the Crown by eye; a red horned figure kneels in chains below the throneApocalypse 19:11, “And I saw heaven opened: and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true: and with justice doth he judge and fight.”Central motif: the King and the Queen
The Apocalyptic WomanAlbrecht Dürer, 1511the woman crowned with stars, radiant with the sun, the crescent moon under her feet, the dragon beneath; pairs with the Flamel Virgin on the crescent, by eyeApocalypse 12:2, “And being with child, she cried travailing in birth: and was in pain to be delivered.”Central motif: the Sun and the Moon
The Magician (I)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a young figure in a white robe and red mantle stands at a table bearing a cup, a sword, a pentacle and a wand; the right hand raises a white wand, the left points to the ground; the lemniscate above the head, a serpent belt at the waist, roses and lilies around; the Hand as the central motif, the Serpent and the Vessel by eyeWaite, 1911 “A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of divine Apollo, with smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position.”Central motif: the Hand
Wheel of Fortune (X)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a wheel lettered TARO and ROTA with alchemical signs, a sphinx with a sword seated on top, a serpent descending at the left and a jackal-headed figure rising at the right; the four living creatures with open books in the corners, on clouds; the Heavens as the central motif, the Angel, the Serpent and the Lion by eyeWaite, 1911 “Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement.”Central motif: the Heavens
Knight, Death, and the DevilAlbrecht Dürer, 1513a knight in armour rides between two figures: Death, crowned and snake-haired, holding up an hourglass from a pale horse, and a horned figure with a pike walking behind. A dog runs at the horse's heels and a skull lies among the roots at the foot of the plateConway, 1889 “They were intended to represent the Sanguine and Melancholic temperaments and to shadow forth the religious and intellectual spirits of the day.”Central motif: Death and the Skull
On the same plate
