“From the remotest antiquity the serpent was held by every people in the greatest veneration, as the embodiment of Divine Wisdom and the symbol of spirit, and we know from Sanchoniathon that it was Hermes or Thoth who was the first to regard the serpent as “the most spirit-like of all the reptiles”; and the Gnostic serpent with the seven vowels over the head is but the copy of Ananta, the seven-headed serpent on which rests the god Vishnu.
European treatises upon serpent-worship that the writers confess is that the public is “still almost in the dark as to the origin of the superstition in question.” Mr. C. Staniland Wake, M.A.I., from whom we now quote, says: “The student of mythology knows that certain ideas were associated by the peoples of antiquity with the serpent, and that it was the favorite symbol of particular deities; but why that animal rather than any other was chosen for the purpose is yet uncertain.” Mr. James Ferguson, F.R.S., who has gathered together such an abundance of material upon this ancient cult, seems to have no more suspicion of the truth than the rest.
Our explanation of the myth may be of little value to students of symbology, and yet we believe that the interpretation of the primitive serpent-worship as given by the initiates is the correct one. In volume 1, page 10, we quote from the serpent Mantra, in the Aytareya-Brahmana, a passage which speaks of the earth as the Sarpa Rajni, the Queen of the Serpents, and “the mother of all that moves.” These expressions refer to the fact that before our globe had become egg-shaped or round, it was a long trail of cosmic dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a serpent. This, say the explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos until its breath had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its mouth, emblem of eternity in its spiritual, and of our world, in its physical sense.
According to the notions of the oldest philosophers, as we have shown in the preceding chapter, the earth, serpent-like, casts off its skin and appears after every minor pralaya in a rejuvenated state, and after the great pralaya resurrects or evolves again from its subjective into objective existence. Like the serpent, it not only “puts off its old age”, says Sanchoniathon, but increases in size and strength.”
This is why not only Serapis, and later, Jesus, were represented by a great serpent, but even why, in our own century, big snakes are kept with sacred care in Moslem mosques; for instance, in that of Cairo. In Upper Egypt a famous saint is said to appear under the form of a large serpent; and in India in some children’s cradles a pair of serpents, male and female, are reared with the infant, and snakes are often kept in houses, as they are thought to bring a magnetic aura of wisdom, health, and good luck. They are the progeny of Sarpa Rajna, the earth, and endowed with all her virtues. In the Hindu mythology, Vasaki, the Great Dragon, pours forth upon Durga, from his mouth, a poisonous fluid which overspreads the ground, but her consort Siva caused the earth to open her mouth and swallow it.
Thus, the mystic drama of the celestial virgin pursued by the dragon seeking to devour her child, was not only depicted in the constellations of heaven, as has been mentioned, but was represented in the secret worship of the temples. It was the mystery of the god Sol and inscribed on a black image of Isis. The Divine Boy was chased by the cruel Typhon. In an Egyptian legend the Dragon is said to pursue Thuesis (Isis) while she is endeavoring to protect her son. Ovid describes Dione (the consort of the original Pelasgian Zeus, and mother of Venus) as flying from Typhon to the Euphrates, thus identifying the myth as belonging to all the countries where the Mysteries were celebrated. Virgil sings the victory: “Hail, dear child of gods, great son of Jove! Receive the honors great; the time is at hand; the serpent will die!””
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 