Caduceus and Brazen Serpent - Part II
What is Caduceus?
Caduceus Amulet for Healing Ability
The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
Some Gnostic Christians worshipped the serpent hung on a cross, rod, or Tree of Life, calling it Christ the Savior, also a title of Hermes the Wise Serpent represented by his own holy caduceus the scepter of two serpents. This was one of the oldest and most revered holy symbols. “The usual mythological association of the serpent is not, as in the bible, with corruption, but with physical and spiritual helath, as in the Greek caduceus.” To Sumerians it was an emblem of life, appearing on art works like the Libation Cup of Gudea, ca. 2000 B.C. In pre-Hellenic Greece the caduceus was displayed on healing temples like those of Asclepius, Hygeia, and Panacea, which is why it is still an international symbol of the medical profession. The caduceus is also found in Aztec sacred art, enthroned like a serpent-deity on an altar. North American Indians knew it too. A Navaho medicine man said his people’s sacred cave once featured ” a stone carving of two snakes intertwined, the heads facing east and west.”
Hindu symbolism equated the caduceus with the central spirit of the human body, the spinal column, with two mystic serpents twined around it like the genetic double helix: ida-nadi to the left, pingala-nadi to the right.
Moses’ brazen serpent on a pole, the mere sight of which cured the Israelites, was probably a prophylatic caduceus (Numbers 21:9). It was named Nehushtan, and worshipped in the tabernacle up to the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4).
Quoted from page 131 of the book The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker
The Caduceus, Ancient Symbol of Powered Flight
Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods, carried with him his magic wand or caduceus, the winged staff, with which he could perform many symbol of the caduceus appeared throughout the world in ancient history but its true origins are lost in time.
Ancient history of India tells of the Kundalini, the fiery serpent force coiled in the center of the Earth, the symbol which is the caduceus staff of the god Hermes, or Mercury, a rod entwined by two serpents and topped with a winged sphere.
In Europe during the Middle Ages, the caduceus of Mercury somehow became associated with Alchemy and survived as a chemical symbol and is used by the medical profession universally. It should be noted that a more appropriate medical symbol, the staff of Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing, is a staff with one serpent or snake coiled about it, is being reinstated for symbolic use such as logos by the modern medical profession.
Research indicates that the modern medical profession adopted Mercury’s winged staff because the wings represent swift movement or ability to get about quickly while the two serpents represented chemical or medical meanings.
Some present day aircraft manufacturers use the symbol of the god Mercury’s staff, the caduceus, as a logo on their letterheads. Westland Aircraft of England is one, as is the society of British Aerospace Companies.
Quoted from page 81 of the book Atlantis and the Power System of the Gods Mercury Vortex Generators and the Power by David Hatcher Childress
The Migration of Symbols - Roots of the Caduceus
[…] the image, so common on Chaldean cylinders, of the mythical hero, Idzhubar or Gilgames, seen from the front and flanked by two lions, which he holds at arm’s length, was not only diffused amongst the Greeks and Hindus to symbolize their respective solar hero in the course of his exploits, it seems also, in our Middle Ages, to have suggested certain pictorial representations of Daniel in the Lion’s den.
In these the prophet is drawn full-face, standing with arms outstretched, in the classic attitude of prayer, between two rampant lions, which he seems to keep in awe as much by his gesture as by the effect of his prayer. In this manner might be explained the peculiar fact, pointed out by the Abbe Martigny, that Daniel is often represented between two lions, “whilst the den contains seven.”
Quoted from page 87 of the book The Migration Of Symbols And The Contemporary Evolution Of Religious Thought by Count Goblet D’Alviella