The Serpent

Jeremy Narby's The Cosmic Serpent is an investigation of the link between DNA and knowledge. Mysticism is central to many of his discoveries, including the recurrent image of a serpent (often an entwined twin pair, or a single serpent with two heads or tails) seen during trance-like hallucinatory visions. He compares the indigenous beliefs surrounding these serpents to the structure and nature of DNA, visualized on the book's cover:



After finishing the chapter about serpents and mythology, I began to walk home from the coffeeshop and reflected on serpent stories I heard throughout childhood. I remembered Smaug from The Hobbit, Pete's Dragon, The Reluctant Dragon, the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the classic Chinese Dragon (which bears visible resemblance to Falkor from The Neverending Story and Haku from Spirited Away), and others. On the way home, this was for sale:



Page 38 - the first I came to - depicts two dragons in flight, intertwined, forever in conflict.  Perhaps two must be in conflict to exist separately, or independently, otherwise to exist as one.

Thanks Courtney.