Double Snakes: Caduceus Symbolic Meaning



After writing a page on snake symbolic meanings, I felt a need for further expansion on the caduceus meaning; specifically the symbolic meaning of the various elements that comprise the caduceus symbol in whole.

–Double Snakes or Serpents–
The double snakes of the caduceus represent duality and the unification of polar opposites.  As such, these double snakes speak of the balance and integration polarities in order to strike harmony.  Such dualities include:

  • male/female
  • light/dark
  • water/fire
  • left/right
  • good/evil
  • illness/health
  • binding/loosing
  • wax/wane
  • separation/union
  • sun/moon
  • upper/lower
  • asleep/awake

Essentially, these opposing snakes represent the concept of yin and yang

–Spiraling Serpents–
The spiraling contortion of serpents in the traditional caduceus imagery is no accident.  Their spiral effect indicates an expansion of knowledge as well as the undulating dance of cosmic forces.

–Staff, Rod or Wand —
Traditionally vertical rods are considered archetypal symbols of the phallus.  As the dual serpents address the concept of gender, I’m more inclined to view the staff of caduceus as an emissary of transference between body and mind (physical and spiritual). 

Just as the symbolic Tree of Life (seen in many ancient cultures) connects the expanse between earth (roots) to heaven (branching into the sky) – the rod of caduceus may be viewed as a conduit between mundane and ethereal.

Wings
Wings are symbolic of ascension, messages from the divine, and awareness from a higher (angelic?) vantage point.  As the caduceus is associated with Mercury/Hermes, we may also infer these wings are icons of travel and serve as a protective icon for all wayfarer’s. 

As an alchemical symbol the caduceus represents the conjugation of sulphur (male) and quicksilver (female).  This symbol also infers the synthesis of opposites with the goal of unification and transformation.

Caduceus means “herald’s staff of office” in Greek, and the center rod was a symbol of Hermes who was the messenger of the gods. 

Other gods to carry this magic wand include:

  • Anubis (Egyptian)
  • Baal (Phoenician)
  • Mercury (Roman)
  • Aesculapius (Greek)

The caduceus’ association with the medical profession comes from the latter-most god (Aesculapius) who is a god of healing.  Further, Dr. Carl Jung popularized it as a modern medical symbol as he felt it was an appropriate emblem of homeopathy.

Other pages of interest:

Symbolism of Snakes

Symbols in Nature

Symbolism of Rods

Alchemy Symbols 

Symbolic Meaning of Number Two

Yin Yang Symbolism

Hermes at the Crossroads

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23 Comments on “Double Snakes: Caduceus Symbolic Meaning”

  1. Double snakes are also a phenomenon that evoke thoughts of worthiness. When it comes to healing, beings in the physical world often believe that the answer just comes. It does, yet on some level, the awareness of answers must be earned through experience and evolution. If you have not earned a cure, that is, if the universe does not believe you deserve it, then you will not perceive certain healing. The duality of the serpents in this image reminds you that healing is manifest based on two things you can do;
    1) you can patiently await with a sincerity and devotion to what matters; 2) you can act altrusitically to heal others. Love reflects back on you.

  2. I think it was Erik Davis that pointed out the similarities between the intertwined snakes and DNA strands.

  3. IX,

    I did not know about Erik Davis & his observations correlating DNA w/ intertwined serpents….thank you for sharing this information. I will be looking @ Erik Davis’ work on your recommendation. Thanks again.
    Avenefica

  4. I read about this among the Nibiru theorists and the earliest found relics on the entwined snakes (now coincidentally an international medic related symbol) said to be from the Annunaki who allegedly created/cloned mankind.

  5. I had this dream before a big life change…where it started with native american shaman and person I was seeing at the time..then we were running, jumping over roof tops and I landed on a little water lily pond and 2 snakes came out of the water and bit me…i remember not being afraid and I knew the snakes were deadly. Instead of dying I became one with the snakes I talked to the shaman before waking up telling him I was not afraid…and I woke up almost hissing…like a snake…I know very weird but very vivid dream…the person I was seeing did end up being not who he said he was…so maybe it was a warning…not really sure..I have always been allured to sun/moon even have tattoo..so thought that was interesting in your comments…

    Have a great day…

    gina :0)

  6. By the grace of God i will be doing more reserch on this, because i want to get adequate information about the symbol. Thanks for this piece……

  7. as well as intertwined snakes probably representing the duality of our dream world(maya) and emptiness/nothingness(god) they do infact represent ancient mystic visions of intertwined snakes as the dna helix and the visions and temples and art ware etc of the ancients of intertwined snakes pre-tells a future when one will eventually discover how to reverse the aging process and regenerate their own dna………or rather the purpose of the visions were ultimately trying to lead someone(maitreya?) on to discover the fountain of youth/the cure for the disease of aging as dna regeneration….

    how else would they have been able to exactly mirror the dna helix as intertwined snakes thousands of years ago if it wasnt but for meditative visions from god/nowhere?..

    this is not theory but dont believe a word i say anyway as i am just a dream hologram and i dont even exist outside of your mind…

  8. Fascinating stuff there from Dave.

    It seems there may be an advanced spiritual master(ASM) among us and that his or her(youthful) appearance could be imminent as has been(very long) predicted for 2017.

    It makes much sense as there is so much historical evidence of intertwined serpents/caduceus that clearly mirror the DNA double helix and so yes what other reason for this than it being a message from the Divine during visions of intertwined serpents whilst taking an entheogen/psychedelic that DNA regeneration is indeed possible??.

    If what dave(ina) says is true then this is going to be a massive paradigm shift.

    Row row row your boat gently down the stream merrily merrily merrily merrily life ‘really’ is nothing but a dream.

    Hip hip hooray.
    Hip hip hooray.
    Hip hip hooray.

    There is no death.

  9. After having read The lost book of Enki. I got the idea that the intertwining snake was a representation of the combination of Man’s and Nimbiru’s DNA strands having being mixed together.
    And thus creating us.
    A symbolic representation for modern man.

  10. The snakes are the duality of our intellectual conscious-mind in our head and our emotional subconscious-mind in our gut. The staff is the tree of life which is our superconsciouse-soul that resides in our heart-center. The wings indicate the guardian angel role our soul plays in our lives not from above but from within.

    The message is to focus on the divine consciousness within the heart. Open your heart, listen to your hearts infalable guidance, and follow the intuitive messages by doing what you know you ought to do.

  11. I see it as the dielectric force aka use the force from star wars. A male a female energy raised from the bottom of the spine up hitting the stomach brain first set of wings then on up to the top which is the second brain like a thermometer which mercury rises up. The sed at the base is raised up through a fish like oil in the spine dropping a seed of information to the brain l, as it is released and continues to ascend up there it will light the top up for what is known as enlightenment. why they tend to use light bulbs over the head for an idea. I just thought I would let y’all know all that jaezz. There are several days each month according to where your sun sign hits the moon each month zodiacally speaking if you keep your temple pure you will get enlightenment each month. That is what this means and once tou light up your light bulb that is when the magic happens like the spine is your magic wand folks.

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  13. My wife of 41 years passed 27 January. We knew we were soul mates. But, we did not talk much of what to expect or even if she would pass, she battled cancer a long time. I’ve know from the day that we still communicated. We wrote a song 21 March. It may end up on an album. Tonight as we meditated I asked for a sign for us. Our eternal union as one. I went to bed and heard a crashing of glass down stairs right when I was about to nod off. I went down and found two intertwined black snakes on the mantel had knocked off Tracey’s decorative bowl and an old fiddle I just placed up there as decoration. Then I came to you site and read since I was curious as to the symbolism to say the least. What a sign!

  14. moses the patriarch was just tripping hard when he had his vision of a snake coiled round his walking stick that he needed due to him being so ancient…lol.. same as Jacob when he was tripping hard and he had his vision of a ladder(to heaven) that was more likely a vision of a spiral staircase that mirrors the dna double helix……just take 10 grams cracker dry cubensis and you will see what I mean…lol…

  15. This is wrong. The two snakes are females as Lilith and Eve. The phallus is Adam who had THIS two women in order to free his spirit with sexual transmutation. Adam decided not to have both and decided to Eve. That’s why males always need two women to transmute. Make some research about ancient times where leaders and Kings always had two or three women. Thanks

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