A Snake Parable

It is not clear if the snake was once a man. It seemed as though the powerful snake had always been there, always hungry for power.

Early on, the snake was only twice as powerful as man and he struggled alongside man to retain and expand his power. The snake’s advantage allowed him to advance to twice that of man and then twice that until his rate of growth over man became exponential.

There was once a time when the snake was loud and obscene and he ruled man ruthlessly with displays of public cruelty. He challenged man. He worked his slaves to build fortresses of gold for him and he whipped thousands of men and killed thousands more with ease. He humiliated man for sport.

The snake had an unquenchable lust for material wealth and he knew that he had to keep man producing. The snake had nothing without man. He started to devise ways to expand his stable of men, which brought him more and more wealth. Intervals of war and peace were pastimes of his design.

As mankind grew, the snake’s power continued to grow at unfathomable rates until his growth became unknowable to man. The snake had become invisible, and with time, memory of the snake began to fade into myth and fantastic stories. His very existence had become doubtful to man. Mankind started to see himself as his own ruler.

This pleased the snake as he silently wrapped himself around the world. His bidding was being done at the behest of man rulers but all under his own control.

Myths began to proliferate regarding the divinity of the rulers and some became known as gods. Man will follow man, even if that man is a god.

The snake was still the highest in earthly power and he spent his time plotting and playing games to amuse himself and he wondered how such a lowly and lost race could continue living, deceived, day after day, in such defeat. He took time to observe the ways of man and the snake saw how man’s passions kept him alive in the face of adversity and he saw men die purposefully for what they believed in!

The snake only believed in material gain and since all the wealth was his, he surmised that mankind was illogical, despicable and absurd and existed only for his own amusement. “Something that acts so absurd must be a toy!” he thought. “What else can I make them do?”

The snake had started to observe that the mind of man directed itself toward meaning outside of this world and stories of myth and religion were prevalent and key to the rule of societies and nations. To the snake, man was foolish and this world was all there was.

It was at this moment that the snake said to himself “Mankind is crazy. Mankind belongs to me. I will make mankind destroy itself!” He began a new game. The various gangs would destroy each other!

The snake allowed religions to grow powerful until followers would die in opposition to other religions. Eventually mankind had stopped recognizing itself as one. Divided, the most powerful groups of mankind overcame the others.

Man worshipped nature and then man worshipped gods. Man worshipped various forms of wealth and men divided into nations to fight over all of these.

Man became skilled at dividing itself and the snake found this new game to be ingenious. The snake had found passive entertainment.

Watching man’s foolish endeavors, the snake had long ago lost the power of imagination. His wealth was still growing, still consuming, after all these centuries, but his spirit had withered and died. He had stopped creating.

With his invisible body wrapped around the world, the snake had nothing to do and had no interest in devising a new game. All he knew was hunger because he wanted to keep growing.

Man had worshipped at the altar of beliefs, but when he stopped possessing and started sharing these scattered beliefs, man led himself to full self-knowledge. Man was always looking for what was missing but the knowledge of his own completeness became undeniable. Mankind is its own creator. Together we are God.

The snake had become a soulless, invisible, devouring carcass. His power was empty. There was no he anymore. Man realized that he, himself, had created this snake. Fighting emptiness will devour itself.

Conflict was the only thing feeding the snake. Once mankind quit dividing and fighting, he found his own peace and the snake, did indeed, devour itself.

6 thoughts on “A Snake Parable

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  1. Very interesting how this somewhat parallels the Bibles view. In the Bible the snake is a fallen angel, and there really is a God. It frustrates the snake when a person discovers God and worships him because the snake wants the worship of people for himself. He will lose in the end, but thankfully we don’t have to be like him.

  2. Reblogged this on Fishbowler and commented:

    Here’s a parable I wrote a year ago and it ALSO includes a reading of it by yours truly. Please check it out, one way or another and let me know what you think.

    finding It truly useful & it helped me out a lot.
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