🐍 Cobra espouse bold meanings. But they also have soft, subtle, secretive meanings two. This makes it a powerful symbol of duality.
As a Native American Indian symbol (depending on the nation/tribe) the cobra can be a masculine symbol, associated with the phallus of lightning which is considered a medicine staff of tremendous assertive power. Other tribes lean in the direction of feminine attribution for the cobra and pair it with mothering (creation), and lunar (moon) symbolism.
Whether raising itself in masculine authority or encircling the Earth in a motherly fashion the snake symbol of the Native American’s was highly regarded; utilized in ritual to invoke an element of pointed focus and weighty influence.
In the keen Celtic mind, cobra symbolic meaning of transformation came from the shedding of its skin. Physical evidence of leaving its form behind (casting off the old self), and emerging a sleeker, newer version made the snake a powerful symbol of rebirth and renewal.
In Eastern Indian myth the Sanskrit word for cobra is naga and these are associated with the element of water. Picking up water’s symbolism of emotion, love and motion, nagas in this light are considered a feminine aspect and embody nurturing, benevolent, wise qualities. To this day, it is a common Hindu understanding that all nagas protect all water sources. The naga is also said to be a guardian of big treasure and fortune…which could be water if it is (and often it is) a scarce resource.
It is only when humans act out bad behavior that gets the naga ticked off. Often in Indian stories, the naga comes to strike down or eat whoever commits bad deeds. Not a bad argument for good behavior…nobody wants to be gobbled up by a gigantic cobra. Which, by the way, the naga typically is…some kind of cobra.
