Snakes and Deity

[savveir]

Bolding and strike-through are mine.

Apep is not something I'd recommend people worshiping.

Can't say I have any desire to worship 'the nothing'.

[Siannan13]

Do you work with, or know of, any Deities associated with snakes?
What's that association like?

Despite snakes being a common motif for me, I personally don't know much about this topic, so I was hoping I could learn more.

Medusa and Athena/Minerve
Asclepios
Hygeia
Sirona
Melusine (I had a strange expirence with her)

In France there are ancient traditions and tales about dragons, or flying snakes often related to treasure and water with many names : Vouivre, Tarasque, Gand Bahi, serpent des alpes...

I feel drawn to deities with snake connections. For me snake is a earth and water creature, related to the cycles of life - death and rebirth - and healing.
In ancient roman tradition, genius locci, and I have read that for the celts it could have reprensented non embodied souls.
Related to medusa, i feel snakes as evocative of sensuousness.

it seams some snakes could have been used in ancient greeco-roman mysteries such as Eleusians and Bona dea

[Valentine]

Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess. Her name means, "the one with the skirt of serpents."
She may be the same or different from Cihuacoatl "The Lady of the serpent."

 
I can't believe I skipped Coatlicue.  Thank you.
For those interested in some really intense mystery/mystic-work writing around Coatlicue, I recommend Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera, which is usually recommended for other purposes.  It's a pretty foundational book for me in a lot of ways around politics, but when it comes to the religious work she does in there, Gloria's not fooling around.

[Aster Breo]

Do you work with, or know of, any Deities associated with snakes?
What's that association like?

This might already have been mentioned, but snakes are also associated with Brighid.

[SatAset]

Do you work with, or know of, any Deities associated with snakes?
What's that association like?

Despite snakes being a common motif for me, I personally don't know much about this topic, so I was hoping I could learn more.

 
Aset and Nebet Het are depicted as cobras for being Eyes of Ra and while they are helping the sun to rise and set.  Weret Hekau was also associated with snakes (and Goddesses with that title too).  

Ancient Egyptian Goddesses who are Eyes of Ra are associated with the cobra.  Sekhmet, Wadjet, Bast, Bast-Mut, Mut, Sekhmet-Mut, etc.

[Siannan13]

snakes are also associated with Brighid.

 
could you tell us more about this ?

[Aster Breo]

could you tell us more about this ?

I'm not braining well right now, so I'm going to mess this up.  Hopefully, someone else will be able to explain better than I can.  Gilbride -- help?  

Basically, IIRC, the association is based on the fertility/regeneration symbolism some cultures see in snakes because of their hibernation and the way they shed their skin.

I don't think anyone know for sure how snakes became associated with Brighid as goddess, since there is actually extremely little about Brighid (as goddess) in the extant lore, so we don't really know how a lot of Her associations originated.
The connection to snakes likely did not begin in Ireland, since snakes were not native there.  So it's probably originally Scottish.

There's a reference in the Carmina Gadelica about St. Brigid's Day (Imbolc) and how the snake leaves its burrow on that day.  The line is about how, if I don't hurt the snake, the snake won't hurt me.  I believe the thing about the snake leaving its burrow on Imbolc has origins similar to those of Groundhog Day.

That's all I can remember, and I can't really read right now to look it up.   I'm sorry!