Dirawong - Mythology - Deities - Rainbow Snake

Rainbow Snake

The double symbolism used in its name is considered allegoric to the dual nature of the deity, where being a Rainbow represents its divine nature or the ability for water to reach the skies and being a Serpent represents its human nature or ability to creep on the ground among other animals of the Earth.

Although its appearance may differ slightly, it retains similar features and stories and two particular characteristics that remain the same throughout is; its gender is not agreed upon and it is linked to rainbows, water, rain, waterholes, rivers, seas, islands, life, social relationships, shape-shifting, spirits, goannas', birds, snakes and fertility.

The concept of the Rainbow Snake as a water spirit is found in many forms. Sometimes it is simply a guardian of a sacred pool or lake and will attack and bring ill health and bad fortune if the sacred place is not correctly respected.

At other times the Rainbow Snake is a much more powerful water spirit – it is the rain itself, the storm, the flood, the life-giving water from the sky. Its rain is vital to life, yet water also has a powerfully destructive side that the Aborigine tribes of Australia were all too aware of. It has been theorized that the dozens of stories of humans being swallowed by the Rainbow Serpent – found throughout Australia – are metaphorical accounts of people being swallowed by flood waters or being drowned in lakes and pools.

In such cases, it is shown that the Rainbow Snake holds no respect for people, nor does it have a code of morality: it acts only as its nature dictates, often being a blind destructive force. But in the same way as rain it also creates: it creates the world, births many children, brings fertility to the land and humans, and is often associated with the Aborigine soul itself.

The ferocity with which the Rainbow Snake guards and defends its sacred pools, and the reverence with which it was – and still is – thought of by Aborigine tribes, indicates that it is a primal force in nature rather than a ‘God’ in the sense that many people in the Western world today would think of it. It follows only its natural inclinations – whether they be anger, lust, compassion, or creation – and its dynamic, raw energy with which it fertilizes the land and creates the world gives to the element of water associations that are not usually thought of in modern Pagan thought. Often, water is seen as passive, reflective, deep, emotional, and spiritual, and is symbolized by the ever-receiving Chalice or womb of the Goddess. But here, in the motif of the Rainbow Snake, we see water as the Cosmic Phallus of active, dynamic creation – of fertility, of the rawest, most primal part of life. Here water is dangerous, destructive, creative, blind, unfeeling and magical: just like the Rainbow Snake in its many forms.