The serpent is one of the symbols of the Egyptian Set, and this can be understood without difficulty if the serpent be considered under its malefic aspect, that which is most commonly attributed to it. But it is almost always forgotten that the serpent has a benefic aspect which, moreover, is to be found also in the symbolism of ancient Egypt, in particular under the form of the royal serpent, the ‘uraeus’ or basilisk. Even in Christian iconography the serpent is sometimes the symbol of Christ, as well as the Biblical Seth who is often looked on as a ‘prefiguration’ of Christ.

It can be said that the two Seths, fundamentally, are not other than the two serpents of the Hermitic ‘caduceus’. It is, if one will, life and death, both produced by a power that is single in its essence but double in its manifestation.

The symbolism of the serpent is actually linked, before all else, to the very idea of life: in Arabic, the serpent is al-hayyah, and life al-hayah. This is linked to the symbolism of the ‘Tree of Life’, and thus enables one to glimpse a singular relationship between the serpent and Eve (Hawwa, ‘The living’).

In Chinese symbolism emperor Fo-hi and his sister Niu-Koua are sometimes represented with the body of a serpent and a human head, and in certain cases these two serpents are intertwined like those of the caduceus, no doubt thereby alluding to the complementarism of the yin-yang.

All this shows that the serpent has had, doubtless in very remote times, an importance which is no longer suspected today.