The serpent eating it’s tail is a common gnostic and alchemical symbol. It is often seen coiled around an egg, and is also called the “pole serpent” in Kabbalah, and the serpent in the garden of eden. This symbol is also seen in Job, where God describes Leviathan. This symbol, and the serpent or “dragon” is prevalent as a symbol in alchemy and various other traditions. But what is this dragon, or serpent?

One contemplation declares that he dragon is a manifestation of Yaweh, but at a lower grade, explaining why Balaam could see visions and speak with God, though he was a sorcerer, not a servant of the Divine. It is said, that Baal-Shem, a “master of the name” is a master of the dragon as well as a master of the “dragon”. It is also said that a master sorcerer is a master of the dragon, but not of the name. These are common Kabbalistic teachings that heavily influence alchemy, and thus this contemplation of the alchemical dragon.

The “serpent power” is often referred to in Eastern traditions as Kundalini, and many Western traditions would propose that this symbol matches completely the Western symbolism of the “serpent,” informing us of the qualities of this energy when it arises, and it’s nature.

The serpent, or “dragon” is desire. In alchemy, there are various colors of this dragon, representing the various permutations of desire. Also, in Kabbalah, there are various symbols of the serpent, including the serpent devouring it’s tail, as well as the pole serpent, and in Gnosticism and Alchemy, there is the serpent coiled around the egg. The egg can be thought of as the seed of desire, it’s unborn potential, that is both contained, guarded and restrained by the serpent, which is it’s expression in externalized desires. The egg hatched, is the desire directed inward, the phoenix, which is the nature of re-birth. This alludes to the Kabbalistic distinction between the serpent eating it’s tail, which is a representation of the material world, which devours itself constantly to create new forms endlessly, and the “pole serpent” which is the serpent uplifted on a pole, or a cross. Yeshua, or Jesus, is the enactment of this Alchemical and Kabbalistic principle, the serpent uplifted, or this desire energy directed fully inward, which means he is fully in submission to this interior impulse, even unto death. But what does this master enact? The same mystery of the Phoenix!

So the “master of the dragon” is the being who can manipulate desire energy for his own ends, which does not manifest itself in so dualistic terms as “my desire” and “your desire”, for, in fact, desire is simply the raw material of creation. So it manifests through these bodies in the same essential way, and the sorcerer knows how to play upon this to manifest his own will.

But he question is, what is the “master of the name”? In fact, this is desire energy directed inward, and the key distinction between the black dragon, which gives forth acid from it’s belly, which consumes everything and the Gold dragon, which is this desire energy uplifted.