A fourth-century Greek papyrus, now in Leiden, instructs the magician to hold a live snake while reciting a charm for dream divination. The snake must not bite. The snake, the text says, is “the form of the god.” Then the magician releases it into a sacred space. That ritual, recorded in the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM IV 3086–3124, circa 300 CE), is not an outlier. Across cultures and centuries, the snake has been the witch’s most consistent partner: a creature of earth and underworld, shedding skin to become new, holding venom and remedy in the same mouth.
Snake symbolism in witchcraft and magic refers to the association of serpents with transformation, hidden knowledge, chthonic power, and the liminal space between life and death. Historically, the snake has been a familiar, a god-form, a tool for divination, and a talisman of protection.
The snake is not a decoration. It is a doorway.
Where does the snake appear in the oldest magical records?
The oldest surviving magical texts — Sumerian incantations from the third millennium BCE — already invoke snakes. The Maqlû series of Babylonian anti-witchcraft spells (circa 1000 BCE) calls on the “great serpent” to eat the sorcerer’s power. But the relationship is older. Neolithic figurines from the Danube valley, dated to 6000 BCE, show women holding snakes, likely priestesses or goddess figures. The snake is not yet evil. It is the guardian of grain stores, the one that sheds its skin and therefore does not die.
In ancient Egypt, the cobra goddess Wadjet was the protector of Lower Egypt and a tutelary deity of the pharaoh. But closer to witchcraft: the Harris Magical Papyrus (circa 1250 BCE) includes spells to be recited over a clay snake to send it against an enemy. The snake is a weapon. The Demotic Magical Papyri (Roman-period) contain love spells that require the magician to draw a snake on the ground and speak to it as a messenger to the underworld.
In Greece, the snake was sacred to Asclepius (medicine) and Hecate (witchcraft). Offerings to Hecate at crossroads often included live snakes or snake-shaped cakes. The Commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid by Servius (circa 400 CE) states that magicians used snakes to draw down the moon, a technique widely attested in ancient lunar magic.
What does the snake mean in magical symbolism?
The snake is the only animal that crosses every boundary: earth, water, underworld, occasionally air (when raised by a charmer). This liminality makes it a perfect symbol for magic itself.
Renewal through shedding. The skin-shedding is the most literal image of transformation. In folk magic, a shed snakeskin is worn in a pouch for luck, or used in healing charms to “shed” an illness. The 17th-century Elizabethan Charm for the Ague (recorded in Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584) instructs the sufferer to wrap a snake’s skin around the neck, then burn it. The fever, it was believed, would leave with the skin.
The chthonic guardian. Snakes dwell in holes, under stones, in the roots of trees. They are messengers to the ancestors. In medieval necromantic texts, such as the Munich Handbook of Necromancy (circa 1500), the magician invokes a serpent spirit to guard the boundary of the circle. The snake’s underground habitat associates it with the treasure of hidden knowledge and the dead.
Venom as doubled power. Snake venom kills and heals. In folk magic, “snake oil” was not a fraud. Real snake-grease was used in Appalachian folk healing for joint pain, but also in hexing: a drop of venom mixed with a rival’s food was said to cause a slow wasting. The same substance, two outcomes, depending on the intent of the user.
Feminine power and the goddess. The Minoan snake goddess figurines from Knossos (circa 1600 BCE) hold snakes in both hands, often interpreted as symbols of the household’s protective spirit. In Wicca, the snake has been adopted as a symbol of the Goddess in her Crone aspect, and also of the Horned God (evoking the serpent power of the earth). This is a modern reconstruction, but it draws on ancient precedent.
How was the snake used in actual magical practice?
The sources describe three main categories of snake use in witchcraft and folk magic: as a familiar, as a talisman, and as a sacrificial or ritual agent.
As a familiar. During the European witch trials, the snake was the most frequently named familiar animal after the cat. In the trial of Elizabeth Francis (Essex, 1566), she confessed that her familiar, a white spotted cat named Sathan, could transform into a snake. The belief was pre-Christian: Celts counted snakes as shape-shifting spirits. In The Book of Trades (1696), a witch is depicted with a serpent coiled around her arm, confirming the image’s persistence.
As a talisman. The Orphic gold tablets (4th–2nd century BCE), buried with the dead, often invoke a snake as a guardian of the underworld path. In medieval Jewish magic, a brazen serpent was used as a charm against snakebite — an echo of the Biblical Nehushtan (Numbers 21:8–9). African American hoodoo uses a snake-skin tied to a doorknob to “turn away” malicious spirits.
As a ritual agent. The Greek Magical Papyri (PGM XCII) describes a divination spell requiring a snake to be killed, its skin removed while a specific hymn is sung, then the skin stretched over a bed for a dream oracle. The Picatrix (Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, circa 1250) includes a recipe to make a snake’s tongue into a charm that makes the bearer persuasive in court. In Santería, the snake is associated with the orisha Oshun and is used in initiation rites for priests of the Ifá system.
How does snake symbolism differ from dragon or worm?
The snake is often confused with the dragon, but the distinction matters in practice. Dragons in European grimoires are usually celestial or fiery, guarding treasure in the air or on mountaintops. Snakes are terrestrial, cold, and rooted to the earth. A dragon is a major spirit; a snake is a common voice of the land. The worm, in folk magic, is the lowest form, a corpse-eater, sometimes associated with decay curses. Snakes are never decaying; they are the renewal after decay.
The snake also carries a different valence in Eastern traditions. In Tantric Buddhism, the nāga (serpent spirit) is a protector of scriptures and a bringer of rain. In Chinese folk magic, the snake is one of the five venomous creeping creatures (wudu), used in talismanic magic for both healing and harm, depending on the ritual. Western witchcraft tends to emphasize the snake’s chthonic and prophetic role, not its astrological or healing aspect, though the caduceus appears in alchemical grimoires as the union of opposites.
Common misconceptions about snakes in witchcraft
The snake is inherently Satanic. This is a Christian polemic, not a magical fact. The identification of the serpent with Satan was established by the 2nd century CE in texts like Tertullian’s On the Apparel of Women. Pre-Christian European and Mediterranean traditions had no such association. Snakes were sacred to gods, not demons. The Bible moralisée (13th century) depicts witches kissing a snake’s anus, but that was slander, not practice.
Venom always means evil intent. In folk magic, venom is a neutral substance. A poison can be turned into a medicine by the right incantation. The Clavicula Salomonis (Key of Solomon, 14th century) includes a purification ritual that uses snake venom as a symbolic “bitter water” to test the magician’s virtue.
Witches control snakes through mind power. No historical practice supports this. The charmer’s art is rhythm, hypothermia, and the snake’s own defensive stillness. Magical texts like the Kyranides (1st century CE) claim the snake can be made docile by the herb verbena, not by will alone. The relationship is respect, not domination.
Shed snake skin is a universal “good luck” charm. In some traditions, it is considered unlucky to keep a shed skin in the house, as it can draw the underworld’s attention. European agricultural folklore warned that burning a snake skin would cause lightning. Context matters.
FAQ
Why is the snake a symbol of wisdom in witchcraft?
The snake’s association with wisdom comes from its role as a guardian of hidden knowledge, especially in Greek and Egyptian mystery traditions. The serpent in Eden offers knowledge, not evil, in the original Hebraic context.
Can snakes be familiars in modern witchcraft?
Yes, but living snakes are rarely kept as pets for magical work. Instead, practitioners meditate on snake energy or use shed skin and images to invoke the familiar’s qualities.
What does it mean if a snake appears in meditation or dream?
In magical interpretation, a snake in a vision signals imminent transformation, a hidden truth surfacing, or a need to shed a limiting belief. The context (color, behavior, setting) refines the meaning.
Are snake parts still used in contemporary witchcraft?
Ethically, many practitioners avoid using real snake parts due to conservation concerns. Symbolic representations, drawings, carvings, clay figures, are common substitutes.
The snake has never been a simple symbol. It is a cult object, a tool, a teacher, and a boundary-crosser. In the Greek Magical Papyri, after the ritual, the magician thanks the snake and sets it free. That gesture, releasing the power back into the earth, is the final lesson. The snake is not owned. It is met.
For deeper study, explore our guide to animal symbolism in magic for the full bestiary of creatures used in witchcraft. The glossary entry on the serpent covers its use in specific grimoires. And the related guide on totemic animal work offers practical methods for invoking snake energy in ritual.