Cosmic Serpents play a central role in the cosmologies of various traditions around the world. Whether the primordial Chronos Serpent encircling the World Egg of the Orphic-Pythagorean mysteries, the Gnostic Ouraborus, or the Jörmungandr of the Norse traditions these giant serpents - or dragons - are a pervasive symbol of the perpetual tension between Order & Chaos and the creation-destruction cycles of the the manifest Universe.
One such Cosmic Serpent is the Teli of the Kabbalah who “in the Universe is like a king on his throne”(Sefer Yetzirah 6:2). The Teli according to some Kabbalists is the constellation of Draco while others identify it as the Milky Way. Regardless of the astronomical specifics, all interpretations hinge on the concept of a celestial serpent or dragon closely linked to the notion of cycles (galag) as in the verse “He set them in the Teli, the Galag, and the Lev [‘heart’]” (Sefer Yetzirah 6:1).
According to the commentaries on the Sefer Yetzirah, this triadic division of Serpent, Cycle and Heart corresponds to the Hebrew alphabet and the 12 Elemental, 7 Doubles, and 3 Mother letters. Within the alphabet, Teli reigns over the 12 Elemental letters and thus over the 12 zodiacal constellations aligning this celestial serpent with the Solar path and the cyclic Universe.
Interestingly, the word teli never appears in the Bible, it does however occur in the Bahir where it is discussed as the world axis upon which the celestial globe and world of manifestation hangs. In Hebrew teli means ‘to hang’ or literally ‘that which hangs from one’ begging the question of where did its association to a celestial serpent arise?
Nightly Path of Draco around the Celestial Pole
Definitely by the medieval period the association between Teli and the Pole Serpent (Draco) was concrete. As Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in his translation and commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah discusses, for medieval Kabbalists Teli was seen as one of two Leviathans – the female version being the water serpent of earth, the male corresponding to the Pole Serpent of the sky, Teli. This likely arose from Rabbi Shimon’s exegesis on the creation of the male and female Leviathans as the upper and lower “Waters” in the Zohar. He further states that the world of manifestation “hangs from the fins of the Leviathan” placing this serpent in direct context of the polar axis mundi.
Kapplan and Leonara Leet in her “Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah” discuss the associations between Teli and the constellation Draco (the serpent/dragon that circles the north celestial pole) in depth and I highly suggest that those interested turn to these sources. The notion of the Pole Serpent that hangs/coils around around the axis mundi sheds a whole new light on the biblical narrative of the Serpent in the Tree and the fall of Man, but this is contemplation for another day.
The Kabbalistic teachings of the two Leviathans help clarify Isaiah 27:1 where both these agents of the manifest world are said to be destroyed on the day of final judgment :
On that day (the day of judgment) with His great
sharp sword, God will visit and overcome the Leviathan, the Pole
Serpent, and the Leviathan, the Coiled Serpent, and He will kill the
dragon of the sea.
Keep this verse in mind as we move forward with this discussion. One final association to point out regarding Teli is that the earliest Kabbalists referred to it by its Arabic name Al Jaz’har meaning “knot” or “node”. Thus also putting Teli in the astronomical context of the lunar nodes – which in traditional astrology are fittingly called the Dragon’s Head and the Dragon’s Tail (again, see Leet and Kaplan and references therein). These nodes are the ONLY places along the ecliptic where a full solar or lunar eclipse can occur.
Let us take a moment to summarize and unpack the Teli. What do we have?
A celestial Pole Serpent that is in the Universe “like a king on his throne”, an axis-mundi upon which the world of manifestation hangs, a cyclic principle of space-time exemplified by the 12 constellations of the zodiac, a force that devours the Sun in eclipse, and a beast that upon final judgment must be destroyed with God’s “great sharp sword”.
These very principles exemplified by the Teli are what we find in yet another Celestial or Cosmic Serpent of great importance in the Western Magical traditions, the Egyptian Apep or Apophis. This serpent is the devourer of the Sun and the dissolving and destructive force of time that Pharaoh as the Solar Hero ( Re/ Osiris) must defeat in the Duat in order to be reborn. He constantly threatens dissolution into Chaos for should Apep succeed in devouring the solar bark, the sun would cease to rise and life as we know it would come to an end. The ancient Egyptians were reminded this possibility and Apep’s omnipresence through the mythic narrative of Re’s nightly journey through the 12 gates of the underworld to be reborn in the East and the astronomical phenomenon of a Solar eclipses.
From an esoteric perspective these cosmic and celestial dragons/serpents represent the limits of the manifest Universe linked to the Solar Journey and our own spiritual ascension. They reside at the very pivot of the celestial sphere and liminal threshold between the manifest and unmanifest. They are reminders of a primordial chaos of non-existence and the cycles of life and death that must be transcended by the initiate aspiring to escape the death and dissolution of mortality and - like the Solar Hero - be reborn into eternal existence.
Originally published December 6, 2010 in Reflections from the Black Stone