Rainbow Snake - Water Spirit, Cosmic Phallus, and Jealous Guardian

The mythology of the aborigine people of Australia and New Zealand may seem strange and alien to those of us who live in the Western world. The stories of these tribes are full of fantastical accounts of talking animals that help shape the land, earth that swallows people, mermaids that seduce men, and customs that we often don’t understand. But one figure out of this hubbub of primal, fascinating tribal tales stands out in people’s minds, its colourful scales and angry disposition causing wonder and fear at the same time – the Rainbow Snake. 

Throughout the vast area of Australia and New Zealand myths and stories often differ greatly, and figures who feature in one tribe’s myths will not be heard of in another’s. This is what makes the Rainbow Snake perhaps most extraordinary, for it is found in nearly every tribe – it is almost universal to aborigine thought. Although its appearance may differ slightly, it retains similar features and stories and one particular characteristic that remains the same throughout: it is a water spirit. 

The Rainbow Snake’s gender is not agreed upon. In some tribes it is clearly male and referred to as a ‘he’, such as in the Murinbata story of Ngalmin, a man who falls in love the Murinbungo – mermaid/siren women who are the daughters of the Rainbow Snake. In this tale the Rainbow Snake is referred to as the Murinbungo’s Father, and a jealous, over-protective one at that! In the end, the Rainbow Snake gets do angry with Ngalmin’s relentless pursuit of one of his daughters that he rises out of his home in the lake and swallows him whole. In other tribes, the Rainbow Snake is female – Yingarna, the serpent from who’s body flowed all life at the beginning of the Dreamtime (Rembargna tribe) is described as a mother and female. Yet still in other tribes, the Rainbow Serpent can be both genders or is not gendered at all, and given this (and other characteristics which will be described later) we can guess that it really doesn’t matter as to whether the Rainbow Serpent is a ‘Goddess’ or a ‘God.’ 

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 that will attack and bring ill health and bad fortune if the sacred place is not correctly respected. Most tribes in the Kimberleys have Rainbow Serpents like this – calling them Wandjinas or Wanambis. In this case, the Wanambis are also children of THE Rainbow Snake – Ungud – and they helped create the world in the Dreamtime.

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 and New Zealand – are metaphorical accounts of people being swallowed by flood waters or being drowned in lakes and pools. Always, the Rainbow Serpent in these tales is given a reason to swallow the humans – although this reason can be as slight as a woman’s menstrual blood dripping on the soil by the sacred lake, or somebody breaking a taboo about eating certain food. Even the smell of burning food has been known to rouse the Serpent from its resting place and anger it, thus incurring its wrath (which may just have been a scare-tale to make women cook better food!) 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. (In the Kimberleys, Aborigines believe that each person has a sacred pool from which their soul came, and that this is linked to the Wanambis that guard the pools.) 

In this sense the Rainbow Snake bears a striking resemblance to the Native American kachina, Kokopelli – the oldest figure found in rock carvings almost 3000 years old throughout the southwestern United States. Kokopelli is also a water ‘spirit’, and he traditionally dances and plays his phallic flute in order to bring rain to fertilize the land. He is also associated with the fertility of humans. Interestingly, many people have associated the shape of the Rainbow Snake with the phallus as well, and this is backed up by some Aborigine rituals where the phallus is associated with the Rainbow Snake’s productive aspects. 

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.

• Aborigine Dreaming by James Cowan. Thorsons, 1992.
• Aboriginal Myths – Tales of the Dreamtime by A. W. Reed, Reed New Holland 2002.
• Aboriginal Tales of Australia by A. W. Reed, Reed New Holland 1998.
• The Rainbow Serpent by Charles E. Hulley, New Holland Publishers 1999.

Kim Huggens is a 21-year old eclectic Pagan who is currently studying MA Religious Studies at Cardiff University. She completed a BA Philosophy degree in June 2005, and is dead proud of it because her mother always told her she’d get a degree in arguing. 

Having an avid interest in mythology, Kim enjoys studying the religion and culture of various peoples around the world and from the past – she is currently interested in Aborigine and Vodou deities, as well as having a life-long love of the Celtic and Norse pantheons. Kim is also in the process of co-creating a Tarot deck that explores the many male deities, heroes, and legendary figures from around the world through the Tart archetypes. For more information see www.godtarot.com.