Fear or Procreation! What Might the Monster Rock Snake Represent?
Pacing off size
©Bert Gildart: Five-hundred years from now – after man has rebounded from a devastating decline in population associated with much tragic and social unrest — archaeologists will reemerge to wonder about those who lived in the distant past. (Come on, play along for a minute.)
They begin by excavating, and because deserts are always so productive, lo and behold, they begin in Anza Borrego. Here, they find a rock or two whose juxtaposition appears to have been created intentionally.
“Eureka!” someone exclaims! And then they begin the tedious process of uncovering the entire structure.
Months later, a form will appear, and scientists will conclude that it was the recreation of a huge snake.
In fact, with its triangular shaped head and segmented tail (all created with the artistic arrangement of rocks) it appears to be a rattlesnake.
120 Foot-Long Serpent
Measurements will determine the sinuous form of the snake stretches about 40 feet but that if uncoiled, it would measure 120-feet long.
Much time must have to have been devoted to the project, perhaps, scholars will conclude, four or five hours. But, then, to perfect the structure, these people had to return over a period of several days, perhaps even weeks. And because so much time was involved our future scientist will have to wonder if Homo sapiens of the period deified the snake?
Searching for answers scholars will dig into books created by the ancients of the year 2012, and they will learn that Native Americans of the mid-18th Century (as an example) created images of the creatures that were important to them at the time. In this place still called Anza Borrego they created symbols of the sun and of the anthropomorphs.
They created graphic images of the genitalia of men and woman perhaps as a means of increasing fertility. And in other areas still preserved in lands yet known (we can hope) as National Parks, they learned Native ancients created images of sheep, possibly because sheep (Zion NP)had died out. They hoped that through the creation of their images that they would generate the magic needed to bring sheep back, and so push back hunger. (Other petroglyph sites I’ve visited: Earth Mother, V-Bar-V)
In other words, they carved out pictographs and petroglyphs for all sorts of reasons, generally for reasons that seemed important at the time.
Which brings us to our snake.
Worship of Snakes
Serpents have long been worshiped, because they shed their skins and are symbolically “reborn.” In fact, classes of the Hindu and Buddhist have worshipped (and still worship) snakes – and very large ones at that. And, so, it is probably safe to extend the feeling of awe for snakes to Homo sapiens at large. And because of recent events, so it is here at Pegleg. Just the other day someone saw a large rattler in the hills just behind us.
Through the eons, many have worshipped snakes
I honestly have no idea who created the huge serpent, but the reasons could be associated with some of the above. Perhaps it was an infertile couple desirous of procreation; a group hoping for immunity from a bite. Or perhaps as scientist say, no one really knows why the ancients created the thousands of pictographs and petroglyphs that cover the American Southwest. “Maybe,” our scholars say, “they were simply doodling, trying to pass the time on a warm winter day.
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AIRSTREAM TRAVELS THREE YEARS AGO:
*Airstreaming Along the Blue Ridge Parkway
