species, we come across highly similar mythical images and symbols full of meaning and associative power.
The serpent is a good example of this universal symbology. It is found in the religious mythology of the Maya and the Aztecs (who worshipped Quetzalcoatl—the Feathered Serpent); the ancient Egyptians (the headdresses of the pharaohs incorporated the viper as a symbol of wisdom and intellect); the Australian aborigines (who worshipped the Rainbow Serpent); and the ancient peoples of India (who worshipped Nagas, literally wise serpents). Serpent mythology is also found in the ancient epic of Gilgamesh (a serpent tells of a mythical plant that can confer immortality) and in the Eden of the Old Testament (the wise but feared serpent who offers forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge). More often than not, the serpent symbolizes a wise, divine, or spiritual life force or deity.
As we are on the subject of serpentine motifs, here is a relevant description of mine in which I describe some typical visions instigated by the mushroom.
Once, I remember seeing huge serpentine coils piled up upon one another and somehow turning as if the cogs of some organic machine. Then I found myself gliding toward a flexuous off-white mass which for the life of me I could not comprehend. This rippled white stuff was everywhere, and I was being drawn into it, suffocating almost as it surrounded me.
Suddenly, seeing this mass close up, I realised what it was. It was convoluted brain tissue. Spongy white cortical tissue, fold after fold of it. This was the immense brain of some mythical Serpent related, I thought, to Gaia. I felt that I was seeing a visual representation of the powerful intelligence of the Earth itself, the “Earth Brain” as it were.
The scene then changed and I found myself touring a building that was made of both artery-laced flesh and conventional material. Each room seemed to have a particular biological function. It was most bizarre. I appeared to be inside a kind of visceral architecture that was breathing gases, pumping oceans of blood, and digesting vast vats of food.
In fact, such visionary motifs indicating the fusion of man-made architecture with biological structure were repeated a number of times. I often perceived stately homes and palaces—or rather I would be gliding gracefully through such palatial places—and always, the woodwork, like the banisters, wall panels, or staircases, would reveal themselves to be made of the body of a living creature. To be precise, I perceived that these buildings were woven from the jewelled body of the Serpent. Everything was alive, all was part of one animate, constructing entity. And if I saw human figures in any of these scenes, they too were formed out of the transmutating body of the Serpent. Everything in these scenes had the stamp of the Serpent’s hide upon them, in that a kind of pulsating grid of luminescent lines and scaly jewels pervaded every object.{30}
Serpent motifs might be universal because, as with other mythical symbols, they represent stable, organized concentrations of information. A symbol, such as the mythical Serpent, embodies a large set of relations or, to be more specific, it is the point where a huge web of psychological relations converge. To fully understand the symbol is to sense at once all of its relations to other objects of perceptual experience. In other words, visual symbols play a role in a psychological language. (Here, I again invoke the concept of language since language is essentially an informational system not restricted to words alone. Language, in the abstract way in which I refer to it, is a system of informational elements bearing definite relations with one another; hence a language of words, of molecules, of symbols, and so forth.)
Universally powerful visionary symbols can be thought of as
In the metaphorical and visual language emanating from the most integrated information processing of the human psyche, the serpent therefore appears to be a significant “word” or icon, itself derived from the natural environment. There are many such universally potent icons derived from the natural environment. Try now, if you would, to imagine in glorious Technicolor a volcano erupting, a butterfly emerging from its pupa, or a hand reaching into a flame. Further imagine all of the ways that potent symbolic images like these could be meaningfully put together by some agency dissociated from the self or ego to convey some message or idea to us. And finally, imagine an informationally rich creation like this being experienced directly by one’s consciousness with no interference whatsoever. Here we begin to understand what the shamanic visionary experience is like, that it consists essentially of a communication transmitted in the higher language expressed by the Other, a language of symbols embodied in animated imagery.
See What I Mean?
Seeing, it seems, is the most direct form of perception. This is why one comes to “see the truth.” It also explains why art is powerful. A great painting is unworded yet it may well speak volumes to us. Visual symbols and images can be truly effective in their capacity to inform. It is in this sense that I refer to a higher language of the psyche, a language not of words but of concentrations of information visibly beheld.
To really see something is to see what something really means, and to see what something really means is to instantly access all of its inherent relations to other things. To see a powerful symbol, whether in a shamanic vision, a dream, or a spiritual piece of art, is to behold a concentration of information, a supercondensed concrescence of meaning.
The idea then is that very large amounts of information can cohere and coalesce into symbols, and, since all brains work in the same way, universal symbols might emerge in a language of symbols, just as universal expressions and meanings emerge in all worded languages. But it should be stressed that universal symbols are related to real objects in the shared world. Even if they are not deified, snakes, for example, are generally at least feared the world over, and for good reason, since their venom can prove fatal. This automatically means that the real-world snake is going to be a good candidate for playing a role as a universal symbol wherever symbol- generating processes arise.
Designer Symbols, Designer Visions
In the case of entheogenic visions (or dreams), it might well be that they contain not only universal symbols, but culturally determined symbols that can be fully understood and appreciated only on a personal level. In the case of much of South American shamanism, like that practiced by the ayahuasca-using Tukanoan Indians of Colombia, we do indeed find culturally determined symbology in the visions experienced by the shamans, often related to powerful and revered jungle creatures like the jaguar, as well as the ubiquitous serpent. These Tukanoan shamans also experience imagery related to their particular brand of cosmology, which is known and fostered by all members of the tribe. An analysis of the varied pieces of artwork inspired by their psychedelic visionary experiences reveals a striking commonality, for the Indians invariably portray the spiritual entities encountered in the same way and in the same style. This clearly testifies to the culture-bound nature of their visions; that is, they experience one particular kind of visionary dialogue with the Other.
From the perspective of the informational approach being taken here, such culturally determined visionary dialogues still result from information integration within the psychedelically altered brain, with the attendant fact that the information used in the visionary communication derives, in part, from the shamans’ personal store of knowledge. Because these native South Americans share the same culture and experience the same environmental forces, certain symbols and images will be highly significant to them in a way that an outsider would not be able to fully understand. It appears then that, in common with spoken language, there exist regional
