Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

SERPENT DAHĀKA

A symbol of the unreal astro-mental lower principle, or illusion of the manasic function and sense of separateness.

“Thraetona (Fredūn) of the Hero tribe, who smote the Serpent (Ashi) Dahaka which had three mouths, three heads, six eyes, a thousand spies; which was of enormous strength, a devastator of the settlements, and what was a destroyer which Angra Mainyush produced in the material world for the destruction of the settlements of righteousness." - Homa Yasht, HAUG, Essays.

“Thraetona or Fredun from the Hero tribe" signifies that the Third Divine outpouring is a Conqueror from the Celestial hierarchies, and he gives the deathblow to illusion. The “Serpent Dahaka" is the sense of separateness which continues to ensnare until the soul has advanced considerably; hence the strength required to circumvent it is great. The three mouths are Lust, Envy, and Greed; the "three heads," Ignorance, Falsity, and Pride; the "six eyes” are various perceptive functions. The "spies” are symbolic of limitation, i.e. the inclination to trust in the "flesh" instead of the Spirit. The great creator of illusion-the astro-mental Serpent "is said to devastate the soul, inasmuch as it is the cause of the sense of desolation, emptiness, and satiety, which follows the protracted employment of the sense-nature and lower mind. The desire-mind (Angra Mainyush) is the great creator of this illusory principle, and it is only after it has fully functioned and disappeared, that the planes below it which have been used for the evolution of righteousness, can be said to be destroyed.

See Also

ANGRA-MAINYU
APOSTATES
CONQUEROR
ILLUSION
NERYOSANG
SEPARATENESS
SETTLEMENTS
THRAETONA