The History of The Caduceus Symbol

As a symbol for medicine, the caduceus is often used interchangeably with the Rod of Asclepius (single snake, no wings), although learned opinion prefers the Rod of Asclepius, reserving the caduceus for representing commerce.

Historically, the two astrological symbols had distinct meanings in alchemical and astrological principles. Some medical organizations join the serpents of the caduceus with rungs to suggest a DNA double-helix.

Who was Asclepius?
Asclepius was most probably a skilled physician who practiced in Greece around 1200BC (and described in Homer's Iliad). Eventually through myth and legend he came to be worshiped as Asclepius, the (Greek) God of Healing.

Healers and those in need of healing invoked Asclepius' name in prayer and healing ceremonies in temples and at home. A healing clan known as the Asclepiads claimed to be the descendants of Asclepius and to have inherited a knowledge and mystical power of healing from him.

The Myth: Asclepius is the God of Healing.
Asclepius is the son of Apollo and the nymph, Coronis. While pregnant with Asclepius, Coronis secretly took a second, mortal lover. When Apollo found out, he sent Artemis to kill her. While burning on the funeral pyre, Apollo felt pity and rescued the unborn child from the corpse.

Asclepius was taught about medicine and healing by the wise centaur, Cheiron, and became so skilled in it that he succeeded in bringing one of his patients back from the dead. Zeus felt that the immortality of the Gods was threatened and killed the healer with a thunderbolt. At Apollo's request, Asclepius was placed among the stars as Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer.

The probable medical origin of the single serpent around a rod:
In ancient times infection by parasitic worms was common. The filarial worm Dracunculus medinensis aka "the fiery serpent", aka "the dragon of Medina" aka "the guinea worm" crawled around the victim's body, just under the skin.

Physicians treated this infection by cutting a slit in the patient's skin, just in front of the worm's path. As the worm crawled out the cut, the physician carefully wound the pest around a stick until the entire animal had been removed.

It is believed that because this type of infection was so common, physicians advertised their services by displaying a sign with the worm on a stick.

The Staff as a Medical Symbol:
From the early 16th century onwards, the staff of Asclepius and the caduceus of Hermes were widely used as printers' marks, and later in pharmacopoeias (pharmacy's) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Over time the rod and serpent emerged as an independent symbol of medicine.

Despite the unequivocal claim of the staff of Asclepius to represent medicine (and healing), the caduceus, a rod with two entwined serpents topped by a pair of wings appears to be the more popular symbol of medicine in the United States, probably due to simple confusion between the caduceus and the staff of Asclepius, the true symbol of medicine. Many people use the word caduceus to mean both of these emblems.

Reproduced with permission from: www.drblayney.com/Asclepius


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The Greek God Hermes, found his counterpart in Egypt as the ancient Wisdom god Thoth, as Taaut of the Phoenicians and in Rome as the god Mercury (all linked with a magic rod with twin snakes).

The Myth:
The mythical origin of his magic twin serpent caduceus is described in the story of Tiresias. Poulenc, the "Les Mamelles de Tiresias" (The Breasts of Tiresias) tells how Tiresias- the seer who was so unhelpful to Oedipus and Family- found two snakes copulating, and to separate them stuck his staff between them. Immediately he was turned into a woman, and remained so for seven years, until he was able to repeat his action, and change back to male.

The transformative power in this story, strong enough to completely reverse even physical polarities of male and female, comes from the union of the two serpents, passed on by the wand. Tiresias' staff, complete with serpents, was later passed on to Hermes...

Occult Hermetic Connection:
An occult description of the Caduceus of Hermes (Mercury) is that the serpents may represent positive and negative kundalini as it moves through the chakras and around the spine (the staff) to the head where it communicates with the MIND by intellection, the domain of Mercury [wings].

Caduceus Power Wand:
This wand is sold at occult, new age & witchcraft stores such as Abaxion with descriptions such as

"It's central phallic rod represents the potentiality of the masculine, and is intimately surrounded by the writhing, woven shakti energies of two coupling serpents. The rod also represents the spine [sushumna] while the serpents conduct spiritual currents [pranas] along the ida and pingala channels in a double helix pattern from the chakra at the base of the spine up to the pineal gland".

According to occultists, there are three principal "nadis" or channels, in the human body. The Sushumna (the spinal column through which the life-forces flow), by which energy enters and leaves the body, the Ida (refreshment and stimulation of spirit), which is associated with the higher mind or manas and the Pingala, (reddish-brown), associated with karma or the force of desire.

(G. de Purucker "Man in Evolution" ch. 15 & 16; and "Fountain-Source of Occultism", pp. 458-63).

The Hermetic Arts:
There are few names to which more diverse persons and disciplines lay claim than the term "Hermetic". Alchemists have applied the adjective "Hermetic" to their art, while magicians attach the name to their ceremonies of evocation and invocation.

The most abiding impact of Hermeticism on Western culture came about by way of the occult tradition. Renaissance occultism, with its alchemy, astrology, ceremonial magic, and occult medicine, became saturated with the teachings of the Hermetic books. This content has remained a permanent part of the occult transmissions of the West, and, along with Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, represents the foundation of all the major Western occults.

The Caduceus as a Medical Symbol:
The link between Hermes, his caduceus and medicine seems to have arisen by Hermes links with alchemy. Alchemists were referred to as the sons of Hermes, as Hermetics or Hermeticists and as "practitioners of the hermetic arts".

By the end of the sixteenth century, the study of alchemy included not only medicine and pharmaceuticals but chemistry, mining and metallurgy.

Despite learned opinion that it is the single snake staff of Asclepius that is the proper symbol of medicine, many medical groups have adopted the twin serpent caduceus of Hermes or Mercury as a medical symbol during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Like the staff of Asclepius, the caduceus became associated with medicine through its use as a printer's mark, as printers saw themselves as messengers of the printed word and diffusers of knowledge (hence the choice of the symbol of the messenger of the ancient gods).

A major reason for the current popularity of the caduceus as a medical symbol was its ill-informed official adoption as the insignia for the Medical Department of the United States Army in 1902.

Reproduced with permission from: www.drblayney.com/Asclepius