The power of life causes the snake to shed its skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow.
The serpent sheds its skin to be born again, as the moon its shadow to be born again. They are
equivalent symbols. Sometimes the serpent is represented as a circle eating its own tail. That's an
image of life. Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. There is something
tremendously terrifying about life when you look at it that way. And so the serpent carries in
itself the sense of both fascination and the terror of life.
Furthermore, the serpent represents the primary function of life, mainly eating. Life
consists in eating other creatures. The serpent is a traveling alimentary canal, that's about all it is.
And it gives you that primary sense of shock, of life in its most primal quality. There is not
arguing with that animal at all. Life lives by killing and eating itself, casting off death and being
reborn, like the moon.
[Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myths with Bill Moyers. New York, Doubleday, 1988 pdf]
This was then.
And this is now:
If indefinite lifespan is on the cusp, would people really want to live forever?
And if they do, what would that mean for the world?
