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Basilisk & Cockatrice Symbolism & Meaning

Looking to take the lead in a situation? Want to visualize a path forward in your life? Basilisk, as a Spirit, Totem, and Power Animal, can help! Basilisk helps you tap into your innate skills while showing you how to envision your dreams! Delve deeply into Basilisk symbolism and meaning to find out how this Animal Spirit Guide can embolden, strengthen, and empower you!

Basilisk & Cockatrice Table of Contents

Basilisk & Cockatrice Symbolism & Meaning

Basilisk is a hybrid between a Rooster and a Snake in European mythology. Other titles for the creature include “Basiliscus,” “Sibilus,” “Basiliscu,” and “Baselicoc.” “Basilisk” in Latin is “Regulus,” meaning “Prince,” and comes from the Greek “Basiliskos,” meaning “Little King.” The mythic creature has the power to kill anything with a single look, and therefore, hosts similar features to the gorgon Medusa, who kills anyone unfortunate to look upon her face. One may wonder if the Basilisk is the root of the expression, “If looks could kill.” But what is certain is the creature serves a symbol for negative emotions and The Evil Eye.

There’re similarities between Basilisk and the Dragon’s fire-breathing abilities. Tales link Cockatrice to the Basilisk, but the Cockatrice comes from a Cockerel egg tended by a Toad or Serpent, which is the opposite of how the Basilisk emerges into the world. With real-world creatures, Basilisk shares attributes with Anaconda and the Titanoboa, primarily because of their frightening size.

Pliny the Elder wrote of the Basilisk in “Naturalis Historia” (Natural History), describing it as a small snake being about the length of twelve fingers and poisonous. Basilisk leaves a trail of its venom behind it as it moves; it has a diadem-shaped white spot on its head and lives in the ground. Its habitat is identifiable by the “scorched” grass, shrubs, and broken rocks surrounding it. The creature burns everything with its noxious breath as it creates its hideaway.

Weasel is the antidote to the Basilisk; when it enters the Basilisk’s hole, the serpent-like creature detects the Weasel’s odor. But, the Weasel dies after its encounter for reasons Pliny writes as the result of turning Nature on itself.

In the early 1200s, the English theologian, Alexander Neckam, wrote the Basilisk killed by corrupting the air and not through its evil glare. By the thirteenth century, the Basilisk had ties to Alchemy because of stories telling of its use to transform silver into gold attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, although spuriously. The tales of the continue Basilisk evolve, giving the creature more dangerous abilities. Some legends have it the creature, like the Dragon, can breathe fire, while others suggest it has the power to take the life of anyone with its voice; this links the Basilisk to the Fire and Air Elements.

Per the writings of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, a fifteenth-century magician, the Basilisk is always male because it is the “proper receptacle” for its destructive qualities and poisonous nature, and the creature’s blood links to the planetary influences of Saturn.

Basilisk & Cockatrice Spirit Animal

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Basilisk arrives as your Spirit Animal when you’ve been ignoring the needs of your Shadow Self. You carry within you the seeds of your undoing unless you allow the Shadow Self some breathing room and self-expression. If you’ve been dealing with someone who intends to do you harm, Basilisk comes to your aid by providing you with the strength and wherewithal to endure.

If someone disrespects you, Basilisk emerges to help you create marked boundaries in the “sand.” No one dares cross the restrictions this creature enforces, so working with its energetic signature allows you an appropriate line of defense.

If you are looking to merge your lower and higher natures so you can live in balance, Basilisk comes to your aid to help you achieve harmony. Basilisk may also enter your life when someone is trying to push you into something you don’t want to do or corrupt you; the Spirit Animal can help you ensure you stick to your principles and never compromise your integrity.

Basilisk & Cockatrice Totem Animal

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If you have Basilisk as a Totem Animal, you are a natural-born leader with a noble nature. You shine in every circle and are always the center of attention. You prefer working alone but can lead a group along the road of success.

With this creature as your Totem, you’re brazen and wild, but always self-confident and assured. You move at your own will and pace. You prefer the summer months out of all seasons.

With Basilisk as a Totem Animal, you’ll have to mind your words. Words carry destructive power, even when you don’t mean them too. Likewise, you need to temper every action you make to avoid excessive pride leading to ruin. Check out Snake and Rooster Symbolism and Meanings for additional symbolic insights.

Basilisk & Cockatrice Power Animal

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Call on Basilisk when you want to envision a path forward free of obstacles; Basilisk burns away whatever stands in your way! When you want to be independent and successful, Invoke Basilisk to provide you with the stamina and strength, you need to achieve your goals.

Petition Basilisk when you’re looking to gain control over your darker nature and desires; Basilisk may pose a threat to everything around it, but it never succumbs to its own noxious fumes. You can depend upon Basilisk to back you up when you need protection from negative energies, which is something this creature can just burn away!

Greek Basilisk & Cockatrice Symbolic Meanings

The Basilisk is born when a Cockerel tends to a Toad or Serpent egg. Its most unadulterated form is that of a Serpent. Later, European depictions began merging the features of the Serpent to a Cockerel. When this creature hisses, it sends all the snakes in the area on the run.

So toxic is the venom of this mythic oddity, Pliny writes that if a man on horseback were to run a spear through it, even if successful in making a kill strike, the creature’s venom runs straight up the spearhead to poison, not just the man holding the weapon, but the horse he rides.

Cantabrian Basilisk & Cockatrice Symbolic Meanings

In Pre-Roman Celtic Mythology, there’s the Basiliscu born from an egg an old Cock lays right before it dies. Several days pass after it lays the fragile egg; what lies within receives little protection from its shell because it is leathery and soft, much like an eggshell after being soaked in boiling water and vinegar; this has the young Basiliscu linked to emotional or physical vulnerabilities one needs to identify and resolve.

An adult Basiliscu opens the egg to release the Basiliscu. In fact, an Adult Basiliscu and the Weasel are the only creatures that can welcome the newborn, as anyone else who gazes upon it will die because of its fiery gaze; the Weasel’s odor kills it but so does the crowing of a Rooster.
The event occurs on a full moon at midnight on a clear night, linking the Basiliscu mysteries and illusions. Later, writers add the star Sirius must be in the Ascendant for the Basilisk to emerge; in Sanskrit, Sirius is the “Chieftain’s Star.” Sirius Ascendant marks the hottest time of the year relating to the Basilisk’s ability to scorch everything with its noxious presence.

Some stories suggest, like Medusa, one can kill the Basilisk by forcing it to view itself in a mirror. Basiliscu is born at midnight and dies when the Rooster crows at dawn; this symbolizes the concepts of extremes, time outside of time, between spaces, transitions, and light winning out over darkness.

Basilisk & Cockatrice Dreams

If you see a Basilisk looking at itself in a mirror, it’s time to embrace your Shadow Self and to discover any repressed emotions you haven’t dealt with yet. When the Basilisk crawls into a hole in your dream, you’ve been burying your head in the sand whenever something bad happens in life, instead of facing everything head-on.

When Basilisk appears newly born, you might find yourself vulnerable on an emotional or physical level; the dream calls for a heightening of your awareness. If you dream of the Basilisk glaring at you, it means the solution to problems in the waking world is so obvious, it is staring you right in the face.

Basilisk Symbolic Meanings Key

  • Alchemy
  • Confidence
  • Endurance
  • Nobility
  • Pride
  • Protection
  • Shadow-Self
  • Strength
  • Transformation
  • Will