Originally Posted by
CFTraveler
IMO that is only metaphor. The Holy Spirit is also seen as a flaming descending entity, and the symptoms are identical.
The serpent as a negative is a relatively recent addition to the collective unconscious, and since it's context-specific (to the abrahamic religions) I don't think it's as valid as the other possible interpretations- a symbol of fertility (because they dig holes and eat bugs), a symbol of Kundalini in the Indian subcontinent, and as a symbol of deity in most of asia and all precolumbian America.
Pardon the grammar, I'm on my way out and am typing fast.