Before our globe had become egg-shaped or round it was a long trail of cosmic dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a serpent. This, say the explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos until its breath had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its month—emblem of eternity in its spiritual and of our world in its physical sense.

Secret Teachings of All Ages (ed. 2005)