Why Doctors Still Carry the Snakes of Ancient Egypt

Walk into almost any hospital or medical office today and you will see it:
two intertwined snakes, wrapped around a staff or rod.

Most of us recognize the symbol immediately. Fewer of us ask where it came from — and almost no one traces it far enough back.

Its roots do not begin in modern science.
They begin in ancient Egypt, with a god named Heka.

To the ancient Egyptians, medicine was not separate from magic. In fact, the very idea would have made no sense. Healing was effective not because it was clinical, but because it activated a universal force that made things work. That force was called heka.

The word heka meant “magic,” but not in the theatrical or illusory sense we use today. It meant the activation of the ka — the vital power and influence that animated gods, humans, objects, and even words. A spell, a prescription, and a prayer all drew from the same source.

Heka was the god who embodied that power.

He was not simply a god who used magic. He was magic itself — a force older than creation, feared even by the gods. According to Egyptian belief, the universe was created through heka, sustained by heka, healed through heka, and ultimately survived eternity through heka.

Because healing required access to this power, Egyptian doctors were not merely physicians. They were known as “Priests of Heka.” Their work combined observation, treatment, ritual, and spoken words — all methods designed to activate the same underlying force.

This is where the snakes enter the story.

The hieroglyph for Heka’s name features a twisted element held between raised arms. Visually, it also resembles two entwined serpents, and Egyptian texts describe Heka as one who conquered serpents — creatures long associated with danger, renewal, and transformation.

From this symbolism emerged an emblem: two intertwined snakes, representing controlled power, balance, and healing. This image became associated with Heka’s priesthood and, by extension, with medicine itself.

In ancient Egypt, snakes were not simply dangerous animals. They shed their skin, renewed themselves, and moved between worlds — earth and underworld, life and death. To master the serpent was to master transformation. To bind two serpents together was to harness opposing forces into balance.

Healing, after all, is exactly that.

When an Egyptian physician treated a patient, they were not fighting illness alone. They were invoking heka — calling upon the same power that sustained the gods, protected the sun on its nightly journey, and guided the dead safely through the afterlife.

Over centuries, this symbol traveled. Cultures changed. Language shifted. Religion transformed. But the image endured.

Today, modern doctors practice evidence-based medicine, guided by anatomy, chemistry, and technology that ancient Egyptians could never have imagined. And yet, the symbol that represents their profession still carries two ancient snakes — a quiet acknowledgment that healing has always required more than tools alone.

Even now, medicine demands trust, belief, intention, and care. A prescription is still a kind of ritual. A diagnosis still carries spoken power. A doctor’s presence still matters.

The ancients understood something we are only beginning to articulate again:
that healing is not only mechanical — it is relational, symbolic, and deeply human.

In that sense, every modern doctor is walking a path first laid down thousands of years ago by the Priests of Heka.

They may no longer call it magic.

But the symbol on the wall remembers.

Note: This blog is dedicated to Dr. Joe Agnew who has influenced me in more ways than I can describe. I am grateful Dr. Joe!!

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