Replete with stories about slayers of dragons or of gigantic serpents is the legendary literature of many nations. All such tall tales tell allegorically about an experience through which, on the road to perfection, each human soul must pass. In the universal language of symbolism a serpent or dragon represents the human lower nature – and particularly, often exclusively, the sexual tendencies. The legends triumphant hero is the human being who accomplishes the Conquest of the Serpent and thereby gains access to golden treasure, or to a magic spring, or to a royal princess – all of which, as symbols in mystic lore, stand for the most valuable possession which a person can acquire: the spiritual consciousness of one’s higher nature. Thus do the legends symbolically express the eternal truth: that only those who overcome their lower nature, and free themselves from the drive of sex, can reach the matchless felicity of conscious at-one -ment with their higher Self.