Or it could be a recreation of the myth of the androgyne – two beings becoming one. She gets to the island, takes off her clothes, leaving behind any sign of her profane existence, and here they both recreate the exemplary model of the primordial couple. The last part of the novel comes as a result of Dorina passing Andronic’s trials, gaining thus access to a mysterious island in the middle of the monastery’s lake – an axis mundi, where the Heavens connect with the Earth. Andronic is a piece of sacred space, a hierophany manifesting inside the profane. The way Andronic places everybody, in order to help his magical ritual that summons the snake, is a perfect example of cyclical time – twelve people arranged in a circle, with Andronic in the middle. The snake appears here as a symbol of primordial unity, the endless cycle of time and the mythical return to origins. Once the games are over, the action moves back to the monastery and here, Andronic starts his magical act – the summoning of the snake. Here, he gives the participants the chance to turn into reality the desires normally repressed, everything happening in the middle of a most complicit environment.

Once they reach the monastery, Andronic comes with a game idea that gradually transforms into a frantic rite of passage trial, deep in the dark of the forest. But, on the way there they meet Andronic and here is where the linear time moves into the territory of cyclical time and sometimes even timelessness. After a short party held at their home in Fierbinti, they decide to visit Caldarusani monastery and spend the night there. The narration follows Solomon family, in their attempt to marry their daughter, Dorina.

In my own opinion, this is a novel of erotic awakening. I don’t even know where to begin with this one – there are so many symbols it makes it impossible to shortly explain the complexity of this novel. A great example of Eliade’s prose where you can observe the passage from profane to sacred.

Șarpele by Mircea Eliade