Python

Five occurences.

And raise a lost Power from its python sleep
— Book 1 Canto 4

The python coils of the restricting Law
Could not restrain the swift arisen God:
— Book 1 Canto 5

Or gave to a python Force persuasive speech
— Book 2 Canto 7

He was alone with the grey python Night.
— Book 2 Canto 7

The python was the serpent that watched over the oracle of Delphi and whom Apollo, the god we associate with the Mind of Light, slew. (For the Mind of Light, refer to The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, Part 5.)

Based on the symbolism of the consonants constituting its name (Pi and Thêta, Π Θ), python must be the movement that stabilises and therefore stops the evolution of the inner being. The association of sleep with the cessation of evolution is a symbol commonly referred to in spiritual literature: such are, for example, the ordinary men who ‘sleep’ as opposed to the ’the awakened ones’.

Generally speaking, python is a guardian who prevents evolutionary progress and access to either the higher worlds of light or the worlds of darkness and night.