Each head of the Hydra is separate, with its distinct thoughts. The Hydra may also appear to you as a Spirit Animal Guide when a situation requires different perspectives or viewpoints. Hydra arrives with the message, “There’s trouble in the water, so pay attention!” The appearance of the creature suggests a period where you’ll need to remain on your toes and heighten your awareness. When multiple problems are heading in your direction, the Hydra may appear as a Spirit Animal to warn you ahead of time. With its various depictions across time, Hydra symbolizes shapeshifting abilities, glamoury, and the superficiality or transient nature of physical appearances. A few stories tell of the Hydra having feet and wings. Lore suggests Hydra’s breath is poisonous to anyone who breathes in the vapors. Hydra symbolizes rapid renewal and regeneration when one of the creature’s heads is cut off, one or more heads grow back immediately. Number nine symbolizes the Moon’s influential energies, patterns, instincts, and synchronicities. Seven represents the planetary influence of Venus and emotional reaction. The number five symbolizes the five physical senses, the four Elements and Akasha or Spirit, magic, the planetary influence of Mars, and active energy. Most stories depict the Hydra with five, seven, or nine heads, but there are tales depicting the Hydra with one hundred or more heads. In every instance, the Hydra has one immortal head, thereby connecting the creature to immortality. The number of heads a Hydra has varies on the story, but the number is something worth considering for its numerological value. It also serves as the physical embodiment of the Masculine and Feminine Forces. Because Hydra is chimerical, it symbolizes opposing forces, paradoxes, and duality. Along with Cerberus, Hydra’s siblings include the Chimera, Orthos, the Sphinx, and the Nemean Lion. The Hydra, like its siblings, is a Chimera and the child of Echidna, a Half-Snake, Half-Woman, and Typhoeus, a Gargantuan-sized Serpent. As a Guardian of the Underworld Gates, Hydra represents transformation, death, change, transitions, and Karmic repercussions. It’s likely the tale confuses the Hydra with one of its siblings, the Three-Headed Dog, Cerberus, the “Hound of Hades,” who guards the Underworld while preventing the deceased from returning to the realm of the living. The body of the Hydra is serpentine in appearance, but there is at least one tale describing the creature having the shape of an enormous Dog.
The creature’s titles are myriad, including “Hydra Lernaina,” “Exedra,” or the “Lernaean Hydra.” “Hydra” stems from the feminine form of the Greek word “Hydros,” meaning “water snake,” so immediately, the connection between the creature and the Water Element is clear.
Hydra is a mythic monstrosity that lives in the Lake of Lerna: The abysmal, dark, and treacherous body of water in Argolis, which, in ancient times, was understood as The Underworld’s entrance. The Hydra of Lerna (Lernaea) is a Snake or Dragon-like creature with multiple heads in Greco-Roman Mythology.