From: eshin@ddsw1.mcs.com (Eshin-Fun)
Subject: OPHIOLATRY/re:serpent
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 03:14:15 GMT
Expires: Sun, 1 Nov 1992 06:00:00 GMT
Organization: ddsw1.MCS.COM Contributor, Chicago IL
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3


                   "dixit auatem serpens ad mulierem
                      `nequamquam morte moriemini
                   scit enim Deus quod in quocumque
                         die comederitis ex eo
                aperientur oculi vestri et eritis sicut
                   dii scientes bonum et malum.'..."
[translation:]
                 "And the serpent said unto the woman
                       `Surely ye shall not die
                           for God doth know
                    that in the day you eat thereof
          then, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
                  gods, knowing good and evil.'....."
[biblia sacra VULGATA, gen3,v4,5]


                      OPHIOLATRY/serpent worship

It would be futile to pretend a full discourse on Ophiolatry on the
net, as the subject sustains so many references, and evidences of
this universal phenomena found so diversely throughout the world
that it could easily monopolize the thread ad nauseam.

So my efforts, shall vaguely scan the subject in an effort to
inspire that Ophiolatric student into further research of his/her
own.

The question posed is, what does the serpent mean? Why is it that
this symbol haunts us apparently in *every* religion? What
significance is there in its multiform of guises? Why does it
sometimes is it described to be large, others small, sometimes
fiery, plumed, grotesque etc.? This serpentine divinity, is all too
familiar to us and reaches out of our subconscious to plague
humanity in a myriad of diversified emotions.

Indeed, to this day from remote prehistory, the serpent has been
found by both men and women as provocative, sensuous, horrifying
and repulsive. It can be found profusely as part of divine statuary
either in the hands, arms or at the feet of gods or just lurking
behind, in front or even wrapped around the god themselves. It is
indisputable that it *is* an universal symbol that raises the
curiosity of >why<?

When Cleopatra VII [the famous last monarch of Egypt] poisoned
herself with an asp, this small viper represented Egypt itself.
The Nile river runs in an apparent serpentine linear direction,
emptying into its delta in north eastern Africa where the Egyptians
called "lower Egypt". Cleopatra VII fancied herself the embodiment
of Isis, a mother goddess. In mimicry of this maternity she was the
divine mother of Egypt and by breast feeding the viper she gave
that last possession he had left. Her life, so Egypt could live!

Yet in Thebes, in the clandestine halls of the "Chosen of Places"
[Ipet-isut] now more popularly called Karnak, priests daily went
through a ritual in which the destruction of the serpent Apep was
eminent. In effigy Apep was dismembered, stomped upon, spat and
burned to assure the safe passage of the god of light.[Ra]. The
difference being that Apep, and the uraeus were two different kinds
of serpent.

The Israelites wrote of the serpent as the "most subtle than any
beast of the field", seductive, and cursed. Yet only three books
later [Numbers chap 21,v6,8,9] the image of a brazen serpent is
hung up by Moses at God's direction, to *heal* the afflicted
Israelites of the infectious bites of "fiery serpents."

In the same tone, the Sumerians, the Babylonian and Assyrian held
this creature in a duality of both "good and evil" aspects.
The Greeks, the Phoenicians etc. borrowed the dual aspect in
opposing directions from the goddess Tanit's symbol that preceded
a caduceus.

At the foot of Athena was a large python coiled ready to strike?
The Delphic temple of Apollo housed a priestess called the
pythoness whose sole purpose was to interpret the divine oracles
by smelling soporific fumes from a hole in the ground.
Zeus, Hera, and a number of others had their serpent too.

No Roman Lararium was found that did not sport the figure of a
serpent beckoning at the feet of an offering usually painted on the
back wall of this spirit sanctuary.

But whether you study the Norse, the Asiatic, the Meso American or
any one else, there seems to be a parallel that perhaps bonds all
races of mankind in a seeming unity of symbolism that Jung probably
in frustration of his analysis simply coined "Universal
Subconscious".

Studying the serpent we find that the serpent is identified with
the soul, the dead and latent power of a god, before its
anthropomorphic imagery.

The serpent is identified with the sun, the moon stars and cosmos. 

It is identified with the wind, and hidden things.

The serpent represents wisdom, divine wisdom, evil, desire and sex.
It is identified with exoteric phallic worship as well as esoteric
spirituality and magic. The serpent represents immortality and
divine destiny.

In a word, emotion. That quality that makes us all human,
regardless of station or gender. If we are frightened by it,
perhaps because we are most frightened by the reality of ourselves.

Many are the stories that abound of the serpent's relationship to
mankind. All seem to have in common a traumatic incident to which
legend and prayer extol its relationship.

In one of the magic papyri, Helios is invoked as "Thou who rises
from the four winds, thou friendly good daemon,[the word in greek
daemon which has been corrupted today to mean demon in reality
means simply "spirit"] glittering Helios, shining over the whole
earth, thou art the great serpent who leads these gods."

The texts of the magical papyri are always authentic invocations
and prayers, hallowed and made magically effective by their use in
various cults. These are the texts underlying the commentaries of
the literary authors.
Macrobius [Saturnalia,I,20,3.] for example, endeavors to explain
why the sun is represented as a serpent.

Like the snake, which sheds its skin and becomes young again, the
sun grows old when it sets and rises again with new youth, The name
of the snake also points to the sun; for the word for snake in
greek [I don't have a greek font here] was believed to derive from
the greek word which means "to see", Snakes were said to have
particularly sharp eyesight, [this is not true, as snakes actually
have very poor eyesight]so representing the all seeing eye of the
sun. Perhaps this is from the fact that snakes have no lids and
therefore never blink or shut their eyes giving the impression to
be perpetually watchful of everything that goes on. Because of this
serpents served as guardians of temples, adyta, oracles, and
treasuries.

Fire and the pneuma as wind, life breath, or spirit make the snake
the beast of Helios [the sun] Its longevity, its power to
rejuvenate itself and to grow at the same time, only to end by
devouring itself, make it seem a fit symbol for the AEON as life
span of the cosmos, rejuvenating itself from spring to spring, only
to consume itself inwardly in the end. 

The snake biting its tail signifies the cosmos itself. Macrobius
ascribes the invention of this symbol to the Phoenicians.

The word ABRASAX or ABRAXAS signifies the Aeon. It was intended to
express the numerical value 365 in one word. The association of
this magic word with Sabaoth, one of the Israelite names for God,
points to Christian-Gnostic sources, particularly the system of
Basilides.

We have an invocation from the great Paris Magic Papyrus from Lower
Egypt [A.D.300] that call to mind all the thoughts aroused by the
sun serpent with the four winds:

     Hail, temple of the air spirit! Hail, spirit who reaches from
     heaven to earth and from the earth, which lies in the center
     of the cosmos, to the borders of the abyss! Hail, spirit who
     enters into me and takes hold of me, and departs from me in
     loving kindness as God wills!  Hail, beginning and end of
     immutable nature! Hail, rotation of the elements full of
     untiring service!  Hail, labor of the sunbeams, light of the
     world! Hail, glittering nocturnal sphere of the changing moon! 
     Hail, all ye spirits of the air daemons! Hail and be praised,
     ye brothers and sisters pious men and women: O great
     spherical, unfathomable edifice of the world! Heavenly spirit
     which dwells in heaven: ethereal spirit which dwells in the
     ether: thou who takes the shape of water, of earth, of fire,
     of wind, of light: thou who art dark, thou who glitters
     starlike: thou spirit humid, fiery and cold:
     I praise thee, God of Gods, who has articulated the world, who
     has gathered the depths on their firm invisible foundation;
     Thou who has separated heaven and earth, veiling the heavens
     with golden eternal wings, grounding the earth on eternal
     supports, dispensing the air by self-moved winds, laying water
     round about; thou who guides the storm clouds, bringing
     thunder, lightning and rain; thou who engendered living
     creatures, God of the Aeons, great art thou, God, ruler of the
     universe!

So, as you see, the serpent has many forms. I chose the more
familiar references as Meso American, Indian and Asiatic or Oceanic
metaphors require more depth of familiarity than most people are
aware of. But in these also there are beautiful references to the
serpent as well that to repeat them here would be redundant.

Perhaps one of the most interesting is the Pelasgian reference that
I recall as follows:

In the beginning, Eurynome, the goddess of All Things, rose naked
from Chaos, but found nothing substantial for her feet to rest upon
and therefore divided the sea from the sky, dancing lonely upon its
waves. AS she danced what would be now called the south , she set
a wind in motion behind her which was something new and different
with which to begin a work of creation.

Whirling around, she caught hold of this shadow-wind and the wind
she caused by her turning rubbing both together between her hands
issued a sinuous form that breathed life and was called Ophion!

Releasing it from her grasp, she let it loose in the abysmal wastes
of space, and of its own volition it moved. But its movement was
of a different time than that of Eurynome and its sight was not as
keen with which to see that Eurynome had transformed herself into
a dove.

Brooding on the waves of space Eurynome as a dove wandered and in
time laid in the center of a space a wondrous silver egg that was
so self illuminating that it caught the serpent Ophion's eye.
Still fixed with the obsession of those divine limbs to which he
had awakened, Ophion sought to couple with her but instead wrapped
itself in a lustful embrace around the egg, seven times.
So intense was his obsession that its grip fractured the egg so it
split in two!

Suddenly, from the egg exploded in all directions, thousands of
suns, a myriad of stars that filled that familiar empty void with
a kaleidoscope array of lights, that even Ophion itself was
entranced in awe!

"How wonderful I am!" the serpent gloated, " I am absolute! I have
created the Universe! No power is ever so magnificent, or ever will
be so omnipotent as me!

And Eurynome, for this presumption bruised his head with her heal,
and kicked out his teeth. And cursed him with the tribulation that
she has inflicted on mankind to merit that which they possess.

And so, it is said, that the Goddess of All Things took Ophion and
split his sex making it male and female so that each half would
always be in need of the other, though at times they would resent
it they would could not ever again multiply less the two sides
joined as one. 

And then she dismembered Ophion into little pieces as men and women
and placed them in those myriad of stars to earn from its
disadvantages that right which would sometime would legitimately
be restored to rightful ownership of that which Ophion had created.

Perhaps this is why men and women are ever seeking that other half
and with nostalgic, and envious eyes they spy the skies knowing in
their deepest of heart that from out there they once came from.

Eshin-Fun

Newsgroups: alt.religion.sabaean,alt.pagan,alt.mythology,alt.magick