APPENDIX V



Symbolism of the Serpent


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The accepted theory that the serpent is evil cannot be substantiated. It has long been viewed as the emblem of immortality. It is the symbol of reincarnation, or metempsychosis, because it annually sheds its skin, reappearing, as it were, in a new body. There is an ancient superstition to the effect that snakes never die except by violence and that, if uninjured, they would live forever. It was also believed that snakes swallowed themselves, and this resulted in their being considered emblematic of the Supreme Creator, who periodically reabsorbed His universe back into Himself. In "Isis Unveiled," H. P. Blavatsky makes this significant statement concerning the origin of serpent worship: "Before our globe had become egg-shaped or round it was a long trail of cosmic dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a serpent. This, say the explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos until its breath had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its month--emblem of eternity in its spiritual and of our world in its physical sense - Manly Palmer Hall (The Secret Teachings of All Ages)

The appellation Satan, in Hebrew…belongs by right to the first and cruelest “Adversary” of all other Gods - Jehovah, not in the serpent which spoke only words of sympathy and wisdom - Madame Helena Blavatsky

The founders of Christianity knew of their indebtedness to the antique religions of Ireland and Egypt. They also knew the iconography and customs of the past had either to be customized to suit a biography, or be utterly denigrated. The serpent was the most ambiguous symbol of ancient times and the patriarchs were threatened by its intimate connection with the Stellar and Lunar Cults, and with goddess worship. As stated above, the hieroglyph of the serpent actually stood for goddess. It was also the foremost symbol of the creative force known to Christians as the Holy Spirit.

 		   
 

The Serpent & the Holy Spirit

The asp was sacred to Kneph. The most poisonous winged serpent in the land was made the personification of the creator and ruling spirit! In fact...its figure was in consequence fixed to the head-dress of Egyptian kings; and a prince, on his accession to the throne, was entitled to wear this distinctive badge of royalty...Mr. Champollion has satisfactorily accounted for the name Uraeus, given to the snake, by, suggesting that the word derives its origin...from Ouro, in Coptic "a king"...Of Ptah it may be necessary to observe, that he was regarded as the Lord of Truth, and it is said to have been produced in the shape of an egg from the mouth of Kneph, and represented the creative power of Deity - George Smith (The Gentile Nations, 1853)

Here are a few terms, some obvious, some not, relating to the serpent, to reveal just how pervasive the symbol was:

OPHION
CAAN/CAHEN/CIARAN
LADON (guardian of the garden of Hesperides)
DRACO (giant constellation of supreme importance)
DRAGOONS (name used for certain royal appointed troops in Scotland and England)
KERIDWEN (Welsh Serpent goddess revered by the Pheryllt priesthood, originally from Atlantis)

ADDERS (meant the Druid Magi)
This word comes from the Gaelic Naddred, meaning serpent, or from the earlier Gnadr. This "Gn" is also the prefix of Gn-osis, gnosis meaning knowledge. "Gn" becomes "Kn." in modern times. "G," or "Gn," is the symbol of the wise ones who worship the serpent. This is the reason why the Masons employ the G, in the center of their compass and rule which signify measurement, ergo - knowledge. The letter-symbol "G" of the Masons may also derive from Gaonim, the elite members of the Judaic/Talmudic schools in Babylon. However, since the Egyptians and Semites received all their sacred knowledge from the Druids, the earlier supposition is probably the correct one, when all is said and done. The "G," when written in lower case, clearly references the serpent.

NADA
The High King of ancient Ireland was called Nuada, (or Nada, or Nuah). This name comes from Naddred, and meant "Wise Serpent." The ruler or chieftain in Ireland, as well as in Egypt, was a master of all the arts, a semi-enlightened being, not a semi-crazed, psychotic sadist that we seem happy to seat on the thrones of power today.

PENDRAGON (kings of the Celtic peoples, the highest cast within the Celtic Race)
NACAAL - south America Aztec and Maya serpent people.
NAGAS - aboriginal Indic for Serpent Kings
KUMARAS - serpent people, of India
CHERUBIM & SERAPHIM - both words mean fiery or blazing serpent.
NAHASH - in Hebrew nshs- meaning to find out, or discover (implying science and meta-science)
AMARU
VOTAN
HERME - means Phallic, erect.
BRIGHUS (holy men of India) - word implies serpent
SHAKTI (personified as a Serpent)
CARIBBEAN (from Ka-rib, meaning Serpent of Atlantis)
SUMERIAN (from Sumaire, meaning Serpent, Gaelic)
LAKOTA (from the Sioux meaning snake)
AMERICA / AMARAKA (land of the Serpents)
NAGADEV (name of Siva)
CERNUNNOS / NIKOR (Celtic gods connected with the Serpent)
DJEDHI / JEDHI /JEDI (meaning Serpent-Priests)
BARAKA (the Sufi name for the Serpent)
CARNAC / KARNAK
PHEONIX (has the double meaning of the Serpent)
SEKHMET / SEKHEM (the Serpent power)
NEC / NECH (translated as Serpent) - This word also derives from nech, which signifies temptation. It means to try, to seek, to know evil, and to act with the intention of doing harm. it connotes seducing, waylaying, and confusing in order to oppress. (See Arthur Dyott Thompson).
AZOTH (Alchemical Egg and Serpent) - This is the origin of the phoneme AZT
PNEUMA (the mystic breath, personified as a Serpent)
APEP / APOPHIS (serpent of darkness)
BUTO - Egyptian serpent god of the Nile
NEHUSHTAN (rod of Moses changed into a Serpent)
NAGASH - meaning serpent
NEKKET / NEKKEN / NIKKEN
HYDRA - Greek demon serpent, and constellation
AHRIMAN (Persian god of Darkness)
SHAITAN - Persian for the evil one.
TREE OF LIFE /KABALA (contains the imagery of the Serpent Cults)
THE NUMBER 9
THE NUMBER 18 (CADUCEUS)
THE MALE SPERM (always depicted as a cobra with an open hood, hence the frequency of times when the cobra is seen with a circle or orb, which represented the female ovum).
THE LEMNISCATE (also a symbol of Mercury or Hermes, but also of the zodiac).
THE NUMBER 88 (number connected with Mercury and Hermes)
THE POPE'S CROZIER
THE DOLLAR SIGN $
ART (from Egyptian Aart, meaning Serpent)
HURRICANE (refers to the fury of the serpent or Satan, thought to be the force behind acts of destruction).
TYPHOON (from Typhon, the Egyptian name for Satan, depicted as a undulating serpent)
CHAIN - from the word Cain (or Cana) meaning "serpent." A chain of links is lithe and long like the snake
CAIN - brother of Abel. He was clearly of the Dragon Court

Additional Quotes

A drawing, brought by Colonel Coombs, from a sculptured column in a cave-temple in the South of India, represents the first pair at the foot of an ambrosial tree, and a serpent entwined among the heavily laden boughs, presenting to them some of the fruit from his mouth - John G. Jackson (Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth)

One striking and important specimen of early type in the British Museum collection has two figures sitting one on each side of a tree, holding out their hands to the fruit, while at the back one (the woman) is etched a serpent...thus it is evident that a form of the "Fall," similar to that in Genesis, was known in early times in Babylonia - John G. Jackson (Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth)

Jane Ellen Harrison demonstrated over half a century ago that in the field festivals and mystery cults of Greece numerous vestiges survived of a pre-Homeric mythology in which the place of honor was held, not by the male gods of the sunny Olympic pantheon, but by a goddess, darkly ominous, who might appear as one, two, three, or many and was the mother of both the living and the dead. Her consort was typically in serpent form...Joseph Campbell (Occidental Mythology)

In Eve’s scene at the tree…nothing is said to indicate that the serpent who appeared and spoke to her was a deity in his own right, who had been revered in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis - Joseph Campbell (Occidental Mythology)

...in the Near East the primordial serpent is described as feminine, and we may suspect that in this region the myth did indeed become a metaphor for the conquest of matriarchy. But its universality suggests that there is yet a deeper, psycho-spiritual meaning behind it - Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson (Mythic Astrology)

Delphi was also known as Pytho, because before the coming of Apollo the site was haunted by a monstrous serpent, or dragon, the Python - David Fideler (Jesus Christ, Sun of God)

The serpent energy is definitely one of the most primeval archetypes and in all ancient cultures was intimately connected with the mysteries of the divine female - Crompton

Then the Female Spiritual Principle came in the Snake Instructor, and it taught them saying..."with death you shall not die" - (The Hypostasis of the Archon)

As long as humanity kept records of its existence, serpents were used as emblems of the intelligence of God. In ancient times and as widespread and diverse as Australia, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Babylonia, Sumeria, Egypt, India, and Central America, serpents were feared and worshipped as gods for thousands of years...To this day, serpents or dragons signify divine heritage and royalty in many Asian countries, while in the West the serpent represents wisdom and knowledge…Among nearly all ancient peoples the serpent was accepted as the ultimate symbol of wisdom or salvation - Tony Bushby (The Secret in the Bible)

It may seem extraordinary that the worship of the serpent should ever have been introduced into the world, and it must appear still more remarkable that it should almost universally have prevailed. As mankind are said to have been ruined through the influence of this being, we could little expect that it would, of all other objects, have been adopted as the most sacred and salutary symbol, and rendered the chief object of adoration. Yet so we find it to have been, for in most of the ancient rites there is some allusion to it - (From the Anonymous Ophiolatreia)

The Hebrews follow the Babylonians in confusing the Uraeus Serpent with the serpent of death - Gerald Massey (Egypt Light of the World)

The curse in Genesis on the woman, that she should be at enmity with the serpent, is obviously misplaced: it must refer to the ancient rivalry decreed between the sacred king Adam and the Serpent for the favors of the Goddess - Robert Graves (The White Goddess)

The Uraeus is a serpent issuing forth from the forehead of many gods being also an ornament of the royal crowns...The amulet of the serpent head is the symbol of the goddess Isis who is often represented by a serpent - Karel Weinfurter (Man's Highest Purpose)

And I shall destroy everything I created. The earth will again appear as primordial ocean…I am everything that remains…after I have turned myself back into a snake that no man knows - Hermann Kees (Der Gotterglaube im alten Aegypten)

For more information on the symbol of the serpent, click these links:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/oph/index.htm
 http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/ddl/index.htm