Nuggets from Occult Invasion—The Serpent and the Dragon

The serpent and dragon (identified in the Bible as Satan) are the major benevolent figures both in mythology and in almost all religions. In Haitian voodoo tradition, for example, the Great Serpent is the fountain of all true wisdom and the creator of the universe, who took the Rainbow as his wife and from that union came blood and all creatures. “And then, as a final gift, they taught the people to partake of the blood as a sacrament, that they might become the spirit and embrace the wisdom of the Serpent.”

The dragon is found on thousands of temples throughout Asia, while the serpent  dominates the religion of India. Yoga is symbolized as a raft made of cobras, and its goal is to awaken the kundalini power coiled at the base of the human spine in the form of a serpent. In the temples of ancient Egypt and Rome the body of the god Serapis was encircled by the coils of a great serpent. Numerous other examples could be given, from the plumed serpent Quetzalcoatl, the Savior-god of the Mayas, to the annual snake dance of the Hopi Indians. Manly P. Hall, one of the greatest authorities on the occult (and himself a practitioner of occultism), has written:

“Serpent worship in some form permeated nearly all parts of the earth. The serpent mounds of the American Indian; the carved-stone snake of the Greeks; the sacred serpents of the Druids; the Midgard snake of Scandinavia; the Nagas of Burma, Siam and Cambodia…the mystic serpent of Orpheus; the snakes at the oracle of Delphi…the sacred serpents preserved in the Egyptian temples; the Uraeus coiled upon the foreheads of the Pharaohs and priests—all these bear witness to the universal veneration in which the snake was held….

“the serpent is…the symbol and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the world by giving creation the knowledge of itself…. It has long been viewed as the emblem of immortality. It is the symbol of reincarnation….”

In Greek mythology a serpent was wrapped around the Orphic egg, the symbol of the cosmos. Likewise as Delphi, Greece (for centuries the location of the most sought-after and influential oracle of the ancient world, consulted by potentates from as far away as North Africa and Asia Minor), the three legs of the oracle tripod in the inner shrine of the temple were intertwined with serpents. Or, as one further example, consider the Greek and Roman god of medicine, Aesculapius, whose symbol was a serpent-entwined staff from which the symbol of modern medicine, the caduceus, was derived.

In the temples erected in his honor, Aesculapius, whose symbol was a serpent-entwined staff from which the symbol of modern medicine, the caduceus, was derived.

In the temples erected in his honor, Aesculapius was worshiped with snakes because of an ancient myth which said that he had receive a healing herb at the mouth of a serpent. Here, quite clearly, we have the Genesis story perverted: The serpent is not the deceiver and destroyer but the Savior of mankind, replacing Jesus Christ. At graduation ceremonies at medical schools around the world, where prayers to the God of the Bible or to Jesus Christ would not be allowed, graduates, upon receiving their M.D. degrees, still repeat aloud together the Hippocratic oath. It begins, “I swear by Apollo, by Aesculapius, by Hygeia and Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses….”

In Up With Eden, Ken Wilbur points out that in religions around the world the serpent has consistently been portrayed as the symbol of perennial wisdom and eternal life. There can be no doubt that the serpent, who came to Eve, is identified everywhere (except in the Bible) with the occult and is honored as embodying that mysterious fore which occultists of all kinds seek to enlist in the accomplishment of their desires. The Bible, on the other hand, identifies the serpent with Satan and declares that those who seek his occult powers eventually find themselves entrapped as his slaves and lose their souls.

It would seem that in the honor given to the serpent in all cultures and religions we have an admission that the “Force” behind the universe is very personal indeed. Both the Bible and the occult world agree that the serpent is real; they only disagree on whether he is man’s friend or foe.