OPHIOLATREIA
THE following comes from Chapter 1 of Ophiolatreia, anonymously written by Hargrave Jennings:
In Egypt was a serpent named Thermuthis, which was looked upon as very sacred; and the natives are said to have made use of it as a royal tiara, with which they ornamented the statues of Isis. We learn from Diodorus Siculus that the kings of Egypt wore high bonnets, which terminated in a round ball, and the whole was surrounded by figures of asps. The priests, likewise, upon their bonnets had the representation of serpents. The ancients had a notion that when Saturn devoured his own children, his wife Ops deceived him by substituting a large stone in lieu of one of his sons, which stone was called Abadir. But Ops and Opis, represented here as a feminine, was the serpent deity, and Abadir is the same personage under a different denomination. Abadir seems to be a variation of Ob-Adur, and signifies the serpent god Orus. One of these stones, which Saturn was supposed to have swallowed instead of a child, stood, according to Pausanias, at Delphi. It was esteemed very sacred, and used to have libations of wine poured upon it daily; and upon festivals was otherwise honoured. The purport of the above was probably this: it was for a long time a custom to offer children at the altar of Saturn; but in process of time they removed it, and in its room erected a stone pillar, before which they made their vows, and offered sacrifices of another nature. This stone which they thus substituted was called Ab-Adar, from the deity represented by it. The term Ab generally signifies a father, but in this instance it certainly relates to a serpent, which was indifferently styled Ab, Aub, and Ob. Some regard Abadon, or, as it is mentioned in the Book of the Revelation, Abaddon, to have been the name of the same Ophite god, with whose worship the world had been so long infected. He is termed Abaddon, the angel of the bottomless pit - the prince of darkness. In another place he is described as the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan. Hence the learned Heinsius is supposed to be right in the opinion which he has given upon this passage, when he makes Abaddon the same as the serpent Pytho.
It is said that in the ritual of Zoroaster the great expanse of the heavens, and even nature itself, was described under the symbol of a serpent. [Note: Eusebius.] The like was mentioned in the Octateuch of Ostanes; and moreover, in Persia and in other parts of the East they erected temples to the serpent tribe, and held festivals to their honour, esteeming them the supreme of all Gods, and the superintendants of the whole world. The worship began among the people of Chaldea. They built the city Opis upon the Tigris, and were greatly addicted to divination and to the worship of the serpent. From Chaldea the worship passed into Egypt, where the serpent deity was called Canoph, Caneph, and C'neph. It had also the name of Ob, or Oub, and was the same as the Basilicus, or Royal Serpent; the same also as the Thermuthis, and in like manner was made use of by way of ornament to the statues of their Gods. The chief Deity of Egypt is said to have been Vulcan, who was also styled Opas, as we learn from Cicero. He was the same as Osiris, the Sun; and hence was often called Ob-El, or Pytho-Sol; and there were pillars sacred to him, with curious hieroglyphical inscriptions, which had the same name. They were very lofty, and narrow in comparison of their length; hence among the Greeks, who copied from the Egyptians, everything gradually tapering to a point was styled Obelos, and Obeliscus. Ophel (Oph-El) was a name of the same purport, and many sacred mounds, or Tapha, were thus denominated from the serpent Deity, to whom they were sacred.
Sanchoniathon makes mention of a history which he once wrote upon the worship of the serpent. The title of this work, according to Eusebius, was Ethothion, or Ethothia. Another treatise upon the same subject was written by Pherecydes Tyrus, which was probably a copy of the former; for he is said to have composed it from some previous accounts of the Phoenicians. The title of his book was the Theology of Ophion, styled Ophioneus, and his worshippers were called Ophionidae. Thoth and Athoth were certainly titles of the Deity in the Gentile world; and the book of Sanchoniathon might very possibly have been from hence named Ethothion, or more truly, Athothion. But, from the subject upon which it was written, as well as from the treatise of Pherecydes, we have reason to think that Athothion, or Ethothion, was a mistake for Ath-Ophion, a title which more immediately related to that worship of which the writer treated. Ath was a sacred title, as we have shewn, and we imagine that this dissertation did not barely relate to the serpentine Deity, but contained accounts of his votaries, the Ophites, the principal of which were the sons of Chus. The worship of the serpent began among them, and they were from thence denominated Ethiopians, and Aithopians, which the Greeks rendered Aithiopes. They did not receive this name from their complexion, as has sometimes been surmised, for the branch of Phut and the Luhim, were probably of a deeper dye; but they were most likely so called from Ath-Ope, and Ath-Opis, the God which they worshipped. This may be shewn from Pliny. He says that the country Ethiopia (and consequently the people), had the name of Aethiop, from a personage who was a Deity - ob Aethiope Vulcani filio. The Aethiopes brought these rites into Greece, and called the island where they first established them Ellopia, Solis Serpentis insula. It was the same as Euboea, a name of the like purport, in which island was a region named Ethiopium. Euboea is properly Oub-Aia, and signifies, the Serpent Island. The same worship prevailed among the Hyperboreans, as we may judge from the names of the sacred women who used to come annually to Delos; they were priestesses of the Tauric Goddess. Hercules was esteemed the chief God, the same as Chronus, and was said to have produced the Mundane egg. He was represented in the Orphic theology under the mixed symbol of a lion and a serpent, and sometimes of a serpent only.
The Cuthites, under the title of Heliadae, having settled at Rhodes, as they were Hivites, or Ophites, the island was in consequence named Ophiusa. There was likewise a tradition that it had once swarmed with serpents. (Bochart says the island is said to have been named Rhodus from Rhad, a Syriac word for a serpent). The like notion prevailed almost in every place where they settled. They came under the more general titles of Leleges and Pelasgi; but more particularly of Elopians, Europians, Oropians, Asopians, Inopians, Ophionians, and Aethiopes, as appears from the names which they bequeathed; and in most places where they resided there were handed down traditions which alluded to their original title of Ophites. In Phrygia, and upon the Hellespont, whither they sent out colonies very early, was a people styled the Ophiogeneis, or the serpent breed, who were said to retain an affinity and correspondence with serpents; and a notion prevailed that some hero, who had conducted them, was changed from a serpent to a man. In Colchis was a river Ophis, and there was another of the same name in Arcadia. It was so named from a body of people who settled upon its banks, and were said to have been conducted by a serpent.
It is said these reptiles are seldom found in islands, but that Tenos, one of the Cyclades, was supposed to have once swarmed with them. [Note: Aristoph.]
Thucydides mentions a people of Aetotia, called Ophionians; and the temple of Apollo at Petara, in Lycia, seems to have had its first institution from a priestess of the same name. The island of Cyprus was called Ophiusa, and Ophiodes, from the serpents with which it was supposed to have abounded. Of what species they were is nowhere mentioned, excepting only that about Paphos there was said to have been a kind of serpent with two legs. By this is meant the Ophite race, who came from Egypt, and from Syria, and got footing in this island. They settled also in Crete, where they increased greatly in numbers; so that Minos was said by an unseemly allegory, opheis ouresai, serpentes, minxisse. The island Seriphus was one vast rock, by the Romans called saxum seriphium, and made use of as a large kind of prison for banished persons. It is represented as having once abounded with serpents, and it is styled by Virgil, serpentifera, as the passage is corrected by Scaliger.
It is said by the Greeks that Medusa's head was brought by Perseus; by this is meant the serpent Deity, whose worship was here introduced by people called Peresians. Medusa's head denoted divine wisdom, and the island was sacred to the serpent, as is apparent from its name. The Athenians were esteemed Serpentiginae, and they had a tradition that the chief guardian of their Acropolis was a serpent.
It is reported of the goddess Ceres that she placed a dragon for a guardian to her temple at Eleusis, and appointed another to attend upon Erectheus. Aegeus of Athens, according to Androtion, was of the serpent breed, and the first king of the country is said to have been a dragon. Others make Cecrops the first who reigned. He is said to have been of a two-fold nature, being formed with the body of a man blended with that of a serpent.
Diodorus says that this was a circumstance deemed by the Athenians inexplicable; yet he labours to explain it by representing Cecrops as half a man and half a brute, because he had been of two different communities. Eustathius likewise tries to solve it nearly upon the same principles, and with the like success. Some have said of Cecrops that he underwent a metamorphosis, being changed from a serpent to a man. By this was meant, according to Eustathius, that Cecrops by coming into Hellas divested himself of all the rudeness and barbarity of his country, and became more civilised and human. This is declared by some to be too high a compliment to be paid to Greece in its infant state, and detracts greatly from the character of the Egyptians. The learned Marsham therefore animadverts with great justice, "it is more probable that he introduced into Greece the urbanity of his own country, than that he was beholden to Greece for anything from thence." In respect to the mixed character of this personage, we may easily account for it. Cecrops was certainly a title of the Deity, who was worshipped under this emblem. Something of the like nature was mentioned of Triptolemus and Erichtonius, and the like has been said of Hercules. The natives of Thebes in Boeotia, like the Athenians, esteemed themselves of the serpent race. The Lacedaemonians likewise referred themselves to the same original. Their city is said of old to have swarmed with serpents. The same is said of the city Amyelae in Italy, which was of Spartan origin. They came hither in such abundance that it was abandoned by the inhabitants. Argos was infested in the same manner till Apis came from Egypt and settled in that city. He was a prophet, the reputed son of Apollo, anda person of great skill and sagacity, and to him they attributed the blessing of having their country freed from this evil. Thus the Argives gave the credit to this imaginary personage of clearing their land of this grievance, but the brood came from the very quarter from whence Apis was supposed to have arrived. They were certainly Hivites from Egypt, and the same story is told of that country. It is represented as having been of old over-run with serpents, and almost depopulated through their numbers. Diodorus Siculus seems to understand this literally, but a region that was annually overflowed, and that too for so long a season, could not well be liable to such a calamity. They were serpents of another nature with which it was thus infested, and the history relates to the Cuthites, the original Ophitae, who for a long time possessed that country. They passed from Egypt to Syria, and to the Euphrates, and mention is made of a particular breed of serpents upon that river, which were harmless to the natives but fatal to anybody else. This can hardly be taken literally; for whatever may be the wisdom of the serpent it cannot be sufficient to make these distinctions. These serpents were of the same nature as the birds of Diomedes, and the dogs in the temple of Vulcan; and the histories relate to Ophite priests, who used to spare their own people and sacrifice strangers, a custom which prevailed at one time in most parts of the world. The Cuthite priests are said to have been very learned; and, as they were Ophites, whoever had the advantage of their information was said to have been instructed by serpents.
As the worship of the serpent was of old so prevalent, many places, as well as people, from thence received their names. Those who settled in Campania were called Opici, which some would have changed to Ophici, because they were denominated from serpents. They are in reality both names of the same purport, and denote the origin of the people.
We meet with places called Opis, Ophis, Ophitaea, Ophionia, Ophioessa, Ophiodes, and Ophiusa. This last was an ancient name by which, according to Stephanus, the islands Rhodes, Cynthus, Besbicus, Tenos, and the whole continent of Africa, were distinguished. There were also cities so-called. Add to these places denominated Oboth, Obona, and reversed, Onoba, from Ob, which was of the same purport.
Clemens Alexandrinus says that the term Eva signified a serpent if pronounced with a proper aspirate, and Epiphanius says the same thing. We find that there were places of this name. There was a city Eva in Arcadia, and another in Macedonia. There was also a mountain Eva, or Evan, taken notice of by Pausanias, between which and Ithome lay the city Messene. He mentions also an Eva in Argolis, and speaks of it as a large town. Another name for a serpent, which we have not yet noticed, was Patan, or Pitan. Many places in different parts were denominated from this term. Among others was a city in Laconia, and another in Mysia, which Stephanus styles a city of Aeolia. They were undoubtedly so named from the worship of the serpent, Pitan, and had probably Dracontia, which were figures and devices relative to the religion which prevailed. Ovid mentions the latter city, and has some allusions to its ancient history when he describes Medea as flying through the air from Athea to Colchis. The city was situate upon the ruin Eva, or Evan, which the Greeks rendered Evenus. According to Strabo it is compounded of Eve-Ain, the fountain or river of Eva the serpent.
It is remarkable that the Opici, who are said to have been named from serpents, had also the name of Pitanatae; at least, one part of that family was so-called. Pitanatae is a term of the same purport as Opici, and relates to the votaries of Pitan, the serpent Deity, which was adored by that people. Menelaus was of old called Pitanates, as we learn from Hesychius, and the reason of it may be known from his being a Spartan, by which he was intimated one of the Serpentigenae, or Ophites. Hence he was represented with a serpent for a device upon his shield. It is said that a brigade, or portion of infantry, was among some of the Greeks named Pitanates, and the soldiers in consequence of it must have been termed Pitanatae, undoubtedly, because they had the Pitan, or serpent, for their standard. Analogous to this, among other nations there were soldiers called Draconarii. In most countries the military standard was an emblem of the Deity there worshipped.
What has already been said has thrown some light upon the history
of this primitive idolatry, and we have shewn that wherever any of these Ophite
colonies settled, they left behind from their rites and institutions, as well
as from the names which they bequeathed to places, ample memorials, by which
they may be clearly traced out.
- Ophiolatreia, pp. 3-9.
There are many themes presented above, which we have come across previously. We think it fair to say that the Serpent Breed, or Serpent Tribe, is none other than the human offspring and/or incarnations of the Anunnaki. Let us assume for a moment that what we have just quoted above is a work of True History. That is, if True ESOTERIC History. Even today, we know precious little about what actually happened in the past, especially in the past of, say, 3000 years ago. We know that several kingdoms existed, such as Babylonia, Egypt, India, Phoenicia, and other places existed. But - how did the Esoteric Cultus survive, from the days of Sumer, to today? And what is to account for the conscious memory of Humankind suddenly coming to life in the 7th - 6th centuries B.C.E.?
This lengthy extract is basically a short account of what General Forlong devotes 230 pages in volume one of his excellent survey, Rivers of Life: to Tree and Serpent Worship.
Some of these things can be plotted on the map, and on the historical timeline. Perhaps a great deal is fabulous, or at the least is "myth" - history turned into fiction for certain people of today to regard as bunk. Well, we do not regard any of it as bunk.
One of the main strands of the story is given in this extract - that of the Aethiopes. We have come across traces of this story in several different places. In fact, we can see a story that goes back to the destruction of Sumer, to the migrations that followed that destruction, and to a survival of various cults in the region to the North and West of India.
Eventually, some of these Priests are exiled and come across, by way of the Island of the Dioscuri - Socotra. Some travel up the Incense Route, and end up in the Nabatean regions and in Palestine. Some go across to Ethiopia, and from there to Egypt. By the time the Priesthood of the Solis Serpentis reaches Egypt, we are getting close to the time of Akhnaten. After the demise of Akhnaten, and his religion, some of our Priests migrate north, and across the Mediterranean, to Euboea. We can take it from there in the next extract, below, from the Dionysian Artificers, by Da Costa.
It is necessary to go into the past, beyond the birth of the Gnosis, to the Near-Eastern Serpent Cults, and to the Mystery Traditions, and perhaps to the oldest cults we can find traces of, in order to view the Current as a continuous whole, a continuity as complete as the Ouroboros itself.
Zecharia Sitchin points out that EnKi was given Africa, while EnLil had Mesopotamia, Inanna the Indus Valley, and NinHarsag the Sinai Peninsula. Notice that the Ethiopians, according to Jennings, were called the sons of Vulcan. This is the same appellation given to Adapa and Enmeduranki. Vulcan is none other than Ptah, who is none other than EnKi, according to popular syncretization. Interestingly, Im-Hetep, or Imouthis, is given as Ptah's son, in the Memphite Triad. Imouthis is also known as Asklepios, who is also known as Agathodaimon. Also, I-M-Hetep is known as the first important builder in Egyptian history, as well as being a physician. Interesting.
Also, the Cuthites may be like the Cuthans, mentioned above, but they are also confused with the Cushites, or sons of Cush. The Cushites came from the Land of Cush, which is known to be Nubia and Ethiopia.
It is stated that these Cuthites migrated from Egypt, to Syria, to the Euphrates. Also it is said that the Aith-Opes or Ethiopians migrated to Greece, and brought the rites of Serpent worship with them. Also, in connection with this it is said that Erectheus is the individual responsible for bringing the rites of Eleusis to Greece, to Athens. Now, could these Cuthites be connected with the Babylonian Priests we have spoken of, i.e., the Nergals of Cutha? Perhaps. We know that about 43 miles north of Baghdad on the west bank of the Tigris river is the location of the ancient city of Opis, where at least two crucial events took place. First, this is where the Persians, under the command of Cyrus, overthrew Babylon and claimed the whole area as a satrapy. Second, this is where Alexander the Great was said to have invited dignitaries from all over his empire for the purpose of feasting and so that he could consolidate them all together and proclaim his New World Order.
As can be seen, these legendary stories may not be so legendary after all. Competent scholars are confirming the legends bit by bit, even if they would regard these legends as little more than fictions. The work we just quoted above may not have been written by an expert academician of high repute, whatever that is supposed to indicate, but Brother Jennings was an Adept of high repute, and drew from a wide variety of classical sources, some of which not everybody has access to, especially today. The fact that a High Initiate wrote the above really should be no bar to its believability, or to its credibility.
Interested parties (that is, those with agendas) including some Freemasons in the mix, as well as their opponents continue to prefer denial of all stories of the past which conflict with their preconceived notions. It is safer to assume that the Craft is somehow attached to the craft guilds of the 17th century and became Freemasonry in 1717. It is safer to relegate history to something else, far removed from our own roots.
For those of us in whom the Historical Tradition is The Path, and that by which we HAVE Attained much, this is all rather ludicrous. That which is still condemned today as heresy, perhaps should be condemned as heresy, or as false, in order to keep out the riff raff. Yet, our ancestors practiced the same way as we do now, and when we are condemned as heretics, we can point to our traditional lineage. And - we no longer have to hear people remark that this is all new heresy, either, for it has a very ancient background.
Similarly, it is much safer for a fundamentalist to believe that the Bible as it exists today was dictated as such by the finger of God, even though the King James version is not as accurate a translation of the ancient texts as one can get, and even though Shakespearian English did not exist 2,000 and more years ago. And, the fundamentalist reader will believe our accounts when we speak of things which they consider to be evil, but are grossly ignorant as to their true purport. Then we get rocks thrown at us, when we attempt to show, that what has been considered evil throughout the centuries, is actually not evil at all, and in fact is the legitimate truth, and that which has been considered good is the real heresy, intended for the slaves to follow to their hearts' content.
So, when we speak of Pagan connections, Gnostic survivals and the like, we (and those that we are really writing this material for) see Triumph, Praise, Truth. But when our adversaries see these things in print, they are convinced we are antichrists and that we are perverted, doomed, and damned.
Yet, they have had the blinds of ignorance (with the help of "saint" Paul and others of his ilk) controlling all that they see, hear, or think, like the Control Voice on The Outer Limits. And their ministers, or shepherds, control the vertical as well! But - we can see in all we have researched, and all that we present here, a pattern that goes way back as far as we can reckon, and spreads from Morocco, Spain and the British Isles east as far as China, Korea, and Japan. When we add the "New World" to the mix, we can add North , Central, and South America as well, and while we're at it, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, too.
Greetings, Fellow Prophets!
In Antediluvian times, or prior to the year 10,973 B. C. E., this sect existed. It still exists to this very day. No, we are not speaking the same bilge about Atlanteans and Lemurians, and adding all the famous names of the past to our list to give us a built-in pedigree. We are not going to take the holier-than-thou attitude like the people that are convinced that they get messages from my alter Saint-Germain. No, because we must pity their ignorance and child-like innocence we shall leave their condemnation to the Law of Karma for having led millions astray with the swill they preach, publish and get rich from.
Everybody wants the end of the world, a savior, an antichrist. A reign of peace for the just and eternal damnation for the wicked. But - how much will they be willing to pay for such an antisocial, indeed sociopathic desire? When the paper-mills no longer produce toilet paper, and there's no more plumbing because the cost of destroying civilization is the elimination of its amenities. - They will take it for about six months or a year, and then start killing each other (provided they didn't get a head start), until some heretic will rise up and shout above the masses, "Boy, have you ever been taken! A sucker is born every minute! The Minute they got you for dupes they said, 'All in a day's work' and like old Doctor Benway they split out the side door before the whole fucking shithouse went up in chunks!"
The true prophet has no need for sanctimoniousness. We call it exactly as we see it, and if the language offends, we have absolutely no care, because it is not the prophet's duty to please people but to inform them of what they can expect when they continue to act as ever they have acted for thousands of years.
And, it is a greater one who is not afraid to be ribald, than one who pretends to be holy. And that is the measure of the False Prophet, for the False Prophet is one who knows not how to laugh, to be all people to all people, and has no respect for the truly serious and solemn and the sublime, yet pretends to be serious when it comes time to reprimanding everybody else, calling them all sinners, while he sins in his closet, and takes himself so seriously that one exposé too many eventually unmasks him and takes him out.
To be a Son of God, one must come down to the level of the Sons of Men and
find them fair (fair game for pranks in some, but not all, cases!) (and not
only the Daughters of Men, are to be sought, either!)
~~~Count Welldone. Past Regent of the Ordre des Illuminés Veritas.
[The above was taken down five years prior to the Summer of 2002 c.e., which should be of interest to some of our Known Associates.]
