Theosophical Society,
THE
SECRET DOCTRINE
H P Blavatsky
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Tree and Serpent
and
Crocodile Worship
"Object
of horror or of adoration, men have for the serpent an implacable hatred, or
prostrate themselves before its genius. Lie calls it, Prudence claims it, Envy
carries it in its heart, and Eloquence on its caduceus. In hell it arms the
whip of the Furies; in heaven Eternity makes of it its symbol."
DE
CHATEAUBRIAND.
THE
Ophites asserted that there were several kinds of genii, from god to man; that
the relative superiority of these was ruled by the degree of light that was
accorded to each; and they maintained that the serpent had to be constantly
called upon and to be thanked for the signal service it had rendered humanity.
For it taught Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil, he would raise his being immensely by the learning and wisdom he
would thus acquire. Such was the exoteric reason given.
It
is easy to see whence the primal idea of this dual, Janus-like character of the
Serpent: the good and the bad. This symbol is one of the most ancient, because
the reptile preceded the bird, and the bird the mammal. Thence the belief, or
rather the superstition, of the savage tribes who think that the souls of their
ancestors live under this form, and the general association of the Serpent with
the tree. The legends about the various things it represents are numberless;
but, as most of them are allegorical, they have now passed into the class of
fables based on ignorance and dark superstition. For instance, when
Philostratus narrates that the natives of
The
numerous and extremely interesting readings, the interpretations and facts
about Serpent worship, given in "The Natural Genesis," are very
ingenious and scientifically correct. But they are far from covering the whole
of the meanings implied. They divulge only the astronomical and physiological
mysteries, with the addition of some cosmic phenomena. On the lowest plane of
materiality the Serpent was, no doubt "the great mystery in the
mysteries," and was, very likely, "adopted as a type of feminine
pubescence, on account of its sloughing and self-renewal." It was so,
however, only with regard to mysteries concerning terrestrial animal life, for
as symbol of "reclothing and rebirth in the (universal) mysteries"
its "final phase"* -- or shall we rather say its incipient and
culminating phases -- they were not of this plane. They were generated in the
pure realm of ideal light, and having accomplished the round of the whole cycle
of adaptations and symbolism, the "mysteries" returned from whence
they had come -- into the essence of immaterial causality. They belonged to the
highest gnosis. And surely this could have never obtained its name and fame
solely on account of its penetration into physiological and especially feminine
functions!
As
a symbol, the Serpent had as many aspects and occult meanings as the Tree
itself; the "Tree of Life," with which it was emblematically and
almost indissolubly connected. Whether viewed as a metaphysical or a physical
symbol, the Tree and Serpent, jointly, or separately, have never been so
degraded by antiquity as they are now, in this our age of the breaking of
idols, not for truth's sake, but to glorify the more gross matter. The
revelations and interpretations in "The Rivers of Life" would have
astounded the worshippers of the Tree and Serpent in the days of archaic
Chaldean and Egyptian wisdom; and even the early Saivas would have recoiled in
horror at the theories and suggestions of the author of the said work.
"The notion of Payne Knight and Inman that the cross or Tau is simply a
copy of the male organs in a triadic form is radically false," writes Mr.
G. Massey, who proves what he says. But this is a statement that could be as
justly applied to almost all the modern interpretations of ancient symbols.
"The Natural Genesis," a monumental work of research and thought, the
most complete on that subject that has ever been published, covering as it does
a wider field, and explaining much more than all the symbologists who have
hitherto written, does not yet go beyond the "psycho-theistic" stage
of ancient thought. Nor were Payne Knight and Inman altogether wrong; except in
entirely failing to see that their interpretations of the "Tree of
Life," as the cross and phallus, fitted the symbol, and approximated it,
only on the lowest and last stage of the evolutionary development of the idea
of the GIVER OF LIFE. It was the last and the grossest physical transformation
of nature, in animal, insect, bird, and even plant; for biune, creative
magnetism, in the form of the attraction of the contraries, or sexual
polarization, acts in the constitution of reptile and bird as it does in that
of man. Moreover, the modern symbologists and Orientalists -- from first to
last --
NOTE
* The Natural Genesis,
by Gerald Massey, Vol. 1, p. 340.
being
ignorant of the real mysteries revealed by occultism, can necessarily see but
this last stage. If told that this mode of procreation, which the whole world
of being has now in common on this earth, is but a passing phase, a physical
means of furnishing the conditions to, and producing the phenomena of life
which will alter with this, and disappear with the next Root-Race -- they would
laugh at such a superstitious and unscientific idea. But the most learned
Occultists assert this because they know it. The universe of living beings, of
all those which procreate their species, is the living witness to the various
modes of procreation in the evolution of animal and human species and races;
and the naturalist ought to sense this truth intuitionally, even though he is
yet unable to demonstrate it. And how could he, indeed, with the present modes
of thought! The landmarks of the archaic history of the past are few and
scarce, and those that men of science come across are mistaken for finger-posts
of our little era. Even so-called "universal" (?) history embraces
but a tiny field in the almost boundless space of the unexplored regions of our
latest, fifth Root-Race. Hence, every fresh sign-post, every new glyph of the
hoary Past that is discovered, is added to the old stock of information, to be
interpreted on the same lines of pre-existing conceptions, and without any
reference to the special cycle of thought which that particular glyph may
belong to. How can Truth ever come to light if this method is never changed!
Thus,
in the beginning of their joint existence as a glyph of Immortal Being, the
Tree and Serpent were divine imagery, truly. The tree was reversed, and its
roots were generated in Heaven and grew out of the Rootless Root of all-being.
Its trunk grew and developed, crossing the planes of Pleroma, it shot out
crossways its luxuriant branches, first on the plane of hardly differentiated
matter, and then downward till they touched the terrestrial plane. Thus, the
Asvattha, tree of Life and Being, whose destruction alone leads to immortality,
is said in the Bhagavatgita to grow with its roots above and its branches below
(ch. xv.). The roots represent the Supreme Being, or First Cause, the LOGOS;
but one has to go beyond those roots to unite oneself with Krishna, who, says
Arjuna (XI.), is "greater than Brahman, and First Cause . . . the
indestructible, that which is, that which is not, and what is beyond
them." Its boughs are Hiranyagharba (Brahma or Brahman in his highest
manifestations, say Sridhara and Madhusudana), the highest Dhyan Chohans or
Devas. The Vedas are its leaves. He only who goes beyond the roots shall never
return, i.e., shall reincarnate no more during this "age" of Brahma.
It
is only when its pure boughs had touched the terrestrial mud of the garden of
Eden, of our Adamic race, that this Tree got soiled by the contact and lost its
pristine purity; and that the Serpent of Eternity -- the heaven-born LOGOS --
was finally degraded. In days of old -- of the divine Dynasties on Earth -- the
now dreaded Reptile was regarded as the first beam of light that radiated from
the abyss of divine Mystery. Various were the forms which it was made to
assume, and numerous the natural symbols adapted to it, as it crossed aeons of
Time: as from Infinite Time itself -- Kala -- it fell into the space and time
evolved out of human speculation. These forms were Cosmic and astronomical, theistic
and pantheistic, abstract and concrete. They became in turn the Polar Dragon
and the Southern Cross, the Alpha Draconis of the Pyramid, and the
Hindu-Buddhist Dragon, which ever threatens, yet never swallows the Sun during
its eclipses. Till then, the Tree remained ever green, for it was sprinkled by
the waters of life; the great Dragon, ever divine, so long as it was kept
within the precincts of the sidereal fields. But the tree grew and its lower
boughs touched at last the infernal regions -- our Earth. Then the great
serpent Nidhogg -- he who devours the corpses of the evil-doers in the
"Hall of Misery" (human life), so soon as they are plunged into
"Hwergelmir," the roaring cauldron (of human passions) -- gnawed the
World-tree. The worms of materiality covered the once healthy and mighty roots,
and are now ascending higher and higher along the trunk; while the
Midgard-snake coiled at the bottom of the Seas, encircles the Earth, and,
through its venomous breath, makes her powerless to defend herself.
They
are all seven-headed, the dragons and serpents of antiquity -- "one head
for each race, and every head with seven hairs on it," as the allegory has
it. Aye, from Ananta, the Serpent of Eternity which carries Vishnu through the
Manvantara, from the original primordial Sesha, whose seven heads become
"one thousand heads" in the Puranic fancy, down to the seven-headed
Akkadian Serpent. This typifies the Seven principles throughout nature and man;
the highest or middle head being the seventh. It is not of the Mosaic, Jewish
Sabbath that Philo speaks in his Creation of the World, when saying that the
world was completed "according to the perfect nature of number 6."
For, "when that reason (nous) which is holy in accordance with the number
seven, has entered the soul (rather the living body), the number six is thus
arrested, and all the mortal things which that number makes." And again:
"Number 7 is the festival day of all the earth, the birthday of the world.
I know not whether any one would be able to celebrate the number 7 in adequate
terms." . . . (Par. pp. 30 and 419). The author of The Natural Genesis
thinks that "the Septenary of Stars seen in the great bear (the
Septarshis) and seven-headed Dragon furnished a visible origin for the symbolic
seven of time above. The goddess of the seven stars," he adds -- "Was
the mother of time, as Kep; whence Kepti and Sebti for the two times and number
seven. So this is the star of the Seven by name. Sevekt (Kronos), the Son of
the goddess, has the name of the seven or seventh. So has Sefekh Abu who builds
the house on high, as Wisdom (Sophia) built hers with seven pillars. . . The
primary Kronotypes were seven, and thus the beginning of time in heaven is
based on the number and the name of seven, on account of the starry
demonstrators. The seven stars as they turned round annually kept pointing, as
it were, with the forefinger of the right hand, and describing a circle in the
upper and lower heaven.* The number seven naturally suggested a measure by
seven, that led to what may be termed Sevening, and to the marking and mapping
out of the circle in seven corresponding divisions which were assigned to the
seven great constellations; and thus was formed the celestial heptanomis of
Egypt in the heavens. . . . When the stellar heptanomis was broken up and
divided into four quarters, it was multiplied by four, and the twenty-eight
signs took the place of the primary seven constellations, the lunar zodiac of
twenty-eight days being the registered result.** . . . In the Chinese
arrangement the four sevens are given to four genii that preside over the four
cardinal points. . . ." (In Chinese Buddhism and Esotericism the genii are
represented by four Dragons -- the "Maharajahs" of the Stanzas.)
"The seven Northern constellations make up the Black Warrior; the seven
Eastern (Chinese autumn) constitute the White Tiger; the seven Southern are the
Vermilion Bird; and the seven Western (called Vernal) are the Azure Dragon.
Each of these four Spirits presides over its heptanomis during one lunar week.
The genetive of the first heptanomis (Typhon of the Seven Stars) now took a
lunar character; . . . in this phase we find the goddess Sefekh, whose name
signifies number 7, is the feminine word, or logos in place of the mother of
Time, who was the earlier Word, as goddess of the Seven Stars"
("Typology of Time," Vol. II. p. 313, Nat. Gen.).
The
author shows that it was the goddess of the Great Bear and mother of Time who
was in Egypt from the earliest times the "Living Word," and that
"Sevekh-Kronus, whose type was the Crocodile-Dragon, the pre-planetary
form of Saturn, was called her son and consort; he was her Word-Logos" (p.
321, Vol. I.).
The
above is quite plain, but it was not the knowledge of astronomy only that led
the ancients to the process of Sevening. The primal cause goes far deeper and
will be explained in its place.
The
above quotations are no digressions. They are brought forward as showing (a)
the reason why a full Initiate was called a "Dragon," a
"Snake" a "Naga"; and (b) that our septenary division was
used by the priests of the earliest dynasties in Egypt, for the same reason and
on the same basis as by us. This needs further elucidation, however. As already
stated, that which Mr. G. Massey calls the four genii of the four cardinal
points; and the Chinese, the Black Warrior, White Tiger, Ver-
NOTE
* For the same reason
the division of the principles in man into seven are thus reckoned, as they
describe the same circle in the human higher and lower nature.
** Thus the septenary
division is the oldest and preceded the four-fold division. It is the root of
archaic classification.
milion
Bird, and Azure Dragon, is called in the Secret Books, -- the "Four Hidden
Dragons of Wisdom" and the "Celestial Nagas." Now, as shown, the
seven-headed or septenary DRAGON-LOGOS had been in course of time split up, so
to speak, into four heptanomic parts or twenty-eight portions. Each lunar week
has a distinct occult character in the lunar month; each day of the
twenty-eight has its special characteristics; as each of the twelve
constellations, whether separately or in combination with other signs, has an
occult influence either for good or for evil. This represents the sum of
knowledge that men can acquire on this earth; yet few are those who acquire it,
and still fewer are the wise men who get to the root of knowledge symbolized by
the great Root Dragon, the spiritual LOGOS of these visible signs. But those
who do, receive the name of "Dragons," and they are the "Arhats
of the Four Truths of the 28 Faculties," or attributes, and have always
been so called.
The
Alexandrian Neo-Platonists asserted that to become real Chaldees or Magi, one
had to master the science or knowledge of the periods of the Seven Rectors of
the world, in whom is all wisdom. In "Proclus in Timaeus," b. 1,
Jamblichus is credited with another version, which does not however, alter, the
meaning. He says that "the Assyrians have not only preserved the records
of seven and twenty myriads of years, as Hipparchus says they have, but
likewise of the whole apocatastases and periods of the Seven Rulers of the
World." The legends of every nation and tribe, whether civilized or
savage, point to the once universal belief in the great wisdom and cunning of
the Serpents. They are "charmers." They hypnotise the bird with their
eye, and man himself, very often, does not feel above their fascinating
influence; therefore the symbol is a most fitting one.
The
crocodile is the Egyptian dragon. It was the dual symbol of Heaven and Earth,
of Sun and Moon, and was made sacred, in consequence of its amphibious nature,
to Osiris and Isis. According to Eusebius, the Egyptians represented the sun in
a ship as its pilot, this ship being carried along by a crocodile "to show
the motion of the Sun in the moyst (Space)", (Prepar. Evang., 1, 3, c. 3).
The crocodile was moreover, the symbol of Egypt herself -- the lower, as being
the more swampy of the two countries. The Alchemists claim another interpretation.
They say that the symbol of the sun in the ship on the Ether of Space meant
that the hermetic matter is the principle, or basis, of gold, or again the
philosophical sun; the water, within which the crocodile is swimming, is that
water or matter made liquid; the ship herself, finally, representing the vessel
of nature, in which the sun, or the sulphuric, igneous principle, acts as a
pilot: because it is the sun which conducts the work by his action upon the
moist or mercury. The above is only for the Alchemists.
The
Serpent became the type and symbol of evil, and of the Devil, only during the
middle ages. The early Christians -- besides the Ophite Gnostics -- had their
dual Logos: the Good and the Bad Serpent, the Agathodaemon and the Kakodaemon.
This is demonstrated by the writings of Marcus, Valentinus, and many others,
and especially in Pistis Sophia -- certainly a document of the earliest centuries
of Christianity. On the marble sarcophagus of a tomb, discovered in 1852 near
the Porta Pia, one sees the scene of the adoration of the Magi, "or
else," remarks the late C. W. King in "The Gnostics," "the
prototype of that scene, the 'Birth of the New Sun.'" The mosaic floor
exhibited a curious design which might have represented either (a) Isis
suckling the babe Harpocrates, or (b) the Madonna nursing the infant Jesus. In
the smaller sarcophagi that surrounded the larger one, eleven leaden plates rolled
like scrolls were found, three of which have been deciphered. The contents of
these ought to be regarded as final proof of a much-vexed question, for they
show that either the early Christians, up to the VIth Century, were bond fide
pagans, or that dogmatic Christianity was borrowed wholesale, and passed in
full into the Christian Church -- Sun, Tree, Serpent, Crocodile and all.
"On
the first is seen Anubis . . . holding out a scroll; at his feet are two female
busts; below all are two serpents entwined . . . a corpse swathed up like a
mummy. In the second scroll . . . is Anubis, holding out a cross, the
"Sign of Life." Under his feet lies the corpse encircled in the
numerous folds of a huge serpent, the Agathodaemon, guardian of the deceased. .
. . . In the third scroll, Anubis bears on his arm . . . . . the outline of . .
a complete Latin cross . . . At the god's foot is a rhomboid, the Egyptian 'Egg
of the World,' towards which crawls a serpent coiled into a circle . . . .
Under the busts is the letter [[omega]] repeated seven times in a line,
reminding one of the 'names' . . . Very remarkable also is the line of
characters, apparently Palmyrene, upon the legs of the first Anubis. As for the
figure of the serpent, supposing these talismans to emanate not from the Isiac
but the newer Ophite creed, it may well stand for that "True and perfect
Serpent," who leads forth the souls of all that put their trust in him out
of the Egypt of the body, and through the Red Sea of Death into the Land of Promise,
saving them on their way from the Serpents of the Wilderness, that is, from the
Rulers of the Stars." (King's "Gnostics," p. 366.)
And
this "True and Perfect Serpent" is the seven-lettered God who is now
credited with being Jehovah, and Jesus One with him. To this Seven-vowelled god
the candidate for initiation is sent by Christos, in the Pistis Sophia, a work
earlier than St. John's Revelation, and evidently of the same school. "The
(Serpent of the) Seven Thunders uttered these seven vowels," but
"Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them
not," says Revelation. "Do ye seek after these mysteries?"
inquiries Jesus in Pistis Sophia. "No mystery is more excellent than they
(the seven vowels): for they shall bring your souls unto the Light of
Lights" -- i.e., true Wisdom. "Nothing, therefore, is more excellent
than the mysteries which ye seek after, saving only the mystery of the Seven
Vowels and their FORTY AND NINE Powers, and the numbers thereof."
In
These
seven vowels are represented by the Swastika signs on the crowns of the seven
heads of the Serpent of Eternity, in
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