The Cult of the Serpent

Ruined Adam, red man blooded in war

And ignorance, not the perfect creature

First released from Yahweh’s hand!

It is man, the winged serpent, the devious seraph.

Subtle is the Arch-enemy, so wily

As to corrupt rather than obliterate faith,

So that in the battle between truth

And error, man’s mind might be utterly

Confounded and debased,

Venerating what it should abhor.

Allegiance divided,we call both good and evil divine,

-Hail the Babylonian serpent,

Symbol,talisman, oracle and god!



Apollyon, Abaddon,

The battle standards of Assyria

Fly the dragon through Asia,

And the ensigns of Persia,

The sign of the serpent,

Governor of the universe.

Two fanging serpents contend for the world-egg,

Standing upon their tails.

In the netherworld,scorpions and snakes

Attack the feet of the damned.

8

At the fire-altar the god sits enthroned,

A serpent girdling his waist.



Circles and serpents of the landscape

Avebury

Stonehenge

Ophite hierograms in stone

Ophel

Apollo



In the caves of Hindustan

The god Sani stands,encircled by two snakes,

Their heads meeting over his,

Saturn’s ring.

On a rock by the Ganges

Vishnu reclines on the coiled serpent,

Sleeping between two worlds.



Parvati, come,

Snakes about your neck and waist!



Egyptian hieroglyph:

Two serpents intersect at right angles

Upon a globe

Solstitial colures

Drink the snake’s blood,

Eat his heart and liver,

And gain his wisdom.



The adder,

druid minister of the great god Hu,

the dragon-ruler of the universe

watches the sun slough across the sky

reading its helix

like the sons of Canaan



the serpent’s kiss

for an Ophite

the blessing of the eucharist

and the mysteries of Bacchus

snakes carried in baskets

with cakes and bread for the votaries



Cneph

the architect of the universe

the serpent with the egg in its mouth

seventh letter of the alphabet

sign of Thoth



The asps of Isis

come to drink from her chalice



the Egyptian gnostics of the school of Basilides

with their abraxas amulets

graven with the snake



the Tau-cross marked on my brow

the hawk-headed serpent



The divining cup of Joseph

its lid engraved with snakes



The serpents of Ouidah and the Congo

slide through the temples

possessing the will and imagination



Europa Europa

the solar serpent

Cadmus and Harmonia did not die

but were changed into vipers



Spiral line on the omphalos

spiral line on the megaliths of Newgrange

the serpent’s coil



the tripleheaded serpent on the breastplate of Agamemnon

and the viper shield of Menelaus



the Pythia of Apollo at Delphi

pronounces the oracle

seated on her tripod

the tripleheaded serpent of brass



the serpent’s fountain in Palestine

and the priest of Apollo’s stream atColophon,in Ionia,

and the holy stupefaction in the cave of Trophonius...



the fire in the dragon’s mouth of Mexico

burns also in the fields and villages of Britain



Enter the dracontium

the snake-stones’ avenues

leading to knowledge

to death