Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Ageless Wisdom and the Book of Revelation - Part 3 of 3 Parts

The Serpent Symbol and Ascension
(Updated February 18, 2011)
                 
In Genesis 3:1-5: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’ And the woman said…, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the garden…lest you die.’ But the serpent said…, ‘You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and… be like God, knowing good and evil’”

Genesis did not speak of the serpent as being evil. How and why did it become evil? Was it to conceal the secret of “immortality” that it held? Likewise, apparently, through its message, the serpent was enhancing life, not destroying it. In the Gnostic Ophite system, the snake was Ophis, sent by the woman (Sophia-Achamoth), to induce man to transgress the selfish and unjust command. Man was enabled to comprehend the mysteries of creation.[1]

In Genesis 2-3, Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, after being tempted by the serpent. Why was eating the fruit really a sin? Christians argued that the couple disobeyed God’s commandment not to eat of the fruit, lest they “die.” (2:16). But after partaking of the fruit, Adam and Eve, did not die; instead, “their eyes were opened” (3:7). “And the Lord God has said, look the man has become as one of us, knowing good from evil: and now, what if he puts forth his hand, and takes also of the Tree of life, and eats and lives forever?” (Genesis 3: 22)

The verse implied, first, that God was talking to someone else; they were at least two. Second, they showed concern that humans could already exercise judgment, like them. Third, they were alarmed over man’s possibly becoming immortal by eating from the "Tree of Life." Thus, they prevented man from immortality by banishing him from paradise (3: 23-24).

William Bramley (in Gods of Eden, Avon Books, New York, 1990, pp. 47-48) emphasized that the forbidden fruit revealed a vital truth echoed by many religions. Integrity, Dignity (Self-Worth) and Justice were pre-requisites to gaining spiritual freedom. He added that the Sumerians depicted man as being stark naked in doing tasks for their masters, while the gods were shown as fully clothed. The Genesis text may be construed accordingly (See Table):

Original Sin – Biblical and Scientific Viewpoints

Genesis
Scientific Viewpoint
Initially, “the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed” (2:25). After eating the fruit, “the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons” (3:7). “God” himself “made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (3: 21).
The first humans became aware that they were kept ignorant; they saved their dignity by covering up. Their mentor (God) acknowledged this significant development by clothing them.
“The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (3: 20).
A name signified a sense of self-worth
“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing, in pain, you shall bring forth children” (3:16).
Eve began pro-creating, not by cloning, a painless process, but, by the “natural” way.
“In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (3:19).
Humans fended for themselves instead of being nurtured in Eden like a cattle herd was grazed.


In evolution theory, the human species was the outcome of a long evolutionary process. The “fruit” may imply the emergence of the neo-cortex, the reflective part of the brain, (reason and judgment).
 
            After “God” discovered that Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the tree, “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all…wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life; I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (3: 14-15). The verse captured the evolution of the serpent, which originally had feet. But the “fullness of the woman,” was also shut off. Her seed (humanity) forgot his immortal lineage from divinity.

                Ironically, the word “devil” spelled backward is “lived” and “evil” is “live.” Both words signified “death,” the loss of the original state of immortality, a human birthrught. In like manner, the word "Satan" may be unscrambled as "Sanat" or "Santa." Sanat, the opposite of Satan, is considered in Ageless Wisdom as the the Planetary Logos, which ensouls the Earth and Humanity. The "devil" was overlayed upon the soul of Earth.  Santa is the bearer of good tydings and Joy, which is always associated with the birth of the Christ.   

The "Lord God" and the "Lord God of Hosts"            

            In the Book of Job, The Lord identified himself with Leviathan when he rebuked Job: “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? ...Lay hands on him; think of the battle, you will not do it again! Behold, the hope of man is disappointed; he is laid low even at the sight of him.” Who “can stand before me…? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine” (Job 41: 1-11).

The “Lord” was Leviathan, another word for Satan, who claimed dominion over the whole world. The Hebrew root word of Leviathan meant “to cleave” or “to divide;” Leviathan was an allusion to the division in consciousness, which is itself seen as the root of human ignorance, and therefore evil.[2]

             Paradoxically, the Lord, the “jealous God,” gave the “Law” to the descendants of Levi – Moses and Aaron; the Levite priests became the champion and protector of the “chosen people.”  In Galatians 3:15-29, the Law was “added because of transgressions…and it was ordained by angels through an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one; but God is one.”

The (original) Christ doctrine was clear: an angel, not God, appeared to Moses (before the Catholic Church mandated otherwise).  “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made Him known” (John 1: 16-18).

              In 2 Samuel 24, “the Lord” incited David to “number” Israel and sent a pestilence upon Israel, killing 70,000 men. David built an altar and made offerings to the Lord, appeasing the Lord and stopping the plague. 1 Chronicles 21 had basically the same content, except that: Satan was “the Lord” who incited David and caused the pestilence and to whom David made an altar offering to stop the angel in fulfilling the Lord’s wrath. Either the “difference” between the two verses was an “oversight” by the editors of the Old Testament. Otherwise, the scribes recorded factual events. That is, as in the case of Job, the references to Satan (or Leviathan) as the “Lord God” was accurate.  

Significantly, Satan in Revelation 20 and the “Lord God” in Ezekiel 38 was the same entity who deceived Gog and Magog to do evil to Israel. In Revelation 20:8: Satan “will come out to deceive the nations, that is, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle.” In Ezekiel 38: 10-16: “On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and…devise an evil scheme and say, I will go up against the land of unwalled villages….” And “you will…come from…the north…against my people…when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.” He further said: “for in my jealousy…and blazing wrath, I declare, on that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel…” (38: 19). Then, the “Lord God” himself will do evil to Gog, he shall: “strike your bow from your left hand and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand” (30:3).

As ending, Gog and Magog “marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city; but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Revelation 20:9-10).

              In Isaiah 27: 1, the Lord of hosts (i.e., Archangel Michael) “will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” This verse had reference to earlier lines. “‘How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God…I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit.” (14:12-15). “On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth on the earth. They will be gathered…as prisoners in a pit…Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts will reign…in Jerusalem….” (24:23-23)

Leviathan provided the clue to man’s true nature. Through the enmity between the serpent (wisdom-immortality) and humanity (the seed or offspring of the woman), man lost his link to the higher realms.

               Humanity awoke into a world of “duality” – darkness and light, positive and negative. Further, humanity had acquired an unnatural primal fear of serpents; which concealed the true wisdom of its immortal nature. The fear was expanded into the “fear of the unknown,” an abyss of darkness. Man’s lack of awareness of the life-force both within the person and around the Earth was what divided man’s consciousness into two. This division was the reason for the problems and ills of the world; the external wars and conflicts were reflections of man’s inner conflict. 

Caduceus, Ophiucius and Serpent Fire

Apparently, both the Lord and the serpent who talked to Eve had “serpentine wisdom.” Both represented the two sides of nature – the Christian Michael and Satan, the Sumerian Enki and Enlil, the positive and negative, the Taoist yin and yang.

In Isaiah 45: 7, the omnipotent God was the source of both good and evil: “I form light and create darkness, I make weal and woe, I am the Lord who do all these things.”

               Good and evil were united symbolically in the Caduceus (Greek for “herald’s wand”), a staff with two serpents entwined about it, with a pair of wings atop. It was known as the staff held by the Greek god Hermes (the Roman Mercury), a god based on the ancient Egyptian god Thoth, who instructed Horus or the Greek Apollo. The caduceus was given by Apollo to Hermes in return for his lyre. Hermes is the messenger, the carrier of wisdom. Apollo is the god of music, poetry, and prophecy. As Phoebus Apollo, he is the god of light. Like Thoth, Horus the sun god (i.e., the spiritual inner sun), also embodied wisdom.

              The “staff of Hermes” was the symbol for harmony and balance carried by Greek messengers and ambassadors and the Roman symbol for neutrality and non-combatant status. It later became an emblem of the medical and allied professions. Healing (and therefore growth or evolution) implied the harmony of the two polarities.

 “Other versions of the myth tell us that the Caduceus was created when…Hermes struck two warring snakes apart with a staff – a metaphor for bringing harmony and balance to the opposites and uniting or neutralizing them.”[3] The Caduceus may be further traced back to ancient India; it was known as the asvattha (i.e., “tree of life and being”); the rod was the Brahmadanda, “the stick of Brahma.”[4]

              The Cadeceus was symbolically linked to the Constellation Ophiucius (Roman “Serpentarius”), which, ironically, was only recently recognized as one of the 13 zodiacal constellations (constellations through which the Sun passes during the course of the year). Until recently, Ophiuchus, although one of the 48 original constellations (charted by Ptolemy and later adopted by the IAU), was the only one not designated as an astrological sign. Ophiuchus is visible to all observers at latitudes between +80° and ?80° and is best seen at culmination during the month of July.

             Ophiuchus or “Serpentarius,” literally meant the “serpent bearer.” In most mythology representations, Ophiuchus represented as a man grappling with a large snake; his body representing the division of the snake “Serpens” into two parts – Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda. Even though divided by Ophiuchus, they still are only one constellation.

           Why had Ophiuchus been only acknowledged now as the 13th zodiac sign? Is it because of the Age of Enlightenment? Ophiuchus is the only constellation in the sky patterned after a real person. In Greek mythology, he was Aesclepius, Master Architect and Healer.  Aesclepius, while in the process of bringing Orion (the Hunter) back to life, was killed by a thunderbolt hurled at him by Zeus.  Zeus' brother Hades (Ruler of the Underworld), was alarmed that Aesclepius' abilities might soon put him out of work. So he prevailed upon Zeus to intervene. Zeus complied with the dark brother's request. Nonetheless, to honor Asklepius, Zeus set him in the sky and gave him the name "Ophiuchus;" he became the God of Wisdom and Medicine. 

           The two snakes symbolized the kundalini or serpent-fire (Holy Spirit); the wings were the power of flight to higher dimensions and planes conferred by the serpent-fire.

          On earth, the kundalini fire of matter was the earth’s molten iron core, expressed in the electromagnetic poles – Aurora Borealis and Australis, the radioactive elements, like uranium, and the crystalline grid. It was contrasted to the energy from the sun, which belonged to air and light and the great open spaces. The two energy sources – the sun and the serpent-fire had influenced the evolution of life and man.[5]

The Serpent Fire in Man

             Man, as a microcosm of the process of creation and evolution, contained the symbols of the caduceus and the cabbalistic Tree of Life. Within man were three major life channels or nadis: Ida, Pingala and Shashumna. The shashumna, the central channel (the caduceus rod), from the base of the spine moved up the spinal column and extended to the brow center (Ajna or “third eye”). The ida and pingala, from the same base, intertwined the sashumna in a serpentine pattern, with the Ida and Pingala joined to the left and right nostrils respectively. The two, as intertwined, met at each of the centers, from the root center, to the sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, until the brow center.[6]


The pingala and ida nadis were the channels for vital forces that symbolized the division, imbalance and disease associated with the positive and negative opposites. The pingala received the energy from the sun, which corresponded to the male or positive principle. The ida received the energy from the moon that corresponded to the female or negative principle; it was associated with female menstruation, the “moon cycle.” Both linked to the left and right hemisphere of the brain, with the left being the masculine and the right the feminine. The left hemisphere controlled logical thinking; it divided and analyzed. The right was responsible for “holistic mentation;” it harmonized and synthesized. They are bridged by the corpus callosum the band between the left and right hemispheres, which corresponded to the sashumna.[7]

The flow of prana (“chi” in Taoism) or vital force through the pingala and ida sustained the individual, like oxygen does to the physical body.[8] Prana continuously circulated through pingala and ida, but not through the sushumna, which remained close, until spiritually stimulated by the kundalini or serpent-fire. The kundalini in man was a “coiled serpent” at the based of the spine. It was an invisible force of hollow concentric spheres of astral and etheric (or plasmic) matter, one within the other.

                 The stimulation of the kundalini in the proper way was the objective of the mystery schools. When aroused after much preparation and long periods of contemplation, it rose up through the three nadis. The prana also withdrew from the pingala and ida and be harmonized in the sushumna. This was the stage of “illumination,” when man became capable of “flight” using the merkaba, to meet the “Father” (spirit-self) in heaven. This was symbolized in the baptism of Jesus, when the dove hovered atop His head. “Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthian 3: 17).

Evolution and Ascension 

            During the Last Supper, Jesus linked his body and blood to the perfection of the human body, the “temple of the soul.” (Mark 14: 22-24; 1 Corinthian 10: 16-17).

            Man’s blood had hemoglobin, an iron core; the Earth’s core was also molten iron. The Christ fused His human blood with the life force of Spirit from the iron core of Mother Earth.

            The Christ was to “rule with a rod of iron” (Revelation 12: 5; 19:11-20).

            By His blood, the Christ ransomed men for God (5: 9-10). "Since…the children share in flesh and blood, he…partook of the same nature, that through death…destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Hebrews 2: 12-17). “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage of the Lamb.” (Revelation 19: 9)

            The serpent-fire was the rider on the white horse, the “Word of God,” with “many diadems,” the “King of kings” (19: 11-16).

            From the dragon with only seven diadems (Revelation 12: 3), the beast arising from the sea (13: 1-2) had already ten diadems (of the total 12). Three more (of the diadems) were opened up by the Christ:

            (a) the link to the spirit-self, 
            (b) the Earth’s consciousness grid, and 
            (c) the Mind behind the solar system.

           The last two (of the twelve) diadems remained close – (d) unity with the Galactic System, and (e) Cosmic Consciousness or unity with Universal Mind.

           Note that another beast rose from the earth, which "exercises all of the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed" (13: 11). That beast has a mark. "This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred sixty-six" (13:18).  

           The number 666  may represent the element carbon, which has six protons, six electrons and six neutrons. Carbon is the basic ingridient for DNA. The sign of the beast was inserted in the human DNA. It is a "human number."

           Revelation 13:18 was a counterpoint to Genesis 6: 1-4, which described the “sons of God:” “When men began to multiply…and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose…The Nefilim were in the earth in those days, and so afterwards, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men of old, the men of renown.”

Nefilim is Hebrew for “those who fell,” from “naphal,” “to fall.” The Nefilim “sons of God” copulated with humans. For humans to bear Nefilim children, their genes must be compatible. Humans were like Nefilims and thus, in “the likeness of God.” In Greek mythology, the gods of Olympus copulated with humans, with Hercules as an offspring of Zeus.

            Nonetheless, despite the insertions by the "Nefilim gods," humanity had already evolved and acquired deeper feelings, abstract thinking, and intuition. Within the last quarter of the 20th century, it had also gained powers previously attributed only to gods: capacity to travel into inner space through quantum physics; alter the design of life (e.g., cloning) and regenerate cells through biotechnology and nanotechnology; access the intelligence of humanity through the Internet; and early capacities as an inter-galactic species through space probes within the solar system. 

          In Revelation 20: 13-14: “And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.”  In mystic parlance, fire represented wisdom; while water symbolized the world of emotions. The "lake of fire" thus refer to wisdom reaching down to the levels of the emotional world. Enlightenment had been linked down to Earth, opening the door held by Death and Hades.

           "Then i saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And i saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God; prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and i heard a great voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,' and God himslef shall be with them...and death shall be no more..." (Revelation 21: 1-4)

          During global enlightenment, the serpent-fire of truth (Holy Spirit) shall dissolve the illusion of separateness. Death and Hades shall give way to the immortal soul, the outcome of eating the "Tree of Life," the gift of immortality. This applied to a spiral of growth in the individual (microcosm) and to the whole humanity and Earth (macrocosm). This is the Ascension.

Transfiguration

               “The kingdom of God is not coming within signs to be observed… for… (it) … is within you.”

The personality will give way for the soul to reign supreme. “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17: 33-35).

                 In Romans 8: 16-21: “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope…the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

 “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said you are gods’?” (John 10: 34; Psalm 82: 6).

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthian 3: 17-18). “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free’” (John 8: 34–38; 1 John 3: 8).

“You will do well to pay attention… until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart” (2 Peter 20). Christ is “the bright morning star (Revelation 22: 16).

Human consciousness is opening up for the “Son” to shine though. How? The Bible stressed “wisdom” and “intuition” as tools for unification and transfiguration (like Jesus). Jesus emphasized Love.

Jerusalem (Daru‘s-Salam), the new Salem (Peace), is not physical, but a realm of peace among the sons of God. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the … world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come” (Matthew 25: 14). The end, in this case, is not the destruction of Earth and Humanity. Rather, like the ouroborus (the serpent eating its own tail), it signifies the deeper state of humanity's integration of  its dual nature (positive and negative), in harmony with the rest of creation.


[1] Blavatsky, p. 183-184; 187; Ophis was the successor of the Egyptian Chanuphis, the Good Serpent with a lion’s radiating head, held as an emblem of wisdom. He was also Thoth, the instructor and savior of humanity (the Greek Hermes Trismegistus). Ophis, the Agathodaemon was regarded as identical with Christos (the anointed). The Ophite Gnostics derived its name from Ophis. Possibly, Ophis opened the doors for the solar plexus and throat centers (the mental level); Buddha and the Christ opened the heart, brow center or third eye and the crown center (link to love-wisdom and intuition).

[2] Gardner and Osborn, pp 104

[3] Ibid

[4] C.W. Leadbeater, The Chackras, Theosophical Publishing House, Illinois, 1994, p. 32. Succeeding text about the nadis, kundalini and chackras were synthesized from Leadbeater, pp. 31-35; Gardner and Osborn, pp. 80-81; Dr. Douglas Baker and Celia Hansen, Super-Consciousness Through Meditation, Samuel Weiser, Inc., New York, 1978, pp. 20-24; and HP Blavatsky, “An Abridgement of The Secret Doctrine,” edited by E. Preston and C. Humpheys, Theosophical Publishing, Illinois, 1968, pp. 97; 136

[5] Rene Noorbergen, Secrets of the Lost Race, pp. 96-101; According to Noorbergen, the earth surface is bathed in the energy of the earth’s magnetic field, subject to influences from above and below. Above, the strength and flow of the magnetic current vary according to the positions of the sun, moon and the closer planets like the ebb and flow of the tides depended on the position of the moon. Below, the terrain influences the magnetic currents over which they flow. A flat landscape exhibits placid and regular activity; a rocky or broken land shows disturbed behavior. Magnetic flows are especially agitated over geologic faults, over which many of the pre-historic ley lines have been found.

[6] At the physical level, the centers corresponded to the endocrine “ductless” glands that secrete vital hormones. The root, sacral and solar plexus centers were attuned to the physical, emotional and lower mental world, respectively (i.e., the personality level of man); while the heart, throat and brow centers were attuned to the higher emotions (such as Love), higher mental world (abstract thinking) and intuition, respectively, (the soul level). The crown center, located at the top of the head, was the link to the Spirit.

[7] Michael S Gazzaniga, “The Split Brain in Man,” in The Nature of Human Consciousness, edited by Robert Ornstein, Freeman and Company, California, USA, 1973

[8] Fred Soyka and Alan Edmund, The Ion Effect, Bantam Books, NY, 1978; Prana may be equated to ions or “air electricity,” the excess (negative charge) or lack (positive charge) of electrons  within an atom. The ionosphere, the layer of charged air particles that enveloped the earth about 75 mi up (80-640 km) absorbed much of the sun’s harmful radiation and made life possible. It is polarized, with the underside that faced earth as positive and the top as negative. The interaction among the sun (positive), the ionosphere, the earth and the moon (negative) maintained the balance, with an accepted ratio (balance) of five positive to four negative ions. An overdose of positive ions caused the overproduction of the hormone serotonin, leading to hyperactivity, which fell to exhaustion, anxiety and depression. More negative ions (from mountains, seashore) were beneficial; duplicating reserphine in reducing the serotonin in the midbrain. Chinese acupuncture enhanced the flow of the vital forces within the body.

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