Serpent lore and symbols of deity

—mentary forces are reconciled. The divine marriage of Ouranos and Gaea original: "Ge"—that is, of heaven and earth—comes to us as a great secret knowledge original: "esoteric secret" from ancient Babylon. Every order in Masonry has symbols that bear witness to this "at-one-ment" the author's emphasis on the literal meaning of atonement.

The vertical line of the Absolute, represented by the plumb rule of the Junior Warden original: "J.W.", is united in the Master’s tau a T-shaped cross with the Senior Warden’s original: "S.W." level of relationship. The Pillars, topped by celestial and terrestrial globes respectively, find their explanation in this combined significance. The corresponding pairs of God and Man, spirit and matter, mind and body, and countless other opposites fall into line when viewed in the true light. Despite the victory of the Sun God in Crete, it was there that the rites of the Mother of the Gods were first associated with the celebrations of Bacchus the god of wine and ecstasy. Ancient Cretan coins show a serpent emerging from a chest surrounded by a wreath of ivy leaves—emblems of the Earth Goddess and the Sun God respectively. These are typical of the sacramental bread and wine of the mysteries, representing the body of Ceres goddess of agriculture and the blood of Bacchus.

There is a close connection between tree and serpent worship. Both are parts of nature worship, which—as a pagan or rural cult—was offensive to the great centralizing religions. In the year 663, Bishop Barbatus succeeded in persuading the Lombards to cut down their sacred tree and allowed them to melt their golden viper into a sacramental chalice. In a church in Milan, the old and new religious systems are represented by two pillars: one topped by a serpent, the other by a cross.

Through many changes in religious practice, the serpent has always remained a steady symbol of wisdom. "Be wise as serpents" is the instruction in the New Testament. The Ophites maintained that the Creator of the material world was not the Supreme Being but Ialdabaoth original: "Ildabaoth"; a demiurge or lower deity in Gnosticism, an inferior power. They believed it was he who, fearing a rival, forbade man to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, which was offered as a means of enlightenment by the serpent, who was the friend of humanity.

Nor has the serpent ever been stripped of its status as the symbol of life. The linguistic root for the words "life" and "serpent" is the same. Clement of Alexandria acknowledges that the name of Eve, the "mother of all living," signifies a female serpent when pronounced with an aspirated sound. The serpent forming a circle with its tail in its mouth the Ouroboros has always been the emblem of eternity. As the symbol of eternal life, two entwined serpents are depicted on the caduceus, the wand with which Hermes leads the spirits of the dead to the underworld. The term Psychopompos (or "shepherd of souls") was later applied to Christ. This clarifies the beautiful words in the 23rd Psalm: "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." The word for "rod" in the Latin Bible original: "Vulgate" is Virga, which is—