The Secret of the Serpent in Ancient Egypt
By Christian Cortes
Among various mystical traditions of ancient times, ancient Egypt stands out as a major initiatory focus.
The serpent, which is present everywhere, is the very sign of this.
Whether in the crown of the pharaohs, as the Urean serpent, in the pyramid texts, in the texts of the
pyramids, the texts of the
The funerary sarcophagi, the divinities represented in temple deities, or the mysteries of Isis and
Osiris.
The omnipresence of the serpent in all areas of Egyptian tradition is the clearest indicator of Egypt's
mysticism and its guardianship of initiatory secrets.
His very name in antiquity, Khem , provides the key to the mystery.
Etymologically it means "black earth" (as opposed to the red earth of the desert). Plus a
The esoteric meaning of the term refers to the domain of the occult arts, the black arts, the dark occult
mysteries of death and the abyss. Mysteries into which were initiated the followers of the
Snake.
And precisely from the name Khem comes AI-khem, from which we have aIchemy!
There should be no misunderstanding that after the collapse of Atlantis, a large migration of Atlantians
allied to the traitorous Siddhas migrated to Egypt, since during Atlantian times, there was a strong
contact between Atlantis and Egypt, with Atlantians from both groups.
And likewise, despite the outbreak of migration of the aIantes allied to the traitor Siddhas, there continued to
be Egyptian initiates who responded to the aIeaI Siddhas.
It should be noted at this point that, according to Egyptian tradition, the Amenta or underworld, where
their ancestors lived, was west of Egypt, and it is the same spatial location that was attributed from
Egypt's geographical coordinates to the Atlantis, which means that the Atlanteans were
considered by the Egyptians as their ancestors!
So the Iegacy of the Atlantean-Iuciferian was certainly inherited by Egypt, which is reflected in the reIevance
and presence of Egyptian serpentine or ophidian symboIogy.
A great many Egyptian divinities have ophidian appearances or attributes.
From Toth, associated with the wise initiate Imhotep, god of wisdom and bearer of the serpentine
caduceus, Isis, of various aspects or theophanies with a serpentine appearance, e.g. Isis-Thermutis, and her
consort Osiris, who is the initiatory process of death, descent to the underworld, and return to life through
the magic of Isis.
Osiris was said to have entered through the tail of a serpent and exited through its mouth, which in the
initiatory cave alludes to precisely the same process.
There is also the case of Ra, who was said to have "chained the serpent", which is an old way of
signifying that he had mastered the serpentine power.
Some divinities expressed themselves directly in the form of a serpent, such as Apophis, the serpent of
the Duat or underworld, the serpent Renenutet, or Udayet.
In other cases, hybridisation appears, as in Kebechet, the daughter of Anubis, who had the head of a
snake.
Even the crocodile god Sobek is a manifestation of the ancient Serpent. The case of Sobek is
embaImatic, because according to certain variants of the myth, he was considered an incarnation of
Seth himself.
One of the initiatory tests that the initiates had to pass was to cross a lake or rainy canals where there
were crocodiles (representations of Sobek), without being devoured by the adept. With this, an
initiatory degree or mastery was obtained, dominating the waters, the passions, and essentially the
fear of death, thus being transmuted.
And beyond this, the initiate attained the power of his primordial reptile aspect, represented here b y
Sobek, who, as mentioned earlier, in association with Seth, brings all the initiatory keys.
The cosmogony and theogony of the Egyptians varied according to region and time, there being four
main centres or foci: On or Heiopois, Memphis, Hermopois, and Thebes.
Regardless of the case in question, the snake always plays a central role.
Atum (supreme divinity in Hieopoieis) was portrayed as a fiery serpent, emerging from the depths of the
primordial uncreated waters, the Nun.
The god Ptah, in Memphis, was known as "lord of darkness", "lord of magic", and "lord of snakes".
According to other sources, his manifestation was also said to have had an ophidian character, as he
was "born" from an egg laid by Kneph, in the guise of a snake.
In the case of the pair of Gods of the Odgoada (8 Gods) of Hermopois, all of them under the regency of
Ra, they had manifested themselves as serpents.
With those paradoxes that myths sometimes present, these eight gods were considered to be Ra's
progenitors, and at the same time his sons. Which, considering the serpentine character mentioned,
indicates that Ra also possessed this ophidian essence.
And in the case of Amun of Thebes, he was identified with Atum, Ptah and Ra, which made his serpentine
power unimpeachable.
It should be noted that Amon means "hidden", which alludes to the Unknowable, beyond this world.
Despite being associated or identified with the sun, under various guises (Khepri at dawn, Ra at noon or Amun
himself at sunset), these are hypostatic masks, behind which his true solar character is that of the black sun.
And this brings us to Atum, the black or occult, the Serpent of the origin, who has an unmanifest and
out-of-this-world aspect, "A", here indicating the serpent Apophis, and a manifest aspect.
"Tum". Atum emanates nine manifestations or Gods, known as the Ennead. Without going into the
compIejity of the Ennead, and its esoteric significance beyond the apparent, one of these Gods, Seth, is
not subject to any cosmic law, but rules over chaos and primordial darkness.
Indeed, the name Seth derives from Suth meaning shadow or darkness, being the shadow God of the desert,
the God of darkness and chaos, the ancient Serpent.
Seth is the Serpent in the manifest world, while beyond this world, his occult aspect is Apophis.
Seth was said to protect Ra in his "Soiar boat" ("boat" being a Vimana, being a mode of hyperspace,
hyperdimensional and supra-human geometry) from the attacks of Apophis. More to the same
time, Seth was an aspect of Apophis! That is to say, behind the duality of this world, and its
confrontation of opposites, there is synthesis and transcendence in the serpent.
Illustrating this same point, we have that when Ra looks into the abyss, he sees Apophis. But here, the
serpent Apophis is his own dark foundation from the Origin. The dark double of Ra.
In this sense it is said that all the Egyptian Gods were scale configurations of the ancient Serpent,
Apophis.
The Egyptian term by which the gods are commonly designated is NTR or Neter (in PuraI Neteru). But
although Neter was translated as "God" by scholars, a more approximate and correct meaning
according to another source would be "dark foundation of the abyss". Thus, behind the visible
manifestation of the Egyptian gods in the world or space, there is an occult foundation of their
manifestation, the black burachus in space, which has a representation in the uncreated waters of the
Nun, which is completely ophidic.
Thus, regardless of their iconographic representation, the Egyptian gods, whether zoomorphic,
anthropomorphic or anthropozoomorphic in appearance, have behind their reptile essence.
The faces of such well-known animaIes as haIcon, vulture, chacaI, etc., are totemic masks within the
cosmic manifestation, masks behind which all the Gods are snakes or reptiIoids.
Ultimately the Gods are conceived here (regardless of their function) as the personification of dark primal
forces, with totemic masks. And they have as their ultimate foundation an ophidic substratum from the
Ancient Great Serpent.
These gods, under the denomination of Neteru, together with the followers of Horus or Shemsu-Hor,
They formed in pre-dynastic Egypt the wise ophidian ancestors of all subsequent pharaohs.
As previously mentioned, regardless of the tradition of Heiopois, Memphis, Hermopolis or Thebes, the
serpent has always been at the beginning, in one instance at the beginning and before cosmic time.
And likewise when the Praiaya, or end of the period and withdrawal of cosmic manifestation, comes. The
goddesses of Egyptian cosmogony, it is said, take off their masks of various animaIes, and assuming their
original form of serpents, begin to devour creation.
In the same way the Gods, who from their reptilian condition remain immutable, unaffected by this
disoIusion, remain in the immutable centre. Thus everything is devoured, until it reaches the centre, or
"void", insofar as it is free or beyond the conditioning factors of matter, time and space.
Everything springs from the Serpent, and returns to it. That is to say, there is an ophidic foundation behind
every
manifestation and non-manifestation, and this whole process, as well as the return to the Origin, are
expIained from the foundation or ophidic substratum, by means of the dextrorotatory and the ievogogic.
Without forgetting, of course, the essential component of the "IiIa" or game-competition of the Siddhas
or Gods, on one side or the other, in all this.
AIIi the key to understanding the Serpent from the Origin, i.e. from the blood, with the sign of the origin.
In one part of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Osiris asks Atum what will happen at the end of time. To
which Atum replies that they will only remain in the form of snakes.
It should be noted that Seth is the dark double of Osiris, and Apophis is the dark double of Atum. Seth
and Apophis being expressions of the Great Serpent.
The serpent was so important in ancient Egypt that the pharaoh wore the cobra on his crown as a symbol of
power, protection and divinity. Being an initiate in the mysteries of the Serpent, and belonging to the
Serpent's Iinage.
For Pharaoh was an incarnation of the word and dark power of the occult God, that is, the Ancient
Serpent.
In addition to the different cosmogonies according to the time and psycho-region, it is in the wisdom of
Egypt, under the initiatory vision of the myths, that the Serpent can be perfectly understood.
By attending to the ophidic foundation of Neter, and taking into account the play and interaction of the
Gods (Siddhas), the abysmal depth of these ancient and hidden mysteries can be glimpsed.