The serpent is the symbol of health, wisdom, and Gnosis. The Serpent was venerated in Egypt as an emblem of Divinity, an oracle, and as a god. The Sons of the Serpent who are sometimes called the Sons of Snakes are said to be the most wisest of races who have ever walked on earth.

This serpent race were the first true Gnostics that were sometimes called over the course of history, the Sons of Seth, the Ophites, Gnostics, Hivites, Nephilim, Kohanim, Seraphim, Phoenician Bards, Druids, and later they became attached to the Catholic Church as the biblical Levites from the priestly Tribe of Levi.

This is my tribe, and part of our story…

My family had originated from the island of Crete, and in particular, a dragon shaped island 7 miles away that was once known by many names such as Kos, Cos, Coos, Cous (Pliny – Cos), Ceus, Cea (from Ceus or Ceos, the son of Titan), Cia, Zia,  and Cean. Other names would be Delos, Merope, Lemnos, Letos, Staunchio and Patmos. It was on this island, where a great temple and school of the God of healing, Asklepios (or Asclepius) was operated. He was the god of medicine and reputed ancestor of the Asklepiades, the ancient Greek doctors’ guild. Today, the island of the dragon is known as Dia.

Our father in the bible is called the Great Dragon, Leviathan, and in mythology Ophis. We came to the Land of Canaan (Crete) from the East in a country known as the Land of Ham (Africa) with our Phoenician Prince Cadmus. All these various names are connected to the serpent such as Ophis, Ophite, Hivi or Hivite, Leviathan and Levi all signify a “Serpent.”

The name of the serpent in the ancient language of Canaan and the Phoenicians was pronounced as Aub, Ab; Oub, Ob; Oph, Op; Eph, and Eo. The meaning of the word Ophis signifies a Serpent, and was sometimes pronounced as Ope, Oupis, Opis, Ops; and by Cicero Upis. The Egyptian name of the serpent is Eph. The Greeks had called Apollo the god of light and the second sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more by the name of Python, which is the same as Ophis.

In mythology, the great Ophion, and Queen of the Titans, Eurynome had ruled from a place in Crete sacred to Jupiter that was called ‘Omphalos’ near the river sometimes called “Triton, and Ophis.” They were wrestled from their thrones by Cronus and Rhea who cast them down into the earth-encircling river Oceanus. This story is depicted biblically by St John in Revelation 12:9, “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

My ancient Gnostic ancestors were sometimes known as Ophites (Sethians), Hivites and the Valentinians, “regarded Seth as the first of the race of the perfect ones, the spiritual in opposition to the material (Cain) and Abel (the psychic). Seth was the great prophet of the Gnostic race. We follow the path of faith or the heart, use water, and are known as the Sons of Seth, or the Sons of the Serpent.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had written about the sons of the serpent; “Whence the Hivites who, according to some Roman Catholic commentators, descend from Heth, son of Canaan, son of Ham, ” the accursed”. Brasseur de Bourbourg, the missionary translator of the Scripture of the Guatemalians, the Popol Vuh, indulges in the theory that the Hivim of the Quetzo Cohuatl, the Mexican Serpent Deity, and the ” descendants of Serpents ” as they call themselves, are identical with the descendants of Ham (! !) “whose ancestor is Cain”. Such is the conclusion, at any rate, drawn from Bourbourg’s writings by Des Mousseaux, the demonologist. Bourbourg hints that the chiefs of the name of Votan, the Quetzo Cohuatl, are the descendants of Ham and Canaan.”

“I am Hivim”, they say. “Being a Hivim, I am of the great Race of the Dragons. I am a snake, myself, for I am a Hivim” (Cortes 51).

But Cain is allegorically shown as the ancestor of the Hivites, the Serpents, because Cain is held to have been the first initiate in the mystery of procreation. The “race of the Dragons” or Serpents means the Wise Adepts. The names Hivi or Hivite, and Levi—signify a “Serpent”; and the Hivites or Serpent-tribe of Palestine, were, like all Levites and Ophites of Israel, initiated Ministers to the temples, i.e.; Occultists, as are the priests of Quetzo Cohuatl. The Gibeonites whom Joshua assigned to the service of the sanctuary were Hivites. (See Isis Unveiled, Vol. II. 481.)”

In the bible, it says the conquered Hivites became “hewera of” wood and drawers of water” for the house of Jehovah and for the congregation (Josh. ix. 27). This is why the symbol of the ancient Sons of the Serpent who are called the Levites use the water vase as their main symbol. The old symbol of the serpent and the serpent on the cross was replaced by the church in the 7th century with the iconography of Jesus on a cross.

In the book, The Secret Teachings of all Age by 33rd Degree Freemason Manly P. Hall, he had written; “The serpent is the symbol and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the worlds by giving creation the knowledge of itself and the realization of good and evil.” H. P. Blavatsky had said in Isis Unveiled; “Before the carnal fall, the ‘snake’ was Ophis, the divine wisdom, which needed no matter to procreate men, humanity being utterly spiritual. Hence the war between the snake and the woman, or between spirit and matter.”

Church Father and bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, Saint Epiphanius in Adversus Haereses had written; “The Ophites reputedly said: “We venerate the serpent because God has made it the cause of Gnosis for mankind. Ialdabaoth (the Demiurge who was the ‘god of the Jews’) did not with men to have any recollection of the Mother or of the Father on high. It was the serpent, who by tempting them, brought them Gnosis; who taught the man and the woman the complete knowledge of the mysteries from on high. That is why [its] father Ialdabaoth mad with fury, cast it down from the heavens.”

St. Hippolytus, Elenchos V. 17 “…No one can be saved and rise up again without the Son, who is the serpent. For it was he who brought the paternal models down from aloft, and it is he who carries back up again those, who have been awakened from sleep and have reassumed the features of the Father.”

All these stories represent being awakened to the knowledge of the ancient mysteries and indicate the process of Gnosis. An ancient rite that was universally taught around the world until there was a war made on Gnosis and Gnostics by the Universal church in order to conquer the world. Contrary to popular Gnostic belief, this war ORDO AB CHAO had to be waged in order to bring the human race from a state of chaos to a place of enlightenment and unity.

Moe

Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.