The early Christians -- besides the Ophite Gnostics -- had their dual Logos: the Good and the Bad Serpent, the Agathodaemon and the Kakodaemon.
This is demonstrated by the writings of Marcus, Valentinus, and many others, and especially in Pistis Sophia -- certainly a document of the earliest centuries of Christianity.
On the marble sarcophagus of a tomb, discovered in 1852 near the Porta Pia, one sees the scene of the adoration of the Magi, "or else," remarks the late C.
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King in " The Gnostics ," "the prototype of that scene, the 'Birth of the New Sun.'" The mosaic floor exhibited a curious design which might have represented either ( a ) Isis suckling the babe Harpocrates, or ( b ) the Madonna nursing the infant Jesus.
In the smaller sarcophagi that surrounded the larger one, eleven leaden plates rolled like scrolls were found, three of which have been deciphered.
The contents of these ought to be regarded as final proof of a much-vexed question, for they show that either the early Christians, up to the VIth Century, were bond fide pagans, or that dogmatic Christianity was borrowed wholesale, and passed in full into the Christian Church -- Sun, Tree, Serpent, Crocodile and all.
"On the first is seen Anubis .
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holding out a scroll; at his feet are two female busts; below all are two serpents entwined .
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a corpse swathed up like a mummy.
In the second scroll .
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is Anubis, holding out a cross, the "Sign of Life." Under his feet lies the corpse encircled in the numerous folds of a huge serpent, the Agathodaemon, guardian of the deceased.
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In the third scroll, Anubis bears on his arm .
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the outline of .
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a complete Latin cross .
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At the god's foot is a rhomboid, the Egyptian 'Egg of the World,' towards which crawls a serpent coiled into a circle .
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Under the busts is the letter [[omega]] repeated seven times in a line, reminding one of the 'names' .
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Very remarkable also is the line of characters, apparently Palmyrene, upon the legs of the first Anubis.
As for the figure of the serpent , supposing these talismans to emanate not from the Isiac but the newer Ophite creed, it may well stand for that "True and perfect Serpent," who leads forth the souls of all that put their trust in him out of the Egypt of the body, and through the Red Sea of Death into the Land of Promise, saving them on their way from the Serpents of the Wilderness, that is, from the Rulers of the Stars." (King's "Gnostics," p.
366.) And this "True and Perfect Serpent" is the seven-lettered God who is now credited with being Jehovah, and Jesus One with him.
To this Seven-vowelled god the candidate for initiation is sent by Christos, in the Pistis Sophia , a work earlier than St.
John's Revelation , and evidently of the same school.
"The (Serpent of the) Seven Thunders uttered [[Vol.
1, Page]] 411 THE MYSTERY OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS.
these seven vowels," but "Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not," says Revelation.
"Do ye seek after these mysteries?" inquiries Jesus in Pistis Sophia.
"No mystery is more excellent than they (the seven vowels): for they shall bring your souls unto the Light of Lights" -- i.e.
, true Wisdom.
"Nothing, therefore, is more excellent than the mysteries which ye seek after, saving only the mystery of the Seven Vowels and their F ORTY AND NINE Powers , and the numbers thereof." In India, it was the mystery of the Seven F IRES and their forty-nine fires or aspects, or "the members thereof," just the same.
These seven vowels are represented by the Swastika signs on the crowns of the seven heads of the Serpent of Eternity, in India, among esoteric Buddhists, in Egypt, in Chaldea, etc.
etc., and among the Initiates of every other country.
It is on the Seven zones of post mortem ascent, in the Hermetic writings, that the "mortal" leaves, on each, one of his "Souls" (or Principles); until arrived on the plane above all zones he remains as the great Formless Serpent of absolute wisdom -- or the Deity itself.
The seven-headed serpent has more than one signification in the Arcane teachings.
It is the seven-headed Draco , each of whose heads is a star of the Lesser Bear; but it was also, and pre-eminently, the Serpent of Darkness ( i.e.
, inconceivable and incomprehensible) whose seven heads were the seven Logoi , the reflections of the one and first manifested Light -- the universal L OGOS.
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Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.
The 'Rulers of the Stars' (Serpents of the Wilderness) from whom the True Serpent saves souls is a direct reference to Gnostic archontic powers governing the material cosmos.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage systematically maps the same structure (seven vowels/fires, Swastika signs, seven-headed serpent) across Indian, Egyptian, Chaldean, and Christian esoteric traditions, demonstrating the 'as above so below' cross-cultural reflection.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The seven Logoi are described as 'reflections of the one and first manifested Light — the universal LOGOS,' presenting a clear cascade from a single source into multiple emanated principles.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage traces a continuous thread of the same esoteric teaching (seven vowels/fires, serpent symbolism) across India, Egypt, Chaldea, and early Christianity, implying a trans-cultural chain of transmission.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The seven vowels 'shall bring your souls unto the Light of Lights — i.e., true Wisdom,' framing salvific knowledge as direct apprehension rather than ritual or faith.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
'Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not' is an explicit injunction of esoteric concealment, and the passage frames the seven vowels as a mystery superior to all others.
The twenty-two Hebrew letters as the building blocks through which God creates and sustains all existence.
The 'mystery of the Seven Vowels and their Forty and Nine Powers' and the omega repeated seven times as 'names' treat vocalic letters as the building blocks through which divine reality is structured and revealed.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage is centrally organized around the Logos concept: the dual Logos (Good and Bad Serpent), the seven Logoi as reflections of the one universal LOGOS, and the 'one and first manifested Light' from which they emanate.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The 'dual Logos: the Good and the Bad Serpent, the Agathodaemon and the Kakodaemon' presents a fundamental two-pole structure of the divine ordering principle.
Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.
The True Serpent 'leads forth the souls of all that put their trust in him out of the Egypt of the body, and through the Red Sea of Death into the Land of Promise' is a guided passage of the soul through post-mortem realms.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The soul ascends through seven zones leaving behind its principles until 'arrived on the plane above all zones he remains as the great Formless Serpent of absolute wisdom — or the Deity itself,' describing a complete return to the divine origin.