The Greek And Aegean Children Of The Serpent Goddess

The Greek And Aegean Children Of The Serpent Goddess

Introduction

By immersing myself in extensive studies, I have explored the profound teachings of indigenous religious philosophies, cosmologies, and sacred histories. Consequently, I have integrated a multitude of spiritual practices into my own belief system.

This amalgamation has given birth to The Serpent’s Way, a path that I now traverse with utmost reverence and unwavering commitment. I have discovered a common thread that unites diverse religious traditions and spiritual teachings.

The serpent symbol is closely associated with the enlightened masters and adept practitioners in various spiritual traditions worldwide. In our last article, we covered The Djedhi of Egypt represents the initial serpent group among many that we will cover on this blog.

Their teachings are of great importance to our discussions on self-mastery and Kundalini activation. Together, these groups form the Serpents of Wisdom, originating from the ancient civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria.

Wherever and whenever they have appeared on this planet, the Serpents of Wisdom have been hailed as divine entities, worshipped as gods and goddesses, and treated with unparalleled reverence.

They have fulfilled the roles of prophets, magicians, healers, and mediators with the gods, serving all the diverse races on Earth. They are also celebrated masters and spiritual mentors – guiding those who aspire to reach the enlightened state and free themselves from the cycle of time.

All Serpents of Wisdom, the People of the Serpent (those who hold Serpent Wisdom and Power), the Solar Brotherhood (individuals who have embodied the Spirit in physical form), and the Great White Brotherhood (those of pure spiritual essence) together form a powerful collective.

While outwardly living in solitude, they maintain contact with the extensive global network and work together in perfect harmony to elevate the spiritual enlightenment of all mankind.

They communicate through the universal language of love and share the same profound universal teachings. Regarding the group under discussion in this article, it is crucial to clarify that the resurrected Primal Serpent represents both the Serpent Goddess and the Dragon Son.

The universe was brought into existence by a fully conscious power that later went dormant at the base of the spine. Upon awakening, this power will lead each individual towards their ultimate potential. This power is none other than the Kundalini.

The first group of these Serpents of Wisdom that we covered can be found here:

https://theserpentsway.com/2024/06/12/the-djedhi-of-egypt/.

The Greek And Aegean Children Of The Serpent Goddess

Once the Dragon Culture had reached the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, the colonizing Serpents of Wisdom and their descendants, i.e., the Pelasgians, Danaans, Libyans, Anatolians, Amazons, Cretans and Greeks, established a cohesive Dragon Empire dedicated to their principal deities, the Serpent Goddess and her serpent/bull Son.

Set over their Mediterranean kingdom as its temporal and religious leaders were specially anointed priest kings and hierophants known collectively as Sons and Daughters or “Children of the Serpent Goddess.”

Samothrace: Headquarters Of The Brotherhood Of Sons

The priests of the Goddess’s eastern empire were Her consecrated Sons, the Dactyloi, Kouretes and Korybantes. These matriarchal priests staffed the Goddess’s temples, taught within Her mystery schools, and oversaw Her religious rites on the islands of Samothrace, Cyprus, Crete, as well as upon mainland Greece and Asia Minor.

They also functioned as warriors and guardians specially trained to protect the sanctity of their mother’s mysteries. For this purpose they carried deadly weapons, such as swords and daggers, which they occasionally unsheathed during their symbolic warrior dances.

Apparently the first official headquarters of the Brotherhood of Sons in the Mediterranean was Samothrace, “the Sacred Island,” which was alluded to by ancient historians as having been the Goddess’s first and most holy shrine in the Aegean.

While commenting on Samothrace’s extreme antiquity, Diodorus said the island was setteled before the great deluge and Herodutus pointed out that the Pelasgian people of the island spoke a very ancient language, called Sai, which pre-existed most all vernaculars in the Mediterranean.

Under the guidance of the colonizing Dactyloi and Kouretes Samothrace became home to temples dedicated to the archetypal Sons of the Serpent Goddess, the Kaberoi Twins.

The Samothracian Kaberoi, who were also referred to as the Theo Megaloi or the “Great Gods,” were twin flames and twin serpents of their androgenous serpent mother. Herodutus referred to them as the sons of Ptah or Vulcan, the fire god, while Cicero claimed that they were the divine sons of Proserpine, the “First Serpent” Goddess.

Symbolic images of them as the twin serpents climbing the shaft of caduceuses were once scattered throughout the sacred isle, although their premier image was that of two twin boys. The members of the Dactyloi Brotherhood recognized within the images of the Kaberoi a wealth of symbology.

The serpentine images of their beloved Twin Flames represented the polarity, known as the Ida and Pingala serpents in the Hindu tradition, which unite as the androgenous fire of transformation.

For this reason, the Kaberoi Twins were referred to by their devotees as adept smiths and were invoked for their power to execute a fiery transmutation within a seeker. The statues of the Kaberoi as twin boys also represented to the Dactyloi the patriarchs of their tradition, i.e., the first Sons and Brothers of their ancient brotherhood.

In this regard, the twins represented both the primeval split of the Primal Serpent Goddess into twin progeny at the beginning of time as well as the adepts of the Kaberoi Brotherhood of Atlantis who had resided on Earth as the first Sons of the present 104,000 year cycle.

It was in the mystery schools of the Atlantean Kaberoi that the secrets of the brotherhood were first promulgated before being transported to the Aegean. As direct descendants of the Kaberoi, the Dactyloi were referred to by their Aegean brethren as the wielders of fire and “they who invent fire and the use of iron.”

Like their legendary ancestors, they also knew the process of awakening the inner fire and its ascension. As representatives of the Atlantean Kaberoi Brotherhood in the Aegean, the Dactyloi passed on their esoteric wisdom of the Kundalini to their famous Greek students Orpheus, Kadmus, and Pythagoras, who in turn transmitted the secret knowledge of the serpent fire to others.

“The soul of man – often called Psyche, and in the Eleusinian Mysteries symbolized by Persephone – is essentially a spiritual thing. Its true home is in the higher worlds, where, free from the bondage of material form and material concepts, it is said to be truly alive and self-expressive. The human, or physical, nature of man, according to this doctrine, is a tomb, a quagmire, a false and impermanent thing, the source of all sorrow and suffering. Plato describes the body as the sepulcher of the soul; and by this he means not only the human form but also the human nature.

The gloom and depression of the Lesser Mysteries represented the agony of the spiritual soul unable to express it because it has accepted the limitations and illusions of the human environment. The crux of the Eleusinian argument was that man is neither better nor wiser after death than during life” – Manly P. Hall

Initiation Into The Brotherhood Of Sons

Those prospective candidates seeking initiation into the Brotherhood of Sons on Samothrace were first led into the Kaberoi’s centrally located temple soon after arriving on the sacred island.

Waiting there to greet them, according to the historian Hippolytus, were the principal statues of the Kaberoi Twins as “two naked boys, having their hands and their genitals elevated towards heaven.”

The Kaberoi’s upraised hands pointed the way to heaven while showering the candidate with blessings. Their erect and elevated genitals symbolized that the “way” to heaven was through transmutation of the seminal fluid and its ascension along the course of the human spine as the Kundalini fire.

After leaving the holy presence of the Kaberoi, a candidate was escorted into an adjoining temple for preliminary purifications.

Following a sincere admission of their most heinous transgression, the candidate was led over a drain and completely showered with holy water to the accompaniment of sacred mantras recited by a Dactyloi priest, the result of which was absolution from all past sins and rebirth as a Son of the Goddess.

Arising from his profound cleansing, the new initiate was then ushered into a throne room and given a purple (color of Spirit) sash to wear around his waist and a crown of olive leaves (symbol of Serpent wisdom) as ornamentation for his head.

In this regalia the new Son of the Goddess was seated upon an elevated throne and permitted to survey his new empire, the kingdom of the Goddess, which he would now help to administer along with his brothers.

Meanwhile, at the base of the throne other ordained priests of the Goddess, the Korybantes and Kouretes, performed a sword dance to the pulsing rhythmic beats pounded out upon oxhide drums. Their hieroglyphic dance symbolized the destruction of any evil or ignorance which could possibly taint the future purity of the new Son. At the conclusion of this rite the initiate was given a special ring of magnetized iron which was coated with gold.

The ring accelerated the vibratory frequency of the new Son, empowered his auric field, and promoted the ascension of the Kundalini up his spine. The sacred ring represented membership into the Brotherhood of Sons and guaranteed instant help during times of danger from the Kaberoi Twins.

“Many Atlantean masters who completed the spiritual alchemy and fully united with their Cherubim became members of a fraternity of spiritual adepts known as the Brotherhood of the Kerub or Kaberoi (Kaberoi is another name for Cherubim), a title which begins with K or Ka sound and denotes both Serpent of Wisdom and Son of God. The name Kaberoi also means “powerful through fire,” and designates the members of this organization to be adepts purified by the transformative, serpent fire and wielders of its immense power” – Mark Amaru Pinkham

Initiation Into The Sisterhood Of Daughters

Prior to delving into the upcoming section, it is imperative to address the term Cherubim mentioned in the aforementioned quote, as it is also known as Kaberoi. According to Samael Aun Weor’s extensive collection of books, he expounds on the Cherubim in the following manner:

The word Cherubim refers to a type of awakened or highly developed being. When Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden, a Cherubim was placed there to guard the way back to the Tree of Life with “a fiery, ever-turning sword.”

It is not accidental that its described as a Cherubim, because a Cherubim is a awakened being who lives in Yesod. A Cherubim is someone who has their consciousness developed at that level. According to Kabbalah, the awakened beings who live in Yesod are called Cherubim. Weor raises the question: who are the cherubim, exactly?

They are the man and the woman who are performing alchemy, sexual transmutation. They are CHASTE in the sexual act. Man and woman are representations of the two cherubim. Only between the cherubim, one can see the Ark of the Covenant and they open the way to the Tree of Life, which is our spinal medulla. 

Weor asserts that The Kundalini is the sexual fire. The Kundalini is the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Kundalini is the flaming sword of the Cherubim that guards the entrance to Eden.

This is why in the masterpiece entitled The Gnostic Church, Master Huiracocha stated that we must take advantage of the medulla and the semen to the maximum, because therein lies the redemption of man.

Referring to the semen, Master Huiracocha says the following in Esoteric Rose: “Raise well your cups, and be careful of not spilling even a single drop of your precious liquid.”

Refrained desire will transmute the semen into Christic energy, and this energy, in its time, will be polarized into positive and negative in order to rise through the two nervous canals located at the right and left of the spinal medulla. In India, these two spermatic canals are called Ida and Pingala.

Now that we have covered all of that, let’s move on to briefly discussing the topic at hand.

Samothrace was also the site of initiation into the “Sisterhood of Daughters,” a rite which was performed in the Zerynthian cave/temple of Hecate (Hek-ate, with K sound of the Serpent).

The temple of Hecate was constructed and cared for by the Amazons, a group of female Pelasgians from Libya and Atlantis who also venerated Samothrace as the principal Aegean shrine of the Goddess.

They depicted their goddess Hecate, a manifestation of the Serpent Goddess, as snake-footed, snake-haired or three-headed in order to symbolize Her serpentine wisdom and triune powers.

Hecate was especially associated with the destructive/transformative powers of the Serpent Goddess and therefore designated patroness of Her most secret mysteries, i.e., those regarding death and resurrection.

During either the full or dark phase of the moon, those accepted into the Sisterhood of the Goddess underwent an initiation in which a representative of Hecate, presumably a consecrated priestess wearing a snake headed (Gorgon) mask, symbolically enacted the mysteries of birth, life and death.

Meanwhile dogs, the animals sacred to Hecate, were humbly sacrificed to the Goddess. Finally, at the conclusion of the rites, the new initiated “Daughter of the Goddess” pledged to guard the mysteries of the Serpent Goddess by adopting a lifestyle and temperament reminiscent of the archetypal warrior Daughter, Artemis/Athene.

In the same way that the Kaberoi Twins were the archetypal and first Sons of the Brotherhood, Artemis/Athene was recognized as the first Daughter of the Sisterhood. Initiation into the Sisterhood of the Serpent Goddess was also conducted within the other sacred temples and upon other islands of the Amazons.

Besides Samothrace, their principal initiation centers were the Islands of Lemnos and Lesbos, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus (where she was also called Diana) on the Asia Minor coast, and the citadel of Colchis on the shores of the Black Sea.

“The Mysteries were the channels through which this one philosophic light was disseminated, and their initiates, resplendent with intellectual and spiritual understanding, were the perfect fruitage of the divine tree, bearing witness before the material world of the recondite source of all Light and Truth” – Manly P. Hall

Crete, Governmental Seat Of The Serpent Goddess

In so far as Samothrace served as the early religious capital of the Aegean, Crete was its ancient governmental headquarters and the principal seat of the Serpent Goddess’s temporal powers.

Between 2500-1500 B.C. a lineage of Cretan kings called Minos, regal Sons of the Serpent Goddess, ruled over a Dragon Kingdom which included most of the major islands of the Aegean as well as numerous coastal settlements in Greece, Italy and Asia minor.

Legend has it that above the throne of the incumbent Minos hung the emblem of his authority, the double headed axe, which was the symbol the androgenous Serpent Goddess, the king’s “mother.”

The Serpent/Bull Cult On Crete

Similar to Samothrace, Crete was also an important headquarters of the Serpent Goddess’s mystery rites. Her sacred rites had anciently been brought to the island by the early Dactyloi colonists as well as by Her Sons and Daughters who had traveled to Crete from Asia Minor.

Once on Crete all these transplanted rites precipitated the formation of both a private and public cult. The public rites, called the Thiodasia, were officiated by the priest king of Crete.

They were held in honor of the nature god Zan, a serpent/bull deity and manifestation of the life force, which legend maintained was reborn in one of Crete’s cave/temples each spring only to die the following autumn.

His mother was Rhea, a Cretan version of the Serpent Goddess. Zan’s rites were festive affairs conducted in or around the king’s splendid palace/temple.

Over the course of many days people from all corners of Crete would come together to participate in a series of rituals designed to honor the Bull Son, such as acrobatic vaulting over running bulls and a ceremonial mating between the priest king and his queen who dressed as a bull and cow for the occasion.

The high point of the Thiodasia was the feast of raw meat during which the Cretan people were given the chance to commune with the spirit of the serpent/bull Son by consuming a living manifestation of him.

A specially chosen bull was ritually slaughtered and pieces of its raw flesh were passed around and eaten by all those in attendance. To wash down their meal, a wine beverage, representing the Son’s blood, was decanted out of bull shaped vessels.

This celebration of the Son through a meal of meat and wine was the Cretan precursor of the later Christian Holy Communion.

“Similar to its “twin” in the Pacific, Atlantis, the Dragon Land of the Atlantic, is remembered in ancient legends around the globe as a Motherland, a land of immortals, and a “Garden of Eden.” Greek legends refer to this motherland as Hespera and portray it as a paradisiacal “Garden of Eden” at the western end of the world where the Dragon Ladon, the “Serpent of Eden,” once guarded the golden apples of wisdom. Hespera was a title for Venus, the planet of immortality, thus designating Atlantis to have been a “Land of Immortals.” In other references to it the Greeks alluded to the Atlantic motherland as the land of “Poseid” or “Poseidon,” a name for Neptune. In The Secret Doctrine the occultist H.P. Blavatsky maintains that Neptune was both a manifestation of the Primal Dragon as well as “the symbol of Atlantean magic”( in most cultures the serpent or dragon, has been the perennial symbol of magic) – Mark Amaru Pinkham

The Death Defying Rites Of The Labyrinth

Other rites of the public cult included initiation within the Cretan Labyrinth. The design of this famous structure, historically ascribed to the Cretan architect Daidalos, was supposedly modeled after the Egyptian Labyrinth on Lake Moeris and was, therefore, a form of the Zodiacal Dragon or Primal Serpent Goddess.

The name labyrinth reflects this esoteric truth. It means “House of the Double Axe” or “House of the Goddess” and is derived from the root “Labyrs,” the indigenous name for the double headed axe, symbol of the “androgenous” Goddess.

Within the meandering passageways of the Cretan Labyrinth, which was conceived of as the Goddess’s “womb,” lived Her “dark” bull Son, the Minotaur. The Minotaur was, like the crocodile god Seker of the Egyptian Labyrinth, a god of time and a version of the “Dark Lord”.

The mission of an aspiring Cretan initiate was to enter the Labyrinth, defeat the Minotaur (possibly an actor playing the part), find the luminous dwelling place of Spirit at the center of the Labyrinth, and then return to its entrance.

The victorious emergence of the new initiate from the Labyrinth thus signaled that he or she had defeated time and overcome death. Possibly the fiercest demons encountered within the Labyrinth were those of an aspiring initiate’s own making.

It is believed that the Cretan rite, like many initiations in the Mediterranean, may have begun with the consumption of a potent hallucinogenic beverage. An hallucinogenic sacrament was a recognized staple of the Greek rites which evolved out of the Cretan ritual, the Eleusinian Mysteries.

An alternate labyrinth rite was observed in the Knossos palace of the Cretan priest kings, the interior of which was similarly designed in the form of a maze. While performing a dance maneuver known as the Crane Dance, each candidate would wander along the labyrinth-like palace corridors in hopes of discovering a “way to the light.”

The Crane Dance was based upon the mating dance of the crane which included “nine steps and a leap,” symbolic of the evolutionary cycle of nine stages which an aspiring initiate must conquer and leap out of before achieving spiritual freedom.

While performing this dance, the candidates would eventually reach a centrally located courtyard framed by seven golden pillars, symbols of the Goddess’s seven principles, within which was the dwelling place of “light” or pure Spirit.

While communing with Spirit in the center of the palace labyrinth the candidates overcame death and were reborn in “the light of Spirit.”

Just as the Lesser Mysteries discussed the prenatal epoch of man when the consciousness in its nine days (embryologically, months) was descending into the realm of illusion and assuming the veil of unreality, so the Greater Mysteries discussed the principles of spiritual regeneration and revealed to initiates not only the simplest but also the most direct and complete method of liberating their high natures from the bondage of material ignorance. Like Prometheus chained to the top of Mount Caucasus, man’s higher nature is chained to his inadequate personality. The nine days of initiation were also symbolic of the nine spheres through which the human soul descends during the process of assuming a terrestrial form” – Manly P. Hall

The Secrete Rites Of The Dactyloi: The Thunders Of Nocturnal Zeus

Those Cretan aspirants who felt drawn to participate in the secret initiation rites of the private cult and thereby become members of the Kaberoi Brotherhood on Crete, the Dactyloi Brotherhood, submitted themselves to an arduous purification and initiation process staged within hidden cave temples located upon the upper elevations of Mt. Ida and Mt. Dikte.

The mysterious rites performed within these caves have been immortalized by many ancient historians under the epithet of the “Thunders of the Nocturnal Zeus.” The focus and climax of the highly secretive rites of the Thunders of the Nocturnal Zeus was initiation by the Thunderstone, a solidified meteorite with highly magnetic properties.

The stone was conceived to be a crystallized form of Zeus’s explosive power which, as a flaming serpent, had been thrown down from Heaven to solidify as a rock on Earth. Zeus in his Thunderstone manifestation is mentioned of later Greek mythology which alludes to Rhea’s presentation to Chronus of the baby Zeus in the form of a “stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.”

The Thunderstone initiation was administered in the Cretan cave/temples by vegetarian-consuming Dactyloi priests dressed in long white robes and sandals. After leading a candidate through preliminary purifications, which included communion with the bull Son via a meal of raw bull flesh (the last meal of animal flesh they would ever consume), the priests ceremoniously struck the candidate upon the head and/or back with the sacred rock.

As the magnetized Thunderstone interfaced with the candidate’s own electromagnetic field it would send subtle electrical currents up and down his body. Because of the interconnection between the electromagnetic field and the etheric Dragon Body, home of the Kundalini, this stimulation would simultaneously activate the indwelling serpent fire and assist in its evolutionary ascension.

When the most famous Dactyloi initiate, Pythagoras, was struck by the Thunderstone, he went into a deep mystical trance and lay with his face buried in the ground “as if dead” for an entire night.

When Epimenides, an initiate of the Diktean Cave, was hit by the stone, he “died” and had an intense dream which encompassed fifty seven years worth of Earth experience.

During the dream he learned many important lessons regarding the impermanence of life and communed with etheric teachers and gods of the upper worlds. Following the candidates’ “death” by the Thunderstone, a 27 day (3×9 days-or three cycles of 9) metamorphosis period ensued as the transformative energies awakened by the magnetized rock traveled throughout the new initiate’s body.

During this transmutation period the candidate remained night and day solely within one of the cave/temples while receiving the sacred teachings of the Dactyloi.

Then, after having reached the end of his apprenticeship, the candidate was escorted into the presence of an image of Zeus’s power, a serpentine thunderbolt, which sat upon a large throne. While kneeling down in front of this throne, the new initiate took his final vows and received full ordination into the Order of the Dactyloi.

“The mysteries were organized for the purpose of assisting the struggling human creature to reawaken the spiritual powers which, surrounded by the flaming ring of lust and degeneracy, lay asleep within his soul. In other words, man was offered a way by which he could regain his lost estate” – Manly P. Hall

The Serpent Goddess Tradition In Greece The Three Seats Of The Serpent Goddess

During the Mycenaean era the governmental headquarters of the Serpent Goddess’s eastern Mediterranean kingdom shifted from Knossos to Athens. Then for the succeeding thousand years this Greek city-state became the Goddess’s temporal and cultural seat of power in the Aegean.

Concurrent with this development, the Oracle of Delphi became the Serpent Goddess’s Aegean seat of divinitory wisdom and Eleusis was chosen as the seat of Her mysteries.

In Her temporal seat at Athens the Serpent Goddess was worshipped as Athene, a goddess from Atlantis and Libya who had arrived in the Aegean via the Pelasgians and Amazons. Once in Athens, Athene’s serpentine nature was transferred to her serpent Son and etched upon her body shield and sword as slithering serpents.

The androgenous nature of the ancient Serpent Goddess remained intact with Athene, however, and was reflected in her “masculine” authoritarian/ militaristic temperament which coexisted with her “feminine” patronage over the cultural arts and crafts, such as weaving.

Following Athene’s legendary battle with Neptune for control of Athens (perhaps symbolic of the ancient battle between the Athenians and Atlanteans), the Goddess become the city’s sole patroness and protectress.

When the imperialistic Greek city-state subsequently flourished and expanded well beyond its earliest boundaries, Athene became matriarch over much of the Serpent Goddess’s Aegean empire.

At Her divinitory seat at the dragon’s lair of Delphi the Serpent Goddess took the form of Delphinia, a phantom pythoness, who spoke her prophetic messages of wisdom through the vehicle of a Pythion Priestess.

Once a month, following preliminary purifications which included a fast of three days and the intake of a special potion of mind expanding herbs, the Pythian Priestess would climb a throne which straddled a large, gaping hole in the ground, the vortexual home of the earth pythoness.

After comfortably seating herself, the priestess would proceed to go into a hypnotic trance while staring directly into the eyes of a live snake. Then, once the Serpent Goddess started to speak through her, the priestess would maintain her deep trance by chewing laurel leaves, an herb sacred to the pythoness, and by inhaling cannabis burned on a brazier directly below her seat.

At the seat of the Goddess’s sacred mysteries at Eleusis, the ancient secrets of immortality were transmitted to initiates within a compound which comprised a labyrinth and a huge temple of initiation with 42 (7×6) pillars supporting its roof and a seating capacity of 3000.

Within the underground labyrinth a seeker could become a Son or Daughter of the Goddess by re-enacting the sacred mystery of Persephone or Proserpine, the “First Serpent.”

Persephone was a personification of the Serpent Goddess and the serpent life force which must spend part of the year above the Earth, during the growing season, and part below, during the season of death.

“Her ancient serpentine aspect was also absorbed by her serpent son who became the crocodile god Seker in Sais, and Erechthious, the snake coiled upon the sacred olive tree, in Athens. The humanized Athene fully retained her association to Serpent wisdom, however, and as the “Goddess of Wisdom” she was said to have been born from the head of Zeus (i.e., the Serpent Goddess is the wisdom of Spirit)” – Mark Amaru Pinkham

The Hallucinogenic Rites Of The Serpent Goddess

Persephone’s mystery rites were based upon her legendary abduction by Pluto, her captivity in the underworld god’s subterranean kingdom, and her eventual return to the surface of the Earth.

Her rites were thus divided into two parts, the Lesser and Greater Mysteries, which were celebrated in the Spring and Fall, the times when the serpent life force disappeared from the surface of the Earth and when it returned.

Of these two rites, the Greater Mysteries which celebrated Persephone’s return to the surface of the Earth were considered the more important. During the Greater Mysteries the Eleusinian candidates would symbolically re-enact the return to life of Persephone by undergoing their own deaths and spiritual rebirths.

The rites thus paralleled those of the Djedhi priesthood (from which the Eleusinian mysteries were partly adapted) in which the Egyptian initiates re-enacted Osiris’s death and resurrection by experiencing their own.

The rites of the Greater Mysteries officially began after six days of purifying spiritual exercises during which the candidates would travel back and forth between a temple in Athens and the Eleusinian mystery academy.

Then, during the darkest period of a specially chosen night, the rites were consummated by the candidates’ consumption of a hallucinogenic beverage called the Kykeon.

Apparently the active component of the beverage was psilocybin because, as the scholar Robert Graves informs us, “(the) beverage contained ingredients whose first letters could be arranged to spell out “mushroom,” the secret ingredient.”

Such psychotropic mushrooms were known in the Mediterranean area to both precipitate a hallucinogenic trance as well as awaken the inner Kundalini. Their Kundalini-activating effects have been confirmed in recent times by the ethnobotonist Andrew Weil through his studies of contemporary mushroom-consuming societies.

Once the inebriating effect of the hallucinogenic beverage had taken effect within the purified systems of the participants of the Greater Mysteries, they would be ushered one by one through the entrance of the Eleusinian Labyrinth.

This maze, a version of the Cretan Labyrinth, was dug out of the hill upon which the Eleusinian Temple stood and designed to simulate Pluto’s frightening underworld (a version of Hell) in the same way the Cretan maze simulated the underworld of the evil Minotaur.

When the candidates, each of whom played the role of Persephone, entered this maze they quickly found themselves in pitch-black darkness and forced to blindly grope along the damp earthen walls which lined the labyrinth’s corridors.

As the Kykeon reached its peak of influence, each candidate would unexpectedly be confronted by the terrifying shapes of Pluto’s denizens which seemed determined to obstruct their passage through the underworld.

If properly prepared for this heart-arresting experience, the candidates would recognize the monsters as phantom-like projections of their own internal demons and “slay” their morbid adversaries along with the corresponding dark aspect of themselves.

In this way some candidates “died” many times within these frightening tunnels. After what must have seemed like lifetimes, the candidates completed their journey through the labyrinth and emerged into what one Greek author referred to as the “light of day in the middle of the night.”

This luminosity was the light of wisdom which accompanied the new initiates’ spiritual rebirth. Then, while witnessing “an ear of corn reaped in silence” (Hippolytus, 3rd Cent. A.D.), the initiates completed the Eleusinian rites as well as their own spiritual rebirths.

The inner fruit of the corn symbolized the “ripened” Spirit within each Eleusinian initiate which was now “resurrected” and released from its husk of limitations, i.e., its fears, ego and physical sheath.

“But that the mysteries occultly signified this sublime truth, that the soul by being merged in matter resides among the dead both here and hereafter, though it follows by a necessary sequence from the preceding observations, yet it is indisputably confirmed, by the testimony of the great and truly divine Plotinus, in Ennead I., book viii. When the soul,” says he, “has descended into generation (from its first divine condition) she partakes of evil, and is carried a great way into a state the opposite of her first purity and integrity, to be entirely merged in which, is nothing more than to fall into dark mire. And again, soon after: “The soul therefore dies as much as it is possible for the soul to die: and the death to her is, while baptized and immersed in the present body, to descend into matter, and be wholly subjected by it; and after departing thence to lie there till it shall arise and turn its face away from the abhorrent filth. This is what is meant by the falling asleep in Hades, of those who have come there” – Thomas Taylor

The Hallucinogenic Rites Of Dionysus, The Serpent/Bull

Another Greek cult which co-existed with the Eleusinian Mysteries and also incorporated the consumption of hallucinogenic sacraments was that of the cult of Dionysus, the serpent Son of Zeus, the Spirit.

Dionysus was a composite god synthesized from the Cretan Zan and the Egyptian Osiris to produce a resurrected serpent/bull Son.

He was patron of both his own cult as well as the Eleusinian Mysteries and known by the esoteric name of Iakos, a title derived from Iao and the hard K sound, both of which are ancient sound signatures of the Primal Serpent.

The rites of the Dionysian cult were enacted during high energy periods, such as full moon nights, on top of secluded mountains or within isolated forest glens.

After secretly meeting on a pre-arranged night, the participants of a Dionysian ritual would seek to unite with the Son of God by first altering their awareness with strong wine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, or other potent mind-altering sacraments.

Then, while meditating upon their beloved deity, they would proceed to sing and dance in the tradition of the legendary followers of Dionysus, the god-intoxicated Maenads.

One group of female participants of the rites so completely identified themselves with the legendary Maenads that they even referred to themselves as “the Maenads.”

During some of the coldest nights in November and December these intrepid women would climb to the frosty summit of the 8000 foot Mount Parnassus while dancing along the course of its knee-deep, snow covered trails.

The reward for their efforts was ecstatic union with the transcendental aspect of the Son of God. Some moonlit rites of the Dionysian cult, which were attended by both women and men, resembled an assembly of the “Lunatic Yogis” of the Hindu tradition.

In order to completely transcend the dualistic consciousness of good and evil, right and wrong, the participants of these aberrant nocturnal rites reprised the more savage actions of the mythological Maenads.

Many scurried into the bushes and returned with the carcasses of wild animals between their teeth, while others performed perverse sexual acts. Such savage actions were, however, often punctuated by solemn initiations into the Order of the Bacchuses, a Greek branch of the Sons and Daughters of the God/Goddess.

During these initiations, a pine branch shaped like a caduceus and called a Thyrsus was placed upon the backs of candidates by a priest or priestess of Dionysus. This sacred implement had the effect of stimulating the electromagnetic field of the candidates while sympathetically awakening the inner transformative fire serpent.

Other secret initiation rites of the Bacchuses were administered within the cult of Sabazios, a branch of the Dionysian cult in Thrace.

During these rites union with Dionysus was precipitated by a live snake which was painted gold and allowed to slither throughout the shirt of a candidate, thereby presumably stimulating the movement and ascent of the Kundalini.

As the fruit of these rites, the participant was blessed by the Son of God in his serpentine form while uniting with his transcendental aspect.

“An ancient initiate once said that the living are ruled by the dead. Only those conversant with the Eleusinian concept of life could understand that statement. It means that the majority of people are not ruled by their living spirits but by their senseless (hence dead) animal personalities” – Manly P. Hall

The Orphics, Reformers Of The Serpent Goddess’s Mysteries

The orgiastic Greek rites of Dionysus were eventually reformed by the Order of Orpheus, a branch of the Order of the Dactyloi. The founder of this order was the legendary Serpent of Wisdom Orpheus, who, like his Egyptian counterpart, Thoth-Hermes, represented not one person but a lineage of Masters.

Some of those in the Orphic lineage were Dactyloi initiates while others were Djedhi adepts of the Osirian mysteries. They all shared a common commitment, however, which was to reform and standardize the Aegean mysteries of the Goddess and her Serpent Son.

Because of their extensive work, by 500 B.C. the members of the Order of Orpheus could be found throughout the empire of the Serpent Goddess teaching and administering the reformed rites of the Kaberoi, Cybel, Persephone and Dionysus.

The Orphics’ specific influence on the orgiastic Dionysian cult consisted in introducing rites of a more disciplined and yogic nature. The Orphics maintained that the way to permanent union with the Son of God was not through drugs or occasional full moon dalliances in the mountains, but through the adoption of a spiritual lifestyle punctuated with the regular observance of yogic practices.

They contended that the only way to permanently unite with the transcendental aspect of Dionysus was through renouncing the selfish and animalistic urges which occupy the material flesh. They taught that through a strict vegetarian diet, occasional fasts, study of the scriptures, service to others and lengthy periods of meditation, a seeker could permanently become a Bacchus.

“The ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signified Cosmos as encircled by the fiery Creative Spirit. The egg also represents the soul of the philosopher; the serpent, the Mysteries. At the time of initiation the shell broke and man emerges from the embryonic state of physical existence wherein he had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration” – Jacob Bryant

Pythagoras, Incarnation Of The Serpent

The greatest of the Orphic and Dactyloi initiates was Pythagoras, a wizard and hierophant whose name means “I am the Python” or “I am the Serpent.” Pythagoras was an incarnation of the Primal Serpent which took birth to synthesize and reform the mystery traditions scattered throughout the ancient world.

During his upbringing upon the Island of Samos, Pythagoras was exposed to many of the most ancient mystery teachings of the Serpent Goddess. Having been born into a Pelasgian home he was surrounded by the wisdom of the first colonists of the Aegean, some of whom had arrived directly from Atlantis.

Pythagoras also came into contact with numerous Orphic priests on the island and through them learned some of the ancient wisdom of the Dactyloi and Djedhi. Upon reaching a mature age Pythagoras set out across Europe, Asia and Africa to fulfill his destiny.

He is reputed to have first traveled to the western headquarters of the Serpents of Wisdom in Egypt where he spent twenty two years studying with the most renown priests of Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes.

The culmination of his pivotal time in Khem was initiation within the Great Pyramid, at which point he became a Djedhi and high ranking member of the worldwide Order of Serpents.

Leaving Egypt, Pythagoras traveled to Samothrace, Crete, and Eleusis where he gained initiation into the Dactyloi Order as well as all diverse branches of the Aegean mystery academy.

Then, traveling in an eastward direction, Pythagoras earned initiation into the Chaldean rites of the Ashipu, the Phoenician rites of Adonis, the mysteries of the Persian Magi and the yogic disciplines of the Hindus.

Legend has it that in India, where he was known as Yavancharya, Pythagoras achieved his final initiations in the cave temples of Elephanta, Ellora and Ajanta, subterranean caverns which supposedly connected to a network of tunnels leading to the eastern headquarters of the Serpents in Tibet.

Returning home to the Mediterranean area, Pythagoras founded his synthesized mystery school in Crotona, Southern Italy, and quickly procured for himself a reputation as an incarnation of the Serpent’s power and wisdom.

Among his new Italian peers it became common knowledge that Pythagoras was capable of controlling the weather, prophesying the future, and even raising the dead. Among his students Pythagoras garnered the additional denomination of a hard task master.

A candidate seeking initiation into his school was first required to undergo an austere probationary period of five years during which absolute silence was observed punctuated with a sparse vegetarian diet devoid of beans.

There were three degrees in Pythagoras’s school. Following the long probationary period, the worthy student was initiated into the first degree of Mathematicus. In this degree the initiate was exposed to various forms of geometry and mathematics.

Pythagoras maintained that the basis of all things is numbers, so he made their study precede all other. If the initiate sufficiently learned the lessons and passed the examinations of this first degree he or she was ushered into the second degree of Theoreticus, meaning theory or philosophy, and taught to speculate about the nature of existence and the origins of the cosmos.

Finally, if the initiate passed the tests of the second degree he or she was eligible to become one of the spiritual elect and gain initiation into the third degree of Electus. This final initiation had the power of transporting the initiate “into the light of the fullest illumination” and leading him or her to complete union with the transcendental Spirit.

As an Electus, the student became a true Son or Daughter of the God/Goddess and a full fledged member of the worldwide Order of Serpents. Once a student had risen within the ranks of the Order of the Pythagoreans he or she was given a golden ring upon which was engraved the five pointed star surrounded by an ouroboros serpent (serpent biting its own tail), symbol of both the Pythagorean and worldwide Order of Serpents.

Famous initiates of the Pythagorean Order who wore this ring included Epimenides, the Cretan initiate of the Dactyloi who lived 150 years; the wizard Empedocles who could see into both the past and future; and the Master Apollonius who was renowned for his teleportation and dematerialization abilities. 

“Alchemy in the human body officially begins when the two snakes unite at the base of the spine and reconstruct the androgynous Primal Serpent. When the resurrected Primal Serpent becomes awake it moves its fiery essence out of the Muladhara Chakra and into the system of 72,000 nadis that connect the Muladhara with all parts of the body. As it circulates, this fiery, high-frequency life force of the Primal Serpent transforms the dense fabric of the body and gradually raises the frequency of dense flesh back into pure energy.

Following its activation in the Root Chakra, the principal path or vessel traveled by the resurrected Primal Dragon is the middle vessel located inside the inner Tree of Life or spinal column. The resurrected Primal Serpent is the Serpent Goddess and the Dragon Son. It is a fully conscious power that created the universe and then went to sleep at the base of the spine. When reawakened it will complete its mission of evolving each human to their highest potential” – Mark Amaru Pinkham

-SOURCES-

The Return Of The Serpent’s Wisdom – https://amzn.to/3VmzcvC

An Initiate’s Guide To The Path Of The Dragon – https://amzn.to/3VLMQtv

The Secret Teachings of All Ages – https://amzn.to/4el3xmS

The Serpent's Way

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