Leviathan ~ Part Four

[Zephonith Serpent Woman]

The following texts are extracts from the Old Testament, followed by those in the New Testament  concerning The Goddess and Her Great Serpent.

The Old Testament

Job ch 41

1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? Or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto thee? Wilt thou take him for a servant forever?

5 Wilt thou play with him as a bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? Shall the companions make a banquet of him? Shall they part him among the merchants?

7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? Or his head with fish spears?

8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, and do no more.

9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who is then able to stand before me?

11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine?

12 I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.

13 Who can discover the face of his garment? Or who can come to him with his double bridle?

14 Who can open the doors of his face? His teeth are terrible round about.

15 His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

16 One is near to another, that no air may come between them.

17 They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

18 By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron.

21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

22 In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.

23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

24 His heart is as firm as a stone; yea as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

25 When he raiseth up by himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones are turned with him into stubble.

29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

30 Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

32 He maketh a path to shine after him: one would think the deep to be hoary

33 Upon the earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.

34 He beholdeth all high things; he is a king over all the children of pride.

 

In this passage which is recounted as the actual words of the Biblical God, Leviathan is described in awesome and great symbolic detail, as Jahweh’s own creation . Thus, the inference is made that only the mightiest of Gods could ever create a Great Serpent such as Leviathan.

One only has to reference the primal Egyptian, Mediterranean, African, Asian and American stories of creation to recognize that the Great Serpent has been integrally part of the spiritual and religious culture of all peoples around the world, for a very much longer period of time; and that the worship of The Goddess and Her Serpent was first. It was a purely patriarchal invention, the concept of a single, supreme male god who created all things.

It is notable that the allegories of Leviathan include references to flames and smoke issuing from the mouth of the Dragon. In later Christian mythos, the entranceway to an eternal hell-fire was to be found through the open mouth of the serpent “Satan”, with Lucifer as the front- of- house of this diabolical temple of hell.

It is no co-incidence, then, that in some patriarchal traditions, Leviathan is a symbol of the Devil as well, and that Lilith has been portrayed in this context as the wife of this Devil. The so-called “Hellmouth” imagery of Leviathan associated with these misguided beliefs is  precisely the same as that invented by the medieval Patriarchs.

There is no Devil in ancient Serpent Worship, only a Goddess and God of Nature, personified as The Serpent and the Dragon. To enter the mouth of the Dragon is possibly the most ancient of Initiations into the Mysteries.

There is no eternal hellfire in the Mystery Traditions; only the Cauldron of the Great Goddess which is the Cauldron of CHAOS; from which we all emerge and unto which we all return, time after time. This is the Cauldron of re-birth, and is actually a place of purification, rest and revitalization, not an “evil old hag’s wicked cauldron of hell”, at all.

Psalm 104:26 –“ There go the ships; there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.”

Psalm 74:13,14 - ”Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.”

Isaiah 27:1 – “In that day the lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”

This passage contains a clear and unmistakable reference to Tiamat, the primordial Creatrix of Mesopotamia.  Tiamat’s Name originates in the word Tehom, meaning  “the deep of the ocean”, the Abyss or watery source of all Creation. The associations between the Great Goddess and the Sea are clear, as is the intent to slay all three Dragons in one go.

The patriarchal stories of the “slaying of the Dragon” are, as we have seen, repeated over and over again in mythology. Marduk slays Tiamat; and Jahweh, assisted by the Judeo-Christian Angels, slays Leviathan in these myths. All of these re-written myths were originally  far from being symbolic tales of the overthrow of the Goddess Religions; they are actually the way in which our Ancestors described the changing of the seasons and other Natural processes and cyclical events on all levels of existence.

This was at first a Goddess legend as expressed in the vegetative symbolic tale of Demeter the Corn Goddess, and Persephone the Daughter and of other Corn Goddesses such as Isis.. Later on the tales were diversified to include male Gods such as Set and Horus . Isis was always the referee in these violent and epic struggles as portrayed so colorfully in the ancient sacred texts which were purely symbolic of the successive transitions from Winter to Summer, and from Darkness to Light; from night to day and from moon and star-light to sunlight, from sunshine to rain, and from drought to flooding; from barrenness to fertility  and vice versa …as is portrayed in the legend of the Holly King and Oak King, with the endless and repetitive struggles for the seasonal Crown at the change of seasons. These ancient vegetation Legends somehow survived intact over the years of the persecutions, however, and are still celebrated  by Pagans with the turning of the Wheel, year in and year out, in a cyclical fashion, in harmony with the cycles of Nature, as our Ancestors did.

When the male-dominated religions gained ascendancy over the spiritual affairs of humankind, the legends  were twisted to symbolize the replacement of the ancient Matriarchal ways and the peaceful Goddess worship of our ancestors with the warlike Deities and myths of the male-dominated religions, which subordinated and/or denigrated the Divine Feminine.

 

Tiamat is Ishtar, the Ancient Near Eastern Creator Goddess. The Name Mari is another for the Great Goddess of the Waters; whilst one of the earliest African appellations of Isis is Uati, also having the same meaning. Uati is translated as Waters in Africa and so the Goddess is venerated as Mami Wata. Isis is depicted as a Cobra, and is thus identical to Lilith, Lalita Devi, Kali and the many other Goddesses either manifesting as serpents or closely identified with serpents of Wisdom. The Serpent is a symbol of the Mystery and was always highly regarded in the Goddess Religions. Thus  it becomes clearly obvious why the patriarchs suppress Goddess spirituality  and Women’s Mystery traditions even to this day. There is a continual propaganda war against Witches and Pagans and our Divinities in the mass media.

The mighty and terrible sword was the Burning Times and the centuries of persecutions of Pagan Goddess devotees together with the attempted destruction of the Old Ways which has now given away to other forms of socio-religious discrimination.

It has swung and left a swathe of destruction in it’s path ~ however, Nature always grows back again and nowadays, the Goddess has returned, to feed Her long-lost children with the spiritual nourishment that a Mother always offers to those who will live in Love once again.

Let us pray for the sake of the children of this world, that the words of the madmen who wrote these texts filled with fear, hatred and discrimination, will never be allowed loose to murder more people in the name of their God and righteousness, ever again..

 

2 In that day sing unto Her, A vineyard of red wine.

Note-In this Book of Isaiah, a conservative prophet of Jahweh, the author clearly associates the Pagans of the day with serpents, although not in a very complimentary way. It is detailed how Moses, the Hebrew Thoth, was evidently compelled to divorce his wife Hagar the Pagan Egyptian Queen and send both herself and her child into the barren wilderness in exile; it is also clearly an allusion  to the tale of the rebellion against the long-ruling  Pagan Queen of Israel, Jezebel and ultimately, this beautiful Queen’s murder at the hands of the zealous  patriarchal factions of the day.(anything to demonize the Goddess, including lies concerning the “wicked Pagan Queen” who supposedly steals a poor victimized man’s vineyard from him in this mythology)

  

Nowadays, the honoured and sacred Name Jezebel is used by Christians as a derogatory term to describe the so-called “Jezebel syndrome”, where a woman is seen as a “Jezebel” should she digress from certain of the warped and restrictive values of the male-dominated religions.

On the official Crest of Jezebel, one can clearly see however a number of sacred Goddess symbols of the Old Religions. The Asp is the symbol of Goddess from the earliest of times especially so in the Middle East, where the sacred Asp of the Great Goddess Au-Set was universally accepted as not cruel, or evil, but as the Heavenly Serpent ~  both healing and protective of the innocent and all Goddess devotees. The Lion is of course present and the Falcon of Heru and Ra .

The Winged Serpent is prominent, naturally.

Isaiah 30:7, “For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her, “Rahab who sits still.”

Isaiah 51:9, “…Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?

 

Yet again we have a passage which refers directly to Egypt as Rahab, the Serpent, also referred to as an “evil angel” in other associated texts as mentioned. It is a well-recognised fact that ancient Egyptians venerated The Serpent as the Goddess and God, and practiced Solar and Lunar Dragon worship. In Egypt, as elsewhere in the Ancient Near East, spirituality and religion was characterized by the veneration of the Serpent. The Solar and Lunar Dragons, in this context, naturally represent the Yin and Yang of the Universe. It was a trend amongst the early patriarchs, though, to slay, cut and pierce any perceived threat to their dominance over the spiritual life of the people.

Job 3:8, “Let those curse it who curse the Sea, those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.”

Cursing the Sea, means simply, cursing the Great Goddess, and cursing Leviathan, all that the ancestors held sacred. A close examination of the Bible and related Abrahamanic texts reveals many such curses directed at anyone disagreeing with or refusing assimilation into Judaism and Christianity.

Deuteronomy 33 :31-33 For their rock is not the same as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter;

33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of Asps.

31 - This passage describes the devotees of the ancient pre-patriarchal Goddess and Serpent religions; and the rock refers to the fact that the Jewish God is not the same as the Many.

32 – This passage effectively describes the Fertility Cult as being bitter and poisonous, and the products of the ancestral Pagan vine as being corrupt and bitter. The Vineyards and Grapes from which spiritual wine are produced – even the fields of the Earth, are denigrated; while it is implied that the grapes of the patriarchal vineyard are sweet and fruitful by contrast.

The Vine is the symbol of vitality and renewed life; indeed, the Life-Blood of the universe is likened to the vine of Fertility in ancient Pagan lore.

33. The Serpent and Dragon – both Heavenly and Chthonic Serpents, are disrespected in this passage as being poisonous and cruel.

Guardian serpents are not always friendly – since when did a guardian have to be meek (without Spirit) and turn the other cheek?; however, it seems as if according to the above passage, only the potentially destructive aspects of the serpents are mentioned as if to highlight how evil Pagan symbols and devotees are in the patriarchal religion’s viewpoints and theorems, which are based in Dualism and not formulated according to Natural spiritual principles.

It is further no co-incidence that the Asp is the symbol of Goddess and Woman and the Dragon the symbol of the God of Pagan spirituality  -  and that these sacred symbols were chosen by the patriarchy to describe evil and cruelty above all others, in a monotonous, oppressive and harmful manner akin to Black Magic.

 

 

Genesis 3 :13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;  it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The divisions between Pagans and patriarchy are proscribed by the dominant male God and emphasized in this passage. The followers of the male-dominated religions are commanded to treat anything to do with Pagan people and sacred serpents with antagonism, dominance and enmity, to curse all horned beasts, and to have the burden of eternal guilt, a prime fear-based emotion, for evermore as a punishment for practicing in the way of the Ancestors. .

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be for thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

The severing of the link between ancient Goddess wisdom and women happens here. As any forms of ancestral Women’s Magick were forbidden by the new religion, the techniques for ensuring rapid and effortless childbirth were to be denied to the people;  and thus pain and complications were to be the punishment of all women for the Goddess Eve’s “original sin”. (Here again, as it was with Ra, the Name of the ancient  Pagan Moon God of Sumer , Sin, is used as a euphemism for a transgression against Jahweh)

The “mortal ‘sin’” is simply continuing on with the traditions of the Ancestors in being taught sacred Wisdom by The Serpent Goddess.

Just as the Semitic Snake Spirit of Lilith emerged later on in medieval times as an evil vampire and baby-killing demoness, The Queen of Demons, so the Libyan Snake Goddess Lamia was transformed to become the malignant Greek  Strix, an Owl- like demon which thirsts for the blood of innocent children.

 

It is the Winged Serpent, Lilith, offering Eve the fruits of Wisdom which liberate from the illusion of fear and fear-based control;  it is Lilith, The Serpent, Eve’s Guiding Spirit who was to be symbolically banished from  Her own Garden  by yet another male God rebelling against his Mother.

 

This passage contains the first religious law subordinating women to male dominance in every sphere of life, which was reinforced by sexual dominance.

 

As Lilith cannot tolerate radical imbalance ~ this is not of the current of the Great Mother ~ Lilith is evidently expelled from the Garden in another adapted mythos, after “somehow” taking the Words of Power back from Jahweh, Her former consort.. Lilith symbolizes freedom and liberation from oppression, restrictions, racism, xenophobia and enforced inequalities of all kinds, especially the perceived dominance of males over females in any way shape or form.

Is it truly such a terrible thing, to be just equal? To simply accept that the Goddess was First, and that all men and women are, aside from natural characteristics which we are born with which defines us as either male or female, pure androgynous, having both female and male characteristics within, even in the minutest atom of our being.

In the New Testament, the traditions of hate continue, as the Dragon and Goddess are described in the most blasphemous terms  throughout.

To be continued...