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VAMzzz PUBLISHING
Hargrave Jennings
OPHIOLATREIARites and Mysteries of Serpent Worship
OP
HIO
LA
TR
EIA
Hargrave Jennings
OphiolatreiaRites and mysteries of serpent worshipAuthor: Hargrave Jennings
Original title: Ophiolatreia: An Account of the Rites and Mysteries Connected with the Origin, Rise, and Development of Serpent Worship (1889)
Cover image: A Pair of Snakes, a Basohli painting (c. 18th century) collected in Rawson’s ‘The Art of Tantra’
Lay-out: www.burokd.nl
ISBN 978-94-92355-12-6
© 2015 Revised publication by:
VAMzzz PublishingP.O. Box 33401001 AC AmsterdamThe [email protected]
VAMzzz PUBLISHING
Hargrave Jennings
OPHIOLATREIARites and Mysteries of Serpent Worship
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contents
CHAPTER I 11
Ophiolatreia an extraordinary subject — Of mysterious origin — Of universal
prevalence — The serpent a common symbol in mythology — Serpent-worship
natural but irrational — Bacchic orgies — Olympias, mother of Alexander, and
the Serpent emblam — Thermutis, the Sacred Serpent — Asps — Saturn and
his children — Sacrifices at altar of Saturn — Abaddon — Ritual of Zoroaster
— Theology of Ophion — The Cuthites — The Othiogeneis — The Ophiomans —
Greek Traditions — Cecrops — Various Serpent worshippers.
CHAPTER II 25
Supposed Phallic origin of Serpent-worship — The idea of Life — Adoration
of the Principle of Generation — The Serpent as a Symbol of the Phallus —
Phallic Worship at Benares — The Serpent and Mahadeo — Festival of the “Nag
pauchami” — Snakes and Women — Traces of Phallic Worship in the Kumaon
Rock-markings — The Northern Bulb Stones — Professor Stephens on the Snake
as a Symbol of the Phallus — The “Dionysiak Myth” — Brown on the Serpent
as a Phallic emblem — Mythology of the Aryan Nations — Sir G. W. Cox and the
Phallic Theory — Athenian Mythology.
CHAPTER III 35
Mythology of the Ancients — Characteristics of the Pagan Deities — Doctrine
of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature — Creation of the Egg — Creation and the
Phallus — The Lotus — Osiris as the active, dispensing, and originating energy —
Hesiod and the generative powers — Growth of Phallic Worship.
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CHAPTER IV 41
Ancient Monuments of the West — The Valley of the Mississippi — Numerous
Earthworks of the Western States — Theory as to origin of the mounds — The
“Defence” Theory — The Religious Theory — Earthwork of the “Great Serpent”
on Bush Creek — The “Alligator,” Ohio — The “Cross,” Pickaway County
— Structures of Wisconsin — Mr. Pigeon’s Drawings — Significance of the
Earthmounds — The Egg and Man’s Primitive Ideas — The Egg as a Symbol —
Birth of Brahma — Aristophanes and his “Comedy of the Birds” — The Hymn
to Protogones — The Chinese and Creation — The Mundane or Orphic Egg —
Kneph — Mr. Gliddon’s replies to certain enquiries — The Orphic Theogony
and the Egg — The Great Unity.
CHAPTER V 67
The Sun and Fire as emblems — The Serpent and the Sun — Taut and the
Serpent — Horapollo and the Serpent symbol — Sanchoniathon and the Serpent
— Ancient Mysteries of Osiris, &c. — Rationale of the connection of Solar,
Phallic, and Serpent Worship — The Aztec Pantheon — Mexican Gods — The
Snake in Mexican Mythology — The Great Father and Mother — Quetzalcoatl,
the Feathered Serpent — Researches of Stephens and Catherwood —
Discoveries of Mr. Stephens.
CHAPTER VI 101
Mexican Temple of Montezuma — The Serpent Emblem in Mexico — Pyramid
of Cholula — Tradition of the Giants of Anahuac — The Temple of Quetzalcoatl
— North American Indians and the Rattlesnake — Indian Tradition of a Great
Serpent — Serpents in the Mounds of the West — Bigotry and Folly of the
Spanish Conquerors of the West — Wide prevalence of Mexican Ophiolatreia.
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CHAPTER VII 127
Egypt as the Home of Serpent Worship — Thoth said to be the founder of
Ophiolatreia — Cneph, the Architect of the Universe — Mysteries of Isis — The
Isaic Table — Frequency of the Serpent Symbol — Scrapis — In the Temples
of Luxore, etc. — Discovery at Malta — The Egyptian Basilisk — Mummies
—Bracelets — The Caduceus — Temple of Cneph at Elaphantina — Thebes —
Story of a Priest — Painting in a Tomb at Biban at Malook — Pococke at Raigny.
CHAPTER VIII 139
Derivation of the name “Europe” — Greece colonized by Ophites — Numerous
Traces of the Serpent in Greece — Worship of Bacchus — Story of Ericthonius —
Banquets of the Bacchants — Minerva — Armour of Agamemnon — Serpents at
Epidaurus — Story of the pestilence in Rome — Mahomet at Atmeidan.
CHAPTER IX 147
Ophiolatreia in Britain — The Druids — Adders — Poem of Taliessin — The
Goddess Ceridwen — A Bardic Poem — Snake Stones — The Anguinum —
Execution of a Roman Knight — Remains of the Serpent-temple at Abury —
Serpent vestiges in Ireland of great rarity — St. Patrick.
CHAPTER X 155
India conspicuous in the history of Serpent Worship — Nagpur — Confessions
of a Snake Worshipper — The gardeners of Guzerat — Cottages for Snakes at
Calicut — The Feast of Serpents — The Deity Hari — Garuda —
The Snake as an emblem of immortality.
CHAPTER XI 165
Mr. Bullock’s Exhibition of Objects illustrating Serpent Worship.
Post Scriptum
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Ophiolatreia
An account of the rites and mysteries connected with the origin,
rise and development of serpent worship in various parts of the
world, enriched with interesting traditions, and a full description
of the celebrated serpent mounds & temples, the whole forming
an exposition of one of the phases of phallic, or sex worship.
– Hargrave Jennings
London, 1889
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CHAPTER I
Ophiolatreia an extraordinary subject — Of mysterious origin — Of universal
prevalence — The serpent a common symbol in mythology — Serpent-worship
natural but irrational — Bacchic orgies — Olympias, mother of Alexander, and
the Serpent emblam — Thermutis, the Sacred Serpent — Asps — Saturn and
his children — Sacrifices at altar of Saturn — Abaddon — Ritual of Zoroaster
— Theology of Ophion — The Cuthites — The Othiogeneis — The Ophiomans —
Greek Traditions — Cecrops — Various Serpent worshippers.
OPHIOLATREIA, the worship of the serpent, next to the adoration
of the phallus, is one of the most remarkable, and, at first sight, un-
accountable forms of religion the world has ever known. Until the
true source from whence it sprang can be reached and understood,
its nature will remain as mysterious as its universality, for what
man could see in an object so repulsive and forbidding in its habits
as this reptile, to render worship to, is one of the most difficult of
problems to find a solution to. There is hardly a country of the an-
cient world, however, where it cannot be traced, pervading every
known system of mythology, and leaving proofs of its existence and
extent in the shape of monuments, temples, and earthworks of the
most elaborate and curious character. Babylon, Persia, Hindostan,
Ceylon, China, Japan, Burmah, Java, Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Greece, Italy, Northern and Western Europe, Mexico, Peru,
America—all yield abundant testimony to the same effect, and point
to the common origin of Pagan systems wherever found. Whether
12
the worship was the result of fear or respect is a question that nat-
urally enough presents itself, and in seeking to answer it we shall be
confronted with the fact that in some places, as Egypt, the symbol
was that of a good demon, while in India, Scandinavia, and Mexico,
it was that of an evil one. It has been remarked that in the warmer
regions of the globe, where this creature is the most formidable
enemy which man can encounter, the serpent should be considered
the mythological attendant of an evil being is not surprising, but that
in the frozen or temperate regions of the earth, where he dwindles
into the insignificances of a reptile without power to create alarm, he
should be regarded in the same appalling character, is a fact which
cannot be accounted for by natural causes. Uniformity of tradition
can alone satisfactorily explain uniformity of superstition, where
local circumstances are so discordant.
“The serpent is the symbol which most generally enters into
the mythology of the world. It may in different countries admit among
its fellow-satellites of Satan the most venomous or the most terrible
of the animals in each country, but it preserves its own constancy,
as the only invariable object of superstitious terror throughout the
habitable world. ‘Wherever the Devil reigned,’ remarks Stillingfleet,
‘the serpent was held in some peculiar veneration.’ The universality
of this singular and irrational, yet natural, superstition it is now pro-
posed to show. Irrational, for there is nothing in common between
deity and a reptile, to suggest the notion of Serpent-worship; and
natural, because, allowing the truth of the events in Paradise, every
probability is in favour of such a superstition springing up.” (Deane.)
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It may seem extraordinary that the worship of the serpent
should ever have been introduced into the world, and it must appear
still more remarkable that it should almost universally have prevailed.
As mankind are said to have been ruined through the influence of this
being, we could little expect that it would, of all other objects, have
been adopted as the most sacred and salutary symbol, and rendered
the chief object of adoration. Yet so we find it to have been, for in
most of the ancient rites there is some allusion to it. In the orgies of
Bacchus, the persons who took part in the ceremonies used to carry
serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams call upon “Eva,
Eva.” They were often crowned with serpents while still making the
same frantic exclamation. One part of the mysterious rites of Jupiter
Sabazius was to let a snake slip down the bosom of the person to
be initiated, which was taken out below. These ceremonies, and this
symbolic worship, are said to have begun among the Magi, who were
the sons of Chus, and by them they were propagated in various parts.
Epiphanius thinks that the invocation “Eva, Eva,” related to the great
mother of mankind, who was deceived by the serpent, and Clemens
of Alexandria is of the same opinion. Others, however, think that
Eva was the same as Eph, Epha, Opha, which the Greeks rendered
Ophis, and by it denoted a serpent. Clemens acknowledges that the
term Eva, properly aspirated, had such a signification.
Olympias, the mother of Alexander, was very fond of these
orgies, in which the serpent was introduced. Plutarch mentions that
rites of this sort were practised by the Edonian women near Mount
Hæmus in Thrace, and carried on to a degree of madness. Olym-
6
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VAMzzz PUBLISHING
Serpent worship and occult sex
Ophiolatreia - Rites and Mysteries of Serpent Worship is
one of the most substantial and complete books written
on this subject. It was published anonymously in London
in 1889 by the Freemason and Rosicrucian Hargrave
Jennings. In several voluminous works, Jennings developed
the theory that the origin of all religion is to be sought in
phallic worship of the Sun and fire, which he properly called
“phallism.” Ophiolatreia is just one of its expressions. Unlike
many modern authors, for whom he word “phallic” implies
the penis, Jennings used the word “phallic” in its non-
gendered sense, meaning “relating to the sexual organs”.
Hargrave Jennings was a rival of Blavatsky and friend
of the American sex magician and occult writer Paschal
Beverly Randolph and both authors had a major influence
on the twentieth century pioneers of sex magic.
This collectors item describes the rites and mysteries
connected with the origin of ophiolatreia and its
rise and development in many parts of the world.
The relation between snake worship, raw creation
force and sexual energy includes Jennings analyses
of Bacchic orgies and rites related to Saturn,
Zoroaster, Abaddon, Dionysus and Osiris.
9 789492 355126
OP
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Hargrave Jennings
