Criocephale

The term "Criocephale" derives from the Greek words "krios" (ram) and "kephalē" (head). It denotes a ram-headed form, often applied to divine or symbolic representations, particularly in ancient Egyptian iconography.

Ram-headed, applied to si-veral deities and emblematic tigrures, notably those of ancient Egypt, which were designed about the period when the Sun pas-stnl, at the Vernal Equinox, from the sign Taurus to the sign Aries. Previously to this period, bullheaded and horned deities prevailed. Apis was the type of the Bull deity, Ammon that of the ram-headed type: Isis, too, had a Cow's head allotted to her. Porphyry writes that the Greeks united the Ram to Jupiter and the Bull to Bacchus, fw.w.w.] Crocodile. "The great reptile of Typhon." The seat of its "worshij/' was Crocodilopolis and it was sacred to Set and Sebak — its alleged creators. The primitive Ri.shis in India, the Manns, and Sons of Brahma, are each the progenitors of some animal species, of which he is the alleged "father"; in Egypt, each god was credited with the formation or creation of certain animals which were sacred to him. Crocodiles must have been numerous in Egypt during the early dynasties, if one has to judge by the almo.st incalculable number of their mummies. Thousands upon thousands have been excavated from the grottoes of Moabdeh, and many a vast necropolis of that Typhonic animal is still left untouclied. But the Crocodile was only worshipped where his god and "father" received honours. Typhon (^r/.r. J had once received sucli honours and, as Bunsen shows, had been considered a great god. His words are, "Down to the time of Ramses n.c. 1300, Typhon was one of tiie most venerated and powerful gods, a god who pours blessings and life on the rulers of Egypt." As explained elsewhere, Typhon is the material aspect of Osiris. When Typhon, the Quaternary, kiUs Osiris, the triad or divine Light, and cuts it metaphorically into 14 pieces, and .separates himself from the "god", he incurs the execration of the masses; he becomes the evil god, tlie storm and hurricane god, the burning sand of tlie Desert, the constant enemy of the Nile, and the "slayer of the evening beneficent dew", becau.se Osiris is t

The Criocephale, a term denoting the ram-headed, offers a fascinating intersection of cosmology, theology, and zoology. Blavatsky points to its Egyptian manifestation, a visual language that encoded profound shifts in understanding the cosmos. When the sun, the celestial king, moved from the sign of Taurus to Aries at the Vernal Equinox, the iconography of divinity shifted. The bull, once dominant, yielded to the ram. This was not merely a decorative change; it was an astrological epochal marker, a cosmic breath that reoriented the sacred.

This transformation mirrors Mircea Eliade's observations on the cyclical nature of time and the sacred in archaic societies. For these cultures, celestial movements were not abstract astronomical events but direct manifestations of divine will and cosmic order. The ram, with its energetic charge and association with new beginnings and spring fertility, became the appropriate symbol for a new solar age. Ammon, the ram-headed god, rose in prominence, embodying this new cosmic orientation.

The practice of associating specific deities with sacred animals is a cross-cultural phenomenon, a way for humanity to apprehend the divine through forms it understood and revered in the natural world. In Egypt, this was particularly pronounced, with animals serving as living embodiments of divine attributes. The reverence for the crocodile, for instance, as sacred to Set and Sobek, speaks to a complex relationship with powerful, even fearsome, natural forces, acknowledging their role in the divine economy.

The Criocephale, therefore, is more than a descriptive term; it is an invitation to consider how ancient peoples perceived the universe as a unified, living entity, where the subtlest shifts in the heavens could necessitate a profound reordering of the sacred on Earth. It reminds us that our understanding of the divine is often deeply intertwined with our perception of the natural world and the grand cycles that govern it.

RELATED_TERMS: Zodiac, Iconography, Cosmology, Sacred Animal, Divine Embodiment, Epoch, Mythology, Egyptian Religion