Ophites

The term "Ophites" derives from the Greek word "ophis" (ὄφις), meaning "serpent." This name was applied to the sect by their detractors, likely reflecting the central role of serpent imagery in their esoteric practices and symbolism.

A Gnostic Fraternity in Egyj)t, and one of the earliest sects of Gnosticism, or Gnosis (Wisdom, Knowledge), known as the "Brotherhood of the Serpent". It flourished early in the second century, and while holding some of the principles of Valentinus had its own occult rites and symbology. A living serpent, representing the r/frwf (>.s-principle {i.e., the divine reincarnating ]Monad, not Jesus the man), was disj)layed in their mysteries and reverenced as a symbol of wisdom, Sophia, the type of the all-good and all-wi.se. The Gnostics were not a Cliristian sect, in the common acceptation of this term, as th'e C^hristos of pre-Christian thought and the Gnosis was not the "god-man" Christ, but the divine Ego, made one with Buddiii. Their Christos Avas the "Eternal Initiate", the Pilgrim, typified by hundreds of Ophidian symbols for several thousands of vears before the "Christian" era, so224 THKOSOPIIUAL calK'd. Oiiican Sfc it on the "Belzoiii toinl)" from Kf:yi)t, as a u'ingid svrprnt with Ihne hiads ( Atiiia-BiuMlii -.Maiias). and four human lepra, typifyinfr its aii(ln»^ynous I'liaractt-r ; on the walls of the (Icst'cnt to the s,>puk'hral chamlnTs of Kamcscs V., it is found as a snake with vulture's wings — the vulture and hawk beinp solar symbols. "The heavens are scribbled over with interminable snakes"; writes Ilersehel of the p]gyptian chart of stars. "The MtLfsi (Messiah?) meanin<j the Sacrrd Word, was a «rood serpent", writes Honwick in his K(/np(itin Jitlu f. "This serpent of {Toodne.ss. with its head crowned, was mounted upon a cross and formed a sacred standard of Egypt". The Jews borrowed it in their "brazen .serpent of Moses". It is to this "Healer" and "Saviour", therefore, tiiat the Ophites referred, and not to Jesus or his words, "As Moses liftt'd up the serpent in the desert, so it behoves the Son of Man to i)e lifted ui>" — when exjdaininp: the meaning of their ophis. Tertullian. whether wittingly or unwittingly, mixed up the two. The fourwinged serpe

The Ophites, a name bestowed by those outside their circle, emerge from the mists of early Gnosticism as a fraternity deeply attuned to the serpentine archetype. Their Egypt-based practices, flourishing in the second century, saw the serpent not as the biblical adversary, but as a potent emblem of Sophia, divine wisdom itself. This was a wisdom that transcended the mundane, a Gnosis that spoke of the divine Monad, the eternal spark, rather than a historical human figure.

Mircea Eliade, in his explorations of archaic religions, often highlighted the pervasive symbolism of the serpent across cultures, linking it to chthonic powers, renewal, and cosmic creation. The Ophite embrace of this symbol aligns with these ancient currents, suggesting a continuity of understanding regarding the serpent's role as a mediator between the earthly and the divine, the manifest and the hidden. For the Ophites, the serpent was a living embodiment of the cyclical nature of existence, the shedding of old forms to reveal new truths, a concept echoed in the alchemical process and the cyclical cosmologies described by thinkers like Ananda Coomaraswamy.

Their distinctiveness lay in their symbolic interpretation, a hallmark of Gnostic thought, which sought esoteric meanings behind exoteric narratives. While orthodox Christianity was solidifying its doctrines, the Ophites were delving into a pre-Christian wisdom, seeing the serpent on ancient Egyptian tomb walls, for instance, as a symbol of the divine, androgynous principle, predating and diverging from later theological interpretations. This was not a rejection of the divine, but a radical re-imagining of its manifestation, a testament to the enduring power of symbols to carry multiple layers of meaning across millennia and traditions. Their legacy reminds us that the path to understanding the divine is often found not in literal pronouncements, but in the silent, potent language of archetype.