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The name of the Dragon in Chaldea was not written phonetically, but was represented by two monograms, probably meaning, according to the Orientalists, “ the scaly one.” “ This description,” very pertinently remarks G. Smith, “ of course might apply either to a fabulous dragon, a serpent, or a fish,” and we may add : “ It applies in one case to Makara, the tenth Zodiacal sign, meaning in Sanskrit a non-descript amphibious animal, generally called Crocodile, and really signifying something else. ( Vide Part II., “ The Mysteries of the Hebdomad.”) This, then, is a virtual admission that the Assyriologists, at all events, know nothing certain as to the status of the “ Dragon ” in ancient Chaldea, whence the Hebrews got their symbolism, only to be afterwards robbed of it by the Christians, who made of the “ Scaly one ” a living entity and a maleficent power.
A specimen of Dragons, “ winged and scaled,” may be seen in the British Museum. Representing the events of the Fall according to the same authority, there are also two figures sitting on each side of a tree, and holding out their hands to the “ apple,” while at the back of the “ Tree ”
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is the Dragon-Serpent. Esoterically, the two figures are two “ Chaldees ” ready for initiation, the Serpent symbolising the “ Initiator ” ; while the jealous gods, who curse the three, are the exoteric profane clergy. Not much of the literal “ Biblical event ” there, as any occultist can see.
“ The Great Dragon has respect but for the Serpents of Wisdom,” says the Stanza ; thus proving the correctness of our explanation of the two figures and the “ Serpent.”
“ The Serpents who redescended . . . . who taught and instructed ” the Fifth Race. What sane man is capable of believing in our day that real serpents are hereby meant ? Hence the rough guess, now become almost an axiom with the men of science, that those who wrote in antiquity upon various sacred Dragons and Serpents either were superstitious and credulous people, or were bent upon deceiving those more ignorant than themselves. Yet, from Homer downwards, the term implied something hidden from the profane.
“ Terrible are the gods when they manifest themselves ” — those gods whom men call Dragons. And Ælianus, treating in his “ De Naturâ Animalium ” of these Ophidean symbols, makes certain remarks which show that he understood well the nature of this most ancient of symbols. Thus he most pertinently explains with regard to the above Homeric verse — “ For the Dragon, while sacred and to be worshipped, has within himself something still more of the divine nature of which it is better (for others ?) to remain in ignorance ” (Book xi., ch. 17).
This “ Dragon ” having a septenary meaning, the highest and the lowest may be given. The former is identical with the “ Self-born,” the Logos (the Hindu Aja). He was the second person of the Trinity, the Son, with the Christian Gnostics called the Naasenians, or Serpent-Worshippers. His symbol was the constellation of the Dragon. * Its seven “ stars ” are the seven stars held in the hand of the “ Alpha and Omega ” in Revelation. In its most terrestrial meaning, the term “ Dragon ” was applied to the Wise men.
This portion of the religious symbolism of antiquity is very abstruse and mysterious, and may remain incomprehensible to the profane. In our modern day it so jars on the Christian ear that it can hardly escape, all civilization notwithstanding, being regarded as a direct denunciation of the most cherished Christian dogmas, the subject of which required, to do it justice, the pen and genius of Milton, whose poetical fiction has now taken root in the Church as a revealed dogma.
Did the allegory of the Dragon and his supposed conqueror in
* As shown by H. Lizeray in the “ Trinité Chrétienne Devoilée ” — placed between the immutable Father (the Pole, a fixed Point) and mutable matter, the Dragon transmits to the latter the influences received by him from the Pole, whence his name — the Verbum.
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Heaven originate with St. John, and in his Revelation ? Emphatically we answer — No. His “ Dragon ” is Neptune, the symbol of Atlantean magic.
To demonstrate the negation the reader is asked to examine the symbolism of the Serpent or the Dragon under its several aspects.