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390 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
The Protestants try to show that the allegory of the Brazen Serpent
and of the Fiery Serpents has a direct reference to the mystery of
the Christ and the Crucifixion, whereas, in truth, it has a far nearer
relation to the mystery of generation, when dissociated from the
^ZZ with the Central Germ, or the Circle with its Central Point.
Protestant Theologians would have us believe their interpretation
ofily because the Brazen Serpent was lifted on a pole! Whereas it
had rather a reference to the Egyptian Egg standing upright supported
by the sacred Tau; since the Egg and the Serpent are inseparable
in the old worship and symbology of Eg>^pt,
and since both
the Brazen and Fiery Serpents were Seraphs, the burning "Fiery"
Messengers, or the Serpent Gods, the Nagas of India. Without the
Egg it was a purely phallic symbol, but when associated therewith,
it related to cosmic creation. The Brazen Serpent had no such
holy meaning as the Protestants would ascribe to it; nor was it, in
fact, glorified above the Fiery Serpents, for the bite of which it was only
a natural remedy ; the symbological meaning of the word "Brazen"
being the feminine principle, and that of "Fiery," or "Gold," the
masculine principle.
Brass was a metal symbolizing the nether world .... that of the womb
where life should be given. . . . The word for serpent in Hebrew was Nachash,
but this is also the term for brass.
It is said in Numbers that the Jews complained of the Wilderness
where there was no water,^ after which "the Lord sent fiery serpents" to
bite them, and then, to oblige Moses, he gave him as a remedy the
Brazen Serpent on a pole for them to look at; after which "any man
when he beheld the serpent of brass . . . lived" (). After that the
"Eord," gathering the people together at the well of Beer, gave them
water, and grateful Israel sang this song, "Spring up, O well." When,
after studying symbology, the Christian reader comes to understand
the innermost meaning of these three symbols. Water, Brazen, and
Serpent, and a few more, in the sense given to them in the Holy Bible, he
will hardly like to connect the sacred name of his Saviour with the
Brazen Serpent incident. The Seraphim (D'^DHtU) or Fiery Winged
Serpents, are no doubt connected with, and inseparable from, the idea
of the "Serpent of Eternity—God," as explained in Kenealy's Apocalypse;
but the word Cherub also meant Serpent, in one sense, though
its direct meaning is different, for the Cherubim and the Persian
* xxi. 5 et seq.