DeConick A.D

208
HELL WALKS AND STAR TREKS
that their spirits left their bodies. They compare this phase of their mysteries
to the Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt, when the Hebrews escaped from
Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and wandered in the wilderness for forty years
before crossing the Jordan into their homeland, Canaan. In this phase of
their mysteries, the initiates’ spirits were believed to cross the Red Sea that
flowed out of the underworld and encompassed the universe. They were
delivered out of Egypt, unharmed by the waters of chaos swelling with
Kronos’s unbridled power.
Do we have here a reference to a water rite, when the initiates were
herded down a riverbank into the water, where they waded to the other
side? If so, this rite would not have been understood as a ritual of baptismal
cleansing but as an escape from the realm of chaos and embodiment.
Once on the opposite bank of the Red Sea, the initiates had to journey
through the wilderness, which for them was the sky. They had to make
a terrifying journey through the heavens, a journey that they envisioned
as a trek across a celestial wilderness populated with fiery serpents intent
on biting and killing them, just as the Bible described. These serpents are
the rulers of the stars and planets, the dark lords who thwart any soul that
tries to escape their rule.
The Peratics notice what the Bible says about the Hebrews who were
saved from the bite of the serpents. They were saved when they gazed
upon the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up for all to see. Likewise, they
said, the initiates’ salvation comes from the serpent Christ, who is Draco,
the serpentine star shining most brightly in the roof of the heavens. To
safeguard their initiates from the bites of the celestial dark lords, then,
the Peratics tattooed their bodies with the sign of Draco. The Peratics
link this tattoo with the mark of Cain, which, according to the Bible,
safeguarded Cain from homicide (Genesis 4:15). Like the mark of Cain,
which protected Cain from being murdered by fellow men, so too, the
Peratics claimed, did the Draco tattoo protect them from being murdered
by the dark lords of the skies.
The Peratics, safeguarded by their sacred tattoos, believed that their
whitened and perfected spirits were drawn into Draco’s portal like iron
(and nothing else) is drawn to a magnet. This is the Mystery of Eden,
when their spirits leave the celestial spheres through Draco’s portal, when
they are spit out of Draco’s mouth into the realm of the transcendent.
When they are returned safely home.