the axle. Sūryā mounted a chariot made of thought as she went to her husband.91
In the Vedic hymn Yama and the Fathers “This funeral hymn centers upon Yama, king of the dead, the first mortal to have reached the other world, and the pathmaker for all who came after him.”92 The priesthood was eternal insofar as three-quarters of each man was an immortal hybrid of “divine creatures,” while the fourth creature was mortal. By 1500 BCE, the Babylonian legend of Gilgamesh describes the hero as two thirds divine, and one third human.93 Christianity’s First Ecumenical Council was convened in 325 CE at Nicea by the Emperor Constantine for the express purpose of discussing exactly how the two natures of God and man were conjoined in Christ. Without degrading Christ by imposing a fraction of divinity, the Church’s orthodox position stated that Christ was both “true God and true man” simultaneously. Since the dawn of religion, the measure of man’s divinity was determined by the four fixed signs of the zodiac. Joseph Campbell elaborates on this mythology as a function of Mesopotamian astronomy:
The winged lion-bull with human head combines in one body those four signs of the zodiac that in the earliest period of Mesopotamian astronomy marked the solstices and equinoxes: the Bull (spring equinox and eastern quarter), Lion (summer solstice and southern quarter), Eagle (later Scorpio: autumn equinox and western quarter), and Water Carrier (winter solstice and northern quarter).94
The Eagle and Serpent Holder as Primordial Wind
Ophiuchus (or Serpentarius), the Serpent Holder, was the 13th constellation of the Zodiac. It appears directly above the 12th constellation, Scorpio. In Greek mythology, Ophiuchus is identified with Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing, who had the power to bring people back to life. Asclepius was always depicted as an older man with a beard carrying a walking stick entwined with a wooden serpent (Figure 12b). Hades, the god of the Underworld, complained to Zeus that Asclepius threatened his trade in dead souls, and asked him to strike him down with a thunderbolt. Asclepius had already brought victims of Zeus’s thunderbolts back to life, so Zeus was afraid Asclepius would teach the healing arts to mankind. Zeus then killed him with a thunderbolt and set him in the sky as Ophiuchus, holding Serpens (the Serpent) for eternity, just as he carried his pole-serpent walking stick staff. To this day, it is the pole-serpent that is the symbol of medicine (Figure 12b), rather than the Caduceus (Figure 12c: the staff of Hermes within Greek Mythology). Next to Opiuchus in the sky is Aquila, the Great Eagle, that carried and retrieved the thunderbolts of Zeus (Figure 12a).
Worshipped in Sumer as Aquila: the Golden Eagle, it was later adopted into Hindu and Buddhist mythology as Garuda: a half-man, half-eagle hybrid, and the mount of Vishnu, the Great Dreamer of the world illusion. The Garuda exists in rivalry with Nagas (serpentine sea creatures). The Vedas provide the earliest reference to Garudas, calling them Syena (Sanskrit: Eagle), which fetches Soma juice (Kundalini: Serpent Energy) from Heaven.
Figure 12a - The Golden Eagle Holding the Thunderbolts of Zeus and the Roman God Jupiter.
Holding a Banner (Serpent) in its Beak was Inspiration for the Great Seal of the United States
Figures 12b & c - The Staff of Asclepius as Medical Symbol
Predynastic Egyptian mythology also pairs a bird of prey with the serpent. Nekhbet, the white vulture, was the symbol of Upper Egypt (Figure 13a). She is one of the earliest images in predynastic Egypt, and her white color symbolizes purification and fertility. In the Book of the Dead, Nekhbet is said to be: Father of Fathers, Mother of Mothers, who hath existed from the beginning; and is Creatrix of this world. She clutches a shen (a symbol of the all; eternity; infinity) in both talons. Upper Egyptian Pharaohs wore a white (conehead) crown in homage to Nekhbet (Figure 13b).
Figure 13a & b- Nekhbet, the White Vulture, and the White Crown as Symbols of Upper Egypt
Wadjet, the cobra (as symbolized by Uraeus, an upright form of an Egyptian spitting cobra) was the symbol of lower Egypt as was the Red Crown (Figures 13c & d). Wadjet is also one of the oldest predynastic images in Egypt. Egyptians believed that Wadjet would spit fire at their enemies. These “Two Ladies” were joint protectors of a unified Egypt, enabling the pharaohs to wear the double crown of white and red, the crown depicting both Nekhbet and Wadjet (Figure 13e).
Figure 13c & d - Wadjet the Red Cobra and the Red Crown as Symbols of Lower Egypt
The vulture and cobra symbolize the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt during the life of the Pharaoh as well as in the Afterlife. This unification also takes place at a deeper spiritual level. Mastering Wadjet’s “fiery serpent power” (Kundalini) implied “raising it up on the Wings of Nekhbet”; and when a pharaoh died, the priest would utter spells and incantations intended to empower the King’s Ba (man’s soul — half-man, half-bird) to rejoin his Ka (spiritual essence — close to the Chinese concept of Jing, which manifests in semen), harmonizing them in the Ib (man’s metaphysical heart) for eternity in the Afterlife. Egypt’s union of the white vulture and the red cobra is also reflected in Tibetan meditation as white Bodhicitta drops unite with red seminal fluid drops within the “heart drop of Dharmakaya,” since the unified seat of the soul is said to exist in the heart (Figure 42b). With this unification, the adept’s eternal “Buddha-body” can be liberated from its physical body.
Figure 13e - Nekhbet: the White Vulture Wadjet/Uraeus: the Cobra as Third Eye of Ra
There is a similar unification between the white eagle and the red serpent within Hebrew Scripture. The tribe of Dan adopted the white and red standard of the Eagle (Figure 11d) to replace its former association with the Serpent and Scorpion. Some rabbinical sources often treated Dan as the archetype of wickedness. Christianity associated the tribe of Dan with the serpent and the Devil, which explains why Dan was omitted from the Book of Revelation. According to Jewish folk lore, it was Ahiezer (Numbers 2:25), a prince of the tribe of Dan, who substituted the eagle as the destroyer of serpents, giving the tribe a more upright image.
When Jacob was about to die, he gathered his 12 sons together as leaders of the 12 tribes and prophesied “...what will befall you in the End of Days.”95 Jacob said that Judah would be like the lion (Figure 11d), the king of beasts, while: “Dan would avenge his people, [and] the tribes of Israel will be united as one. Dan will be a serpenton the highway, a viper by the path, that bites a horse’s heels so its rider falls backward.”96 This passage echoes God’s curse on the serpent in Eden, when God declares: "I will put enmity between you and the woman [Eve] and between your offspring and her offspring. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.”97 The Hebrew word “Dan” translates into English as “Judgement,” and the tribe of Dan embodies Divine Judgement between Good and Evil. Therefore, the Bible describes its symbolism ambiguously, as both the Serpent and the Eagle, to
