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From: gregor@shelly.goldengate.net (Bradley Maurer)
Subject: Re: The Serpent of Moses
Message-ID: <417cc$161139.2d7@goldengate>
Date: Tue, 02 Apr 1996 04:17:57 GMT
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The serpent of the israelites (not the hebrews) certainly had it's roots, 
in the egyptian serpent--the "hoopsnake" so often seen encircling the solar 
disk.
 It must be remembered that during the israelites stay in Egypt most 
adopted the "egyptian" way. Moshe included. He borrowed freely from 
egyptian culture.
 This also ties into the serpent in the account of Eden in Genesis. It 
has been noted that the serpent was sacred to Ashteroth, an early semite 
goddess (Ishtar Isis?). It has been suggested that the serpent of Eden 
was the personification of this goddess and not Satan (an entity that did 
not exist until a century or two before the time of Christ). By casting 
both mankind and the serpent/Ashteroth from the garden (his creation), JHWH 
killed two birds with one stone.
 1. He prevented humanity from eating of the "other" forbidden tree--the 
tree of life and becoming "godlike". Genesis states this very clearly. 
The noncanon books expands on this. Eg The testament of Adam.
 2. JHWH vilified Ashteroth (in much the same way that Lillith was 
vilified after leaving Adam) by casting her influence out of Eden 
("paradise") and forcing this influence "to eat the dust of earth" (from 
whence was mankind made?)

Ashteroth offered Eve:

 "You will not surely die", the sepent said to the woman, "For god (JHWH) 
knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be 
like YHWH, knowing good and evil."

The serpent offered the gnosis to Eva (the mother) and through her to 
Adam (the man).

The _Masculine_ demiurge would not here of this! Certainly(?) a feminine 
aspect couldn't offer such an option to humanity that he withheld for 
himself--or could she?

We are living and experiencing JHWH's "original sin"--the sin of Adam and 
Eva. The sin of the gnosis--the sin of knowledge and predermination. The 
sin of knowing that eternal truth is not something that we can not 
comprehend but is not easlily explained--without knowledge. The gnosis is 
available to all! JHWH be damned!

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| Gregor Samsa            |                                        |
| Minnapolis, MN USA      | Homepage: www.goldengate.net/~gregor   |
| gregor@goldengate.net   |                                        |
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