The Hanged Man — XII

 

Hanging Copper and Amethyst Star Tetrahedron / Merkaba, by scredgeometryheals

Anything that is hanging could be said to be a type of pendant,

early 14c., pendaunt, "loose, hanging part of anything," whether ornamental or useful, from Anglo-French pendaunt (c. 1300), Old French pendant (13c.), noun uses of the present-participle adjective from pendre "to hang," from Latin pendere "to hang," from PIE *(s)pend-, extended form of root *(s)pen- "to draw, stretch, spin." [OE]

So, ornaments are pendants.

XII The Hanged One—Winter Wonderland Tarot, by Joshua Franklin and Aaron Franklin

Here is a pendulous man on a "pendant," hanging on a tree. Ornaments are like fruit in that they are hung from a tree, but what is the fruitfulness of the Hanged Man?

The Hanged Man is called Le Pendu in the Tarot de Marsellies.

The Hanged Man, Tarot de Marsilles: Life in suspension, transition, apathy and dullness, boredom, abandonment, sacrifice, repentance, readjustment, regeneration, improvement, surrender 

He is not just hanging, he is hanging upside-down. He isn't hanged by the neck dead, but he is stuck. He can't do much physically from this position and it isn't comfortable either.

From Norse mythology the hanged man is Odin. Odin, in his quest for knowledge, sacrificed one of his eyes to Mimir's Well, located beneath the World Tree, for a drink of its water of wisdom, he stabbed himself with a spear, and hung himself on the tree, Yggdrasil, where he remained for nine days until he gained the knowledge of the Runes.

Since the runes' native home is the well of Urd with the Norns, and since the runes do not reveal themselves to any but those who prove themselves worthy of such fearful insights and abilities, Odin hung himself from a branch of Yggdrasil, pierced himself with his spear, and peered downward into the shadowy waters below. He forbade any of the other gods to grant him the slightest aid, not even a sip of water. And he stared downward, and stared downward, and he called to the runes. —Odin's Discovery of the Runes - Norse Mythology for Smart People

137.

I trow hung on that windy Tree

nine whole days and nights,

stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,

myself to mine own self given,

high on that Tree of which none hath heard

from what roots it rises to heaven.

138.

None refreshed me ever with food or drink,

I peered right down in the deep;

crying aloud I lifted the Runes

then back I fell from thence.  —Hávamál, The Words of Odin the High One from the Elder Edda, translated by Olive Bray

"Yggdrasil, the Mundane tree", Baxter's Patent Oil Painting, from a plate included in the English translation of the Prose Edda by Oluf Oulufsen Bagge (1847)

Because of this, the World Tree is called Yggdrasil, which some translate as meaning "Odin's horse," Ygg(r) meaning "the Terrible One[as in One who evokes Awe]" (a name for Odin) + drasill "horse, steed," metaphorically meaning "gallows," from the idea of the gallows being "the horse of the hanged," so let us say instead here that the "gallows," galgi in Old Norse, is the "drasill ["possibly" from PIE *dʰer- "to hold, support"] of the hanga [Old Norse hengja/hanga "to be suspended"]. And it would make even morse sense to translate drasill as steed, rather than "horse" and say "steed of the hanged," since steed is from the same root as Old English stod [and stud (n.2) is reconstructed to be from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make to be firm," with derivatives meaning "place or thing that is standing" like a stud (n.1) from

Middle English stode "pillar, prop, post, upright timber used as support," from Proto-Germanic *stud- (source also of Old Norse stoð "staff, stick"[OE]

and saying "pillar" of the hanged makes a lot of sense compared to horse, which is, rather, said to possibly be connected to a root meaning "to run." 

Therefore Odin is associated with the gallows, which in English is from Proto-Germanic *galgon- "pole," from PIE *ghalgh "branch, rod," used in plural for the cross of cruxifixction in Old English. Therefore we could say too, he could be associated with the "fork," as in a "forked stake or post (as a gallows)", crux, or stauros, which all have similar meaning, being wooden devices for the purpose of execution, as discussed in the previous trump Strength. The resolution to "carry one's cross" all the way to to crucifixion or to "hanging" is an act of mental strength or fortitude which leads to the ultimate sacrifice, that of one's own life, in exchange for the greater good. However, hanging in this sense is not specifically death, but rather the suffering endured before death. Death, which is the next card on the fool's/hero's journey, card XIII, can result from hanging for a prolonged period of time, but hanging itself (when not done with a noose around the neck), well, . . . it just leaves one hanging, and a lot can go on mentally in that state of suspension. 

We could say in a way that we come into this world, as the hanged man.

Artwork by Ailis O'Reilly, 2014

We enter the world pierced by the wound of separation from our god selves, from the moment the chord it cut we drop into discomfort, sickness, pain, and hardship, and begin learning the language of ruin, from late Old English "act of giving way and falling down," from Latin ruina "a collapse, a rushing down, a tumbling down," which is incarnation upon this Earth, trying to find meaning and make sense of it all before we inevitably die. We, like Odin, desire to know the secret of secrets, i.e., to understand the runes, from Proto-Germanic *runo "a secret, magic sign, runic character." If we purposefully commit ourselves to find meaning and are dedicated in our quest for the highest knowledge and wisdom, somehow in our suspended state of suffering, affixed to this place and time upon the gallows of the World Tree, we learn things that would remain otherwise elusive to both gods and angels. 

Some people associate our view from Earth of the band of the Milky Way in the sky with the concept of the World Tree.

In recent history this view is much less prominent in the human psyche due to light pollution and our modern life style of spending more time indoors, however, in the past this view would have been the cause of much wonder, contemplation, and meditation during its periods of visibility.

It can sometimes be seen as a vast arching dome intersecting with the horizon. It is suspending, or spanning (both from the same PIE root as pendulum and pendulous, *(s)pen "to draw, stretch, spin") the sky. Or we might say the dome is drawn out across the sky like a great dragon or a long long (i.e., Chinese Dragon).

Western Han dynasty tomb mural of a warrior on a (long)dragon, found in Luoyang

Draw being from a spelling alteration of Old English dragan "to draw, to drag, to protract,"with a number of related words in different languages having the meaning "to carry," such as, Old Saxon dragan, Old Frisian drega, draga, and Middle Dutch draghen. 

So there is a common similar meaning shared between something that is drawn and something that is suspended or spans; dragan = "to draw" = *(s)pen

So then, perhaps, we might say the Milky Way plane as seen from Earth is also like another thing that can carry(dragan), namely, a horse, but more specifically, a steed or stud, if the Old Norse etymological origin for drasil (horse), is PIE *dʰer- "to hold, support." So a drasil, which is a *dʰer- "hold" or "support" for a rider, is something that is used "to carry", i.e., dragan. In English we call the animal a "horse," which is of "unknown origin",  however by some it is said to be connected to *kers- meaning "to run"(also source of similar sounding course which is a "run"n.) which would make it similar in meaning to equus "horse"(as in equine), Latin, from PIE *ekwo- "horse," said to be "perhaps" related to *ōku- "swift." So in English the horse is called after being a swift running animal, rather than an animal that holds or carries. 

Neptune's Horses, Walter Crane 1910

Etymologically speaking, then, the term "sawhorse" is a bit confusing since sawhorses are called after horses, presumably, due to their ability to hold and support (like a drasill), rather than for being like a horse in that they run or move swiftly.

For the same reason, the name for the World Tree being "Odin's Drasill," makes more sense when we consider the etymological origin of the Norse word, because trees(and gallows, crux and stauros) are like drasills in that they *dʰer- "hold, support and carry." And the word tree itself is from PIE *drew-o-, suffixed variant from root *deru- "be firm, solid, steadfast.

It is interesting, then, that one Old English word for "horse" is hengest, as in henchman (14th c. hengestman, later henshman) said to be probably from man + hengest,

Old English hengest "horse, stallion, gelding," from Proto-Germanic *hangistas (source also of Old Frisian hengst, Dutch hengest, German Hengst "stallion") [OE]

And being something that "holds" or "supports," *dʰer-, could be a way to describe the dome of the heavens, and therefore the great branches of the World Tree, the thing that is firm and solid so it can hold and support, is called "Odin's Horse[Drasill]," so in other words, that would be the "hengest / hengst of the hanged," or perhaps we could say the gallows is "Odin's hengst,"or the "hanger of the hanged."

In any case this tree is where the god is hanged in order to gain knowledge like the sagacious long "dragon." Dragon being from 

Greek drakon "serpent, giant seafish," apparently from drak-, strong aorist stem of derkesthai "to see clearly," from PIE *derk- "to see"

The whole point of being the hanged man is to become sagacious like the dragon or long, and one might need to hang for a long time, and long for the time of hanging to be over with.

Long is from a Germanic root said to possibly be from PIE *dlonghos-, which is also the source of such words as Old Persian darga-, Persian dirang, Sanskrit dirghah "long." 

Sometimes things that are long can be difficult, they are dur "difficult, hard," and things that are hard can be hard due to their denseness [like a tree(*deru-) is *deru- "be firm, solid, steadfast"]

It is interesting that Odin hangs from, Yggdrasil "Odin's Horse" and an Old English word for "horse, stallion, gelding" is hengest, From a Proto-Germanic root which is also the source of German word for "stallion" Hengst. Therefore, the translation of the tree, Yggdrasil, could be "Odin's Hengst" which is the gallows. And of course another way to describe something that is hanged is to say it is stalled in place (it can't move its place) like a stallion, from Frankish *stal, cognate with Old High German stal "stable." The stallion is placed in a stall to be stable in the stable. So "Odin's Hengst" is where he is stalled for nine days. And learning the runes hinged upon being hung. A hinge, cognate with Middle Dutch henghe "hook, handle," Middle Low German henge "hinge," fixes a thing in place. Which brings us to the Hanged Man in the Spanish decks.

In Spanish the Hangged man is El Colgado, from colgar "to hang," which comes from Latin collocare "to place / put; station; post; position," from prefix com "with" + locare "to place." So El Colgado would be the person who is "with a place (specifically)" which would be similar in idea to Le Pendu in that something hanging is "suspended" in place (in loco) and able to be located.

Dalí Tarot

Being fixed in place can make a person a bit loco after a while. How did Odin fare for those nine days hanging? Did he appear completely sane or did he come off as a bit of a colgado (9.b. "a nutter;" another use of the word)? You know? How does someone with any brains do that? 

The Hanged Man (Scarecrow), Halloween Tarot, art by Kipling West, 

"Be patient with limbo, suspended judgment, and postponed plans. Turn yourself upside down to effect change. Follow your own beliefs." by Karin Lee

[Are those Odin's Ravens, Hugin and Munin there at the top?]

Who purposely injures and hangs himself for love of knowledge or wisdom? Odín estaba colgado para las Runas, that is, Odin must have been enamorado "crazy in love" with learning the secret of the Runes.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover and the poet

Are of imagination all compact:

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

That is, madman: the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And as imagination bodies forth 

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name. 

— Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

 The Hangged Man XII, Shadowscapes Tarot, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

And he would have appeared just plane colgado in his "Eureka" moment, as he said, "crying aloud [æpandi "shrieking"] I lifted the Runes then fell from thence." I don't want to name any names, but lots of people have been called "crazy" for being excited (Nudy-Butt Archimedes, Rebel Yell Howard Dean, Couch Jumping Tom Cruise). The latter of those were figuratively hanged for their antics, and the former was actually killed.

After the Romas successfully captured the city in 212 B.C., Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier after he allegedly told the soldier, "Don't disturb my circles"—a reference to a series of figures Archemedes had outlined in the sand. Who was Archemedes, NOVA, pbs.org

So we could say Archimedes was literally killed for being loopy, i.e., drawing "loops." And that which is similar to a circle or loop is a bend. We might describe Odin as being a bit bent. He was bent on learning the secret of the Runes. The Hanged Man is traditionally shown bent or with one leg bent at and angle. And to be hanged is to be bent low or humbled, like another god man who hung on a gallows,

The Roman gallows was the cross, and, in the older translations of the Bible, gallows was used to describe the cross upon which Jesus was crucified (Ulfilas uses the term galga in his Gothic Testament. —gallows, Brittanica.com 

Cruxifixction - A Strasburgian painter possibly Hermann Schadeberg, [Some bent men on gallows]

When you are hanging you certainly have time to reflect "to think deeply or carefully,"or mirer "look at oneself," and one particular instrument of reflection (literally a "bending back") is a mirror. The word for mirror in ancient Egypt was [ˁnḫ ] ankh (a metal mirror), the same as the ankh hieroglyph which can be described as "a tau cross with an oval loop on top."

Egyptian Ankh Mirror Case, From Valley of the Kings, by Kenneth Garret

The top of the cross is bent like an anga "hook," PIE root *ang-/*ank- "to bend."

So we might say that another hung god(dess), Inanna, who was hung on a hook in the underworld, was hung on an "ang/ank" of sorts. [also discussed in Strength XI]

In Aleister Cowley's tarot deck the Hanged Man is literally hanging from (or hooked onto) an ankh and his foot is put in place (collocare ) at a very strict angle.

Alistar Cowley Thoth Tarot

The symbol that we know as an ankh was used both as a symbol and a hieroglyph in ancient Egypt. Ankh has the meaning of "life," but also, life, in a broad sense, such as the concept of eternal life, and the idea of a vivifying agent that causes one to be alive. It was often shown being held or carried in the had of gods/goddesses and pharaohs, sometimes being offered to another individual. 

Goddess Isis holding ankh to the nose of Queen Nefertari, tomb wall painting, Nefertari's tomb, Valley of the Queens

Therefore this concept of ankh it is similar in meaning to the meaning of the name of first woman in the book of Genesis, whom we know in English as, Eve, which is said to mean "life" or "living." Which name was transliterated to Latin as Eva, from the Hebrew name for the woman, חוה, transliterated to English as Havvah (hayyah) [among many other spellings], related to hayah "to live." To life! To life! L'chaim! So isnt it interesting if we spell Eve with an ankh [☥ = "life" = Eve], that the thing that the man is hung upon or affixed to is this "mother of the living"? or "mother of life, the woman♀︎? It is both the reason why we are here, i.e., life giving, generative, and at the same time, the implement of our crucifixion [being fixed to the World Tree in this time and space] and cause of [the experience of] death (because whoever is born is destined to die). But is also the reason why we truly see "weid" like God having "knowlege", דעת daath (from yada "to know").

"The Temptation and Fall [Ruin] of Eve", William Blake (Book IX, line 791, illustration Paradise Lost), 1808

"For God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing[i.e., having the lived experience of] good[what is pleasant] and evil[what is adverse]."Gen. 3:5

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit and gained daath "knowledge," they also gained death. But what if we say instead of "eating the fruit," that they"ingested" the "product/produce" hanging on The World Tree [incarnation] which is gnosis.

Pomegranate, photo by Julie O.

"You have eaten the sacred food of the underworld," said Ceres. Now you must return for half of every year to live with Pluto, your husband."

 

Suffering adversity isn't a punishment for receiving the "knowledge of evil" from the tree, suffering adversity is, rather, the consequence, because it IS the knowledge. Therefore it makes sense that suffering can lead towards wisdom (being like God), and so too, that entirely avoiding suffering can hold a person back (they remain in a state of innocence [not + harm/death] which is a type of ignorance "want of knowledge," like Adam and Eve before the fall). 

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:6

But why is it so important to be like God and to be wise? Is it worth it? 

Or is that entirely the wrong question? 

The fact is, as children of God we are destined to attain adulthood and be gods, that is, to be "like God," and not remain forever immature children. There is a time for being a child and a time for attaining or growing into adulthood. And when the child grows in wisdom and knowledge into their adult self, the child self necessarily has to die, which is a kind of evil, or at the very least it is bittersweet.  

The Hanged Chrysalis: caterpillar self dies, so that butterfly self can emerge, photo by Julie O.

But the combination of the adverse(bitter) with the good(sweet) makes life more rich, like dark chocolate and coffee with cream. It also makes one more rich or wealthy in knowledge.

Le Pendu, Le tarot dit de Charles VI, 15th c.

This hanged man looks as if he may be rich. But I'll be hanged if I know what he did to deserve this fate!

Testing, One, Two, Three

 

 Nuclear Bomb Test, Operation Castle - Romeo

Tests can be about small things, like testing out a new recipe, and tests can be about big things, like testing out a nuclear bomb.

A test is a trial. You can test something by trying it out, and you can test something by putting it under trial, adding heat, putting a flame to it. When you test something you see what it is really made of. Will it pass the test? Or will it crack under the pressure? Can it stand the heat?

Sometimes you just don't know until something is tried, or put to the test. And sometimes the very act of putting something to the test not only shows you the quality of that thing, but the test itself causes something new to emerge from the ashes of the trial, like a phoenix from the ashes of its burnt nest.

Phonios Phoenix, (depiction by Friedrich Justin Bertuch, 1806)

The word phoenix, from ancient Greek phoinix φοîνιξ meaning "Phoenician; reddish purple; or phoenix." It is thought to perhaps be derived from the word "Phoenician" by way of  the Greeks' association of the color purple-red with the Phoenicians who produced purple dyes, therefore the word phoinix also had the meaning "(the color) purple," and this color was also the main hue of the bird, a royal purple or phonios "blood-red" scarlet color.  Phoinix was also the name of the date palm. Dates turn from a golden color to reddish or purplish-brown color upon ripening, and perhaps also, the tree looks a bit like a phoenix with its feathery looking fronds.

    Date Palm - Phoenix dactylifera

Clay can also have a reddish hue and is used to make pottery. Pottery is not pottery unless it is fired or heated. The Latin word for "earthen pot" is testum. A testum (pot) is put to the test in the furnace.  If it survives the process it is changed and it is strong and durable. It needs to withstand the pyr / pur πυρ, πυρός "fire" in biblical Greek (pyra / pura  πυρά "a fire"), and it becomes a pot, something that can withstand high temperatures like a  parur "a pot" (Hebrew). Which seems to indicate a certain purity of the vessel after the pure"a fire"- ing  process, or a sincerity after the incineration.

What does it mean for a person to be put to the test? In the Bible there is one word that is translated as either test or tempt. As in, Jesus was "tempted" or "tested" in the desert. Jesus goes into the erémos (Greek "deserted, desolate, desert, lonely place", what we might call an "ered / arid" [from Latin aridus, from arere "to be dry"] place) peirasthenai πειρασθηναι "to be tempted," from peiraso / pyraso πειραζω "trial, temptation, testing". In Hebrew, as well, there is one word, nawsaw that is translated as "test, try, prove, tempt". 

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil . . . And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country  Lk 4:1, 14

    Temptation of Christ - Vasily Surikov, 1872

We see that this forty days of testing or tempting is a time of soul searching, a time of fasting and mental struggle, a dark night. But when it is over, Jesus returns stronger than ever, after his period of purification, pyra-fication, firing, and begins his public ministry in "the power of the Spirit".

The devil, the tempter in the desert, is most often equated with the tempter in the Garden of Eden, i.e., nachash, the snake. So we see the devil is  sometimes shown as a snake, and sometimes with wings, as a fallen angel.  But, as the story goes, he started out as the most beautiful luminous angel, Lucifer, the light bearer. So, bright, "flying", snake / hisser / whisperer are all associated with this tempter / tester.  

We could say that Jesus wrestled with thoughts in the desert brought to him by the tempter. One word for "thoughts" in Hebrew is serappim, as in "anxious/disquieting thoughts". Those serappim were brought to him by the whispering voice of the tempter, the voice of the snake, the fallen angel.

We could say then, that Jesus was tested by the snake, i.e., the devil, in the wilderness.  He was tested by the snake like Eve, and maybe we could say he felt the bite of the fiery snake, i.e., tempting / testing, hissing / wispering / serpent, fiery/burning serpentine messenger of the God as did the Israelites when YHWH sent nachash seraphim to them in the wilderness Num 21:6. The simple, but perplexing, translation for nachash seraphim is that YHWH sent nachash "serpents," seraphim (pl.) "fiery serpents"(s.  seraph, from verb seraph "to burn"). It is usually translated as "fiery serpents."  However, what if, instead  being redundant,  we take nachash (serpent) to indicate the form of the seraphim and we equate it with the nachash in Genesis? Then it would be  "tempter seraphim", "seraphim devils" or "fiery / poisionous / burning serpent tempters." And what are seraphim? Are they simply poisonous serpents as is the common interpretation for seraphim in the passage from Numbers?

Seraphim are mentioned two other times in the bible. In Isaiah it is transliterated to English simply as "seraphim" and not "fiery serpents". The seraphim are described as heavenly beings with six wings who sing "holy, holy, holy" before YHWH Sabaoth, that is "Lord of Hosts"Isaiah 6:2 And in Isaiah 14:29 an uwph seraph,  uwph "brandishing, flying, shining forth, waving" seraph is translated as a "flying serpent".

      Seraphim 12th Century Fresco

It seems that to say a seraph is simply a poisonous serpent is to really be missing the point. 

Serpents have been important symbolically from the beginning of civilization. 

Here is pictured an ancient Sumerian goddess statue from around 5000 B.C. Notice the serpent-like features of this mother goddess nursing a baby. Very odd.

  

      Sumerian Goddess, Ubaid Period c. 5000 B.C.

In Babylonian mythology Sarpanit "the shining one" is mother goddess and consort of Marduk.

I don't know which goddess this Ubaid period staue is supposed to represent. But it is interesting, nevertheless, that the name Sarpanit is very close in sound to the word "serpent".

In Sanskrit naga is "cobra", or generically it can mean "snake." It is similar, then, to the English word "snake", like (s)+naga. Another common word used for snake in Sanskrit is sarpa / sarpah "snake." This is similar to saraph meaning "serpent".  The ancient Indian Sandskrit epic, the Mahabarata, calls the class of deity beings that take the form of snakes "Nagas". They are not generally considered to be negative beings, 

Naga (Sanskrit: "serpent") in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, a member of a class of mythical semi divine beings, half human and half cobra. They are a strong, handsome species who can assume either wholly human or wholly serpentine form and are potentially dangerous but often beneficial to humans. Naga, Hindu mythology, Brittanica

however the Nagas are described in book one of the Mahabharata as "persecutors of all people" and, 

Indeed, as the snakes were of virulent poison, great prowess and excess of strength, and ever bent on biting other creatures . . .  Bk.1: Adi Parva, sec.20

     Nagas Carved on a Temple

So, we can see from the Nagas, that snakes are not always just snakes, but sometimes they are meant to represent divine beings. And, as in this case, they can represent what is perceived as adverse or unpleasant.  

One of the oldest ancient Egyptian goddesses was called Wadjet, wdyt "the papyrus / green colored one," called Uto / Buto by the Greeks (which is actually from the name of her city, Buto). In her symbolic form of the rearing cobra she was called the Uraeus ούραîος by the Greeks, from ouraîos "on its tail," a translation of the ancient Egyptian, iaret,  j'rt meaning "rearing cobra," "the raised up one / one who rears up." Wadjet was protector of Lower Egypt.  

The serpent was the symbol of deity and sovereignty in ancient Egypt. Therefore Pharaoh was recognized by wearing this symbol as his crown or on the crown. As a symbol it conveyed legitimacy of the rightful ruler.

      Wadjet, Uraeus with Red Crown

Because the different gods and goddesses merged over long periods of time the Ureaus is sometimes shown in varying aspects. Some attributes given to Wadjet are also attributes of other goddesses as well. Sometimes the Uraeus is shown with the sun disk, and is called the "Eye of Horus, or the Eye of Ra," she was said to spit poison and flame to protect Pharaoh as wepset "she who burns"(she would upset / oopset his enemies), she was also called nesert "the flame, searing one," in her association with Sekhmet "powerful," and in her role as protector of Ra, "Lady of Flame" Nebet Neseret, nbt nsrt, foremost of  perneser, pr "house" of nsr "flame" (punisher?). After unification of Upper and Lower Egypt she was combined with the vulture goddess of Upper Egypt. The protective qualities of Wadjet were joined with the protective qualities of, Nekhbet, the goddess of Upper Egypt, who was represented by a Griffin vulture, rather than a cobra. So, at times, the goddess was called nebty "two ladies" and was represented by a combination of serpent and vulture. 

    Mask From the Tomb of Tutankhamen, Showing the Nemes Crown with "Two Ladies"

At times the Uraeus is even shown with wings.

    Winged Uraei with Sun Disks

It appears that Uraei, actually have a lot in common with the nachash seraphim. We should remember that according to the story, the Israelites had just come out of Egypt (and Moses himself had been raised in the house of Pharaoh) and would have been familiar with the symbolism of the Egyptian Uraei. When the Exodus took place, sometime around 1446 BC, Upper and Lower Egypt had been unified for a quite a long time. Unification took place c. 2686 BC. To an Israelite the Uraeus symbolism of the Egyptians, divine winged serpents, could  have been connected to their understanding of the seraphim, which seem to be divine beings of mysterious and enigmatic appearance. They are at times said to be serpentine, bright, fiery, burning, bitting, waving/flourishing, capable of speech and praise of God, sent by YHWH, so are messengers or angels of God. 

After the Israelites grumble against God and are bitten or stricken by the nachash seraphim they believe they are being punished for sining and ask Moses to pray to YHWH to take away the nachash (the snakes who are testing, tempting, accusing, the people, i.e., the devil, Satan the punisher, perhaps?). YHWH then tells Moses to make a seraph and put it on a nes "pole / standard / flag," so Moses then makes a nachash nechosheth "serpent bronze" and puts it on the pole. Why would Moses make a bronze serpent when YHWH told him to make a seraph? Moses obviously meant to represent a seraph by the bronze snake, just like the goddess Wadjet in Egypt was represented by the raised serpent, the Uraeus. 

  Bronze Serpent, Uraeus 305-30 B.C.

So the Uraeus is a "brazen" serpent meant to represent the goddess. Maybe the brazen serpent, nachash nechosheth, of the Israelites was supposed to represent a heavenly being as well, i.e., a seraph.

Jesus compares the symbol of the "seraph", nachash nechosheth, i.e., the serpent put on the pole, to the symbol of "lifting up" or "exhalation"(hysopsen in the Septuigent) of the son on man, while talking to the Pharisee Nicodemus.

 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." John 3:14  

It seems to be the act of exalting the symbol or "sign of deliverance" as it is called in Wisdom of Solomon 16, and the very belief of the people in its power to heal them, that enabled them to receive the healing of God. The sign, i.e., the serpent, did not heal them, as it states in Wisdom, but the Savior healed them. 

They were terrified only for a little while as a warning, since they had a sign of their salvation as a reminder of the command of your law. Those who turned to that sign were saved not by what they saw but by you, the savior of all. Wisdom 16:6-7

Just as belief in the ability of a man who is God, and desires to save us, allows for the belief that it is possible to become like him, a Christ, and be saved.

So should we say, then, that the lifted / exhaulted "serpent," was nachash, a "snake, tempter, devil" that was up on the pole to save the people, or was it a raised "serpent," as in a seraph, "heavenly being, fiery serpent, angel, Uraeus"? 

Jesus as Messiah and Son of God is often equated with "the Son of man", and there are also certain stories of Jesus making appearances in the form of a seraph. Boneventure writes about St. Francis of Assisi who is said to have had an encounter with Christ crucified under the appearance of a seraph some 1800 years after the time of the Exodus.


    St. Francis and Seraph, Wood Carving

Jesus also appears to John, in the book of Revelation, as a wondrous fearful messenger of God, not unlike a seraph. 

. . . his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters; in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. Revelation 1:15-16 

So Jesus is associated with the seraph, who seem to be fearful fiery angels / heavenly beings, who are at times described as having a serpentine appearance, but Jesus is not usually associated with the serpent/snake, the most prudent of all wild creatures, i.e., the most arum (Hebrew from arom "shrewd, crafty, sensible," also arom "bare, naked") one from the garden, the devil, Satan, bringer of adversity, testing/temptation.

    Alpha and the Omega - by Peter Olsen

There seems to be a lot of overlap and mixing between the symbolism of the snake, the vulture/hawk/eagle, and lion with representations of the divine. A griffin-like creature depicted in ancient Egypt, a lion with head of a falcon, is named srf or sfrr, sefer, meaning "the one who tears to pieces".

     Pharoh as a Griffin - Pectoral Ornament of Usirtasen III,  Middle Kingdom c. 2050-1700 B.C.

So is srf / sfrr, the griffin, a seraph (servant of God), serf (as in slave/servant)? The ruler is servant of God for the people, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" Mark 9:35. A sefer-ing servant? To suffer is to be pained or grieved. To experience grief is to suffer. A grieving (or "griffon") servant?  

    Marduk Pursues Anzu after Anzu steals the "Tablets of Destiny"

Anzu (from An "heaven" and Zu "to know"), Zu (Akadian) or Imdugud (Sumerian "heavenly wind" written with ideogram for bird at the end [what we might call a bird emoji]) who is depicted in a griffin-like way, son of the bird goddess Siris, was servant (or heavenly / divine messenger) of chief sky god Enlil. Anzu steals the "Tablets of Destiny"(which give one authority as ruler of the universe) from Enlil, and Marduk ends up retrieving them.  Apparently, Marduk had a gripe (from greipanan Proto-Germanic, greifen, meaning "to seize") with that griffin-like seizer of the tablets, Anzu.

Just as the Word of God, the sefer / sepher in Hebrew, meaning "text", of the bible is a servant of God. And another similar word, sephirot (Hebrew "emanations", the ten sephira) is the way the infinite reveals itself to us and how it continually creates the physical and metaphysical realms, which sounds a lot like the Word of God as well, OM. Notice it has something like three pairs of wings, as does a seraph (or we might say even, three projections, side areas, as in "wings" like wings of a building). 

    Sepherot of the Ein Sof or Ain Sof ("No End, Infinite") - Three Different Versions


So, the serpent, bird, and lion symbolism were morphed together, this way and that, all around.  

The sphinx is another hybrid creature. It is usually said to have the head of a woman, body of a lion, and wings of an eagle.

  Oedipus listening to the Riddle of the sphinx, c. 467 B.C.

And this is Mušḫuššu, associated with Marduk, the sun god, here he looks to be part serpent, bird, and lion, but he is often described as a dragon.

    Mušḫuššu - Ishtar Gate, Babylon 575 B.C.

The name, Mušḫuššu, comes from the Sumerian for "reddish snake" or "fierce snake". Dragon is from the Greek drakon meaning "serpent, giant seafish", with the root derkesthai "to see clearly"(so here again cunning, knowing, wise). Or, in other words, Anzu, i.e. "to know heaven," perhaps? So dragon has the meaning of a wise serpent, not just any snake, but a more mystical connotation. 

Dragons in some stories like to ask riddles, as well, like the sphinx. A riddle is a kind of test, or in the old sense of the word, a tempting. Many dragons are fire breathing as well which helps when you put something to the test, it needs to be heated. 

Whew, all this was a big hunk of clay! Let's fire it up and see what happens! I hope it doesn't torment you, or cause dis-ease.

Bombs away!