The Strange Enigma of Serpent Mounds
by Philip Gardiner and Gary
Osborn
Over the
course of many years and with more air-miles than we care to remember, we
have journeyed on a quest to uncover the secrets of the ancient serpent
cults that we reveal in our books. Each time we journey, we discover
something new. There truly is a whole new world opening up before our
eyes, and suddenly and often without warning we are faced with a
re-interpretation of history that we are simply not looking for.
Now in
another twist in the tale of the serpent we uncover one of the ancient
truths about dragons, remembering that in myth and in ancient history,
dragons and serpents are intertwined like the coils of a pit viper.
We need
to begin in America of all places, for two reasons. Firstly that this is
the last place we would even consider looking for dragons, and secondly
because the evidence is most profound here in archaeological terms.
 The
evidence of serpent worship in the Americas can largely be shown via the
many serpent mounds that appear across the continent. The most famous by a
long way is the ‘Serpent Mound’ of Ohio, Adams County. According to some
[1] this marvellous mound is related to Stonehenge and they say that it is
the ‘Dragon Guardian’ of the East to Stonehenge’s Secret of the West.
Indeed it is thought that the two ancient structures actually do share the
same timeline and may very well have born relationship to each other, if
indeed ancient man shared the same beliefs and travelled extensively, as
is the growing belief of many scholars. Of course Stonehenge is also
directly north of that infamous serpent temple, Avebury.
 Avebury
is a huge British Temple and stone monument erected around 2,000 BC in the
shape of a serpent when seen from the sky. Once known as Abury which
according to Deane [2] is evidently Abiri or Ab-ir (after the Abiri people
or Cabiri who were serpent worshippers). Abir incidentally means the solar
snake or fire snake.
Although
some have argued whether Avebury should ever have been Abury or Aubury
(serpent sun) the fact remains that even as far back as the 17th century
there was a Mr Aubury who said himself that it should be pronounced and
spelt Aubury (found in the legier-book of Malmesbury Abbey.)
Of
course even as Ave Bury, the ‘Ave’ reverts back to the root of ‘Eve’ which
we know means ‘female serpent.’ The pathway of Avebury passes through a
large circular Temple of the sun emerging and then winding again and
ending with an oddly, not quite circular head – directly in line with
‘Snakes Head Hill’ (Hackpen.) The central circle is symbolic of the sun,
which is the male principle in the creative process and is symbolized
elsewhere as a bull or lion. Once the serpent has passed through or around
this sun circle it is recharged for new life.
In
Egyptian hieroglyphs we can see similar imagery with the symbol of the
snake going over the solar disc, emerging head erect. Overlaid onto
Avebury it is the same image! Adding to this, that the snake is often
depicted with the ancient Egyptian Ankh symbol dangling from its emergent
neck – the Ankh being a symbol of new life – the great circle of Avebury
simply has to be the ‘solar disk’ and the pathway the snake – thus
illustrating in a painfully labour-intensive way, the ritualistic path of
the serpent worshipper towards new life.
The
circular aspect of the Stone Circles of Europe are strangely reminiscent
of the Temples of Quetzalcoatl, which were “circular, and the one
dedicated to his worship in
Mexico, was
entered by a door like unto the mouth of a serpent.” [3] A very
similar ritualistic inference to those based around Avebury and other
Stone Circles.
John
Bathurst Deane explains in his book on serpent worship, “A third
description of temples consecrated to the service of the Ophites god
remains to be considered: and these were not only the most rare, the most
characteristic, and the most magnificent; but, probably, the most sacred
of them all. These were erected in the form of the Ophite hierogram, the
serpent passing through a circle.”
This
hierogram is the symbol of the serpent, a circle with a snake passing
through it, like a needle and thread. He continues, “They were
composed, like the circular temples, of a number of Baitulia, or amber
stones, so arranged as to describe the mystic circle, through which the
still more mystic serpent trailed his majestic form.”
And this
is the truth of the Stone Circles and physical hierograms: that they were
re-birthing circles, a being born again through the spirit, through the
circle. We can even make a remarkable deduction from the strange word
“baitulia” mentioned above by Deane. These are betyl stones or serpents
eggs. In Wales the serpents were said to emerge and congregate on
Midsummer’s Eve to blow into the Serpent Stone-Eggs or Glain Neidr, which
is reminiscent of the Roman historian Pliny’s tale of this activity
amongst the Gauls. These serpent stones were said to be coloured pebbles,
which gave ‘second sight’ and healing. Midsummer’s Eve was the night when
the serpents would role themselves into hissing balls and create the glain
egg, also known as ‘snake stone’ or ‘Druid’s egg.’ In Welsh myth even
Merlin himself went in search of them.
The egg,
Cosmic Egg or Cosmogenic Egg is universally seen with the serpent – as in
the symbol of the Orphic Egg which is shown with a snake wrapped around
it. From the serpent mound of Ohio to Mithras and Cneph, the egg is
associated with serpent worship. Why? According to most scholars it is the
emblem of the mundane elements coming from the creating god. Therefore it
is a symbol of the elements of the universe. But surely there is also
another reason; a reason that would relate to early man more than such
complex ideas, which are ideas sprung into the mind of modern scientists
and scholars?
What is
an egg? Simply an ‘entry portal’ into this world. A device to give life.
And what animal is seen in relation to this unique device and portal? . .
It is the snake. Again, it is the snake – a symbol of the life force –
that creates the device, which gives life.
The
Egyptian creator deity, Cneph, mentioned above was represented as a
serpent with an egg thrusting from his mouth, just like the Ohio Serpent
Mound and other places. From this egg proceeded the deity Ptah, Phtha or
Ptah – the creative power and ‘father god’ who is the same as the Indian
Brahma. These Brahma have been related by scholars to the Jewish Essene
community and also to Mithra we mentioned earlier. Mithra was encircled by
serpents and can be equated in many ways to Jesus, being a solar divinity
and reborn on the 25th of December, like the sun. There is
little wonder that a Persian god such as Mithra and a Judaic semi-deity
such as Jesus be linked when one understands that the folds of the ancient
serpent cult were so all-encompassing that they encircled the globe like a
Leviathan. We can even see elements of this when Jesus is equated to the
Brazen Serpent of Moses; when we are told to be wise as serpents and that
he even shed his shroud or skin once crucified upon the cross.
Incidentally, snakes are still to this day nailed to trees in certain
parts of Africa as a sacrifice for our sins and for healing remedies.
And so
we have circular monuments and serpent mounds associated with the egg,
which from all the evidence here simply gives us the conclusion that these
were places of rebirth. One would push through the symbolic circle, or out
of the egg and slough off the old skin. But, there is more evidence yet to
be unearthed and which reveals this sloughing of the skin linked with
these ancient sites.
The
classical Greeks frequently depicted a serpent squeezing between two
upright stones, which they called Petrae Ambrosiae (stone or rock
ambrosia); noting that Ambrosia is the nectar and Elixir of the gods.
According to the 19th Century archaeologist, Bryant, Stonehenge
was seen as Amber stones with nearby Amesbury – previously Ambrosbury - as
proof. In this way, the healing abilities of the megalithic stones is
attributed to the serpent. In fact we do still find traces of this in many
stories about dragons, who protect, serve and heal those ancient people
of the stones.
The
antiquarian and stone circle spotter extraordinaire William Stukely also
found two other ‘serpent temples,’ one at Shap in Westmorland and the
other at Classerness in the island of Lewis. In fact Stukely thought that
the Greek legend of Cadmus sowing dragon’s teeth alluded to his building a
serpentine temple. In fact Cadmus was turned into a serpent (or followed
the serpent cult) and stone temples were erected in his and Harmonia’s
honour. Pausanius helps us along and points out that “In the road
between Thebes
and Gilsas, you may see a place encircled by select stones, which the
Thebans call The Serpent’s Head.”
So, ancient tales may in fact
be clues to the real identities of the serpents and dragons of fable, and
these real identities may in fact be real and literal places and
monuments. Places where, perhaps, snakes were held in high esteem by the
ancient ophites or serpent worshippers of the world.
There
are many more texts mentioning dragons and serpents, such as the one that
Taxiles showed to Alexander the Great and which was sacred to Dionysus. It
was said to be of enormous size, walled around and resided in a
low, deep place. It is our conjecture that such places, like Stonehenge,
were ‘portals’ or ‘gateways’ to the ‘land of the serpents;’ places of
mystery and rebirth, where offerings and sacrifices must be made to the
serpent benefactor.
Indeed,
there is plenty of evidence now from people such as Paul Devereux that
show such places were also great resonance boosters. That is, they
amplified sound in peculiar ways, thus creating the booming sound of the
dragon. They even go as far as saying that the resonance creates spiral
and serpent wave-like shapes from the dust and smoke, as the sound wave
carries the particles along its serpentine path. The serpent could truly
have been seen to rise and heard to roar.
However,
most people are not aware that similar mounds and monuments also appear
elsewhere and often associated with the serpent or dragon in similar ways.
In 1871
at the meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, a certain Mr.
Phene gave an account of his discovery in Argyllshire of a similar mound,
“several hundred feet long, fifteen feet high and thirty feet broad.”
The tail
tapered away, while a circular cairn, which he presumed to be the solar
disk above the head of the “Egyptian uraeus”, surmounted the head.
Indeed
this is not a “one off.” In the Zend Avesta of the Zoroastrians one of the
heroes takes a rest on what he thinks is a bank – only to find out that it
was a green snake!
Iphicrates related that in Mauritania “there were dragons of such
extent that grass grew up on their backs.” Thus showing the highly
likely chance that tales of massive dragons in far-off lands could easily
be Serpent Mounds.
Other
instances of Serpent Mounds however are to be found mentioned by Strabo
(Lib xv. P.1022) where two dragons are said to have resided in the
mountains of India, one eighty cubits long and the other one hundred and
forty. Posidonius also tells of one in Syria, which was so large that
horse riders on either side could not see each other. Each ‘scale’ was as
big as a shield, so that a man “might ride into his mouth.” Bryant
concurs with the belief that these must be ruins of Ophite temples.
And what
were these Temples used for?
In
ancient Egyptian papyri and in the Mesoamerican, codex borgia there are
instances or tales of the King entering the serpent and going through it
in-order to be resurrected – much like those we find in the myth of Osiris.
A book
said to have been written by Votan (Quetzalcoatl) in the language of the
Quiches and thought to have been in the possession of Nunez de la Vega,
the Bishop of Chiapas, has some revealing elements – so revealing that the
Bishop tried to burn it. Votan says he left Valum Chivim [4] and came to
the New World to apportion land among seven families who came with him and
were said to be culebra or of serpent origin. Passing the “land of
thirteen snakes” he arrived in Valum Votan, founding the city of Nachan
(City of Snakes), thought to be modern day Palenque, possibly around 15 BC
or even earlier. Votan is said to have made four trips to the east and
even to have visited Solomon.
Interesting to Serpent Mounds however is the description of a subterranean
passage, which is said to terminate at the root of “heaven.” This was
called a “snake’s hole” and Votan was only allowed in because he was the
son of a snake. Surely this can only mean that Votan was an initiate in
the serpent cult and that there was a ritualised Serpent Mound or pyramid
which led to snake heaven or Patala.
The
Fenian heroes of ancient Ireland are recorded orally in song and one of
them, Fionn, was their ‘dragon slayer.’ One of the legends tells us that:
“It
resembles a great mound, its jaws were yawning wide;
There
might lie concealed, though great its fury,
A
hundred champions in its eye-pits.
Taller in height than eight men,
Was
its tail, which was erect above its back;
Thicker was the most slender part of its tail,
Than
the forest oak which was sunk by the flood.”
Fionn
asked where this great monster had come from and was told, “From
Greece, to demand
battle from the Fenians.”
It seems that the serpent worshippers had come to Ireland, believed to be
from Greece, and had fought the ancient inhabitants, leaving behind such
terror of them that they became symbolized as this great ‘dragon mound.’
Fionn, it is said, opened the side of the dragon and released the men,
going on to kill it. It may be that there is a mixture of wartime fact
built in with ritualistic truth in this legend. Emerging from the side of
the dragon, as in other myths, gives new life. In this way, it is no
different to the Celtic cauldron of rebirth - something else also linked
intricately to the serpent.
Notes
1.
See:
http://www.greatserpentmound.org.
2. John
Bathurst Dean in Worship of the Serpent Traced Throughout the World and
its Traditions Referred to the Events in
Paradise
(1830).
Deane also believed that the
Kaaba or Caabir of the Muslims – which was a conical stone – resolved
itself into Ca Ab Ir – the ‘Temple of the Serpent Sun.’
3.
Hargrave Jennings,
Ophiolatreia
4.
Chivim is a Hebrew word,
meaning “sons of the female serpent” (or Eve) and may imply a
greater knowledge of this journey from a Judaic perspective.
Philip Gardiner and
Gary Osborn are the authors of the best selling The Serpent Grail, The
Shining Ones and Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon’s
Temple
Revealed.
They do talks, lectures, have
their own radio show and do tours across the world via
www.powerplaces.com. Philip Gardiner has a degree in
marketing and 9 diplomas ranging from etymology to holistic medicine. He
is hosting the Philip Gardiner’s Forbidden
Knowledge Conference UK (FKCUK) in July 2006. The authors websites
are
www.philipgardiner.net,
www.gardinerosborn.com,
www.serpentgrail.com,
www.theshiningones.com
Copyright © 2005
by Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn. Used with permission.
Avebury photo by Martin Gray courtesy of
SacredSites.com.
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