Resurrection of the Word : Book of the Serpent

IT BEGAN in the abysm of Time. The Earth was in a state of convulsion, when gigantic upheavals made the volcanoes and oceans. When the Earth was in its second period, when the heavens were calmer, I, the first to be born on Earth, was there. I was the bearer of the ineffable seed. Other seeds were taken out of me, but I was my own father, the eldest son of the Earth. I was the carrier and guardian of the Breath, the maturest progeny of the Earth. I was the trustee of Humanity because my seed had not turned aside from its way. Here I was, erect and prepared. I was powerful and noble, I was aware of everything; land and oceans. I surveyed the sky and the world was my kingdom. But lo, the Earth shook beneath me; I felt it lifting up and the skies suddenly darkening gave me the foreboding impression that the Earth was driving me out, heaving up under me to banish me. I witnessed unprecedented disorder; mountains arising, violently thrashing about in the oceans. I ran hither and thither not knowing where to hide. In vain I looked for signs of a new age. I suffered agonies, realising that I was going to die. When I had thought of being born the Earth again changed its violence and now I could no longer measure up to it. I had been the first sign of life, the first rustling, the first glimmering, but not the light. In search of a new age I scoured the West, the South and the North. I travelled all over the Earth in a frenzy of despair. Because before dying I had to know if the seed was born. I had to hand down the knowledge that I had acquired by virtue of being upright. 68 Then at last I found in the East a corner that was not like the rest of the world. It was on higher and pleasanter ground. The trees and animals there were of a new standard. A river flowing from it irrigated the plants as delicately as morning dew, as soft as the colours of sunrise, lovingly prepared: the first garden. Then I understood that the Earth was at last submissive, and that she was smiling. Although wracked with the pains of old age, by a great effort I reached the middle of the garden. As I passed by the animals and the plants were startled. They stared at me, dumbfounded, and in their eyes I calculated the millions of centuries that had elapsed since my death. But I knew that I alone had the authority to decide on my death by handing down the ashes of my existence to the new seed. And here I saw them. They were even more upright than me. Yes, they were like me and their seed had not deviated. I was so moved that I am still trembling from it. I looked at them affectionately. But what did these frowns and gestures mean? Why were they walking like this? Why were they not fiery instead of being like water? And why wasn't their Breath like a god's and not like a beast's? Then I saw they were sleeping. I understood that this sleep was the token of birth ... I understood that this was evidence, but not why ... This sleep was the explanation of birth, but to me an unintelligible explanation. I ruminated on this absurdity thousands of times. The less I understood it, the more it obtruded on me. They were sleeping and when, nevertheless, they were born I saw them taking pleasure in being submissive to the rhythms of nature and procreation. They were behaving like animals, born before the time appointed to the Mother's rule, and who will never dominate her. They were like them, I saw, because women were still only female. 69 Then I was seized by the violence of life and fire burst out of me. My essence collected into an incandescent ball, the life that was left to me, concentrated in one point. I called to her. She heard my call because we were of the same seed. I called her passionately, for I was utterly distressed to see the Breath die at birth. Woman, I exclaimed, the only fruit of the Earth is in the midst of the Earth, the only fruit of the garden is in its midst, the only fruit of the berry is the seed it shelters in its midst. Don't eat the outside of things, but feed on the essence that lies deep within them. I am flesh and the substance of things which are made, the woman answered. See how I multiply myself. Everything is blissful here. Demiurgic forces animate me. I submit to them. And this God forbids me to eat the fruits in the midst of things. He told me: "you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die". * Lest you die: does that mean that you will die? O Woman, who wants to be female! And man, who wants to be like the beasts! Joined together in one flesh you will remain two in one, for consciousness is broken in sleep. What are these obscure interdicts? What are these orders that inspire your imaginary fears? What is this bewilderment in your mind? And what is this God? This God, the woman answered, is the demiurgic force that creates everything. What a mix-up, I exclaimed. The creators of everything are Time's slaves, but your creator is called YHWH-ELOHIM. That is the secret I wrested from the centuries. Listen to me, Woman: wake up, for I am going to die soon. There will only be you ... and what will become of me if I die before seeing light flash from you. O Woman, you will be in YHWH but never in Elohim. What has made you is two fold: the Intemporal but also an infinite multiplication of things. Woman, Genesis 111, iv. 70 multiplicity proceeds from Unity, but Unity can spring forth from multiplicity. YHWH can manifest from you only, from you only. You must not mate with Elohim but with YHWH. O human body, the spermatic seed will die in you until you know how to transform it into light. This is a terrible secret and one you will understand, O Flesh, after hundreds of centuries ... Earth, you shall not enslave man, but you will be his Consort and equal when, dominated and submissive, you have begat him . Human Nature! Your elder sons will part from you, disown you; and this folly will last until you are completely obedient. Then you will become a wife and will no longer be a mother. But first the sexes must break away from the rhythms of the seasons. ... The sexes must break away from the rhythms   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . After uttering these words, in such a passion of prophecy that I spoke with authority on things I did not understand, I saw the woman walking in her dream state. She went to the centre of the garden of the new age and ate its fruit. Immediately I was overwhelmed. The violent din of a storm thundered over my light-forsaken body. The handing- down was accomplished; my light was fading out. I was no longer the eldest son of the Earth and not even born, for the woman had understood. And now I who had been trained could never know more. I had spoken to the woman in the tongue of YHWH, both of us being of the same seed, and the woman became me, whilst my energy wasted away. After so great an illumination this uprooting blinded me: I had to crawl on my belly after losing rank, and this made the enmity between the Woman and myself, as has been described: "YHWH-Elohim said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed 71 and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" * For YHWH's enemy is not the one who fights him, but the one who, having recognised him, withdraws from him after passing on the knowledge of him. * Genesis III, 14, 15. 72

Carlo Suares, Resurrection of the Word, Shambhala, 1974, pp. 69-72