Rixon anD Robin: without disputing your excellent scholarship, or treading on anyone's theology, let me add what I think is an important "layer" to this thread. The realm of spirit consists of layers, and sometimes what is "true" on one layer is "false" on another, till one gets to the top where all paradox is resolved. I know of nobody, including myself, who has arrived there.

So, from within a certain layer, it is true that Jesus walked the New World. On another, it was not Jesus but some other avatar or buddha who taught the same message.

The winged serpent? In Crowley's system, the winged globe is Hadit, the individual point of view. The Egyptian ankh, modeled on a sandal strap, is another cognate symbol--"It is I that go." Or, "I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star."

The serpent in all these myths, perhaps the Garden myth as well, symbolizes the Kundalini energy which dwells within all of us. Its association with Aries is because, of the Four elements, Fire is the one most closely related to the Fifth, Spirit. Kundalini lies dormant in the Svadisthana Chakra, below the navel (where we feel the first stirrings of sexual lust). It is Spirit within us.

Yes, in this layer, in this system, lust is Spirit. Ordinarily, it stirs below the navel and moves down to the root Chakra, Muladhara. The usual end of this process is orgasm.

But there are five more Chakras. And with training or with (dangerous and uncontrollable!) drugs, it is possible to raise the Serpent power up through the Chakras to the Crown, the Sahasara, above the head. In some systems like Tantric Yoga, you trade orgasm for enlightenment. The sensation, however, is similar; it just happens in a different part of you. Kundalini "turns on" each Chakra as it moves upward.

"You will become as Gods."

Hence all the restrictions of sexual expression put out by the churches. Otherwise they'd be out of business.

Quetzalcoatl as the plumed serpent is a metaphorical analog of the Caduceus of Hermes. The double helix (where else have we seen that?) are the Ida and Pingala channels that Kundalini uses to move upward, intersecting at each Chakra, and lighting up the Spiritual Body.

The Being thus symbolized is a fully-enlightened human. A Jesus, a Lao-Tse, a Buddha, etc. The tragic irony, in Western Ceremonial Magic terms, is that we worship such beings as Gods. When their real message is, "I have arrived. Here is my path. Follow it, and you shall be as I am."

You can look back on history and easily see how this particular message was quashed, and why. Had that gotten through, we would have no need of Authority of any kind whatsoever.

Here are the Four Powers of the Sphinx: To know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent.

Oliver