If these pictures had been separated, then the conflict would have been separated from the victory; the deadly wound of the serpent's head from the temporary wound in the Victor's heel. Hence, three pictures are required, in which the scorpion, the serpent, and the man, are all involved, in order to present at the same time the triumphant issue of the conflict.
Hence, we must present, and consider together, the first two sections of this mysterious chapter.
1 and 2. SERPENS and OPHIUCHUS.
The Struggle with the Enemy.
Here, Serpens, the serpent, is seen struggling vainly in the powerful grasp of the man who is named O-phi-u-chus. In Latin he is called Serpentarius. [pg 057] He is at one and the same moment shown to be seizing the serpent with his two hands, and treading on the very heart of the scorpion, marked by the deep red star Antares (wounding).
Just as we read the first constellation of the woman and child Coma, as expounding the first sign Virgo, so we have to read this first constellation as expounding the second sign Libra. Hence, we have here a further picture, showing the object of this conflict on the part of the scorpion.
In Scorpio we see merely the effort to wound Ophiuchus in the heel; but here we see the effort of the serpent to seize the Crown, which is situated immediately over the serpent's head, and to which he is looking up and reaching forth.
The contest is for Dominion! It was the Devil, in the form of a serpent, that robbed the first man of his crown; but in vain he struggled to wrest it from the sure possession of the Second Man. Not only does he fail in the attempt, but is himself utterly defeated and trodden under foot.
