| “Yet once I was blind, and could not see the light, And straight to Jeru-salem I then took my flight; They led me through a wilderness, with a multitude of care, You may know me by the system, or badge I wear. Twelve dazzling lights I saw, which did me surprise; I stood in amaze where I heard a great noise; A serpent came by me,—I fell unto the ground, With joy, peace, and comfort the secret I found.”[592] |
The principle of all mysteries having been already elucidated, it only remains, that in this concluding chapter, I point out a few more instances of their practical application.
In the Gospel, then, according to St. Matthew, I find the words, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”[593] And in that according to St. John, the following, “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”[594]
The juxtaposition of these texts, one with another, and the comparison of them, mutually, with the explication of the serpent, given at p. 229, will not only confirm the truth of all the foregoing developments, but satisfy you further, what I am very certain you did not before identify, viz. that the phrases generation of vipers, and the being born of fornication, are one and the same—the viper, or serpent, being the symbol of lustfulness, making the former equivalent to ye offspring of concupiscence; that is, in other words, ye born of fornication![595] And the very stress laid upon this mode of geniture, implies not only the possibility of a different sort, but its frequency also!
“In the Purana prophecies concerning the expected Saviour,” say the Asiatic Researches, “it is said, that he was the son, or rather the incarnation, of the great serpent: and his mother was also of that tribe, and incarnate in the house of a pot-maker. She conceived, at the age of one year and a half, the great serpent gliding over her while she was asleep in the cradle: and his mother, accordingly, is represented as saying to the child, once that she brought him to a place full of serpents—‘Go and play with them, they are your relations.’”
Here it will be seen that, under the form of a serpent, is personified the Deity, or the generative power.
Nunez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapa, in Mexico, when describing Nagualism, in his Constitutions, as observed in that country, says: “The Nagualists practise it by superstitious calendars, wherein are inserted the proper names of all the Naguals, of stars, the elements, birds, beasts, fishes, and reptiles; with observations upon the months and days; in order that the children, as soon as they are born, may be dedicated to that which, in the calendar, corresponds with the day of their birth; this is preceded by some frantic ceremonies, and the express consent of parents, which is an explicit part between the infants and the Naguals that are to be given to them. They then appoint the melpa, or place, where, after the completion of seven years, they are brought into the presence of the Nagual to ratify the engagement; for this purpose they make them renounce God and His blessed Mother, instructing them beforehand not to be alarmed, or sign themselves with the cross: they are afterwards to embrace the Nagual affectionately, which, by some diabolical art or another, appears very tame, and fondly attached to them, although it may be a beast of a ferocious nature, as a lion, a tiger, etc. They persuade the children, by their infernal cunning, that this Nagual is an angel sent by God to watch over their fortunes, to protect, assist, and accompany them; and that it must be invoked upon all occasions, business, or occurrences, in which they may require its aid!”
It is very clear, that the Nagualism above notified is but a degenerate offshoot of that serpent worship, which is coeval with the fall: yet, degenerate as it is, it is equally indisputable, that this good man’s zeal outsteps far his judgment, the exaggerations of his fancy even committing him so far, as to make him imperceptibly contradict himself!
Surely, were it a principle of action with those unfortunate beings to make their children, on their entrance upon active life, to renounce God, they would not teach them, at the same time, to reverence a brute creature, merely as being a subordinate servant of that God!
To reconcile the Bishop, therefore, to something like truth, I will suppose him to mean by the word God, where it first occurs, Christ, which is evident from the context, of “His blessed Mother”: and then the prohibition against the sign of “the cross,” must be understood exclusively as in reference to him; a conclusion which is confirmed by an additional reference to that oath, which I have before mentioned, as still prevalent amongst the Irish.