was borrowed from Egypt, is Naja, This word is found on the old tablets in the ancient temples of Egypt where Osiris, the Sun God, is hailed when arising from the primordial deep. He was then crowned with glory and has the Uræus Naja, an emblem of cosmic wisdom. The Uræus was a part of a serpent’s body, with its head protruding from a point in the forehead just above the nose, where the human spirit has its seat; and Christ therefore referred to the ancient Serpent-Initiates, when He said: “Be ye wise as serpents.”
In ancient Egypt the King wore a crown adorned by a double serpent, Uræus or Naja, which seems to protrude from his forehead when the crown was placed upon his head. This was to symbolize the fact that he held the double office of King and Priest by virtue of his sublime wisdom, In India, also, the guardians of the Mystery Teachings were called Nagas or Serpents. In the Icelandic ‘Eddas”, the Northern Vedas, Siegfried, the truth seeker, slays the serpent, tastes of its blood and then becomes wise. Nor, to elaborate on the statement made above, is it necessary to go outside our own religion for proof that the serpent is the symbol of wisdom, for the Christ Himself said: “Be ye wise as serpents.” The serpent is certainly not sufficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the serpentine spinal cord it vibrates the pituitary body and the pineal gland, con-
