“The first scheme – that of the Ophites – from the very start, as we have shown, varies from the description given by the Fathers, inasmuch as it makes Bythos or depth, a female emanation, and assigns her a place answering to that of Pleroma, only in a far superior region; whereas, the Fathers assure us that the Gnostics gave the name of Bythos to the First Cause. As in the kabalistic system, it represents the boundless and infinite void within which is concealed in darkness the Unknown Primal motor of all. It envelops HIM like a veil: in short we recognize the “Shekinah” of the En-Soph. Alone, the name of Iao, marks the upper centre, or rather the presumed spot where the Unknown One may be supposed to dwell. Around the Iao, runs the legend, “The Eternal Sun-Abrasax”, (the Central Spiritual Sun of all the kabalists, represented in some diagrams of the latter by the circle of Tiphereth).
From this region of unfathomable Depth, issues forth a circle formed of spirals, which, in the language of symbolism, means a grand cycle, composed of smaller ones. Coiled within, so as to follow the spirals, lies the serpent – emblem of wisdom and eternity – the Dual Androgyne: the cycle representing Ennoia or the Divine mind, and the Serpent – the Agathodaimon, Ophis – the Shadow of the Light. Both were the Logoi of the Ophites; or the unity as Logos manifesting itself as a double principle of good and evil; for, according to their views, these two principles are immutable, and existed from all eternity, as they will ever continue to exist. This symbol accounts for the adoration by this sect of the Serpent, as the Saviour, coiled either around the Sacramental loaf or a Tau. As a unity, Ennoia and Ophis are the Logos; when separated, one is the Tree of Life, (Spiritual); the other, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, we find Ophis urging the first human couple – the material production of Ilda-Baoth, but which owed its spiritual principle to Sophia-Achamoth – to eat of the forbidden fruit, although Ophis represents Divine Wisdom.
The Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life, are all symbols transplanted from the soil of India. The Arasa-Maram, the banyan tree, so sacred with the Hindus, since Vishnu, during one of his incarnations, reposed under its mighty shade, and there taught humanity philosophy and sciences, is called the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Under the protective umbrage of this king of the forests, the Gurus teach their pupils their first lessons on immortality and initiate them in the mysteries of life and death.
The Java-ALEIM of the Sacerdotal College are said, in the Chaldean tradition, to have taught the sons of men to become like one of them. To the present day Foh-tchou, who lives in his Foh-Maeyu, or temple of Buddha, on the top of “Kouin-long-sang”, the great mountain, produces his greatest religious miracles under a tree called in Chinese Sung-Ming-Shu, or the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, for ignorance is death, and knowledge alone gives immortality. This marvelous display takes place every three years, when an immense concourse of Chinese Buddhists assembles in pilgrimage at the holy place.
Ilda-Baoth, the “Son of Darkness”, and the creator of the material world, was made to inhabit the planet Saturn, which identifies him still more with the Jewish Jehovah, who was Saturn himself, according to the Ophites, and is by them denied his Sinaitic name. From Ilda-Baoth emanate six spirits, who respectively dwell with their father in the seven planets. These are Saba – or Mars; Adonai – Sol, or the Sun; Ievo – the Moon; Eloi – Jupiter; Astaphoi – Mercury, (spirit of water); and Ouraios – Venus, (spirit of fire).
In their functions and description as given, these seven planets are identical with the Hindi Sapta-Loca, the seven places or spheres, or the superior and inferior worlds; for they represent the kabalistic seven spheres. With the Ophites, they belong to the lower spheres. The monograms of these Gnostic planets are also Buddhistic, the latter differing, albeit slightly, from those of the usual astrological “houses”. In the explanatory notes which accompany the diagram, the names Cirenthius, (the disciple of Simon Magus), or Menander, and of certain other Gnostics, whose names are not to be met with in the Patristic writings, are often mentioned, such as Parcha, (Ferho), for instance.
The author of the diagram claims, moreover, for his sect, the greatest antiquity, bringing forward, as proof, that their “forefathers” were the builders of all the “Dracontia” temples, even of those beyond “the great waters”. He asserts that the “Just One”, who was the mouthpiece of the Eternal Aeon, (Christos), himself sent his disciples into the world, placing them under the double protection of Sige, (Silence, the Logos), and Ophis, the Agathodaemon. The author alludes no doubt, to the favorite expression of Jesus, “be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
On the diagram, Ophis is represented as the Egyptian Cnuphis or Kneph, called Dracontiae. He appears as a serpent standing erect on its tail, with a lion’s head, crowned and radiated, and bearing on the point of each ray one of the seven Greek vowels – symbol of the celestial spheres. This figure is quite familiar to those who are acquainted with the Gnostic gems and is borrowed from the Egyptian hermetic books. The description given in the Revelation, of one “like unto the Son of Man”, with his seven stars, and who is the Logos, is another form of Ophis.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 