“In Thebes, or Theba, which means ark – TH-ABA being synonymous with Kartha or Tyre, Astu, or Athens and Urbs or Rome, and meaning also the city – are found the same foliations as described on the pillars of the temple of Solomon. The bicolored leaf of the olive, the three-lobed figleaf, and the lanceolate-shaped laurel-leaf, had all esoteric as well as popular or vulgar meanings with the ancients.
The researches of Egyptologists present another corroboration of the identity of the Bible-allegories with those of the lands of the Pharoahs and Chaldeans. The dynastic chronology of the Egyptians, recorded by Herodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, Diodorus Siculus, and accepted by our antiquarians, divided the period of Egyptian history under four general heads: the dominion of gods, demi-gods, heroes, and mortal men. By combining the demi-gods and heroes into one class, Bunsen reduces the periods to three: the ruling gods, the demi-gods or heroes – sons of gods, but born of mortal mothers – and the Manes, who were the ancestors of individual tribes. These subdivisions, as anyone may perceive, correspond perfectly with the biblical Elohim, sons of God, giants, and mortal Noachian men.
Diodorus of Sicily and Berosus give us the names of the twelve great gods who presided over the twelve months of the year and the twelve signs of the zodiac. These names, which include Nuah, are too well known to require repetition. The double-faced Janus was also at the head of twelve gods, and in his representations of him he is made to hold the keys to the celestial domains. All these having served as models for the biblical patriarchs, have done still further service – especially Janus – by furnishing copy to St. Peter and his twelve apostles, the former also double-faced in his denial, and also represented as holding the keys of Paradise.
The statement that the story of Noah is but another version in its hidden meaning of the story of Adam and his three sons, gathers proof on every page of the book of Genesis. Adam is the prototype of Noah. Adam falls because he eats of the forbidden fruit of celestial knowledge; Noah, because he tastes of the terrestrial fruit: the juice of the grape representing the abuse of knowledge in an unbalanced mind. Adam gets stripped of his spiritual envelope; Noah of his terrestrial clothing; and the nakedness of both makes them feel ashamed. The wickedness of Cain is repeated in Ham. But the descendants of both are shown as the wisest of races on earth; and they are called on this account “snakes”, and the “sons of snakes”, meaning the sons of wisdom, and not of Satan, as some divines would be pleased to have the world understand the term.
Enmity has been placed between the “snake” and the “woman” only in this mortal phenomena; “world of man” as “born of woman”. Before the carnal fall, the “snake” was Ophis, the divine wisdom, which needed no matter to procreate men, humanity being utterly spiritual. Hence the war between the snake and the woman, or between spirit and matter. If in its material aspect, the old “serpent” is matter, and represents Ophiomorphos, in its spiritual meaning it becomes Ohpis-Christos.
In the magic of the old Syro-Chaldeans both are conjoint in the zodiacal sign of the androgyne of Virgo-Scorpio and may be divided or separated whenever needed. Thus as the origin of “good and evil”, the meaning of the S.S. and Z.Z., has always been interchangeable; and if upon some occasion the S.S. on sigils and talismans are suggestive of serpentine evil influence and denote a design of black magic upon others, the double S.S. are found on the sacramental cups of the Church and mean the Presence of the Holy Ghost, or pure wisdom.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 