335 
body for food implies that all things whatsoever that are generated by Divine 
Providence in the world undergo a corruption into it again.”* * * § 
Fig. 28. The Orphic egg , symbolizing inert matter vivified by the demiurge. 
(Bryant. )f 
This relates to the coluber or serpent called Bait, “ soul of 
the world,” alone. According to Champollion, the emblem of 
Fig. 29. The serpent Chnuphis. From a Gnostic gem. (Montfaucon.) The name 
inside the circle is that of the Archangel Michael. 
the Creative power of the Deity (fig. 29) under the form of the 
god Chnuphis (fig. 30), a deity identified with Jehovah Sabaw 
(IM2 SABA12)t (fig. 31) by the Gnostic heretics of the second 
century. § 
* Hence the well-known symbol of a serpent entwined round an egg, used 
by the Orphic mystics to signify matter vivified by spirit. 
f For further details of the great Egyptian Orphic myth which evolved 
creation out of the cosmic egg, which breaking, the upper half became 
heaven and the lower earth, see Creuzer’s Symbolik, ii. 224, and iv. 83-5. 
J JTI>02£ (Tsebaoth), “Lord of Hosts.”— S. Drach. 
t ; 
§ See Montfaucon, art. “ Gnostiques” ; Abraxas , tom. ii. part 2. 
VOL. VI. 2 f 
Fig. 30. The deity Chnuphis, as a double-headed serpent. 
(Champollion, Pantheon Egyptien.) 
