RedTailHawk on Nostr: Wholeheartedly agree. I have roughly 14-15 pages written up on serpent symbolism and ...

Wholeheartedly agree. I have roughly 14-15 pages written up on serpent symbolism and I have plenty more to add.

It is not surprising to me for serpent symbolism to be everywhere. Every tradition is describing the same thing using imperfect concepts and words to capture something that is invisible to most people. The few who possess magnetoreceptive vision are often dismissed as mentally ill or liars, and to be fair, there are plenty of people who probably say similar things and are legitimately mentally ill or liars, but the composition fallacy applies so we can't assume they all are bad apples.

Hellenistic makes me think Greece and when I think of Greece and serpents, yeah buddy...there's a target rich environment there to be mined.

Starting with the words, ophiS and Sophi...move the letter that looks and sounds like a serpent from one end to the other and you get wisdom. Tell me that's not a synopsis of kundalini, albeit somewhat reductive, and I'll eat my own leg. Move the serpent shaped thing that sounds like a serpent (S in the word ophiS/Kundalini Shakti in real life) from one end (ophiS/root chakra) to the other (Sophi=wisdom chakra is activated on the serpent's way to the other end, the crown chakra).

The word phenom ties in too. If we connect phe to phi, we notice that both oPHIs and soPHI have phi in them. The importance of the golden ratio is fractal. Mathematically, I wouldn't hesitate to apply "as above so below" to the Golden Ratio as my first thought in a "map esoteric concepts to math concepts Rorschach test". Phi relates to gold. Phenom then means "golden in name", or having a valuable reputation. People who are valuable are very able. One version of a person who is extremely able who people would tend to label a "phenom" is a "genius". Genius derives from djinn.

Djinn is Egyptian. Plug the word into an Egyptian hieroglyphics translator and you'll see a serpent hieroglyphic as part of the output. Try the same thing with other words that have a "dj" in them like banebdjedet, djehuti, wadjet, djedd, medjay(magi), djedi(jedi), and others.

The serpent hieroglyphic translates into the "dj" sound which, like the S above, when spoken and extended, resembles the sound one might expect a serpent to make, i.e. it is an onomatopoeia, as is the Hebrew letter Teth which sounds like our T (another serpent onomatopoeia) and, among other things, means serpent.

Djinn is the root of genius because activation of the wisdom chakra is typically accomplished by people who are polymaths and often autodidacts who are naturally interested in learning about everything and are honest in their exploration with themselves and others, uninterested in grifting, only seeking answers. Djinn is also the root of many other very telling words like genie, genuine, engine, engineer, ingenious, gene, genetic, generate, etc.

All of these speak to brilliant and productive people, to the point where their abilities are beyond the grasp of normies like in the case of the genius or genie or engineer. Engine itself is a conceptual homage to "internal combustion", i.e. the fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit we know to be associated with what Hindus call the Kundalini awakening, rising up Sushumna, and activating higher chakras. That fire within is why pyramids are named what they are (pyra/fire in the mid/dle). It's why there is the concept of "smokeless fire" associated with the concept of djinn even today. It's why genies are depicted as gaseous...spiritual...smoky...with a SERPENTine trail leading back to a meDJaic (magic) lamp (wisdom chakra...chakra depictions are always radiative...lamps radiate).

Importantly, if "djinn" corresponds to wisdom chakra activation, and wisdom chakra activation is said to require that one communicates in truth with ones own self and with others, then the concept of "genuine" being related to djinn and genie and genius makes a LOT of sense.

All that to tie phenom to genius to kundalini...

Thanks for the leads. I'll see if I can find images of those murals from that lake you visited and check out your Hellenistic period research.