THE BRAZEN SERPENT – CHAOS AND ORDER

In this book on the Nehushtan, titled The Brazen Serpent – Chaos and Order, Michael Osborne takes us on a fascinating journey of discovery, provocatively telling us in his cover information that “the myth of the Raised Serpent in the Bible is an allegory for God’s concealment within the very fabric of time and space itself.” In his words, the book explores the myth of the serpent as a cipher for the divine signature embedded in the universe.

This is a bold claim indeed, but the author has the skills to approach this question from a number of angles, including exegesis, Numerology, Alchemy and the Kabbalah. His journey takes us along many paths, 

However, he warns us at the start that this journey is a spiritual and self-initiatory one. It is not his intention to lay out the answers for the essence of understanding and the wisdom gained from it is necessarily a personal journey.

The Foreword is by Alastair, Lees, Librarian General of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, and is followed by an Introduction which sets the allegorical scene in the wilderness where Moses was taught by God how to prevent the serpents  from tormenting and killing the faithless and faltering Israelites, before explaining the importance of the Tau cross and the symbolism of fiery serpents or seraphim, which again takes us back to man’s banishment from Eden which was then guarded by the cherubim with flaming sword.

It would be pointless to give a simple Cliff Notes’ summary of the contents of the book. However, to give you an idea of the sheer scope of the book, I will tell you that it manages to encompass Egyptian roots, the Marquis de Sade, Numerology and the extraordinary enigma od the number 23, Synchronicity, the importance of Sacred Geometry, Chaos and Order, Saul’s epiphany on the road to Damascus, the American dollar sign and the flag of Israel! To please the Martinists he even touches of Pasqually and Saint-Martin, and not forgetting the Golden Dawn he  considers the symbolism of the serpent in Geburah, and the trading down of the seven-headed serpent on the vault floor. Finally, he considers the evidence of God in modern science, from man’s DNA to Teilhard’s notion of the noosphere. Oh my!

The book is full of illustrations, and much use is made of the wonderful woodcuttings of Hans Holbein the Younger, who was known for illustrating biblical stories. There are also extensive indexes at the back of the book including a select Bibliography, a list of the Biblical Texts cited, and a comprehensive index of persons, places and subjects covered.

I found the book easy to read and hard to put down. Indeed, I read it in one (long) sitting! Highly recommended!

The book is the latest offering from Rose Circle Publications and can be found by going to the Published Books menu on this site, or directly on amazon.com.