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The number 8 pictures twin twined cobras of Isis.

The familiar physician's caduceus defines what the number 8 represents. Isis was the Serpent Goddess. Isis resurrected Assur from the dead. Among her many attributes, Isis was also the goddess of medicine and healing. She used a combination of magic, medicine, and "words of power" to resurrect Assur. It took some powerful medicine to raise a dead man. Cobra venom was powerful medicine in the Mother Goddess religion. The Sacred Asp of Isis has been associated with the healing arts since ancient times.

Although the physician's caduceus is a relatively modern figure, it has ancient origins related to medicine and healing. A twin twined serpent vessel that Gudea, Prince of Lagesh, dedicated to the healing god, Ningishzidu, dates to 2000 BC. A serpent twined Sumerian medicinal vessel dates to 2500 BC. The Greek/Roman god of healing Esklepios/Aesculapius is always depicted with a serpent entwined "healing staff."

Addendum #1

Priestesses of the Temple of Isis knew a cure for snake bite.

An interesting anecdotal story about Isis tells how she used the bite of a serpent to extort a secret out of a king. The story is a well known classic known as the "Legend of Ra and Isis." It was a common belief in Egyptian religion that knowing the secret name of someone or something could give one power over that person or thing. Egyptian Pharaohs went to great lengths to keep their true names secret. The "Legend of Ra and Isis" deals with the goddess Isis and the sun god Ra, but surely the original events from which the story evolved began with a mortal "sun king" Pharaoh and a priestess of Isis.

According to the story, Isis desired to be a goddess and live amongst the immortals. "Her heart rebelled at the millions of men, she chose rather the millions of the gods." "Could she not be in heaven like Ra and make herself mistress of the earth and a goddess by knowing the holy name of the god?" She fashioned a "sacred" serpent out of clay and placed it along the path where the sun god walked each day.

The serpent bit the god. " The life was coming out from him. . . His two jaws rattled, his limbs all trembled, the poison took possession of his body." "I am wounded by something deadly, knoweth it my heart. Not know I who has done this to me. Not have I tasted pain like this. Never was anything more deadly than it."

"Came Isis with her power and her skilled mouth, with the breath of life her incantations cure diseases." She said "What is this O father god? What is it? Has a snake shot sickness into thee?" "I was passing over the way, passing through the two lands of my country when I was bitten by a snake." "I am colder than water; I am hotter than fire; my limbs are all full of sweat. I tremble; my eye is without stability; I cannot see the sky; bursteth out water from my face as in summer." She said "Verily it shall be overthrown. By words of power I will make it depart."

Said Isis to Ra "O tell me thy name father god." The king then went on and enumerated a long list of his titles and epithets. But "Not was driven the poison out of its course; not was relieved the great god." Said Isis to Ra "Thy name is not enumerated among the things thou hast told me. O tell thou it to me, and out shall come the poison." Said the majesty of Ra "I give myself to be searched out by Isis, shall come forth my name from my body into her body."

The great god was removed from his name. Isis, great in words of power said " Run out poison, come forth from Ra. Eye of Heru, come forth from the god and shine without his mouth. I have worked; I make to fall down upon the ground the poison which is defeated." Thus said Isis, great lady, mistress of the gods who knew Ra by his name, his own true name. "Verily was removed the great god from his name."

The "Legend of Ra and Isis" is fully transliterated and translated in The Gods of the Egyptians by E.A. Wallis Budge. The "Legend of Ra and Isis" was originally one of the many "soma mystery" stories that were extant in the ancient world. The version that Dr. Budge translated is from a Dynasty XVIII papyrus. It is a long and elaborate version of an older and simpler story. The many intrusions of later day text into the story reveal that the scribes who wrote it had no clear understanding of the soma mystery about which they were writing. However, the story does reveal that minions of Isis knew a cure for snake bite.

Addendum #2

Priestesses of the Temple of Isis knew the mystery of the Forbidden Fruit.

Isis was Eve in the Garden of Eden.

In Pagan religion, Isis was the Earth Mother Goddess, mother of everyone on earth. In Biblical religion, Eve was the mother of everyone on earth. In Pagan religion, Isis was the serpent goddess. In Biblical religion, Eve spoke with a serpent in the Garden of Eden. In Pagan religion, Isis was twice wise. In Biblical religion, Eve discovered a fruit in the Garden of Eden that made her wise. There can be little doubt that the goddess Isis was the model for Biblical Eve.

Wisdom was the highest virtue in Pagan religion. Their religious life was a quest to gain the wisdom of the gods. In Pagan religion, serpents (asps) were wisdom symbols. Motivated by hatred, monotheists did everything in their power to demonize the Pagans. They transformed wisdom symbols of Pagan religion into symbols of evil in Biblical religion. Remnants of that ancient propaganda war are still with us. 3000 years later, in the United States, in "the most enlightened culture in the history of the world," there are still Christians who kill snakes because they're evil.

"Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps."
Deut. 32:33

"And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof; then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and she did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked . . ."
Genesis 3:2-7

This story from the Bible has been handed down to us as "the fall of man" from a pristine state of grace. This "original sin" of Eve and the serpent are taught in Monotheism as the original source of all of the evils of the world. Monotheism has corrupted the story. What that story clearly says is that they ate poison, their eyes were opened, and they became wise. The Biblical story of the Garden of Eden is about the awaking of humankind from its primordial "naked" state of ignorance. It is not about a fall from grace.

Ye shall not eat of it "lest ye die." Obviously, the "Forbidden Fruit" is a lethal poison. If you eat it you will die. "Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps." Is the Forbidden Fruit the "poison of dragons" that Pagans of the Isis bloodline mixed with their wine? Is the Forbidden Fruit and cruel venom of asps the original bread and wine sacrament that Christianity later turned into a meaningless ritual? Apparently, priestesses of the Temple of Isis knew the mystery of the Forbidden Fruit as well as a cure for snake bite.

Resurrect Isis.  Let love of the goddess of healing cure this world of some of its ills. Unveil Isis.  May her "mysteries" awaken humankind to the dawn of a new age.

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