Ophite Diagrams

The Ophite Diagrams are ritual and esoteric diagrams used by the Ophite sect of Gnosticism, who revered the serpent from the Garden of Eden as a symbol of wisdom, which the malevolent Demiurge tried to hide from Adam and Eve.

Celsus describes them as ten separate circles, circumscribed by one circle, the world-soul, Leviathan, divided by a thick black line, Tartarus, together with a square, with words said at the gates of Paradise.

Origen maintains that there were two concentric circles, across the diameter of which were inscribed the words ΠΑΤΗΡ ("father") and ΥΙΟϹ ("son"); a smaller circle hung from the larger one, with the words ΑΓΑΠΗ ("love").

They signify the corporeal world, which follows the middle realm, and with which the dominion of Sophia ends.

But the serpent as symbol is found likewise in connection with the mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Phoenicia, Syria, and even Babylonia and India.