Do thy will.

This veve is a figure used to contact the mysterie Damballah Adena of the thelemic nation. The figure is based upon the design of the Serpent Mound earthwork found to the SE of Cincinnati, Ohio. Rites to Damballah Adena are conducted at the site of the earthwork.

The Serpent Mound earthwork is the largest serpent effigy in the United States and is nearly a quarter of a mile in length. The mound was built by the Adenas, therefore Adena is used as a place name (In Damballah Wedo, the Haitian twin of Damballah Adena, the Wedo refers to a place name or the name of a royal family). The mound was built between 1000 BC and 700 AD.

Anthropologists studying the mound think that the serpent is depicted as feeding and that the oval in the head section is its gaping mouth directed toward the sky (see photo). Credible interpretations of the serpents form/activity have it eating a hog or, as as popularly believed, swallowing an egg. The interpretation affirmed in a Rite of Vision conducted at the center of the oval itself has the oval as an open mouth and the figure as swallowing an egg.

Damballah is the ancient Serpent Loa of Haitian Voudoo. It is a patron of springs and rivers and is depicted as a snake traveling in the path of the sun across the sky. Damballah is fed with an egg, in fact, Damballah is strongly associated with the World Egg of the Ophidian Mysteries. Deren (DIVINE HORSEMEN) calls Damballah "The major benevolent, the mighty protection, the lofty evidence of just and eternal good."

It is the purpose of Cultus Marassa to create a Nancho of Loa (dieties) which reflect thelemic concerns. Nancho is a Creole term referring to a nation or grouping of Loa. There are many such groupings in Voudoo. These groupings are based upon such things as point of origin of the Loa, the means of working and the type of work that the Loa performs.

Damballah is sometimes conceived of as the Plumed Serpent of Indian myth (Deren). The Indians of which Deren speaks are the original inhabitants of the South Americas. The Adenas evidence artifacts (The Adena Pipe) that connect them with these more southern peoples.

Therefore, historically, the Plumed Serpent Quetzalcoatl and the serpent depicted in the earthwork at Serpent Mound may be equivalent. Damballah is also intimately associated with the life sustaining Plumed Serpent by the root Da (meaning origin and essence of life in Dahomean) and "Da" certainly reflects the type of reverence needed to generate such a colossal earthwork. The Plumed Serpent, Damballah, and the Serpent Mound of the Adenas may be seen as three aspects of the same mysterie.. Damballah Adena joins these aspects.

Damballah Adena A a sky or Stellar Serpent. The orifice of the mouth is directed toward the outer spaces. Damballah strikes toward the heavens. The stars themselves are the fodder for the gaping maw. The Stellar virtues are drunk and transmuted in the convoluted body of the mound ("I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one." - Liber L). The tail forms a spiral and it is here that the elixir is received.

The veve places Damballah Adena with the four elements. The mouth of the mysterie feeds upon the fire of the stars. The body undulates in the air of the skies bringing forth water. The tail comes to rest in the lands. The snake bridges the elemental worlds.

The feeding of the mysterie is accomplished by the breaking of an egg in the mouth area. The egg is hidden from view under a white cloth before it is broken. Simultaneously, other ritualists gather at the tail of the serpent to collect the refined essence of the meal.

will/love

Louis Martinie