That God's name is Abraxas" - Herman Hesse, Demian Who would be born first must destroy a world. This is possibly the origin of the word abracadabra, although other explanations exist. Abraxas has been claimed to be both an Egyptian god and a demon, sometimes even being associated with the dual nature of Satan/Lucifer. It was believed that Abraxas was the name of a god who incorporated both Good and Evil (God and Demiurge) in one entity, and therefore representing the monotheistic God, singular, but (unlike e.g. In this painting there are ancient serpent symbols, the lower left is the abraxas which is known to be around for more then 2000 years, Abrasax is the name given by the Gnostics to the Supreme Deity, however, the symbol is thought to be of Basilidian origin. In the Amazon the snakes are respected and revered, shamans speak of the power of snakes especially anacondas and boas, lies in the digestive enzymes which can break down not only soft tissue but bones, hooves, teeth etc. (Apr.Inspired by Jeremy Narby's book The Cosmic Serpent. He provides an intriguing detective story, wondrous visions and a wealth of fascinating information on genetic science, shamanism, etc., and he also offers some valuable thoughts on the parochial smallness of official science, but, overall, his book's greatest value, perhaps, is as a case study in the excesses of scholarship gone astray.
Narby does well to question the assumptions of scientists who dismiss all teleology in favor of mechanistic interpretations that are often deeply inadequate, and he does well to inquire into the meaning of the vast commonality of forms between science and world mythologies, but his answers too often come off as groundless invention. Of his assertion that the Amazonians' specific knowledge of pharmacology derives from hallucinogenic trance (and not from some other more diffuse source), he undertakes no experimental test, offering the typical complaints that the ""presuppositions"" of science are too narrow to permit the test. Throughout, Narby appears to mistake enthusiasm for evidence and he takes similarities of form (e.g., any helical pattern, hexagon or snakelike figure) to be proof of identity or of casual connection: that the serpent of shamanic lore is DNA. His defense of the rights of indigenous peoples against usurpation by capitalist, technological countries is admirable his methodology is not. Anthropologist Narby's very personal account of his encounters with Amazonian shamanism and his passionately researched syntheses of anthropological, biochemical, neurological and mythological scholarship fascinate but do not convince.
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