User:Sticky Parkin/Serpent

Occult and neopaganism
Templi Kalendæ (TK) is an influential Traditional Witchcraft coven based in Birmingham, England, with additional centres in Wolverhampton and Durham. Its practices are derived from the Ophidian magical teachings of Bob Clay-Egerton.

Ophidian traditional witchcraft
The adjective ophidian means 'of, relating to, or resembling snakes' and in the context of the Traditional Craft refers to those branches of it for which the snake - or serpent - forms the basis of their symbolism and practices.

Kabbalah.

Kundalini

early Gnostic sects such as the Ophites of the 1st century (and through them to Sumerian, Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek Paganism), in the medieval period these types of heretical practices often manifested as Satanism and Witchcraft. A major 20th century figure associated with what we now call the Ophidian Tradition was the writer D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), though this particular aspect of his life is often forgotten by the modern literary establishment.

This, however, cannot be said for that other great 20th century writer Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), whose influence on all forms of modern Occultism, to which the Ophidian Craft is no exception, has been both profound and immense.

In the later 20th century one figure stands out as the leading light within the Ophidian Craft - Alastair Robert ('Bob') Clay-Egerton (1930-1998), who was initiated at the age of thirteen by one of the few surviving traditionalist covens at Alderley Edge, Cheshire.Traditional Craft lineage, and Alex was a close personal friend of Bob's (see Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, pp. 302, 321-2). Along with his wife Meriem ('Mim'), Bob founded a large number of Occult organisations during his long magical career, including, most famously, the Esoteric Order of the Serpent (EOS), which was based in Warwickshire during the 1960s, Tony also wrote two books detailing this - Water Witches (Capall Bann, 1998), and The Rites and Rituals of Traditional Witchcraft (Capall Bann, 2001).