at the cave on the mount the State was shown
a fascinating serpent in the air
to be fastened on a rod and known
as physic for the Prince and courtiers -
that priests should have virtu and do statecraft
that they should become the vanishing point
of subject and citizen - should graft
Christ’s bones in place of the fractured joints
of New Monarchy - Loyola professed
all of this - but now Revolution
replaces Navarre and Japan as quests; -
Christ has Lenins whose resolution
surpasses Machiavelli’s goals
and purges that brass thing up on a pole
Blackwell’s
Oxford
5 November 2018
The Rod of Asclepius is a common medical symbol. Moses wielded such device in the Book of Numbers, which the iconoclastic King Hezekiah later removed from the Temple. The Nehushtan is a derogatory term in Hebrew for that serpentine Rod.
The Autobiography of Inigo Lopez de Loyola, or St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), relates such a vision of an aerial serpent at the cave at Manresa, where he made his penitential retreat, after recovering from war injuries. He decided this was of diabolical origin. I am working with the Greek concept of a pharmakon, which means both a medicine and a poison.
The Biblical references are :-
Numbers 21.9, 2 Kings 18.4, Psalms 34.20, Matthew 4.8 and John 19.36.
Originally a Basque nobleman, courtier and soldier, Loyola suffered comminuted fractures in both legs from a cannon ball injury at the Siege of Pamplona in 1521. He founded the Society of Jesus in 1539 and became its first Father General (referred to by some as the Black Pope) in 1541. From Loyola’s perspective, the Reformation tore Christ’s body apart, the Church, despite what John said about the physical body.