Weekly Themelia: On the role of Ophidism in contemporary world
Archegetéion - 08.01.26
[Original Text]
Fratres et Sorores,
Aetas nostra fessa est. Non solum bellis et finibus sanguine notatis, sed verbis inanibus, veritatibus ut telis iactatis, identitatibus in arces induratis. Mundus non tantum violentia manuum patitur, sed rigiditate mentium atque metu cogitandi. Hoc tempore Ofidismus se non offert ut signum extollendum, nec ut doctrina imponenda, sed ut medicina lenta. Pharmacon: non quod conflictu vi resistat, sed quod intellectu illum transfigurat.
Bellum semper ex ruptura in absolutum redacta oritur. Odium nascitur cum alter ad nomen, ad signum, ad hostem necessarium redigitur. Ofidismus id revocat quod mundus oblitus est: ipsam realitatem tensione vivere, nec ullum contrarium exsistere ad delendum, sed ad officium suum agnoscendum. Polemos non destruit: formam gignit.
Ubi haec veritas agnoscitur, bellum fundamentum metaphysicum amittit. Serpens pacem non promittit ut absentiam conflictus, sed ut aequilibrium in conflictu. Unitatem non offert ut uniformitatem, sed ut circulum qui diversitatem continet sine negatione. In mundo qui ad partes eligendas cogit, Ofidismus disciplinam docet tensionem sustinendi sine odio. Quapropter necessarius est. Non quia solus sit, sed quia linguam annihilationis recusat. Non quia responsa facilia praebeat, sed quia responsa quae occidunt respuit.
Ubi religiones in identitates armatas durantur, Ofidismus scientiam in medium restituit. Ubi politica hostem sacrat, Ofidismus meminit nullum ens extra motum Ipsius Esse consistere. Ubi homo Deum invocat ad violentiam iustificandam, Ofidismus silentio Serpentis respondet, qui non imperat, sed ostendit.
Haec non est salus mirifica. Est sanatio discreta, quae a cogitatione incipit, in linguam descendit, ac demum ad manus pervenit. Tamen omne bellum quod non oritur, omne odium quod ante actum solvitur, iam victoria mundi super se ipsum est. Sit igitur Ofidismus id quod vocatus est esse: non arma contra alia itinera, sed remedium contra illusionem qua alter delendus putatur ut mundus subsistat. Nunc autem opus nobis imponitur. Non convertere, sed crescere. Non vincere, sed altius descendere. Non conflictum fugere, sed discere quomodo in eo habitemus sine instrumento eius efficiendi Crescat unusquisque in claritate cogitationis, in disciplina verbi, in responsabilitate actus. Mensura incrementi non sit numerus, sed aequilibrium; non clamor, sed constantia; non certitudo, sed sapientia.
In Serpente omnia continentur. Et ubi omnia continentur, mundus ipse ultra odium crescere potest.
[English Translation]
Brothers and Sisters,
Our age is weary. Not only of wars and blood-stained borders, but of hollow words, of truths hurled like weapons, of identities hardened into fortresses. The world suffers not only from the violence of hands, but from the rigidity of minds and from the fear of thinking. In such a time, Ophidism does not present itself as a banner to be raised, nor as a doctrine to be imposed, but as a slow medicine. A phármakon: not that which resists conflict by force, but that which transforms it through understanding.
War always arises from a rupture rendered absolute. Hatred is born when the other is reduced to a name, to a symbol, to a necessary enemy. Ophidism recalls what the world has forgotten: that reality itself lives by tension, and that no opposite exists in order to be destroyed, but to be recognised in its proper function. Polemos does not destroy: it gives form.
Where this truth is acknowledged, war loses its metaphysical foundation. The Serpent does not promise peace as the absence of conflict, but as equilibrium within conflict. It does not offer unity as uniformity, but as a circle that contains difference without denying it. In a world that compels the choosing of sides, Ophidism teaches the discipline of enduring tension without hatred. For this reason it is necessary. Not because it stands alone, but because it refuses the language of annihilation. Not because it provides easy answers, but because it rejects answers that kill.
Where religions harden into armed identities, Ophidism restores knowledge to the centre. Where politics sacralises the enemy, Ophidism remembers that no being exists outside the movement of Being itself. Where humanity invokes God in order to justify violence, Ophidism responds with the silence of the Serpent, who does not command, but reveals.
This is not a miraculous salvation. It is a discreet healing, which begins in thought, descends into language, and finally reaches the hands. Yet every war that does not begin, every hatred that dissolves before becoming action, is already a victory of the world over itself. Let Ophidism therefore be what it is called to be: not a weapon against other paths, but a remedy against the illusion by which the other is deemed to be destroyed so that the world may endure. Now, however, the task is laid upon us. Not to convert, but to grow. Not to conquer, but to descend more deeply. Not to flee conflict, but to learn how to dwell within it without becoming its instrument. Let each one grow in clarity of thought, in discipline of language, and in responsibility of action. Let the measure of growth be not number, but balance; not noise, but constancy; not certainty, but wisdom.
In the Serpent all things are held together. And where all things are held together, the world itself may grow beyond hatred.
[Short Commentary]
This week’s Themelia invites reflection on the role Ophidism may assume in the present historical moment, not merely as a religious confession, but as a philosophical posture toward truth, knowledge, and coexistence. In contrast with systems that conceive truth as an object to be possessed or defended, Ophidism approaches truth as something that remains perpetually in inquiry. Knowledge, within the ophidian horizon, is not a means of domination, but a discipline of openness and responsibility.
This perspective places Ophidism in tension with contemporary paradigms shaped by possession, identity, and exclusion. The reference to Polemos should therefore not be read as an endorsement of conflict, but as the recognition that difference, tension, and opposition are intrinsic to life and thought, and need not culminate in negation or destruction. The Themelia thus raises a question rather than offering a resolution: whether a philosophy grounded in inquiry rather than certainty can still operate as a meaningful alternative in a world increasingly structured by absolutes.
In adherence with the nature of the Themelia, everyone is invited to share their ideas and thoughts with the Synodus and the ophidian community through the official contacts of the Institution.