Overview of China’s earthen pyramid mausoleums from Neolithic to Western Xia, comparing their origins, symbolism, and differences from Egyptian pyramids.
How Did a Self-Aware Mind Evolve?
Meditations on mind, myth, and evolution. Cast the scales from your eyes!
TL;DR
- Symbolic thought emerged ~50,000 years ago, yet the universal human symbol, “I,” or the ego appears globally entrenched only in the Holocene ~10 kya.
- According to Eve Theory of Consciousness, women invented serpent-venom initiation rituals that reliably taught subject-object separation, producing powerful gene-culture evolution towards understanding “I am’” at a young age.
- The memory of this awakening is preserved worldwide in creation myths (cf. Lucifer, Nüwa, Quetzalcoatl) and was transmitted globally via bullroarer mystery cults (cf. the rites of Dionysus or Australian Dreamtime).
Topics
About
I’m Andrew Cutler, a Machine Learning engineer researching human origins. My work connects psychology, comparative mythology, and AI to trace how recursive self-awareness evolved. Snakecult.net is a place for me to put lightly-edited AI-generated essays that explore niche questions (usually produced with OpenAI’s Deep Research or o3-Pro).
Research Articles
Serpents Of Healing: Decoding The Rod Of Asclepius
Why the single-snake staff that crowns hospital logos encodes an ancient pharmacological theology in which venom and remedy are two coils of the same serpent.
Snake Cult of Consciousness and the Global Reputation of the “Wise” Serpent
Across cultures the snake is called “wise.” New evidence shows the nickname arose from venom‑induced alterations of consciousness, not reptile IQ.
The Fruit of Knowledge: Snake Venom as the Primal Entheogen
Explores the hypothesis that serpent venom served as humanity’s primordial entheogen.
The Serpent at the World Tree
Across cultures, the snake coiled at a world‑tree signals an entheogenic passage into self‑aware “I‑am” consciousness—this article explains the motif’s persistence.
Theories on the Origins and History of the Zuni People
An in-depth survey of mainstream and fringe theories about the origins of the Zuni people, covering archaeology, linguistics, genetics, oral tradition, and speculative diffusionist claims.
Mormonism as the Perennial and Original Religion
An exploration of how Latter-day Saints view their faith as the restoration of God’s original gospel across all dispensations.
The Square and Compass: A Global Symbol of Creation and Order
Comparative survey of the square-and-compass symbol from Han-dynasty Fuxi & Nüwa to modern Freemasonry and Latter-day Saints.
Andreas Lommel On The Diffusion Of
The previous post highlighted the tension between archeologists and what I call ancient aliens researchers. The latter camp argues similarities between far-flung cultures imply a lost global civilizat…
Archeologists Vs Ancient Aliens
I’m no credientialist, but still, most of my research on human origins draws from official sources: linguists, comparative mythologists, geneticists, and archeologists. (And, of course, the ultimate a…