Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina – Apophis’ Fall From Great Serpent To Nothing But A Worm Down A Well
Image: Netflix
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a satanic horror TV series based on the Archie Comics series of the same name. Developed by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa for Netflix and produced by Warner Bros. Television, in association with Berlanti Productions and Archie Comics. It centres around Sabrina, a teenager who is half mortal and half witch, and her encounters with the supernatural. Although the series ended in 2020 there are still so many weird details and dark secrets within each episode that it has a lot of rewatchability.
In Chapter 6: An Exorcism of Greensdale, Susie’s Uncle becomes possessed by a demon. So, Sabrina astral projects into the bedroom upon which he is tied to his bed, in routine Exorcist fashion, in order to interrogate the demon to try to find out who he is.
At which point he declares:
“I’m Maerceci, overlord of gluttony, devourer of flesh, demon from the bowels.”
And proceeds to projectile vomit at Sabrina’s astral projection, determining that her physical body is not in the room because his bile passes straight through her, he then detects where she really is and starts to torment her body. Luckily Salem, Sabrina’s trustworthy cat familiar, fetches Sabrina’s cousin Ambrose who awakens her.
Image: Netflix
Sabrina says:
“It felt like he was slithering down my throat. How did he do that? How could he touch me?”
To which Ambrose replies:
“Bugger must be a higher demon. Some of them can lay hands on your astral body if they find you in their realm.”
Image: Netflix
After pondering the name Maerceci, Ambrose realises that the Demon was playing a joke on Sabrina as this word is simply ‘ice cream’ spelt backwards. And Sabrina remembers that the Demon spoke about Susie’s uncle setting him free from somewhere. So, deduces that he must have encountered the demon in the mines that he works at. Upon further exploration she finds a broken stone seal engraved with the symbol of a snake. And, by scouring through tomes with Ambrose, works out that this is the emblem of ‘Apophis’.
Image: Netflix
In the midst of a demonology seminar, she tells Father Blackwood of her friend’s uncle’s possession by Apophis, in hopes of finding out how to exorcise the demon. To which he replies:
“Apophis is a parasitic demon also known as the devouring worm. He’s feasting on your friend’s uncle from the inside out. If he’s alive he won’t be for long.”
Sabrina, Miss Wardwell, Hilda and Zelda then carry out the first Witch Exorcism to stop the demon from killing Susie’s uncle and spreading to others, causing him to throw up Apophis, in the form of a large, writhing worm. They then hurl the worm into a well along with the broken seal.
Image: Netflix
Ancient Egyptian Demon of Chaos
In reality the inspiration for Apophis comes from the Ancient Egyptian demon of chaos who was represented as the ‘Great Serpent’. He was the enemy of the sun god Ra. Egyptians thought that the Sun was Ra’s barge sailing through the sky and that when it set, he was descending into the Underworld. Passing into Apophis’ realm, Ra would then be attacked by him until dawn as Apophis tried to kill Ra to stop the sun from ever rising again, ending all life in the process.
Ra travelling through the underworld in his barge with the Great Serpent Apophis harassing him, from the copy of the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramses I, Egypt, c. 1290 BCE. (worldhistory.org)
The Egyptians personified order and chaos within their gods and demons. Order represented all that was good and sustained life, whilst chaos was the state that brought about death so forces that brought it were seen as evil. In their creation story they thought that at first there was nothing but the dark waters of chaos before the primordial mound rose up out of them, separating the world and permitting life and order to begin.
Apophis being warded off by the Sun God. Tomb of pharaoh Ramses I. Thebes West, near 1307 BC. (Wikimedia)
Apophis was part of this creation story, of which there are many different versions. In the telling most like the Apophis in Sabrina, Goddess Neith emerged from the waters of chaos onto the primordial mound and spat some of the waters out. Her saliva became Apophis, a giant serpent who swam away to avoid being caught. But when creation started and Ra brought light into the world, this division of the realm angered Apophis, so he forever chased the Sun, trying to swallow it to extinguish the light which in turn would end all life and order. Returning the world to his preferred undifferentiated state of darkness and death in the waters of chaos.
Apophis’ creation story is highly reminiscent of the worm vomited out in Sabrina. Because he came out of a Goddess’ body in the Egyptian Myth and wanted to be unified with everything, it makes sense that he would by extension be seen as a parasitic demon living inside a host. And Apophis was obsessed with consuming the sun and all life, making him the ‘Devouring Worm’.
It is funny to think that in the world of Sabrina Apophis really must have fallen on hard times to have gone from being a great serpent large and powerful enough to try to devour the sun to becoming nothing but a tiny worm that has to crawl inside humans to survive and is defeated by simply being chucked down a well. I guess at least he is back in the dark waters that he seems to like so much!
Image: Netflix
Sabrina: “And you really don’t think it can get back up Miss Wardwell?”
Wardwell: “Not with that seal in there and not in the state it was in. No, that worm will burrow its way back to hell where it belongs.”
References
Apopis | Egyptian god. (2019). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apopis-Egyptian-god
Mark, J. (2017, April 25). Apophis. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Apophis/
