Ancient Egyptian deities purposes. Egyptian texts often refer to deities' true, underlying forms as "mysterious". The Egyptians' visual representations of their gods are therefore not literal. They symbolize specific aspects of each deity's character, functioning much like the ideograms in hieroglyphic writing. For this reason, the funerary god Anubis is commonly shown in Egyptian art as a dog or jackal, a creature whose scavenging habits threaten the preservation of buried mummies, in an effort to counter this threat and employ it for protection. His black coloring alludes to the color of mummified flesh and to the fertile black soil that Egyptians saw as
Dancing on the Head of the Serpent on two CDs. The general lyrical theme of the album is "war against Satan", but songs such as "Still" focus on forgiveness and restoration. The record sleeve, painted by Rolf Jansson of Norway, depicts the leg of a person wearing jeans and boots—the standard attire among rockers—jumping on the head of a "demonic creature". This radical image proved too shocking for Swedish Christians and was banned by some resellers. Dancing on the Head of the Serpent Dancing on the Head of the Serpent is the fifth studio album, and the sixth album overall, by the Swedish hard rock band Jerusalem.