Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
MESOPOTAMIA

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ALEISTER CROWLEY AD MEIORUM CTHULHI GLORIAM

they devour the magician himself. when crowley professed to have passed the obstacles, and crossed the abyss of knowledge, and found his true self, he found it was identical with the beast of the book of revelation, 666, whom christianity considers to represent the devil. indeed, crowley had nothing but admiration for the shaitan (satan) of the so-called "devil-worshipping" cult of the yezidis of mesopotamia, knowledge of which led him to declare the lines that open this introduction. for he saw that the yezidis possess a great secret and a great tradition that extends far back into time, beyond the origin of the sun cults of osiris, mithra and christ; even before the formation of the judaic religion, and the hebrew tongue. crowley harkened back to a time before the moon was worshipped, to

evable was a commonplace of life. these two men, both acclaimed as geniuses by their followers and admirers, and who never actually met, stretched their legs across the world, and in the seven league boots of the mind they did meet, and on common soil. sumeria. sumeria is the name given to a once flourishing civilisation that existed in what is now known as iraq, in the area called by the greeks "mesopotamia" and by the arabs as, simply "the island" for it existed between two rivers, the tigris and the euphrates, which run down from the mountains to the persian gulf. this is the site of the fabled city of babylon, as well as of ur of the chaldees and kish, with nineveh far to the north. each of the seven principal cities of sumeria was ruled by a different deity, who was worshipped in the

one does not hear of a chinese angel or saint striving to slay the dragon, but rather to cultivate it. the chinese system of geomancy, feng shui (pronounced fung shway) is the science of understanding the "dragon currents" which exist beneath the earth, these same telluric energies that are distilled in such places as chartres cathedral in france, glastonbury tor in england, and the ziggurats of mesopotamia. in both the european and chinese cultures, the dragon or serpent is said to reside somewhere "below the earth; it is a powerful force, a magickal force, which is identified with mastery over the created world; it is also a power that can be summoned by the few and not the many. however, in china, there did not seem to be a backlash of fear or resentment against this force as was known

ether they are called the sun and moon of the elixir vitae, the male and female participants in a rite of indian or chinese tantricism, or the shadow and the anima of jungian depth psychology. for many years, the moon remained the prime deity of the sumerians, constituting the essential personum of a religious and mystical drama that was performed roughly 3000 b.c. amid the deserts and marshes of mesopotamia. side by side with the worship of the moon, nanna, there was fear of the demon, pazuzu, a genie so amply recreated in the book and the movie by blatty, the exorcist, and similarly recognised as the devil himself by the church. pazuzu, the beast, was brought to life by aleister crowley, and the demon walked the earth once more. with publicity provided by h.p. lovecraft. the devil pazuzu

een" in his study of crowley's system as related to tantricism, without mentioning the name by which this goddess is quite well-known, or even mentioning her native country! after the chapter on zonei, we come to the "book of entrance" which is really a system of self-initiation into the planetary spheres and may have something to do with the planetary arrangement of the steps of the ziggurats of mesopotamia, which were seven storeyed mountains. not much is revealed to the potential candidate for initiation as to how these "gates" work, or what he might find there, save to say that the key of one gate lies in mastering the gate before it. the mad arab was either keeping a sacred secret, or found human language inadequate to the task of describing what other initiates in similar systems hav

corn suxur mash (fish-man) 27. mars mastabarru 28. aquarius gula (horned beast) 29. pisces dilgan u rikis nuni (weapon) 30. sun shamash 30. fire ag 30. saturn kaimanu 30 (bis) earth kia 30 (bis) spirit zi notes on pronunciation we cannot be absolutely how sumerian and akkadian were spoken; but many useful guidelines are available to the student, including the transliterated tablets found all over mesopotamia. basically, we can offer the following principles which should prove of value in reciting the foreign language instructions: vowels a as in "father" e as in "whey" i as in "antique" o as in "boat (but rarely found) u as in "zulu" consonants most are basically the same as in english. the sumerians did not have an alphabet as we know it, but they had developed a syllabary, very much like

i have smelled the vapours of that ancient one, queen of the outside, whose name is writ in the terrible magan text, the testament of some dead civilisation whose priests, seeking power, swing open the dread, evil gate for an hour past the time, and were consumed. i came to possess this knowledge through circumstances quite peculiar, while still the unlettered son of a shepherd in what is called mesopotamia by the greeks. when i was only a youth, travelling alone in the mountains to the east, called masshu by the people who live there, i came upon a grey rock carved with three strange symbols. it stood as high as a man, and as wide around as a bull. it was firmly in the ground, and i could not move it. thinking no more of the carvings, save that they might be the work of a king to mark so

ALEISTER CROWLEY EQUINOX EQ I 4 2

nge ways- ed] if poets are ever going to make themselves heard, they must find some means of breaking down the tradition that they are the easy dupes of every [satis- ed] 344 just as a dishonest commercial traveller will sometimes get a job by accepting a low salary, and look for profit to falsifying the accounts of "expenses" so [here; this will never do- ed] we have had fine weather recently in mesopotamia [i dare say; but i'm getting suspicious; stop right here- ed] all right; don't be huffy; good-bye! s holmes. secret remedies. british medical association, 429, strand, w. c. 1"s" every person who has the welfare of the people at heart should buy this book for free distribution among the poor. the major portion of the press (which lives corruptly on the advertisemnts of the scoundrels e

ALICE A BAILEY13 PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY

his also, inalienably and intrinsically his. this the gentile has forgotten and great is his responsibility for wrong doing and cruel action. the jew for ages has not been wanted by his gentile brother; he has been chased from place to place; constantly and ceaselessly the jew has been forced to move on or move out across the desert from egypt to the holy land, from there (centuries later) to the mesopotamia valley and from that time on in a constant series of migrations, with great streams of wandering jews moving ceaselessly north, south and west and a small trickle going east; expelled from cities and countries during the middle ages, then after a period of relative quiescence again the displaced jews were on the move in europe, homeless, drifting hither and thither (along with many tho

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

virgin forbidden soil, untrodden by man's thought[[footnote(s* the appellation ak-ad (or akkadians) is of the same class as ad-m, ha-va (eve, aed-en (eden; ak-ad meaning "son of ad (like the sons of ad in ancient arabia. ad-ad, the "only one" and the first, was the ad-on or "lord" of syria and consort of ad-ar-gat or aster't, the syrian goddess. and gan-aeden (eden) or gandunia was babylonia and mesopotamia. in assyrian ak meant creator, the letter k pronounced kh (ah) gutturally. according to swedenborg's mysticism adam was not a man but a church) of primitive light. in the vedas ad-iti is the primitive light, the akasa of the phenomenal world[[vol. 2, page] 43 adam-adami. untouched by fruitless speculation. the only reference made to it was the brief conception of its diastolic and syst

vol. 2, page] 456 the secret doctrine. praises it in unmeasured terms. spencer, quoting the latter, speaks of it as that "most excellent oriental work" adding (vol. 1, p. 354) that by nabatheans, the sabeans, the chaldeans, and the egyptians, in short all those nations against whom the laws of moses were most severely enacted, have to be understood. nebo, the oldest god of wisdom of babylonia and mesopotamia, was identical with the hindu budha and hermes- mercury of the greeks. a slight change in the sexes of the parents is the only alteration. as budha was the son of soma (the moon) in india, and of the wife of brihaspati (jupiter, so nebo was the son of zarpa-nitu (the moon deity) and of merodach, who had become jupiter, after having been a sun god. as mercury the planet, nebo was the "o

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

of the qabbalah remarks quite truly that "long before his (ibn gebirol's) time. many centuries before the christian era, there was in central asia a 'wisdom religion' fragments of which subsequently existed among the learned men of the archaic egyptians, the ancient chinese, hindus, etc" and that "the qabbalah most likely originally came from aryan sources, through central asia, persia, india and mesopotamia, for from ur and haran came abraham and many others into palestine (p. 221. and such was the firm conviction of c. w. king, the author of "the gnostics and their remains" vamadeva modelyar (modely) describes the coming "night" most poetically. though it is given in isis unveiled, it is worthy of repetition "strange noises are heard, proceeding from every point. these are the precursors

BUCKLAND RAYMOND COMPLETE BOOK OF WITCHCRAFT

mple, in new york, further adjustment would be necessary since the ephemerides use g.m.t. as standard (e.g. 5:45 pm in new york would be 10:45 pm at g.m.t) example a person born at 11:45 am on august 31,1934, in new the zodiac as we know it is a combined invention of the egyptians and babylonians. above: an ancient egyptian map of the sky, the 'zodiac ofdenderah. astrology originally developed in mesopotamia and was more concerned with kings and peoples than with the destinies of individuals; above: a tablet giving astrological forecasts in cuneiform writing, derived from observations of the moon. from "man, myth& magic" york, would have the s.t. 10 hours 35 mins 54 sees (4:45 pm at g.m.t. the acceleration on interval would be 10 times 4 (hours after noon) seconds. the s.t. for the moment

CHRONOLOGIA RORISPERGIUS

statuettes have been found. 6500 bc catal huyuk, neolithic site in turkey (central anatolia) flourished..at catul huyuk the goddess images were shown with the bull horns emerging from her womb (june campbell pg 41) 4242 bce earliest recorded date in history (in ancient egypt. egyptian calendar which is regulated by sun and moon has 360 days with 12 months of 30 days. 4000 bce astrology begins in mesopotamia. sumerians build ziggurats, the first astrological observatories. the sun, moon and 5 visible planets are used. astrological knowledge is recorded in cuneiform on clay tablets. 3761 bc first day of jewish calendar (according to jewish sources. 3760 bc the assyrian calendar begins with the first recorded year of the "beginning of civilization (shooraya d'mdeetanayoota) as seen through t

ands (eastern iranian steppes of ancient sogdiana, chorasmia, and bactria (yarshater: 1987..pg 685. indo-aryans crossed the caucasus mountains and established the kingdom of mitanni on the nw frontier of the kassite kingdom (james:1963..aryan migration into anatolia around 2000 bc.(lincoln: 1981..pg 181) harran founded as a merchant outpost of ur, situated on the major trade route across northern mesopotamia. the name comes from the sumerian and akkadian "harran-u, meaning "journey "caravan, or "crossroad. 2000-1900 abraham, b. in ur, according to bible lived to age of 175. 1857 bc birth of shenrab in the 1st wood male mouse year, the son of king gyal tokar and queen zanga ringum (wangyal: 1993..pg 30) 1800 enuma elish, bablyonian creation myth. 1700 bc 17th and 15th centuries bc..asherah

ok of coming forth by day. 1570 ebers papyrus 1550-1450 o.c. rig-veda, sama-veda and yajur-veda 1500 indo-europeans invade india. vedic culture. 1500 (ca) volcanic destruction of thera, thought to be the origin of atlantis story. harranians established a pilgrimage site at the giza plateau in egypt. 1400 bc the roots of mithraic belief are found in the worship of the sky goddess mitra in northern mesopotamia. avesta composed in avestan (an east-iranian language) 1200 origin of judaism, o.c. of o.t, starting with the torah (the first 5 books. sophocles claimed dice were invented by palamedes during the siege of troy. herodotus attributed them to the lydians in the reign of atys. 1194 fall of troy (events described in iliad/odyssey. 1100 (ca) rise of mayan culture. 994- king david captures j

postella' provides some alchemical recipes 1257-67, writes the soul's journey into god while meditating on francis's vision of the six-winged seraph; he also writes an authoritative life of saint francis to replace earlier versions. bonaventure believed that st. francis's order would inherit the 'key of david' given to the angel of philadelphia. 1258- hulagu khan destroys baghdad; mongols destroy mesopotamia, the mother of civilization. fl 1259-1285 guilhem de cervera troubadour. 1259 peter de abano [pietro d'abano, italian physician and philosopher born. professor of medicine in padua. heptameron. knew marco polo. translates abraham ibn ezra on decanates. 1260- 1294 kublai khan c.1260 "the book of kings of merlin(liber regnum) 1260: kublai is appointed khan and declares buddhism the state

DAVID ICKE AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

o use the term blocking and jamming frequency for simplicity, but it could well have taken the form of closing down the portals and gateways which link this physical dimension we see around us with other space-time dimensions. some of these gateways are reckoned to be at the great sacred places of the ancients, like stonehenge, machu picchu in peru, ayers rock, and the former lands of babylon and mesopotamia, now iraq. the bermuda triangle is believed to be another, which could explain the many strange disappearances of ships and aircraft, as the gateway opens. it may even be that these gateways were largely closed down for positive reasons, to prevent more negative extraterrestrials from entering this space-time reality. there are lots of maybes and so much more to know and understand. ja

gends which are also found throughout the world. in what we call china, they had a 'sky god' called di who was said to have 'miraculously' impregnated a virgin, who then gave birth to zu, the first of the new genetic line. all over the ancient world, you find that the royal families were supposed to have originated with the sky gods- extraterrestrials. records left by the ancient civilisations of mesopotamia say that their pyramidal towers known as ziggurats were built for intercourse between a priestess and a god from the sky. herodotus described the inside of a ziggurat he saw in babylon "on the topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a great bed covered with fine bedclothes with a golden table at its side. there is no statue of any kind set up in this plac

se people in a highly negative light when, i believe, it was actually the other way around. they were rebelling against the control. after atlantis, other civilisations began to emerge from the reincarnation of atlantean consciousness. the knowledge they passed on through the generations, and extraterrestrial intervention, was both positive and negative. there was the civilisation called sumer in mesopotamia (now iraq, which developed alongside the birth of the brotherhood 23 the tigris and euphrates rivers. sumer is believed to have originated from around 6000bc, although such figures must be treated as only estimates. this would later become part of the babylonian empire, which greatly influenced the beliefs of judaism and, through that, christianity, as did the egyptian civilisation. yo

make these decisions often have no idea of the energy grid significance, but who is feeding thoughts into their consciousness or who is passing down the free at last 451 instructions from the upper reaches of the global pyramid of manipulation? the fourth dimensional manipulators. you can also create wars and suffering in particularly important areas of the grid, like iraq and the former lands of mesopotamia, between the river euphrates and the river tigris, the site of ancient sumer and babylon when they knew far more about the energy grid than mainstream science does today. everything i talked about earlier in the book about the physical level manipulation and the engineering of wars is the reflection of a much higher understanding of energies, vibrations, and consciousness, and their re

DAVID ICKE CHILDREN OF THE MATRIX

this would be based on stories passed verbally through the earlier generations. such a point could take hundreds, even thousands, of years after the global geological destruction. so it was after the cataclysms of our ancient past. conventional "history" says that the "cradle" of civilisation was sumer, in the land between the rivers tigris and euphrates in what we now call iraq and once known as mesopotamia("between two rivers. the sumerian period is estimated to have spanned the millennia between 4000 and 2000bc. historians say that other, independent, civilisations of great advancement also suddenly appeared in the same period in egypt and the indus valley in what is now the indian continent. but they are wrong on both counts, i would suggest. sumer was not the start of what is called c

cataclysms. he says there are enormous "gas belts" and chambers under the earth and when these "blow" on a vast scale, the land above is destroyed. he says these gas belts ran under both lemuria/mu and atlantis. what caused the cataclysms is open to debate, but that they did happen is a statement of fact. a similar theme can be found in the tens of thousands of ancient clay tablets discovered in mesopotamia in the mid-19th century. these tell the stories and myths of the sumerian culture that emerged after one of these cataclysms that sank what was left of atlantis. sumer dates from around 4000bc, but civilisations existed in that region, as james churchward documents, for tens of thousands of years before sumer emerged. central to these sumerian accounts were the "gods" the sumerians cal

churchward's view this would have been because the mountains were formed during the cataclysms and therefore many lowland areas were raised to a great height. according to ancient accounts, supported by much other evidence, when the earth had settled down after the cataclysm, or cataclysms, the survivors began to return from the high mountains north of sumer in turkey and iran into the plains of mesopotamia. it was in the turkish mountains, on mount ararat, that the symbolic noah's ark came to rest when the waters receded, the bible claims.62 the sumerian tablets also relate how the anunnaki "gods" returned to rebuild and restore their devastated heartlands, and the civilisation that emerged from this is known to history as sumer. i think, however, that many parts of the sumerian tablets

the atlantean/lemurian mystery school priests. these rulers of the sumer empire, he established, were what i am calling in this book the white "nordic" race, the blueeyed blonds. what waddell did not realise, of course, is that these bloodlines were of extraterrestrial origin and that their ruling bloodlines had interbred with a reptilian 46 t atlantis revisited 47 figure 9: the land of sumer or mesopotamia in what we now call iraq. mesopotamia means "between two rivers- the tigris and the euphrates race to produce hybrid dna. this is why these outwardly white bloodlines were symbolised by terms like the dragon kings. i know this all sounds fantastic, but stay with me and you will see the evidence to support this apparently bizarre suggestion. south to sumer at least many strands of this

ism of the sun as god. indeed it is extremely likely that horus or haru, the egyptian son of god and a mirror of the much later "jesus, came from the sumerian word, hu or ha, meaning hawk. the hawk or sun-hawk was a sumerian symbol for the sun, as we see above in sargon's very title. the heru of the pygmy people, hul-kin of the indians, helios of the greeks, and hurki of the akkadian/chaldeans of mesopotamia probably come from the same source and all relate to a sun god of the horus mould. in the same way, the mayans of central america had a god called hurakan and the tibetans had the deity, heruka, which later evolved into the herakles and hercules of the greeks, a society that was founded on the sumerian (atlantean) knowledge and beliefs. hercules fought a shape-shifting "river god" call

and all the major illuminati families today (see appendix i. alexander carried the strongly nordic dna and descended from the viking peoples who settled the mediterranean and the aegean after the atlantean cataclysms. alexander ruled troy at one stage and, before he died in babylon in 323bc at the age of 33, his army had seized control of a vast region once ruled from sumer. this included egypt, mesopotamia, and into india. he founded the city of alexandria in egypt. he was known as the "serpent's son" and alexandria was the "city of the serpent's son".28 once again we see the recurring theme. the legend goes that alexander's real father was the serpent god, ammon, and this mirrors the story of merovee, founder of the merovingian dynasty. throughout history, the reptilians have perpetuate

ng a conversation with me in cancun, mexico, in 1998, he told me there was no evidence of such a race. later he leaned forward across the table and said "don't go there. as you can see, i took his advice. the unholy alliance 101 and enki, eventually gave much greater power to their children, who were assigned different parts of the world to rule and develop. nannar, the eldest son of enlil, ruled mesopotamia, palestine, jordan, and syria from the city of ur, we are told. the crescent moon was his symbol and this was inherited by islam. nannar was known as sin in the semitic language and it is from this name of a reptilian god that we get sinai and the christian term "sinner" or "to sin. the christian cross was the symbol of u-tu "the shining one" and known to the semites as shamash. he was

e from atlantis/lemuria. the edda is not of icelandic origin, but british.12 it was taken to iceland, it appears, by settlers from scotland, orkney, the hebrides, and north britain. among them were the culdees, who had their headquarters at st andrews in scotland, an area with strong illuminati connections to this day.13 the "culdees" came from "chaldees, a people who followed the sumer empire in mesopotamia and worshipped the mother-son cult in which they claimed that god's son had died to save them. this was long before christianity. and, of course, these northern lands of europe were the realms of the nordics who went south to the near and middle east thousands of years ago before returning as the "sumerians, the "phoenicians, and the "egyptians. scholars have misrepresented the edda, n

, after whom we get thursday or "thors-day, are the same person or deity. he also says that the legend of thor is the origin of the legends of king arthur. thor is known in the edda as her-thor, which became ar-thur. both her and ar come from the same root meaning..aryan.15 the mist began to clear even further when waddell observed that the name of the first aryan king of the sumerians in ancient mesopotamia had the name of indara, in dur, in-tur, or king tur.16 this, waddell says, later became thor of northern europe and prometheus of the greeks. indara was the traditional founder of civilisation and was deified by the sumerians.17 he was said to have defeated the demons and slayed the serpent-dragon and the "giants, and his sumerian titles are identical in the sumerian and the edda, wher

nd europe. this, they claim, led to the names danube and danmark and therefore makes the british, and their genetic kin, god's "chosen people. they have, however, completely lost the plot, i would suggest, not least because they are obsessed with the idea that the bible is accurate. it is not! the edda says that thor (dan) and his aryans went from europe in the first place to settle in turkey and mesopotamia and found the civilisation of sumer. that is precisely what happened, as i indicated earlier. it also says that the aryans of the danube valley were already well in advance of the rest of the world before they went down to mesopotamia.20 the danube valley is very significant to the bloodlines. the danube is the second longest river in europe and runs from germany through romania("dracu

the adam and eve story and what it represents than this, however, and i think if waddell had been alive today he would have accepted that himself. i feel the edda accounts include symbolic, as well as literal, accounts and some originated in lemuria "adam, as thor/indara, fought the serpent cult of the "edenites, waddell's translations of the edda say. if the serpent worshippers were operating in mesopotamia before the nordics arrived, it would certainly explain why the ubaid culture, which preceded sumer in the same area, buried their dead with figurines of serpent humanoids (see picture section. waddell's translation of the edda tells of how thor, the "dragon-slayer, established his capital in cappadocia under the name "st george of the red cross" and thus we have the origin of st george

killed by thor/adam (figure 28. el and her son, balder or abel, are both represented as crocodiles in some depictions of their demise. the phoenix rises after this defeat, the reptilians and their serpent cult went underground. in fact, they possibly came from underground. rollins ancient history, published around 1907, says that eden was inside a mountain.43 it says that the two major rivers of mesopotamia, the tigris and euphrates, have their sources on opposite sides of mount taurus. this was a region populated by the amazons and the serpent cult. rollins adds that these rivers flowed "through" the mountain of "eden, which, he says, was artificially constructed by the gods. these rivers, therefore, watered the "garden of eden. that may well be correct, but i feel the original "eden" wa

tammuz (balder) and the "mother" was queen semiramis (el. the edda explains how one of the centres for the serpent cult during the conflicts with thor/indara was the van tribe of lake van on the western side of mount ararat in turkey, the biblical resting place of "noah's ark" after the flood.1 the van tribe was known as "the children of khaldis, waddell reports, and these became the chaldeans of mesopotamia and the culdees of northern britain. other offshoots were the "vandals" or "hun- again reptilian bloodlines. van or baina was also the ancient capital of the matriarch queen of the serpent cult, semiramis (el, and i guess this might relate to the lady of the lake in the king arthur stories. the underground world is also symbolised as the "lake of fire, the domain of the death-goddess

c "extraterrestrial" with a big willy. this portrays the interbreeding of the chitauri with human women- a constant theme throughout the ancient world. the image of the "et" is symbolic because the chitauri forbade the people to portray them as they really are picture section 185 one example of the reptilian gods portrayed more accurately. many of these reptilian figurines were found in graves in mesopotamia. they came from the ubaid culture, which existed up to around 4,000bc when sumer emerged in the same region the flying reptiles holding the cross of st george which stand at the entrance to that illuminati stronghold, the city of london the reptilian gargoyles are symbols of the reptilian bloodlines and their control. you find them on the castles and stately homes of the bloodline fami

of years. it has imprisoned the minds of the masses and kept them in perpetual fear and servitude. they accept their, often grotesque, plight on the word of men in long frocks who tell them it is "god's plan. take the shit today and you'll have paradise tomorrow. it's always tomorrow. babylon to rome the blueprint for control by religion was honed and polished in babylon, in the lands of sumer in mesopotamia. babylon is also the location from where the global financial scam was foisted on the world. this scam involves lending people money that doesn't exist and charging interest on it. it just so happens that babylon became the new headquarters of the anunnaki bloodlines after the sumer empire collapsed. their operational centre later moved to rome and it was then that we had the roman emp

ast tunnel network that has been built with nuclear boring technology that the public never sees. it can cut tunnels at the rate of seven miles a day and these are an expansion of the global tunnel network created by the atlanteans and lemurians, and claimed by legends and accounts to exist under the united states, central and south america, britain, serving the dragon: the present (2) 261 egypt, mesopotamia, turkey, asia, china, malta, everywhere. the tunnels have state-of-the-art transport systems that move at astonishing speeds. insiders describe them as "magneto-leviton or mag-lev monorail trains capable of mach-2. leading illuminati companies and operations are involved in the construction. companies like the rand corporation, general electric, at& t, hughes aircraft, northrop corpora

DAVID ICKE THE BIGGEST SECRET

re used by todays freemasons.the judean battle against rome continued until the final defeat of the zealots in74 ad at masada, the flat-topped mountain stronghold overlooking the dead sea. itwas the last bastion of the essene community who had evacuated their base furtherdown the coast. as the judean zealots were routed by the romans, many membersof the nazarene secret society headed into jordan, mesopotamia, syria and turkey,as documented by julius africanus, who lived in turkey around 200 ad. joseph ofarimathea, the biblical uncle of jesus, is said to have travelled to france to spreadthe word. the vatican librarian, cardinal baronius, said that joseph first arrived inmarseilles in 35 ad and later went on to britain.8 mary magdalene and offspringof jesus are also said to have headed for

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

women. herodotus said that menelaus, detained in egypt by poor winds, sacrificed two children of the country to discover his destiny by means of anthropomancy. heliogabalus practiced this means of divination. it is said that in his magical operations, julian the apostate caused a large number of children to be killed so that he might consult their entrails. during his last expedition at carra, in mesopotamia, he shut himself in the temple of the moon. after completing his anthropomancy, he sealed the doors and posted a guard, whose duty it was to see that they were not opened until his return. however, he was killed in battle with the persians, and those who entered the temple of carra, in the reign of julian s successor, found there a woman hanging by her hair, with her liver torn out. th

a manual for the alchemical student, has been frequently translated. one english version, of which there is a copy in the library of the british museum, london, was published by an english enthusiast, richard russell, at the star, in new market, in wapping, near the dock, in 1686. geber s true name was abou moussah djafar, to which was added al sofi, or the wise, and he was a native of houran in mesopotamia. he was followed by avicenna, averroes, and others equally gifted and fortunate. according to geber and his successors, the metals were not only compound creatures, but they were also all composed of the same two substances. by the nineteenth century, european chemists like william prout and humphry davy were propounding similar ideas. the improvements, stated davy, taking place in the

rable to witches influence. in speaking of the ash, reference was often to the mountain ash or rowan tree. sources: porteous, alexander. forest folklore, mythology, and romance. london: george allen& unwin, 1928. asiah according to the kabala, asiah is the first of the three classes or natural ranks around the spirits of men, who must advance from the lower to the higher. asipu priests of ancient mesopotamia (see also semites) asmodeus ancient persian demon of lust and rage who also appeared in ancient jewish folklore, where he was believed to cause strife between husband and wife. he is mentioned in the book of tobit ca. 250 b.c.e, where he attempts to cause trouble between the ashtabula poltergeist encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 94 tobias and his wife, sarah. jewish l

s to a particular sign, the rest can also be determined. when the signs and planets are all placed in the houses, the astrologer can augur, from their relative position, what influence they will have on the life and fortunes of the native. history of astrology in the west the precise origin of astrology is lost to history, but its practice appears to have developed independently in both china and mesopotamia, and was quite known early in india. one of the most remarkable astrological treatises of all history is the fabulous bhrigu-samhita of ancient india, said to contain formulas for ascertaining the names of all individuals, past, present, and future, and their destinies. unlike popular western astrology, the key to a bhrigu consultation is not the birth sign and conjunction of planets

and their destinies. unlike popular western astrology, the key to a bhrigu consultation is not the birth sign and conjunction of planets, but the moment of consultation of the oracle. marco polo found astrology well established in china, although chinese astrology developed apart from western history and only recently has been imported into the west. western astrology seems to have originated in mesopotamia, and all of the cultures of ancient iraq and iran contributed to its creation. among the earliest records of astrology are the cuneiform tablets from the library of king ashurbanipal of assyria (669.626 b.c.e. astrologers were making periodic reports to ashurbanipal on such matters as the possibility of war and the probable size of the harvest. astrology had been present in the region

bartlett, describes these experiments and their outcome. bond believed that the scripts and also the automatic sketches made by bartlett gave archaeologically correct information, confirmed by the later excavations. critics of bond s book believed that such claims were not justified. sources: bond, frederick bligh. the gate of remembrance. oxford: blackwell, 1918. baru caste of priests in ancient mesopotamia (see semites) bashir, mir (1907) kashmiri palmist noted for his serious study of the subject. during his research on palmistry he collaborated with physicians and criminologists, maintaining a library of over fifty thousand handprints. mir bashir moved to england in 1948. he wrote how to read hands (1955. encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. bashir, mir 159 basil (astrolo

in many cases they also carried a deadly venom and their bite killed. the ancient hebrews saw the serpent in the garden of eden as the instrument of humanity s fall from innocence. while in the wilderness, many were bitten by serpents and, according to the story, moses lifted up a brass image of a serpent coiled around a rod (num. 21:8.9. those who looked upon the serpent were healed. throughout mesopotamia, the serpent was associated with healing deities. thus did it find its most common use as the symbol of physicians. while probably originating in mesopotamia, the caduceus found its way eastward to india and westward into the mediterranean. it is associated with the use of paired serpents in general such as those on the egyptian pharaoh s headpiece or the serpents coiled around the bod

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

n, paris, and zurich (b.a, m.b, b.c, cambridge; m.r.c.s, london. he was medical officer to empire hospital for injuries to the nervous system, a lecturer in medical psychology at birmingham university, england, and a member of the british psycho medical society. he became a member of the editorial staff of journal of neurology and psychopathy. during world war i he served in gallipoli in 1915 and mesopotamia in 1916. after his study in zurich, nicoll emerged as an early jungian psychotherapist. in 1923 he spent a year with gurdjieff and later spent several years with ouspensky. in his mature life he founded his own groups based upon his understanding of his teachers ideas, and ultimately became known as one of the most perceptive of their interpreters. the problems of traveling and meeting

ell-known geographic reference points such as the euphrates and hiddekrl (tigris) rivers, the failure to find such a paradisical place in that area in modern times has suggested the possibility that the paradise of eden might be found elsewhere. paradise has been sought for or located in many regions of the earth: on the banks of the euphrates and of the ganges, in tartary, armenia, india, china, mesopotamia, syria, persia, arabia, palestine, ethiopia, and near the mountains of libanus and anti-libanus. some place it in judea, what is now the sea of galilee; others in armenia or syria, near mount ararat, toward the sources of the orontes, the chrysorrhoas, and the barrady. in the early nineteenth century the island of ceylon (now known as sri lanka, which was the serendib of the ancient pe

ealization fellowship, 1971. descriptive outlines of yogoda. los angeles: yogoda satsang society, 1928. the semites this entry on the semites applies to the more ancient divisions of the race, such as the babylonians and assyrians, and the hebrews in biblical times. for later semitic occultism, see arabs and kabala. in ancient babylonia and chaldea, magic was a department of priestly activity. in mesopotamia a sect of priests named the asipu were set apart for the practice of magic, which in their case probably consisted of hypnotism, the casting out of demons, the banning of troublesome spirits and so forth. the caste of priests called the baru consulted the oracles on the future by inspecting the entrails of animals, the flight of birds, the observation of oil in water, the secret of anu

st not thresh out thine onion-tops, as i am doing this. so it was a hopeful devil that went away to beat the dry onion-stalks in vain. iblis left mosul sullenly, stalking away in frustrated anger, stopping once in a while to shake his hand against so crafty a town. cursed be he, ye tricksters! who can outmatch devilry like yours? in modern times in the east, stated r. c. thompson, from morocco to mesopotamia, books of magic are by no means rare, and manuscripts in arabic, hebrew, gershuni, and syriac can frequently be bought, all dealing with some form of magic or popular medicine. in suakin in the soudan i was offered a printed book of astrology in arabic illustrated by the most grotesque and bizarre woodcuts of the signs of the zodiac, the blocks for which seem to have done duty in other

of information that had only become available to modern science in recent centuries, especially the existence of the outer planets, neptune, uranus, and pluto. he believes that the anunnaki first arrived on earth almost half a million years ago, their arrival motivated by the problem of an eroding atmosphere. they established a large gold mining operation in south africa, and gold was shipped to mesopotamia where the space port was set up to transport it to nibiru. the anannaki created humans to work the mines, then later intermarried with their creation. the near approach of nibiru around 11,000 b.c.e. led to the destructive flood recounted in genesis. noah and his family escaped in a submersible ship. after the flood, life began again with the anunnaki s assistance. given the hypothesis

italy, august 15, yauhahu encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. 1696 1886, the son of the british consul-general in that city. he was educated at harrow-on-the-hill and sandhurst, england. he was second lieutenant in the king s royal rifle corps at bareilly, india, in 1906; posted to 17th cavalry, indian army in 1907; and adjutant in 1913. he served in france with 5th lancers and in mesopotamia with the royal flying corps (dfc. he was imprisoned in turkey in november 1915 but escaped in 1918. he retired on pension in 1925. from 1926 to 1928 he was editor of the british journal the spectator. he published several books, the most famous of which was bengal lancer (1930, based on his nineteen years in india and his intense interest in yoga. the book became a best-seller and was

lipses occur when the moon s orbit crosses the sun s path. the idea of a zodiac is relatively complex, and long-term observation of planetary motion is quite possible without it. the idea of naming the various constellations in the sky for gods and animals is ancient; the singling out of the 12 constellations that constitute the zodiac goes back at least to the second millennium b.c.e. in ancient mesopotamia. the zodiac as it appears in modern astrology was certainly in use by the sixth century b.c.e. each culture gave the constellations of the zodiac different names, the modern western zodiac being derived from the greeks. the designation of 12 constellations, a worldwide phenomenon, relates to the division of the year by the moon s 12 complete orbits through the zodiac in each solar year

GAMBLE ELIZA BURT THE GOD IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS OR SEX IN RELIGION

g temples to the fame and worship of fire, we find the prophets of israel occasionally denouncing the wickedness of its worship by their own and the nations around them; nevertheless, even to christ's time molok always had his offerings of children"[100 [100] rivers of life and faiths of man in an lands, vol. i, p. 325. it is believed that abraham introduced fire-worship among the jews from ur in mesopotamia, a land in which lights are still venerated, and fire altars are worshipped as containing the deity. the real essence of fire which was identical with the life-principle was holy. the "lord" of the israelites was in the fire which descended on mt. sinai, exodus xix, 18 "the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed" exodus iii, 2. whether the signification of "bush" is the sa

GLOBAL FREEMASONRY

nts it contains show that it was composed much earlier than the torah.15 the french historian, gougenot des mousseaux, explains that the kabbalah is actually much older than judaism.16 ef from the templars to ancient egypt eg global freemasonry although the kabbalah developed within judaism, it depends on sources from outside of it. the kabbalah arose out of the pagan beliefs of ancient egypt and mesopotamia. the jewish historian, theodore reinach, says that the kabbalah is "a subtle poison which enters into the veins of judaism and wholly infests it."17 salomon reinach defines the kabbalah as "one of the worst aberrations of the human mind."18 the reason for reinach's contention that the kabbalah is "one of the worst aberrations of the human mind" is that its doctrine is connected in larg

ets increases within the lore of an esoteric sys- global freemasonry fc the most important supporters of pharaoh's regime in ancient egypt was the priestly class (magicians. their beliefs later formed the roots of the kabbalah and were transmitted from there to masonry. tem. in this development, this esoteric enterprise, which began first in the east, in china and tibet, and then spread to india, mesopotamia and egypt, formed the basis of a priestly knowledge that had been practiced for thousands of years and formed the basis of the power of the priests in egypt.20 how can there be a relationship between the esoteric philosophy of the priests of ancient egypt and present-day freemasons? ancient egypt a classic example in the qur'an of a godless political system disappeared thousands of yea

he related prohibitions in the torah. they took on the magic rituals of other pagan peoples, and thus, the kabbalah became a mystical doctrine within judaism, but contrary to the torah. in her book entitled secret societies and subversive movements, the english writer nesta h. webster says: global freemasonry gc some jews, influenced by the cultures of the pagan civilizations of ancient egypt and mesopotamia, turned away from the torah that god gave them as a guide, and began to worship various material objects. above is pictured a pagan temple to the sun. sorcery, as we know, had been practised by the canaanites before the occupation of palestine by the israelites; egypt, india, and greece also had their soothsayers and diviners. in spite of the imprecations against sorcery contained in t

purportedly scientifically based theory of evolution, the modern support for materialism and humanism. in the next chapter we will take a closer look to the theory of evolution from darwin's time to modern evolutionist propaganda, and we will discover the secret relationship of masonry to this greatest scientific error of all time. ddj materialism revisited a relief from the pagan civilization of mesopotamia. ddk -vthe theory of evolution revisited t is 1832. hms beagle is making its way across the vast atlantic. the ship looks like any ordinary cargo or passenger ship, but its journey is a journey of discovery, and one that will last many years. setting out from england, it will cross the entire ocean and reach the shores of south america. the beagle, a ship that had been of little known

GRAHAM HANCOCK FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

tation of him is preserved even to this day. when the sun set, it was the custom of this being to plunge again into the sea, and abide all night in the deep; for he was amphibious.11 according to the traditions reported by berosus, oannes was, above all, a civilizer: in the day-time he used to converse with men; but took no food at that season; 8 ibid, i, p. 119. 9 ibid, ii, p. 183. 10 myths from mesopotamia (trans, and ed. stephanie dalley, oxford university press, 1990, p. 326. 11 fragments of berossus, from alexander polyhistor, reprinted as appendix 2 in robert k. g. temple, the sirius mystery, destiny books, rochester, vermont, 1987, pp. 250-1. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 86 and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and every kind of art. he taught them to con

e. the right-hand object was roughly cylindrical, narrow in the centre where it was held, wider at the shoulders and at the base, and then narrowing again towards the top. it appeared to have several different sections, or parts, fitted over and into one another, but it was impossible to guess what it might represent. 12 ibid. 13 jeremy black and anthony green, gods, demons and symbols of ancient mesopotamia, british museum press, 1992, pp. 46, 82-3. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 87 assyrian relief of fish-garbed figure. images of extinct species leaving the fish-garbed figures, i came at last to the gateway of the sun, located in the north-west corner of the kalasasaya. it proved to be a freestanding monolith of grey-green andesite about 12 feet wide, 10 feet high and 18 inches

existence of a luxurious civilization. all this was achieved within a comparatively short period of time, for there appears to be little or no background to these fundamental developments in writing and architecture.9 one explanation could simply be that egypt received its sudden and decisive cultural boost from some other known civilization of the ancient world. sumer, on the lower euphrates in mesopotamia, is the most likely contender. despite many basic differences, a variety of shared building techniques and architectural styles10 does suggest a link between the two regions. but none of these similarities is strong enough to infer that the connection could have been in any way causal, with one society directly influencing the other. on the contrary, as professor emery writes: the impr

xiii. 8 john anthony west, serpent in the sky, harper and row, new york, 1979, p. 13. 9 archaic egypt, p. 38. 10 ibid, pp. 175-91. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 140 scholars have tended to ignore the possibility of immigration to both regions from some hypothetical and as yet undiscovered area [however] a third party whose cultural achievements were passed on independently to egypt and mesopotamia would best explain the common features and fundamental differences between the two civilizations.11 among other things, this theory sheds light on the mysterious fact that the egyptians and sumerian people of mesopotamia appear to have worshipped virtually identical lunar deities who were among the oldest in their respective pantheons (thoth in the case of the egyptians, sin in the cas

but it may be submitted that the literati of both peoples borrowed their theological systems from some common but exceedingly ancient source. 13 the question, therefore, is this: what was that common but exceedingly ancient source, that hypothetical and as yet undiscovered area, that advanced third party to which both budge and emery refer? and if it left a legacy of high culture in egypt and in mesopotamia, why shouldn t it have done so in central america? it s not good enough to argue that civilization took off much later in mexico than it had in the middle east. it is possible that the initial impulse could have been felt at the same time in both places but that the subsequent outcome could have been completely different. on this scenario, the civilizers would have succeeded brilliantl

peru, they seemed to have confronted failure. that was what the legends implied, and not only the legends, as i discovered when we reached monte alban the next morning. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 143 chapter 19 adventures in the underworld, journeys to the stars the hypothetical third party theory explains the similarities and fundamental differences between ancient egypt and ancient mesopotamia by proposing that both received a common legacy of civilization from the same remote ancestor. no serious suggestions have been made as to where that ancestral civilization might have been located, its nature, or when it flourished. like a black hole in space, it cannot be seen. yet its presence can be deduced from its effects on things that can be seen in this case the civilizations o

h that legacy and the egyptians another, but some common symbolism and nomenclature was retained by both. this is not the place to expand on the sense of an ancient and elusive connectedness that emerges from the egyptian and central american evidence. before moving on, however, it is worth noting that a similar connectedness links the belief systems of pre-colombian mexico with those of sumer in mesopotamia. again the evidence is more suggestive of an ancient common ancestor than of any direct influence. 20 see, for example, r. t. rundle-clark, myth and symbol in ancient egypt, thames& hudson, london, 1991, p. 29. 21 henri frankfort, kingship and the gods, university of chicago press, 1978, p. 134. the ancient egyptian pyramid texts, e. g. utts. 20, 21. 22 robert bauval and adrian gilbert

inemann, london, 1994, pp. 208-10, 270. 23 the gods and symbols of ancient mexico and the maya, pp. 40, 177. 24 maya history and religion, p. 175. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 147 take the case of oannes, for example. oannes is the greek rendering of the sumerian uan, the name of the amphibious being, described in part ii, believed to have brought the arts and skills of civilization to mesopotamia.25 legends dating back at least 5000 years relate that uan lived under the sea, emerging from the waters of the persian gulf every morning to civilize and tutor mankind.26 is it a coincidence that uaana, in the mayan language, means he who has his residence in water ?27 let us also consider tiamat, the sumerian goddess of the oceans and of the forces of primitive chaos, always shown as

y, took the role of marduk while the part of tiamat was played by cipactli, the great earth monster. quetzalcoatl seized cipactli s limbs as she swam in the primeval waters and wrenched her body in half, one part forming the sky and the other the earth. from her hair and skin he created grass, flowers and herbs; from her eyes, wells and springs; from her shoulders, 25 stephanie dalley, myths from mesopotamia, oxford university press, 1990, p. 326; jeremy black and anthony green, gods, demons and symbols of ancient mesopotamia, british museum press, 1992, pp. 163-4. 26 gods, demons and symbols of ancient mesopotamia, p. 41. 27 mysteries of the mexican pyramids, p. 169; the god-kings and the titans, p. 234. 28 new larousse encyclopaedia of mythology, pp. 53-4. 29 ibid, p. 54. 30 ibid. see al

990, p. 326; jeremy black and anthony green, gods, demons and symbols of ancient mesopotamia, british museum press, 1992, pp. 163-4. 26 gods, demons and symbols of ancient mesopotamia, p. 41. 27 mysteries of the mexican pyramids, p. 169; the god-kings and the titans, p. 234. 28 new larousse encyclopaedia of mythology, pp. 53-4. 29 ibid, p. 54. 30 ibid. see also gods, demons and symbols of ancient mesopotamia, p. 177. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 148 mountains .31 are the peculiar parallels between the sumerian and mexican myths pure coincidence or could both have been marked by the cultural fingerprints of a lost civilization? if so, the faces of the heroes of that ancestral culture may indeed have been carved in stone and passed down as heirlooms through thousands of years, som

ves are historical records? could it be that these cunning and immortal stories, composed by anonymous geniuses, were the medium used to record such information and pass it on in the time before history began? and the ark went upon the face of the waters there was a king, in ancient sumer, who sought eternal life. his name was gilgamesh. we know of his exploits because the myths and traditions of mesopotamia, inscribed in cuneiform script upon tablets of baked clay, have survived. many thousands of these tablets, some dating back to the beginning of the third millennium bc, have been excavated from the sands of modern iraq. they transmit a unique picture of a vanished culture and remind us that even in those days of lofty antiquity human beings preserved memories of times still more remote

at held fast, she held fast and did not budge. when the seventh day dawned i loosed a dove and let her go. she flew away, but finding no resting place she returned. then i loosed a swallow, and she flew away but finding no resting place she returned. i loosed a raven, she saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not 2 ibid, p. 108. 3 ibid, and myths from mesopotamia, p. 110. 4 myths from mesopotamia, pp. 112-13; gilgamesh, pp. 109-11; edmund sollberger, the babylonian legend of the flood, british museum publications, 1984, p. 26. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 186 come back.5 utnapishtim knew that it was now safe to disembark: i poured out a libation on the mountain top. i heaped up wood and cane and cedar and myrtle. when the gods smelle

hn greaves, pyramidographia, cited in serpent in the sky, p. 230. 14 popol vuh, p. 168. 15 ibid, p. 169. 16 ibid, p. 79. 17 ibid, p. 79-80. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 470 the deluge was unleashed, the fish god vishnu warned his human prot g that he should conceal the sacred scriptures in a safe place to preserve the knowledge of the antediluvian races from destruction.18 likewise, in mesopotamia, the noah figure utnapishtim was instructed by the god ea to take the beginning, the middle and the end of whatever was consigned to writing and then to bury it in the city of the sun at sippara .19 after the waters of the flood had gone, survivors were instructed to make their way to the site of the city of the sun to search for the writings, which would be found to contain knowledge

HEKAS

isolate cross-roads where-ever their peregrination of chance might cross paths with another "return to the circle for there the ghosts of old still tread their path and it is in your own breath that they find voice today" therefore, to begin once more with the 'circle- we may find that there are spells of incantation for circle-craft which date back to the earliest written inscriptions in ancient mesopotamia circa the early dynastic period (2400bc. the magic circle in babylonian sorcery was called zisurru- meaning 'flour which makes a boundary; this was because the circle was traced out by a trickle of flour- a practice still used in the craft and the rites of the voudoun. the magician or witch was therefore 'the en-circling one' and this may be seen by looking at the names attributed to a

as the name for sorcerers in the atharva veda, namely yatuvidah- meaning 'those who bewitch. these early sorcerers were also called abhicarika- which is derived from the sanskrit abhi-car meaning 'to bewitch or encircle. this infers a continuation from babylon into regions both east and west-that is, into the near middle east and into regions of asia, it is highly plausible that from the area of mesopotamia, and more latterly persia, certain practices spread into europe, greece, asia minor and beyond. there are zones upon the earth's surface which are terrene corollaries of the physiological chakras and it is from these points that waves of transmission emanate at periodic intervals; these zones may be regarded as the clefts where-from the earth's menstruum issues forth in bloody libation

HP LOVECRAFT A DARK LORE

of the horror had been blackly unwinding itself behind the closed door of a shelf-lined room in arkham. the curious manuscript record or diary of wilbur whateley, delivered to miskatonic university for translation had caused much worry and bafflement among the experts in language both ancient and modern; its very alphabet, notwithstanding a general resemblance to the heavily-shaded arabic used in mesopotamia, being absolutely unknown to any available authority. the final conclusion of the linguists was that the text represented an artificial alphabet, giving the effect of a cipher; though none of the usual methods of cryptographic solution seemed to furnish any clue, even when applied on the basis of every tongue the writer might conceivably have used. the ancient books taken from whateley

JESSUP MK THE CASE FOR THE UFO

y telepathic but can "set" call-barriers. if ever see l-m swimming about again, ill grab him. this account, from the london sunday express, september 21, and 28, 1924, bears careful consideration. on july 24, 1924, at a time of arab hostility, flight lieutenant, w.t.day, and pilot officer, d.r.stewart, were sent from british headquarters upon an ordinary reconnaissance flight over a desert in 100 mesopotamia. according to scheduled flight plan they would not be absent more than a few hours. the men did not return, and they were searched for. the plane was soon found, easily spotted in the desert. why it should have landed was the problem "there was some petrol in the tank. there was nothing wrong with the craft. it was, in fact, flown back to the aerodrome" but the men were missing "so far

KASAK VEEDE UNDERSTANDING PLANETS IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

getting the book just for this. this fine article also appears in an introduction to the mystics of medieval europe, edited by paul szarmach (albany: state university of new york press, 1984, which also contains david biale fs article on the safed period, gjewish mysticism in the sixteenth century. h 18. be careful with the meltzer. it is full of sloppy mistakc 6 understanding planets in ancient mesopotamia enn kasak, raul veede this is a copy of the article from printed version of electronic journal folklore vol. 16 issn 1406-0957 editors mare koiva& andres kuperjanov published by the folk belief and media group of elm electronic journal of folklore electronic version issn 1406-0949 is available from http//haldjas.folklore.ee/folklore it fs free but do give us credit when you cite! c fol

re koiva& andres kuperjanov published by the folk belief and media group of elm electronic journal of folklore electronic version issn 1406-0949 is available from http//haldjas.folklore.ee/folklore it fs free but do give us credit when you cite! c folk belief and media group of elm, andres kuperjanov tartu 2001 http//haldjas.fo7lklore.ee/folklore/vol16/planets.pdf understanding planets in ancient mesopotamia enn kasak, raul veede on our planet time flows evenly everywhere but the history as we know it has different length and depth in every place. maybe the deepest layer of history lies in the land between tigris and eufrat. mesopotamia (greek ethe land between two rivers f. it is hard to grasp how much our current culture has inherited from the people of that land. be it either the wheel

lonian astral religion, they were observed as much for calendrical as astrological purposes, and the qualities of the planetary gods were carried on to greek and rome. the following started out as an attempt to compose a list of planets together with corresponding gods who lend their names and qualities to the planets. though it was easy to find such a list about greece and rome, texts concerning mesopotamia included miscellaneous facts subdivided into general categories only (e.g. pannekoek 1961. the reasons of this vagueness later became evident with the compiling of such a table starting to look like sisyphean work. as we aim to systematise the names of planets and their gods used in mesopotamia, let us have a brief look at mesopotamian history since there have been many changes in them

al ways. e.g. estar f kakkabu could be written with a sumerogram mul, but it could also be written differently by syllables: kak-ka-bu, ka-ak-ka-bu, ka-ka-bu, and muul; this list is by no means exhaustive as syllables can be written in phonetically similar, but literally different ways (hunger 1992: 27, 29, 44, 57. figure 2. some ways of writing estar f. kakkabu. in akkadian. during the course of mesopotamia fs long history there were changes in both language and writing; naturally there were also differences between babylonian and assyrian dialects. in the current article we use mostly later writings in problematic cases as the consensus is that mesopotamia was on the highest level of astrological and astronomical development in the late babylonian period (kugler 1909/10: 27; barton 1994:

blematic cases as the consensus is that mesopotamia was on the highest level of astrological and astronomical development in the late babylonian period (kugler 1909/10: 27; barton 1994: 20.22. 12 figure 3. neo-assyrian prediction about lunar eclipses. hunger 1992, text no. 535, plate xiv (tablet 80.7.19, 103; obverse) for transliteration and translation see hunger 1992: 293. the planetary gods of mesopotamia the mesopotamian pantheon is quite tangled because different cultures and ages have added to it. e.g. sumerians honoured ca 1000 gods, about fifty of whom were considered the main gods, and especially important were seven gods. the great seven. the functions of different gods tended to vary by city states, but of the great seven an was universally the god of heaven, enlil. the god of a

we can see later, every planet could be connected to several gods; in table 3 are presented the strongest interconnections (based mainly on the akkadian material, because. except for the sun, the moon, and venus. we do not know about the state of matters in sumerian period; thus these three are also the only ones that have numerical counterparts in the assyrian tree of life. table 2. main gods of mesopotamia, the planets connected to them, and their portfolios by akkadian tradition. saturn is hard to interpret, as it is connected to ninurta, but this leads us through nabu straight to mercury. at first sight, the composition of such a table does not seem to be very hard. sumerian nanna and akkadian sin are the moongod, utu or .ama. is the sungod without a hint of doubt. with the rest, howev

is generally the first planet in texts, and moongod is the personification of wisdom and father of sungod. from the beginning of mesopotamian history till the end of cuneiform cultures he was considered the eldest of the planetary gods, thus his cult proliferated although he never played a great role in mythology. this archetypal place in the pantheon could be the reason why in the main parts of mesopotamia there never were alternative moongods (though there were some in the periphery, e.g. among the hittites and aramaic. sin was depicted as a horned bull (qarnu) and a efruit that grows by itself f (enbu .a ina ram ni.u ibbanu; a reference to the belief that the moon regenerates itself after each waning. gamong the astral deities, the moon-god was considered to be the most gentle and reli

24 (g315) elady of heaven f and dnin.si4.an.na efair (many-hued) lady of heaven f (g320; ninsianna, a minor sumerian goddess, later identified with i.tar. in old babylonia venus was marked similarly. dnin.si.an.na (g327. the long name mulnin.a.ha.kud.du (g314, akkadian be-lit te-lil-ti, meaning elady of incantations f, refers to a minor sumerian goddess ningirin (leick 130. characteristically to mesopotamia, matters are made no clearer by mulnita.a.ta (g330) emale f, denoting venus in the morning a.k.a. the morning star. as the evening star, venus is called mulusan2.da.el (g157. of the additional appellations of venus, we fd like to mention also dnun.sar.a (g309, dgal.a.ru.ru (g63) and u.dar, which mark both venus and i.tar in the assyrian astrological predictions (hunger 1992:350. things

esignations used in horoscopes (kugler 1907: 7.14; rochberg 1998: 28. the fourth column counts names from some minor sources. the fifth column consists of the names of gods related to the planet by its names. though table 4 includes a lot of information, it is not suitable for in-depth analysis. apparently, it is impossible to compose a good and simple survey table about the planet names all over mesopotamia without mistreating the material. in some respects this outcome was unexpected for the authors, but now it seems to be the only possible way. the whole body of assyriological planetary material should be reconsidered and all designations classified in time and space, resulting in different tables; an all-uniting table can not convey the changes in time and local uses, resulting in conf

LAITMAN M BASIC CONCEPTS IN KABBALAH

eloped. nevertheless, the light that we receive every time during our studies purifies and makes us fit to receive the light within. the reception of the light grants absolute knowledge, calm, and the sensation of immortality. question: how is the kabbalistic information conveyed? kabbalists have passed on their knowledge about the upper world both orally and in writing. initially, it appeared in mesopotamia in the 18th century bce. the accumulated knowledge was f r e q u e n t ly a s k e d q u e s t i o n s 105 expounded upon in the book of creation (sefer yetzira, ascribed to abraham. this book is still available in bookstores. in every generation, kabbalists wrote their books for the souls of that particular generation. several languages have been used in kabbalah over the centuries. th

LAITMAN M FROM CHAOS TO HARMONY

how they can be happy. this builds a strong attraction for people today. and, although most people still do not understand the essence of the method, they feel deep within that it will provide the answer. thus, they are willing to explore what kabbalah has to offer. to understand what has made the wisdom of kabbalah expand worldwide, we must go back to the cradle of humanity, to ancient babylon, mesopotamia. this is the beginning of the process that is being completed these days, a process that is attracting people to kabbalah. the wisdom of kabbalah explains that the evolution of humanity is essentially the evolution of the desire to enjoy. this desire evolves from generation to generation and prompts us to fulfill it. the first time a desire for something beyond the desire to exist appe

LAITMAN M KABBALAH REVEALED

because kabbalah was formulated to answer these fundamental questions, the answers it provides are directly related to them. by rediscovering ancient answers about the meaning of life, we are literally mending the rupture between humanity and nature that occurred when we turned away from kabbalah and toward philosophy. k a b b a l a h s t e p s i n kabbalah made its debut about 5,000 years ago in mesopotamia, an ancient country in today s iraq. mesopotamia was not only the birthplace of kabbalah, but of all ancient teachings and mysticism. in those days, people bekabbalah: then and now 25 lieved in many different teachings, often following more than one teaching at a time. astrology, fortune-telling, numerology, magic, witchcraft, spells, evil eye xall those and more were developed and thr

mia, an ancient country in today s iraq. mesopotamia was not only the birthplace of kabbalah, but of all ancient teachings and mysticism. in those days, people bekabbalah: then and now 25 lieved in many different teachings, often following more than one teaching at a time. astrology, fortune-telling, numerology, magic, witchcraft, spells, evil eye xall those and more were developed and thrived in mesopotamia, the cultural center of the ancient world. as long as people were happy with their beliefs, they felt no need for change. people wanted to know that their lives would be safe, and what they needed to do to make them enjoyable. they were not asking about the origin of life, or most important, who or what had created the rules of life. at first, this may seem like a slight difference. bu

idn t even know that they could be separated from nature, nor did they want to be. in fact, in those days, humanity s communication with nature and with each other flowed so seamlessly, words were not even necessary; instead, people communicated by thought, much like telepathy. it was a time kabbalah: then and now 27 of unity, and the whole of humanity was like a single nation. but while still in mesopotamia, a change occurred: people s desires started to grow and they became more egoistic. people began to want to change nature and use it for themselves. instead of wanting to adapt themselves to nature, they began wanting to change nature to fit their needs. they grew detached from nature, separated and alienated from it and from each other. today, many, many centuries later, we are discov

ter, eventually forming the multitude of nations we have today. one of the most obvious symptoms of the division, which the bible describes as the fall of the tower of babel, was the creation of different languages. these different languages disconnected people from each other and created confusion and malfunction. the hebrew word for confusion is bilbul, and to mark the confusion, the capitol of mesopotamia received the name, babel (babylon. 28 kabbalah revealed ever since that split xwhen our desires grew from level zero to level one xwe have been confronting nature. instead of correcting the ever-growing egoism to remain as one with nature, that is, with the creator, we have built a mechanical, technological shield to protect us from it. the initial reason we developed science and techn

kkun (correction. to realize our oppositeness from the creator means that we must acknowledge the split that occurred among us (human beings) five thousand years ago. this is called the recognition of evil. it is not easy, but it is the first step to true health and happiness. 30 kabbalah revealed the global crisis has a happy end over the past 5,000 years, each of the two factions that tore from mesopotamia evolved into a civilization of many different peoples. of the two primary groups, one became what we refer to as western civilization, and the other became what we know as eastern civilization. the worsening clash between the two civilizations reflects the culmination of the process that began at the first division. five thousand years ago, a single nation was divided because egoism gr

ingle nation was divided because egoism grew and separated its members. now it is time for this nation xhumanity xto reunite and become a single nation once again. we are still at the breaking point that occurred all those years ago, but today we are much more aware of it. according to the wisdom of kabbalah, this culture clash and the resurfacing of mystical beliefs that were abundant in ancient mesopotamia mark the beginning of humanity s reconnection into a new civilization. today, we are beginning to realize that we are all connected and that we must rebuild the state that existed prior to the shattering. by rebuilding into a united humanity, we will also rebuild our connection with nature, with the creator. egoism is a catch-22 during the time when mysticism thrived, the wisdom of kab

ady exists) appears. when we understand a reshimo, the next reshimo in line surfaces, until finally all the reshimot have been realized and studied, and we have reached the end of our correction. 119 6 the (narrow) road to freedom it might come as a surprise to you, but you already know quite a bit about kabbalah. flip back and let s review. you know that kabbalah started about 5,000 years ago in mesopotamia (today s iraq. it was discovered when people were searching for the purpose of their lives. those people discovered that the reason we are all born is to receive the ultimate pleasure of becoming like the creator. when they discovered it, they built study groups and began to spread the word. those first kabbalists told us that all we re made of is a will to receive pleasure, which they

LAITMAN M KABBALAH SCIENCE AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

ion and the purpose of creation should reach all of humanity. the more people engage in kabbalah, and the more we circulate it throughout the world, the better off we will all be. baal hasulam writes about it very clearly in his introduction to the book of zohar. the first researcher to ask about the universe and the forces that conduct humanity was abraham. he was one of many people who lived in mesopotamia (ancient persia, and in those days there was no division into nations. he discovered the method by which we can know the reality beyond our ordinary perception, and described his research and discoveries in his sefer yetzira (book of creation. abraham began to gather students and teach them the wisdom of kabbalah. in time, this group of kabbalists became a nation. many years later, aft

LAITMAN M THE KABBALAH EXPERIENCE

in hebrew because they were the heirs of abraham, meaning his sons, his children. but in principle, kabbalah is a study about the creation of the world and can be expressed in any language. q: can kabbalah be taught in other languages besides hebrew? a: if you open the zohar, you will see that it is written in aramaic. aramaic was the spoken language in ancient persia and the everyday language of mesopotamia. therefore, the zohar was written in the language that was then the most prevalent. at that time, israel was under greek occupation, which is why there are quite a few greek words in the zohar, which remained as kabbalistic terms and names, like italian words in music. it makes no difference in what language we study kabbalah, because when we attain insights about the surrounding world

developed bodies with more developed minds and desires. there is no connection between the degrees in the spiritual world and the changing of the bodies. for some creatures, a thousand years of life will not be enough for them to enter the spiritual world, while others complete their corrections within a single lifetime. w h at i s a j e w? q: what is a jew? a: abraham, our father, who went from mesopotamia to the land of israel, is called the first hebrew (and the first jew, because he was the first to cross from idolatry to the land of israel (land v eretz and israel v from the words, yashar el, meaning directly to the creator. he went over from a state of worshiping idols to recognition of the existence of a higher power that controls everything, and identified himself with that power

LAITMAN M THE PATH OF KABBALAH

there was a famine in the land; and abram went down into egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land (genesis 12:10. does the torah speak of immigrating to a better country, meaning egypt, and does the creator himself compel abraham to go there? why did the creator choose abraham? at that time he was the same as all the others who lived in the area spreading from east of syria to mesopotamia. abraham did not go to egypt right away. rather, he first went to beit-el, made a sacrifice to the creator, and seemed to be soothed afterwards. pa r t s i x: g e n e s i s 327 it is written that this was followed by a famine, and only then did he go down to egypt. a question comes to mind: was it the famine that made him go to egypt, or was it the creator? if we relate to the torah as

LEWIS JAMES SATANISM TODAY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION FOLKLORE AND POPULAR CULTURE

tory exemplify the renewal symbolism of reversal that one finds worldwide in the myths and rituals of many traditional societies. the logic of such myth/rituals is that the old must be destroyed before the new can grow, and if the old is not periodically obliterated, then the cosmos will decay and run down. for further reading: black, jeremy, and anthony green. gods, demons and symbols of ancient mesopotamia: an illustrated dictionary. austin: university of texas press, 1992. cooper, jerrold s. the fate of mankind: death and afterlife in ancient mesopotamia. in hiroshi obabyashi, ed, death and afterlife: perspectives ofworld religions. new york: greenwood press, 1992. dalley, stephanie.myths from mesopotamia. new york: oxford university press, 1989. sandars, n. k, transl. the epic of gilga

per, jerrold s. the fate of mankind: death and afterlife in ancient mesopotamia. in hiroshi obabyashi, ed, death and afterlife: perspectives ofworld religions. new york: greenwood press, 1992. dalley, stephanie.myths from mesopotamia. new york: oxford university press, 1989. sandars, n. k, transl. the epic of gilgamesh. 1960. rev. ed. new york: penguin, 1972 .poems of heaven and hell from ancient mesopotamia. new york: penguin, 1971. evocation and invocation evocations and invocations refer to two methods of calling spirits and deities into magical and religious rituals. evocations, used in ceremonial magic and sorcery, are elaborate commands, comprised of detailed gestures directed to an entity that appears and does whatever the magician asks. the entities are usually spirits that are evo

ersity, it is possible to assert that, like most societies outside the influence of the zoroastrian-judeo-christian- islamic complex, all of these traditions postulated the existence of demonic forces, but none possessed a full-blown satan figure. prior to the intrusion of europeans, the native peoples of central and south america had created societies rivaling the civilizations of ancient egypt, mesopotamia, india, and china. these are the so174 mesoamerica called high cultures of mexico and peru, areas that encompassed a series of civilizations, such as the mayans on the yucatan peninsula, the incas in the highlands of peru, and the aztecs (and their predecessors) in central mexico. these cultures, unlike the other, smaller-scale societies of the americans, built cities and made written

d the 188 netherworld mesopotamian area in later centuries. his marriage to ereshkigal, queen of the underworld, led him to be identified as king of the underworld in later, syncretistic religions, such as in certain strands of gnosticism. in certain reference books, such as in davidson s definitive dictionary of angels, he is mistakenly identified with one of the great winged centaurs of ancient mesopotamia, which explains his association with angels in certain writers minds. also, in at least a few occult books, nergal is identified as chief of the secret police in the infernal regions, thus causing him to be associated with fallen angels. see also ereshkigal for further reading: davidson, gustav. a dictionary of angels including the fallen angels. new york: free press, 1967. ronner, joh

s a bifurcated afterlife that provided two realms, one in which the righteous are rewarded, and another in which the wicked are punished. the basic schema of heaven for the believers and hell for unbelievers carried over into islamic conceptualizations of the afterlife. see also hell and heaven; underworld for further reading: cooper, jerrold s. the fate of mankind: death and afterlife in ancient mesopotamia. in hiroshi obabyashi, ed, death and afterlife: perspectives ofworld religions. new york: greenwood press, 1992. eliade,mircea, ed. encyclopedia of religion. new york:macmillan, 1987. mcdannell, colleen, and bernhard lang. heaven: a history. 1988. new york: vintage, 1990. sandars, n. k, transl. the epic of gilgamesh. 1960. revised ed. new york: penguin, 1972. turner, alice k. the histo

in vain. the maori of new zealand explained the origin of humankind s mortality with the descent of their mythical hero maui into her giant mother s own body while she was asleep.however, she awoke while he was in her mouth, and was slain. in relation to the daily movement of the sun from east to west, the sunset was used by many traditions to locate the realm of the dead in the west. in ancient mesopotamia, the underworld was viewed as a dark realm, a land of no return under the tyrannical rule of a queen (later a king and a queen. the idea of a hereafter that differed depending upon social status was an innovation of the ancient egyptians. aristocrats were believed to travel to celestial blessed lands to enjoy a life devoid of pain and suffering. common people, on the other hand, were b

LUCIFERIAN SORCERY AND SET TYPHON

es covens that took to the spirit hunt on the dreaming plane as well. the luciferian essence of attending the conclave is the meeting place of the three (consider hecate/lilith the guardians of the crossroads, it is the seven rayed star which initiates and the eight ray which comes the initiator of magick, set himself. nick hall points out in "chaos& sorcery" that the eight rayed star appeared in mesopotamia around 3,000 b.c. as a symbol to represent dingir (god, heaven (an) and star. this may be viewed in a luciferian context as dingir representing the infinite possibility of being, the fire stole from heaven, and the union of the celestial going forth into the aethyr of angelick being, the higher intellect or essence associated with the neter set. within luciferian witchcraft, algol is r

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

n have alphabets, mathe-matical concepts, and symbolic cosmologies, all just appearing fully formed withoutrecord of the normal antecedent and cumulatory stratifications that must attend theseachievements. here are some examples of the quandaries that beset the scholars andacademes. sir leonard woolley in his ur of the chaldees wrote: there is nothing to show to what race the first inhabitants of mesopotamia belongedat adate which we cannot fix, people of a new race made their way into the valley, comingwhence we do not know old world disorder18atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation and professor w. b. emery wrote in his archaic egypt the following: at approximately 3400 years bc a great change took place in egypt and the country passedrapidly from a state of advanced neolith

issing. another is that dar-winian theory itself has a missing link. and a third explanation is that the genes for modernman were suddenly implanted by an intelligent extraterrestrial species who colonized theearth. atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation29 the race of adam sir leonard woolley writes in ur of the chaldees:there is nothing to show to what race the first inhabitants of mesopotamia belongedat adate which we cannot fix, people of a new race made their way into the valley, comingwhence we do not know in uriel s machine, authors christopher knight and robert lomas write: neanderthals did not contribute mitochondrial dna to modern humans; neanderthals arenot our ancestors in his book the neanderthal enigma, james shreeve comments on the enigma of ourhuman development

. choctaw, nakota,dakota, cherokee, mohawk, yaki, comanche, chickasaw, seneca, iroquois. the wordamerica has the strong k sound, as do the words celt, cain, caan, cham, khan, cohen,canaan, conn, carn, clan, kieran, karen, and christ. there are many personal names thatalso have it. as the sons of the serpents were dispersing, the original serpent race began con-verging in the equatorial regions of mesopotamia and in asia minor. these were theareas that now could support life all year round. it is these dark ones who estab- after the war the remaining sons of the serpentsdecided that in order to survive as well as avoid directattacks from their enemies, they would disperse insmaller contingents to the corners of the earth. withthem would go the remaining members of the adamicrace. so, in his

of adam the original story that was adapted for the genesisaccount (p. 63)el (title of enlil) the definition eloh (lofty one) derived from the akkadian term ilu, which was another name foranus son enlil. it was the long-standing eloh tradition of enlil the el elyon that abraham and some ofhis familys forbearers were transported into canaan, having made their respective journeys from thecities of mesopotamia (p. 63)mazdaanother name for enki and his line. origin of jehovahthen some five generations after abraham, jehovah (i am that i am) emerged as the god of mosesand the children of israel when they returned to canaan from egypt. the book of exodus furtherexplains how god told moses that he was the very same god who spoke to abraham, except that abra-ham had called him el shaddai (el of t

mon practice for the church to portray the serpent as an emissary of satan, oreven as satan himself (p. 960)the kabalacame into the possession of abraham when he went with his cult of enlil (el) to canaan (see p. 100)kbl (root of kabala)kbl means to twist.samaelthis lord was said to be samael, or the serpent of evil or enki. enki was indeed the patron saint ofthe region known as sama, in northern mesopotamia.eves first bornthe jewish midrash (meaning inquiry)emphasizes the point that hawahs first son was the son ofthe lord, whereas the second son was the son of adam (p. 101)eves two mateseve had two sons by different fathers, one was homo sapiens, while the other was annunaki: enki son cain adams son abeltherefore, cain (qayin) was the one of the royal blood, which is why he was descried a

eme of things, jehovah could not be seen to have a brothernot a brother who sostrongly opposed him in social matters (p. 117)mis-translations continuehistorically, it was enki (not enlil) who had created adam (atabba) and eve (nin-khawa; it wasenki who had granted them the rights to qabalistic wisdom, and it was enki who had appointed atabbato his priest-kingly station. these things were known in mesopotamia and canaan; they were writtendown and readily available in the temple libraries of babylon, and so they could not be ignored butthey could be reinterpreted. enki, the wise hero of sumer, could be portrayed (in accordance with hisemblem) as a troublesome serpentan image which could incorporate lilith too, for she held the matri-lineal heritage of the kingdom: the malkhut, the sovereignt

a famine in canaan. there they remained until lead out again bymoses.ramesis ii and exodusin apparent confirmation of the israelites sojourn in egypt, the annals of pharaoh ramesis ii (thegreat) make reference to semitic people who settled in the delta region of goshen, but this does notreally help because they are not specified as israelites, but included in the arab races of syria, phoeni-cia, mesopotamia, and the fertile crescent in general (p. 176)actually, they arrived many centuries before the reign of ramesis i (1335 b.c).recent analysis of volcanic debris in the area, utterly disproves the dates of the exodus. the volcanicaction was about 1624 b.c. this is 300 hundred years before the supposed time of moses (see p. 177)the joseph myth (yusuf)the joseph of egypt myth was actually b

ee p. 208)miriam= mery-amonson of moses (tutankhamun)unlike nefertiti, queen kiya bore a son to moses, namely tutankhamun (see p. 208.)bible jiveas the bible story progresses, we are led to believe that the great royal house of david and solomongained its office because a shepherd-boy slew a giant with a stone. we are told absolutely nothing aboutits sovereign descent from the mighty dynasties of mesopotamia and egypt, and yet this is the bookupon the which oaths are sworn to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth in courts of law (p. 211)appendix b: book abstracts226atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation the levitesthese priests only have descend from the line of aaron, not moses even if they were of levi. why wasthis since they were brothers? it is because moses was not

t great king of the first dynasty, developed his legal code and ordered it to be incisedon a basalt column and placed in the temple of shamash, the god of justice, for all to see.4.1500 b.c. tel megiddo: one of the most important archaeological mounds in israel, tel megiddohas the remains of historic megiddo, a fortified city that sat strategically on the ancient trunk roadfrom egypt to syria and mesopotamia. near the 33rd parallel, tel megiddo has served as anatlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation275 appendix c: suggested areas of research important junction and battlefield throughout history. it is mentioned in an egyptian document over3,500 years old, was one of the chariot cities of kings solomon and ahab, and was the site wherejosiah, king of judah, fell in battle.excava

hes, oblates, pentagrams, sheep-heads or bull-heads. some of them even carry colored drawings. their shapes and functions are surpris-ingly similar to those of ancient egypt, said noted. the mace was a special instrument indicating statusand authority. egypt has the earliest and the most mace-head relics in the world. in addition, a largenumber of mace-heads have been discovered in the near east, mesopotamia and the prairie of eurasia.but they are seldom found in the valley of the yellow river.atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation293 appendix d: scientific evidence when the mace-heads were excavated in china, some of them were mistaken for strange weapons orspindles, said li.south american atlantisby kathy a. svitilthe aymara people of the bolivian highlands have long told s

MICHAEL WYNN THE SOUL TRAVELERS

he most common gods who transcend the borders of mythology is venus. venus is the roman goddess of love and fertility. the goddess venus is so closely related to the greek goddess aphrodite that one could hardly pull them apart categorically. aphrodite, from whom came the word aphrodisiac, is also a goddess of love and fertility. aphrodite is also associated with another greek goddess astarte. in mesopotamia, this goddess goes by the names ishtar, ashtoreth, and inanna. ishtar is also a fertility and love goddess who is further associated with the planet venus. the multiple aspects of the goddess inanna, or the concept of multiple aspects, seem to surface in the story of her descent into the underworld. here, inanna descends into the land of the dead, ruled by her dark sister (aspect) eres

MORALS AND DOGMA

had had with the orient, at two different periods, intimate relations, familiarizing them with the doctrines of asia, and especially of chaldea and persia--their forced residence in central asia under the assyrians and persians; and their voluntary dispersion over the whole east, when subjects of the seleucid and the romans. living near two-thirds of a century, and many of them long afterward, in mesopotamia, the cradle of their race; speaking the same language, and their children reared with those of the chaldeans, assyrians, medes, and persians, and receiving from them their names (as the case of danayal, who was called b ltasatsar, proves, they necessarily adopted many of the doctrines of their conquerors. their descendants, as azra and nahamaiah show us, hardly desired to leave persia

hose philosophers in whose teaching some things were exoteric and some esoteric: and it is enough to say that it was so with some of the disciples of pythagoras" the formula which the primitive church pronounced at the moment of celebrating its mysteries, was this "depart, ye profane! let the catechumens, and those who have not been admitted or initiated, go forth" archelaus, bishop of cascara in mesopotamia, who, in the year 278, conducted a controversy with the manich ans, said "these mysteries the church now communicates to him who has passed through the introductory degree. they are not explained to the gentiles at all; nor are they taught openly in the hearing of catechumens: but much that is spoken is in disguised terms, that the faithful([greek??st, who possess the knowledge, may be

ONYX TABLET OF SET

vasive sentiment sweeping egypt. as sauneron and many other egyptologists have acknowledged, egyptian philosophy was based upon a millennia-old conviction of the absolute presence and influence of the neteru, and in the virtue of a social system in which the preservation of cyclical harmony was all-important. while the new empire of the xix-xx dynasties extended egypt's influence to palestine and mesopotamia, it also made the egyptians aware that there were many other functioning cultures in which the neteru were unknown [at least by their egyptian names. moreover the concept of egypt as just one among a number of nation-states competing for power and influence in the mediterranean, rather than as the one civilization at the center of existence, must have been a most unsettling one to this

PHILIP NEIL MYTHS LEGENDS EXPLAINED

f mahadevi, the great goddess. devi is the consort of the god shiva (see pp. 112 13, and is worshiped as benign parvati or uma or as ferocious and vengeful durga or kali. sankara wrote of her in the 9th century, your hands hold delight and pain. the shadow of death and the elixir of immortal life are yours. the combination of delight and pain is not confined to india. the great goddess of ancient mesopotamia, variously called ishtar and inanna, also combined the roles of goddess of love and goddess of war. these dual aspects are explored in the epic of gilgamesh, in which she first desires gilgamesh and then, when he rejects her, exacts a terrible revenge (see p. 18. the egyptian isis became absorbed into roman myth, and it is she who speaks, with the unmistakable voice of the great goddes

of sins they have not committed. to the right, ibis-headed thoth, god of writing and knowledge, sets down the result. further right, horus takes hunefer before osiris; isis and nephthys stand behind the throne. above, hunefer adores a company of gods, led by re-harakhty, who stand as witnesses to the judgment of osiris. the epic of gilgamesh 18 the epic of gilgamesh g ilgamesh was lord of uruk in mesopotamia. two-thirds divine, he was so arrogant in his glory that the gods created the warrior enkidu to be a comrade equal to him in strength. they fought each other furiously on their first encounter, then became very close companions and went together to the great forest to kill humbaba, the great evil. on his return, the goddess ishtar, seeing his beauty, asked gilgamesh to marry her, but h

RUBY TABLET OF SET

g to egypt and adopting egyptian culture. egypt was ultimately destroyed by foreign conquerors (persia, macedonia, rome) and her inability to adapt to the continuing competition of foreign cultures. her new empire of the setian (xixxx) dynasties was a protectionist backlash rather than an effort to "civilize" or create a permanent empire [as per macedonia, persia, or rome. mesopotamian philosophy mesopotamia is that area (the "fertile crescent) in the ancient near east generally defined to include sumer (beginning ca. 2500 bce, babylonia (b. 2000 bce, and assyria (b. 1300 bce, and which shared cultural ties with canaan (b. 1400 bce) and israel (b. 1200 bce. all of the mesopotamian cultures were polytheistic, with the exception of israel in its later development. humanity was considered to

pment. humanity was considered to have been created merely to serve the local divinity or divinities, the priesthood of whom tended to dominate the government and control most of the property [on behalf of the god(s. those gods were anthropomorphic, with essentially human motives and desires which were manifest through the forces of nature. the generally harsher and more unpredictable elements in mesopotamia may partially explain the generally harsher and more unpredictable personalities of the mesopotamian gods in contrast to the egyptian neteru. like egypt, the ancient near east shows a blending of the scientific and the emotional. supernatural beings were thought to be intimately involved with human fortunes on a daily basis. hence the "life experience" of a mesopotamian was as much mag

centralized and monarchic, the earliest mesopotamian cultures tended to be localized and democratic, with kings or military leaders being selected by elders when emergencies arose. the transcultural "binding force" was religious tradition. permanent monarchies are assumed to have arisen because of increasing external threats to local tribes, coupled with ambition by would-be dynastic founders. in mesopotamia the role of the city-state king was similar to that of the egyptian pharaoh, except that the king was responsible to the gods for the running of the kingdom, and himself was not considered one of them [fewer than 20 mesopotamian kings between 2300 and 1500 bce laid claim to personal divinity "substitute kings" were occasionally employed in classification: v2- 102- 2 author: michael a

r the running of the kingdom, and himself was not considered one of them [fewer than 20 mesopotamian kings between 2300 and 1500 bce laid claim to personal divinity "substitute kings" were occasionally employed in classification: v2- 102- 2 author: michael a. aquino vi date: october 1, xix revision: january 1, xxiv html revision: oct 07, 1997 ce subject: philosophy reading list: 3a, 16a, 16l, 16m mesopotamia to preserve the real ones from divine wrath or physical danger. in egypt this never happened; the actual pharaoh remained completely accountable. virtue in mesopotamia was understood as obedience to the willful desires of the god(s, not harmony with their natural principles. the "wrath of the gods" was feared by the state in mesopotamia, as it was never in egypt (which was ruled by a g

rbed since the day of its creator, whereas he who transgresses its ordinances is punished. it lies as a path even in front of him who knows nothing. wrongdoing has never yet brought its venture to part. it is true that evil may gain wealth, but the strength of truth is that it lasts; a man can say "it was the property of my father" the chimaera: a rather interesting contrast to the governments of mesopotamia, persia, and greece, all of which laid stress upon codified law. i expect you are leading up to a comparison to the republic and statesman, wherein plato argues for specifically-trained or speciallygifted rulers above the law. are you going to suggest that plato took the egyptian system as an ideal governmental model? the sphinx: let's not jump the spear on this. i have a few other poi

losophical commentaries on the book of the law, wherein "hoor-paar- kraat" is identified on page #94 as the "god of silence" and "harpocrates, both designations of horus the younger. on the following pages his position as the son of osiris is restated. there are abundant additional examples. grant also endeavors to identify set with "shaitan, whom he states was the god worshipped by the yezidi in mesopotamia. the yezidi religious texts- the black scripture and book of the revelation- do not use the term "shaitan" at all, calling the yezidi deity by the name of melek taus, taus melek, or taus-e malak [only in lavey's satanic rituals- which contains several errors in its yezidi section- is the term "shaitan" alleged to be a yezidi term] it is probably merely a hebrew spelling of "satan, and

the old stone gods will rise from long-forgotten ruins and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes; and thor with his giant hammer will leap up and smash the gothic cathedrals. and when that crash comes, it will be like nothing heard before in history. g- heinrich heine, 1834 introduction the "mainstream" of the western magical tradition may be said to have a mediterranean origin: egypt, mesopotamia, greece, and rome- and the later syntheses of these ancient cultures through the medieval, renaissance, and enlightenment eras. in marked contrast to the mediterranean tradition is the school of thought which originated in the northern areas of europe and scandinavia: the nordic or germanic tradition. most notable in this tradition, of course, is its lack of features either derivative

SALMANRUSHDIE THESATANICVERSES

as, where monsoons could strike at any time. in those days before meteorology such matters were impossible to predict. for this reason the cara- vanserais prospered. the produce of the world came up from zafar to sheba, and thence tojahilia and the oasis of yathrib and on to midian where moses lived; thence to aqabah and egypt. from jahilia other trails began: to the east and north--east, towards mesopotamia and the great persian empire. to petra and to palmyra, where once solomon loved the queen of sheba. those were fatted days. but now the fleets plying the waters around the peninsula have grown hardier, their crews more skilful, their navigational instruments more accurate. the camel trains are losing business to the boats. desert-ship and sea-ship, the old rivalry, sees a tilt in the b

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

and their sects and offshoots. this title examines the development of religions throughout history and into modern times: their philosophies and practices, sacred texts and teachings, effects on everyday life, influences on society and culture, and more. the two-volume set features eighteen chapters on today s prominent world religions and also explores ancient beliefs, such as those of egypt and mesopotamia; smaller movements like that of neo-paganism and baha; and philosophies, including those of ancient greece and rome, agnosticism, and atheism. in addition, vii an introductory chapter, what is religion, explores the concept of religion in more depth. numerous black-and-white images illustrate the text, while sidebars highlight interesting people and fascinating facts connected with the

ncreasingly complex belief systems. myths, or stories about the creation of the world and tales of individual gods and goddesses, became a fundamental part of religion, as did certain rituals and rules of behavior, or things to do and things to avoid doing. the earliest historical religions, ones for which a written record exists, arose along the nile river in egypt and in the fertile crescent of mesopotamia. an ancient form of hinduism also emerged about the same time in what is now known as india. egyptian and mesopotamian religions were polytheistic, meaning they recognized more than one god (hinduism has many deities as well, but they are all understood as different aspects of one supreme being) both egyptian and mesopotamian religions influenced judaism, which was one of the first mon

2006. secular/nonreligious/atheist/agnostic. major religions ranked by size. http/ www.adherents.com/religions_by_adherents.html (accessed on june 5, 2006. smart, j. j. c. atheism and agnosticism. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism (accessed on june 5, 2006. 36 world religions: almanac agnosticism and atheism 3 ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia organized religion had its beginnings in ancient mesopotamia (in what is now modern iraq) and in egypt more than five thousand years ago. the religious systems in these areas blended political with spiritual elements in a type of government known as a theocracy, or rule by divine guidance. in such a government, deities( gods and goddesses) are the supreme religious and civic leaders. t

tates ruled by patron gods or goddesses. the god s desires and wishes were interpreted by political leaders called ensi and by a priestly class. in egypt religion and the state were also bound together. the national leader, the pharaoh, was considered a living god and was the vital link between humanity and the rest of the gods. a major difference in outlook, however, marked the two religions. in mesopotamia the forces of nature were more chaotic, more likely to cause catastrophes, such as disastrous flooding. as a result, the gods were seen as unpredictable beings of extraordinary power who had to be kept content by priests. people were at the mercy of the gods, so the job of humanity was to carry out their wills and make them happy. in egypt, where nature was less destructive, the gods w

in many gods. pyramid: a stone tomb constructed to house a deceased pharaoh of egypt. theocracy: a form of government in which god or some supreme deity is the ruler. god s laws are then interpreted by a divine king or by a priest class. ziggurat: a stepped foundation or structure that held a shrine or temple in the mesopotamian religion. 38 world religions: almanac ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia history and development mesopotamia, a word made up from two greek words meaning between the rivers, is an ancient name for an area encompassed by the tigris and euphrates rivers. it stretches from the persian gulf in the south to the mountains of armenia in the north and covers most of modern-day iraq. mesopotamia had a much different climate when it was first settled about eight to t

he form of clay tablets, were about the operation of temples. thus, already by the time of the first real towns and cities in human history, mesopotamian religion had already become well organized. various clay tablets have been found with details of the religion, as well as sacred vessels and architectural remains of temples. these all help to give an overview of the religion. the environment of mesopotamia largely shaped its religion. unlike the nile river in egypt, which rises and falls slowly on a very predictable schedule, the tigris and euphrates rivers could and often did rise quickly and violently, causing disastrous flooding. because of this, the mesopotamians felt that nature was dangerous and far beyond the control of mere humans. the earliest mesopotamian deities thus represent

gris and euphrates rivers could and often did rise quickly and violently, causing disastrous flooding. because of this, the mesopotamians felt that nature was dangerous and far beyond the control of mere humans. the earliest mesopotamian deities thus represented different aspects of nature and were honored in hopes of winning their favor. world religions: almanac 39 ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia for instance, anu, the god of the sky, might have been worshipped to keep violent storms from damaging the crops. hursag, the goddess of mountains and foothills, would be invoked by priests to stop an invasion of barbarian tribes. deities were often represented as human beings and some symbolic natural object. once given human form, a process called anthropomorphism, the gods were then

x, and each complex was dedicated to the worship of a single deity. the temple complex in ur, for instance, honored the moon god sin (also called nanna by the sumerians. the city of uruk had both a temple to inanna and a ziggurat dedicated to anu. the complexes were managed by specialist priests, who were the only people allowed to worship the deities. the akkadians the development of religion in mesopotamia followed the movement of peoples in the region. historians say that the sumerian civilization lasted from about 3500 to about 2000 bce. sargon the great (reigned c. 2334 c. 2279 bce, the king of akkad, a territory to the north of sumer, created the first great empire in mesopotamia by conquering sumer. sargon brought many of his own akkadian gods into sumer with his armies. he did not

owever, merged these functions into one, taking power away from the priestly class. naram-sin, who ruled from about 2254 to 2218 bce, took this trend to an extreme and proclaimed himself a living god. in general the akkadians incorporated elements of sumerian religion. the original sumerian pantheon of gods was never destroyed but instead 40 world religions: almanac ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia was added to and further refined. through successive rulers, including hammurabi (1792 1769 bce) and a host of others, the religious system continued. there may have been new rulers, but the gods were eternal. the names of the gods changed, however, as did the emphasis of religion. for example, nanna was the sumerian god of the moon. in akkadian, the language of sargon and his people

new government center of memphis. historians believe that the story of the war between the god horus and his uncle set (the result of set s murder of horus s father osiris) reflects the war between upper and lower egypt, with horus s eventual victory reflecting the unification of the two countries by menes during his sixty-two year reign. world religions: almanac 41 ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia before this time, however, nature gods and animals had been worshipped for at least two millennia among the people who inhabited the nile valley. these animal deities later took human form, but their heads were still often depicted as that of an animal. some gods even became associated with more than one animal. for example, thoth, the god of the moon and of wisdom and protector of scr

d the nile valley. these animal deities later took human form, but their heads were still often depicted as that of an animal. some gods even became associated with more than one animal. for example, thoth, the god of the moon and of wisdom and protector of scribes, was depicted by the egyptian ibis, a wading bird, by a baboon, and by a figure of the moon. about the ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia belief. mesopotamian religion saw humans as the servants of the gods, who had to be appeased for protection. egyptians believed that the gods created all humans but were also controlled by the principle of maat, or order. unlike followers of mesopotamian religion, the egyptians had a strong belief in the afterlife, which they expressed by building elaborate tombs such as the pyramids

at the gods created all humans but were also controlled by the principle of maat, or order. unlike followers of mesopotamian religion, the egyptians had a strong belief in the afterlife, which they expressed by building elaborate tombs such as the pyramids. followers. worshippers took their names from the numerous gods and the cults that honored the deities. name of god. the major god for much of mesopotamia was the sky god enlil; later the worship of enlil was replaced by the worship of the babylonian god marduk. for egyptians, amen-ra was the most powerful deity, chief of the pantheon. symbols. statues of winged bulls were a protective symbol related to the god sin mesopotamia, while the ankh, a kind of cross with a loop at the top, was a prominent representation of life in ancient egypt

setting out magic spells and charms to be used to pass judgment in the afterlife. sites. ancient nippur was the site of the chief temple to enlil, while babylon was the location of marduk s sanctuary. thebes and the temple complex of karnak were home to the worship of amen-ra. in the modern world the remains of these early religions can be seen in egypt s pyramids, tombs for the pharaohs, and in mesopotamia s ziggurats, temples to the gods. observances. the new year s festival was a major event in mesopotamian religion, while egypt s most important festival was opet. 42 world religions: almanac ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia in prehistoric times (before written history) the deities were local. they were worshipped in reed shrines with the local leader or king acting as the int

void, and then either spit or sneezed out shu, the god of air, and tefnut, the goddess of moisture. these two in turn gave birth to geb, the earth god, and nut, the sky goddess. from them came two pairs of siblings: osiris and isis, and set and nephtys. eventually ra, the sun god, took the place of atum in the pantheon; later pharaohs, for instance, called themselves sons of ra. ancient egypt and mesopotamia. reproduced by permission of thomson gale. red sea mediterranean sea nile delta river river p e r s i a n g u l f tigris euphrates nile river sinai peninsula arabian peninsula a s i a a f r i c a upper egypt lower egypt memphis aswan thebes ur luxor karnak babylon uruk nineveh khorsabad amarna (akhetaten) heliopolis giza (cairo) n 0 150 300 mi. 0 150 300 km ancient egypt and mesopotami

eninsula arabian peninsula a s i a a f r i c a upper egypt lower egypt memphis aswan thebes ur luxor karnak babylon uruk nineveh khorsabad amarna (akhetaten) heliopolis giza (cairo) n 0 150 300 mi. 0 150 300 km ancient egypt and mesopotamia area under egyptian control mesopotoamia ancient coastline ancient city temple great pyramid sphinx world religions: almanac 43 ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia another creation myth came from the city of memphis, where ptah was worshipped for creating the universe out of divine thought. ultimately, however, the ra-atum creation story became the most popular and most widely accepted myth in ancient egypt. religion during the middle kingdom during the period of the old kingdom (c. 2686 2181 bce, egyptian society built the great pyramids at giza

lief in only one god) occurred during the new kingdom period. amenhotep iv, who called himself akhenaten (reigned 1379 62 bce, declared that the only god was the one he himself worshipped: aten, the god of the sun, and the solar disk, the aten. akhenaten s experiment in monotheism had the effect of reducing the power of the priestly class 44 world religions: almanac ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia and the nobility and reviving the power of the pharaoh. this experiment ended, however, with akhenaten s death in 1336 bce as the old gods were quickly brought back. all traces of akhenaten were destroyed, from the inscription of his name on temples to his mummy. with the restoration of the old gods, the priests of karnak and at another holy site, luxor, regained their power at the exp

n to aten, amenhotep changed his name to akhenaten, meaning he who is of service to aten. atenism, as it is called, was not a natural evolution of ancient egypt s religious practices. akhenaten forced it on the people. as a result he faced resistance to this change, especially from the powerful priests of amen-ra in the capital of thebes. world religions: almanac 45 ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia further undermining the power of the traditional priesthood, akhenaten set up a new capital city, called akhetaten (modern-day tell el-amarna, which he dedicated to the aten. artwork from this period shows akhenaten and his wife nefertiti, or neferneferuaten, worshipping the aten, the sun disk. after akhenaten s death atenism and akhetaten were quickly abandoned and the old gods were r

ds of gods were involved in mesopotamian religion. in addition to being connected with some aspect of nature, they also had a responsibility for different spheres of human activity. for example, shamash, the god of the sun, was also in charge of justice. successive waves of settlers and conquerors in the region all brought their own gods and goddesses. these were mixed with those already found in mesopotamia. the sumerians had their city gods and harvest gods, but nomads who invaded mesopotamia from the north or the east brought with them water gods and sand gods. people who came from high mountain regions brought gods of thunder and lightning. ancient egyptian gods were often depicted in human form, although they could appear with the head of an animal. among the central deities were horu

ith them water gods and sand gods. people who came from high mountain regions brought gods of thunder and lightning. ancient egyptian gods were often depicted in human form, although they could appear with the head of an animal. among the central deities were horus (left, with the head of a falcon, osiris, and isis. adam woolfitt/ corbis. 46 world religions: almanac ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia the three chief gods in the sumerian pantheon were an, the sky god, enlil, the god of weather and storms, and enki, god of wisdom and the abzu. other important deities included the mother goddess, ninhursag; nanna, god of the moon who helped travelers find their way; utu, sun god and the watchful eye of justice; and inanna, the goddess of love and war and the one who guaranteed the kin

third type of soul, was a spiritual duplicate of the dead person, and left its body to journey to the underworld for judgment. the ka had to return to its body periodically during the time it was undergoing judgment. if the body was damaged or decayed during this period, the ka might lose its way and be lost, a kind of eternal damnation. world religions: almanac 47 ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia mummification solved the problem of the ka by preserving the body after death, giving the spirit a familiar house to return to. the process of mummification, which could take up to two months to complete, was at first only used for royalty. later the practice was opened up to include anyone who could afford the specialists and the expensive ingredients required for the process of prese

ed. his loyal wife, the sky goddess isis, found the pieces and put his body back together. she made herself pregnant from osiris s body, and their son horus revenged osiris s murder, defeating his uncle set in epic combat. horus became the god of a unified egypt, identified throughout egyptian history with the divine right of the pharaoh. 48 world religions: almanac ancient religions of egypt and mesopotamia thus a rather late addition to the mesopotamian religion. it is, in effect, an effort by the babylonians to assert the power of their national god, marduk. as such, the poem not only relates how earth was created but also how the gods came to be. the gods, according to this text, came before the creation of the world. this epic describes the fight between the forces of order, as repres

SIR WALLIS BUDGE EGYPTIAN MAGIC

s were able to cure the diseases caused by demoniacal possession, and the exercise of their power p. 207 on the occasion described was considered to be so noteworthy that the narrative of it was inscribed upon a stele 1 and setup in the temple 2 of the god khonsu at thebes, so that all men might read and know what a marvellous cure his priests had effected. it appears that king rameses ii. was in mesopotamia "according to his wont, year by year" and all the chiefs of the countries round about came to pay their respects to him, and they sought to obtain his goodwill and protection, probably even an alliance, by bringing to him gifts of gold, and lapis-lazuli, and turquoise, and of every kind of valuable thing which the land produced, p. 208 and every man sought to outdo his neighbour by the

STEINER RUDOLF CHRISTIANITY AS MYSTICAL FACT

ing the powers of chaos and ascending to his father, the wisdom-god ea, in heaven. on the festival, see henri frankfort, kingship and the gods: a study of ancient near eastern religion as the integration of society and nature (university of chicago, chicago, 1978, ch. 22. the wonderful epic recited on the occasion by the priests is translated in n.k. sandars, poems of heaven and hell from ancient mesopotamia (penguin, new york, 1989. the mystery significance of the events is further described by rudolf steiner, true and false paths in spiritual investigation (rudolf steiner press, london, 1985, pp. 33ff. there is an important study of the theme in french: j.e. m nard, le descensus ad inferos in the ex orbe religionum ii (supplements to numen series (leiden, 1970. he traces the pattern on i

SZYMANSKI GREG SEARCHING FOR THE ILLUMINATI DEEP WITHIN THE BOWELS OF THE VATICAN

p in the ranks. in a manuscript from a book she is trying to publish, written after she ran from the illuminati in san diego, svali explains "the illuminati are a group of people who follow a philosophy known as "illuminism" or "enlightenment. the illuminati were named several hundred years ago, but trace their roots and history to the ancient mystery religions of egypt, ancient babylon, and even mesopotamia. out of these ancient religions, which were practiced secretly over hundreds and hundreds of years, there arose esoteric groups which continued to practice the rites, traditions, and enculturation brought in from the original groups "over the centuries, these groups practiced openly in some countries, and covertly in countries where christianity or other religions opposed their practic

TECHNICIANS GUIDE TO THE LEFT HAND PATH

not talking about science here, we are talking about understanding in accordance to the method in which the individual perceives his/her environment. this is what must be fully explored and understood in terms of the over riding principles that reflect this individuated perception. the pentagram is a symbol that is approximately five thousand years old and has its initial use in ancient egypt and mesopotamia, first as a potter mark, and in later egyptian dynasties as a mason s mark. symbolically, it was connected to the souls separate journey through the universe. gerald gardner (considered the founding father of modern wicca) utilized the inverted pentagram as representive of the second degree of wicca. the gnostics called the pentagram the blazing star and related it to night time magic

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 1

ion of a guardian angel or type of spirit guide assigned to each individual human soul. in the ancient sanskrit texts of the vedas, the word for angel is angira; in hebrew, malakh, meaning messenger, or bene elohim, for god s children; in arabic, malakah; and in india, multiwinged angels or beings are called garudas. as early as the third millennium b.c.e, the written records of ancient egypt and mesopotamia recognized a hierarchy of supernatural beings that ruled over various parts of the earth, the universe, and the lives of human beings. they also believed in lower levels of entities that might be either hostile or benign in their actions toward humans. the mesopotamians wanted to be certain that they were well protected by their spiritual guardians, the shedu and the lamassu. the lamas

tile or benign in their actions toward humans. the mesopotamians wanted to be certain that they were well protected by their spiritual guardians, the shedu and the lamassu. the lamassus were portrayed in art as grotesque creatures that looked like lions or bulls with human heads and large wings, and they were often represented by statues at the entrances of temples to ward off evil. the people of mesopotamia considered them to be guardian spirits. an ancient magical text of the mesopotamians invokes the good shedu to walk on one s right hand and the good lamassu to walk on the left. in nearly all stories of angels, the beings appear to be paraphysical that is, they are both material and nonmaterial entities. although they originate in some invisible and nonphysical dimension, they are ofte

during the month of ramadan, paying alms tax, and performing at least one sacred pilgrimage to mecca, the holy land. guardian angel a holy, divine being that watches over, guides, and protects humans. t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d 252 religious phenomena the weeping statue of rosa mystica in maamechelen, belgium (fortean picture library) mesopotamia greek word, meaning between two rivers. an ancient region that was located between the tigris and euphrates rivers in what is today, modern iraq and syria. some of the world s earliest and greatest ancient civilizations such as ur, sumer, assyria, and babylonia were developed in that region. old testament the first of the two main divisions of the christian bible that corresponds to th

dly. materialization something that appears suddenly, as if out of nowhere. in the paranormal it might be a ghost or spirit that suddenly appears to take on a physical form. medium in the paranormal, someone who is able to convey messages between the spirits of the deceased and the spirits of the living. megalith a very large stone that is usually a part of a monument or prehistoric architecture. mesopotamia greek word, meaning between two rivers. an ancient region that was located between the tigris and euphrates rivers in what is today, modern iraq and syria. some of the world s earliest and greatest ancient civilizations such as ur, sumer, assyria, and babylonia were developed in that region. messiah a leader who is regarded as a liberator or savior. in christianity, the messiah is jesu

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 3

power plants of their flying saucers to hoist such tonnage into place. spaceships of vast proportions may have brought extraterrestrial colonists to various parts of earth and may also have supplied the heavy lift power for erecting great stone works before returning to the home planet. the earliest civilization of which contemporary science has any records flowered among the sumerians of ancient mesopotamia. for many years the reason for this sudden onset of culture in sumer had remained a mystery. it wasn t until the 1980s that science determined just how such a miracle of seemingly instant progress had occurred. now it is known that this quantum leap in humankind s intellectual development occurred in sumer 6,000 years ago when cuneiform writing was developed to record a dramatic starbu

been such a dramatic sky show that it became a profound cultural organizing principle that forced human knowledge to take a giant leap forward. but was there something more that took place at that time? the babylonian priest-historian berossus chronicled the coming of oannes, an entity described as being half-man, half-fish, who surfaced from the persian gulf to instruct the early inhabitants of mesopotamia in the arts of civilization. before the advent of oannes, berossus stated, the sumerians lived like beasts in the field, with no order or rule. the sumerians lived exactly as their primitive forefathers had existed until oannes, the bizarre beast with reason appeared in their midst. the gifted alien entity was endowed with superior intelligence, it is written, but its appearance was fr

of the greek civilization, the highest known number was 10,000. after that sum, the greek mathematicians could only fall back on infinity. a tablet found in the hills near ancient sumer some years back contained a 15-digit number:195,955,200,000,000. many ancient cultures have legends of amphibians or serpent people who, like oannes, the half-human, half-fish, instructed the early inhabitants of mesopotamia in the arts of civilization. there was quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent of the aztecs, who descended from heaven in a silver egg, and there are the nagas, the handsome, semidivine serpent people with supernatural powers who figure in the hindu and buddhist traditions. throughout the dim corridors of history, there are frequent mentions of legendary sky people, who were considered to

dly. materialization something that appears suddenly, as if out of nowhere. in the paranormal it might be a ghost or spirit that suddenly appears to take on a physical form. medium in the paranormal, someone who is able to convey messages between the spirits of the deceased and the spirits of the living. megalith a very large stone that is usually a part of a monument or prehistoric architecture. mesopotamia greek word, meaning between two rivers. an ancient region that was located between the tigris and euphrates rivers in what is today, modern iraq and syria. some of the world s earliest and greatest ancient civilizations such as ur, sumer, assyria, and babylonia were developed in that region. messiah a leader who is regarded as a liberator or savior. in christianity, the messiah is jesu

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL

their peace of mind. sagittarians are often able to retain their physical youth into advanced maturity, and they are relatively free of health problems as well. capricorn, the goat, december 22 to january 20, is an earth sign. capricorn was named first in honor of the ancient babylonian god, ea, a part-goat, part fish entity, who emerged from the sea to bring learning and culture to the valley of mesopotamia. the romans transformed ea to pan, a half-goat, half-human god who ruled the woodlands and the fields. capricorns are individuals of deeply rooted habits who tend to become industrious and economical individuals with great powers of endurance. although generally kind, capricorn people tend to be somewhat moody, often brooding over imagined slights and injuries. capricorns are liable to

hem in judgment about their fate in the afterlife. likenesses of scarabs (a kind of beetle) were also prominent. a scarab encloses an egg in mud or dung and rolls it along to a spot where it can be warm and safe. egyptians considered this a metaphor for the journey of the sun each day. the scarab amulet became a common emblem for regeneration and was placed with the dead. sumerians, who inhabited mesopotamia (present-day iraq) and were contemporaries of the egyptians, had amulets inscribed with images of animals and gods. they also inscribed such images on seals for everything from pottery to vaults to doors: the emblem on the seal represented a guardian spirit that would bring bad luck to those who opened the sealed compartment without permission of the owner. the treasures of king tutank

esus christ (c. 6 b.c.e..c. 30 c.e) and because they believe that nothing unholy can stand in the presence of the cross. the cross as a christian amulet dates back to the fourth century, when the roman emperor constantine (d. 337) adopted it as his symbol instead of the traditional roman eagle. that act symbolized the conversion of rome to a christian empire. but amulets with crosses date back to mesopotamia and egypt, and served as a symbol long before associations of the cross with the crucifixion of jesus christ. native americans already had amulets with crosses by the t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d objects of mystery and power 203 thecross as a christian amulet dates back to the fourth century. time of first contact with europe

dly. materialization something that appears suddenly, as if out of nowhere. in the paranormal it might be a ghost or spirit that suddenly appears to take on a physical form. medium in the paranormal, someone who is able to convey messages between the spirits of the deceased and the spirits of the living. megalith a very large stone that is usually a part of a monument or prehistoric architecture. mesopotamia greek word, meaning gbetween two rivers. h an ancient region that was located between the tigris and euphrates rivers in what is today, modern iraq and syria. some of the world fs earliest and greatest ancient civilizations such as ur, sumer, assyria, and babylonia were developed in that region. messiah a leader who is regarded as a liberator or savior. in christianity, the messiah is

THE GOD OF THE WITCHES

agnificentaltar of zeus at pergamos "the throne of satan "i know thy works and where thou dwellest, even wheresatan's throne is. in 1613 sebastian michaelis spoke with no uncertain voice "the gods of the turks andthe gods of the gentiles are all devils. in india, hindus, mahommedans and christians unite in calling thedeities of the aboriginal tribes "devils. the gentle peaceable yezidis of modern mesopotamia, whose god isincarnate in a peacock or a black snake, are stigmatised as "devil-worshippers" by their moslemfellow-countrymen. as late as the nineteenth century christian missionaries of every denomination, whowent out to convert the heathen in any part of the world, were apt to speak of the people among whom theylaboured as worshippers of devils, and many even believed that those to w

erlywiped out in europe, and seems to have had no influence on later periods. the neolithic people have left fewartistic remains; their human figures are almost invariably of women, and the masked man does not appear.but when the bronze-age is reached the horned human-being is found again, and occurs first in the near and the god of the witcheschapter i. the horned god6middle east, i.e, in egypt, mesopotamia and india. in the near east the figures may be either male orfemale, and the horns are those of cattle, sheep or goats.[1] there are no stag antlers, possibly because thestag did not occur in those lands or was so uncommon as not to be of importance as a food animal.horned gods were common in mesopotamia, both in babylon and assyria. the copper head found in one ofthe gold-tombs at ur

THE NECRONOMICON SIMON VERSION

they devour the magician himself. when crowley professed to have passed the obstacles, and crossed the abyss of knowledge, and found his true self, he found it was identical with the beast of the book of revelation, 666, whom christianity considers to represent the devil. indeed, crowley had nothing but admiration for the shaitan (satan) of the so-called "devil-worshipping" cult of the yezidis of mesopotamia, knowledge of which led him to declare the lines that open this introduction. for he saw that the yezidis possess a great secret and a great tradition that extends far back into time, beyond the origin of the sun cults of osiris, mithra and christ; even before the formation of the judaic religion, and the hebrew tongue. crowley harkened back to a time before the moon was worshipped, to

evable was a commonplace of life. these two men, both acclaimed as geniuses by their followers and admirers, and who never actually met, stretched their legs across the world, and in the seven league boots of the mind they did meet, and on common soil. sumeria. sumeria is the name given to a once flourishing civilisation that existed in what is now known as iraq, in the area called by the greeks "mesopotamia" and by the arabs as, simply "the island" for it existed between two rivers, the tigris and the euphrates, which run down from the mountains to the persian gulf. this is the site of the fabled city of babylon, as well as of ur of the chaldees and kish, with nineveh far to the north. each of the seven principal cities of sumeria was ruled by a different deity, who was worshipped in the

one does not hear of a chinese angel or saint striving to slay the dragon, but rather to cultivate it. the chinese system of geomancy, feng shui (pronounced fung shway) is the science of understanding the "dragon currents" which exist beneath the earth, these same telluric energies that are distilled in such places as chartres cathedral in france, glastonbury tor in england, and the ziggurats of mesopotamia. in both the european and chinese cultures, the dragon or serpent is said to reside somewhere "below the earth; it is a powerful force, a magickal force, which is identified with mastery over the created world; it is also a power that can be summoned by the few and not the many. however, in china, there did not seem to be a backlash of fear or resentment against this force as was known

ether they are called the sun and moon of the elixir vitae, the male and female participants in a rite of indian or chinese tantricism, or the shadow and the anima of jungian depth psychology. for many years, the moon remained the prime deity of the sumerians, constituting the essential personum of a religious and mystical drama that was performed roughly 3000 b.c. amid the deserts and marshes of mesopotamia. side by side with the worship of the moon, nanna, there was fear of the demon, pazuzu, a genie so amply recreated in the book and the movie by blatty, the exorcist, and similarly recognised as the devil himself by the church. pazuzu, the beast, was brought to life by aleister crowley, and the demon walked the earth once more. with publicity provided by h.p. lovecraft. the devil pazuzu

een" in his study of crowley's system as related to tantricism, without mentioning the name by which this goddess is quite well-known, or even mentioning her native country! after the chapter on zonei, we come to the "book of entrance" which is really a system of self-initiation into the planetary spheres and may have something to do with the planetary arrangement of the steps of the ziggurats of mesopotamia, which were seven storeyed mountains. not much is revealed to the potential candidate for initiation as to how these "gates" work, or what he might find there, save to say that the key of one gate lies in mastering the gate before it. the mad arab was either keeping a sacred secret, or found human language inadequate to the task of describing what other initiates in similar systems hav

corn suxur mash (fish-man) 27. mars mastabarru 28. aquarius gula (horned beast) 29. pisces dilgan u rikis nuni (weapon) 30. sun shamash 30. fire ag 30. saturn kaimanu 30 (bis) earth kia 30 (bis) spirit zi notes on pronunciation we cannot be absolutely how sumerian and akkadian were spoken; but many useful guidelines are available to the student, including the transliterated tablets found all over mesopotamia. basically, we can offer the following principles which should prove of value in reciting the foreign language instructions: vowels a as in "father" e as in "whey" i as in "antique" o as in "boat (but rarely found) u as in "zulu" consonants most are basically the same as in english. the sumerians did not have an alphabet as we know it, but they had developed a syllabary, very much like

i have smelled the vapours of that ancient one, queen of the outside, whose name is writ in the terrible magan text, the testament of some dead civilisation whose priests, seeking power, swing open the dread, evil gate for an hour past the time, and were consumed. i came to possess this knowledge through circumstances quite peculiar, while still the unlettered son of a shepherd in what is called mesopotamia by the greeks. when i was only a youth, travelling alone in the mountains to the east, called masshu by the people who live there, i came upon a grey rock carved with three strange symbols. it stood as high as a man, and as wide around as a bull. it was firmly in the ground, and i could not move it. thinking no more of the carvings, save that they might be the work of a king to mark so

THE PATH OF KABBALAH

a famine in the land; and abram went down into egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land (genesis 12, 10. does the torah speak of immigration to a better country, meaning egypt, and does the creator himself compels abraham to go there? why did the creator choose abraham? at that time he was the same as all the other people who lived in the area that spread from east of syria to mesopotamia. abraham did not go to egypt right away. rather he first went to beit-el, sacrificed a sacrifice to the creator, and that seemed to soothe his mind. it is written that after that there was a famine, and only then he went down to egypt. a question comes to mind: was it the famine that made him go to egypt, or was it the creator? if we relate to the torah as a historic tale, we will see

THE HOLY BIBLE KING JAMES VERSION

the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again. 24:9 and the servant put his hand under the thigh of abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter. 24:10 and the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master [were] in his hand: and he arose, and went to mesopotamia, unto the city of nahor. 24:11 and he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening [even] the time that women go out to draw [water] 24:12 and he said, o lord god of my master abraham, i pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master abraham. 24:13 behold, i stand [here] by the well of water; and the daughters of

all he not enter into the congregation of the lord. 23:3 an ammonite or moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the lord for ever: 23:4 because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of egypt; and because they hired against thee balaam the son of beor of pethor of mesopotamia, to curse thee. 23:5 nevertheless the lord thy god would not hearken unto balaam; but the lord thy god turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the lord thy god loved thee. 23:6 thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever. 23:7 thou shalt not abhor an edomite; for he [is] thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an egyptian; because thou wast a strang

tes, and hivites, and jebusites: 3:6 and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. 3:7 and the children of israel did evil in the sight of the lord, and forgat the lord their god, and served baalim and the groves. 3:8 therefore the anger of the lord was hot against israel, and he sold them into the hand of chushanrishathaim king of mesopotamia: and the children of israel served chushan-rishathaim eight years. 3:9 and when the children of israel cried unto the lord, the lord raised up a deliverer to the children of israel, who delivered them [even] othniel the son of kenaz, caleb s younger brother. 3:10 and the spirit of the lord came upon him, and he judged israel, and went out to war: and the lord delivered chushan- rishath

and the children of israel served chushan-rishathaim eight years. 3:9 and when the children of israel cried unto the lord, the lord raised up a deliverer to the children of israel, who delivered them [even] othniel the son of kenaz, caleb s younger brother. 3:10 and the spirit of the lord came upon him, and he judged israel, and went out to war: and the lord delivered chushan- rishathaim king of mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against chushan- rishathaim. 3:11 and the land had rest forty years. and othniel the son of kenaz died. 3:12 and the children of israel did evil again in the sight of the lord: and the lord strengthened eglon the king of moab against israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the lord. 3:13 and he gathered unto him the children of ammon and

there went [certain] and told david how the men were served. and he sent to meet them: for the men were greatly ashamed. and the king said, tarry at jericho until your beards be grown, and [then] return. 19:6 and when the children of ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to david, hanun and the children of ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of mesopotamia, and out of syria-maachah, and out of zobah. 19:7 so they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of maachah and his people; who came and pitched before medeba. and the children of ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle. 19:8 and when david heard [of it] he sent joab, and all the host of the mighty men. 19:9 and the children of ammon came

en. 2:6 now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 2:7 and they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak galilaeans? 2:8 and how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 2:9 parthians, and medes, and elamites, and the dwellers in mesopotamia, and in judaea, and cappadocia, in pontus, and asia, 2:10 phrygia, and pamphylia, in egypt, and in the parts of libya about cyrene, and strangers of rome, jews and proselytes, 2:11 cretes and arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of god. 2:12 and they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this? 2:13 others mocking said, the

ay, that this jesus of nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which moses delivered us. 6:15 and all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. 7:1 then said the high priest, are these things so? 7:2 and he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; the god of glory appeared unto our father abraham, when he was in mesopotamia, before he dwelt in charran, 7:3 and said unto him, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which i shall shew thee. 7:4 then came he out of the land of the chaldaeans, and dwelt in charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. 7:5 and he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not [so much as] to

TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

ature beast man man creature man beast man creature color key i red red-purple purple blue-purple blue blue-green green yellow-green yellow yellow-orange orange red-orange being having thinking feeling commanding considering 1 weighing desiring perceiving using knowing serving nature the qualities represented by the zodiac. these twelve signs originally repre- sented various gods and goddesses of mesopotamia whose identities have mutat- ed and become obscured over the centuries. the heavens served as a convenient place to f these divine emblems and contemplate their interaction. it becomes evident that the images of the zodiac were not suggested by the con- stellations when we try to trace correspondences between the mythic figures and the stars. beyond a few bright locator stars which are

TYSON DONALD THE POWER OF THE WORD

pi 10) thotanp thotanp 11) axziarg axxiarg 12) pothnir pothnir 13) lazdixi lazdixi 14) nocamal nocamal 15) tiarpax tiarpax 16) saxtomp saxtomp 17) vavaamp vavaamp 18) zirzird zirzird 19) opmacas opmacas 20) genadol genadol 21) aspiaon aspiaon 22) zamfres zamfres 23) todnaon todnaon 24) pristac pristac 25) oddiorg oddiorg 26) cralpir cralpir 27) doanzin doanzin regions aethers egyptus syria 1: lil mesopotamia cappadocia tuscia 2: arn asia minor hyrcania thracia 3: zom gosmam thebaidi parsadal india bactriane cilicia oxiana 4: paz 5: lit numidia cyprus 6: maz parthia getulia arabia 7: deo phalagon mantiana soxia 8: zid gallia assyria sogdiana 9: zip lydia tetragrammaton enochian geographical spirits (continued) spirit names regions aethers original reformed 28) l;exarph l;exarph caspis 29) c

UNLEASHING THE BEAST

ne desire for material wealth or mortal power. in his most exalted moments, crowley appears to have believed that he could achieve a supreme spiritual power- the power to conceive a divine child, a godlike being, who would transcend the moral failings of the body born of mere woman. this goal of creating a divine fetus, crowley suggests, lies at the heart of many esoteric traditions, from ancient mesopotamia to india to the arab world: this is the great idea of magicians in all times to obtain a messiah by some adaptation of the sexual process. in assyria they tried incest..greeks and syrians mostly bestiality..the mohammedans tried homosexuality; medieval philosophers tried to produce homunculi by making chemical experiments with semen. but the root idea is that any form of procreation ot

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