The Three Magi of Sumer

The magical tradition in Sumer was represented by three Deities each of which in turn was representative of the the three High Gods and exercised their power through magic. Thus Asarluhi (or Asalluhi) represented Enki as his Son, Kusu represented the power of Enlil and Ningirim represented the interests of Anu and Inanna of Uruk

Asalluhi purifies the temple, Kusu designs the plan, and Ningirim casts the spell. Whatever evil resides in this temple, get out!

Kusu the high priest of Enlil cleanse his face and also his hands.

Asalluhi, son of Eridu, has launched the exorcism,

Ningirim makes holy water to purify it, make it clear.

May Enki loosen the incantations spoken by Ningirim and the spells of Eridu

As a trio they thus represented the operative power of the Cosmos though they are very little known nowadays, considering the surviving evidence for each of the three individually and starting with Asalluhi one finds startling claims such as these Utukku Lemnutu;

"I am Asalluhi, who was born in the Eunir-temple"

"I am Asalluhi, who knows the depth of the vast netherworld-river

"I am Asalluhi, whom Laguda magnifies in the Lower Sea"

"I am Asalluhi, being the bond of all and the first-born of Mami."

"I am Asalluhi, unveiling cuneiform"

"I am Asalluhi, whosr glare destroys a wall of stone"

"I am Asalluhi, inspecting esoteric sources, creating cosmic plans"

"I am Asalluhi, who removes illness and destroys the great demons

In surviving Ur III Incantations Asalluhi provides cures for every ailment through advise from his Father Enki, in the manner of the shaman or exorcist, there is always a deeper spiritual aspect to the cures, the casting out of Demons, in say for example the curing of snakebites.

The snake called from the 'snake mountain',the lizard of heaven and of earth licked him.

The sons of the lizard of heaven and earth are seven,it caused the well to be like air (ie. evaporate)

it poured out water for him as if in the wind,it struck the rushes on its right like the wind, may the god bind the snake's fang

May the incantations of the Abzu of Eridu,of Asalluhi, son of Eridu,not be broken.

The full extent of the powers of Asalluhi can be found in his association with Marduk, as that Lord of established Order represented by Jupiter in effect had performed a mighty exorcism upon the Primordial Cosmos in order to establish Order, a magical act.

The cultic centre of Asalluhi was at Kuara close to Eridu and he was very closely associated with the Abzu shrine, as the foremost principle of the seven sages, and obviously his elemental magic was water based, also in this aspect he was the principle of the River of Ordeal, which was a metaphor for passing into the afterlife, so he was the personification of that, the figure that stands on both banks of the river.

O city rising from the abzu like barley, cloudy plain, taking the divine powers from its midst, Kuara, your foundation and just banqueting hall, the lord who does not hold back his goods stands ready for admiration. The Seven Sages have enlarged it for you from the south to the uplands.

Your prince, the most precious prince Asarluḫi, the most precious one, is a warrior, born a noble prince, a leopard who seizes prey. He is like an onrushing storm battering the rebel land. As long as it remains disobedient, he pours spittle upon it. Asar-alim-nuna, the son of the abzu, has erected a house in your precinct, O house Kuara, and taken his seat upon your dais.

Enki has named you with the River of the ordeal, the sublime course. You cleanse the just man like gold, and you hand over the wicked to extinction

Kusu the High Priestess of Enlil is far less attested and was prone to gender slide and was also sometimes assimilated with Ezina a grain Goddess daughter of Enlil in terms of Kusu-Ezina, but in her own right she was married to Gibil a Deity of the flaming torch who as seen in texts such as Maqlu represented the purifying force of fire, and that would have been her own primary elemental attribute, The censor and torch placed in the house of the sick man: The censor is Kusu. The torch is Nusku.

She is seen then in connection with preperations involving fire, Kusu puts things n the oven.

“Kusu establishes the lustration rituals created in their specific house —the oven for oxen, sheep and bread beside the interior of the bathing chamber those sacred lustration rituals beside the shrine!

Kusu purifies the oil for the house. It is placed in readiness and the limbs are cleansed.To ensure the sacred lustration rituals are not neglected, Kusu has consecrated the fire she has purified the oven.

Kusu has then put numerous bulls and numerous sheep into the great oven. Kusu has then put numerous bulls and numerous loaves into the great oven…”

Her connectivity with the grain Goddess Ezina then was probably in the sense of the baking of bread, but surprisingly she was also associated with the Abzu as a Princess of such and celebrated at Eridu

“From Eridu praise to lady Kusu, the princess of the holy abzu, O Nun-bar-ana (Gibil, spouse to Kusu), angry avenger, bringing forth the great torch from the abzu ,lifting his head with the noble divine powers!…”

“So that you should place sacred hands upon your offering table in the banqueting hall, the great place, your steward Kusu —she who purifies hands and cleanses hands — consecrates the hands…”

As an example of the activities of Kusu we see her in the act of giving life to a statue, creating a God in conjunction with Asalluhi, who had the power to revive dead Gods;



Born in Heaven, made on Earth

So we see then at Eridu Asalluhi representing Enki and the waters of the Abzu, and Kusu representing Enlil and the fire that emerges from the waters of that same Abzu, and the third of the three Mages, Ningirim also had a shrine close to Eridu at Murum.

Ningirim quite simply was the Goddess of Incantations, the magical spoken word, her Temple at Murum was house which recites the incantation formulae of heaven , and closely associate with the Abzu.

O city, founded upon a dais in the abzu, established for the rites of icib priests, house where incantations of heaven and earth are recited,

Lustration water in the holy heaven and on the pure earth, Ningirim, the lady of the shining lustration water,has erected a house in your recinct,O house Murum, and taken her seat upon your dais.

Ningirim represents the power of Anu and Inanna, of Uruk, Goddess Ningirim, queen of Uruk, chief steward of the gods, her words resonate within the ether, she is often cited in connection with incantations to guarantee their effectiveness.

The incantation-speech of Ningirim, the lady of sweet Šuruppak ,the incantations of Asalluhi, child of Enki in the abzu, cannot be undone

The cult of Ningirm is best seen in a text which has recently been translated The Incantation of Ningirim, and i'll conclude with this text in full as i think it best captures the Sumerian approach to magic, and throw in a few illustrations as it's a long text.

In heaven a great wind had arose,
On the earth a dust wind swirled,
and the south wind rose up,
and the north wind rose up,
and a mighty wind rose up,
and a storm wind of dust rose up,
and the body of a man rose up.

May Utu come to the aid of the man.
May Nanna come to the aid of the man.
May Enki, the eloquent, brilliant of speech, come to the aid of the man.
King Enki, god of the Abzu, may he come to the aid of the man.

The gods saw the south wind arise,
they saw the north wind arise,
they saw the mighty wind arise,
they saw the storm wind of dust arise,
they saw the body of the man arise,
the personal god of the man had come out,
spoke the incantation of Ningirim.

Holy Inanna and the great god Enlil,
the speach of the man they had heard.
They saw from the high mountain,
that the south wind had rose up,
that the north wind had rose up,
that a mighty wind had rose up,
that a storm wind of dust had rose up,
that the body of the man had rose up,
that the personal god of the man had come out.

Then did the holy gods in heaven rise up,
the holy Inanna and the great god Enlil,
they delivered aid to the body of the man.
Enki, the eloquent, brilliant of speech, rose up,
delivered aid to the body of the man.

Enki, the king, god of the Abzu, rose up,
and delivered aid to the body of the man.
Nanna rose up, giving aid to the body of the man.

Utu rose up, giving aid to the body of the man.
They the holy gods on the high mountain,
rose up and delivered aid to the body of the man.
They the great gods, rose up against the south wind,
and delivered aid to the body of the man.

They the great gods, rose up against the north wind,
and delivered aid to the body of the man.
They the great gods, rose up against the mighty wind,
and delivered aid to the body of the man.

They the great gods, rose up against the storm wind of dust,
and delivered aid to the body of the man.
They the great gods, rose up and delivered aid,
to Ningirim the personal god of the body of the man.

Thus spoke the man,
the incantation of Ningirim.

Thank you for this information, which is some thing that I didnt know about. I was just wondering if these three Magi, were the basis for the three wise men who came to see the birth of Jesus.

a reply to: illuminnaughty

Yes they would have to be the basis for that, Kusu clearly relating to Frankincense, Asalluhi relating to Myrrh and the reviving of the dead, which leaves Ningirim as having the power to transmute base metal into immortal Gold through the power of the spoken word.

Excellent thread. Well written.

I usually investigate facts and information but a good writer can make things more enjoyable. I am not the best at writing. I tend to be more evidence and example orientated. I guess some people naturally have more creativeness in writing than others.

S&F

a reply to: rickymouse

Thanks, it's just about become possible to reconstruct this basis of the Sumerian ritual magical tradition, which is a very intriguing one, gathering the snippets from a wide variety of sources and putting the greater picture together, none of this will feature in the likes of the Necronomicon for example, which just goes to show how little they did know...

Once again thank you for replying to my question. I just wonder how much more has been borrowed from the Sumerians by religions and other peoples, as their so called `history`. Its surprising to me that we were never educated about Sumer in school. As far as I can recall it was all about Egypt and nothing prior to that. There again schools in a working class city in the north of England, what more could I expect. I only heard about Sumer when I became interested in the Anunaki via Sitchin. Which of course has to be taking with a large grain of salt. How ever he did spark a lot of interest in Sumer.

a reply to: illuminnaughty

As far as most major religions go pretty much all of it can be traced back to Sumer, though they tended to adapt according to their own tastes and leave out the bits they didn't like, so it is the best basis for Religious studies in general, but maybe a little too complex for the average High school.

One thing that Sitchin got badly wrong and an aspect of the traditions i outline in this thread, is the creation of Divine presence in statues such that the various Deities were considered to quite literally reside in their shrines within their Cities, this was an important facet as i referenced here, thus Sitchin decided that as the Anunnaki were described as very much being present in their Cities they must be extra-terrestrials, whereas the real mystery tends to be more the emergence of the sages from the Abzu and the establishment of the organized religion itself built upon earlier shamanic tradition.

But as you say he did generate popular interest as did the Necronomicon, it's just that not many look what lies beyond those superficial interpretations

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Ah K-man you have returned and bearing gifts!

Excellent

Oh one question on your comment

As far as most major religions go pretty much all of it can be traced back to Sumer

Do you mean just the Western religions or is comment inclusive the Eastern as well?

a reply to: Hanslune


Perhaps that greater common root traces as far back as the early Neolithic, Anatolia and the Balkans for Indo-European religion, with considerable overlap in terms of the connection between Northern Mesopotamia and Iran with the Eastern European steppe cultures, who were also of course influential upon the Northerly Far East.

I don't think Hinduism has changed much in essence from the time when greater Dravidian culture and trade extended from Mesopotamia into the sub-continent and from there into South East Asia.

A grand theory of everything in terms of High religion would have to include translation into the Americas at an early date via Siberia such that it somehow manages to arrive on the shores of Peru around the same time as the rise of Sumer and Egypt, but i'm not really in a position to make that, and the point i made really only applied to Semitic adaptation of elements of the Sumerian Pantheon and the commonality with religions of the Eastern Mediterranean.

So this `creation of Divine presence` that you speak of , which Sitchin got wrong. What in your opinion is it? What did the Sumerians mean ? How did these statues manage to cure people? I am not sure now as it was a while since I read any Sitchin books. If it was not the gods being present, was it their technology? ie- pcs or some other type of tech.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Thanks for your reply

and you anticipated my next question and answered it also: it was about Hinduism and you magically answered it below

I don't think Hinduism has changed much in essence from the time when greater Dravidian culture and trade extended from Mesopotamia into the sub-continent and from there into South East Asia.

That one, I've always thought that one of the 'purest' ancient religion was Hinduism.

a reply to: illuminnaughty

Lots of places, things and words are thought to cure people of this that and the other thing.

A good review of all that type of belief is here:

Belief and medicine

a reply to: illuminnaughty

It's just magic i suppose, the exorcist-magicians not only were seen as capable of driving out unwanted evil Demons but also of being able to draw positive spiritual forces into inanimate statues so that the Divine presence could be understood to dwell within them.

The statue itself was understood as being created under Divine influence, thus it is man as an agent of the Divine, the book i linked to properly deals with all of this.



Kusu, Asalluhi and Ningirim are involved in the final stage of making the newly created God live, they also repaired Gods.





a reply to: Hanslune

The main problem of Hinduism is that it's developed so many complications and contradictions over time that nobody can grasp the religion as a whole, and it takes considerable effort even to understand specific cultic aspects..!

I am Ishtar Innana the house that leans on the gates of heaven, I went through the nine portals and offer you help for the war ahead.
Yeah magic!

It looks like I have a lot reading to do. Thank you Hans for that link.

originally posted by: Kantzveldt
a reply to: Hanslune


Perhaps that greater common root traces as far back as the early Neolithic, Anatolia and the Balkans for Indo-European religion, with considerable overlap in terms of the connection between Northern Mesopotamia and Iran with the Eastern European steppe cultures, who were also of course influential upon the Northerly Far East.

I don't think Hinduism has changed much in essence from the time when greater Dravidian culture and trade extended from Mesopotamia into the sub-continent and from there into South East Asia.

A grand theory of everything in terms of High religion would have to include translation into the Americas at an early date via Siberia such that it somehow manages to arrive on the shores of Peru around the same time as the rise of Sumer and Egypt, but i'm not really in a position to make that, and the point i made really only applied to Semitic adaptation of elements of the Sumerian Pantheon and the commonality with religions of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Well to me, the poem about raising of the North and South winds to become godlike sounds like the Hindu concept of the raising of the Kundalini from the base of the spine all the way upwards to the top of the head. The Ida & Pingala nadis goes up to the right and left (north and south) around the Sushumna (spine) which is the central nadi. Raising your Kundalini in your nadis supposedly makes you godlike with many occult powers (siddhis).

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

It's certainly a great magical text, the key must lie in the power of incantation to facilitate the support of the High Gods, through having Ningirim as one's personal Deity, so i guess it involves the knowledge of magical incantations also related to that Cult, the lore of magic words.

Asalluhi purifies the temple, Kusu designs the plan, and Ningirim casts the spell. Whatever evil resides in this temple, get out!

Kusu the high priest of Enlil cleanse his face and also his hands.

Asalluhi, son of Eridu, has launched the exorcism, Ningirim makes holy water to purify it, make it clear.

May Enki loosen the incantations spoken by Ningirim and the spells of Eridu

for a moment there... thought i was reading a transcript for the power rangers
..good topic tho'

a reply to: UNIT76

And you'd have been right, this arrangement was first brought to the public's attention by the Power Rangers, who went on to become the Mutant Ninja Turtles before ending their careers as Goldfish,