Sumerian conceptions of the Afterlife.

reply to post by Kantzveldt


Hi Kantveldt,

When I was a young teenager there was no one around that was responsible enough to keep me from watching David Lynch's movie production of Frank Herbert's Dune novel before reading the book. I went on to watch it several more times after that and didn't read the actual book until years and years later. By the time I read Herbert's book David Lynch's Dune was Dune, and all of Lynch's movie design, the costumes and sets and his whole oeuvre settled over Herbert's story.

That's how it will always be with anything Sumerian now for me. I prefer your presentation above all others and I so appreciate you sharing your vision. Your drawing of Ruha that you posted on the 8th sphere thread still haunts my dragon-dreams.

reply to post by Bybyots


I know what you mean, and i appreciate your kind comments. In many ways the more details learnt of a particular fascination can enable one to realize dreams with greater clarity, as if to say perhaps that the dry dust off the shelves of academia can be transformed into vision, and that the spirits of the past can awaken from their slumbers.

Bybyots
reply to post by Kantzveldt

 

Hi Kantveldt,

When I was a young teenager there was no one around that was responsible enough to keep me from watching David Lynch's movie production of Frank Herbert's Dune novel before reading the book. I went on to watch it several more times after that and didn't read the actual book until years and years later. By the time I read Herbert's book David Lynch's Dune was Dune, and all of Lynch's movie design, the costumes and sets and his whole oeuvre settled over Herbert's story.

That's how it will always be with anything Sumerian now for me. I prefer your presentation above all others and I so appreciate you sharing your vision. Your drawing of Ruha that you posted on the 8th sphere thread still haunts my dragon-dreams.

That is obscenely tragic

I hope you read the sequels. "God Emperor of Dune" was particularly tasty.

Harte

reply to post by Harte


People have told me that but I disagree, I like Lynch's weird dark thing he did with Dune. I have to admit that as a huge fan of the book that I also really liked the sci-fi channel thing, too.

I really like Muad'Dib as the eyeless emperor and the beginning of God Emperor was pretty good, but I felt as though someone other than Herbert had started writing the books so I stopped reading them. I know I am in a strange predicament vis-a-vis the film and book, but that's how the good lord made me, I can't helps it. I like Lynch's stillsuits.

Bybyots
reply to post by Harte

 

People have told me that but I disagree, I like Lynch's weird dark thing he did with Dune. I have to admit that as a huge fan of the book that I also really liked the sci-fi channel thing, too.

I really like Muad'Dib as the eyeless emperor and the beginning of God Emperor was pretty good, but I felt as though someone other than Herbert had started writing the books so I stopped reading them. I know I am in a strange predicament vis-a-vis the film and book, but that's how the good lord made me, I can't helps it. I like Lynch's stillsuits.

There's the difference between reading first and watching first.

IMO, the TV movie was FAR superior than the theatrical version (Lynch's.)

The theatrical movie was like a mere overview of the book. Like the Reader's Digest Condensed version, with added-on events that seemed only there to facilitate making the picture more cheaply.

Things like Lynch's version of using voice fell flat. The way it was in the book - the Bene Gesserit control through pitching of the voice - was simply murderized in the film. The constant voice-over narration verged on idiotic - as if the director assumed his audience was too stupid to follow his plodding plotline.

BTW, Herbert did start writing the last books with his son, and his son published one under his name after his father died. I didn't read the last few either. It was more like a franchise by then.

Harte

reply to post by Harte


Oh my God.

I can only agree with you. The first book and the first chapter of the second are perfectly lucid masterworks that border at times on being some sort of religious writings. I had to have my arm twisted, you know how it can be at times with books. It made Lynch's movie seem very small to me and it caused the best parts of his attempt to sort of congeal, and all that was left was the rest of it.

The television version I have in the extended format on DVD. I had always wondered why, at least when it came to the greats, that producers and directors couldn't just do a teleplay and give it their best shot to just do the damned book. Boy, did they ever do that with Dune. I thought William Hurt was strangely stiff in his role but the DVD set along with that big Blade Runner set are probably the only two I would save in a fire.

But no matter how hard I try everybody is wearing Lynch's stillsuits and flying his ornithopters.

As you are an expert on Sumarian culture, I have a question for you. I an interested in the Sumarian fertility religions and their alleged roots of the later Judea-Christian beliefs. Also their origins of the ritual of Christian communion, which was practiced in some form in sumer, and later the the Essenes (the monastic sect of the Dead Sea Schools and probably the origin of Christianity) and is Sumarian in origin according to John Allegro. John Allegro was one of the original translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls and proposed that the religion of Sumer is the root of these ideas. What do you think?

(see- www.youtube.com...) and ( en.wikipedia.org...)

reply to post by retsdeeps1



I think there'd be an older basis than Sumer, and that Phonecian religion would need to be taken into account, and offshoots of it such as the Cult of Osiris in Egypt, but there is this i mentioned in the OP from the Old Babylonian period;

The Old Babylonian Atra-has tells that man was created from a mixture of clay with the flesh and blood of a god who was slaughtered for that purpose the ghost was created in order to form an everlasting reminder of the circumstances that led to the creation of man

“A god and a man shall be mixed together in the clay. (Thus,) for future days we may hear the drum a ghost shall be from the god’s flesh.. She (Nintu) shall announce ‘life’ as his (man’s) sign, and that this is not forgotten a ghost shall be

Spirit which leaves the body was realized as a wind, thus unseen and yet tangible. The formal rite to release of the spirit was crucial in order to gain admittance to the netherworld and join the community of dead spirits

The God that was sacrificed there isn't actually named, looking for likely suspects would suggest perhaps Dumuzid/Tammuz, but not entirely satisfactory.

At the moment i'm actually looking at and tending toward an Indo-European basis somewhat surprisingly;

The gods Odin, Vili, and Vé fashioned the Earth (elsewhere personified as a goddess; Jörð) from his flesh, from his blood the ocean, from his bones the hills, from his hair the trees, from his brains the clouds, from his skull the heavens, and from his eyebrows the middle realm in which mankind lives, Midgard. In addition, one stanza relates that the dwarfs were given life by the gods from Ymir's flesh and blood (or the Earth and sea).

Not Nordic as such, but as seen above they had the principle of sacrifice as the origin of substance.

Yimir

reply to post by Kantzveldt


Allegro claims some, maybe many, of the ancient god names are mushroom names, they thought rain was god's semen, thunder his voice, mushroom grow so fast, almost magically, so they were the male son of god, and eating some of them gave hallucinations that revealed heaven or knowledge. He gives many examples in India and near east cultures and languages. All this thousands of years before the Christian Era.

So the ritual of communion, eating the male son of god as an act of forgiveness is 3-4,000 B.C. and many later sects absorbed some of these ideas- including the Essenes at Quarun near Nazereth, they had some mesianic beliefs, piety, focus on the after life, the final battle of good over evil, and strict rituals in this life at their monastery. Not that they were Christians, (its older than that though lasted from 130 +/- BCE to 68 AD). Just that these ideas feed into later Christianity and influenced it. Do you agree with any of that?

retsdeeps1
Allegro claims some, maybe many, of the ancient god names are mushroom names, they thought rain was god's semen, thunder his voice, mushroom grow so fast, almost magically, so they were the male son of god, and eating some of them gave hallucinations that revealed heaven or knowledge. He gives many examples in India and near east cultures and languages. All this thousands of years before the Christian Era.

Having read the book, there are a number of areas where Allegro's reasoning is a little bit flawed...and those are mainly in the mushroom department, I think, personally that he was a little over influenced by R Gordon Wasson's work, and as such, cherry-picked some of the evidence. In terms of the philology though, he can't be faulted.

First and foremost, in terms of the environment, Babylonia would not have had a mushroom culture at the time of the 'captivity' to transfer. And, I don't think the Levant would have by that time either. Which would mean that the mushrooms were being obtained via trade...which is possible, but really, given all the evidence from all other mushroom-loving cultures, there would be symbolic evidence to support their use. However, what Allegro proposes in terms of the New testament providing evidence of a mystery religion that was hidden within the gospel teachings 'in plain sight' does have basis, and that does tally with the roots of Sumerian religious practices being of a vegetation cult. BUT, in that case, Sumeria is an unnecessary example since the religion native to Israel and the Mediterranean were also evolved from vegetation cults. Tammuz, as Kantzveldt mentions, was in turn the Spring sun, an aspect of the corn god, amongst other things depending on region, economy and changes in leadership, and as such is interchangeable with Adonis, Attis,Osiris and indeed, the Northern European Frode. And, he shares a number of story-telling motifs with Jesus...as do they all.

In terms of 'semen', this is a philological connection, not necessarily a literal one. In one aspect, Tammuz is associated with the fertilising force of the twin rivers, the mud that was deposited by the flooding. Just as Osiris is with that aspect of the Nile. So, what Allegro identifies is that the words associated with male fecundity have a single root and can in turn mean 'water' 'rain' as well as 'seed' etc. It is simply a case of meaning being applied by context. That is Sumeria all over. Much like in the OP, Nergal at times is the King of the Underworld, but only in certain regions, in other places he is merely a sand storm god, or the Destroyer of mankind in his role as the bringer of pestilence. But much like Tammuz, who in his simplest form was the Spring sun, Nergal is the Summer sun...or as Allegro would have it, the fiery glans of god's penis

Either way, in the Levant, they had their own similar traditions, and they had extensive trade relations with Sumer, Egypt and the Mediterranean. Ideas and stories were being passed back and forth all the time, they all influenced one another, and shared many commonalities of belief...as did Sumer through it's trade with India as can be demonstrated by the similarity in the flood myth of Pir-na-pishtim and that of Manu in the Rigveda...lots of ideological exchange going on.

Plus, it is worth noting that Allegro is a little on the anti-Jewish side, he expresses a definate impartiality in all of his books in that direction, doesn't detract from the quality of his research though, it just requires a caution when appraising the validity of some of his conclusions.

And there you have it.

"Flawed in the mushroom department."

Classic!

Harte

Thanks, yours is an impressive command of the topic, this isn't my area, but read the book years ago and been fascinated by such a bold premise ever since. Of course, to a non specialist like me, one can't evaluate Allegro's evidence, its too complex. But seems like the phallic attire of certain church officals, and even the layout of church structure itself reflects fertility symbolism. The congregation is seated in the long hallway, after having passed through the large (often red) doors from the outside. In some churches the priest then enters in a while robe with a phallic shaped hat, sometimes with a red-orange frock over it. They go into the holy alter area, where only the initiated are allowed, does some ceremony, and often the alter area is even in a round vestibule. So to recap the obvious, the labia, vagina, the womb (where the miracle of life is celebrated) the phallic objects- all there. some church services do reenact and celebrate a main mystery of life- procreation. Makes sense, am I reaching here? Think Allegro got some ideas right in this area. Perhaps he took it further than the evidence suggested, think that's what you are suggesting.

Could Christianity have been a later splinter group from the Essenes ? Allegro in his book showed a painting of Jesus in a field of mushrooms, but of course, it was medieval in origin, but still that is interestingly odd. Is there any sacred mushroom connection to any of the Jewish sects in the BCE period ? Any evidence that some early Christina sects, like Gnostics, used hallucigenic plants ? I read that one Roman historian, maybe Josephus claimed that.

Appreciate your opinion.

Harte

Kantzveldt
Thanks, the general question this raised for me while studying and illustrating the subject was what was the point of retaining the spirits of the dead, if they are not to return, within the ever expanding underworld city...

Kantzveldt,

I think the answer to this question is too obvious to be immediately seen by someone overthinking it.

Just like today, people, loved ones, died.

Just like today, these unfortunates are not observed to have returned.

Just like today, humans were too vain or bereft to bear the idea that death is the utter end.

Also, nice thread and excellent OP.

Harte

Or it could be they were on to something here is a rather fascinating thread
Scientists Claim That Quantum Theory Proves Consciousness Moves To Another Universe At Death
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I am one of the fence sitters on the subject we call our selves agnostic..some would say we are cowardly atheist just edging our bets..
Btw Kantzveldt your work is amazing..

reply to post by KilgoreTrout



The reason i would always look to an Indo-European basis for the essential principles of the Eucharistic sacrifice lies at the formative basis of those Pantheons;

The term asura is linguistically related to the ahuras of Zoroastrianism, but has, in that religion, a different meaning. The term applies to three deities--(Ahura Mazda, Mithra, and Apam Napat)


AHURA MAZDA; the immortal (Ahu), radiant (Raa)divinity ; that Great (Maz) entity who rules the universe and mankind strictly through Wisdom (Daa)

Iranian "Mithra" and Sanskrit "Mitra" are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word mitra meaning "contract, agreement, covenant

Apām Napāt is sometimes, described as a fire-god who originates in water, Apąm Napāt in Avestan mean "grandson of waters"Apąm Napāt is given the title of Ahura (Lord) which otherwise is accorded only to Ahura Mazdā himself and to Mithra

We worship the High Lord (bərəzantəm ahurəm), kingly, shining, Son of the Waters, who has swift horses, the hero who gives help when called upon. (It is) he who created men, he who shaped men, the god amid the waters, who being prayed to is swiftest of all to hear.”

The Trinity with the immortal radiant wisom as the first principle, the covenant as the second principle, the ecstatic or fire within the waters as the third principle, all bound as one.

Aesir/ Sanskrit ásu "life force"

In surviving tales, the origins of many of the Æsir are unexplained. Originally, there are just three: Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé.

The names of the first three Æsir in Norse mythology, Vili, Vé and Odin all refer to spiritual or mental state, vili to conscious will or desire, vé to the sacred or numinous and óðr to the manic or ecstatic.

Vili was Odin's brother, known as the God of Wisdom

.Vili and Vé were two lesser-known siblings of Odin in the Norse pantheon. According to Snorri's Prose Edda, the three brothers were responsible for slaying Ymir (the primal giant) and constructing the cosmos from his remains.[ The trio of gods also were credited with the creation of the first humans

When the sons of Borr [Odin, Vili, and Vé] were walking along the sea-strand, they found two trees, and took up the trees and shaped men of them: the first gave them spirit and life; the second, wit and feeling; the third, form, speech, hearing, and sight. They gave them clothing and names: the male was called Askr, and the female Embla, and of them was mankind begotten, which received a dwelling-place under Midgard

It was never really necessary to drag an obliging giant into the narrative in order that his body and blood could form mankind, at it's formative basis the triple aspect of Godhead carried within it the third function of ecstatic self destruction in order to regenerate and multiply, the fire within the water, the destruction of self to create greater self.

At it's formative basis this had been symbolized by the bull Deity and it's rage toward the point of self destruction, in later more refined versions Gods of viticulture, Osiris, Baal, Dionysos, the passion that drove could also be sublimated to love, Tammuz, Adonis.

The regional origin for this i would place within the core Neolithic region and date it back to the earliest Neolithic, hence a mainstay of Indo-European thought and an ever present in religious cults of the Levant and Northern Mesopotamia, the passing through the fire of the Phonecians and the myth of the sacrificed God found in the old Babylonian period.

Back on topic, in some ways Nergal as a bull Deity in his lusts for Eres-Kigal illustrates these principles, because as a consequence of these actions he finds himself bound within the underworld, but as a result of this he becomes the spiritual essence of the greater communion of souls, the ever expansive light within the darkness, a multiplicity of candles from a single flame.


reply to post by Spider879



Yes i noticed science is starting to catch on, but they're 12,000 years off the pace

reply to post by retsdeeps1


I don't want to veer any further off the topic of the thread so it is difficult to answer in detail, so to be brief. My ONLY difficulty with Allegro's hypotheses is the over emphasis on mushrooms BUT that is only in context with the time period that he proposes as them having influence on Judaism during the captivity. Any fungal influence would have occurred prior to captivity because in Sumer, no trees. Mushrooms, particularly the Amanita family, are symbiotic to certain tree species. Further, ploughing destroys the mycellium, which limits other, certain, fungal groups. Therefore I agree with Allegro in general, but not specifically. In terms of the temple/priest symbolism...you can't argue with that at all The Essene aspect, possibly, but the basic ideological core of Christianity can be traced back to Sumeria, Right versus Might, that I believe did travel with the captives, but also on the trade routes.

Kantzveldt

The reason i would always look to an Indo-European basis for the essential principles of the Eucharistic sacrifice lies at the formative basis of those Pantheons;

The Eucharistic supper is more of a fusion of belief systems rather than belonging to one pathway of belief, as with Christianity itself. But then, so was Zoroastrianism.

Kantzveldt
The Trinity with the immortal radiant wisom as the first principle, the covenant as the second principle, the ecstatic or fire within the waters as the third principle, all bound as one.

That would be the rather literal, dogmatic view, of course.

The nature of the 'Life Force' varies from culture to culture, but tends to be either 'breath' or 'blood'. In the south of Mesopotamia, it was 'breath', much like the Egyptians. Amongst the pastorialists, it was blood, much as it is in India. Blood, over all, gained dominance. In Christianity since the Medieval period, the Holy Spirit symbolically represents the breath as life force, spirit, and is most often depicted as a dove existing the mouth of the Father, the feminine aspect being completely expunged from the Trinity which was previously entirely feminine.

Again, you're very literal, but the animal and vegetation cults can be seen as seperate entities that co-developed based on specialist ways of life, only being mingled later. In the Meditteranean basin, as agriculture lost economic dominance due to soil degradation and was replaced by viticulture and sea trade the vegetation cult necessarily evolved ritually retaining the cure principles as they still retained relevance. The stories that evolved from those ritual practices removed from the 'work' just became stories and evolved independently. But preceeding agriculture, wherever there were seasons, there was veneration of the return of vegetation, as symbolised by the son-lover of the Mother Goddess, coupled with the 'lamentation' at his demise and over-wintering in the 'underworld'.

The pastoralist of course, celebrate the masculine, or 'stud', and culturally, tend to those sort of behaviouralisms of male dominance themselves, much head butting, hence the constant 'Might versus Right' dichotomy in Sumer. The vegetation cults remained as the domestic religion, but the ruling class, through conquest, tended towards the bull worship, though you find attempts at fusion, such as when Tammuz slaughters the bull and the bull bleeds corn.

Nergal is usually the lion, I have seen nothing that references his 'bullishness' other than his general bad attitude, but could be another fusion, though not one that makes a lot of sense in the religious or economic context. Shamash perhaps, the sun in it's full form, but Nergal is rather location specific.

In terms of Eresh-ki-gal, that can be seen in the context of events in the region preceding the abandonment of the land due to the successive failure of the crops. The version of the story from the Tel-el-Amarna letters I think demonstrates this best... When the gods have a feast, which Eresh-ki-gal cannot attend due to her confinement in the underworld, she sends Namnar as her emissary. All the other gods stand when he enters except for Nergal. Informed of this slight, Eresh-ki-gal summons his to the Underworld. He arrives, and attacks her, grabs her hair and makes to sever her head. She begs for his mercy, and offers herself to him in marriage in exchange for her life. Says it all really

Here is some more detailed information translated from the ancient Sumer myth data in relation to the underworld netherworld and how INANNA went thru the transition and was reborn in the Netherworld. Under Queen ERESHKIGAL (LILITHs mom- ADAMs postulated first wife) Queen of the Netherworld her INANNA sister.
The myth data also shares how LORD ENKI or EA* in support of INANNAs resurrection creates the kurgarra and galatur to assist in the process after being called by NINSHUBUR to help INANNA, AN interesting read some may find when considering here or there?

“From the Great Above Inanna opened her ear to the Great Below.”

In Sumerian, the word for ear and wisdom are the same. For example, Enki, the God of Wisdom, is said to have his ear “wide open” -- an unfiltered receptivity! This implies that Inanna's primary reason for “going to hell” was to seek wisdom and understanding. But in order to make such a spiritual journey, she first had to give up her earthly powers and possessions. They don’t allow a lot of luggage on the road to hell.

Preparing for the Descent into the Underworld

In the myth, she abandoned heaven and earth to descend to the underworld, her office of holy priestess, her temples in the seven principal cities where she was worshipped. She gave up her earthly powers and possessions -- an essential willingness required of any soul undertaking such a journey, of any soul following such a path of initiation.

Inanna also recognized the need to protect herself. She gathered together seven of The Me, attributes of civilization which she transformed into such feminine allure as crown, jewelry, and a royal robe. These were intended serve as her protections. They included her crown, earrings of small lapis beads, a double strand of beads about her neck, her breastplate called “Come, man, come”, her golden hip girdle, the lapis measuring rod and line, and her royal breechcloth.

Each of these adornments were worn at the level of each Kundalini chakra!

Finally, she instructed her faithful servant, Ninshubur, what to do in case she did not return -- to lament her loss, beat the drum for her, and go to the cities -- to the temples where Enlil (her father’s father), Nanna (her father) and Enki (her mother’s father) were, and ask for their help.

Ninshubur

Ninshubur’s name means “Queen of the East” -- she was handmaid or vizier to Inanna. Other myths, such as “Inanna and the God of Wisdom” (Enki), also describe Ninshubur as she comes to the rescue of Inanna, warding off the fierce emissaries sent by Enki. There Inanna describes Ninshubur as: Once Queen of the East, now faithful servant of the holy shrine of Uruk, “Water has not touched your hand, water has not touched your foot. My sukkal who gives me wise advice, My warrior who fights by my side.”

As Inanna's “faithful servant”, “she seems to embody that small part of us that stays above ground while the soul descends, the still conscious and functioning aspect of the psyche which can witness the events below and above and feel concern for the fate of the soul.” Ninshubur may be a “model of woman's deepest reflective-of-the-Self, priestess function, one which operates as simple executrix of the Self's commands, often when the soul is most threatened.” [1] Ninshubur seems to have no life of her own, no specificity beyond her capacity to serve. No ego, she simply carries out precisely and competently whatever Inanna asks of her. And yet it is Ninshubur who saves Inanna’s life. Ultimately, initiation and/or descending into the underworld is not something to be undertaken without divine guidance and support.

Ereshkigal’s reaction to Inanna's intended visit

When Neti described Inanna at the outer gate -- in all her glory and wearing the garments of her power, light, and movement -- as well as her wish to enter the underworld, Ereshkigal is not at all pleased. Inasmuch as Inanna’s light, glory, and movement had been, to some extent, achieved at Ereshkigal’s expense, the Queen on the Underworld is enraged at Inanna’s appearance.

The Queen of the Underworld can be thought of as the neglected side of Inanna, that part of Inanna that was unloving, unloved, abandoned, instinctual, and full of rage, greed, and desperate loneliness. Ereshkigal’s one great craving was for her own sexual satisfaction, and which was not being fulfilled.

Ereshkigal “is paradoxical: both the vessel and the stake. She is the [kundalini] root of all, where energy is inert and consciousness coiled asleep. She is the place where potential life lies motionless -- but in the pangs of birth; beneath all language and its distinction, yet judging and acting.” [1]

In the Descent myth, “Ereshkigal is described first as enraged, due to Inanna’s invasion of her realm; secondly, as actively destructive; third, as suffering; and finally as grateful and generous.” “There is a quality of primal rage about her. She is full of fury, greed, the fear of loss, and even of self spite.” “And she sends her gatekeeper to deal with the intruder, a male to defend her.” “These images suggest that chaotic defensive furies, such as rage, greed, and even the unleashing of the animus, are inevitable aspects of the archetypal underworld. They are the ways the unconscious reacts to unwelcome visitation.” [1]

Ereshkigal, in some respects, is Lilith. “She ruthlessly destroys all that is not our true individuality or appropriate life path. She will not lead us to our goal by revealing what it is but rather by eliminating everything that it is not. The black aspect of Lilith closes all the wrong doors that face us.” “The black Lilith in us will accept nothing less than our true individuality, not in the sense of separateness, but in the sense of who we intrinsically are. When we are secure in acknowledging and expressing our true self, we don’t falsify ourselves in order to be accepted by others.” [2]

Ereshkigal'‘ instructions to Neti represent the fact that she wants Inanna to experience what it is to be rejected, to enter the royal chamber “bowed low”.

Seven stages of the Descent

The removal of Inanna’s crown, the first of her protective Me -- symbolically deprives her of her godhood, her connection with heaven. The small lapis beads from her ears -- her sense of magic and ability to manifest. The double strand of beads about her neck -- her rapture of illumination. Her golden breastplate called “Come, man, come!” -- her emotional heart. Her ringed hip girdle -- her ego. From her hand the lapis measuring rod and line -- her will. Her garment of ladyship (breechcloth) -- her sex role. Each represents, in order, the Kundalini chakras. Inanna is thus forced to give up her earthly attributes, her roles as queen, holy priestess, and woman. Her royal power, her priestly office, her sexual powers are of no avail in the underworld.

Naked and bowed low, Innana entered the throne room.

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

The Annuna, the judges of the underworld, surround her and pass judgment against her, the judgment of the external against each of us. Ereshkigal then fastens on Inanna the eye of death, speaks against her the word of wrath, and utters against her the cry of guilt. She strikes her. “Inanna was turned into a corpse, a piece of rotting meat, and was hung from a hook on the wall.” Obviously, on our own, even with preparations, we’re dead meat!

Ninshubur seeks help.

Ninshubur waits three days. Inanna was considered to be daughter of the moon -- thus these three days may be the “Dark of the Moon”. Ninshubur set up a public lament, beating the drum, circling the temples, tearing at her eyes, mouth and thighs, and dressing in sackcloth. Grief expressed! She pleads before Inanna’s paternal grandfather, Enlil, and Inanna’s father, Nanna. She cries that they not let their bright silver be covered with dust, their precious lapis broken into stone, and their fragrant boxwood cut into wood.

They reply angrily, that Inanna “got what she deserved!” And that she could not return, that the rules of the underworld could not be broken. Both are angry their daughter should pursue a different direction from theirs. Each in turn, refused to help.

But in pleading before Enki, Inanna’s mother’s father and the God of Wisdom, there is a different response. Enki has compassion for his daughter who is in difficulty. Not only does the God of Wisdom value the journey Inanna has undertaken, but he does not forget that his grand daughter’s existence is vital to humankind. In reacting to what has happened, Enki moves with feeling. He improvises to create what the moment needs. He empathizes with Inanna.

Enki’s plan

Enki knows the nature of the underworld and its rule by a jealous, anguished Ereshkigal. He also has the power to create and facilitate. He creates from the dirt under his fingernails the kurgarra and galatur -- instinctual, asexual creatures who Enki endows with the artistic and empathetic talent of being professional mourners, capable of mirroring the lonely queen’s emotions. “They are humble, nonheroic creatures, without definition or even the need to be separately defined, without any sense of what we would call ego-needs. These little asexual creatures represent the attitude necessary to draw a blessing from the dark goddess.” [1]

Enki also instructs his creations on how to enter the underworld and how to deal with Ereshkigal. He tells them how to recover Inanna from death.

The Rescue

When the kurgarra and galatur arrive, Ereshkigal is moaning “with the cries of a woman about to give birth.” She complains both for her “inside” and her “outside”. Having willed Inanna’s death, she can scarcely bear it, for Inanna is the other side of herself. Ereshkigal was also needing rebirth from the night time aspects of the feminine -- the powerful, raging sexuality and the deep wounds accumulated from life’s rejections -- and which sought solace in physical union only.

The kurgarra and galatur moan with Ereshkigal, appeasing her anguish by the echo of their concern. “They affirm her in her suffering. They have been taught by Enki to trust the life force even when it sounds its misery. Complaining is one voice of the dark goddess. It is a way of expressing life, valid and deep in the feminine soul. It does not, first and foremost, seek alleviation, but simply to state the existence of things as they are felt to be to a sensitive and vulnerable being. It is one of the bases of the feeling function, not to be seen and judged from the stoic-heroic superego perspective as foolish and passive whining, but just as autonomous fact -- ‘that’s the way it is.’ Enki’s wisdom teaches us that suffering is part of reverencing.” [1]

Ereshkigal is so touched by the attention they offer to her in her pain that she extends herself and offers gifts of fertility and growth. Following Enki’s instructions, however, the creatures refuse these gifts and ultimately ask for Ereshkigal most wants to give and that which is most difficult for her to give. They ask her to release part of her personal anguish, her despair and anger, which is embodied in the glorious Goddess of Love. They ask for the rotting body of Inanna.

When Ereshkigal agrees to release her nemesis, and thus part of her pain, the kurgarra and galatur sprinkle the food and water of life on Inanna’s corpse. And Inanna arose.

Ascending from the Underworld

The Annuna must maintain the rules of the underworld, but they must also deal with the fact that Inanna has been reborn in the underworld. Their tactic is to tell Inanna that she must provide someone in her place. In essence, Inanna cannot be allowed to again forget her neglected, abandoned “sister” -- that part of herself that is Ereshkigal. A passageway has been created from the Great Above, the conscious, to the Great Below, the unconscious, and it must be kept open. Thus the galla, the demons of the underworld, those who cannot be bribed, are assigned to accompany Inanna as she leaves.

@ times from 1z subject observations it seems many try to make the connection of how can another CREATOR Creation(s) be what they may be to humans or were taught to be to humans if they are Created like "we" this is a logical argument.
But when considering more to reality both physical and astral ethereal metaphysical add more advanced energies interacting with advancing-developing energies, its not hard to see how some developing viewed the Advanced the way the did or do, especially considering if there were direct interactions with netherworld underworld inhabitants with above ground inhabitants. Both energies existing and seeing from different perspectives potentially.

www.halexandria.org...

Ophiuchus 13
@ times from 1z subject observations it seems many try to make the connection of how can another CREATOR Creation(s) be what they may be to humans or were taught to be to humans if they are Created like "we" this is a logical argument.
But when considering more to reality both physical and astral ethereal metaphysical add more advanced energies interacting with advancing-developing energies, its not hard to see how some developing viewed the Advanced the way the did or do, especially considering if there were direct interactions with netherworld underworld inhabitants with above ground inhabitants. Both energies existing and seeing from different perspectives potentially.

Indeed.

Surmised, Eresh-ki-gal is the interface, between us/air dwellers, and the planet beneath. By expansion, the inclusion of Nergal, incorporates the atmosphere, the interface between the biosphere, as a whole, as one, and the firmament beyond.

And so on and so forth...

1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

www.biblegateway.com...

reply to post by KilgoreTrout