Post by Admin on Jun 14, 2021 13:12:18 GMT
FOSSIL GODS
_COMMENTS: It doesn't say there was a time when there was no Moon.
It shows that the Saturn Configuration likely existed since at least 3200 BC.
P123 says when Venus comet-like appearance ended.
On Fossil Gods and Forgotten Worlds
Preface
1. The Ladder to Heaven
2. The Climbing Planet
3. Creation Amongst the Skidi Pawnee
4. Queen of Heaven
5. Inanna: Warrior Goddess Extraordinaire
6. The Symbol of Inanna
7. The Great Star
8. The Horus-star
9. Tîwaz/Tyr
10. On Thundergods and Thunderbolts
11. The Latin Goddess Venus
12. The Shout Heard Around the World
13. Conclusion
The dragon combat plays a prominent element in many ancient cosmogonies, as we have elsewhere documented, generally serving as a prelude to Creation.590
__1. The Ladder-to-Heaven p6
__When the sky was near p6
__The Chain of Arrows p9
__The World Tree p15
_p18 “This story is about the time when the sky was near… There was a tree called eebe… Well, the one which the people used to climb up and down between the sky and the earth was the eebe… It had many leaves which they could climb on like a ladder, and they would climb all the way up to the sky… There was no sun and no stars; all these were living among the people. Sun and Moon lived like human beings… When the insect cut down the tree and it fell, Sun and Moon left and moved up to the sky.”40
_<<40 J. Wilbert & K. Simoneau, Folk Literature of the Chamacoco Indians (Los Angeles, 1987), pp. 31-33.
_p23 the most logical explanation of the evidence at hand is as follows: In primeval times a luminous tree-like apparition dominated the skies overhead, albeit in a solar system configured much differently than at present.
__The Separation of Heaven and Earth p23
_This apparently universal belief in a former Age marked by the close proximity (or union) of heaven and earth is intimately related to a correlate belief — namely, that the gods once lived on earth and only departed with its separation from heaven. The gods themselves, in turn, are explicitly identified with the most prominent celestial bodies.
_“All over Australia, it is believed that the stars and planets were once men, women and animals in Creation times, who flew up to the sky as a result of some mishap on earth and took refuge there in their present form.”58
_<<58 J. Isaacs, Australian Dreaming, 40,000 years of Australian History (Sydney, 1980), p. 141.
_p24 The spectacular events remembered as the “departure of the gods” were so mesmerizing and traumatic that ancient cultures everywhere sought to recreate or re-experience the Eden-like conditions that prevailed during the Golden Age.
__Creation p29
_p32 Doubtless it is no coincidence that advanced cultures in the New World as well as the Old report that the erection of the World Tree was coincident with Creation and the separation of heaven and earth.
__2. Mars and the Ladder to Heaven p34
__Nergal p35
_p38 If Nergal/Mars’ association with war and/or an ascent to heaven truly stems from the Mesopotamian cult of Nergal and not from the witnessed historical behavior of the red planet, one would hardly expect to find similar reports from the New World.
_However, should New World cultures preserve traditions paralleling those from the ancient Near East a prima facie case would be made for the thesis defended here, which holds that the characteristic mythological traditions surrounding the respective planets stem from objective astronomical events and observations.
__Tales from the Watunna p38
__[Australian outback] Waijungare p42
_p44-45 How are we to account for the traditions reporting that the ladder was destroyed in a primeval cataclysm and is thus no longer available to the respective gods (or souls) in their attempt to scale the Olympian heights? And why would the collapse of the ladder-to-heaven be linked to the end of the world if, as Krupp maintains, the original reference was to the Milky Way? The last time I checked, the Milky Way — like the world itself — was still intact and in perfectly good working order.
_p46 The ladder-to-heaven itself, according to Eliade, is simply a variation upon the widespread theme of the axis mundi. By axis mundi, Eliade—following Holmberg—has reference to the World Axis associated with the celestial Pole.
__The Ladder to the Sun p47
_p51 The extraordinary profusion of ladder-like forms in prehistoric rock art points to the conclusion that the mythical ladder-to-heaven had reference to a perfectly visible celestial structure, albeit one that has long since disappeared from the polar heavens. This naturally begs the question: How are we to understand this “polar configuration” from an astronomical standpoint?
__The Polar Configuration p52
_p53 Velikovsky went so far as to hypothesize that the Earth had been a satellite of Saturn’s in relatively recent times (within the last 10,000 years and thus well within the memory of man), with Saturn dominating the skies in sun-like fashion.129
_<<129 I. Velikovsky, Mankind in Amnesia (New York, 1982), pp. 97-100.
__3. Creation Amongst the Skidi Pawnee p65
__4. Inanna: Queen of Heaven p71
_The Sacred Marriage Rite p72
__5. Inanna: Warrior-goddess extraordinaire p77
_p77 The earliest literary texts from Mesopotamia date from the Early Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1800 BCE).192 The corpus of hymns allegedly composed by Enheduanna, a daughter of Sargon (ca. 2300 BCE) himself, is representative of this period and literary genre.
_<<192 J. Hayes, A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts (Malibu, 2000), p. 394.
__Great Light or Great Storm? p79
_p84 [] once consider the possibility that Venus formerly presented the appearance of a great tornado-like storm, whirling about while displaying a rope-like appendage, and the Sumerian imagery describing the “battle” of Inanna/Venus is explained at one stroke and in a perfectly logical manner.
_p85 If we are to believe the ancient skywatchers, the original natural-historical reference for the Sumerian imagery was a towering celestial form in the throes of an extraordinary and awe-inspiring meteorological outburst, wherein the Venus-star was enveloped in lightning and displayed a tornado-like “tail,”
__The Roar Heard Across the Heavens
__Inanna’s Terrifying Radiance p87
__Lamashtu p90
__Inanna’s Mane p92
__Inanna’s Terrible Eye p93
__Inanna’s Tangled Threads p96
__Venusian Iconography
_p97 The most common symbol for the planet Venus in Mesopotamian art depicts an eight-rayed star (see figure one).291 This symbol traces to the dawn of history and thus must be deemed prehistoric in nature.
_<<291 Adapted from O. Keel & C. Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God (Minneapolis, 1998), figure 287.
_As I have documented elsewhere, analogous images denote the planet Venus around the globe, compelling evidence that the whirling-stars in question accurately reflect the ancient appearance of Venus.
_p100 it is possible to deduce that it was the whirling “hair” of the planet Venus that darkened the prehistoric skies, thereby ushering in a period of cosmic disorder marked by “war,” terrifying storms, and “confusion.”
__6. Inanna’s Earliest Symbol p101
_p101 In the most archaic texts from Uruk—conventionally attributed to roughly 3300 BCE 302 — Inanna’s name was written with a sign known as MUÍ3, commonly interpreted as a gate-post with streamer (see figure one).303
_<<302 J. Glassner, The Invention of Cuneiform (Baltimore, 2003), p. 45.
_<<303 C. Wilcke, “Inanna/Ishtar,” Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5 (Berlin, 1976-1980), pp. 74-75. For the various examples of this sign in archaic texts, see M. Green & H. Nissen, Zeichenliste der archaischen Texte aus Uruk (Berlin, 1987), p. 248.
_p105 In the earliest period for which we have written evidence (Uruk IV), the MUÍ3-sign typically appears without the divine determinative, although exceptions do occur. In the subsequent Uruk III period, the sign is usually accompanied by a divine determinative.318 Inasmuch as the cuneiform determinative for “god” features an eight-pointed star, it stands to reason that Inanna was identified with a celestial body during this period.
_p106 According to Szarzynska, the cult of astral deities reaches back to the proto-Sumerian period, perhaps earlier.320
_<<320 Personal communication, March 22, 1997, with reference to the article “Cult of the oddess Inana in Archaic Uruk.”
_p107 If the MUÍ3-sign originally had reference to a comet-like object—one somehow connected to the planet Venus—it stands to reason that cometary symbolism should be evident in early literary descriptions of the Sumerian goddess. And this is certainly the case, as we have documented (see chapter five).325 Again and again in the Sumerian texts Inanna is described as raining fire and destruction from the sky.
_<<325 E. Cochrane, The Many Faces of Venus (Ames, 2001), pp. 99-127.
_p109 An early temple-hymn translated by Sjöberg and Bergmann confirms that Inanna — as the planet Venus — was indeed conceptualized as a dragon:
__The Uraeus-Goddess p113
_p117 "... we get the fundamental symbol equation of Egyptian religion: Eye=Flame=Destructive Goddess=Cobra=Crown. This holds true from the Pyramid Texts to the end of the civilization.”375
_<<375 R. T. Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt (London, 1959), p. 220.
_p118 As delineated in the Pyramid Texts, the uraeus-serpent came to adorn the forehead of Horus as the crown of kingship during the decidedly catastrophic events attending Creation.
_p119 Figure four shows the predynastic ruler Narmer wearing the Red Crown as ruler of Egypt.
_p120 it is our view that the spiraling curl adorning the Red Crown is simply the uraeus-serpent in its angry or “rearing” phase.
_p123 ____The natural form referenced by the MUÍ3-sign — i.e., the spiraling comet-like apparition presented by the planet Venus — disappeared from the ancient skies at some point between prehistoric times and the end of the Early Dynastic period. As the planet Venus settled into a more stable orbit, its heaven-spanning tail disappeared together with its terrifying aspect. At that decisive juncture in history new symbols were devised to describe Sumer’s greatest goddess.
__7. The Great Star p124
_Stars were monitored and venerated by most Amerindian tribes. Of all the stars, the Morning Star stands out for its conspicuous role in sacred mythology and ritual. Less well known, but evident nevertheless, is the Star’s importance in the religious iconography of the various Amerindian cultures.
_p128 How are we are to understand the reddish orb that typically appears in the center of the four-pointed star?
_p129 various Amerindian cultures described the mythical Morning Star as red in color. This was the case among the Skidi Pawnee, Cheyenne, Osage, Delaware, Snuqualmi,412 and Zuni, among others.
_<<412 H. Haeberlin, “Mythology of Puget Sound,” Journal of American Folklore 37 (1924), p. 375.
_p131 the Skidi identified the mythical Morning Star with the planet Mars and it was his “marriage” to Venus that set Creation in motion.
_p138 A wealth of circumstantial evidence suggests that the “Great Star” of Amerindian myth was actually the planet Mars, rather than Venus.
_Amerindian languages from the East Coast to the West, including Mesoamerica, describe the Morning Star by a phrase meaning at once “Great Star” but also “Red Star.” Such evidence is best explained by reference to the red planet Mars, not Venus.
_Taking our cue from the Skidi myth of Creation, wherein a spectacular conjunction of Mars and Venus was conceptualized as a sacred marriage or mating, it is our opinion that the so-called “Great Star” of figure one actually depicts a conjunction of Mars and Venus, wherein Mars is the central red orb and Venus is represented by the four [white] radiating rays.
__8. The Horus-Star p139
_p139 The pharaoh himself was considered to be the earthly incarnation of the god, a belief-system reflected in the so-called Horus names borne by early rulers from the first dynasty on.447
_<<447 H. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (Chicago, 1948), p. 39.
_p140 The cult of Horus is prominent already in predynastic times (Writing itself is first attested in Egypt during the Predynastic Period, ca. 3200 BCE, in the Abydos tomb known as U-j.453). Rulers from the Naqada I period, for example, worshipped the falcongod prior to the unification of Egypt.454
_<<453 T. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (London, 2001), p. 19.
_<<454 J. Assmann, The Mind of Egypt (Cambridge, 1996), p. 33.
__Lord of the Netherworld p143
__Horus and Nergal p146
_p148-149 As a warrior-star, the star “at the front of the sky,” Lord of the Netherworld, and rager against the gods — not to mention his intimate association with the mountain of sunrise — Horus shares a specific and multifaceted pattern of characteristics with the Sumerian Nergal. These analogous epithets and mythological attributes, in turn, suggest that the two gods share a fundamental affinity and likely trace to a common celestial prototype. Indeed it is our contention that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the structural parallelisms common to the cults of Horus and Nergal: Both gods originated as personifications of the planet Mars.
__9. Tîwaz/Tyr p150
__10. On Thundergods and Thunderbolts p171
__A Universal Archetype p172
_p177 In our previous studies on Indra, we argued that the Vedic thundergod is to be identified with the planet Mars based upon his fundamental affinity with Heracles, Verethragna, and Vahagn, each of whom was identified with the red planet by their respective cultures.595 The identification with Mars, although surprising at first sight, is actually the key to deciphering the multifaceted mythology surrounding the thundergod.
_<<595 E. Cochrane, op. cit., pp. 79-97
__The Lightning-hurling eye p177
__The Sign of the Four p180
_p181 Essential to understanding the mythical imagery in question is the thesis that the objective celestial reference was a series of planets in alignment, with Venus forming the “eye” or “heart” of the ancient sun-god and Mars forming the “pupil” of the Venusian eye. To the terrestrial skywatchers, the four-fold pattern of streamers appeared to emanate outwards from Venus/Mars and across the disc of the ancient sun-god.
__The thundergod’s wheel p184
_p187 In the Saturn model, each of the planets participating in the polar configuration plays a distinctive role with respect to the wheel-like phase. If the radiating streamers of the Venus-star represent the “spokes” of the wheel, the conjoined orbs of Venus and Mars constitute the “nave.” Mars itself forms the “axle” of the sun-centered wheel. And as we have documented, various warrior heroes identified with Mars are said to reside at the “nave,” where they “move” or otherwise govern the “axle” of the solar wheel.
__The World Pillar p187
_p187-188 As the polar configuration evolved through time, the various planets moved up and down the axis, alternately growing larger and smaller while moving in and out of conjunction with each other. At various times Venus and Mars became displaced from their axial location, thereby producing a kaleidoscopic montage of celestial forms for mesmerized terrestrial skywatchers and mythmakers. It is also likely that the plasma enveloping the various planets underwent dramatic changes in form and luminous intensity, thereby producing spectacular lightning-like discharges and iridescent auroralike effects (more on which later).
_A particularly memorable phase in the evolutionary history of the polar configuration found the planet Mars leaving the central “eye” of Saturn and descending to a position closer to Earth. Astronomically, the “descent” of Mars was apparently the result of its elliptical orbit, which brought it alternately close to Venus at the apex of its orbit and closer to Earth (and thus beneath Saturn and Venus) during its descent along the shared polar axis.
_A widespread theme associated with the descent of the warrior-hero was the formation of the World Pillar, the latter conceived as a tangible column of luminous material stretching between Mars and Earth and appearing to support the ancient sun-god.
_The Descent of Mars p190
_p190 As Blinkenberg documents at great length, lightning is thought to fall down from heaven as a stone...638
_Meteorites, in accordance with this belief, were identified with thunderstones throughout the ancient world.639
_<<638 C. Blinkenberg, The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore (Cambridge, 1911), p. 1.
_<<639 Ibid., p. 13. For a similar opinion see G. A. Wainright, “Letopolis,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 18 (1932), p. 161: “In religion the meteorite and the thunderbolt are the same thing.”
_p191 “The descending Zeus is the Zeus that descends in the rain or lightning…"645
_<<645 L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 46.
_p191-192 It is probable that such traditions have their original point of reference in the spectacular appearance of the red planet as it descended from Saturn/Venus towards Earth, as if it were a gigantic boulder or bolide hurled from on high. That the fall of Martian meteorites accompanied this event is possible and likely contributed to the mythical imagery as well.646 Certainly it is no accident that a universal motif finds Martian heroes being hurled or otherwise cast from heaven for one crime or another. The traditions surrounding Helel ben Shahar (Lucifer), Tezcatlipoca, and Phaethon are exemplary here and could be multiplied ad infinitum.647
_<<646 E. Cochrane, “Martian Meteorites in Ancient Myth and Modern Science,” Aeon 4:2 (1995), pp. 57-73.
_<<647 E. Cochrane, “Mars Gods of the New World,” Aeon 4:1 (1995), pp. 58-63.
__Lightning as fire from heaven p192
_p192 Martian gods and heroes are everywhere celebrated for “drilling” the first fire.
_p193 Like the thundergod himself, the planet Mars was conceptualized as an agent promoting fertility and sexual prowess.
_p194 “The source of the lightning is the sun, the heavenly fire: the Thundergod gets fire from the solar wheel by rotating his lightning-club in the nave of the solar wheel.”658 The rotary action of Perkunas’ “club” in the nave of the solar wheel offers a precise mythical parallel to the Martian hero’s drilling of fire that, in turn, offers a precise parallel to Mars’ union with Venus.
_<<658 M. Gimbutas, op. cit., p. 475.
__The thunderbolt as mill-stone p194
__The Thunderbolt as Fructifier of the Earth p196
_p199-200 The key to understanding such traditions is Mars’ conjunction with Venus: it was the conjunction of these two planets that provided the celestial prototype for the sacred marriage of male and female powers. As Mars ascended the polar column and “penetrated” Venus, it was viewed to have impregnated the celestial embodiment of the fertile “earth.”
_p200 Yet the conjoined bodies of Mars and Venus also formed the central “eye” of the ancient sun-god. It was from this “eye” that lightning appeared to emanate to the four corners of heaven.
__The thundergod as unerring marksman p200
_p201-202 As the Martian thundergod moved up along the axis mundi, it “penetrated” the “eye” of Venus set “in the center of the disc of the sun.”
_p202 As Talbott has pointed out, the motif of the unerring marksman is most likely to be explained by reference to Mars’ habit of climbing the axis mundi and “penetrating” Venus.690
_<<690 D. Talbott, “Servant of the Sun God,” Aeon 2:1 (1989), p. 44.
__The Thundergod and the Heart of Heaven p202
__The Celestial Ladder and Related Forms p204
_p204 As Talbott and I have documented, the form of the axis mundi evolved during the history of the polar configuration. In addition to presenting a pillar-like structure or universalis columna, as in figure nine, a closely related phase saw the axis mundi assuming a spiraling form, commonly interpreted as an undulating serpent or rope stretching across the sky.
_p205 The axis mundi eventually assumed the form of a ladder-like structure (see figure ten).
_p211 For the ancient thundergod was the planet Mars and the prototypical “lightning” an interplanetary discharge of stupendous power and heaven-spanning dimension. The archetypal thundergod formerly resided at the “heart of heaven.” There, in plain view and nestled inside the planet Venus, he presided over the sacred fire while kindling his paramour’s passion.
__11. The Latin Goddess Venus p212
__On the Origins of Magic p214
__Venus as Binder p215
__Venus in Ancient Mesopotamia p217
__The Uraeus-Goddess p219
_p219 As explicitly stated here in no uncertain terms, the great mother goddess, alternately identified as an “Eye” and “Fiery Serpent,” comes to encircle Horus and, as a result, provides him with the crown of kingship. A detailed analysis of the language in question will confirm that it is the uraeus-goddess’s act of binding or encircling Horus that constitutes the prototypical act of divine magic.
__Inanna/Venus and the Crown of Kingship p220
__The Shen Bond p224
__Venus and the Lead-Rope of Heaven p226
_p229 the rope-like bond of Inanna/Ishtar has reference to the celestial band that formerly spanned the heavens and comprised the enclosure of the gods.788
__12. The Shout Heard Around the World p232
__The Long Night p234
__The Light-Bringer p237
__Cosmogony and Commemorative Ritual p243
__13. Conclusion p246
_COMMENTS: It doesn't say there was a time when there was no Moon.
It shows that the Saturn Configuration likely existed since at least 3200 BC.
P123 says when Venus comet-like appearance ended.
On Fossil Gods and Forgotten Worlds
Preface
1. The Ladder to Heaven
2. The Climbing Planet
3. Creation Amongst the Skidi Pawnee
4. Queen of Heaven
5. Inanna: Warrior Goddess Extraordinaire
6. The Symbol of Inanna
7. The Great Star
8. The Horus-star
9. Tîwaz/Tyr
10. On Thundergods and Thunderbolts
11. The Latin Goddess Venus
12. The Shout Heard Around the World
13. Conclusion
The dragon combat plays a prominent element in many ancient cosmogonies, as we have elsewhere documented, generally serving as a prelude to Creation.590
__1. The Ladder-to-Heaven p6
__When the sky was near p6
__The Chain of Arrows p9
__The World Tree p15
_p18 “This story is about the time when the sky was near… There was a tree called eebe… Well, the one which the people used to climb up and down between the sky and the earth was the eebe… It had many leaves which they could climb on like a ladder, and they would climb all the way up to the sky… There was no sun and no stars; all these were living among the people. Sun and Moon lived like human beings… When the insect cut down the tree and it fell, Sun and Moon left and moved up to the sky.”40
_<<40 J. Wilbert & K. Simoneau, Folk Literature of the Chamacoco Indians (Los Angeles, 1987), pp. 31-33.
_p23 the most logical explanation of the evidence at hand is as follows: In primeval times a luminous tree-like apparition dominated the skies overhead, albeit in a solar system configured much differently than at present.
__The Separation of Heaven and Earth p23
_This apparently universal belief in a former Age marked by the close proximity (or union) of heaven and earth is intimately related to a correlate belief — namely, that the gods once lived on earth and only departed with its separation from heaven. The gods themselves, in turn, are explicitly identified with the most prominent celestial bodies.
_“All over Australia, it is believed that the stars and planets were once men, women and animals in Creation times, who flew up to the sky as a result of some mishap on earth and took refuge there in their present form.”58
_<<58 J. Isaacs, Australian Dreaming, 40,000 years of Australian History (Sydney, 1980), p. 141.
_p24 The spectacular events remembered as the “departure of the gods” were so mesmerizing and traumatic that ancient cultures everywhere sought to recreate or re-experience the Eden-like conditions that prevailed during the Golden Age.
__Creation p29
_p32 Doubtless it is no coincidence that advanced cultures in the New World as well as the Old report that the erection of the World Tree was coincident with Creation and the separation of heaven and earth.
__2. Mars and the Ladder to Heaven p34
__Nergal p35
_p38 If Nergal/Mars’ association with war and/or an ascent to heaven truly stems from the Mesopotamian cult of Nergal and not from the witnessed historical behavior of the red planet, one would hardly expect to find similar reports from the New World.
_However, should New World cultures preserve traditions paralleling those from the ancient Near East a prima facie case would be made for the thesis defended here, which holds that the characteristic mythological traditions surrounding the respective planets stem from objective astronomical events and observations.
__Tales from the Watunna p38
__[Australian outback] Waijungare p42
_p44-45 How are we to account for the traditions reporting that the ladder was destroyed in a primeval cataclysm and is thus no longer available to the respective gods (or souls) in their attempt to scale the Olympian heights? And why would the collapse of the ladder-to-heaven be linked to the end of the world if, as Krupp maintains, the original reference was to the Milky Way? The last time I checked, the Milky Way — like the world itself — was still intact and in perfectly good working order.
_p46 The ladder-to-heaven itself, according to Eliade, is simply a variation upon the widespread theme of the axis mundi. By axis mundi, Eliade—following Holmberg—has reference to the World Axis associated with the celestial Pole.
__The Ladder to the Sun p47
_p51 The extraordinary profusion of ladder-like forms in prehistoric rock art points to the conclusion that the mythical ladder-to-heaven had reference to a perfectly visible celestial structure, albeit one that has long since disappeared from the polar heavens. This naturally begs the question: How are we to understand this “polar configuration” from an astronomical standpoint?
__The Polar Configuration p52
_p53 Velikovsky went so far as to hypothesize that the Earth had been a satellite of Saturn’s in relatively recent times (within the last 10,000 years and thus well within the memory of man), with Saturn dominating the skies in sun-like fashion.129
_<<129 I. Velikovsky, Mankind in Amnesia (New York, 1982), pp. 97-100.
__3. Creation Amongst the Skidi Pawnee p65
__4. Inanna: Queen of Heaven p71
_The Sacred Marriage Rite p72
__5. Inanna: Warrior-goddess extraordinaire p77
_p77 The earliest literary texts from Mesopotamia date from the Early Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1800 BCE).192 The corpus of hymns allegedly composed by Enheduanna, a daughter of Sargon (ca. 2300 BCE) himself, is representative of this period and literary genre.
_<<192 J. Hayes, A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts (Malibu, 2000), p. 394.
__Great Light or Great Storm? p79
_p84 [] once consider the possibility that Venus formerly presented the appearance of a great tornado-like storm, whirling about while displaying a rope-like appendage, and the Sumerian imagery describing the “battle” of Inanna/Venus is explained at one stroke and in a perfectly logical manner.
_p85 If we are to believe the ancient skywatchers, the original natural-historical reference for the Sumerian imagery was a towering celestial form in the throes of an extraordinary and awe-inspiring meteorological outburst, wherein the Venus-star was enveloped in lightning and displayed a tornado-like “tail,”
__The Roar Heard Across the Heavens
__Inanna’s Terrifying Radiance p87
__Lamashtu p90
__Inanna’s Mane p92
__Inanna’s Terrible Eye p93
__Inanna’s Tangled Threads p96
__Venusian Iconography
_p97 The most common symbol for the planet Venus in Mesopotamian art depicts an eight-rayed star (see figure one).291 This symbol traces to the dawn of history and thus must be deemed prehistoric in nature.
_<<291 Adapted from O. Keel & C. Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God (Minneapolis, 1998), figure 287.
_As I have documented elsewhere, analogous images denote the planet Venus around the globe, compelling evidence that the whirling-stars in question accurately reflect the ancient appearance of Venus.
_p100 it is possible to deduce that it was the whirling “hair” of the planet Venus that darkened the prehistoric skies, thereby ushering in a period of cosmic disorder marked by “war,” terrifying storms, and “confusion.”
__6. Inanna’s Earliest Symbol p101
_p101 In the most archaic texts from Uruk—conventionally attributed to roughly 3300 BCE 302 — Inanna’s name was written with a sign known as MUÍ3, commonly interpreted as a gate-post with streamer (see figure one).303
_<<302 J. Glassner, The Invention of Cuneiform (Baltimore, 2003), p. 45.
_<<303 C. Wilcke, “Inanna/Ishtar,” Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5 (Berlin, 1976-1980), pp. 74-75. For the various examples of this sign in archaic texts, see M. Green & H. Nissen, Zeichenliste der archaischen Texte aus Uruk (Berlin, 1987), p. 248.
_p105 In the earliest period for which we have written evidence (Uruk IV), the MUÍ3-sign typically appears without the divine determinative, although exceptions do occur. In the subsequent Uruk III period, the sign is usually accompanied by a divine determinative.318 Inasmuch as the cuneiform determinative for “god” features an eight-pointed star, it stands to reason that Inanna was identified with a celestial body during this period.
_p106 According to Szarzynska, the cult of astral deities reaches back to the proto-Sumerian period, perhaps earlier.320
_<<320 Personal communication, March 22, 1997, with reference to the article “Cult of the oddess Inana in Archaic Uruk.”
_p107 If the MUÍ3-sign originally had reference to a comet-like object—one somehow connected to the planet Venus—it stands to reason that cometary symbolism should be evident in early literary descriptions of the Sumerian goddess. And this is certainly the case, as we have documented (see chapter five).325 Again and again in the Sumerian texts Inanna is described as raining fire and destruction from the sky.
_<<325 E. Cochrane, The Many Faces of Venus (Ames, 2001), pp. 99-127.
_p109 An early temple-hymn translated by Sjöberg and Bergmann confirms that Inanna — as the planet Venus — was indeed conceptualized as a dragon:
__The Uraeus-Goddess p113
_p117 "... we get the fundamental symbol equation of Egyptian religion: Eye=Flame=Destructive Goddess=Cobra=Crown. This holds true from the Pyramid Texts to the end of the civilization.”375
_<<375 R. T. Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt (London, 1959), p. 220.
_p118 As delineated in the Pyramid Texts, the uraeus-serpent came to adorn the forehead of Horus as the crown of kingship during the decidedly catastrophic events attending Creation.
_p119 Figure four shows the predynastic ruler Narmer wearing the Red Crown as ruler of Egypt.
_p120 it is our view that the spiraling curl adorning the Red Crown is simply the uraeus-serpent in its angry or “rearing” phase.
_p123 ____The natural form referenced by the MUÍ3-sign — i.e., the spiraling comet-like apparition presented by the planet Venus — disappeared from the ancient skies at some point between prehistoric times and the end of the Early Dynastic period. As the planet Venus settled into a more stable orbit, its heaven-spanning tail disappeared together with its terrifying aspect. At that decisive juncture in history new symbols were devised to describe Sumer’s greatest goddess.
__7. The Great Star p124
_Stars were monitored and venerated by most Amerindian tribes. Of all the stars, the Morning Star stands out for its conspicuous role in sacred mythology and ritual. Less well known, but evident nevertheless, is the Star’s importance in the religious iconography of the various Amerindian cultures.
_p128 How are we are to understand the reddish orb that typically appears in the center of the four-pointed star?
_p129 various Amerindian cultures described the mythical Morning Star as red in color. This was the case among the Skidi Pawnee, Cheyenne, Osage, Delaware, Snuqualmi,412 and Zuni, among others.
_<<412 H. Haeberlin, “Mythology of Puget Sound,” Journal of American Folklore 37 (1924), p. 375.
_p131 the Skidi identified the mythical Morning Star with the planet Mars and it was his “marriage” to Venus that set Creation in motion.
_p138 A wealth of circumstantial evidence suggests that the “Great Star” of Amerindian myth was actually the planet Mars, rather than Venus.
_Amerindian languages from the East Coast to the West, including Mesoamerica, describe the Morning Star by a phrase meaning at once “Great Star” but also “Red Star.” Such evidence is best explained by reference to the red planet Mars, not Venus.
_Taking our cue from the Skidi myth of Creation, wherein a spectacular conjunction of Mars and Venus was conceptualized as a sacred marriage or mating, it is our opinion that the so-called “Great Star” of figure one actually depicts a conjunction of Mars and Venus, wherein Mars is the central red orb and Venus is represented by the four [white] radiating rays.
__8. The Horus-Star p139
_p139 The pharaoh himself was considered to be the earthly incarnation of the god, a belief-system reflected in the so-called Horus names borne by early rulers from the first dynasty on.447
_<<447 H. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (Chicago, 1948), p. 39.
_p140 The cult of Horus is prominent already in predynastic times (Writing itself is first attested in Egypt during the Predynastic Period, ca. 3200 BCE, in the Abydos tomb known as U-j.453). Rulers from the Naqada I period, for example, worshipped the falcongod prior to the unification of Egypt.454
_<<453 T. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (London, 2001), p. 19.
_<<454 J. Assmann, The Mind of Egypt (Cambridge, 1996), p. 33.
__Lord of the Netherworld p143
__Horus and Nergal p146
_p148-149 As a warrior-star, the star “at the front of the sky,” Lord of the Netherworld, and rager against the gods — not to mention his intimate association with the mountain of sunrise — Horus shares a specific and multifaceted pattern of characteristics with the Sumerian Nergal. These analogous epithets and mythological attributes, in turn, suggest that the two gods share a fundamental affinity and likely trace to a common celestial prototype. Indeed it is our contention that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the structural parallelisms common to the cults of Horus and Nergal: Both gods originated as personifications of the planet Mars.
__9. Tîwaz/Tyr p150
__10. On Thundergods and Thunderbolts p171
__A Universal Archetype p172
_p177 In our previous studies on Indra, we argued that the Vedic thundergod is to be identified with the planet Mars based upon his fundamental affinity with Heracles, Verethragna, and Vahagn, each of whom was identified with the red planet by their respective cultures.595 The identification with Mars, although surprising at first sight, is actually the key to deciphering the multifaceted mythology surrounding the thundergod.
_<<595 E. Cochrane, op. cit., pp. 79-97
__The Lightning-hurling eye p177
__The Sign of the Four p180
_p181 Essential to understanding the mythical imagery in question is the thesis that the objective celestial reference was a series of planets in alignment, with Venus forming the “eye” or “heart” of the ancient sun-god and Mars forming the “pupil” of the Venusian eye. To the terrestrial skywatchers, the four-fold pattern of streamers appeared to emanate outwards from Venus/Mars and across the disc of the ancient sun-god.
__The thundergod’s wheel p184
_p187 In the Saturn model, each of the planets participating in the polar configuration plays a distinctive role with respect to the wheel-like phase. If the radiating streamers of the Venus-star represent the “spokes” of the wheel, the conjoined orbs of Venus and Mars constitute the “nave.” Mars itself forms the “axle” of the sun-centered wheel. And as we have documented, various warrior heroes identified with Mars are said to reside at the “nave,” where they “move” or otherwise govern the “axle” of the solar wheel.
__The World Pillar p187
_p187-188 As the polar configuration evolved through time, the various planets moved up and down the axis, alternately growing larger and smaller while moving in and out of conjunction with each other. At various times Venus and Mars became displaced from their axial location, thereby producing a kaleidoscopic montage of celestial forms for mesmerized terrestrial skywatchers and mythmakers. It is also likely that the plasma enveloping the various planets underwent dramatic changes in form and luminous intensity, thereby producing spectacular lightning-like discharges and iridescent auroralike effects (more on which later).
_A particularly memorable phase in the evolutionary history of the polar configuration found the planet Mars leaving the central “eye” of Saturn and descending to a position closer to Earth. Astronomically, the “descent” of Mars was apparently the result of its elliptical orbit, which brought it alternately close to Venus at the apex of its orbit and closer to Earth (and thus beneath Saturn and Venus) during its descent along the shared polar axis.
_A widespread theme associated with the descent of the warrior-hero was the formation of the World Pillar, the latter conceived as a tangible column of luminous material stretching between Mars and Earth and appearing to support the ancient sun-god.
_The Descent of Mars p190
_p190 As Blinkenberg documents at great length, lightning is thought to fall down from heaven as a stone...638
_Meteorites, in accordance with this belief, were identified with thunderstones throughout the ancient world.639
_<<638 C. Blinkenberg, The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore (Cambridge, 1911), p. 1.
_<<639 Ibid., p. 13. For a similar opinion see G. A. Wainright, “Letopolis,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 18 (1932), p. 161: “In religion the meteorite and the thunderbolt are the same thing.”
_p191 “The descending Zeus is the Zeus that descends in the rain or lightning…"645
_<<645 L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 46.
_p191-192 It is probable that such traditions have their original point of reference in the spectacular appearance of the red planet as it descended from Saturn/Venus towards Earth, as if it were a gigantic boulder or bolide hurled from on high. That the fall of Martian meteorites accompanied this event is possible and likely contributed to the mythical imagery as well.646 Certainly it is no accident that a universal motif finds Martian heroes being hurled or otherwise cast from heaven for one crime or another. The traditions surrounding Helel ben Shahar (Lucifer), Tezcatlipoca, and Phaethon are exemplary here and could be multiplied ad infinitum.647
_<<646 E. Cochrane, “Martian Meteorites in Ancient Myth and Modern Science,” Aeon 4:2 (1995), pp. 57-73.
_<<647 E. Cochrane, “Mars Gods of the New World,” Aeon 4:1 (1995), pp. 58-63.
__Lightning as fire from heaven p192
_p192 Martian gods and heroes are everywhere celebrated for “drilling” the first fire.
_p193 Like the thundergod himself, the planet Mars was conceptualized as an agent promoting fertility and sexual prowess.
_p194 “The source of the lightning is the sun, the heavenly fire: the Thundergod gets fire from the solar wheel by rotating his lightning-club in the nave of the solar wheel.”658 The rotary action of Perkunas’ “club” in the nave of the solar wheel offers a precise mythical parallel to the Martian hero’s drilling of fire that, in turn, offers a precise parallel to Mars’ union with Venus.
_<<658 M. Gimbutas, op. cit., p. 475.
__The thunderbolt as mill-stone p194
__The Thunderbolt as Fructifier of the Earth p196
_p199-200 The key to understanding such traditions is Mars’ conjunction with Venus: it was the conjunction of these two planets that provided the celestial prototype for the sacred marriage of male and female powers. As Mars ascended the polar column and “penetrated” Venus, it was viewed to have impregnated the celestial embodiment of the fertile “earth.”
_p200 Yet the conjoined bodies of Mars and Venus also formed the central “eye” of the ancient sun-god. It was from this “eye” that lightning appeared to emanate to the four corners of heaven.
__The thundergod as unerring marksman p200
_p201-202 As the Martian thundergod moved up along the axis mundi, it “penetrated” the “eye” of Venus set “in the center of the disc of the sun.”
_p202 As Talbott has pointed out, the motif of the unerring marksman is most likely to be explained by reference to Mars’ habit of climbing the axis mundi and “penetrating” Venus.690
_<<690 D. Talbott, “Servant of the Sun God,” Aeon 2:1 (1989), p. 44.
__The Thundergod and the Heart of Heaven p202
__The Celestial Ladder and Related Forms p204
_p204 As Talbott and I have documented, the form of the axis mundi evolved during the history of the polar configuration. In addition to presenting a pillar-like structure or universalis columna, as in figure nine, a closely related phase saw the axis mundi assuming a spiraling form, commonly interpreted as an undulating serpent or rope stretching across the sky.
_p205 The axis mundi eventually assumed the form of a ladder-like structure (see figure ten).
_p211 For the ancient thundergod was the planet Mars and the prototypical “lightning” an interplanetary discharge of stupendous power and heaven-spanning dimension. The archetypal thundergod formerly resided at the “heart of heaven.” There, in plain view and nestled inside the planet Venus, he presided over the sacred fire while kindling his paramour’s passion.
__11. The Latin Goddess Venus p212
__On the Origins of Magic p214
__Venus as Binder p215
__Venus in Ancient Mesopotamia p217
__The Uraeus-Goddess p219
_p219 As explicitly stated here in no uncertain terms, the great mother goddess, alternately identified as an “Eye” and “Fiery Serpent,” comes to encircle Horus and, as a result, provides him with the crown of kingship. A detailed analysis of the language in question will confirm that it is the uraeus-goddess’s act of binding or encircling Horus that constitutes the prototypical act of divine magic.
__Inanna/Venus and the Crown of Kingship p220
__The Shen Bond p224
__Venus and the Lead-Rope of Heaven p226
_p229 the rope-like bond of Inanna/Ishtar has reference to the celestial band that formerly spanned the heavens and comprised the enclosure of the gods.788
__12. The Shout Heard Around the World p232
__The Long Night p234
__The Light-Bringer p237
__Cosmogony and Commemorative Ritual p243
__13. Conclusion p246