Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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  R: (21e) The Apkallu - Seven Sages L: (21c) Bas-relief of Marduk. Louvre c. 860 BC   R: (21f) Marduk c. 860 BC-590 BC The dream oracle or the practice of sleeping in the temple awaiting divine instruction may be a practice that originates prior to Greece and Egypt, dating back to the Euphrates and Tigris valleys and the worship of the god Ea of Eridu in Sumer, c. 4000-5000 BC. (15) Ninlil was the “Lady of the Open Field” or “Lady of the Wind,” who was married to Enlil who was the “Lord of the Wind” or storm god. It was Enlil who caused the Great Flood. Enlil was also regarded as the patron of agriculture. Ninlil and Enlil produced Nanna, the Moon-god and a host of netherworld deities. (16) Enlil was a Sumerian deity associated with wind, air, earth and storms. (17) His name means literally “Lord of the Wind.” He was known as “the lord who makes the barley sprout forth, the god who makes the vines sprout forth, the lord who makes yields be, lord of the earth.” (18) He is sometimes described as a “raging storm,” or a “wild bull.” (19) |
Gulu (Bau, or Nin-Karrak) was the daughter of Anu and Antu, a goddess of healing, herbs and medicine. She was considered a “great physician” and “life-giver” who removed disease by her touch and “leads the dead to new life,” but she could also inflict harm and cause great pain, evils and misfortune. Her animal symbol is the dog. (20) In the Louvre Museum there exists a carved green steatite case, inscribed around 2025 BC, by King Gudea of Lagash, dedicated to his goddess Ningishzida under the title “Lord of the Tree of Truth” or “Lord of the Good Tree.” (21) The popularly known image of the two dragons, or Mushussu, on two sides with the caduceus of two entwined serpents in the middle, on the oldest known image of the caduceus, is that of Ningishzida. (Also Gizzida or Ningizzida) (22) He was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head. According to the inscription at Lagash, he was the son of Anu, the “heavens” or sky. (23) The death of vegetation signaled to the Sumerians, Ningishzida’s descent into the underworld just like Dummuzi and Tammuz. (24) Ningishzida was the original Damuzi or Tammuz, similar to Osiris, Dionysos and Bacchus. The goddess in Sumer went by many names such as Ninhursaga, Mah, Ninmah, Inanna-Ishtar, Nintu or Aruru. (22e) E.O. James, in Cult of the Mother Goddess writes: “Thus, in Sumerian mythology, the Goddess Ninhursaga, ‘the mother of the land,’ was Ninsikil-la, ‘the pure lady,’ until she was approached by Enki, the Water-god of wisdom, and gave birth to a number of deities. Then she became Nintu ama Kalamma, ‘the lady who gives birth, the mother of the land.’ When she had accepted him, she was Dam-gal-nunna, ‘the great spouse of the prince’ (i.e. Enki), and having conceived as the fertile soil and given birth to vegetation, she was Ninhur-sag-ga, ‘the lady of the mountain,’ where nature manifested its power of fecundity in the spring on its lush slopes.” (25) (15) Healing Gods, p. 103; Thramer, in ERE vi, 542 (16) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 233 (17) Coleman, J. A.; Davidson, George (2015), The Dictionary of Mythology: An A-Z of Themes, Legends, and Heroes, London, England: Arcturus Publishing Limited, p. 108 (18) In the Wake of the Goddess, p. 55; Enlil and Ninlil, lines 147-149 (19) Black, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (1992), Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary, The British Museum Press (20) Healing Gods, p. 121; Jastrow, Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria, Philadelphia, 1915, p. 417 (21) Adapa and the South Wind, p. 118 (22) Occidental Mythology, p. 9 (23) Ira Maurice Price, Notes on the Pantheon of the Gudean Cylinders, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Oct. 1900), pp. 47-53 JSTOR 528092 (24) Stone, Adam (2016). "Ningišzida (god)". Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, Oracc and the UK Higher Education Academy (25) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 47-8; Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, Philadelphia, 1944, pp. 56ff.; A.N.E.T., pp. 37ff.; Jacobsen, J.N.E.S., iv, 1946, p. 150; Thureau-Dangin, Revue d' Assyriologie et d'Archeologie orientale, xix, Paris, 1884, pp. 175ff |
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