| Con’t: “Inanna then proclaims: …’Then plow my vulva, man of my heart! Plow my vulva!’…’At the king’s lap stood the rising cedar. Plants grew high by their side. Grains grew high by their side. Gardens flourished luxuriantly. Inanna sang: ‘He has sprouted; he has burgeoned; He is lettuce planted by the water. He is the one my womb loves best. My well-stocked garden of the plain. My barley growing high in its furrow, My apple tree which bears fruit up to its crown’….” (76) From these excerpts we can see that this hymn relates to the enrichment of the soil and the fertility of the earth. Both of these hymns give a good insight into the early mythology of the Sumerian gods and goddesses. Most scholars though point to this being related to “fertility of plants” and look directly past the possibility of this being “fertilization of spores.” This would put an entirely new spin on all kinds of “fertility rites” and we would have to look back on all the related myths of the “fertilization of the earth” for the purposes of “crop abundance” and consider the abundance of the mushroom harvest instead. We should keep in mind that mushrooms did not take cultivation to acquire. Nobody had to learn how to cultivate these “crops.” They just appeared from the rainfall, by the pine trees or they appeared after rainfall from the steer dung. The dung which causes growth to appear in “the underworld.” As well, we should consider the idea that mushrooms originally spawned the ideas which led to the cultivation of crops to begin with. The mushroom taught mankind how to move forward. All of our modern ideas about primitive farming started during a time period (10-8000 BC) which followed the worship and use of the psychedelic mushroom as evidenced by cave and rock glyphs, which date from 10,000-40,000 BC. We find over and over again in myth, this hero’s journey into the great abyss, the dark place, usually represented by hell or lower earth planes. This is where mushrooms grow from, deep within the soil where mycelium lives happily. This next passage is from Inanna’s Descent into the Underworld: “From the great heaven Inanna set her mind on the great below… she took the seven divine powers. She placed a golden ring on her hand. She held the lapis-lazuli measuring rod and measuring line in her hand. She says to Nincubura, her faithful minister of E-ana, ‘On this day I will descend to the underworld. When I have arrived in the underworld, make a lament for me on the ruin mounds. Beat the drum for me in the sanctuary.’ She then continues… ‘When you have entered the E-kur, the house of Enlil, lament before Enlil: ‘Father Enlil, don't let anyone kill your daughter in the underworld.’ Inanna states that ‘Father Enki, the lord of great wisdom, knows about the life-giving plant and the life-giving water. He is the one who will restore me to life.’ Upon arriving at the gate of the underworld, she shouts to the doorman Neti, to ‘open up the gate!’ Neti had been instructed by Erishkagal, the Queen |
of the Underworld, to bolt all seven gates and only to allow her entry to each one upon removing one of the seven items she was carrying on her person. When Enki found out his daughter Inanna was missing, he ‘removed some dirt from the tip of his fingernail and created the kur-jara. He removed some dirt from the tip of his other fingernail and created the gala-tura. To the kur-jara he gave the life-giving plant. To the gala-tura he gave the life-giving water.” They were sent to bring these to Inanna by slipping through the cracks of the seven gates. Inanna was successful in being brought back to life but upon leaving she was told by one of Erishkagal’s messengers that a substitute would be needed to replace her, so she found Dumuzi, her husband sitting under an “apple” tree and gave him as her substitute or “sacrifice.” What we learn is that Inanna had to venture into the dark underground to obtain the “life-giving plant,” which implies immortality and the “Life-giving Water” implies urine which contains the mushroom alkaloids. (77) It should also be made clear at this point, that “Water of Life” can and often does have a double meaning. One meaning implies the rain which fertilizes and gives life to mushroom spores and belongs to the heavenly abode of the cow goddess, and the other reference implies the re-consuming of the mushroom through the urine and recycling of the metabolites. The context in which it is used should be the guide for interpretation of the meaning. The whole point of hiding or occulting the knowledge of the mushroom is to give the main imagery and ideas more than one form of interpretation, so the true purpose can never be claimed by anyone with absolute evidence. This is part of the magic or the ace up the sleeve. The name Dumuzi(d) also Tammuz can be broken down as such. “Dumu” means “son” and “Zi” means “true,” “faithful,” or “living” or “risen.” (78) Another interpretation is “Faithful Son of the Abyss.” After Inanna’s “Death and Resurrection” from the underworld by Enki, Erishkagel sends demons to force Inanna to pick a substitute for her in the underworld and she picks Damuzi while he is sitting under an “apple” tree. (79) Dumuzi is the shepherd god, husband of Inanna, who replaces her in the netherworld. Dumuzi is akin to Osiris, whom Isis must go look for in the Underworld. (76) In the Wake of the Goddess, p. 52-53 (77) http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm (78) https://www.lost-history.com/dumuzi.php (79) Occidental Mythology, p. 48-49 |