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Utu
Apr 9, 2010 21:32:11 GMT -5
Post by xuchilpaba on Apr 9, 2010 21:32:11 GMT -5
Ever since the triad of the three Nanna, Utu, and Inanna was brought to my attention, the sun god has piqued my interest.
I read somewhere he had a wife, who was less known, named Aya.
Likewise, I read that in some myths he pulled a chariot of the sun across the sky with mules. Helios anyone?
I've seen a few references that he had two twin sisters, Inanna and Ereshkigal. (Another triad?) How much of this is accurate?
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Utu
Apr 12, 2010 23:41:11 GMT -5
Post by ninurta2008 on Apr 12, 2010 23:41:11 GMT -5
While I have no clue about Ereshkigal's parentage at the moment, I know that Inanna is his sister. They are both the children of Nanna and Ningal (there are others as well). Though a triad? I don't know. As for a connection with Helios, it is possible since much of the greek religion came from influences from elsewhere, including sumeria and mesopotamia in general.
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Utu
Apr 15, 2010 20:28:50 GMT -5
Post by xuchilpaba on Apr 15, 2010 20:28:50 GMT -5
Its discussed in the cylinder seals thread. Another very interesting cylinderseal from the collection of the Walters Art Museum is this one. The text says : 1. lugal KA-GI-UL 2. dub-sar 3. dumu ur-dingir-ra which means: Lugal Kagiul, scribe, son of Urdingirra. And the seal itself displays a scene where the Lugal is led to a sitting god by a goddess. What confuses me here is the fact that he calls himself a scribe. Was that usual? I never heard of that before... I call for experts help The Lugal also looks more like a priest or a scibe then a king... Also interesting is the symbol at the seal. First i thought it represents the sun, but it could also represent the venus. On the next picture you can see, from left to right, Venus(Inanna), Moon (Sin) and the Sun(Utu), and if you put all 3 over each other you get exactly the symbol from the seal. So it represents the holy trinity, Utu, Sin and Inanna. I think this style of symbol was created because of the limited space given on the seal.
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Utu
Dec 20, 2010 15:40:50 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Dec 20, 2010 15:40:50 GMT -5
Is there anybody to tell me when and where is this text from?
To Utu
English
Youthful Utu, brilliant light, great lion, Hero emerging from the holy interior of Heaven, Storm whose splendour covers the land and is laden with great awesomeness; The great wild bull, youthful Utu, who like a torch illuminates the land from the holy Heavens; the wise one of all the countries, The fearsome radiance of Uraš, The just god among the Anuna gods, the long, holy dragon, The first-born son cherished by Suen, the lord born to command.
Utu who decrees judgments for all countries, The lord, the son of Ningal, who renders decisions for all countries, The lord who is highly skilled at verdicts, the son of Suen, Highly knowledgeable and majestic Utu, the son of Ningal.
Lord of all the great divine powers, borne by Ningal! Youthful Utu, lord of all the great divine powers, borne by Ningal! Praise be to Utu!
Ancient Tongue
šul utu še-er-zid piriĝ gal ur-saĝ an-šag kug-ta e-a ud me-lem-ni kalam-ma bi-dul ni gal mu-da-ri am gal an kug-ta šul utu izi-ĝar-gin ĝa-ĝa ud kalam-ma igi-ĝal kur-kur-ra me-lem ur-ra-aš diĝir si sa a-nun-ke-ne ušumgal kug sud-sud dumu-saĝ suen-ne mi dug-ga en dug-ga tud-da
utu kur-kur-ra di-bi-še kud-de en dumu nin-gal-la-ke kur-kur-ra ka-aš-bi igi bar-re-de en gal-zu eš-bar dumu suen-la-ke utu gal-zu mah dumu nin-gal-la-ke
en me gal-gal-la nin-gal-e tud-da šul utu en me gal-gal-la nin-gal-e tud-da utu za-mi
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Utu
Dec 20, 2010 17:00:26 GMT -5
Post by madness on Dec 20, 2010 17:00:26 GMT -5
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Utu
Dec 22, 2010 6:10:25 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Dec 22, 2010 6:10:25 GMT -5
Thank you very much - I found this text in some forum posted very long ago and was not able to contact neither the person who posted it, nor to find it in ETCSL - in fact, I found only Utu B hymn there knowing not Utu adab for $ulgi and didn't suppose somebody had made one text from two with some occult purpose
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Utu
Dec 24, 2010 2:32:20 GMT -5
Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Dec 24, 2010 2:32:20 GMT -5
Hey guys, Yes, there are gems hidden within the Oxford corpus, it is an excellent collection of material which will surprise you again and again. Now one thing they don't have much of is incantations and so below I will type up an incantation to Utu. Now this incantation to Utu we have sought for years at enenuru - the English translation is given by M. Geller in the periodical published in Hiroshima, known as Acta Sumerologica; on gaining access to the RIM library recently, I have finally found a library which has this periodical on shelf. The incantation is from the Old Babylonian period and Geller has explained that the text is a "forerunner" to the Bit Rimki ritual text.. It is especially interesting to us because of the naming of Sisig as "father of mankind" (see line 13). What does this mean? I don't think that it's possible to know for sure...however line 12 speaks of the "gentle words of the heart" and here we must remember that the ancients believed the heart to be the seat of conciousness, of thoughts as well as feelings. Hence, Sisig as dream god connected man to his future via dreams, revealing the future to his heart - but also as these lines seem to suggest, revealing his heart to the future at the same time (to Utu, the judge in the netherworld). For more, one can refer to our long running Sisig thread, in particular, reply #6, S.A.L. Butler, section c - Sisig/Zaqiqu and the Human soul. Actually, I'll just quote it below: Extract from earlier reading on the Sisig thread:_________________________________________"c) Human Soul - At last a line from ASJ 17!
Its explained that when zaqīqu is used with amīlaru "mankind", or nišū "people", it appears to mean "human soul" (and Jacobsens 1989 exploration of líl is again referred to here). An interesting example given is from "The third house of bit Rimki" (JCS 21) l. 13
13. sig.sig.ga nigin.nam.lú.u18.lu.ke4 šu.min ma.ra.ni.íb.gi4-gi4 zi-qí-qa šá nap-har ni-ši ú-šá-an-na-ke
"the zaqīqu(s) of all mankind report to you, (Shamash)."
In referring to Acta Sumerological 17, (which I have been stalking for a year since seeing it cited in the Veldhuis paper), Butler calls the text delt with in that article a "forerunner" to the above bit Rimki ritual, and on the rev line 13 of this forerunner a variant to the above quoted line is given:
13. dSi-si-ig-e ad nam-lú<-u18>-lu-k[e4] "Sisig, the father of mankind,....."" ___________________ From:
"Very Different Utu Incantations"
M. Geller. ASJ 17 (The tablet treated here contains two incantations to Utu, the one below is featured on the reverse. Note, the incantation is not complete - were it complete, in addition to having an initial praise to the deity and an enumeration of suffering, there would likely be some sort of request for specific assistence at the end..) 1. [Utu -- when you come out from the great mountain,] 2. [When you come from the great mouintain -- the distant mountain,] 3. [When you come out from the Duku, where the fates are decided,] 4. [When you come out from the horizon to the place where heaven and earth are bound together,] 5. [the senior gods stand for you in judgement.] 6. [The Anunnaki stand for you in decision making.] 7. Mankind - - [the people who totally turned their attention to you], 8. and the wild animals, [whatever has four feet on the earth], 9. [have looked to you, towards your] great ... 10. O Utu, exalted and wise, [you keep your own counsel], 11. Utu, great leader, you are the judge of heaven and earth. 12. Whatever there is from the heart, the gentle word is [spoken], 13. and Sisig, father of mankind [repeats it to you]. 14. You hastily dispute with the evil man, 15. You choose truth and rectitude. 16. To the harmed and ruined man, 17. and the man who knows nothing -- (the demon) has confronted him. 18. To the man without sight -- (the demon) has confronted him. 19. The man whom the fate demon has seized, 20. the man whom the Asag demon has seized, 21. the man whom Udug-demon has struck on his head, 22. the man whom the Ala-demon [enveloped] in bed, 23. the man with whom the ghost had sex at night, 24. the man whom the Galla-demon hit, 25. the man whom the evil god pinched on his cheek, 26. the man whose hair the Bailiff-demon has removed, 27. the man whom the Dimme-demon has caught, 28. the man with whom the Dim(me)a-demon was walking unrecognized, 29. the man whom the Dimme-Lagab demon fettered, 30. the maiden, whom the Lil-demon favoured, 31. the lord whom the maiden-demon has coddled, 32. the one who blocked the evil omen of the lil-demon, 33. [the one] bound by the oath (demon), 34. [the one] whom the evil [mouth] has reviled, 35. [the one] whom [whatever] evil has caused, 36. [the one] upon whom the evil [eye] angrily glares, 37. [the one] whom the evil spell has bound, 38. [the one] whom the magic has ......
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Utu
Dec 24, 2010 9:31:03 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Dec 24, 2010 9:31:03 GMT -5
Interesting and very in time - thank you, us4-he2-gal2. Is there any available transliterated version of this text?
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Utu
Dec 24, 2010 16:45:28 GMT -5
Post by madness on Dec 24, 2010 16:45:28 GMT -5
> What does this mean? I don't think that it's possible to know for sure <
It means what it says. I don't see any difficulty here. Since Utu is the father of Sisig, we have a genealogy:
Utu -> Sisig/Zaqiqu -> Mankind
My interpretation is that before existing in physical form, mankind only existed as the dream.
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Utu
Dec 24, 2010 22:30:38 GMT -5
Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Dec 24, 2010 22:30:38 GMT -5
Enkur:
Yes there is a transliteration in Acta Sumerologica 17 as well, however there is no taking the books out of this particular library and so I didn't have time to copy the transliteration by hand as well hm.
Madness:
Even granting that this is what the text says, to say that Sisig or the dream state are the father of mankind seem provocative, though perhaps worth puizzling over... Traditionally one views Enki as the creator and father of mankind based on the superior number of texts which testify to this arrangement. Enki's act of divine engendering is an important part of the Sumerian's explanation of divine order, as for example in "Enki and Ninmah" the setting of creation is the Ur-zeit formula "In those days..in those nights..in those years" signifying the primordial time of creation.
My suspicions are that somehow lil2 was an important part of divine order - as an aspect of demonic punishment, or as the haunting wind of a place condemned by Enlil, or in its aspect as human soul or in the dream gods who connected man with his fate, or fate with its man. In just what way Sisig may be father of mankind I'm still puzzling over.
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Utu
Dec 25, 2010 8:45:45 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Dec 25, 2010 8:45:45 GMT -5
I know little about Sisig yet but Madness's interpretation "that before existing in physical form, mankind only existed as the dream" doesn't contradict my view of Enki as a sleeping god in the depths of Abzu, in Engur, in the secret chamber of Halankug, who was stirred up in his dream to create the mankind. As far as I remember, it has also its parallels in the Hinduism and in the native Australian mythos - that humans live in the dream of their creator. On the contemporary sorcery's point of view, one of the difficultiest matters is becoming able to awake one's genetic memory, or accessing the DNA awareness. Constantin Stanislavski who laid the foundation of the theatrical science in 1930-ties, explored the affective/emotional memory as a basic tool for the actors to make their roles genuine and organic. However, his method could be used successfully in invoking the ancient deities as well, a research which made of me an outsider in the theatrical academy I was a graduate. The theatrical performance and the magical-religious ritual follow the same psychological and physiological laws. Thus I re-discovered sorcery for myself. The point where the aroused personal affective/emotional memory touches the deeper collective genetic memory the so called possession takes place. Here Jung's consideration of the ancient deities as archetypes of the collective unconscious comes to support theoretically my thesis, but practically, one is to forget about them when really experiences a possession. In the case of Enki I've found it's almost impossible to get directly possessed. Another profound experience of mine with the genetic memory induced by certain psyho-active plants, has showed me in an unambiguous way how overwhelming that memory could be, so one's own survival instinct denies one's access to these deep levels. The only way is getting gradually an access to there. Thus I arrived at an initiatory (mysteral) psycho-dramatic system of my own based on the Sumerian mythos as most appealing to my personal affective memory. I think everybody should discover one's unique way to access the source of one's being - Abzu while still alive, and get out of there refreshed, a quest difficult enough since it needs a series of rituals which could take time until the connection is made clear and the subjective experience gets an objective feedback from one's life. In other words, such a quest could be a long journey in time. Inanna's possession is my way to access the netherworld, Ereshkigal's possession is my way to access the No Mind and Death Posture, a state dangerous enough by its seduction to stay therein forever, to be no more and have no individual awareness as a compensation of all life's frustrations. The longer one stays there the more is one unwilling to return, and the things could happen quite naturally - one slows down one's breathing to minimum, then one forgets to do it all, the heart gets overburdened...and at last there follows the common doctor's expertise etc... Still preserving my individual awareness, but already belonging spiritually to the netherworld, then there naturally comes Ningishzidda's possession as my psychopompos to Enki and Abzu, but there suddenly arises a problem with Nungal who denies my further access for unpaid accounts, so realizing I'm traveling spiritually through the Land of No Return, the things start to become dramatical, having a parallel negative feedback from my consensus reality as well, so I need Utu's justice right now, on the Winter Solstice period and I scream almost in panic: "IIIIIIIIIIII UTUUUUUUUU!!!!!!" Otherwise Ereshkigal is always opened to me... I don't know why I chose to make you an audience of my own psychodrama, but having nothing to lose anymore, it's nice at least to have some common cultural medium for communication with one's audience - what this board is. The education from you, and the entertainment from me though upon eventual re-constructional projects you can rely on my professional experience as well. Anyway, if Enki wakes up we should disappear since we live in His dream, but I hope He will at least stir up again in His dream, that humanity may get rid of certain spiritual plagues which make the human life not worthy living it. Moreover, maybe we are to wake up individually in His dream as well, aren't we?
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Utu
Jan 3, 2011 11:39:38 GMT -5
Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jan 3, 2011 11:39:38 GMT -5
Hey Enkur:
This seems to be a rare or even singular way to come to sorcery, that is through a study of affective/emotional memory in relation to ancient deities. Your model seems fairly elaborate including such obscure deities as Nungal - I suppose the Mesopotamians didn't so much object to death or their netherworld situation although they did seem to resist going their early or before their time as it were (as in the Poem of the Rightious sufferer).
As far as combining ritual and academic research I think thats a fine contribution to the board, its always a challenge for academics to get into the mindspace of the magical thinking and this is something enenuru tries to address in various ways. Usually a problem is that most magical practitioners are bored by the academic side of things and so there is no middle ground hm.
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Utu
Jan 5, 2011 17:11:08 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Jan 5, 2011 17:11:08 GMT -5
Though being the only known to me source about Nungal, the "Hymn to Nungal" had a very strong impact on my emotionality and has very strongly appealed to both my affective and genetic memory...My psychodrama has become a matter of life and death - as a feedback to my invocation, Nungal has revealed to me something ominous I have ever known and feared of, so my quest approaches a critical point... "The method of science and the purpose of religion", thus Mr. Crowley defined his magick To me sorcery is the point where art and science become one.
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Utu
Jan 6, 2011 9:46:08 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Jan 6, 2011 9:46:08 GMT -5
Also, concerning how Mesopotamians accepted death - the Sumerian lamentation genre speaks to me by itself. I bristle up with horror while reading such lamentations, since I'm able to emotionally hear them. The country I have grown has a specific oral folklore with a very similar literary structures to the Sumerian mythopoetry, especially the repeating mode of verbiage, with each repeat containing a new element. I have witnessed many funerals wherein certain women spontaneously adopt the roles of mourners, and as if they really get possessed by some force greater than them. What follows is such an ominous spontaneous verbiage framed in a certain poetic structure, that its emotional impact is really tremendous. The women in my country are generally emotionally supressed, but in such moments of sore grief, they are able to unleash something terrible which could make everybody attending to bristle up with horror. I would call it "a howl to the skyes".
In this context I was very impressed by Crowley's "The Vision and the Voice", especially by his vision of the 27th aethyr where he confronted some goddesss of dead, bearing resemblance to both Hecate and Ereshkigal who was continuously wailing over all the existence, and whose magic word heard by Crowley was "MAKHASHANAH". I find Crowley's qabalistic interpretations of that word as irrelevant - he has never studied profoundly the Mesopotamian connection to his own magick despite of the fact that the image of the Whore of Babylon riding a 7-headed lion was a central symbol of his magick. The first what I saw in that word was the Sumerian "makka$" (lamentation; clamor, uproar) the rest is to be investigated by those compentent in the Sumerian grammar, but for me the entire word sounds like a supreme howl to the sky, as both curse and redemption of everything - what is in the very context of the vision itself, but Crowley neglected it in his commentaries seeking after more joyous revelations from the gods.
After all, for me now and here (including what has remained from then and there within my genetic memory) not death but life is dying, death is when dying stops, yet I feel there is still much to do in this life. If another fate was decreed for me, if the scream "I UTU" doesn't bring any justice to me, I will say the word heard by Crowley...
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Utu
Mar 8, 2011 13:25:43 GMT -5
Post by muska on Mar 8, 2011 13:25:43 GMT -5
> My interpretation is that before existing in physical form, mankind only existed as the dream. It reminds me V. Afanasieva s commentary on her translation of Lahar and Ashnan (ETCSL, 5.3.2, lines 20-25), that these lines describes the primordial stage of humankind as dream-like existense. Then (lines 35-36) the humankind receives zi šag4 im-ši-in-ĝal2 (life-breath-heart) - an understanding of their existence. Afanasieva finds the same transition from dream-like ignorance to knowledge in Enki and Ninhursag. For me, this methaphor in some extent comparable to transition from Sumerian to Babylonian culture. The Sumerian is adjusted on imitation the primordial harmony. In the Babylonian literature the person as Enkidu is already left a primary creatures and has no internal harmony. But it is left also by gods. The person is compelled, being broken out from primordial unity with animal and celestial worlds, to take the form of itself. It is painful, the person doesn't want, but back to the friendly womb of Sumerian divine order and harmony is already impossible.
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Utu
Mar 8, 2011 15:19:16 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Mar 8, 2011 15:19:16 GMT -5
Yet time being cyclic, some ancient patterns return - there is always some return to the source but on another level.
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Utu
Mar 8, 2011 19:27:01 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Mar 8, 2011 19:27:01 GMT -5
Moreover, I would say we humans are disintegrated beings, or maybe it's our disintegration which makes us humans. Consider the deficiency in communication between our dream consciousness and our wake consciousness. Do they care much about each other? But physically that means there is a poor connection between the right and the left hemispheres of our brain. That's tragic indeed but most probably that's what makes us human. The moment henceforth they start to actively interact with each other, so the dream awareness enter the wake world, and the wake awareness enter the dream world we wouldn't be human anymore - when we make our awareness whole. To take a conscious decision while dreaming means you have become Utu in the underworld. To see the wake world as another branch of the netherworld means you have seen through the Eye of Ereshkigal. Sometimes I see walking dead in my city's streets and the noise they and their machines make is nightmarish indeed, it's not a metaphor. So I can empathize with Enlil's bad moods as well
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