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Post by sheshki on Jun 6, 2010 9:26:10 GMT -5
My friend Mark pointed me to this bonus track of Celtic Frost. "Incantation Against You" is an a-cappella song , it was recorded by longtime female studio vocalist Simone Vollenweider, backed only by a male choir. The song was inspired by Mesopotamian ritual writings of banishment and the “Maklu” text in the Necronomicon; it was written by Martin Eric Ain and Simone Vollenweider." www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK3wcWfv-YA |
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Post by sheshki on Jul 18, 2010 7:06:42 GMT -5
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Aug 2, 2010 12:45:40 GMT -5
Hm Rotting Christ vid - not totally offensive, lyrics seem consistent with theme. Of course the demon thing with the boar tusks seems a little random  |
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Post by sheshki on Oct 24, 2010 16:28:32 GMT -5
I found this in an episode of Futurama.  |
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Oct 26, 2010 16:48:07 GMT -5
Nice find Sheshki rather bizarre shout out to Assyrian culture I suppose.. wonder if it will get the kids going on the Assyriology 0_0 (maybe not). |
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Post by sheshki on Nov 2, 2010 13:27:43 GMT -5
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asakku
dubĝal (scribes assistent)
Posts: 51
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Post by asakku on Dec 21, 2010 19:41:45 GMT -5
melechesh - the epigenesis  melechesh - sphynx  melechesh - emissaries  Equimanthorn - Exalted are the 7 Throne Bearers of Ninnkigal  Achoerntas - tat tvam asi  Blood of kingu - de occulta philosophia  |
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Post by sheshki on Jan 2, 2011 12:15:20 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Jan 2, 2011 18:18:16 GMT -5
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jan 3, 2011 7:34:41 GMT -5
Neat They should really provide samples though |
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Post by muska on Mar 4, 2011 15:20:12 GMT -5
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Post by enkur on Mar 5, 2011 12:53:26 GMT -5
I find this artist's channeling somehow Akkadian-like |
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Post by muska on Mar 5, 2011 13:19:56 GMT -5
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Post by enkur on Mar 5, 2011 14:26:42 GMT -5
Well I do not exclude the extra-terrestrial element in the human origin but I'm afraid Sitchin shows a very poor taste for both mythology and science-fiction. The common culture of the general public is also very poor, so he makes a commercial use thereof. Yet such popular authors have attracted many individuals who later deepen their interest beyond the common culture. I think that were one a writer, an artist, or a musician, one should try to do a sincere channeling to the spirit of time and then add one's own interpretation. As the best literatural example for such a channeling I would like to turn your attention to enenuru.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=ummia&action=display&thread=222 where both scholarship and intuition are combined to offer the reader a magico-historic trip through the post Ur III period. |
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Post by sheshki on Mar 17, 2011 19:14:49 GMT -5
Just found this video on youtube, a song written by Enheduana. There is not much more information given.
edit:
Another one, inspired by sumer, for some reason he also slipped egytian images into the video.
JERRED HOUSEMAN - THE NIGHT OF SUMERIA
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Post by enkur on Mar 18, 2011 11:06:55 GMT -5
I like this Enheduanna's song.
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Post by sheshki on Apr 4, 2011 16:30:51 GMT -5
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Post by enkur on Apr 5, 2011 18:46:07 GMT -5
A mystery of mysteries indeed.
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Post by muska on Apr 8, 2011 12:24:10 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Jun 21, 2011 2:16:10 GMT -5
I just read that there is an iraqi news agency called "Sumeria News".
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jun 25, 2011 1:44:58 GMT -5
Reporting on a new book trilogy, one of which is called: The Witch of Babylon I was on the subway train on my way home the other day when I noticed an advertisement for the above book on the wall - it was surprising on two counts, firstly books usually aren't advertised in this space and secondly - Babylon was in the title of the book. As I looked closer I was pleased to note that the author makes reference to the ancient city of Babylon not just some metaphorical use of the name... The advertisement also gave a link to the webpage babylontrilogy.ca, and on inspecting the site I see that it is a Toronto author who is behind the work, her name is D.J. McIntosh. The book, although one of the author's early works, appears to be in the process of going big - it is set to be printed in 15 languages and is moving up around the top ten selling books on amazon, apparently. As first I was put off by the fact that the book follows Dan Brown, and is an attempt to meld together the looting of the Iraq museum, medieval alchemy and occult, and the personage of an ancient Babylonian witch - apparently the cult of Ishtar is referenced in some fashion. While this may be fine for fiction it doesn't click in my overly literal brain. Also, the game "Babylon Squares" , available at the website, seems to have little to do with Mesopotamian iconography etc. and why not use cuneiform? As I looked through the site however, my instinctual skepticism, which I hold for just about all popular references to Mesopotamia, was overturned.. I was almost shocked to note that McIntosh in her section discussing Babylonian witchcraft does an excellent job presenting a small sketch of what is know about the topic - insights which almost definetly came from reading Tzvi Abusch . In fact in another section of the page she gives references for her readers to Abusch's work - and to the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies website. She is likely to have contact with someone from our department I am supposing. For whatever short comings there may be, I see the links on the website as trying to provide the public an honest picture of Mesopotamian studies - links to videos on youtube, references to scholarly books (Oppenheim, Black and Green, Saggs, Abusch - but Baigent and Leigh should not have been included). Information about the Baghdad museum looting. Even if people are confused after reading the book, and I assume the fiction has that effect, some will be stimulated into an interest in Mesopotamia - and the authors own website may point those really interested in the direction of some real academia. This is a real difference between the way other fictional authors have perverted scholarship without giving back, I'd say the author deserves some thanks for this. |
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Post by enkur on Jun 30, 2011 8:14:41 GMT -5
 In fact, this book written by Warlock Asylum is a commentary to Simon's Necronomicon. For me it's a popular psychological essay rather than an esoteric book. Despite of the fact that the author shows some historic knowledge as regards Sumer, he is so fascinated by Simon's Necronomicon that all the time he tries to prove its authenticity - sometimes by very strange etymological associations. The author tells us that the Mad Arab was in fact an Amorite educated in the spirit of Enuma Elish who got an initiation into the older and already forbidden Sumerian mysteries during the Babylonian kingdom, so he deliberately coded them by the dualism and antagonism between the Elder gods and the Ancient Ones, but his secretive final revelation was that they were the same thing. By the way, the cover illustration should depict Ningishzidda seen by Warlock Asylum as a hermaphrodite deity throughout the book. Though I'm able to get insights from any literature on the theme I'm interested in, I cannot accept the qabalist interpretations and classifications of the ancient mythologies. For example, that the four-lettered name of Yahweh written in Hebrew: Yod He Vau He encoded the four Sumerian most ancient ones An, Enki, Enlil and Ninhursag. This qabalist tradition interpreting the 4 lettered name of Yahweh as Yod = Fire, Heh = Water, Vau = Air, and Heh final = Earth, could be traced to the 19th century's hermetic order of the Golden Dawn claiming some older Rosicrucian connection, where Crowley received his early magical education. Following the Crowlean interpretation, Yod the Fire is the Father - the Will, Heh the Water is the Mother -the Perception, Vau the Air is their Son - the Imagination which generates the thoughts, and Heh final the Earth is their Daughter - the Materialization of all. Now in "The Atlantean Necronomicon" Warlock Asylum sees Yod the Fire as An, Heh the Water as Enki, Vau the Air as Enlil, and Heh final the Earth as Ninhursag. True, Enki could be associated with water, Enlil with air and Ninhursag with earth but I think such speculations aiming to prove at any cost the universalism of the qabalah are as if searching for a calf under the ox  Moreover the Sumerians had a concept of the four winds rather than of the four elements. The only subjective association that occurs to me is that in the Sumerian main four deities Ninhursag is the only feminine component as well as the south wind is the only feminine component of the OB four winds according to Wiggermann. |
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jul 2, 2011 20:06:38 GMT -5
Very nice review Enkur! If the author's name wasn't tough to take seriously, adding the word "Atlantean" to the Necronomicon certainly doesn't improve the situation either 0_0 But yes, yet another case of someone who would bend traditions to their own service rather than realizing that the only thing that gives tradition any meaning is authenticity. |
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Post by enkur on Jul 3, 2011 17:02:10 GMT -5
I do strongly agree with you that the only thing that gives a tradition any meaning is authenticity yet there are some exceptions. For example, Carlos Castaneda's Toltec tradition of sorcery in relation to what the scholars know about the Toltec culture in Mesoamerica. As far as I know some scholars disagree with Castaneda's use of some Toltec cultural terms. I know little about the Toltec culture but the things Castaneda reveals as a sorcery technology in his book is something unique and more than authentic as far as sorcery is concerned. Castaneda was a scholar, an anthropologist who was investigating the Mexican magical folklore when he suddenly came across a living local tradition and got initiated and involved into it to the extent that he gave up his scholar study. Of course, there is a post-Castanedian Toltec literary current which I do not advise anybody to lose one's time with Though I'm not able to prove Castaneda's authenticity in any scholar way I could say that I have also come across a similar living local tradition in my country, an unique oral tradition which has nothing to do with any contemporary occultism and claims to originate from the national ancestry though such a tradition has never been documented by the history. So I think there are authentic traditions which are really of old times but their present use of old terms and concepts may differ from their former meaning. The same happens with the languages. There is no objective criterion how to differentiate such survived traditions from those who would bend traditions to their own service except maybe that most of the former prefer to stay anonymous while the latter prefer publicity. The problem with defining authenticity grows bigger in the contemporary occultism especially after the postmodernist revolution of Chaos magic current since the late 1970-ties where the result of magically invoking Darth Vader is the same as that of invoking Nergal as far as a destructive spell is concerned  It only depends on the operator's ability to get possessed/obssessed and direct the generated energy to the target. Yet there are Chaos magicians of taste. At the time I was very impressed by a magical working in the Sumerian paradigm published in the English occult magazine "Chaos International". I will search for it and post it here to hear the opinion of the scholars |
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jul 3, 2011 21:47:03 GMT -5
Enkur: I suppose I will never really understand the appeal of chaos magic, but that's okay. I am quite interesting in this article by Chaos International - this board is meant to be a bridge between the popular world and academia. By the way, about that magazine: enfolding.org/writings-archive-chaos/ |
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Post by enkur on Jul 4, 2011 2:06:34 GMT -5
Thank you for this link. However, it comes out this is only Phil Hine's contributions to "Chaos International". Well Chaos magic could be extremely various, so one should not judge on the works of certain practitioners only though presently its current seems to have become stagnant and lost its previous freshness. Anyway I found the article. It should have been written in the early 1990-ties. I hesitated a bit if to post it in this thread since "Chaos International" wasn't a popular magazine but a specialized issue for practising Chaos magicians. Though I do not share the same experience as that of the author I do respect it because it seems to be an approach I would call authentic. Yet I wouldn't consider Tiamat together with the Sumerian Underworld and Abzu as the author does at the article's end. Here is its first page - I hope it's readable. Attachments:
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Post by enkur on Jul 4, 2011 2:08:07 GMT -5
The second page: Attachments:
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Post by enkur on Jul 4, 2011 2:09:17 GMT -5
And the third page: Attachments:
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Post by enkur on Jul 4, 2011 2:25:33 GMT -5
Re-reading it now I find nothing so special in it but at the time it was my first introduction to the Sumerian tradition and I was much impressed thereby.
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Post by enkur on Jul 5, 2011 8:40:00 GMT -5
Again on the problem of authenticity Another disputable matter is Aleister Crowley's use of Egyptian symbolism. For example, the egyptologists may well have their objections against his use of certain Egyptian deities like Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit, who actually had different functions and meaning than Crowley attributed to them, and even their actual names are pronounced differently as far as the Egyptology has come to know. Does it make Crowley less authentic as a magician? Those who are into this matter could make the difference between Aleister Crowley and Michael Ford for example, but this proves nothing on the point of view of objectivity: They both have misused ancient traditions, and, as us4-he2-gal2 truly states it, such authors "bend traditions to their own service". On a certain point of view, however, it could be said that that's the case with all the Western occultism. Let's return to Crowley - he got his magical education in the 19th century hermetic order of "Golden Dawn". On his part, Crowley writes how he exposed the Golden Dawn's head MacGregor Mathers who deluded the order's members that the order followed a secret tradition coming from the Rosicrucians and Egypt but in fact his sources were from the British Museum! This exposing led to the schism of the order. Mathers was in a fact a Freemason who adapted his studies to the occult doctrine of the order led by him. Now what to say about the Freemasonry? It could be said that throughout their history the Freemasons have adapted remnants of ancient traditions to their service. Moreover, it could be said that the Western occultism in its entirety is inauthentic. It borrows most of its practices from the East, and as some say, it has corrupted them. However, could be the Eastern mystic approach applied literally to the Western mentality? At the least it supposes quite a different life-style. After all, I think it's a question of intelligence to adapt foreign techniques to one's needs. What to do the Westerners since their ancestors having accepted Christianity have destroyed all their authentic traditions? Does Christianity (the question of its authenticity is put aside) offers any spiritual development except a blind belief? Moreover, what is expected of the Westerners to do since their own science, though over-developed in some respects, offers nothing except dry psychology to the orphaned Western emotionality? I find the problem of the Western occultism's historic inauthenticity in respect to the archaeological and linguistic scholarship as undissolvable for the moment. Soror Eanna's essay about the Sumerian Abzu I posted above is a rare approach though not well-detailed. There are some contemporary occultists who are against the use of any ancient traditions because their archetypes and magical formulae are dead and outside of the contemporary context, so they advise that the magicians knowing the timeless principles of magic and sorcery should develop new archetypes and formulae according to their present needs. Most of the chaos magicians who are usually urban people keep on the opinion that the dynamics of the present life excludes the scholar approach in magically investigating an ancient tradition because it takes time nobody could afford provided one isn't academically specialized in that sphere. Chaos magicians are result-orientated sorcerers, so it matters little what means are used to the purpose provided one is emotionally aroused thereby. For entering an ancient magical paradigm it's enough to know few popular myths, make a ritual based thereon, doing it for a period till get emotionally obsessed, then possessed and at last the act of magic done by the gods/spirits, not by you. Then there follows an exorcism and banishing by laughter, and at last everything is forgotten, because there are probably no gods, and it's one's own unconscious which does everything, so all the magic is a trick to deceive the rational censor which suppresses the emotions. A cynical, reductionist and superficial approach which however WORKS. I've also used it for a period - I needed it because I was of an over-intellectual and mystical nature which made me inadequate in real life However, with time passing one gets more knowledge about oneself and one's own exploratory spirit makes one to stay longer and longer into a tradition or paradigm until it really starts to appeal to one's inmost emotionality.
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It only depends on the operator's ability to get possessed/obssessed and direct the generated energy to the target. 
