The Legacy of Sumer (priests, ritual, Earth, Kingdom, soul)

[Kotaro]

I was thinking of posting a short story about the Sumerians and their spirituality here on this board. I wrote it a bit earlier, so if anyone is interested just let me know and I'll be more than happy to post it here

[michel]

Originally Posted by Kotaro

I was thinking of posting a short story about the Sumerians and their spirituality here on this board. I wrote it a bit earlier, so if anyone is interested just let me know and I'll be more than happy to post it here

Hi, Kotaro,
I would be interested - all I know about them is that they were 'around' about 2000 B.C, and had a system of monarchy.

[Kotaro]

ok cool, this is the first time I've written about my religion, allthough incomplete, in detail on any forum. But I think the veterins in the Pagan field on this board will find it a worthy description

To introduce myself, I am one of the few Sumerian revivalists existing today. We seek to accurately understand, explore, revive, and revere the ancient culture of Sumer, in a way that's adaptable to the modern times, while we try to keep everything as "original" and unique as possible. And so with this in mind, I would love to introduce to you the Legacy of Sumer and particularly its Spirituality in my own words. Comments and questions at the end are welcome. I'll try to answer any questions about Sumer or Mesopotamia in general with what knowledge we do have.

Sumer was one of the earliest cultures of the known world, a distinguished people existing from the Pre-Sumerian Ubaid period around 13,000-10,000 BC up until the Babylonian reformation of 1750 BC. Particularly the 3rd Millenium BC is where we recieve our most detailed information about them and when their "high" culture existed at its peak. Being a very practical society, they were the first people to build urbanized cities and streets; town squares and multiple story housing; huge temple pyramids decorated with beautiful art; hyroglyphs, text writing, and even an alphabet; schools of education and mathematics; canals and bridges; boats and chariots; maps, astrology, and astronomy; marriage contracts and law codes; pharmacies and hospitals; organized warfare and a detailed religion of elegant mythology, theology, and ethics. Allthough they were not the "first" people to exist on earth, they did have many worthy "firsts" that no other high culture coming afterwords can claim as their own.

The territory of Sumer, "the land between the rivers," was located between the Tigris and Euphrates in Southern Iraq. The territory in earliest times consisted of several large City-States each ruled by a King and Queen, who were the overseers of a particular city.

In each City there was a central sacred courtyard where a Great Temple stood. Each city had their own patron god or goddess, who's divine image would reside in the central hallway of this Temple. This hallway was called a "cella," and people roaming about could walk by and see the divine image through the open doorways during the daytime, or come in to pray and give offerings on special holy days. Priests and Priestesses attended the temple grounds where they would go about their holy duties of serving the gods, and land tenants would work the land around the temple, making sure everything was fit and clean. Sacred animals and plants used only for the gods and the Temple staff would be breeded and grown throughout this land.

Continued....

[Kotaro]

Also in the courtyard stood the great Palace of the King and Queen, and a large Nobility who worked for them (these could be people in the military, land tenants, maids and servants, priests and astrologers, etc). The rest of the City contained various businesses and places of special importance, like judiciary houses, hospitals, pharmacies, prisons, places for architecture and pottery, open markets and stores, and of course many smaller temples to various gods.

Elegant houses made of polished brick that could be up to three stories high were owned by the Nobility. These were the wealthy class, usually connected in some way or another to the Palace. More ordinary houses, made of mud brick were owned by the common citizens. These citizens comprized most of the land of Sumer, with their large farming properties that nourished the City's food produce and fed the animals roaming in the pastures. The territory of Sumer afterall was based on Agriculture in a nice Urbanized setting. The farms and pastures were sacred, being the places where Ashnan and Lahar, the goddesses of farming and herding respectively, guided the peoples daily lives as they worked out in the fields or tended to their herds.

In many houses there existed a personal, private chapel and sanctuary where in the evenings when all was quiet, the family or an individual would go to pray and talk to their personal gods. These personal gods were called "lamas" and could be male or female. They were a guardian angel of sorts, or a protective "genie," protecting the family and home from evil spirits and unwanted visitors like beasts and thieves. They could also grant prosperity or venture off to speak to the higher gods in the distant sky. They were also there to guide the person's soul into the afterlife, making sure that if they lived a good life, that they would stand before Erishkigal, the "Dark Queen" and she would grant peace for the person's final resting place. There were other guardian figures too, many of them looked similar to the mythical creatures of Greek mythology.

Apart from the City and Farming life, there were the open plains and distant mountains where wild animals roamed free. The wild places was the territory where Sakkan dwelled, the god of wild nature. Yes Sakkan could be styled as our very own Sumerian Kernunnos! His sacred animal seemed to be the Cheetah and often he was represented as a seated Cheetah in Sumerian art reliefs.

To the Sumerians all of nature was sacred and represented some form of divinity. The Sumerian gods as a group were often called the Annunaki, or children of Heaven and Earth. The Earth and its fertility was the Great Mother, the goddess Ninmah. Nammu was the Primordial Sea, that existed when all else had not yet formed. The god Enki was the life of the fresh drinking and fishery lakes, rivers, and streams. The Sea (Persian Gulf) could also be his home. His Water Palace was called the "Abzu." He is a wise, compassionate god who often helps mankind when in trouble. He saved the Sumerian "noah" from the terrible Flood that swept over the Earth.

The moist, breath of life, the Air and the Space between Heaven and Earth, which was the Sky, was the realm of the god Enlil and his consort Ninlil, the great King and Queen of the Annunaki, who decreed the fates of all. It was Enlil who was the "Leader" of the gods, although he wasn't an "all" powerful arbitrator over them. Both god and man have free will, it is just that the gods are immortal, and mankind was created for their pleasure. The gods were generally favorable and good to man, but could also be wrathful when man was provoked by uncontrollable evils. Enlil was the "patron" god of Sumer, and his Temple in the city of Nippur was most important.

[Kotaro]

Continued.......

The far off celestial Heaven was the dwelling place of Anu, the Father of most of the gods. This was the home or palace of the gods in the distant lapis lazuli Stars. He may also have been the central god who produced cosmic movement of the celestial bodies. Anu did not concern himself much with the affairs of mankind, or the ordering of the Universe and leaved that up to the gods to handle. But of course he did have his moments. The Sumerians were expert Astrologers and Astronomers, they studied the heavens and searched for special signs and omens. The chief planets they were able to discover and put into a stellar system were the Sun, Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. And the month signs (Scorpio, Pisces, etc) were also known. There are sources though that strangely indicate that they knew of the 9 planets of our modern solar system, and including a "10th," Nibiru, which stands for the Heavenly planet where the gods lived.

The Shining Moon was Sin, god of the lunar months and seasons. The Blazing Sun was Samas, god of the daylight and therefore the abundance of daily life. He was also the "righteous judge" of the dead when he visited the Underworld at night. The Goddess of Love and Passion was Ishtar. Family, Marriage, and Passionate Love were all so very dear to the Sumerians, and Ishtar became perhaps their most beloved deity throughout all their history because of this important attachment to Love. She was also the astral Goddess of the Evening Star, a symbal of utmost beauty and passion. Ishtar was often seen naked with widespread wings and horned crown of divinity (which most gods wear). Interestingly enough, she also became a heroine of warfare and could be seen with weapons on her back.

As for some other Annunaki gods, there was a healing goddess her name was Gula. She was usually depicted seated with her hands clasped and accompanied by a dog. Dogs were symbals of health and well-being. The god of storms and winds was Ishkur, who was often seen carrying a lightning rod and battle club in art. The god of warfare and heroism was Ninurta, who flew through the sky with bow & arrow or was seen killing demons with spears. There were many many more deities but these are some of the most important. One last deity I'll mention is Ninkasi, the goddess of brewery and laughter. She is none other than Sumer's own ecstatic Dionysos, the beloved god of wine and wild freedom in Greece.

Apart from the gods of the skies, the lands, and the seas, existed another world, that was believed to be below the far reaches of the earth, and that was the Underworld. The Sumerians believed in an afterlife similar to that of Greek mythology, where the soul descends into its final resting place to be among the ancestors. The Underworld, or in their own words: "The Land of no Return," was the final destiny for mankind. That man was too inferior to be amongst the Immortal gods in Heaven was an accepted belief among the Sumerians. The good person in life who was kind to his fellow neighbors and praised his gods recieved a peaceful sentence and went on to live a shadowy reflection of his life while on earth amongst his fellow ancestors. But the evil doer who hated his fellow neighbor, committing awful crimes and cursing the gods received a dreadful sentence, and was sent to dwell amongst ghosts and demons, which were seen more as "punishers" of the evil dead and not creatures against the gods and man. Despite this though, there were certain classes of demonic spirits that intentionally caused the many fears and diseases among the people on earth independant of the will of the gods in Heaven. These demonic creatures of Sumerian mythology resembled the evil spirits of Greek and Egyptian mythology, where they often looked distorted and hideous.

Now during a period around 2300 BC, a Semitic kingdom called Akkadia, with a huge military force led by Sargon the Great, conquered the regions of Sumer and Mesopotamia, along with various foreign lands. It was the first Empire in history, stretching from North Africa and Ethiopia to India according to the sources! Sargon's Akkadian Empire supported Sumerian spirituality to the fullest and did nothing to harm it. In fact, his daughter became probably the most famous Sumerian poet by name. She was a high priestess of the moon god Sin and his daughter Ishtar, the Jewels of the night.

However a few centuries later there was chaos in beloved Akkadia. The savage Gutians of the mountainsides, the dreadful nomads feared by all, had become very powerful and suddenly invaded without warning, destroying the great City! They occupied it for some time before finally, the various Sumerian City-States rose to drive them out, not completely, but enough to gain back the land. So after a long drawn out period, the City-States of Sumer once again arose like in their former glory. But it was not long afterwords, around 1750 BC, that a Political and Religious Reformer, King Hammurabi of Babylon came to power, inspired by the former Akkadian Empire and by divine revelations of religious reform, he took his massive military and conquered the Land of Sumer and Mesopotamia once and for all. This unfortunately, is where the Legacy of Sumer fades away, and the Legacy of Assyro-Babylonian history begins.

ENDING