Relationships with the Divine
0 Comments | February 6, 2010 at 12:16 pm by mahud
Filed under Sprituality
To live as a Pagan or any other religious practitioner the basic requirement is to recognize the divine and revere it. I’ve always liked (since I first heard it anyway) the Zoroastrian maxim of “good thoughts good words and good deeds,” and I think it is a good place to start when approaching the divine. And the divine, no matter how obscured, surrounds us and exists in everyone.
I have a very passive open approach to my fellow human beings. I don’t have expectations or project high standards on people. I’m patient. Today there might be difficulty communicating, but a week a month a year from today there may be a connection. You see, you are just as complicated as I am. You probably have your own complex set of neuroses. Perhaps you’re a well adjusted human being with a lot of stuff on your mind. I’m just guessing. I don’t know.
Human beings to me are elusive creatures and difficult to get to know and understand. Divine beings that exist beyond the physical and biological level are just as, if not more difficult to know.
I’d like to believe that there are divine beings out there open to me. I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but I like to believe it. Despite my problems, I hope that, out there, there are gods and spirits who take an interest in me. And perhaps in the near or far future a relationship will be forged.
The Sacred in Everything
2 Comments | January 30, 2010 at 10:28 am by mahud
Filed under secular-culture, magic, Jung, mythology, Paganism, Sprituality
Reading Ali’s post Meadowsweet and Myrrh: Aesthetics and the Sacred, made me think some more about the sacred. Originally it was going to just be a short comment response on how I viewed the sacred in everything (and a newly planted idea in my mind about the nature of things that I think is best described as a kind of animism), but then, as these things often do, spiraled out of control and ’seemingly’ took on a life of its own.
I’d like to approach the sacred from two vantage points. The sacred that is aware of itself, awake, the conscious sacred, and the sacred that is unaware, sleeping, the unconscious sacred.
The conscious sacred is experienced in the world. Crashing tides, drifts of snow, wind-blasts and ripples on the surface of a pond. The living breathing heartbeat of manifest reality can be either slow and steady or fast and erratic. The conscious sacred, at its most wild and dangerous is like a wheel of fire, throwing off sparks of itself. This is the sacred that doesn’t need to be drawn out. As a child of chaos it is forcefully born of itself, like the tail devouring serpent, imprinting itself onto the picture, the story or the song, It’s impression as indelible as its desire. This is the conscious sacred that is often defined and surrounded by a boundary, lest the fire of its heart reduce all else to ashes, or drown everything in the dark depths of the other unconscious sacred.
The introvert conscious is content to just be, aware more of itself than its surroundings, yet ‘comes to life’ when it chances upon another like-minded spirit, just as dust particles will dance upon a current of air, illuminated by beam of sunlight in a darkened room. Conscious beings of this kind thrive in the sunlight. They are calm and gentle, more approachable yet easily frightened and like birds they tend to fly away. To connect with these sacred spirits, you must participate on their level and learn how to drink from the same stream. These are the sacred beings more acceptable in our current spiritual climate, yet often our thirst so often stays unquenched and we give up and shrink back into the secular realm for less spiritual beverages.
Regarding the unconscious sacred, it resides within the world yet remains without form. It is the sacred that will neither be seen or experienced in its shapeless state. It sleeps in its own perfection. When it awakes it shifts into a conscious state and the dream is immediately forgotten. It is motionless. A silent song. Timeless and forever forbidden. It is the one door that should not and cannot be opened. And it cannot be opened without being closed. The doorway of the unconscious sacred is reached—by both the extroverted sacred conscious in active confidence, as well as more passive timidity of the introverted sacred conscious—but never penetrated. What it exactly is is what everything in the waking world is not. This paradoxical state of being can only be achieved by the sacred itself. Whether conscious or unconscious, sacredness retains its essence.
The Sumerian King List
0 Comments | January 16, 2010 at 4:17 am by mahud
Filed under Biblical Mythology, Mesopotamian Mythology
The Sumerian King List (SKL) was initially composed during the Third Dynasty of Ur (late 3rd millennium) and extended during the reign of the first dynasty of Isin (Early 2nd millennium). Many scholars maintain that the pre-flood king list is in fact a later addition to the SKL document. According to the SKL (WB 444/Weld-Blundell Prism), kingship is divinely ordained by the gods and lowered down from heaven, passing successively to the eight pre-flood kings of Eridu, Badtibira, Larak, Sippar and Shuruppak, who reign for a total of 241200 years. This time comes to an end when “The Flood swept over”.
king City Years of Reign
1. Alulim Eridu 28800
2. Alalgar Eridu 36000
3. Enmenluanna Badtibira 43200
4. Enmengalanna Badtibira 28800
5. Dumuzi Badtibira 36000
6. Ensipazianna Larak 28800
7. Enmenduranna Sippar 21000
8. Ubartutu Shuruppak 18600
Total years of reign 241200 years
John Van Seters (Prologue to History: The Yahwist as Historian In Genesis: 1992) highlights at least three similarities shared by both the Sumerian King List and the Sumerian Flood Story: a) Kingship is lowered down from heaven; b) The five pre-flood cities, Eridu, Badtibira, Larak, Sippar and Shuruppak are presented in the same order, and c) the similarity in the wording of the flood, “Sweeping over,” and “After the flood Swept over.” These three similarities seem to indicate a certain amount of dependence of SKL on the The Sumerian Flood Story.
The Sumerian Flood Hero Ziusudra is further listed as the last pre-flood king on two Old Babylonian SKL tablets from Diyala (listing eight kings) and Sippar (listing ten kings). According to Jean-Jacques Glassner in ‘Mesopotamian Chronicles:2005, the SKL tablet from Sippar is as follows:
king City Years of Reign
1. [Alulim] Eridu 36000
2. [A]lalgar Eridu 72000
3. [X]kidunnu Larsa 72000
4. [X]alima Larsa 21600
5. [divine Dumu]zi the shepherd Badtibira 28800
6. [Enm]e(n)-lu-ana Badtibira 21600
7. [En]-sipazi-ana Larak 36000
8. Enme(n)-dur-ana Sippar 72000
9. Suruppak son of Ubar-Tutu Suruppak 28000
10. Ziusudra son of Suruppak Suruppak 36000
Total years of reign 38800 years
In the 3rd Century B.C. a Babylonian priest called Berossos, clearly aware of both the SKL tradition and the Flood myth of Ziusudra, compiled another Pre-Flood king list. This list was part of a history of Babylon (Babyloniaca), which survives partially now in extensive quotations found in the writings of historians Josephus and Eusebius (the latter via Alexander Polyhistor and Apollodorus). Berossos’ list is as follows:
king Years of Reign
1. Aloros 36000
2. Alaparos 10800
3. Amelon 46800
4. Ammenon 43200
5. Amegalaros 64800
6. Daonos 36000
7. Euedorankhos 64800
8. Amempsinos 36000
9. Otiartes 28800
10 Xisouthros/Sisuthros [i.e. Ziusudra] 64800
Total years of reign 432000 years
A further comparison can be made between the ten Pre-Flood kings of the Sumerian King List with the ten pre-Flood Patriarchs of the Hebrew book of Genesis (5). There are obvious similarities, however, Hamilton (The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17: 1990) points out there are notable differences. The SKL deals primarily with the divine gift of kingship. Those kings are not necessarily descended by blood, rather by divine prerogative. The Genesis account deals with the descendants of Adam and is strictly geneology and measured by length of life rather than kingly reign. What is striking is that all men are pre-deluvial, live extraordinary lifespans and the last pre-deluvian according to some of the lesser SKL tablets (as well as Berossos list) is also, like Noah, a flood hero.
1. Adam Lived 930 years
2. Seth Lived 912 years
3. Enosh Lived 905 years
4. Kenan Lived 910 years
5. Mahalalel Lived 895 years
6. Jared Lived 962 years
7. Enoch Lived 365 years
8.Methuselah Lived 969 years
9. Lamech Lived 777 years
10. Noah after the World Flood Lived to be 950 years
A further Parallel between the Mesopotamian and Hebrew traditions concerns Enmenduranna the king of Sippar, also known as Enmeduranki, and again called Euedorankhos according to Berossos. His name appears at least twice as the seventh Pre-Flood king on the SKL tablets. Berossos also places Euedorankhos seventh. According to a tablet recovered at Ninevah (circa 1100-900 B.C.) published by W.G. Lambert (Enmeduranki and Related Matters JCS: 1967) as King of Sippar, the city of the sun deity Shamash, Enmeduranki was transported to heaven by the sun god and Adad and brought before the divine assembly where he was sat upon a golden throne and bestowed all the mysteries of divination, the tablets of the gods and a cedar rod, precious to all the great gods. Enmeduranki was taught mathematics and became a long-haired priest of the sun god Shamash and custodian of the secrets of the gods. The person of Enmeduranki, the seventh king of the Sun god’s city of Sippar, may well be the prototype for the seventh Pre-Flood biblical patriarch Enoch, who according to Genesis 5:24 “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” Enoch’s 365 year lifespan may also be symbolic of the solar year, adding another possible link with the Mesopotamian priest-king Enmeduranki and his solar deity.
Magic
0 Comments | January 15, 2010 at 10:53 pm by mahud
Filed under magic
I crossed over the threshold of the New Year thinking magically. Reflecting upon past and present experiences where magic has flowed through my intentions and actions, without actually being aware for it. These are just a few thoughts…
Magic, in my limited experience, is primarily effortless. It doesn’t ask for much. I don’t need to work at it or believe it will work. Magic will flow through my life, through the processes of the natural world at an unconscious level, affecting endless cyclic change.
All phenomena is magical and conscious of itself, even though it may lack awareness of the dynamic powers setting all things in motion. Creation is magic. Creation myths reveal the primal act of magic. They are magical blueprints revealing the origin of all things. Creation is an ongoing process. Timeless. Desire is a powerful magical force that directs the processes of change in accordance with itself.
All is potentially sacred and innately magical. The mundane is either entirely illusory, or an incomplete creation. Through the process of re-creation the sacred can manifest. This is where awareness or conscious effort is required. After its initial emergence, the sacred may continue to hide itself. It requires a connection between itself and a conscious mind to recognize, or sense its existence, to bring the magic forth.
Myths are basically narratives that require a deep connection to activate the magical element. It’s the same thing with sacred space.
Nature is a cyclic process complete within itself, flowing, re-creating, manifesting, dissolving. It is an entity of continual potential realization. To fully realize is to live magically. Every moment is an opportunity. With every lost opportunity a new opportunity arises. “Now is the time,” and so is tomorrow.
Ariadne: Lady of the Labyrinth and Double Axe
0 Comments | December 30, 2009 at 11:41 am by mahud
Filed under Goddess, Pagan Art Gallery, Greek (Classical) Mythology
Ariadne: Lady of the Labyrinth and Double Axe
Photos
The Love Goddess and the Shawshank Redemption
0 Comments | December 23, 2009 at 11:28 am by mahud
Filed under mythology, Goddess
The Shawshank Redemption (based on a story by Stephen King) has always been a favourite movie of mine. I’ve watched it multiple times, but it was only after watching it this past week that I recognized that the obvious theme of freedom and rebirth is explicitly linked with the Goddess.
For a synopsis of the movie check out Wikpedia.
First off, I noticed that Andy’s escape tunnel is juxtaposed with the warden’s safe. Both are hidden behind pictures. Andy’s tunnel is concealed by, at first, a poster of Rita Hayworth, then in the following two decades, by posters of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. The warden’s safe is hidden behind a tapestry (made by his wife in “Church Group”) depicting a quotation from the Bible, actually the Apocrypha: “His judgment cometh and that right soon” (Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 21:5). From here the symbolism of the tunnel and the safe is obvious. Both depict two representations of female sexuality. The warden’s safe represents the female, dominated by a ‘patriarchal’ reality and the tunnel is that of a ‘matriarchal’ reality, and unbridled female sexuality, disapproved of by the warden, yet, to his own downfall, overlooked, in his desire for power and control.
Andy tells Red that his wife complained that “he was a hard man to know. Like a closed book.” He adds that “she was beautiful” and he “loved her,” But he “didn’t know how to show it.” He believes that his coldness “drove her away” and that he was indirectly responsible for her death—leading to his false imprisonment for the murder of both his wife and her lover. It is while in prison, under the tyrannical reign of the warden, in a world of violence and abuse, that Andy is reconciled with the Love Goddess he spurned, and through her, he is finally set free. The tunnel is a passage of rebirth through the womb.
It is also noteworthy that Zihuatanejo, Andy’s paradisical destination across the border in Mexico is known as “the place where goddesses live.” According to Wikipedia; “There is a story that states that Zihuatanejo was a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Cihuatéotl, who was of Olmec origin. She was considered to be the mother of the human race and the goddess of women who died in childbirth, and warriors who died in battle.”
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