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Astrology in Mesopotamian Culture ( • ^ % ASTROLOGY , \ IN MESOPOTAMIAN CULTURE w AN ESSAY BY A. E. THIERENS ! Author of Natural Philosophy, Elements of Esoteric Astrology and General Book of the Tarot WITH 2 FIGURES ■ i Y LEIDEN E. J. BRILL 1935 <'k € r ■r >’K*' l . : *-v-\ : c* : !*. • ... •¥*'. / m*'* ■. i i* - se»f ate- i Tl Mrs T E Jones i|.230Nowdala Dr Hllywd 27 Calif \\ i ,1 1 I golden smiw®’*™ m-wum* PI s ' LIBRARY I I I i Transferred and presented by Golden Seal Research Headquarters I Resecrch Library to Chapel of Reflection : Reference Library 20 March 1951 It ( 4cVJ5jJcal BooksC& Magazine 'll ! : I l I I i l I i ! i ! ! » i ! i i ASTROLOGY IN MESOPOTAMIAN CULTURE ( i i i ! i : ! ; : i ! ! \ : I ' : i r t : ASTROLOGY IN MESOPOTAMIAN CULTURE AN ESSAY BY A. E. THIERENS Author of Natural Philosophy, Elements of Esoteric Astrology and General Book of the Tarot WITH 2 FIGURES LEIDEN E. J. BRILL 1935 - * t 1 Printed in the Netherlands ■ ; r To the memory of the late Rev. Prof. Dr. Alfred Jerem/as who taught ns and demonstrated the necessity for learning the language of the Mythos, in order to understand it, this humble work is dedicated. -7 ; . 1 ! ■ ' ■ ' ' i ■ ■ : . !. ■ . CONTENTS page I. Introduction................................................................................. i It. Orientation................................................................................. 3 Astrology appearing in our century........................................ 3 Jeremias versus Herman Wirth............................................ 4 Arctis Atlantis............................................................................. 4 The astrological type of culture............................................ 5 Himmelsbild ist Weltenbild..................................................... 6 III. Monotheism?................................................................................. 9 As above, so below................................................................ io IV. The cosmical triad..................................................................... n Anu-Ea-Enlil (Bel)..................................................................... 11 Cycles and periodicity............................................................ 12 The precessional cycle............................................................. 13 V. The madonna — world-creation............................................. *5 The Epic of Creation............................................................ 15 VI. The heavenly or cyclical triad — the seven planets . 17 The Babylonian image of the world..................................... 18 Three and four......................................................................... 18 The four cardinal points of the year..................................... 21 VII. Shamash................................................................................. 23 VIII. Sin......................................................................................... 32 IX. ISHTAR................................................................................................ 33 X. The quaternary ................................................................. 35 Nergal-Saturn..................................................................... 35 Ninurta-Mars..................................................................... 33 Marduk-Jupiter................................................................. 40 Nebo-Mercury..................................................................... 42 XI. Anu-ea-enlil as uranus-neptune-pluto........................ 43 XII. The zodiac............................................................................. 47 The relief of Maltaja......................................................... 48 The rainbow..................................................................... 49 Table of nomenclature..................................................... 5° Aries, Taurus..................................................................... 5t Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra............................ 52 Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces . 53 Noumena and phenomena................................................. 54 Appendix................................................................................. 55 4 On the orientation of temples......................................... 55 Literature ............................................................................. 57 List of abbreviations......................................................... 53 1 ? ■ 1 i i t I ! ! . 5 V ■ - i ■ : i On the iIth of January 1935 the Reverend Professor Alfred Jere- mias1 D.D.y Ph.Dpassed away at Leipzig. I consider it a worthy memorial in honour of him that in this same year the present essay will be published by one to some extent congenial to him. Because notwithstanding all objections and hesitations the history of the Religion of Ancient Babylonia and Assyria owes a great debt of gratitude to ingenious historians like the late Hugo Winckler and to theologians like the deplored Alfred Jeremias. We welcome now this exposition of the ancient Babylonian view of the world on an astrological basis. Mr A. E. Thierens is a natural philosopher who speaks as representative of a cosmical conception which is fundamentally identical with that of the ancient Mesopotamian astrologers themselves. We hope many will take an interest in his effort to come to an understanding of the cosmic wisdom of the Chaldeans and of their predecessors in ancient Mesopotamia. Still his method and his conclusions in the sphere of occult sciences are on his own responsibility. Noordwijk near Leyden Franz M. Til. Bohl 1935. 7"iy i5"‘ it . I. INTRODUCTION When I had studied astrology during about 30 years I had heard a good many hints at the Assyrio-Babylonian culture as being the astrological period in the history of mankind par excellence. Hints it were, not divulging much exact knowledge about this period. Realising that the majority of astrological authors did never study this period themselves, I felt the necessity for a particular notion of it as unavoidable and even inexorable. My first step in this direction immediately made me meet with the amiable and courteous help of Dr. F. M. Th. Bohl, Professor of Assyriology at Leyden. A three years’ study in his library guided by the valuable indications of the owner himself brought me the desired information. At least as much of it as I wanted and was able to gather. My hearty thanks to Prof. BOhl must be expressed here. I may not forget adding how I am well aware that my shortcomings and even more so my conclusions are not in the least covered by the responsibility of my learned host. I beg the reader to bear this in mind as well. As to the exact knowledge and the sources in which it was found, the stupendous work done by Assyriologists — historians as well as philologists — became a revelation I to me, the first thing revealed being the length of the period covered by Mesopotamian culture with its astrological characteristic; the second being the mass of material found out. Owing to the length of the historical period, which reaches as far back as about (before) 3000 b.C., we must expect gradual changes in the belief of the people as well as in the mysticism of the priestly class. Therefore it will be almost impossible to arrive at a conviction, which should hold good for the length of the whole period of about 3000 years. We find also changes of language being the cause of changes in names given and surnames addicted to the planets, stars and zodiacal signs. An almost perfect guide through the vast domain of literature here is the volume of Conrad Bursian’s Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertums- Wissenschaft (243. Band, Jahrgang 1934), in which astronomy and astrology, astral religion and astral mythology are treated by Wilhelm Gundel. The most important part of it contains astronomy and astrology by the Babylonians (Chapter VIII). As to the astronomical foundations — scarce at the beginning of these 3000 years, manifold since King Ashurbanipal of Assyria founded his renowned library of copied ancient cuneiform tablets — the enormous work of Father F. X. Kugler S. J., together with the investigations of Thureau Dangin, Boissier, Thompson, Virolleaud and Weidner, leads to respectful admiration, which is not diminished by the fact that many words in this language appear to have different meanings or interpretations and moreover the whole of it appears to be written in different languages, as different as Semitic (Accadian) and northern (Sumerian) origins possibly can be. The narrow contact in which Babylonians and Assyrians were brought by history with Israelites of course accounted for the great interest put into the just awakening archeology of this Mesopotamian culture about 1875 and 1900, when G. Smith wrote his Chaldean Account of Genesis and when Fr. Delitzsch wrote his essays on Babel und Bibel. Exaggeration of the importance led to the name of Pan-Babylonism, which ascribed to Mesopotamia the keynote of theological knowledge on an astrological basis, a statement strongly contradicted by others. It was the suggestion that every item and figure in the Bible was to be found in Babylonia already, which roused a good many opponents. Together with Friedrich Delitzsch, Peter Jensen, Hugo Winckler and Alfred Jeremias were reckoned to be the principle Pan-Babylonists, the late Father Kugler figurated as the first and most powerful of their opponents among which is further
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