#mari temple of Ishtar

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Statue of the intendant Ebih-Il.

Place of discovery: Mari temple of Ishtar courtyard 20

Date: 2500-2340 B.C.

Period: Archaic dynasty IIIB

Medium: Alabaster, shell, lapis lazuli, bitumen

▪︎ Inscription/Dedication (in Akkadian): "Statue of Ebih-Il, the Steward, to Ishtar he dedicated it".

#ancient #ancient art #history #museum #archeology #ancient sculpture #ancient history #archaeology #assyria #akkadian #statue of intendant #mari temple of Ishtar #Ebih-Il #praying #dedication #2500 b.c. #2340 b.c.

[crossdreamers]

The transgender and nonbinary people of ancient Sumeria

Did transgender people exist before tumblr?  Transphobes seems to think transgender identities did not exist before “gender ideology”. Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid documents the existence of ancient trans people in a thread over at twitter.

//“To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inana,” reads a 4,000-year-old temple hymn to Inana, the Sumerian goddess of love and war. Non-binary gender identities are not new. Brief thread in response to that one Karen.

Link to A hymn to Inana (Inana C): translation.

Ishtar, the later Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, had gender fluid characterstics. Ashurbanipal’s hymn to Ishtar of Nineveh compares her to the god Ashur. “Like Ashur she wears a beard and is clothed with brilliance...The crown on her head gleams like the stars”

Gender fluid identity appears throughout Mesopotamian history, like that of the assinnu, a word sometimes written as a combination of the cuneiform signs for “man” and “woman”. They served as cultic personnel to Ishtar and even as prophets, like one named Šēlebum in Mari.

In Mesopotamian literature and myth, a gender fluid figure known as an assinnu named Asushunamir, helps rescue the goddess Ishtar when she becomes trapped in the Underworld.

In a Sumerian creation myth, the goddess Ninmah fashions several people out of clay. “She fashioned one with neither penis nor vagina on its body. Enki looked at the one with neither penis nor vagina on its body...and decreed its fate to stand before the king”.

Various other terms appear in cuneiform texts from ancient Mesopotamia that refer to people with non-binary gender and sex. The kalû was a singer, typically a man who participated in activities reserved for women. The pilpilû is one whose sex is “changed” by the goddess Ishtar.

In conclusion, non-binary gender identity is not new and not difficult to understand. Shame on anyone with a platform who uses it to spread misinformation and hate.//

Full thread here.

By the way, one of the clearest proofs of transgender identities in ancient Sumer and Mesopotamia, were the priestesses of Inana (or Inanna, also known as Ishtar). They are known as the Gala (referred to as kalû above). T

hey presided over religious rites, healed the sick, predicted the future, made music, raised money for the poor, and “dissolved evil” during lunar eclipses.  They used feminine pronouns and dressed and lived as women. According to several sources they also castrated themselves. 

The goddess of Cybele, who is closely related to Ishtar/Inanna, also had transgender priestesses called Galli. That religion became very popular in the later Roman Empire.

Top photo: Ishtar

#trans #transgender #ishtar #inanna #history #queer #lgbt #lgbtqa

[haggishlyhagging]

By the end of the second millennium, the religious thinkers of Mesopotamia saw the cosmos as controlled and regulated by male gods, with only Ishtar maintaining a position of power. When we see such a pattern of theological change, we must ask whether the religious imagery is leading society, or whether it is following socioeconomic development? Was the supplanting of goddesses in Sumerian religious texts an inner theological development that resulted purely from the tendency to view the world of the gods on the model of an imperial state in which women paid no real political role? Or does it follow in the wake of sociological change, of the development of what might be called "patriarchy"? And if the latter is true, is the change in the world of the gods contemporary to the changes in human society, or does it lag behind it by hundreds of years? To these questions we really have no answer. The general impression that we get from Sumerian texts is that at least some women had a more prominent role than was possible in the succeeding Babylonian and Assyrian periods of Mesopotamian history. But developments within the 600-year period covered by Sumerian literature are more difficult to detect. One slight clue might (very hesitantly) be furnished by a royal document called the Reforms of Uruinimgina." Uruinimgina (whose name is read Urukagina in earlier scholarly literature) was a king of Lagash around 2350 B.C.E. As a nondynastic successor to the throne, he had to justify his power, and wrote a "reform" text in which he related how bad matters were before he became king and described the new reforms that he instituted in order to pursue social justice. Among them we read, "the women of the former days used to take two husbands, but the women of today (if they attempt to do this) are stoned with the stones inscribed with their evil intent." Polyandry (if it ever really existed) has been supplanted by monogamy and occasional polygyny.

In early Sumer, royal women had considerable power. In early Lagash, the wives of the governors managed the large temple estates. The dynasty of Kish was founded by Enmebaragesi, a contemporary of Gilgamesh, who it now appears may have been a woman; later, another woman, Kubaba the tavern lady, became ruler of Kish and founded a dynasty that lasted a hundred years. We do not know how important politically the position of En priestess of Ur was, but it was a high position, occupied by royal women at least from the time of Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon (circa 2300 B.C.E.), and through the time of the sister of Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin of Larsa in the second millennium. The prominence of individual royal women continued throughout the third dynasty of Ur. By contrast, women have very little role to play in the latter half of the second millennium; and in first millennium texts, as in those of the Assyrian period, they are practically invisible.

We do not know all the reasons for this decline. It would be tempting to attribute it to the new ideas brought in by new people with the mass immigration of the West Semites into Mesopotamia at the start of the second millennium. However, this cannot be the true origin. The city of Mari on the Euphrates in Syria around 1800 B.C.E. was a site inhabited to a great extent by West Semites. In the documents from this site, women (again, royal women) played a role in religion and politics that was not less than that played by Sumerian women of the Ur IlI period (2111-1950 B.C.E.). The causes for the change in women's position is not ethnically based. The dramatic decline of women's visibility does not take place until well into the Old Babylonian period (circa 1600 B.C.E.), and may be function of the change from city-states to larger nation-states and the changes in the social and economic systems that this entailed.

The eclipse of the goddesses was undoubtedly part of the same process that witnessed a decline in the public role of women, with both reflective of fundamental changes in society that we cannot yet specify. The existence and power of a goddess, particularly of Ishtar, is no indication or guarantee of a high status for human women. In Assyria, where Ishtar was so prominent, women were not. The texts rarely mention any individual women, and, according to the Middle Assyrian laws, married women were to be veiled, had no rights to their husband's property (even to movable goods), and could be struck or mutilated by their husbands at will. Ishtar, the female with the fundamental attributes of manhood, does not enable women to transcend their femaleness. In her being and her cult (where she changes men into women and women into men), she provides an outlet for strong feelings about gender, but in the final analysis, she is the supporter and maintainer of the gender order. The world by the end of the second millennium was a male's world, above and below; and the ancient goddesses have all but disappeared.

-Tikva Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth

#Tikva Frymer-Kensky #Ishtar #female oppression #mesopotamian mythology #goddess erasure #ancient history #religious history

[shikanithefox160]

Human Hessonite

Weird input about Hessonite as a human When first seeing Hessonite, one could wonder that she could be head-cannoned to be more ancient in the human timeline than set in the modern era of Steven Universe if she were ever a human and not some space rock person. In particular her physical resemblance and her vibe felt more at home with Assyrian, Mesopotamian or a Sumerian queens or powerful women of the past, with women of those times being like that of the legendary and mythical Queen Semiramis who was a warrior just like Hess or the actual physical resemblance to Queen Puabi. - The armor’s design had some elements taken from Roman influences with that scale armor and belly ribbon that patrician Roman generals would’ve worn

Also fun fact a lot of Mesopotamian queens have those thick eyebrows and poofy hair as seen below with Queen Puabi. Much like Hessonite.

Statue of a priestess Woman -from the temple of Ishtar in the city of Mari, early dynastic period

A lot of Sumerian statues of both priests and priestesses often have the signature unibrow

#stevenuniverse #art #fanart #hessonite #su hessonite #unleash the light #make hessonite a tumblr sexywoman #mesopotamia #Queen Puabi #Assyrian #historical #history #Steven universe human au #Sorry for the history lesson

[zahut]

“Ancient moon priestesses were called virgins. ‘Virgin’ meant not married, not belong to a man—a woman who was ‘one-in-herself’. The very word derives from a Latin root meaning strength, force, skill; and was later applied to men: virle. Ishtar, Diana, Astarte, Isis were all all called virgin, which did not refer to sexual chasity, but sexual independence. And all great culture heroes of the past, mythic or historic, were said to be born of virgin mothers: Marduk, Gilgamesh, Buddha, Osiris, Dionysus, Genghis Khan, Jesus—they were all affirmed as sons of the Great Mother, of the Original One, their worldly power deriving from her. When the Hebrews used the word, and in the original Aramaic, it meant ‘maiden’ or ‘young woman’, with no connotations to sexual chasity. But later Christian translators could not conceive of the ‘Virgin Mary’ as a woman of independent sexuality, needless to say; they distorted the meaning into sexually pure, chaste, never touched. When Joan of Arc, with her witch coven associations, was called La Pucelle—‘the Maiden,’ ‘the Virgin’—the word retained some of its original pagan sense of a strong and independent woman. The Moon Goddess was worshipped in orgiastic rites, being the divinity of matriarchal women free to take as many lovers as they choose. Women could ‘surrender’ themselves to the Goddess by making love to a stranger in her temple.”

— Monica Sjöö, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth

#monica sjöö #quotes #text #words #writing #language #philosophy #the great cosmic mother #religion #history

[yamayuandadu]

Pride Month special: Manzat, the deified rainbow and her LGBT connection

Considering June is the Pride Month, I've decided to dedicate this month's first article to a rainbow-related topic too. Below the cut you can learn everything there is to know about the Mesopotamian goddess of the rainbow, Manzat (also spelled Mazziat, Manziat, Mazzet etc.) - her origin, role ascribed to her by ancient authors, associated deities and more. As promised by the title, the final section of the article deals with a text mentioning Manzat, which is, as far as I can tell, the oldest documented association between the rainbow and LGBT themes.

Manzat isn't exactly an A list goddess. Even calling her a B list one would be a stretch. Indeed, she's so obscure that we know more about many attendant deities than about her. She nonetheless is attested in many different sources, found in areas between the ancient states of Mari (in present day Syria) and Elam (in present day Iran). Manzat most likely has her origin among Akkadians in ancient Mesopotamia. Her name is pretty self explanatory – if written without the symbol known as “divine determinative” in front of it, it's simply the Akkadian term for the regular rainbow. While a Sumerian form of the name is known as well – Tir-anna (“Bow of heaven”) – the fact it appears to be a pun based on Akkadian homonyms (the sign used to write “Tir”means “forest” in Sumerian but was pronounced close to the Akkadian word for bow leading to such an usage in some Sumerian texts) makes it unlikely it arose naturally.

Between Elam and Mesopotamia

Curiously, it seems that despite Akkadian origin she was actually most popular in Elam, to the east of the Tigris. The first mention of her known today comes from the treaty of Naram-sin, king of Sumer and Akkad, with an unspecified ruler of a part of Elam, where she appears among the deities serving as its witnesses, alongside the crème de la crème of the Elamite pantheon – Pinikir, Humban (likely a “king of the gods” figure like Mesopotamian Enlil, venerated well into Persian times when parallels can be drawn about the cults of him and “Auramazda” - an early, not necessarily fully Zoroastrian form of Ahura Mazda), Inshushinak (the tutelary god of Susa who judged the dead) and so on. It needs to be pointed out that Manzat's “career” in Elam isn't a unique situation. While the Elamite language wasn't related to Sumerian or Akkadian – or to any other known language, living or extinct, for that matter – a number of Elamite gods have names borrowed from these two languages. In addition to Manzat, these include Lagamal (Akkadian - “no mercy,” an underworld deity), Ishmekarab (Akkadian - “hears the prayer,” a law deity) and Inshushinak (Sumerian - “Lord of Susa,” associated with both Lagamal and Ishmekarab). All of them appear in Mesopotamian texts too, but didn't have quite the same relevance there as in Elam. In turn the Elamite god Simut was adopted by the Mesopotamians as a personification of Mars and the goddess Pinikir became somewhat of an international sensation, showing up as far as west as in Anatolia, for example in the Hittite Yazilikaya sanctuary, possibly as a personification of Venus. While early researchers viewed Pinikir as a mother goddess, and this claim still shows up here and there today, renowned experts such as hittitologist Gary Beckman and archaeologist Kamyar Abdi, who studied this goddess in depth, demonstrated she was instead an “Ishtar type” deity. It's also possible the god Tishpak has his roots in Elam, though some scholars instead see him as a reflection of the Hurrian weather god Teshub instead.

The worship of Manzat

Sadly, there are no known myths about Manzat. What little we know about her comes mostly from sources concerned more with cultic than mythical affairs. For example records show that Manzat was reasonably popular as a deity invoked in theophoric names, both Akkadian and Elamite. Examples include Manzat-ili (“Manzat is my god”), Manzat-ummi (“Manzat is my mother”) and “Danum-Manzat” (“Manzat is mighty”). A number of shrines and temples of Manzat are recorded: in Mesopotamia in Nippur and Babylon (four shrines in that city alone), and in Elam in Susa, Hubshen ( present day Deh-e Now) and as a part of the famous Choga Zanbil site (the first photo in this article is a modern reconstruction). It seems in Elam she was often worshiped alongside the already mentioned Simut, and some researchers propose they were a couple; evidence from the Mesopotamian city of Der appears to indicate she was viewed as the wife of the local head god Ishtaran (no relation to Ishtar) there. However, the god list An-Anum doesn't list any husband in its brief Manzat section – only an otherwise completely unknown son, Lugalgidda, and a sukkal (vizier, second in comman), Sililitum. Sililitum's name is Akkadian, but appears to be the name of a month in the Elamite calendar as well. Ishtaran has no wife in this god lists, and some sources simply call his spouse “Šarrat-Der(i)” - “queen of Der.” One curious Elamite inscription refers to Manzat as “Manzat-Ishtar” - this doesn't necessarily indicate a conflation between her and the superstar of Mesopotamian mythology, though. It's possible that in this case “Ishtar” means an ishtar without the capital I: in some text, “ishtar” is a generic term for goddesses, not even necessarily of the “Ishtar type.” Examples of such usage of this term can even be found in Epic of Gilgamesh (tablet XI). No other sources associate Manzat directly with Ishtar – the latter's Elamite equivalent was Pinikir; as I’ll demonstrate later she was associated with another “Ishtar type” goddess though. It's possible that a goddess hiding behind the Akkadian title “Belet Ali” - “lady of the city” - was one and the same as Manzat. The fact that the enigmatic “Belet Ali” was associated with Simut in Elam strengthens this impression. A number of epithets are attested in god lists, among them “Lady of the regulations of heaven,” “Companion of heaven”   and “She who makes the city flourish.” Almost all of them highlight her nature as a celestial deity.

Astronomical role

Manzat's Sumerian name Tiranna – but seemingly not her Akkadian name – was also used to refer to an unidentified star. According to Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary by J. Black and A. Green (p. 153, the Rainbow entry) horse head under a “gate” symbol present on some kudurru (Mesopotamian border markers) represents this star, but I can't find this claim anywhere else.

The horse head symbol on a kudurru (British Museum)

Manzat, Nanaya and the promised LGBT themes

While this is technically almost all there is to know about Manzat, the story doesn't end here. As I promised, I will now introduce a text which associated the rainbow – well, Manzat, to be specific, rather than the general idea of rainbows, but the point stands  – with broadly understood LGBT themes. The discussed text is a hymn to the goddess Nanaya. Nanaya was either a hyposthasis of Inanna/Ishtar, part of her entourage, or an independent but similar deity, and was first and foremost a goddess of love, including its corporeal and sensual aspect. In some hymns Inanna/Ishtar “tutored” Nanaya.

King Meli-Shipak and his daughter praying to Nanaya on a kudurru (wikimedia commons)

A reclining goddess, identified as a possible late depiction of Nanaya here (Louvre) The composition in mention a type of exaltation, praising the author's deity of choice by comparing their attributes to these of other gods. In the case of exaltation texts dedicated to Marduk this is often erroneously viewed as “monotheism” in sources of dubious quality, but that's not quite what's happening there. The purpose of such texts was to present the object of personal devotion as particularly grand and significant in the divine hierarchy by comparing their traits to these of other gods (eg. at mot henotheism, not monotheism); they are also not exclusive to Marduk, and they don't deny the existence of a multitude of gods (the famous Marduk exaltation still mentions his wife Sarpanit independently for example) According to the discussed tex Nanaya, to put it colloquially, swings both ways:

This passage was identified as referring to sexual matters already in the 1970s (A Sumero-Akkadian Hymn of Nanâ by E. Reiner, p. 233-234; the article is somewhat dated but a link can nonetheless be found in the bibliography). In an earlier strophe Nanaya states that she can take a male form (as a side note Reiner regards the form with “heavy breasts” as unusual for her):

While exaltation of a specific deity could include both gods and goddesses as their “aspects” (exaltation of Marduk included the goddess of victory Irnina among deities compared to him), in this case the mention of a bearded god is connected to a certain degree of fluidity of gender associated with many “Ishtar type” goddesses, especially with the Hurrian Shaushka. For Nanaya it's pretty uncommon, as far as I know appearing only in this single extraordinary text, and even here a result of association with her more famous “mentor” Ishtar  – but the point stands. In the rest of the hymn, goddesses Nanaya identifies herself with are enumerated. These include all the usual suspects (like various forms of Ishtar, important city goddesses, etc.), but also Manzat, here identified as the goddess of Der. Since the text describes Nanaya as – if you squint - interested in both men and women and perhaps genderfluid, it's pretty safe to say this is the oldest recorded association between the rainbow and lgbt themes, even though it has nothing to do with modern use of this symbol. If nothing else, it would be funny to bring this up next time someone claims the use of rainbow as a symbol of the LGBT community is “inappropriate” due to its biblical connotations – Manzat and Nanaya, while irrelevant today even by the standards of Mesopotamian deities, are after all figures of even greater antiquity. Happy Pride Month, everyone.

Bibliography

Manziʾat entry in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie by W. G. Lambert is the source of most of the information in this article

Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources by J. M. Asher-Greve and J. G. Westenholz

Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary by J. Black and A. Green

The Other Gods who are: Studies in Elamite-Iranian Acculturation Based on the Persepolis Fortification Texts by W. F. M. Henkelman

Elamite Temple Building by D. T. Potts

A Sumero-Akkadian Hymn of Nanâ by E. Reiner

Elamite Religion in Encyclopaeda Iranica

For more sources regarding Nanaya, other “Ishtar type” goddesses and their possible genderfluid character see my previous articles here, here and here.

#mesopotamian mythology #elamite mythology #lgbt history #ishtar #mythology

[lady-sphinx]

Few things are less understood than the hieros gamos – the “sacred marriage”.

Considered to be the “Holy Grail” of sexual rituals, is it within reach of comprehension and explanation?

One of the most intriguing, nebulous and controversial topics of history and magic is the “hieros gamos”, “the sacred marriage”. Believed to incorporate both sex and ritual, it should not come as a surprise that throughout history, it has attracted many – and often, those who should truly well stay clear of it.

Its fame has meant that the theme was used by Dan Brown in “The Da Vinci Code”, where he described it as how “man could achieve a climactic instant when his mind went totally blank and he could see God”. Brown is not the only one who has linked the experience with tantrism and the withholding of orgasm. He is, of course, also the man who considered Mary Magdalene’s vulva to be the Holy Grail. The quest to define the hieros gamos foremost is one of answering the question who and when it was performed. Some – including Dan Brown – link it to temple prostitution, while others see it as the king of the country who marries “the land” – in the form of a high priestess – to rejuvenate it.

For the Greeks, it was more abstract. They considered it a marriage between the gods and hence apparently outside of the reach of ordinary human beings.

It was only in the Jewish and medieval tradition that the hieros gamos became linked with magic and ritual and it is therefore here that we find the current obsession with it. As such, in 1605, Cesare della Riviera wrote that “in Europe, the tracks of these ancient rituals pass through the Gnostic schools, the alchemical and cabalistic currents of the Middle Ages and Renaissance – where numerous alchemical texts can be read on two levels.”

What is the hieros gamos?

At its core, the sacred marriage is more of a sacrament than a ritual. It is a marriage between husband and wife, but is of a sacred nature: it is a marriage blessed by the gods, with active participation of those deities, present in the act of lovemaking between the two humans. Focusing on the king having sexual intercourse with the high priestess is thus largely a misnomer, as the king was equally a high priest, and the queen… a high priestess.

In the 20th century, Carl Gustav Jung studied the hieros gamos through the Rosarium Philosophorum, a series of twenty woodcuts, printed in Frankfurt in 1550. The images have a clear sexual and royal nature: a king and queen are depicted with the sun and the moon, sharing a bed, performing sexual acts, as a result of which they become one, and are transformed.

And it is with these woodcuts that we come to the core of the hieros gamos: indeed, the primary purpose of the sacred marriage is that two equals, twin souls, a husband and wife, reunite through the hieros gamos. In short: the hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, was not a marriage of just any human beings, but of twin souls.

They – like so many other religions – believed that each human being possessed a soul. That soul was half of one unit, which consisted out of one male and one female half. This meant that for every human being alive, there was a perfect twin soul. The quest in this lifetime was to find that twin soul, and be reunited with it. This was the truest of loves; the greatest quest. If not the Great Work of Alchemy.

The alchemist Nicolas Flamel stated that he was only able to accomplish the Great Work while in the presence of his wife Perenelle, but it was equally accepted that the majority of marriages here on earth, was not between twin souls. Once the twin souls had found themselves, apart from understanding the true depths of love and kinship they shared throughout their many lifetimes together, the hieros gamos would be completed at some point.

What was it? It was seen as God personally “attending” a sexual activity, in which the human beings – male and female – each get “infused” by the divine essence of the male and female component of God.

The best-known historical example of such a sacred marriage is between King Solomon and Queen Sheba. The story relates how the Queen of Sheba travelled from her homeland to meet Solomon, to perform the hieros gamos with him.

This story is discussed by Kathleen McGowan in her fact-based novel “Book of Love”. She relates that ancient traditions stipulate God had both a male and female aspect: El and Asherah. Tradition relates that they desired “to experience their great and divine love in a physical form and to share such blessedness with the children they would create. Each soul who was formed was perfectly matched, given a twin made from the same essence. […] Thus the hieros-gamos was created, the sacred marriage of trust and consciousness that unites the beloveds into one flesh.”   

Echoes of the sacred marriage can be found in the Song of Songs, directly linked with Solomon and describing love making. The title highlights it was the holiest of all songs, underlining its importance. Margaret Starbird has pointed out that there are strong parallels between the Song of Songs and poems to the Egyptian goddess Isis. Of course, both Solomon and Sheba and Isis and Osiris were twin souls, and hence able to experience the hieros gamos.

The Song of Songs became very important for the Kabbalists, specifically following the Book of the Zohar, which saw the Song of Songs as a prime example of the hieros gamos. It is in the Zoharic Kabbalah that God is represented by a system of ten spheres, each symbolizing a different aspect of God, who is perceived as both male and female. The Shekina was identified with Malchut, which was identified with the woman in the Song of Songs. Her beloved was identified with Yesod, which represents God’s foundation and the phallus or male essence.

Within the Jewish religion, Malchut and Yesod are El, the fatherly creator god, and his consort, Asherah. He was identified with the bull and She with the mother goddess. Indeed, women who have experienced the hieros gamos note that they have experienced this mother goddess energy, some even mentally visiting some of her sanctuaries during the experience. The imagery also reveals how long our ancestors have been familiar with this sacred marriage: the link between the bull and the earth goddess is visible on the walls of Catal Huyuk, built in the 8th millennium BC.

The hieros gamos should therefore be more appropriately labelled the reunion of twin souls, while incarnate in the body, through sexual activity, involving the active participation of the male and female aspect of God: “What God has put together, let no man separate.”

Those who have experienced such union find it largely impossible to describe – “beyond words”. They are, however, capable of breaking down the experience in some components. The man will become one with El, while the female melts with Asherah, the “Queen of Heaven”. During this union, it is entirely possible that Asherah or El is more prominent in one partner than in the other.

During these encounters, the sexual activity exceeds – and is different from – a normal orgasm; it is normally more intense, prolonged and multiple, whereby the orgasm itself is more energetic, rather than physical. However, the presence of this divine energy should not be seen as a form of possession; normally, the human sexual energy is equally present, and the sexual experience is a balance and interplay between both energies. To put it crudely: the hieros gamos is a foursome: two human beings, and El and Asherah operating with and through them.

Where does this leave the reputation of the hieros gamos as a form of temple prostitution? Asherah has been linked with the Mesopotamian Ishtar, whose cult did involve sacred prostitutes. However, should we perhaps see in these women initiatrices: women who prepared and taught certain methodologies as to how sacred sexuality should be experienced between partners, so that their union could lead to a sacred marriage?

Interestingly, the world’s oldest poem, “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, relates how when Gilgamesh discovers the wild man Enkidu, he sends him to Shamhat, a priestess of Ishtar. She was instructed to teach Enkidu how to live as a cultural human being, suggesting that our ancestors identified culture specifically with how to make love properly – the hieros gamos way.

These examples, and the example of Solomon and Sheba, make it clear that the quest of the hieros gamos is not open to anyone: it is only the bailiwick of twin souls. It is why Flamel noted that it was only possible to be performed with Perenelle, clearly not only his wife, but also his twin soul.

It is also not so much ritual, but total union of body, mind and spirit: the two parts of one soul become united in the body, thus accomplishing in the body what they were at the beginning of time: a unity. The Great Work. And this union was “blessed” by the sacrament of the hieros gamos, in which God themselves, present at the separation of these souls at the beginning of time, reunited and blessed the two lovers.

So even though tantric yoga as such has nothing to do with it, tantrism does know about this state of perfect union and has labelled it Samadhi. It is the state where the respective individualities of each of the participants are completely dissolved in the unity of cosmic consciousness – the two units are reunited. For tantrics, the deities are not El and Asherah, but Shakti and Shiva.

Because it is “restricted” to twin souls, the hieros gamos might not hold the sexual and ritual appeal that many would like to give it. But it is nevertheless the most important sacrament of all, as it was the completion of the quest of the soul in life: to find his twin soul and reunite, and within this love, continue their life, combined.

People who have experienced the hieros gamos agree that this is a unique experience. One person stated that during the hieros gamos, both partners experienced total orgasm, though this was without any physical activity – through a physical connection, the other partner experienced perfectly the sexual stimulation the other person was sending in the mind – in short, the partners were both not only reading the other person’s mind, but interacted within that mind – as one unity of cosmic consciousness. Another person described it as “utter bliss” or what “heaven” must have felt like.

The feeling of “heaven on earth” may indeed be what the hieros gamos was all about: the twin souls in heaven, experiencing their divine union on earth.

As above, so below?

#hieros gamos #twin flames #soulmates

[grailfinders]

A Grand Order of all servant builds so far:

With over 100 builds, it would be a pain to have to sift through all of those just to get to Mash. There’s a full list under the cut so you can just ctrl+f to find your favorite servant easily.

Mash Kyrielight

Artoria

Artoria (Alter) 

Artoria (Lily)

Nero Claudius

Siegfried  

Gaius Julius Caesar

Altera

Gilles de Rais (Saber)

Chevalier d’Eon

EMIYA

Gilgamesh  

Robin Hood

Atalante

Euryale  

Arash

Cu Chulainn

Elisabeth Bathory  

Musashibou Benkei

Cu Chulainn (Prototype)

Leonidas I  

Romulus

Medusa 

Georgios  

Edward Teach

Boudica

Ushiwakamaru  

Alexander

Marie Antoinette

Martha

Medea  

Gilles de Rais

Hans Christian Andersen

William Shakespeare

Mephistopheles  

Amadeus

Zhuge Liang

Cu Chulainn (Caster)

Sasaki Kojirou  

Hassan of the Cursed Arm

Stheno

Jing Ke

Charles-Henri Sanson

The Phantom of the Opera

Mata Hari

Carmilla  

Heracles

Lancelot

Lu Bu Fengxian

Spartacus

Sakata Kintoki

Vlad III

Asterios

Caligula  

Darius III

Kiyohime

Eric Bloodaxe

Tamamo Cat

Jeanne d’Arc

Orion

Elisabeth Bathory (Halloween) (Rerun)

Tamamo-no-Mae

David

Hektor

Francis Drake

Anne Bonny & Mary Read

Medea (Lily)

Okita Souji

Oda Nobunaga

Scathach

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne

Fergus mac Roich

Santa Alter

Nursery Rhyme

Jack the Ripper

Mordred

Nikola Tesla

Artoria (Lancer Alter)

Paracelsus von Hohenheim

Charles Babbage

Jekyll and Hyde

Frankenstein

Caster of the Timeless Temple

Arjuna

Karna

Mysterious Heroine X

Fionn mac Cumhaill

Brynhildr

Beowulf

Nero Claudius (Bride)

Ryougi Shiki (Saber)

Ryougi Shiki (Assassin)

Amakusa Shirou

Astolfo

Gilgamesh (Child)

The Count of Monte Cristo

Nightingale

Cu Chulainn (Alter)

Queen Medb

Helena Blavatsky

Rama

Li Shuwen

Thomas Edison

Geronimo

Billy the Kid

Jeanne d’Arc (Alter)

Angra Mainyu

Iskandar

Emiya (Assassin)

Hassan of the Hundred Personas

Irisviel (Holy Grail)

Shuten Douji

Xuanzang Sanzang

Minamoto-no-Raikou

Sakata Kintoki (Rider)

Ibaraki-Douji

Fuuma “Evil Wind” Kotarou

Ozymandias

Artoria Pendragon (Lancer)

Nitocris

Lancelot (Saber)

Tristan

Gawain

Hassan of the Serenity

Tawara Touta

Bedivere

Leonardo Da Vinci

Tamamo no Mae (Lancer)

Artoria Pendragon (Archer)

Marie Antoinette (Caster)

Anne Bonny and Mary Read (Archer)

Mordred (Rider)

Scathach (Assassin)

Kiyohime (Lancer)

Martha (Ruler)

Illyasviel von Einzbern

Chloe von Einzbern

Elizabeth Bathory (Brave)

Cleopatra

Vlad III (Extra)

Jeanne d’Arc Alter Santa Lily

Ishtar

Enkidu

Quetzalcoatl

Gilgamesh (Caster)

Medusa (Lancer)

Gorgon

Jaguar Warrior

Tiamat (not happening) (we lied)

Merlin

Beast I: The Beast of Pity

CotTT again

Miyamoto Musashi

First Hassan

Mysterious Heroine X Alter

Archer of Shinjuku

Emiya Alter

Avenger of Shinjuku

Assassin of Shinjuku

Arthur Pendragon (Prototype)

Hijikata Toshizo

Chacha

Meltryllis

Passionlip

Suzuka Gozen

BB

Kiara Sessyoin

Kiara but beastmode

Caster of Nightless City

Assassin of Nightless City

Berserker of El Dorado

Rider of Resistance

Sherlock Holmes

Berserker of Learning with Manga

Nero (Caster)

Frankenstein (Saber)

Nitocris (Assassin)

[hasquetzorkukudoneanythingwrong]

Interview

BB: welcome back everyone! So good to see you all here today! We're back for a 3rd time here on BB Channel! Like before we're joined by the lil cuties of Ed and Mari. But this time their parents have come to join!

Rex: hello...

Quetz: Hola!

BB: that wasn't a very strong greeting Rex!

Rex: I'm tired right now. Can't this wait?

BB: time waits for no one and neither does BB!

Mari: already this is super annoying! *sigh* so why'd you decide to bring them into this anyways?

BB: the people who follow this blog need to see how they're doing so long after Chaldea too! You two have had the spotlight for a while, so now you should share.

Ed: I mean... guess that's fair.

Mari: should anyone be dealing with this?

Rex: I'd rather not be here either.

BB: aaaww, don't be like that! This will be fun!

Quetz: that's a very hard sell BB.

BB: just humor me at least.

Rex: ...fine

Quetz: what are we even doing anyways?

BB: some of your interdimensional buds have sent in questions about how you guys are doing, and I'm here to get those answers for them!

Quetz: that actually sounds nice...

BB: what'd I tell ya!?

Rex: yeah yeah, pls get started.

BB: fine. First few are from my precious bombardier beetle! First one she asks: do you have any pets?

Mari: oof! Do we!

Rex: currently we have four dogs: 1 German Shepherd named King, a Pitbull named Sparks, a Dogo Argentino named Duke, and a Corgi named Marshmallow.

Quetz: but also we have a habit of adopting older dogs who aren't likely to get a home because of their age or rescues to give them a nice place to stay.

BB: aaawww, well ain't that wholesome?

Mari: we also have mom's bigass pterosaur!

BB: less wholesome. Next one from my dear yellowjacket: favorite foods?

Rex: PIZZA!

Mari: CAKE!

BB: whoa! Pump the brakes you two! No need to get too excited!

Quetz: ...honestly? I don't really have a favorite food. Just a bunch I like to eat and some I don't. If I had to choose, I'd say chocolate.

Ed: I'm a steak man myself.

BB: 2 sweets, and 2 savories. Next up! Who wakes up earliest?

Rex: Quetz

Ed and Mari: Mom

Quetz: ...I guess it's me... hehehe.

BB: honestly I'm not surprised. She's so damn athletic and even used to be a professional.

BB: next! Where do you all like to go for vacations and such?

Ed: mom and dad have a vacation home in Alaska.

BB: Alaska?! Why?

Mari: when warm weather is the norm for you it's nice to go to the cold to change things up.

Rex: yeah, it's actually very nice. Not too many people and beautiful nature sights.

BB: well to each their own. Another from my dear antlion: how long does it take to pick a movie or TV show to watch?

Quetz: hehehe, we're all so indecisive it takes ages to pick. It's not uncommon for us to give up after taking so long.

BB: you should work on that. This next one's interesting. My precious army ant also suggests a round of common household jobs and the like from each member.

Rex: hmmm

BB: she gave an example of like, who does the cooking?

Quetz: well it's both me and mi amor in that case. The kids aren't very creative.

Ed: hey! We're plenty creative!

Mari: no we're not, don't lie.

Rex: we only really ask that the kids clean their rooms and any messes they make. We handle most everything else.

BB: they should really show some independence tho. Can't coddle them forever.

BB: in the next one, Cadence asks about a house tour and if there's a jacuzzi.

Quetz: a house tour feels like it should be it's own thing.

Rex: yeah, but we do have a jacuzzi dude, so don't worry.

BB: next one's from Reen: she asks what would life be if you weren't in chaldea,

Rex: y'mean like now? I mean... it's a relatively normalish domestic life? With less work tho.

Quetz: si, I've made plenty from my lucha career before retirement we don't have to worry about money much. But mi amof still makes money just in case.

BB: well after that she asks: how was your life before and after meeting each other?

Rex: ...kinda sad. Aside from chaldea and saving the world, I was kinda just... stagnant. Go to work, go home and so on. Not much to my life before then.

Quetz: ...honestly, for me it was the same. After the age of Gods ended we didn't do much of anything. We mostly watched over humanity, I've been summoned in modern day before but that was rare and infrequent.

Rex: ...after I met Quetz tho... I dunno things felt... better? She kinda forced her way into my life after I summoned her and... I was more then ok to accept her... before long we had something beautiful...

Quetz: aww, mi amor! I'm so happy to hear that!

BB: ain't that sweet? Like me and my dear centipede. Final one from Reen: if you could build a dream home then where? (Can be in fantasy)

Rex: I mean... where we are now is good.

Mari: yeah, right at the border of a huge rainforest in the Yucatan sounds fine.

Ed: but what about the fantasy bit?

Quetz: hmmm... we don't really look at fantasy much. But maybe a castle of some kind?

Rex: or a Mayan temple? But with electricity and Wi-Fi.

BB: that's fair. Need those memes in your life. Now some from Kaz! First she asks: what kind of gifts do you give each other?

Rex: uuhh, well I like getting mi corazon custom things. Like some personal clothes, or even a portrait of the two of us.

Quetz: ehehehe, I like to spoil mi amor with extravagant things! Golden treasure and the like!

Mari: concerning...

BB: next, how would you spend the day if it's raining outside?

Rex: I actually enjoy rainy weather, so I like to chill near a window or even on the porch listening to the rain.

Mari: it's very soothing.

BB: how quaint. Last one from Kaz: whose good at cooking and baking?

Quetz: hehehe, that'd be me. Tho it might be considered cheating since I use my goddess power to help.

Mari: well no one else is the greatest normally so it's fine.

BB: a good 'ol better then nothing kinda attitude! Now we're back to Cadence but with more relaxed questions: what's the current house look like?

Rex: ....big.

Mari: like three stories tall with a DEEP basement.

Ed: like... 5 rooms too many.

Quetz: we also have an indoor pool.

Rex: the outside looks almost gothic, but partially taken over by nature.

BB: all this near a rainforest?

Quetz: si! Despite the size, all the nearby trees still tower over it.

BB: nature can get scary. I've seen worse and have been worse but still. Another one: how do family events function? Any specific holidays?

Quetz: ...most family events are just us... going somewhere nice to eat nice food...

Rex: do they mean bringing extended family? My family lives too far to visit often

Quetz: ...and I'd rather not speak of mine... things have gotten rocky as of late.

Mari: right, well for holidays we celebrate most standard one, like Easter and valentine's and such. For October we kinda try to combine Halloween and Day of the dead.

Ed: but Christmas is the most important for us! Mom and Dad always make the biggest celebrations for Christmas!

BB: gotta love the holidays! Especially when your mom is santa... still weird to say that. Next one! Any plans for the future?

Rex: eh... not really? I mean I want to prepare Maria to continue the family magecraft, since Ed has no interest.

Mari: someone has to continue on this lost practice.

BB: good to know it won't be lost to time like we thought. Next one! Daily life?

Rex: I wake up, eat, work on magecraft, spend family time, spend time with Quetz, go to bed.

Quetz: I wake up, workout, eat, workout, spend time with mi familia, lovely time with mi amor and then I sleep.

Ed: I wake up, take a walk, eat, practice soccer, spend family time, sleep.

Mari: sleep, sleep again, dragged to breakfast by mom, eat, eat again, mess with magecraft, eat, sit with everyone else, scroll thru my phone for hours, sleep.

Quetz: *sigh* mija, you need to change your priorities.

Mari: mmmmm... No.

BB: bad habits there Mari. Next they'd like to know if your in contact with anyone from chaldea? Other then me!

Rex: here's a real quick list: Marie, Mash, Kiara, Penth, Astraea, Martha, Ishtar, Gorgon, Jalter, The twins, your kids BB, etc etc.

Quetz: too many to list...

BB: nice you haven't lost contact! Next! About that Wedding?

Rex: well... it was eventful to say the least. Not long after completing the china LB. Most of the servants were invited, and most of Quetz's family showed up.

Quetz: si, Martha officiated it for us. Most of my family were so nice at the time... too bad that hasn't lasted.

Rex: let's not mention that...

BB: it was such a nice wedding! You two were so "nervous" you had trouble with your vows! How adorable!

Mari: why the quotes?

BB: no reason... now we're at the home stretch! Good 'ol Ash has some for stuff that technically hasn't happened yet, but you should still be able to answer! What responsibilities will Rex take on when he joins the pantheon?

Quetz: ...well he'll be largely a guardian of life on earth. Authority over things like the jungle itself, volcanos, and even snow... for some reason.

Rex: well it still snows in mexico... occasionally.

Quetz: and we'll be sharing authority over Venus! I wanted to share it with mi amor!

BB: cute! Hmmm, not sure if you cananswer this one just yet? Adjusting to God hood?

Rex: well I got to try it out a bit. Summoning lava and snow is... interesting. But also... my mind felt... odd... but also clearer? Not sure how to put it...

BB: I'm sure when you get there you'll get it... took me a bit after servant fest. And how did the other divinities react?

BB: actually I have some recordings of that to answer, so play the clip!

A screen appears showing recordings of some servants, one at a time.

Ishtar: eh! She's turning you into a god!? ...I guess you've earned it master...

Eresh: what!? Can you do that?! ...guess I won't see you in Kur... then again I don't think you have any link to Kur anyways.

Kama: do you really think your cut out for it? I mean... if it's just for you two to be together then I guess it's fine.

Astraea: godhood is a very big responsibility master. Are you certain you're up to it? Saving humanity is also a big task but at least that has an end point. This is... eternal.

Qin: oh! So you have decided to go for immortality after all?! Tho not the same as my methods, it is still good to see you two will be happy together!

Scathach: immortality? I've strived for death for so long... to see you go for immortality... Hopefully you'll find happiness, where I couldn't...

The screen turns off.

BB: very interesting! Most seem hesitant of it all... I for one think it's cute! Imagine in a thousand years you guys have a double date with me and my dear stag beetle!

Rex: ...a thousand years...

Quetz: still having trouble processing it all?

Rex: yeah... maybe when I get there... it'll be easier.

BB: now for today's final one! A scenario! One of you two goes berserk! What does the other do to calm them down?

Rex: well that has happened before... usually a nice hug is more then good enough.

Quetz: si! I've almost destroyed a few servants a few times until mi amor caught me in a hug! I can't bring myself to harm him... so I stop!

BB: sounds too easy... but I've seen that before so... I'll let it slide.

BB: well that's all the time we have for now! Hopefully you all are satisfied by the answers! We'll be doing this again, seeya!

Screen cuts out, the show's over.

Questions provided by: @hasbbdoneanythingwrong @havetheavengersdoneanythingwrong @has-gilgamesh-doneanythingwrong @renmeo @kazmetic @grievouslyxorvia

Other tags

@haspaulbunyandoneanythingwrong @hasishtardoneanythingwrong @hasereshdoneanythingwrong @hasabbydoneanythingwrong @haskamadoneanythingwrong

#fate grand order #quetzalcoatl #wife #rexcoatl #mastersona #rex #bb #maria #eduardo

[writer-and-artist27]

Chaldean Master Vy (Character Profile)

Roughly inspired by @panyum​’s enthusiasm for my most recent artwork, it’s about time I divulge more on the Mastersona/main protagonist of Passing Days, Vy. Here we go.

Name: Vy

Age: 17-18 (beginning of Part 1), 19-20 (by Lostbelt 3)

Gender: Cis-female

Orientation: Asexual/Demisexual (questioning) and Demiromantic

Closest Servants: Mash Kyrielight (Level 80), Arturia Pendragon (Level 100), Achilles (Level 100), Marie Antoinette (Level 80), Robin Hood (Level 100), Archer EMIYA (Level 80), Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (Lancer - Level 70), Medea (Level 70), Chevalier D’eon (Level 80), Sieg (Level 80), Chiron (Level 80), Scathach-Skadi (Level 90), Sitonai (Level 90), Ereshkigal (Level 90), Ruler Martha (Level 80), Katsushika Hokusai (Level 90).

Notable Facts: 

In another place, Vy would have lost her life in a car crash and reincarnated into another world as a civilian pianist, but in FGO’s timeline, she was scouted by Chaldea before she could start her second quarter in college. Chaldea had noticed her family lineage having some kind of Mystic aspects through a blood test she had taken for a yearly checkup before donating blood to a local blood drive. It resulted in them reaching out to her for an “extracurricular volunteer opportunity” that no college student could refuse. Vy would accept, albeit with her parents encouraging her, not realizing it would later lead her to becoming the main Chaldean Master in the Grand Order. 

Vy went into Chaldea thinking she’d be a medical assistant from her resume stating her interest in science and medicine, only to find herself drafted into the Rayshift training that the FGO protagonist went through in canon as a result of her impressive stamina (thanks to biking miles around their home in America with her parents when growing up), tiring herself from all the shifting to the point of nearly dozing off in one of Chaldea’s hallways if not for Mash.

The “Mystic” part of Vy’s blood that drew Chaldea’s attention was something Vy’s parents nor grandparents were actually aware of, no thanks to how all grew up in poverty in Vietnam before coming to America and later, Japan, but it is actually from one of Vy’s ancestors coming in contact with a mage from the Mage’s Association. No one really knows what exactly happened between said ancestor and that mage, but it seems to explain Vy’s uncanny luck in getting some of the bigger names in the Throne of Heroes before confronting Goetia, including Arjuna, Minamoto no Raikou, and Achilles by the dawn of Camelot. Her luck has definitely made the Crypters scratch their heads, since Vy had used a nearly Fully Ascended Scathach-Skadi to take down Kadoc before having reached Scandinavia. 

Vy adores Mash a lot, both from how earnest Mash is and her eagerness to learn about everything of the outside world past Chaldea’s blizzards. Dr. Roman at one point commented that they looked like sisters, just once, and Vy latched onto Mash as a surrogate little sister since, being conscientious of Mash’s health whenever they Rayshift together. 

Since Vy’s family took her on a lot of cross-country road trips when growing up, including visiting national parks such as Yosemite and Zion to hike and sight-see, one of Vy’s goals when going into the Grand Order is making sure Mash gets to experience all nature has to offer one day like she did, wanting to introduce her to her parents when the fighting is all over. She has jokingly asked Dr. Roman and Da Vinci for adoption papers for her parents to sign for Mash.

When starting in Singularity F, Vy was initially scared of paving the way to Humanity’s salvation, but sucked it up once Mash saved her. At that moment, one of the thoughts running through her head was, “Mash is fighting so hard, so why can’t I?!” Since then, Vy has made quite the distinct image of herself when fighting with her Servants, being a no-nonsense leader who can and will sarcastically snark at anyone, including Kiara and BB of all people, when they are opposing her. To allies, she is both understanding and empathic, usually not asking any imposing questions and issuing orders only when emergencies call for it. 

Anyone who tries to “bed” her will spark a loud and angry reaction, since Vy is not interested in any sexual relations and instead is still loyal to her family and friends that were left to the dust by Goetia and later the Foreign God. Expect some cursing too. 

Vy’s romantic orientation is why Agartha is an untouched subject amongst all the Servants when bringing in new faces, because when Dahut in Drake’s body proposed rape to her outright during the Pseudo-Singularity, Vy’s reaction was basically, “I AM ACE, YOU JERK! SEX IS NOT FOR ME, CONSENT MATTERS, SO SHUT UP AND FIGHT ALREADY! IF NOT, I WILL KILL YOU WITH A RUSTY SPOON MYSELF, GODDAMMIT!” It’s another reason why Fergus and some of the other romantically inclined Servants such as Kiyohime and Elizabeth Bathory have kept their distance since, because Vy’s rage point back then was that unsettling. Robin Hood doesn’t bring up the subject of picking up girls in front of her anymore. D’Eon and Astolfo both have tried to keep Vy away from thinking about Dahut since.

The first Servants Vy ever summoned in the Grand Order was Lancer Diarmuid, Medea, and Chevalier d’Eon. The first 4-stars she ever summoned after them was Marie Antoinette and Archer EMIYA, so because of this and a lot of other things, all five Servants still find themselves in the occasional team because Vy grew that attached to them.

Her only Grailed Servants so far are Saber Arturia Pendragon, Rider Achilles, and Archer Robin Hood, both because they were there when fighting opponents such as the Lion King, Tiamat, and the Alter Egos in SERAPH, and how she loved all three of them for their legends even before coming to Chaldea. 

When Vy first got a Holy Grail, she tried to give it to Mash as thanks for Mash protecting her for so long, but because of Mash’s status as a designer baby and Demi-Servant, she wasn’t able to take it. Instead, Mash still finds herself at the front lines team Vy has for mixed enemy battles, since Vy can’t find it in her to leave Mash behind. 

Some of the Servants who have been with Vy longer find themselves getting a nickname for Vy to call out to just them, all because Vy sees them as part of her family and wants to be good to them. Robin Hood is a prominent example, where she calls him “big Robin” as a way to boost his confidence about being a Heroic Spirit, and in turn, he calls her “little sparrow.” Marie Antoinette is sometimes called “my Queen,” and some of the more younger Servants such as Illya and Miyu are called with the “-chan” honorific or “baby sis.” Mash never got a nickname simply because to Vy, “Mash is Mash, and I love your name.” There were many “awww”s. 

It’s because of how she affectionately considers a majority of her Servants family that a lot of them tone down their arguments and bad qualities in her presence, simply because she’s there. An example is how during Babylonia, Vy had answered at the Underworld’s gates, “Ereshkigal is more beautiful!” to Ishtar’s face, both because she had summoned Ereshkigal long before entering Babylonia and that she had known Eresh longer. Eresh, who hadn’t Rayshifted to the Singularity at the time, could be found later hiding her red face in her hands as Da Vinci laughed out loud. Dr. Roman meanwhile had looked like he had swallowed a lemon at the time because of how blatantly Vy had put down Ishtar, and Ishtar barely reacted. Vy’s only reasoning afterwards was, “I did not appreciate being made into a makeshift cushion in our first meeting, Ishtar, thank you very little.” 

There were a lot of times during Singularities where Vy, feeling bad for Dr. Roman being a butt-monkey of jokes, brought home a souvenir or two for the good doctor to take part in some of the better moments of the Grand Order. One such souvenir was a butter cake slice from Siduri in Babylonia, because he expressed wanting to eat it one night and she carefully preserved it with Mash to give it to him before confronting “Solomon” in the Temple of Time. It’s because of this that she dearly misses him, having found him as another surrogate father when he’d call her in for daily check-ups and talks over how Mash was doing.

When the Lostbelts happened, Vy started working a lot harder to raise her Servants and the morale of the rest of Chaldea’s staff, resulting in her gaining eyebags from losing sleep over too many Golden Apples and farming quests. Most of the Servants are all at Final Ascension and Max Level at the cost of this and QP, but it’s helped in making the Crypters lose some of their momentum. 

Hope this helps in giving some nice insight and lore!

#mastersona Vy #passing days #long text post #character profile #oc things #fate grand order #vy plays fate grand order #writer thoughts #vy says something #tw: rape mention #tw: long post

[oh-why-bother]

Ancient Statue of Ebih-II praying, from the temple of Ishtar at ancient Mari, Syria, c. 2250 BCE.

#ancient statue #syria #ishatr

[pariswasawoman]

Ruth St. Denis (January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an American modern dance pioneer, introducing eastern ideas into the art. She was the co-founder of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and the teacher of several notable performers.

Ruth Denis was raised in New Jersey. As a child, she learned exercises based on François Delsarte's Society Gymnastics and Voice Culture. This was the beginning of St. Denis's dance training, and was instrumental in developing her technique later in life. In 1894, after years of practicing Delsarte poses, she debuted as a skirt dancer for Worth's Family Theatre and Museum. From this modest start, she progressed to touring with an acclaimed producer and director, David Belasco. While touring in Belasco's production of Madame DuBarry in 1904 her life was changed. She was at a drugstore with another member of Belasco's company in Buffalo, New York, when she saw a poster advertising Egyptian Deities cigarettes. The poster portrayed the Egyptian goddess Isis enthroned in a temple; this image captivated St. Denis on the spot and inspired her to create dances that expressed the mysticism that the goddess's image conveyed. From then on, St. Denis was immersed in Oriental philosophies.

In 1905, St. Denis left Belasco's company to begin her career as a solo artist. It was about this time that she made her first European tour and used the stage name of St. Denis. Late in life she told Paul Hockings, her last research assistant, that she was waiting in a hotel with all the boxes of luggage, just before getting on the liner, when her mother walked around to each box, which had Miss Ruth's name on it, and added St. The first piece that resulted from her interest in the Orient was Radha performed in 1906. Drawing from Hindu mythology, Radha is the story of Krishna and his love for a mortal maid. Radha was originally performed to music from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé. This piece was a celebration of the five senses and appealed to a contemporary fascination with the Orient. Although her choreography was not culturally accurate or authentic, it was expressive of the themes that St. Denis perceived in Oriental culture and highly entertaining to contemporary audiences. St. Denis believed dance to be a spiritual expression, and her choreography reflected this idea.

In 1911, a young dancer named Ted Shawn saw St. Denis perform in Denver; it was artistic love at first sight. In 1914, Shawn applied to be her student, and soon became her artistic partner and husband. Together they founded Denishawn, the "cradle of American modern dance." One of her more famous pupils was Martha Graham. Together St. Denis and Shawn founded the Los Angeles Denishawn school in 1915. Students studied ballet movements without shoes, ethnic and folk dances, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and Delsarte gymnastics. In 1916 they created a collection of dances inspired by Egypt, which included Tillers of the Soil, a duet between St. Denis and Shawn, as well as Pyrrhic Dance, an all-male dance piece. Her exploration of the Orient continued into 1923 when she staged Ishtar of the Seven Gates in which she portrayed a Babylonian goddess. Together St. Denis and Shawn toured throughout the 1910s and 1920s, often performing their works on the vaudeville stage.

Other notable dancers such as Doris Humphrey, Lillian Powell, Evan-Burrows Fontaine and Charles Weidman also studied at Denishawn. Graham, Humphrey, Weidman and the future silent film star Louise Brooks all performed as dancers with the Denishawn company. At Denishawn, St. Denis served as inspiration to her young students, while Shawn taught the technique classes.

Although Denishawn had crumbled by 1930, St. Denis continued to dance, teach and choreograph independently as well as in collaboration with other artists. St. Denis no longer redirected her works from the mysteries of the Orient to combining religion and dance through her Rhythmic Choir of Dancers. Through these works it is said that St. Denis sought to become the Virgin Mary in the same manner in which she once sought to become goddesses. In 1938 St. Denis founded Adelphi University's dance program, one of the first dance departments in an American university. She cofounded a second school in 1940, the School of Nataya, which focused on teaching Oriental dance. On Sunday, September 16, 1962, she teamed with impresario Raymond D. Bowman to present a full-length Balinese shadow puppet performance (Wayang Kulit) at her studio, which lasted more than 8 hours. It was the first such performance in the United States.

Ruth St. Denis died of a heart attack on July 21, 1968, aged 89. The legacy left behind included not only her repertory of orient-inspired dances, but also students of Denishawn who later became pivotal figures in the world of modern dance. Many companies currently include a collection of her signature solos in their repertoires, including the programme, "The Art of the Solo", a showcase of famous solos of modern dance pioneers.

#ruth st denis

[theoi-crow]

Can I ask about your religion? I’m catholic but I’m feeling so drawn to Hellenic Paganism but I’m so scared. I don’t want to believe it because I don’t want to go to hell. But I feel something for Hellenism and I’m just confused. I’ve felt something reading about it. It’s so scary to me b/c I do believe in Catholicism. I don’t know what to do with these feelings tho.

Hi! I apologise in advance for how long this answer was but I wanted to be as specific as possible.

You are more than welcomed to ask me about my religion.

This ask was a little hard to answer because I believe in the freedom of allowing anyone to worship whatever faith they want to believe in, but because you are asking me about my religion, I'm assuming you're asking me about what led to me leaving Catholicism for that religion as well.

Before I continue I just want to say that I respect your decision to stay in Catholicism because although it wasn't kind to me due to it's rigid structure and politics, it is a religion others find comfort in, and I would never dream of bashing what others believe in.

Having said that, I would like to talk about what led me to my spiritual divorce from Catholicism when I was once also confused and afraid about the idea of "going to hell."

---------------------------

My childhood:

I grew up in a very poor neighborhood during a time when gang wars, kidnappings and homicides were so rampant that my 5 year old self wondered if I would ever live to see 10. That's when I met my "imaginary friend."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Your ancestors know me as Mars." He replied. My real last name is Roman and it literally translates to "Child of Mars." It has been in my family for so many generations but I didn't make the connection until I got older.

He introduced himself as just a Roman soldier although his uniform looked nothing like the ones my church showed when they did re-enactments.

He taught me how to fight, defend myself, be cautious, assess my surroundings, how to work around a panic attack and basically taught me how to survive.

Back then we didn't have smartphones and the internet wasn't as informative as it is now so I was sheltered from anything that wasn't Catholic, including Ancient Greek things so I wasn't able to identify him which is funny because "Mars" had a very Spartan looking outfit rather than a Roman one. I would often ask about it. "I like it better" was always his reply. I would often introduce him as "my weird looking Roman friend, Mars." I didn't know about the Roman gods Mars, Jupiter, Venus, etc. I just thought he was really into the planet Mars for some reason.

My Catholic upbringing was so sheltered, I was sure I was going to end up being a nun because of how much I studied it and how little I knew about the political history surrounding it.

I was fascinated by Satan and always wondered about the appropriatness of his punishment, for example, if he likes bad things and bad things are in hell, wouldn't he be surrounded by the things he likes? If god punished the wicked by sending them to hell in order to be punished by Satan, wasn't Satan helping god punish the wicked? Or the idea that Mary was not a goddess but was venerated like one.

It never made any sense to me until I started going to school and became friends with people who practiced Buddhism and Hinduism. They told me about reincarnation, an idea which made a lot more sense to me.

The more they told me about their religions, their multiple gods and female gods, the more they made sense to me, so I started researching other religions and bumped into Wicca. (I'm not wiccan but it was the only thing I could find at the time, in the 90s, about female empowerment (because I was tired of the sexism laced in the Bible) in a religious setting without me encroaching in Buddhism and Hinduism)

Wicca made me realize my friend Mars was actually Ares, god of war. The book was so nasty (and I will later learn, very inaccurate) about Ares that he and I ended up having a falling out. I was afraid and wondered if I was going to hell but then I said to myself "it'll only be temporary because then I'll be reincarnated." Reincarnation had officially become part of my personal philosophy.

There was a section in Wicca that talked about religion. It talked about various religions and the history of how Christianity demonized them. So I started reading as much as I could about the history of Christianity and Catholicism outside of the Wicca books that mentioned them. The more I learned about the political structure of Catholicism, the more I could see the gods sprinkled in the religion.

For example: Jesus and Osiris: both born December 25th, both born to Virgins, A star led 3 wise men to both (for Jesus it was the North Star, for Osiris it was the Eastern Star), Both taken to Egypt to escape the wrath of (for Jesus: Herod, for Osiris: Typhon), both taught in a temple as a child, both baptized at 30, both had twelve disciples, both could perform miracles, both walked on water, both raised someone from the dead (Jesus: Lazarus, Osiris: El-Azur-us) both were crucified, buried in a tomb, both were dead for 3 days and both resurrected, both had titles like "The Messiah", "the good shephard", "lamb of god", etc.

Jesus and Dionysus: Both wandered around, both could turn water into wine, both had legions of followers, both were persecuted, both claimed to be the son of God, both called holy child and if you want to get technical with Dionysus being born from a virgin because Jesus being the true son of God implies Mary was with God but technically a virgin because she had never been with an actual human man. By this technicality, Dionysus' mother Semele was also a virgin since she had never been with a human man.

Here's a couple more for Jesus:

Then you have the Christian holidays with Pagan roots and history: (LINK)

Example: Easter has bunnies and eggs because they are the symbols that represent fertility, which was used by the pagans to celebrate the Assyrian and Babalonian goddess Ishtar (pronunciation sounds a lot like Easter). This is why even though in Catholicism Easter is for the resurrection of Christ, there are eggs and bunnies which never made sense to me until I learn about Ishtar.

The reason why there are so many pagan symbols is because Catholicism didn't start until 300-400 years AFTER the death of Jesus. The Roman empire decided it was going to be Christian and in the process it forced the other countries it ruled over to be Christian as well. But because Pagans love their gods, they had to figure out how to sway them so they looked at their gods and holidays and appropriated them.

Because there were other Romans who still loved their gods and wanted to keep them despite the emperor, they created angels saints with ambiguous backgrounds but could do a lot of things that gods could do and we're used as avatars for their gods like Hermes being the messenger of Zeus (the god of gods) and Gabriel being the messenger of God.

The idea of a one true god is also a political tactic that uses fear which works because the human brain has evolved to respond better to fear thanks to evolution. In the beginning, Catholicism acknowledged other religions but claimed their god was the best one, hence when the Bible or prayer says "You will worship no other gods before me" which I always thought was a weird thing the Bible had because how could one worship other gods when there was only one god?

The idea of there only being a "one true god" came during the dark ages where people would accuse each other of being witches and working with the devil. Here is when Christianity started equating pagan gods with demons and devils.

The dark ages and persecutions were SO BRUTAL that fear became a thing synonymous with Catholicism thanks to the Spanish Inquisition that would randomly show up to make sure people were "properly" following the word of the Pope and not worshipping pagan gods now dubbed demons. This is where the idea of "going to hell" came from.

I also didn't like that the Catholic Church would automatically forgive the rich that would give them money and basically buy their way into heaven which was an actual rule and the reason why Martin Luther created the Protestant section of Christianity.

As for wether or not the gods are real, I will only say that for me, they are and possibly for these ex-non-believers who had very specific signs happen to them: PLEASE READ THE NOTES: (LINK)

But changing faiths can get messy because you have to unlearn what you've been taught your whole life. That is layers and layers of it being part of your subconscious and fear is something that was used because there was a lot of bloodshed that came with the politics of the christianization of Europe and the Americas.

If you are interested in Hellenic paganism, nothing is going to happen as far as going to hell goes, but there will be times where your anxiety will flare up. I suggest you learn as much as you can about the history Christianity, Catholicism and the witch trials of Europe in comparison with paganism.

Hell is a human concept evolved from fear tactics and mass hysteria.

The more you learn about Catholicism, the more you'll see that history has shaped it, paganism has shaped it and as long as you do the best to be the best version of yourself you'll be okay.

If it makes you feel better, you can continue to work with Jesus/Mary/Saints and Angels outside the Catholic system. I do it all the time, especially when I want them to take care of my parents who are hardcore Catholics. I celebrate day of the Dead and do Catholic prayers for my grandparents who were also super Catholics when they were alive.

Spirituallity and Religion are a lot more complex than we humans will ever understand.

I hope this helps.

May your heart connect with those who want to help you make a sounds decision about where you plan to take your spiritual journey.

#rosegoldtunic asks

[gardenofkore]

“As you enter the church your eyes will be at once be attracted to the figure of the Madonna Nera and Child dominating the nave from their angel-born throne above the High Altar. The wooden statue, above 1 m high, with Nigra sum Sed formosa inscribed underneath, shows a great resembling between Mother and Child, both sumptuously crowned and robed in white and gold. Her face recalls that of a gypsy or a good witch, not dissimilar to her sisters of Dijon and Guadalupe.Her legend is as follows: She was brought from the east on a ship forced to seek safe heaven in the bay, which was once the splendid ancient harbour of Tyndaris.After the storm the ship would not move until the sailors disembarked the image in the place the Madonna had chosen. She was carried up the hill to the small church that had been built on the ruins of the Temple of Cybele, since when her cult has never ceased to flourish.”

Ean C. M. Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin, p. 277-278

----

“When we review the attributes of the goddesses, from the early civilization of Sumer to the highly artistic civilizations of Greece and Rome, we discover that the characteristics they [Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene] shared were physical beauty, virginity, association with the moon and the tragic death, or deliberate sacrifice, of a sonlover.With this in mind, consider the image of Mary, mother of Jesus. She is worshiped as the Virgin Mary. Indeed, it is her virginity (the state of being chaste, not the original meaning of the word) which sets her apart from other women. Mary is also associated with the cosmos, often being called Queen of Heaven. To depict her heavenly beauty, she is frequently pictured enthroned on the moon. Her primary association is with her son, who is sacrificed; Mary's role as a wife is negligible. Despite these parallels with the image of the goddess, Mary is conventionally associated solely with the maternal aspect of the feminine—static and protective. The dynamic, transforming aspect, related to the passion, sexuality and fertility of the love goddesses, is conspicuously lacking.

However, there are other correlations between Mary and the ancient chthonic goddesses which, though not commonly known, are operative in collective consciousness. In a small number of cathedrals throughout Europe, both in popular and isolated places, a black madonna is venerated. She is not the more familiar, angelic madonna in the blue cloak, but one as black as the earth itself. She belongs to the lower world, not the heavenly realm.From prehistoric times, as early as thirty thousand years before the beginning of the Christian era, comes the Black Venus of Lespugue, carved from a mammoth tusk, now preserved in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. As she predates a time when any knowledge of agriculture existed, she is more than earth; she is Life itself. Other black feminine images, symbolic of the chthonic life force, have been worshiped throughout the ages.

In Tindari, on the coast of Mediterranean in eastern Sicily, a black statue of the madonna bears the inscription, nigra sum sed formosa -”I am black, but comely”- from the Song of Solomon 1:5. Christian scholars interpret this passage as referring to a bride, the Virgin Mary as Ecclesia, uniting in marriage with the bridegroom, her son Christ. It appears to be founded in the sacred marriage rite of Ishtar and Tammuz, since there are many parallers between the ancient cuneiform tablets and this Old Testament text. Could not this “black and comely” madonna be a product of the far more ancient image of the goddess?

[...]

When women adapted to the religious tenets of the patriarchy, they also accepted man's image of his anima as an accurate reflection of feminine nature. They thereby lost their connection to the genuine feminine, including the chthonic aspects represented by the black madonna.Many black madonnas are currently valued as religious symbols, but far more numerous are images of the conventional "blue" madonnna. The latter, as anima, inspired men to build impressive cathedrals and create beautiful works of art, but she lacks a crucial dimension of feminine nature. The black madonna, associated with both the earth and fertility, is an image of the divine feminine reflecting the ancient connection between women's nature and the goddess of love. Through her, the Great Goddess still lives in Christianity.”

Nancy Qualls-Corbett, The sacred prostitute: eternal aspect of the feminine, p. 152-154

  ----

“According to the legendary arrival of the Black Madonna of Tindari, the ship that was carrying her image was forced to take anchor in the Bay of Tindari in a storm, and was not allowed to sail until her image was taken from the ship, where it was then carried to the former temple site of the Goddess Cybele. 

[...]  

 The sanctuary of Tindari sits on a high bluff on the northern shore of Sicily. A woman from a far-away country had come to fulfill a vow to the Madonna of Tindari for saving her little girl's life. When the woman reached the sanctuary, after a long journey, she openly expressed her disillusionment upon seeing that the Madonna's face was black. The moment she expressed her irreverence, her little girl, who had wandered away from her mother, fell from a cliff. The woman called upon the Madonna to again save her child's life. But the miracle had already happened - the sea had withdrawn so the girl could fall on soft sand. The woman now believed in the divine powers of the Madonna she had mocked and the sea stayed at a distance permanently as a reminder of what had happened. 

[...] 

Sometimes the versions of a story of a punishing miracle varied, with important details missing. Only one of several sources mentioned the punishment by the Madonna of Tindari,for example. Carroll also cites a case in which a modern account of a miracle leaves out the harmful details included in older accounts.This leads me to wonder whether elements of other stories have been dropped over time. Considering the patterns in the body of above miracles, at one time there may have been a full cycle of the Madonna's anger, punishment, forgiveness and healing in more of them. Perhaps, like the alteration of the dark color of the images that other scholars and I have found, elimination of the details of the stories is a kind of "emotional whitening," a gradual removal of the Madonna's "full" range of power, including those we might consider to be negative.I must state that I never got a sense at any of the dozens of Black Madonna sanctuaries I visited that these most powerful Madonnas were feared. On the contrary they appeared to be greatly beloved. The fervor and devotion was palpable. I observed the utter closeness of the people to the Madonna. The Black Madonnas of Montevergine, Somma Vesuviana, and Napoli are all addressed as Mamma, a clearly familiar form of address. Songs and prayers use familiar (rather than formal) pronouns and indicate an endearing and close relationship. Chiseled in marble above the area where the painting of the Black Madonna of Montevergine once hung are the words which translate "You Are Black And Beautiful, My Friend." 

The Black Madonna's devotees may feel reassurance from her ferocity, like the women in southern India who believe the fierce goddess Kali's power is there to protect them. Perhaps the severe punishment that was attributed to the Madonna's power was a way for the women to ensure the rules were respected, that the sacred was preserved, and to emphasize that the great honor due the Madonna must never be violated.” 

Mary Beth Moser, Blood Relics: Menstrual Roots of Miraculous Black Madonnas in Italy, p. 6; 9-11

 ----

“It is a well known fact that sanctuaries dedicated to Mary were often built on sites that were originally used for the veneration of pagan goddesses. The same development could have happened in regard to statues, particularly when the statue of the Virgin is black in color. Shrines of earthgoddesses were scattered all over Europe, as are venerated statues of the "Black Madonna," which can be found in great numbers from Great Britain to Hungary and Poland. In none of them with which I am familiar can negroid features be detected; therefore, they are not black because of their race. In some cases the material from which they are made is black; in other cases, it is claimed that accumulated dirt and soot may account for their color. This explanation, usually given by Roman Catholic scholars, does not explain why the whole body of the statue turned black, even under the clothing, and not just the face and hands. And what about those to which none of these arguments apply? One answer lies at hand: they are black because they represent earth, the mother of all. That Christians could so easily think of Mary as black should not be surprising. Not only was the relationship between Mary and the virgin earth long established, from quite early the Song of Songs was interpreted in the church in a Marian way. This love song was explained as referring to the relationship between Christ and the church, his bride; since the church was identified with Mary, the song could be also be applied to the love of God and Mary; and the female lover in the Song of Songs is black: "I am black but beautiful, Ο daughters of Jeruselem."

Thus nothing stands in the way of seeing in the veneration of the Black Madonnas a continuation of the popular piety with which the great mystery of earth was honored. In some areas of Europe the roots of this piety, such as that of the Celts, may go back to pre-Roman times. It may have been Artemis or Isis who inspired the cult. In Tindari, Sicily, the Madonna Nera is in a church erected on the site of a former sanctuary of Cybele.”

Stephen Benko, The Virgin Goddess: Studies in the Pagan and Christian Roots of Mariology, p. 213-214

#women #history #women in history #historical women #history of women #tindari #culture #religion #province of messina #myedit #virgin mary

[debra2007-blog]

An Abomination (3 of 3)

Setting the record straight about the birth, death, and resurrection of Yeshua. February 5, 2020The astronomers (wise men) were from the city of Babylon, which is now about 55 miles SW of Baghdad in modern Iraq, watching the stars toward China in the East.They then traveled West toward Judea. I believe that there were maybe 12 astronomers, accompanied by maybe 18 armed guards for protection that traveled from Babylon to Jerusalem. It was not just 3 so called wise men, traveling alone, carrying a king’s ransom. The caravan of maybe 30 men traveled 70 days, 1,700 miles, and arrived in Jerusalem more than a year after Yeshua was born. 

The society of astronomers were carrying out the last will and testament of Daniel, who was very rich, and had willed his treasure to the Messiah, who would be born 517 years after Daniel’s death, if he died in 520 BC. Daniel wrote down what star alignments to look for. 

Luke 2: 21-2421 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;23 (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. 

Let me explain. Eight days after Yeshua was born, He was circumcised. Forty days after Yeshua was born, was the fulfillment of the 40 days of Mary’s purification. Notice the sacrifice that Joseph and Mary gave. Two turtledoves or two young pigeons was a poor man’s sacrifice.

Forty days after the birth of Yeshua, the astronomers, which people mistakenly called wise men, had not arrived yet, because the family of Joseph was still poor.

Now, let’s go to Matt 2:7-127 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented  unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. Mary and Joseph lived in a house, and not a sukkah, when the astronomers came. As I understand, the sign that Daniel told the astronomers to look for was the planetJupiter, to come into conjunction with the star Regulus, in the heart of constellation Leo, the Lion. They were to look for this sign to appear seven times, starting on the 1stevening of Tishri. On the night of September 12th, 3 BC, marked the Hebrew day of Trumpets, the first evening of the 7th month. This was the sign that a mighty king would soon be born. In the next 14 months, this sign would be given 6 more times. So on the seventh sign, the astronomers packed up Daniel’s treasure, and traveled 1700 miles, 70 days, from Babylon, arriving in Jerusalem in early March, 1 BC, about a year and a half after Yeshua was born. 

The so called wise men and their travel guards were sent to Bethlehem by King Herod the following morning. When they got there, about an hour later since it was only 5 miles away, they could not find the family of Yeshua. That evening, they again saw the star in the sky, but this time, it lead them on a three day journey north, 72 miles to the city of Nazareth. How do I know this? 

Let’s go to Luke 2:39 39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. 

After Mary’s 40 days of purification, and sacrifice in the Temple, the family of Joseph left Jerusalem and went back home to Nazareth, and the astronomers had not left Babylon yet, and not for another year. That’s why Herod had the boy babies killed that were two years old and younger. The first sign given was 1 ½ years earlier. Herod felt that killing the babies 2 years and under, that he would cover all possibilities. The riches that the family of Yeshua was given was to sustain them comfortably, while they were exiled in Egypt. Daniel was a eunuch, and had no family. He willed his estate to the Messiah, who would be born more than 500 years later. Yehovah, looked into the future, and provided for His son, Yeshua. 

The Catholic Church is more than 75% Babylonian sun worship. The flood of Noah was in 2611 BC, and ended in 2610 BC. 101 years later, in 2509 BC, was the Tower of Babel, and the dividing of the continents. Nimrod was worshiped as a god, and his wife, Semiramis, was worshiped as the queen of Heaven. 

Shem, a son of Noah, killed Nimrod, and scattered his body parts across the land. About seven months later, Semiramis became pregnant. So to cover herself, she proclaimed that Nimrod merged with the sun in the sky, and his sun rays made her pregnant. The child that was born was a boy, who she named Tammuz, and the sun in the sky was his father. Tammuz, and his mother Semiramis, were worshiped. But on his 40th birthday, Tammuz was killed by a wild pig. So every year after that, the religion priests instituted 40 days of weeping for Tammuz, by giving up an earthly pleasure so that Tammuz could enjoy it for those 40 days. When Yehovah scattered mankind across the Earth, these practices went with them, and have been with us for thousands of years. Even while Israel was in Canaan, it became a problem. Ezekiel 8:13-15 13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again,and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. Much of the teachings of the Catholic church is an abomination against God. Also, not only did the Catholic church change the date of Yeshua’s birth, they alsochanged the days of His death, burial, and resurrection. The catholic church gave worship to the Babylonian fish god Dagon, associated with the eating of fish on Friday. 

That is where we get the term, good Friday. The Catholics also gave worship to the sex goddess Semiramis, also called Ishtar, renamed Easter.

Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, and the mother of Tammuz, supposedly died, went to heaven, came back to earth in a large egg, landed in the Euphrates river, and turned abird into an egg laying rabbit. You know her as Easter, the sex goddess, and how rabbits were able to lay Easter eggs. The Catholics made Easter Sunday the resurrectionday of Yeshua, two days after Good Friday. How many of you “so called” Christians are going to continue to engage in the pagan ritual of the 40 days weeping for Tammuz, which the Catholic church renamed Lent. It is an abomination against Yehovah. 

Matthew 12:39-41 39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Yeshua said that He would be buried in the grave for three days, and three nights, and would be raised on the third day. Yeshua was crucified on Wednesday, April 28, 28 BC. He was put in the tomb about 5:30 PM. At 5:30 PM Thursday was 1 day, and one night. 

At 5:30 PM Friday was 2 days and 2 nights. At 5:30 PM Saturday was 3 days and 3 nights,being 72 hours, and Yeshua rose from the dead, about 5:30 PM, Saturday May 1st, 28 BC. The Lord of the Sabbath, rose from the dead on the Sabbath, the 17th day of the month Aviv. 

Therefore, the 10th day of the month was on Saturday, the weekly Sabbath, when Yeshua rode on a donkey into Jerusalem. There was no palm Sunday.

Passover that year was on Wednesday, so after sundown that day began the feast of Unleavened Bread.   Let’s go to John 19:3131 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,)besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

Let me explain. Because King James of England had gentiles translating the scriptures instead of Jews, we have this problem. The first day of every seven day feast of Israel is considered to be a high Sabbath. The 7 day feast of unleavened bread began at sundown after Passover, Wednesday night, which was a high Sabbath. The verse is not talking about Saturday, the weekly Sabbath, but a special day, the high Sabbath, the first day of unleavened bread. On the 2nd day, Friday, the women went to the shopping mall to buy spices. Also on Friday, the chief priests went to Pilate to have him put a Roman seal on the tomb of Yeshua. A Roman seal was a 2 inch hole drilled through the stone, and maybe 6 inches into the side of the tomb at a downward angle. Hot lead would be poured into the hole, and an iron rod inserted. When the lead cooled, the iron rod prevented the stone from ever being rolled away, unless you had 90 tons of force to shear both the iron rod and solid lead. A squad of soldiers was also guarding the tomb day and night.

Yeshua rose and left thru the walls of the tomb about 5:30 PM Saturday, being invisible. About 12 hours later, before dawn on Sunday, the mighty angel rolled the stone away, shearing the lead and iron, which can still be seen today. The soldiers saw it and fell to the ground scared. Maybe an hour later, Mary Magdalene saw Yeshua and tried to embrace Him.

John 20:17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

When Yeshua died on Wednesday, 24 graves in the Mt of Olives cemetery outside of Jerusalem were opened. At sundown on Saturday, after Yeshua rose from the dead, He resurrected those 24 saints, and they walked into the city of Jerusalem. Yeshua was now both the High Priest, and King. The duty of the High Priest was to stay secluded in Mt. Moriah from the beginning of Unleavened Bread, until the First Fruits offering was given on the Temple Mount about 10:00 AM on Sunday. Yeshua took the 24 saints to Heaven Sunday morning, to present them as the first fruits offering to Yehovah. They are the 24 elders that you read about in the book of Revelation. Yeshua returned to Earth maybe an hour later when His disciples could then touch Him. 

Luke 24:13-1513 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 

Therefore Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday are Catholic pagan holidays.

YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE!!!  

DO YO WANT THE TRUTH OR DO YOU WANT TRADITION?

Love, Debbie

[yamayuandadu]

Arahsamnum 2021: Ishara

Ishara (middle) in the Yazilikaya sanctuary (wikimedia commons) Few picks would be more appropriate to start the series on a high note than Ishara, one of my personal favorites. I covered her very briefly in a past post, but a slightly more detailed treatment is long overdue.

Ishara was many things to many people in many time periods, a woman of many talents, so to speak. What is of particular relevance for this post is that in Hurrian culture, she acquired an association with the underworld, and with so-called “former gods” residing there - essentially divine ancestors, some of them borrowed from Mesopotamiansources, some completely original. She also became a goddess of infectious diseases, and was said to be capable of inflicting a mysterious “Ishara disease” upon those who broke oaths sworn in her name. In this context she also came to be associated with the Hurrian goddess of the dead, Allani (“The Lady”; rather popular and reasonably nice in the only myth she appears in, contrary to what her function might make you expect). A phenomenon common in Hurrian religion were dyads of goddesses with seemingly overlapping functions, and these two are one of the best attested examples. Both appear in a sadly very poorly preserved myth, but they share the same epithet (siduri, “young woman”) and in a so-called Hissuwa festival they were presented with matching outfits (Ishara with a red one, Allani with blue). While Ishara is best attested as a Hurrian goddess, she had her origin in Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh), a 3rd millennium city in Syria with a rather unique culture, where she was connected to kingship. Much like the names of many other Eblaite deities, hers remains unexplained and likely comes from an unrecorded language. She was introduced from Ebla and nearby Mari to Mesopotamia, where she acquired an association with Ishtar, and by extension of it herself became a love goddess (bēlet ru'āmi, “lady of love,” a title shared with Ishtar and Nanaya), associated both with its physical aspect and with the institution of marriage. Her symbols were the bashmu, a type of mythical snake, and scorpions, a common symbol of marriage. As a love goddess she was also associated with cannabis. Ishara was somewhat of a metaphorical divine social butterfly, acquiring associations with many other deities, not just Ishtar/Inanna and Allani. She is attested as a daughter of Enlil; in Nippur she shared a temple with Dagan, presumably due to both deities being perceived as masters of the western lands (not as spouses, though, unlike what early authors expected); in curse formulas she accompanies Ninkarrak, a medicine goddess; and in the famous treaty of Naram-Sin with Elam she’s one of the few non-Elamite deities invoked as witnesses. Sadly, despite all that ancient relevance she is obscure today, and even some researchers incorrectly gloss her as an “Ishtar byform.”

Further reading:

Translation of Gods: Kumarpi, Enlil, Dagan/NISABA, Ḫalki by A. Archi

The West Hurrian Pantheon and Its Background by A. Archi

A Royal Seal from Ebla (17th cent. B.C.) with Hittite Hieroglyphic Symbols by A. Archi

Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender

in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources by J. Asher-Greve and J. G. Westenholz 

Song of Release (translation) by Mary R. Bachvarova

Goddess Išhara by L. Murat

#Arahsamnum 2021 #mesopotamian mythology #sumerian mythology #hurrian mythology #mythology