July 1, 2004

Getting a ritual together has been a headache. Literally. We need to remember that the old rites were for the temples only, not the general public. The rituals were a specialized act, each priest having a specific part to which he/she spent their lives in training and practice. Many of the priest’s functions were passed down in their family, sons taking over for fathers. What few rituals we do have are written as though the reader understood what was happening. “The mashmashu priest will perform his rites…” We were left with no instruction as to what those rites were or what the ritual speech was for that rite. The priest couldn’t just wing it; there were specific actions and words that he/she needed to learn. We can only speculate based upon the actions taken after the order was given, if the actions were written down.

The main ritual that has been left to us is the Akitu, the Babylonian New Year Ceremony. I have taken this rite and broken it down to a monthly New Moon rite. We know that the general populace had their own rites such as the moon rites, but there is nothing written about them. Nothing that I’ve run across, anyway. People didn’t gather beneath the moon, in a circle, and call quarters, rather each home had it’s own altar. People would talk to their gods on a daily basis and make offerings of food and drink. This could also be done at the temple; people would go in, make their offerings at the public altars or pay a priest for a specific offering.

From the main New Year Rite to the repair of the temple roof to the re-covering of the temple drum, which was a major ritual that took the entire temple to complete, each rite contained a great deal of food offerings and thanks to the gods. These people were SERIOUS about their food. I can see a reflection of this in the modern Jewish weekly Sabbath meals.

The ancient Middle East really didn’t have a calendar as we know it. They counted years in the reign of whatever king was currently sitting on the throne. Months were sometimes messy due to the lunar cycle, and the king had the right to order another month put in place if his advisors informed him that more time was needed before the New Year. This straightened out the sometimes uneven years. New Year was twice a year according to our calendar, at the equinoxes. Sumeria had two seasons, winter and summer. At the Fall Equinox, Dumuzi was reborn, released from his time in the underworld. During this time, the fields were sown, the growing plants representing Dumuzi’s return and his fertility in the sheepfold and the fields. At the Spring Equinox, Dumuzi “died”, returned to the underworld, and his sister, Geshtinanna, was reborn. Her name means Lady of the Vine. Summer was the time of vines.

This period was altered every other year. During the public part of the Akitu, which was a long and loud parade and celebration, the images of the gods were brought into the city, having been floated down the river on a barge. The main images were of the gods Nabu and Bel, or Marduk. This was Babylonian, so Enki can be substituted for Marduk in the Sumerian rite, although I really don’t see them as being that close in character. I honestly don’t know how the –ologists came up with Marduk as a fertility image.

This parade of the gods represented fertility returning to the city. While one city was replanting their fields, the other city was letting their fields rest.

The Akitu spoke very strongly to me, but it took about 15 days to complete, and needed a full temple of priests. See the end of the chapter for the full ancient rite.

I first broke down the Akitu into steps, and then I took out the steps that were no longer applicable to modern, Western times. Sorry, we don’t have a king and I’m certainly not inviting the Bush to my ritual. No, I don’t grant him king rights for another year. Or four.

Taking the steps left over and, keeping them in order, I simplified them. Unless someone wants to put together a full temple, with each priest having one specific job, and unless this temple wants to take 15 days to perform the rite, usually one step at a time, at sunrise, well… this needed to be adapted. I really can’t picture a 60 foot by 500 foot fully staffed ziggurat in downtown Tucson with the entire city coming to a halt for the parade of the gods.

Having taken the Akitu apart and separating the outdated material from what can still be used, and keeping the remaining steps in order, I spent an hour outside in our backyard walking through the format of the rite. After scratching my head in frustration, I realized why it wasn’t quite jiving –I was using my housemate’s Circle. The temple rites were done in a Temple. Duh! So I drew a rectangle in the dirt at the other end of the yard, drew in the main altar in the NW corner and the offering altar in the SE corner, as stated as fact from archaeological excavations, stepped in from the east, and everything suddenly clicked together.

The temple was rectangular, the main temples being 60 feet by 500 feet, the temple at Ur being the subject of the Old Testament’s rather strenuous Babylonian objection. The temples housed not only the ritual space, but also various governmental offices including a suite for the king. A long corridor ran the length of the temple, with niches spread throughout dedicated to various gods. Here, the public could come in and make small offerings to the gods. For a price, a person could request a special, small ritual, of one of the priests.

The main temples stood about 7 stories high, mountains in that time period. At the top of the temple was a smaller penthouse, the gipar, which was the private sanctuary of the temple god, a place where only the HP/HPS, called the En, could enter. Steps ran the height of the temple on one side, the east side. The east was a place of beginning because it was where the sun arose each morning and the moon arose each evening. The west was the entrance to the underworld, it being where the sun and moon set, presumed to be resting in the underworld. The sun was there daily, but since the moon is sometimes seen in the daylight, the moon only journeyed there once a month, during invisible moon when it was completely dark. New moon began about 7 days later when the first crescent appeared.

The gods could be found in both heaven and the underworld, so North, heaven, and west, the underworld, I am reasoning as the whys and wherefores of the main altar being placed in the NW corner. East, fire, and south, earth, are transformative properties, so the offering table was in the SE corner.

The path of the sun was important, so entering the temple from the east, seems logical to me. Walking solar, following the path of the sun from east to west and continuing around back to the east. East, north, west, south, east. I’m not going to get silly about this and insist that people turn only one way while in ritual, but for the purpose of entering, exiting, cleansing, and smudging, let’s follow the solar course.

Shall we open the ritual?

Originally, the priests would enter the temple naked, freshly bathed, and dress in their ritual robes before the gods. Use your own common sense, not what some book tells you.

1) Cleanse space with water.

Because Sumeria lay between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, The Twin Rivers, water was a main aspect of daily life. When the rivers made their yearly flood onto the Sumerian planes, it left highly nutritious silt to fertilize the fields while it washed away the old debris. This was the realm of Enki, Lord of the Earth, God of Water. The Sumerian word for water is the same word for semen, so when a myth speaks of Enki lifting his member and releasing his water onto the fields, it is referring to the flooding of the rivers. This importance of water also made fish the main animal offering, the fish being representative of Enki. Enki is the provider, the engenderer, the Father of mankind.

The desert people also took cleanliness seriously. The only way to keep insects and mites away was to keep the body and the space clean. The Egyptians kept shaved because of this, but the Mesopotamians seemed to enjoy their black locks which they called “lapis” because of the blue sheen to the black.

2) Smudge with cedar incense.

Originally, cedar resin was used to smear around doorways and windows; Cedar being the sacred tree. Dripping resin would not be compatible to today’s society, so I have substituted incense. Please, if you are doing a public rite, make sure you state loudly which scents you are using. A lot of people have allergies, including to patchouli, cedar, and sage.

3) Welcome in Nanna, the moon. Nanna means new moon, Sin (pron: seen) means full moon, so Nanna was sometimes called Nanna-Sin or Father Nanna. If you are doing the New Year Rite, welcome in the main god of your Temple. For New Moon, welcome in the main god of your Temple, and then Nanna. I am using Nanna as the main god for this demonstration.

“Nanna, Creature of the night, signify the days, monthly,
without cease, form designs with a crown.
At the month’s very start, rising over the land,
You shall have luminous horns to signify six days,
On the seventh day reaching a half-crown.
At full moon stand in opposition in mid-month.
When the sun overtakes you at the base of heaven,
Diminish your crown and retrogress in light.
At the time of disappearance approach the course of the sun.
And on the thirtieth you shall again stand in opposition to the sub.
Follow this path, approach and give judgment.”

This comes from the Babylonian Creation Epic called the Enuma Elish. This was Marduk’s command to the moon as he was issuing everyone’s job. I find this to be a beautiful welcome to Nanna.

As the welcome to Nanna is being said, a temple servant brings in the representation of Nanna and places him on the altar. This is the god entering the temple space. In old times, the temple slaves were naked. I don’t think the local police would be happy to have naked slaves running around. I would, but that’s another matter.

4) welcome in guests. Guests will stay to the NE or SW corner of the space. The presence of guests to the rite is a new addition, since the old temple rites didn’t allow the public to view the rites. There was the belief that secrets told were no longer secret and therefore they lost their power. There were also cleanliness prohibitions. We need to open the rituals up to the public, now, as the neo-Pagan community is too new to segregate this way. We need to be able to get everyone used to this life again, so we need to be open. Let’s be reasonable and not enter the ritual smelling like a dung heap, though. And I do have to be a little choosy about the magic; we don’t give a scalpel to a 5-year old even if he can cut his own PB&J. See the chapter on Magic for this rant.

5) Each priest will then take turns offering an individual prayer of welcome to the deity of their choice or the deities chosen to attend the rite. At each welcome, a temple servant will bring in the representation of that deity and place him/her on the altar, the gods entering the temple. The old way was that there was the En, the exorcist, the purifier, the sanctifier, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. There were a person for each and every job, and never the twain shall meet. The En even had to leave the room when the exorcist was doing his job, as to not contaminate his/herself with negative spirits. The orthodox still have this rule –the priest cannot look upon a dead body. We can do without this rule, as we now know better. We know that the contamination came in the form of touching the dead body and then not bothering to wash the hands. Always wash your hands after handling a piece of meat.

Exorcise the space

6) “Ban! Ban! Barrier that none can pass,
Barrier of the gods, that none may break,
Barrier of heaven and earth that none can change.”

There will be one priest whose specific job it is to cleanse the space, this includes banishing any unwanted energies that entered during the entrance of the gods. This banishing was originally longer, but it contained things about banishing the evil spirits to the gates of the underworld, to the edge of the earth, and all sorts of prohibitions that were no longer needed. I will put this in its entirety at the end of this chapter.

7) offer prayer of thanks to Enki, who is the god of magicians.

Enki is my personal preference, you use the gods you have chosen for your temple or specific rite.

8) decorate the altars, the homes of the gods, offering prayers of welcome and thanks to them, talking to them as their home is decorated. During this time, requests may also be made of the gods by the priests.

9) The sanctifier will step outside the temple space, stand in the south facing north, thus facing both heaven and the temple, and bless the temple, repeating 3 times, “Eanna, image of heaven and earth.”

Eanna means House of Heaven. E=house, an=heaven. Anna is the feminization of an. The name can be changed. The temple space needs a name, though, if it is going to take on a personality of its own. It needs to become a living entity in and of itself if it is going to hold the energy.

10) Sanctifier once more cleanses the space of any unwanted energies that may have intruded during the ceremony. The neo-Pagans build barriers before the ritual, supposedly to keep out unwanted energies. I have always found this to be illogical. Just because you don’t want the energy, doesn’t mean you have the power to stop it. What if your patron wants you to experience it? We don’t build barriers in this pantheon; it would be an insult to tell any god “go away.” The sanctifier will smudge once in a while during the ceremony, after deities have been welcomed, just to make sure that all energies present are supposed to be present.

11) A servant carries in a food tray and holds it up to the gods as thanks is given by a priest to Mother Ninhursaga, Enki’s partner and mother of mankind. Ninhursaga is Enki’s partner in creation, not his consort. She is the Mother of mankind, of plants, of animals. Enki engenders, Ninhursaga creates. Her other, older names, are Ki –earth, and Ninki –Lady of the Earth.

The tray is then placed on the offering table.

12) the libation is carried in by a servant, an offering to the dead, to the ancestors. If the rite is being done outdoors, the libation may be poured directly onto the ground in front of the offering table. If the rite is indoors, pour the libation into a bowl to be poured outside after the ceremony. There used to be a long reed buried into the ground, which the liquid was poured into, sending it directly to the underworld. At the end of the offerings part of the Akitu, a hole was dug outside in the courtyard, filled with reeds, and offerings of flesh and liquid were placed in it and burned. Burning was a sacrifice, because a burned spirit didn’t make it to the underworld to live on.

Conclusion

Everyone may celebrate the presence of the gods, singing, dancing, and drumming, as they will while people eat. The gods are present, it is indeed a celebration!

If possible, leave the main altar decorated throughout the month. Clear it off at the end of the next moon cycle, just before invisible moon, so that the gods can be welcomed back a week later at the next new moon. This is the gods in the underworld, out of visible site of their children. While in the underworld, the gods would judge the newly arrived souls. This wasn’t a heaven or hell sort of judgment, but a placement. Was the person a hero, someone deserving of honor? If so, they lived in the underworld with their needs being met. They had food and drink. If the person was not so honorable, he/she lived on dust, in the darkness, having to rely upon living relatives and loved ones to send offerings of food and drink.

There was no true belief in reincarnation, only the occasional god of the fields being reborn for the specific season, a crop cycle story. This was more of a numinous energy, though, than the physical form of the god. Since I have memories of past lives, I’m overlooking this aspect.

Appropriate offerings are:

Heaven –meats. An animal needed to be killed, sacrificed, for this offering, so its spirit was granted full honors and recommended to the heaven gods as an honorable creature. Fish was a main offering, then sheep, goats, and larger cattle. The bull was reserved for highly special rites, such as the covering of the kettle-drum, the sacred temple drum. For this, the bull had to be pure, no spots, no scars, no lazy eye, unmated, it had to be absolutely perfect. The temple shut down all routine activities for this rite, making it a special event. Myths themselves would sometimes end with, “Unto eternity, let us hear the drum!” The drum could not be without the sacrifice of the bull.

Earth –breads. This was the sacrificed god of the fields, Dumuzi, or any other grain god one wished to communicate with in the rites. Although Enki was in charge of growing things, he delegated his authority so he is not an appropriate sacrifice. He never followed a seasonal cycle, and his dual nature precluded his need to seasonal rebirth.

Underworld –liquids. The Libation is sending liquids to the Underworld for the dead. It is an offering to the dead, to the ancestors. Water seeps into the earth, into the underworld. Water, the primal Abzu, the ocean that surrounds the earth, sits between the underworld and us. This is Enki’s home, part of the reflection of his dual nature of earth and water. The underworld is dust, so sending in liquids is a blessing to those in the underworld. The Abzu cannot be drunk from; it is the primal creation waters. Meat may be given to the underworld, but never lamb. Ereshkigal doesn’t do lamb. No reasons given, just a statement that she doesn’t accept lamb. I’m certainly not going to argue with the Queen of the Underworld.

Main deities for this format are:

Moon –Nanna, whose name means “new moon.” His name is often paired complete as Nanna-Sin or Nanna-Suen, which refers to the moon as a whole or in general, Sin meaning “Full Moon.” Sin/Suen is pronounced “Seen.”

Water –Enki, god of water, lord of the earth, god of wisdom, god of magicians, engenderer of the fields and of the cattle. His nature is dual, earth and water. His home is in the heavens, in the fields, the sheepfolds, and in the Abzu and the Underworld. The closest European deity that I can compare him with is Cernunos.

Earth –Ninhursaga, lady of the mountain, mother of life. She is also called Ki, meaning earth, Ninmah, and Nintu. She is the creator to Enki’s engendering, but she is not his consort. She is his equal. She is not the Primal Mother, the mother of the gods, but she is the mother of mankind.

Underworld –Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld. Her word is law. None may escape the underworld, not without a replacement.

Inanna is the Queen of Heaven and Earth; she may be honored in any of the realms. She is warrior, the goddess of passion. She is the grain in the granary, according to the Inanna-Dumuzi myths. She is often found with Enki nearby, he being her Mentor.

Nammu is the Primal Mother, the mother of the gods. Her Babylonian counterpart is Tiamat. Nammu, being Sumerian, is much older. She has no male counterpart in Sumerian, unlike Tiamat who has Apsu, the personification of the Abzu. Her likeness is the dragon at the bottom of the primordial sea, the Abzu.

Deities may be added or changed out, but make sure it is within logical reason. Don’t call Ninurta unless you want a storm. Imdigud the Thunderbird is a terrific messenger but he is quick and strikes fast. For people looking for help in getting their heart to open up and accept, Sharru, the god of submission, is a great one to call upon. He is an underworld god. Sharru is good for magicians to work with before working with Enki or Ereshkigal.

There are about 3000 gods, so far, listed for the ancient Middle East, so there is no shortage of deities to get to know.

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Below is an image of my temple format. It's a messy image, I'm still trying to figure out how to make it pretty for the webpage. I may tweek it a little, but this is pretty much the set-up I am going for at the moment.