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For many long centuries the Original Semites from Atlantis were kept in strictest seclusion in Central Asia, where a process of intensive inbreeding produced the post-Atlantean, Fifth Epoch Race that later went out in successive waves of migration. The Sumerians and the Egyptians represent the second great migration of post-Atlantean peoples, those of India being the first. There are many striking similarities in traditions of these several peoples indicative of their common origin. Like the Egyptian, Sumerian civilization was lost. Much of it has been recovered, however, through archeological research. Sumerians are described as an Indio-Aranian people who, as the Persian Gulf receded, came down from Iranian highlands and settled in the marshy region at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Earliest archeological discoveries show that their antediluvian culture was similar to that of the Iranians; but soon after the flood they became mixed with Semite (Akkadian) invaders. By the time Sumeria appears in history she is partially Semitized, although original Sumerian character and culture continued to influence Chaldean civilization until its close.

Millenia passed before the Babylon of historic fame, with her celebrated Hanging Gardens, became the wonder of the ancient world. The splendors of Babylon, however, were anticipated by many ancient cities. Among the most celebrated were Erech, Eridu and Nippur, dedicated to the three great gods of the Chaldean Trinity, Anu, Hea (Ea) and Bel. Like the persons of the Christian and Hindu Trinities, these were in reality three Aspects of One Supreme Being, a Unity.

The celestial sphere was divided into three portions, of which the North was governed by Anu, the Ecliptic by Bel and the South by Hea. The year also was divided into three seasons of which the summer belonged to Bel, autumn to Anu, winter to Hea (Ea). Again, the Moon or month was apportioned amongst them: the New Moon to Anu for the first five days; to Hea for the following five; to Bel for the remaining days.

Anu, God of Heaven, King of Angels and spirits, was worshipped at Erech. According to Chaldean tradition the city of Erech was the first city built by the post-Atlantean Fifth Root Race after it emerged from its long seclusion in Central Asia. Erech was the home of most great heroes of Chaldean tradition, archeologists having discovered that seven out of twelve belonged to the First Dynasty of Erech. Gilgamesh is mentioned by Berosus as having ruled as King over Erech for one hundred and twenty-six years; but greater than Gilgamesh was Tammuz (Dumuzi), the Adonis of Chaldea, whose worship was current in Canaan when the Hebrews entered that Land of Promise. With Tammuz is associated the Divine Ishtar, the Chaldean Madonna and Queen of Heaven. It is significant that when Ur Gur, the great Builder-King of the Ur Dynasty, built Temples to the Moon God at Ur, to Bel at Nippur and to the Sun at Larsam, he erected a Temple to Venus at Erech — for Ishtar stood in a special relationship to the God of Heaven, being called the daughter of Anu. Indeed Ishtar, like Isis of Egypt, drew to herself all the attributes of the Divine Feminine in their respective beneficent manifestations. Originally she must have been the great Mother Goddess of Chaldea. Later, however, her significators were the Moon and Venus; then, finally, the planet Venus alone. in any case, the Moon and Venus are the principal foci of the Divine Feminine.

It is said that the word Easter derives from Ishtar; that as early as 4000 B. C. her festival was celebrated in Babylon as a Moon Festival. In a sense our Christian Easter is likewise a Full Moon Festival following the Vernal Equinox. Nabonidus, the Scholar-King of Babylon, stated that the city was formerly sacred to Ishtar, but that her cult was superseded by the cult of the Goddess of War, Anunit of Sippar.

Like the Moon, Venus goes through phases. Its cycle as Evening and Morning Star was known in most ancient times — for Venus worship is as old as Atlantis, where the Lords of Venus served as kings and divine Teachers. Early Atlantean kings were literally sons of the planet Venus, whence they had come to labor with infant humanity on earth.

Isaiah referred to an ancient Babylonian legend concerning this planet when he sang, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" For Venus (Lucifer), having gone farther and farther in advance of the Sun, rises before the Sun. Then it returns upon its course, sinking lower each day until it disappears altogether. Next it reappears after sunset as the evening star in the west, where it is frequently seen in company with the New Moon. Romans called the morning star Lucifer, so Hebrew rabbis and Christian Church Fathers came to identify the fallen Angel of Hebrew-Christian lore with the fallen Star-God of Chaldea under this name.

The Sun, Moon and Venus form a secondary trinity in Chaldean theology, a trinity frequently found in the Land of Canaan also. A variant is Sun, Moon and Atmosphere, the latter being symbolical of the Wind of Heaven, the Holy Breath: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, so is every one born of the Spirit." The God of the Atmosphere is the Wind, Breath of Spirit which moved upon the face of the waters in the dawn of creation.

With the rise to power of the Babylonian Dynasty, ancient beliefs were scientifically correlated and a philosophy evolved which harmonized various aspects of ancient Sumerian culture. Then it was that Ishtar was assigned to Venus. But it proved impossible to confine her to so minor a role, so she continued to be the dearly loved Mother Goddess of Babylonia until the end. From the initiatory standpoint, the legend of her descent is interpreted on lines similar to those of the Isis — Osiris legend.

Like the Chinese and Hindus, the Chaldeans predicated a duality of the universal Divine Creative Force as shown in the Duad, Anshar and Kishar, which lies behind the Trinity. For every God there was a Goddess; and every ego had its twin guardians, masculine and feminine, prototypes of the Guardian Angels of Christendom. Among the Phoenicians the relationship of the God to the Goddess was shown in the title given to the Goddess, "the Manifestation of the God" — the title conferred upon the Shekinah by Hebrew Mystics. The Shekinah is the Divine Wisdom of Judaism and is always spoken of in the feminine: "She who speaks through the prophets."

The Second Person of the Chaldean Trinity was Hea or Ea, the God of the House of Waters. It has been suggested that Ea is the Chaldean original of the Hebrew Yah or Yahweh (Jehovah), and there is much to support this view. He is personified in the Fish Man Oannes (Ea-han) who arose from the Persian Gulf six times during the reign of the ten antediluvian kings to impart the arts and sciences of civilization. These appearances of Oannes may be called the Avatars of Ea, the God of Wisdom and Culture. In India the story is told of the Fish (Vishnu) which led Manu to safety in the Deluge; in the Hebrew Bible the Fish appears in the story of Jonah — a name derived from Oannes or Ea-han, meaning Ea the Fish. Ea had a son (Bel) who was mediator between Gods and men and who knew all that was in his Father's heart, even to the sacred Word having power to subdue demons of the abyss. "My son," said Ea, "what I know, that thou also knowest."

Oannes dictated the six Tablets of Creation, comparable to the Hebrew Pentateuch which, with Joshua added, becomes a Hexateuch. The Moon, playing so definite a part in governing tides of the oceans, stood in special relationship to Ea, God of the waters above and below the firmament. So also does the Moon stand in special relationship, say the rabbis, to the worship of Yahweh and his people, the Israelites.

The Sumerians did not worship the Moon primarily as a Goddess but as a God, and his Semitic name was Sin. His two great cities were Ur in the south and Harran in the north. Ur was Abraham's birthplace; and when Terah, his father, took his clan away from that city, it was to Harran (Haran) they went. Later Abraham went from Harran to Canaan.

Ur was situated not far from Eridu, Ea's stronghold, and was once the greatest of all southern Chaldean cities. The First Dynasty of Ur has been proved to be historical; contemporary records about three of its five kings have been discovered by archeologists. It was the principal commercial city of the country for at that time it was a seaport with a harbor and docks-although its ruins now lie inland about one hundred and fifty miles from the Persian Gulf. During the city's supremacy there was a wide distance between the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Ur was situated near the mouth of the latter. Like all such maritime cities, Ur was cosmopolitan. Foreign vessels from many far-off places entered her harbor, bringing new ideas and new merchandise, and carrying to their own home port something of the Sumerian wisdom then in the hands of a powerful and learned priesthood.

The Moon God was not worshipped as the Supreme Being but as a symbol representative of the Supreme. He was associated with Nannar — the Harran Sin and the Bull of Heaven, who bore the stars, the Sun and the Moon upon his back. In the ancient hymn Narmar is saluted in terms clearly indicating that the Sumerians had achieved a form of monotheism. He is called Father Nannar, as in the Christian prayer we address "Our Father which art in heaven." Also, he is called "Lord, chief of the gods, who alone art exalted on earth and in heaven." In the Chaldean tradition, however, he is dual-sexed; he is Father-Mother God, as the text indicates:

The foregoing is from Religion of Babylonia and Assyria by Robert W. Roger (1908). The "Igigi" and "Annunnaki" are elemental forces or spirits.

Such was the worship at the ancient city of Ur, where Terah and his son Abraham and all their family learned to know God: Here, in an ancient Chaldean hymn, all the elements of later Christian theology may be discerned: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men," declared John.

The Name and the Word were aspects of the one divine Mystery. The Great Name of the God, the spirit or the name, was the key to his inmost essential being because it described his qualities and, therefore, possessed magical potency. To know the nature and habits of any natural force is to have power over it; and this is also true in connection with the manipulation of spiritual forces. In the Book of the Dead it is written:

Like Egyptian texts in the Book of the Dead, Chaldean texts never reveal the Word of power; but it was evidently the Secret Name of Ea himself. Ea imparted it to no one but his beloved son, Meridug (the Bel Marduk of later ages), mediator between man and God and Third Person of the Chaldean Trinity, whose shrine-city was Nippur in Central Babylonia. This ancient city has been deserted and in ruins for almost a millenium, yet the Arabs of the region still refer to it by its ancient name. Extensive archeological work has been done among the ruins and more than thirty thousand accounts and contracts have been unearthed, dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B. C.

During the period of biblical captivity Nippur was still a flourishing commercial city. Nearby was Tel-Abib on the river Chebar, one of the principal colonies of Palestinian exiles. It was beside this river that Ezekiel lived and prophesied, and here he received and recounted his immortal vision.

Nippur was the central shrine of the country, sacred originally to the old God Enlil (later to become Bel) who, like Osiris of Egypt, was ruler of the Underworld and master of the secrets of magic and sorcery. To the south of Nippur lay the seven great city-states of Sumer proper: Lagash, Erech, Ur, Larsam, Umma, Isin and Eridu; to the north lay Akkad (AgAde), Sippara, Kish, Opis, Cutha, Babylon and Borsippa. Nippur was sacred to both North and South, as was Salem (Jerusalem) in Palestine. The history of Chaldea records the supremacy of first one and then another of these city-states, each with its presiding Deity who stood in the place of the Supreme — like the Sephiroth of the Kabbala and their representative Archangels who together constitute the Unity of the God-head.

Bel, like Christ in His role of Logos, performed the actual work of creation, separating the elements in chaos and creating all living forms, setting the heavenly bodies in their places and appointing to them their paths. He poured out his blood into his creation so that "In the clay of man is kneaded the blood of God." Hence, the sacredness of human blood: "For the life of all flesh is the blood thereof." In the foundation of the great tower of Bel in Babylon, priests showed worshippers an ancient stone coffer which, they said, was the sepulcher of Bel whose life was the foundation of the universe.

In Bel, therefore, we have the Cosmic Christ of Chaldea. He not only knew Ea's Word, but he was that Word in his own person; and eventually Bel of Babylon supplanted Ea altogether in some important respects, for it was he who performed Ea's work. Bel was originally a Sun God, and the Sun God was always incarnated in the king. Astrologically, the Sun rules the sign of Leo, the sign of royalty. Thus, the King of Israel was also the Lion of Judah.

There is much confusion with regard to the incarnational Mystery, the Doctrine of Overshadowing, which is applicable in a limited degree to the relationship which exists between teacher and disciple — as exemplified in the kabbalistic Doctrine of the Impregnation of Souls. The overshadowing (or avatar) is not possession or obsession by spirits in any sense of the word, yet there is a blending of the human consciousness with the Divine that is possible to those only who are on the threshold of Liberation. In Christianity this blending is exemplified in the Logos Incarnation; in India, in the avatars of Vishnu; in Sumeria, in both Oa-nnes (the six avatars of Ea) of Eridu and Tammaz (Adonis) of Erech (who may reasonably be looked upon as a seventh avatar of Ea).

The antediluvian kings, whose great ages are mentioned by Berosus, belonged to this category; for these Savior-Kings were learned in the science of longevity so lived until they deemed it best for their people that they should die, when they immolated themselves as a living sacrifice. Thus, their long reigns were not marred by death; instead, they ascended from the sacrifice as Gods. In this connection perhaps it is not amiss to point out an analogy between the death and ascension of Tammuz of Erech and of the Buddha. Tammuz was slain by a boar in the Grove of Eridu, sacred to Ea, Chaldea's God of Wisdom, which is interpreted as dying to the lower nature and rising to the higher. The Buddha died from eating boar's flesh, which means that he had completely transmuted the lower nature. Both Tammuz and the Buddha arose from death as Savior-Gods, exemplars of Life Eternal.

As Tammuz arose from the dead so might all men hope to rise whose bodies had been buried in the sacred Mother Earth. The earth of Erech was sacred to the great Earth Goddess, wife of Anu; therefore, it was a popular burial ground. Similarly, in Egypt it was considered most desirable to bury the beloved dead in cemeteries of Abydos, sacred to Osiris.

Although archeological research has shown that Tammuz was a King of Erech, he was remembered in latter times as the, Lord of Eridu, the scene of his Passion, even as that of the Lord Jesus is remembered in connection with Jerusalem.

The Doctrine of Overshadowing has many aspects, its highest pertaining to that very special phenomenon termed "avatar" by the Hindus. It may be said, however, that each God (Archangel) "overshadows" (is incarnated in) his messengers according to the latter's character and type. The Moon God overshadows scholars and scribes; Mercury overshadows astronomers and seers. Mars overshadows warriors and martyrs; Jupiter overshadows priests. Venus overshadows singers and musicians; Saturn overshadows architects and builders, the Sun overshadows kings and rulers.

In magic and ritual, therefore, it is not the planet which is involved but the archangelic Being, a Ray of the Godhead, representing the planet. The planets' corresponding Archangels according to the Hebrew system are: Michael for the Sun; Gabriel for the Moon; Khamael or Samuel for Mars; Raphael for Mercury; Zachariel for Jupiter; Haniel for Venus; Cassiel for Saturn. These are the Archangels presiding over the days of the week.

Chaldeans would have said that each city-state was under the protection of a patron Deity, one of the heavenly bodies. Hebrews said that they were under the protection of Archangels. Thus Nebo or Nabu, Mercury, the patron Deity of Chaldea, became the Archangel Raphael (friend of mankind) of Hebrew theosophy. However, some kabbalists reverse the order, giving Michael as Archangel of Mercury and Raphael as Archangel of the Sun.

The Babylonian tablets reveal that the Gods who ruled these ancient cities mingled freely and familiarly with men. Historians relegate such statements to fantasy, but they will one day recognize that old legends are often poetic references to actual historical happenings stemming from that highly civilized state which was Atlantis.

An instance of this is the story of the hero Etana who was befriended by an eagle which taught him to fly. Assisted by the great bird, he rose aloft into space; then, looking down and beholding the earth recede beneath him, he lost his balance and fell. This story, like the even more illuminating version known to the Greeks in the legend of Icarus, refers to some catastrophe involving Atlantean airships — for according to occult tradition, the Atlanteans did have airships. In the Babylonian annals Etana is listed as a King of Kish. It is said that he ruled for six hundred and thirty-eight years, and was then translated without knowing death, like the biblical Enoch.

The secret of longevity, the transference of life forces, was part of sacred Temple Teachings of Atlantis. That the Egyptians preserved some of this knowledge is shown by inscriptions picturing Isis and Nephthys performing magnetic passes over the inert body of Osiris to restore him to life. Transference was a fully developed science among Atlanteans, who knew the paths followed by magnetic vital forces, the electricity of living organisms, as intimately as modern physicians know paths of the circulatory system — a science rediscovered by Mesmer under the guidance of Brothers of the Rose Cross.

When Egyptologists state that Egyptians thought hearing was connected with the pulmonary system because they said that the "breaths of life and death" entered at the ears, they are confusing etheric forces with ordinary air currents entering through the nostrils. Perhaps Egyptian priests preferred that this confusion should exist because they wanted to keep knowledge and the power it conferred in their own hands. Etheric currents do have a connection with heart action and, incidentally, with the breath and lungs. They do have a correlation with the right and left hemispheres of the brain and with the frontal sinus. But the "breath of life" recorded in Egyptian and Chaldean writings and also in Genesis, has reference to the vital (life) currents in the etheric double and not to air breathed into the lungs. Certain Yoga systems of modern India still concern themselves with intensive use of these vital currents.

By means of this science of life, Initiates of ancient Atlantis were able to extend life in the body indefinitely if they so desired, "dying" as a voluntary sacrifice when it seemed right and good to do so. Hence, the great ages of antediluvian kings. Even if these are exaggerated, they are still indicative of a true longevity. Scholars have correlated these kings with the Patriarchs of Genesis as follows:

The Atlantean science of life was treasured as among secrets to be preserved in the Holy of Holies, but inevitably it fell into unworthy hands and was used unscrupulously by the Black Brotherhood to destroy human life at will. Such abuse of spiritual gifts carries within itself the germ of its own punishment, as instanced in the biblical story of the destruction of the Tower of Babel, which some authorities claim was located at Borsippa, a twin city of Babylon.

The Books of the Hebrew Pentateuch show that their writers had an intimate knowledge of the Babylonian epics which are far older than Moses.

As Abraham represents the perfect type-pattern for the Fifth Root Race pioneer, so Nimrod is the type-pattern of evil forces which brought destruction to Atlantis. These dark powers also enveloped and destroyed the early cities of Fifth Root Race peoples. The Bible states that the beginning of his kingdom was "Babel, and Erech, and Akkad, and Calneh, in the Land of Shinar." Kish, the father of Nimrod, says George Smith, the noted Assyriologist, is Cusiarcus, the Akkadian deity of sunset and night. Some Christian writers, such as Eusebius, identify Nimrod with Evechous, the first King of Babylon after the Flood. Josephus writes of him that he was an enemy of God, a prime mover in building the Tower of Babel, and that he reigned in Babylon during the Dispersion.

From the occult viewpoint, this can refer only to the dispersion after the final catastrophe of Atlantis. Atlantis went down in four major disasters; the last one, described to Plato by Egyptian priests, was not so many thousand years ago when the Island of Poseidon sank. At that time the celestial Hierarchies which direct and guide evolution divided the dispersed people into nations, placed them under various race spirits, and sent them forth into new lands that each might develop its own distinctive culture. Then it was that the Akkadians invaded Sumer and the ancient speech of Sumeria became mixed with the Semitic speech of the invaders — for the Flood that overwhelmed Atlantis also overwhelmed the Sumerian civilization.

The word Babel is derived from the Assyrian Bab-ilu, meaning "the Gate of God" (or the Gods.) Babylon, according to Berosus, was the seat of the first of the ten antediluvian kings, King Alorus.

The destruction of the Tower of Babel, so graphically described in the Bible, had reference to the fate of such initiatory Temples as had been turned into centers of Black Magic by evil priests. The same condition caused the destruction of Atlantis and of many early cities of the Fifth Root Race. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah belongs in this category. Similar evils flourished in Babylon of the historic period and called forth bitter denunciation by biblical prophets, causing the name Babylon to become a synonym for evil throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

The great tower and its accompanying Temple were dedicated to the God Nebo, tutelary Deity of Chaldea and representative of the planet Mercury, "the Captain of the Universe." Like Egypt, Chaldea was a Mercurian nation-although the Chaldeans themselves assigned the astrological rulership of their country to Virgo. But according to Genevieve Tablous' brilliant novel, Nebuchadnezzar, they also said the Hebrew nation was ruled by Scorpio. Chaldea was an extremely commercialized nation; and while it was true her population was highly literate, education being extended to girls and women as well as to boys and men, the people's lust for money-making overpowered all else. The exalted monotheism of the highest class priesthood left the masses untouched and their star cult was prostituted to base and mercenary ends.

The very ancient stepped pyramid at Borsippa was the prototype of all later Babylonian towers (ziggurats). They were astronomical observatories, but in no merely secular sense; the stars and planets, Sun and Moon were worshipped as the visible embodiment of divine Intelligences. The names of these celestial Hierarchies, transmitted through the returning exiles, became a sacred heritage of the Order of Essenes.

The tower of Borsippa was called the Temple of the Seven Lights because it consisted of seven stages dedicated to the Sun, the Moon and the five planets known to antiquity. The first stage was black, dedicated to Saturn; the second orange, dedicated to Jupiter; the third red, dedicated to Mars; the fourth gold-plated, dedicated to the Sun; the fifth a pale yellow, dedicated to Venus (Ishtar); the sixth a deep blue, dedicated to Mercury; the seventh and last, dedicated to the Moon, supported a shrine which was plated in silver and glistened against the sky. The High Priestess of this shrine was the daughter of the king, suggesting that the queen or princess represented the lunar principle in religion while the king, head of the state, represented the solar principle. Women held as high a place in the religion and life of Chaldea as they did in Egypt. The present ruins of the tower rise six hundred and fifty-four feet above the plain, one of the most imposing relics of past grandeur in the entire area. According to legend, the tower was destroyed because its builders planned to ascend by means of its steps to heaven itself and to steal the celestial fire from the Gods. This reference to misuse of the life force was naturally out-pictured in the tower's destruction by lightning, evidence of which is still discernible in the ruins.

The tower and Temple of Bel Marduk in Babylon proper, landmarks of the Semitic dynasties of Babylonia, are of comparatively recent construction. It was therein that Daniel was educated in Chaldean wisdom.

Of all Chaldean cities, Ur and Babylon bulk largest in the minds of Bible students, because Abraham came from Ur and much of the Old Testament came into existence in the city of Babylon during the Exilic Period.

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Biblical Patriarchs:	Chaldean Antediluvian Kings:
Adam	Alorus
Seth	Alaperos
Enosh	Almelon
Cain	Ammenon
Mahalalel	Daonos
Jared	Amempsinos
Enoch	Euedorachus
Methuselah	Opartes
Lamech	Megalaros
Noah	Xithuthros (the Babylonian Noah)