Merodach

Bel-Merodach. See MERODACH; MARDUK

(See also: Bel-Merodach , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Merodach.

See MARDUK

(See also: Merodach , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Merodach (Chald.). God of Babylon, the Bel of later times. He is the son of Davkina, goddess of the lower regions, or the earth, and of Hea, God of the Seas and Hades with the Orientalists; but esoterically and with the Akkadians, the Great God of Wisdom, "he who resurrects the dead". Hea, Ea, Dagon or Oannes and Merodach are one.

(See also: Merodach , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Drought, Drouth A cyclic condition of the earth's astral light reacting upon the atmosphere and cooperating with other meteorological causes bringing about periods of dryness over larger or smaller portions of the earth; in extreme form, it brings about a state of periodic ekpyrosis or burning, resulting in the reduction of fertile areas into deserts.

The opposite of this condition, resulting in extraordinary rains and floods of longer duration, and sometimes extending over wide surfaces of the earth, is called cataclysm. The dragon is said by the Chinese to be able to affect climate, producing droughts, rain, etc., a direct reference to the astral light in its cyclic workings upon earth; in history, the human application of the dragon is made to magicians of the fourth or early fifth root-race. Samael, Satan, or the Red Dragon, the Simoom, and the Vedic Vritra are drought producers, as is the Babylonian Tiamat, the dragon slain by Bel or by Merodach.

(See also: Drought, Drouth , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Dragon (from Greek drakon, serpent, the watchful)

Known to scholarship as a mythical monster, a huge lizard, winged, scaly, fire-breathing, doubtless originating in the memory of an actual prehistoric animal. Dragon is often synonymous with serpent.

The dragon and serpent, whether high or low, are types of various events in cosmic or world history, or of various terrestrial or human qualities, for either one can at different times signify spiritual immortality, wisdom, reimbodiment, or regeneration. In the triad of sun, moon, and serpent or cross, it denotes the manifested Logos, and hence is often said to be seven-headed. As such it is in conflict with the sun, and sometimes with the moon; but this conflict is merely the duality of contrary forces essential to cosmic stability.

The dragon itself is often dual, and it may be paired with the serpent, as with Agathodaimon and Kakodaimon, the good and evil serpents, seen in the caduceus. Again the dragon is two-poled as having a head and a tail, Rahu and Ketu in India, commonly described as being the moon's north and south nodes, the moon thus being a triple symbol in which a unity conflicts with a duality.

A universal myth is that of the sun god fighting the dragon and eventually worsting it, which represents the descent of spirit into matter and the eventual sublimation of matter by spirit in the ascending arc of evolution. There are Bel (and later Merodach) and the dragon Tiamat in Babylonia and with the Hebrews; Fafnir in Scandinavia; Chozzar with the Peratae Gnostics; among the Greeks Python conquered by Apollo and the two serpents killed by Hercules at his birth; the fight between Ahti and the evil serpent in the Kalevala; and many other such stories.

In the Christian Apocalypse the dragon plays a great part, but it has been often misinterpreted as evil just as Satan or the Devil has been imagined as the foe of divinity and humanity. Cosmologically, all dragons and serpents slain by their adversaries are the unregulated or chaotic cosmic principles bought to order by the spiritual sun gods or formative cosmic powers. The dragon is the demiurge, the establisher or former of our planet and of all that pertains to it -- neither good nor bad, but its differentiated aspects in nature make it assume one or the other character.

The dragon symbol, then, is both cosmic and human in its applications: it may stand for powers of nature, which first overcome man, but which he must eventually overcome, as well as the monad atma-buddhi, which through the manasic principle seeks imbodiment, but needs the help of the still lower principles in order to effect a union with the principles of earth.

Cosmologically analogies are drawn between the north polar constellation Draco and one or the other of the great floods, and the word dragon is sometimes used to denote such a flood; for the position of this constellation relative to that of the earth's axis of rotation is intimately connected with cataclysms.

The dragon in its higher or superior sense means among other things divine wisdom, especially where the serpent is used for terrestrial wisdom; and adepts or initiates were frequently called dragons. The dragon may be the symbol of a cycle; and the sevenfold dragon may mean the seven minor cycles in a great cycle.

(See also: Dragon , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Holy of Holies. The Assyriologists, Egyptologists, and Orientalists, in general, show that such a place existed in every temple of antiquity.

The great temple of Bel-Merodach whose sides faced the four cardinal points, had in its extreme end a "Holy of Holies" hidden from the profane by a veil: here, "at the beginning of the year ‘the divine king of heaven and earth, the lord of the heavens, seats himself’."

According to Herodotus, here was the golden image of the god with a golden table in front like the Hebrew table for the shew bread, and upon this, food appears to have been placed. in some temples there also was "a little coffer or ark with two engraved stone tablets on it". (Myer’s Qabbalah.) In short, it is now pretty well proven, that the "chosen people" had nothing original of their own, but that every detail of their ritualism and religion was borrowed from older nations. The Hibbert Lectures by Prof. Sayce and others show this abundantly.

The story of the birth of Moses is that of Sargon, the Babylonian, who preceded Moses by a couple of thousand years; and no wonder, as Dr. Sayce tells us that the name of Moses, Mosheh, has a connection with the name of the Babylonian sun-god as the "hero" or "leader". (Hib. Lect., p. 46 et seq.)

Says Mr. J. Myer, "The orders of the priests were divided into high priests, those attached or bound to certain deities, like the Hebrew Levites; anointers or cleaners ; the Kali, ‘illustrious’ or ‘elders’; the soothsayers, and the Makhkhu or ‘great one’, in which Prof. Delitzsch sees the Rab-mag of the Old Testament. . . The Akkadians and Chaldeans kept a Sabbath day of rest every seven days, they also had thanksgiving days, and days for humiliation and prayer. There were sacrifices of vegetables and animals, of meats and wine. . . . The number seven was especially sacred. . . . The great temple of Babylon existed long before 2,250 B.c. Its ‘Holy of Holies’ was with in the shrine of Nebo, the prophet god of wisdom." It is from the Akkadians that the god Mardak passed to the Assyrians, and he had been before Merodach, "the merciful", of the Babylonians, the only son and interpreter of the will of Ea or Hea, the great Deity of Wisdom. The Assyriologists have, in short, unveiled the whole scheme of the "chosen people".

(See also: Holy of Holies , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Tiamat (Chaldean) Chaldean serpent, slain by Bel, the chief deity. The tale is repeated in the later Babylonian account, with the exception that Marduk or Merodach (producer of the world) replaces Bel. The mythologic serpent, described as the imbodiment of evil both physical and moral, was enormous (300 miles long), it moved in undulations 6 miles in height. When Marduk finally slew Tiamat he split the monster into two halves, using one as a covering of the heavens, so that the upper waters would not come down. Tiamat is cognate with the Babylonian tiamtu, tamtu, "the ocean," rendered Thalatth by Berosus in his Chaldean cosmogony. There is here likewise the reference to the waters of wisdom, the divine wisdom and the lower wisdom of manifestation.

Blavatsky explains that the serpent Tiamat is the great mother, "the living principle of chaos" (TG 334). "The struggle of Bel and then of Merodach, the Sun-god, with Tiamat, the Sea and its Dragon, a 'war' which ended in the defeat of the latter, has a purely cosmic and geological meaning, as well as an historical one. It is a page torn out of the History of the Secret and Sacred Sciences, their evolution, growth and death -- for the profane masses. It relates (a) to the systematic and gradual drying up of immense territories by the fierce Sun at a certain pre-historic period; one of the terrible droughts which ended by a gradual transformation of once fertile lands abundantly watered into the sandy deserts which they are now; and (b) to the as systematic persecution of the Prophets of the Right Path by those of the Left" (SD 2:503).

See also TAMTI

(See also: Tiamat , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Hermes (Greek) Greek god, son of Zeus and Maia, the third person in a triad of Father-Mother-Son, hence the formative Logos or Word. He is equivalent to the Hindu Budha, the Zoroastrian Mithra, the Babylonian Nebo -- son of Zarpa-Nitu (moon) and Merodach (sun) -- and the Egyptian Thoth with the ibis for his emblem; also to Enoch and the Roman Mercurius, son of Coelus and Lux (heaven and light). Among his emblems are the cross, the cubical shape, the serpent, and especially his wand, the caduceus, which combines the serpent and cross.

The name has been used generically for many adepts. To Hermes were attributed many functions, such as that of inspiring eloquence and healing, and he is the patron of intellectual, artistic, and productively agricultural pursuits. The nature and functions of this divinity express themselves to our mind as light, wisdom, intelligence, and quickness -- especially in an intellectual sense. He was the messenger of the gods, and also the psychopomp or conductor of souls to the netherworld. In his lower aspects he is often made to serve as the inspirer of gross misuses of intelligence such as clever theft -- thus illustrating that even the noblest qualities have their dark side.

(See also: Hermes , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Damkina (Chaldean, Babylonian) Sometimes Davkina. Consort of Ea or Hea, god of the watery regions, partaking of Ea's characteristics, hence named Damgal-nunna (great lady of the waters), likewise Nin-Ki (lady of that which is below, i.e., the watery deeps or underworld). Mother of Marduk (or Merodach).

(See also: Damkina , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Heabani (Chald.) A famous astrologer at the Court of Izdubar, frequently mentioned in the fragments of the Assyrian tablets in reference to a dream of Izdubar, the great Babylonian King, or Nimrod, the "mighty hunter before the Lord ".

After his death, his soul being unable to rest underground, the ghost of Heabani was raised by .Merodach, the god, his body restored to life and then transferred alive, like Elijah, to the regions of the Blessed.

(See also: Heabani , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Zarpanitu, Sarpanit (Babylonian) Also Zer-banit; Zirat-banit. The shining one, its ideographs suggest the words zer seed, banit producing. A Babylonian goddess consort of Marduk or Merodach. In later Babylonian times (after 1200 BC) when Marduk was elevated to the position of chief deity of the pantheon in place of the older Chaldean deities, Zarpanitu was regarded as the great nature goddess, replacing Belit (consort of Bel). A triad was formed by the addition of Nebo, the god of wisdom, equivalent to the Hindu Budha and the Greek Hermes. "As Budha was the Son of Soma (the Moon) in India, and of the wife of Brihaspati (Jupiter), so Nebo was the son of Zarpa-nitu (the Moon Deity) and of Merodach, who had become Jupiter, after having been a Sun God" (SD 2:456). Herodotus called Zarpanitu "Zeus-Belos."

(See also: Zarpanitu, Sarpanit , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Bel (Chald.). The oldest and mightiest god of Babylonia, one of the earliest trinities, - Anu (q.v.) ; Bel, "Lord of the World", father of the gods, Creator, and "Lord of the City of Nipur’; and Hea, maker of fate, Lord of the Deep, God of Wisdom and esoteric Knowledge, and "Lord of the city of Eridu".

The wife of Bel, or his female aspect (Sakti), was Belat, or Beltis, "the mother of the great gods", and the "Lady of the city of Nipur".

The original Bel was also called Enu, Elu and Kaptu (see Chaldean account of Genesis, by G. Smith). His eldest son was the Moon God Sin (whose names were also Ur, Agu and Itu), who was the presiding deity of the city of Ur, called in his honour by one of his names. Now Ur was the place of nativity of Abram (see "Astrology").

In the early Babylonian religion the Moon was, like Soma in India, a male, and the Sun a female deity. And this led almost every nation to great fratricidal wars between the lunar and the solar worshippers - e.g., the contests between the Lunar and the Solar Dynasties, the Chandra and Suryavansa in ancient Aryavarta. Thus we find the same on a smaller scale between the Semitic tribes. Abram and his father Terah are shown migrating from Ur and carrying their lunar god (or its scion) with them ; for Jehovah Elohim or El - another form of Elu - has ever been connected with the moon.

It is the Jewish lunar chronology which has led the European "civilized" nations into the greatest blunders and mistakes. Merodach, the son of Hea, became the later Bel and was worshipped at Babylon. His other title, Belas, has a number of symbolical meanings.

(See also: Bel , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Zirat-banit (Chald.). The wife of the great, divine hero of the Assyrian tablets, Merodach. She is identified with the Succoth Benoth of the Bible.

(See also: Zirat-banit , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Zarpanitu (Akkad) The goddess who was the supposed mother, by Merodach, of Nebo, god of Wisdom. One of the female "Serpents of Wisdom".

(See also: Zarpanitu , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Davkina (Chald.) The wife of Hea, "the goddess of the lower regions, the consort of the Deep", the mother of Merodach, the Bel of later times, and mother to many river-gods, Hea being the god of the lower regions, the "lord of the Sea or abyss", and also the lord of Wisdom.

(See also: Davkina , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Orion (Greek) A handsome giant and mighty hunter of Boeotia, who was placed among the stars. The constellation Orion was regarded as a giant not only in Greece but in Syria, Arabia, and Palestine; in Ireland and among the Mayas it is a warrior; in Egypt it is identified with Horus, the young sun, in the solar boat; and in Babylonia with Merodach, or Nimrod the mighty hunter.

(See also: Orion , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Nebo, Nabu, Nabi' nebo (Hebrew) The proclaimer by prophecy; one of the chief deities of the Chaldean or Babylonian pantheon, the god of wisdom, recognized as fully by the ancient Hebrews as by the Chaldeans. The name and function of the divinity correspond to the Greek Hermes, the Egyptian Thoth, and the Hindu Budha, all of which are related to the regent of the planet Mercury.

Mercury throughout antiquity was always called the interpreter, often in the sense of a prophet or of one able to prophesy; Nebo from time immemorial has been the name for an initiate, an adept, particularly among certain Shemitic peoples, such as the Hebrews. Among other Shemites, such as the Assyrians and Chaldeans, this name forms a part of compound proper names, such as Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopolassar, and Nabonassar.

Nebo was among the Chaldeans and other peoples a god of the secret wisdom, and that particular divinity in those lands guiding the inner development of his children or little ones -- names for initiated adepts.

The principal seat of his worship appears to have been at Borsippa (opposite the city of Babylon) where a temple-school flourished until the end of the neo-Babylonian empire -- even surviving the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus (538 BC). His original character cannot now be determined and he may have been a solar deity, although associated with water. His consort, Tashmit, is occasionally invoked with him. Nebo's worship flourished before that of Marduk (the Biblical Merodach, probably the planet Mars and its regent), and when the latter was elevated to the chief position of the Babylonian pantheon, Nebo was regarded as his son and the two thereafter are more or less inseparable.

Even in Assyria the worship of Nebo was made more prominent than the chief deity, Assur ('Ashshur) by some of the monarchs (e.g., Assurbanipal, 668-626 BC). His hieroglyph was the stylus, for he was regarded as the god of writing, prophecy, sacred chanting, and hence of song, having charge of the tablets of fate, on which he inscribed the names of men and forecast their destiny. His wisdom was likewise associated with the study of the heavenly bodies, hence the temple-school became famed for its astrologers. "Nebo is a creator, like Budha, of the Fourth and also of the Fifth Race. For the former starts a new race of Adepts, and the latter, the Solar-Lunar Dynasty, or the men of these Races and Round. Both are the Adams of their respective creatures" (SD 2:456).

In the Bible Nebo is the name of a mountain near Jericho whereon Moses dies; also an adjacent city (Deut 32-4). "The fact that Moses is made to die and disappear on the mount sacred to Nebo, shows him an initiate and a priest of that god under another name . . ." (ibid.).

(See also: Nebo, Nabu, Nabi' nebo , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Marduk (Babylonian) Also Merodach (Hebrew) Patron deity of ancient Babylon, the local Bel (lord) of later times. Originally a solar deity, as the son of space, and the titular god of that city, he was elevated to the supreme rank in the Babylonian pantheon under Khammurabi (c. 2250 BC) during the time that Babylon became the chief center of the states surrounding the Euphrates Valley.

The attributes of the older Chaldean deities Bel and Ea were applied to Marduk, especially as he was regarded as the son of Ea -- the son of himself -- and this prominence was maintained until the downfall of Babylon except during the five centuries of the Cassite control (1750-1200 BC). After 1200 Marduk's only rival was Assur in Assyria. As well as the attributes, many of the mythologic exploits of Bel were transferred by the priests to Marduk, and thus he became known as the slayer of the serpent Tiamat. Marduk was also regarded as the creator of the world and of mankind (which was formerly attributed to Bel), and the eleven-day festival celebrating this event was held yearly at the time of the spring equinox (the New Year among the Babylonians).

The ideaographic representation of the word Marduk is equivalent to "child of the sun," significantly stressing his solar characteristics, while that of his consort Zarpanitu (or Sarpanit) is equivalent to "the shining one." Marduk is also identified with the planet Jupiter.

(See also: Marduk , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity in order to reach the heavens. To prevent the project from succeeding, God confused their languages so that each spoke a different language. They could no longer communicate with one another and the work could not proceed. After that time, people moved away to different parts of Earth. The story is used to explain the existence of many different languages and races. Tower of Babel - Narrative. Including:

• Tower of Babel - Narrative
• Tower of Babel - Historicity
• Tower of Babel - Linguistic context
• Tower of Babel - The Tower
• Tower of Babel - In other scripture
• Tower of Babel - The destruction
• Tower of Babel - Jubilees
• Tower of Babel - Midrash
• Tower of Babel - Apocalypse of Baruch
• Tower of Babel - Qur'an
• Tower of Babel - Book of Mormon
• Tower of Babel - Popular culture and Modern influence
• Tower of Babel - In Music
• Tower of Babel - In literature
• Tower of Babel - In computer and video games

Read more here: » Tower of Babel: Encyclopedia - Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel - Linguistic context. The name Babylon is from Akkadian Bāb-ilu, which means Gate of God. Its Hebrew version however, Babel, sounds similar to balal, which means to confuse or confound in Hebrew. According to the documentary hypothesis, the passage derives from the Jahwist source, a writer whose work is full of puns, and like many of the other puns in the Jahwist text, the element of the story concerning the scattering of languages may just be a folk etymology for the name Babel, attached t ...

See also:

Tower of Babel, Tower of Babel - Narrative, Tower of Babel - Historicity, Tower of Babel - Linguistic context, Tower of Babel - The Tower, Tower of Babel - In other scripture, Tower of Babel - The destruction, Tower of Babel - Jubilees, Tower of Babel - Midrash, Tower of Babel - Apocalypse of Baruch, Tower of Babel - Qur'an, Tower of Babel - Book of Mormon, Tower of Babel - Popular culture and Modern influence, Tower of Babel - In Music, Tower of Babel - In literature, Tower of Babel - In computer and video games

Read more here: » Tower of Babel: Encyclopedia II - Tower of Babel - Historicity