The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God
by Erik Langkjer
Part I: El and Baal, the Shepherd and the Hunter
22. Harran: the God of the left hand
In Harran the old Syrian religion survived the coming of the Muslim faith under the somewhat confusing name of Sabaeans (= baptists) taken to gain the acceptance of the Moslems. En-Nedim´s Fihrist (987 A.C.) quotes two older sources: a Christian, Abu-Said Wahb ben Ibrahim, who gives information about the holy feasts & festivals of the Sabaeans, and a very small pamphlet being a translation of one of their own writings with some information about their 5 mysteries. Chwolson has rightly seen that all the mysteries are centred on the worship of the god Shemal ("Left"). This name is very interesting because of the occult religiosity in India called the left hand tantra.
In the Antique world the left hand was connected with the serving of demons and chthonic powers (Plut. Quaest. Rom. ch. 26) and Shemal is by the Sabaeans the Lord of the"genii and demons" just like Shemael in rabbinical litterature and Zohar. He seems to be the highest god for the Sabaeans because his name could also be translated "North" (as right also means "South"), and the Sabaeans pray with their faces turned north. In Ephrem the Syrian the descendants of Cain represented the "left side" (sml`), the descendants of Seth the right side [1]. On the 1st of Ajar some rituals have to be carried out to the honour of Shemal: there is smelling at roses, eating and drinking. On the 27th of Chaziran (chazîr = "wild pig") secret rituals to the honour of Shemal with the epithet "He who lets his arrows fly", cf Resheph´s epithet "with the arrow": the priest shoots 12 burning arrows into the air, a ceremony repeated 15 times, and each time the priest will run around on all four like a dog and pick up the arrows and take them back. Resheph with the arrow is he who hits man with pestilence and fever, so the ceremony should be interpreted as magic designed to hold back the arrows of sickness.
In the month of Ab a newborn boy child is cooked and when the flesh is softened by cooking, it is mixed with fine flour and made into small cakes eaten at the mysteries of Shemal. The pamphlet speaks about the youth to be initiated as lambs and calves from the herd. They have to learn that dogs and ants and ravens are their brothers, the Seth-animal, the black thief and the small animals living under the earth and helping Psyche in her quest for Amor-Resheph. By the last initiation seven cups standing on a line have to be emptied and an 8th standing in an angle for Shemal. The content of the last cup is spoken of as a mystical drink. On the 27th of Chaziran 7 portions are presented to "the seven gods (and) to Shemal". As Baal is followed by 7 servants, 8 boars, so the number seven is always the number of demons: 7 Sibitti are kept imprisoned in hell [2] "seven are they, seven are they… the evil spirits", so it is said in a Babylonian song. W.Eichrodt [3] compares with the 7 revenging angels, Ez 9,1f. They come from the north, and 6 of them carry - not axes, but hammers. The name of the dead hunter, Eshmun, can be translated "the 8th", he is followed by 7kabirim (heroes from the past, inventors of the first ship). The seven servants from hell are probably shown on a relief of the sun found at Palmyra.
H.Seyrig, "Bas-relief palmyrénien dedié au soleil", SYRIA 36,1959, pp.58-60:
The inscription goes "to Sun, Greatest god" and under the portrait of the god 7 small figures all tied with a rope fastened to a ring round their necks. They are demons forced to serve the god who is the master of great magic, indicated by the raised kundalini-snake coiling round his halo.
Now back to the Sabaeans. We cannot agree with Jan Hjärpe [4] who thinks Wahb´s information about cannibalism is malicious gossip, and at least "very dubious". En-Nedim goes on to tell about the month of Tammuz (July): "Half way through this month there is the feast of el-Buqat, that is the weeping women… celebrated to the honour of their god Tâuz. The women weep for him because he was so cruelly killed by his Master, his bones ground in a mill, and then scattered by the wind." [5]
As we can see, Tammuz was identified with the lifegiving force in the flower and the cereals. So the boy cooked and mixed with the flour is a symbol of the god. After this feast for the women only the men will celebrate their feast on the 27th. It is Shemals mysterion to the honour of "genii,demons and gods", where they bake cakes of flour, berries and nuts in the ashes. During their feast the women would eat nothing made of flour out of sorrow for Tammuz, but the men use a very primitive way of making cakes of flour when they, after the habit of shepherds, bake the cakes in ashes as if the oven was not yet invented. So it seems likely that Tâus was killed by Shemal and his demons and after that eaten, and that this is what the mysteries celebrated by the men are all about.
[1] T.Kronholm, Motifs from Genesis 1-11 in the Genuine Hymns of Ephrem,1978.
[2] Reallexikon der Assyriologie,II,pp.396ff.
[3] Der Prophet Hesekiel,I,1959,p.64.
[4] Analyse critique des traditions arabes sur les Sabéens harraniens,1972.
[5] Chwolson, Die Ssabier.II, p.27.
Disclaimer:
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to first, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and second, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Researching for 'truth' leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a researcher, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the 'reality aggregate'.
Personal Position:
I've come to realize that 'truth' boils down to what we 'believe' the facts we've gathered point to. We only 'know' what we've 'experienced' firsthand. Everything else - what we read, what we watch, what we hear - is what someone else's gathered facts point to and 'they' 'believe' is 'truth', so that 'truth' seems to change in direct proportion to newly gathered facts divided by applied plausibility. Though I believe there is 'truth', until someone representing the celestial realm visibly appears and presents the heavenly records of Facts And Lies In The Order They Happened, I can't know for sure exactly what "the whole truth' on any given subject is, and what applies to me applies to everyone. Until then I'll continue to ask, "what does The Urantia Book say on the subject?"
~Gail Bird Allen
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Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans
Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
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Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God
And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
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Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels
"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold?"
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Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities
But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God
And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God
To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
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Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise
Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
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Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture
Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty
True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty
How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.