#francesca rochberg

[chthonicdivinebard]

Rituals termed in Sumerian NAM.BÚR.BI (Akk namburbû), meaning "its undoing," could be performed by priests, or even by Gods, to ward off the evil portended by an omen. The Gods Ea, Šamaš and Marduk (also known as Asalluhi) are said to "perform apotropaic rituals wherever there are portentous happenings and signs," and an epithet of the Sun-God identifies Him as "the one who averts the [bad] signs and portents by means of namburbi rituals." The seventh-century reports from the astrologers to the Kings Esarhaddon and Aššurnaṣipal reveals the use of such rituals, as in the following selected lines: "Let them perform a namburbû ritual; the halo was not a closed one." "This is a bad sign for all lands. Let the king my lord perform a namburbû ritual and so make its evil pass by." "Mars remained four fingers distant from Saturn, it did not come close. It did not reach it. I have copied [the omen from "Enūma Anu Enlil."] What is the harm in it? Let the pertinent namburbû ritual be performed." The protection of the king was paramount, since the celestial omens (especially the lunar) most directly affected him as the representative of the state. Therefore the scholar Munnabitu warned that "the [k]ing must not become negligent about these observations of the [mo]on; let the king perform either a namburbû or [so]me ritual which is pertinent to it."

Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination by Francesca Rochberg in “Magic in History: Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World” edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (p 182-3)

[chthonicdivinebard]

Why the Gods were viewed as the producers of signs in the natural world is further clarified by Mesopotamian cosmology. In one sense, the cosmic deities (Anu, Enlil, and Ea) are the divine essence of the physical cosmos, and so Their very existence presupposes the existence of the physical parts of the universe identified with them; that is, the great above is AN-Anu, and the great below is EN.KI-Ea. The other sense, already noted in the evidence from prayers and incantations to celestial deities, derives from a conception of the cosmos as a polity ruled by those Gods: AN ruled remote heaven, EN.KI the waters around and below the earth, and EN.LÍL the space between the great above and the great below, with its atmosphere and wind.

Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination by Francesca Rochberg in “Magic in History: Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World” edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (p 179)

[chthonicdivinebard]

In the more famous Babylonian creation poem "Enūma Eliš," a hierarchical structure of divine authority is described, placing Marduk in the position of leadership (Tablet IV) and under Him the fifty Great Gods, the seven Gods of the "destinies" (Tablet VI 80-1), and the Annunaki and Igigi in their respective cosmic domains (Tablet VI 40-69). This divine society was part of a fixed order that came into existence with creation and became a permanent characteristic of the cosmos. The phenomena through which divine messages were relayed to "the land" were a consequence of this fixed order. As stated in "Enūma Eliš,"[T]he norms had been fixed [and] all [their] portents" (Tablet VI 78). If the physical phenomena that functioned as signs portending the future for humankind were established as part of creation, the channel of communication between divine and human in the form of divination was seen as part of the original structure of the world. In the concluding paragraphs of a source for "Enūma Anu Enlil" Tablet 22, a similar notion is expressed: "When Anu, Enlil, and Ea, the Great Gods, created heaven and earth and made manifest the celestial signs, [They fixed the stations and estab]lished the positions [of celestial bodies, the Gods of the Night They...They divided the co]urses, [(and with) stars as Their (the Gods') likenesses, They drew the constellations.]"

Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination by Francesca Rochberg in “Magic in History: Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World” edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (p 179-80)

[seagull-astrology]

2017 The Great Eclipse and Hurricane Harvey

BACKGROUND While Veep Albert Gore is ballyhooing Global Warming, meteorologist cum astrologer Theodor Landscheidt, believed that after 2000 the world would be cooling based on his research.  Fellow astrologer Michael Erlewine was so convinced of Herr Lanscheidt’s argument that he dedicated his book on “Sun Storms, Solar Flares” to him.   One of the many physicists that agree with Landscheidt is…

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[chthonicdivinebard]

The underlying "causes" or reasons for these "designlike" regularities in the cosmos were, not surprisingly, never expressed in terms of natural law. Accordingly, we cannot presume that the patterns observed in nature were taken by the ancient Mesopotamians as outward signs of a lawlike behavior of physical phenomena, unless by "lawlike" we mean subject to the judgments and rulings of the Gods, as expressed in terms of purussû (or dīnu). In accordance with such a conception, the natural order could just as easily be disrupted as maintained by divine will, as stated in the following line from "Enūma Eliš," which attests to this very power of the God Marduk to create as to destroy order in the heavens: "[B]y Your utterance let the star be destroyed, command again and let the star be restored." Less clear, but related in essence, is the statement from an angry Marduk, found in the Erra Epic: "When I left My dwelling, the regulation of heaven and earth disintegrated; the shaking of heaven meant the positions of the heavenly bodies changed, nor did I restore them." Again, the prayer literature provides another parallel, this time with specific reference to an omen: "You [Nabû] are able to turn an untoward physiognomic omen into [one that is] propitious."

Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination by Francesca Rochberg in “Magic in History: Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World” edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (p 181-2)

[chthonicdivinebard]

That the diviners saw the omens as indications of divinely determined events is also supported by the use of the Akkadian word purussû, "legal decision" or "verdict," as a term for what we would call an "omen prediction." Inserted between the protases and apodoses of the lunar-eclipse omens of "Enūma Anu Enlil" Tablet 20, for example the omen for month Du'ūzu, is the instruction "[Y]ou observe his [Sin's] eclipse and keep the north wind in mind; thereby a decision (Akk purussû) is given for Ur and the king of Ur." In another lunar-eclipse text, similarly, is the comment "region [of the heavens] for a decision concerning the king of Elam, region of (meaning: for the occurrence of) an eclipse." The term purussû in this usage is also found in the reports of the diviners to the Neo-Assyrian kings, in which the celestial-omen series "Enūma Anu Enlil" is quoted, such as "[If] a star is darkened in the region of Sagittarius; a decision [purussû] for Muttabal and Babylon," or "Simanu means the Westland and a decision is given for Ur."

Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination by Francesca Rochberg in “Magic in History: Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World” edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (p 178-9)

[chthonicdivinebard]

But how, logically, are omens to be construed in the light of this conception of Gods as divine sovereigns determining destinies and assigning the lots of heaven and earth? As mentioned above, omen texts set the ominous phenomena and the events indicated by them in relation to one another in the manner of conditional probabilities, where the occurrence of an event is expected if it is established that another event has occurred (or will occur.) Each new line in the omen list begins with the word "if," but the manner of writing "if" in these lists (with the vertical wedge read as DIŠ) bears the influence of Sumerian and Akkadian law collections and standardized legal formulae. The parallel between lists of omens and earlier collections of legal precedents and their "judgments" or "verdicts" is suggestive and compelling in light of prayers and incantations referring to the Gods as "deciders of decisions" (Akk pārisū purussî), often said of Sin and of Sin and Šamaš together. The late theological and "astrological" commentary series entitled I.NAM.GIŠ.HUR.AN.KI.A states: "Sin and Šamaš, the two Gods, are present and decide the decisions of the land […] They give signs to the land" (Akk dSin u dŠamaš [ilāni kilallān] izzazzūma purussê māti inaddinū.)

Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination by Francesca Rochberg in “Magic in History: Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World” edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (p 177-8)

[chthonicdivinebard]

In this incantation, the Gods are viewed as having the power to make decisions, give commands, and determine the fate of people, much like the power possessed by a king. The designation of the Gods as determiners of the "nature of things," the "destinies of life," the ones who draw the "cosmic designs" and the "designs of life," evokes the metaphor of the God as king, who orders and legislates existence, and recalls the image of the deity enthroned in the presentation scenes of Mesopotamian glyptic. The political metaphor of God as king, according to Thorkild Jacobsen, is already reflected in the Sumerian mythological assembly of the Gods and in divine names composed with the Sumerian word "lord" (en) or "ruler of," as in Enlil "Lord Air." This concept is still fundamental to the understanding of the Gods in Their celestial manifestations.

Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination by Francesca Rochberg in “Magic in History: Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World” edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (p 177)