ARMENIA: THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION
T H E F I N I T E A N D T H E I N F I N I T E
...Gilgamesh came to the Mountains whose
name is Mashu...
He approached the Twin Peaks which guard each day
the coming and going of Shamash [the Sun God]...
The One who saw All
I will declare to the world,
The one who knew all I will tell about...
He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hidden...
He recovered the Knowledge of
all the times before the Flood...
He journeyed beyond the distant...
He journeyed into.. the Beyond.
— THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE OF --
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
LIGHT AND DARKNESS --
LIFE AND DEATH --
ORDER AND CHAOS --
WISDOM AND IGNORANCE.
SOLAR CRUX SERVING AS THE
GENERATIVE PRINCIPLE IN
COMMUNION WITH THE
SERPENTINE 'SEED'
PETROGLYPH [ROCK DRAWING] FROM
THE GEGHAMA MOUNTAINS
TWO SERPENT-RIVERS FLOWING
FROM THE OCEAN OF LIFE
OF THE ONE SOURCE
PETROGLYPH FROM
THE GEGHAMA MOUNTAINS
But the city of Aratta, in the snow-capped
mountains that border Mesopotamia
is also under the protection of the Goddess, and ruled by an en devoted to Her
as well.
In order to please the gods, Enmerkar plans to build a lavish temple in Uruk.
There was only one big problem:
Enmerkar had none of the precious stones and metals he needed to decorate the
temple.
But Aratta, located in the mountains, was famous for its gold and precious
stones,
and it was to the lord of Aratta that Enmerkar turned to..
My sister, let Aratta fashion gold and silver skillfully on my behalf for Unug. Let them cut the flawless lapis lazuli from the blocks, let them ...... the translucence of the flawless lapis lazuli ....... ...... build a Holy Mountain... Let Aratta build a Temple brought down from heaven -- your place of worship, the Shrine E-Ana; let Aratta skillfully fashion the interior of the holy jipar, your abode; may I, the radiant youth, may I be embraced there by you... Let the people of Aratta bring down for me the mountain stones from their mountain...
...This Great Mountain range Aratta is a Tree grown high to the sky; its roots form a net, and its branches are a snare. It may be a sparrow but it has the talons of an Anzud bird or of an Eagle. The barrier of Inana is perfectly made and is impenetrable. Those Eagle talons make the blood of the enemy run from the Bright Mountain...
— ENMERKAR AND THE LORD OF ARATTA
| Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G.,
The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford, 1998. |
A R A R A T -- THE GATEWAY TO THE STARS
--- I AM THE ALPHA AND OMEGA --- 2220
THE FIERY SUN RISES [IS BORN], BURNS-GIVES ENERGY [SUFFERS]
SETS [DIES] AND RISES AGAIN [RESURRECTS]...
BETWEEN THE TWIN MOUNTAIN [ONE IN TWO] FOR ALL OF HUMANITY
TONY BEAVERS IN AN INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT
WORLD CULTURES, INCLUDES A GREAT SUMMARY OF THE EPIC:
From the Near East comes the Old Babylonian account of the
life and death of GILGAMESH. There was a real Gilgamesh, a king who ruled some
2700 years before Christ lived and the Romans consolidated their vast empire.
The character and the exploits of this king were preserved in the form of
stories that circulated for many years after the king's death. Some of these
tales -- more than 600 years after Gilgamesh's rule -- were collected by a story
teller and were put down in the form of an epic poem. This poem is what we know
today as The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Who knows how many versions The Epic of Gilgamesh went through
before consolidation in its written form? Who knows how many translations the
stories underwent before their reworking in the Babylonian language? Who knows
how many parts of the story might have offended or misrepresented the eponymous
king? Who knows how many story-tellers made more (or less) of Mashu, the
mountainous gateway to the other world, as they kept their audiences
spellbound with fantastical details of this greatest of human adventures --
the struggle to find (and retain) eternal life?
What is known is no less intriguing. How curious is the
parallel between the story of Utnapishtim and the Hebrew account of Noah. How
symbolic is the description of Enkidu, the prototypical natural man, as he sheds
his animalistic behaviors in preference for the pleasures of human society. How
extraordinary is the description of the snake, whose stealing of the essence of
immortality from Gilgamesh results in the snake's rebirth each time it sheds its
skin.
Of course the Hebrew iteration of the Flood story is not coincidence. For a time, the Hebrews lived in Sumer, home to Abraham's people. Nomadic people, they left the fertile river valleys and headed for Canaan and later Egypt, taking with them ancient accounts of floods and righteous people whose obedience and wisdom helped them to survive the consuming waters.
Nor is the function of the snake coincidental either. The
Hebrews find the powerful, mysterious serpent in their creation story and the
Garden of Eden, which surely was located in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley,
not the dry vistas of Canaan or the arid Sinai peninsula. But while, for the
Sumerians, the snake is merely deceitful and clever, the snake becomes the
symbol of creeping evil for the Hebrews.
THE HOLY TRINITY -- EA-HAYA [EYE]-- ENKI -- ISHTAR [INANNA]
AND SHAMASH [UTU] AT THE GATES OF THE TWIN PEAKS OF MOUNT MASHU [MASHU LIT.
MEANS = TWIN]. THE COSMIC TWIN MOUNTAIN IS COVERED WITH TREES [SYMBOLIC OF
FERTILITY AND THE TREE OF LIFE]. THE WINGED GODDESS ISHTAR STANDS TO THE LEFT OF
THE FOUR-BRANCHED TREE OF LIFE -- TO THE RIGHT STANDS EA-HAYA -- THE GOD OF
COSMIC WATERS AND DIVINE WISDOM -- SURROUNDED BY A BIRD, A GOAT AND THE FISH --
SYMBOLIC OF THE TRIPLE DECKER UNIVERSE -- THE SACRED RIVERS TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES
SPRING FROM HIS SHOULDERS - SYMBOLIC OF ARMENIAN HIGHLAND -- THE LIFE SOURCE OF
THE RIVERS. THE SUN GOD UTU-SHAMASH SETS IN BETWEEN THE TWIN PEAKS OF HOLY MASHU
-- THIS MOTIF OF SUN RISING AND SETTING FROM BETWEEN THE TWIN PEAKS OF MASIS
WOULD BE -- THE HOLY SYMBOL OF ARMENIA -- FOR
MILLENNIA...PAST...PRESENT...AND...FUTURE.
The Sun God Utu -- Rising from the East of the Twin Peaks of Mashu -- The Land of the Gods and Immortality -- The Rivers Tigris and Euphrates -- to the right and left -- and the Tree of Life [the Garden of Eden] on the Eastern side [associated with the Sunrise] spring from the Armenian Highland -- nourishing and giving Life to all of Mesopotamia.
View of the Holy Mount Ararat [Azatn [Free] Masis--Masios--Mashu--Masion] -- THE SACRED SYMBOL OF ARMENIA AND PRESENT HUMAN CIVILIZATION --with its Eternally enchanting beauty.
ANCIENT ARMENIAN HIEROGLYPH OF
THE COSMIC HIERARCHY-MOUNTAIN
To the Mountain Mashu Gilgamesh came.
Mountain Mashu with two heads
One greets Shamash arriving in the East
One watches Shamash departing in the West.
Mountain Mashu most large.
It's heads into heaven do they sit,
While it's breasts into earth do they hang.
To enter Mountain Mashu must Gilgamesh pass
Two scorpions whose look is death.
Two scorpions who guard the pass deathly bright do they sit.
FEMALE DEITY. FROM THE
GEGHAMA PETROGLYPHS
The male scorpion to his sister says
"Only a god would dare approach us."
The female scorpion to her brother says
"One part mortal, two parts divine."
One part of Gilgamesh stood paralyzed.
Two parts of Gilgamesh moved towards the pair.
The male scorpion to Gilgamesh says:
"Who dares our death?
FIVE FINGERS OF THE HAND
FROM THE PETROGLYPH
CAVE DRAWINGS OF GEGHAMA MOUNTAINS
Why come through wilderness to get our death?
Why come this way of no mortal before?"
Though body paralyzed those parts divine made words:
"I come for divinely made immortal Utnapishtim.
I come to ask about life and about death."
— THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
GEGHAMA PETROGLYPH
SYMBOLIC OF MALE-FEMALE
POSITIVE-NEGATIVE
GENERATIVE FUSION
--- SYNTHESIS ---
HOLY TRINITY
20 DOTS -- ONE IN THE CENTER
THE ORDER OF ALL
WITHIN THE WHOLE
OF SERPENTINE COIL