2. The Legend of Erra/Nergal and Ishum
The second major
Mesopotamian text that bleakly hints at this central role of
mankind in the conflict is the Legend of
Erra and Ishum. Before
proceeding to the text itself, it should be noted that “Erra” is
but another name for Nergal, and thus the legend not only gives
significant insights into the “mankind motivation” for the war, but
also into the dubious character of Nergal himself, in all his
miserific glory.
The Legend of Erra and Ishum begins with the creation
of the seven “sebitti”, the seven sages-and-warrior gods given to
Nergal as his “fierce weapons.” These “seven sages” are critical
players in the conflict. Their importance, in fact, is underscored
by the Erra and Ishum itself, for they
council Nergal into total and open revolt, and to seek absolute
power:
‘Go out to the battlefield, warrior Erra, make your weapons resound!
Make your noise so loud that those above and below quake,
So that the Igigi hear and glorify your name,
So that the Anunnaki hear and fear your word,
So that the gods hear and submit to your yoke,
So that kings hear and kneel beneath you,
So that countries hear and bring you their tribute,
So that demons hear and avoid (?) you,
So that the powerful hear and bite their lips.’...
Warrior Erra listened to them.
The speech which the Sebitti made was as pleasing to him as the
best oil.282
One god, Ishum, steps
forward to council Nergal against open revolt and war:
When Ishum heard this,
He made his voice heard and spoke to the warrior Erra,“Lord, Erra, why have you planned evil for the gods?
You have plotted to overthrow countries and to destroy their people, but will you not turn back?”283
Undeterred, Nergal
resolves to assault the king of the gods, Marduk himself, and
actually confronts Marduk personally.
Marduk’s response is
to remind Nergal of his power, by reminding him how he destroyed
Tiamat and rearranged the very mechanics of
heaven itself:
The king of the gods made his voice heard and spoke,
Addressed his words to Erra, warrior of gods,‘Warrior Erra, concerning that deed which you have said you will do:A long time ago, when I was angry and rose up from my dwelling and arranged for the flood,I rose up from my dwelling, and the control of heaven and earth was undone.The very heavens I made to tremble, the positions of the stars of heaven changed, and I did not return them to their places.Even Erkalla quaked....Even the control of heaven and earth was undone...“284
At this juncture, it
is worth citing at length what I wrote concerning the Babylonian
creation epic, the Enuma Elish in my
book The Giza Death Star
Destroyed.
a. Revisiting the Enuma Elish
“...The Babylonian
creation epic, the Enuma Elish,
presents a concise though quite suggestive account of this
interplanetary rebellion and war. The principal characters... are
the “gods” Tiamat and Marduk.
(1) The War as a Rebellion
“The account begins
as a creation account in rather typical fashion for an ancient
text, recounting a state of initial chaos from which, through
conflict of opposites, the order of creation gradually
emerges:
1. When in the height heaven was not named,
2. and the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
3. and the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
4. and chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both -
5. their waters were mingled together,
6. and no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
7. when of the gods none had been called into being;
8. and none bore a name, and no destinies [were ordained]...285
Note that the first
state or condition of creation is an undifferentiated state, or
“chaos,” a condition recalling physicist LaViolette’s hermeneutic
examined in my first book, The Giza Death
Star.286 This
undifferentiated state would best be described by our modern
physics terms of “vacuum”, “zero point energy”, “quantum flux” or
even “medium” or “aether.” The occurrence of the concept here,
prior to the appearance of any distinctive objects of creation, is
a strong indicator that the document preserves a residue of an
earlier more sophisticated “paleophysical” cosmology. This is
corroborated by the absence of names - “and none bore a name, and
no destinies [were ordained]” - indicating in another fashion the
absence of physically distinct and observable characteristics,
corroborating the idea that we are dealing with a document of
cosmological physics guised in a religious text.
“This might suggest
that the proper names for the “gods” would argue against the
“titular” pars pro toto rhetorical
usage advocated by Laurence Gardner. As will be seen, however, the
association of “Tiamat” with chaos and destruction subsequently in
the Enuma Elish may be an artifact of
the role of actual persons in the war described subsequently in the
epic. In fact, the indicator of this war occurs almost immediately
after the opening verses cited above, strongly suggesting that the
conflict was a very ancient one:
22. But T[iamat and Apsu] were (still) in confusion [...],
23. They were troubled and [.......]
24. In disorder(?)..[.......]
25. Apsu was not diminished in might[....]
26. and Tiamat roared[.........]
27. She smote, and their deeds [......]
28. Their way was evil..[.] .... 287
“Notwithstanding the
deteriorated condition of the tablets from which the text is
translated, there are clear indications that Tiamat and Apsu were
real persons, since they are engaged in activities perceived as
evil. Soon after this, the epic gives
the reason for this moral assessment:
49. Come, their way is strong, but thou shalt destroy [it];...
...
51. Apsu [hearkened unto] him and his countenance grew bright,
52. [Since] he (i.e., Mummu) planned evil against the gods his sons.288
“Note again the
personalism of the document, as well as the fact that the war
appears to be a “family quarrel” that has erupted into a civil war,
a reading well in line with Zecharia Sitchin’s reconstructions.
Many of the “gods” quickly flock to Tiamat’s side.
“At this juncture,
the epic becomes very specific - unusually specific in fact, for a
mere “creation epic” - in cataloguing the weapons used by the
“Tiamat alliance”:
109. [They banded themselves together and] at the side of Tiamat [they] advanced;
110. [They were furious, they devised mischief without resting] night and [day].
111. [They prepared for battle], fuming and raging;
112. [They joined their forces] and made war,
113. [Ummu-Hubu}, who formed all things,
114. [made in addition] weapons invincible, she spawned monster serpents,
115. [sharp of] tooth, and merciless of fang;
116. [with poison instead of] blood she filled [their] bodies.
117. Fierce [monster-vipers] she clothed with terror....
...
120. Their bodies reared up and none could withstand [their] attack.289
121 [She set] up vipers, and dragons, and the (monster) [Lamamu],
122. [and hurricanes], and raging hounds, and scorpion-men,
123. and mighty [tempests], and fish-men, and [rams];
124. [They bore] cruel weapons, without fear of [the fight].290
“Now let us pause,
and see what has been presented, and speculate on its possible
meaning for the scenario of a“paleoancient” interplanetary
war.
(2) The War as Interplanetery
“(a) The war is between the various “gods” as some go into rebellion, for reasons that the passages cited do not make immediately clear;
“(b) Tiamat appears to fashion two types of dreadful weaponry against her opponents:”(1) biological weapons: there are certain features to be noted about these weapons if one follows the interpretive paradigm of the existence of sophisticated technology in extremely ancient times:“(i) some are of apparently much-larger-than normal size and are reptilian in nature, strongly suggesting dinosaurs or similar creatures;”(ii) some are apparently hybrids between species, suggesting the existence of a sophisticated genetics technology, e.g., “fish-men” and “scorpion-men”;“(iii) This fact in turn suggests that the hybrid human-animal forms often used in Egyptian hieroglyphics to denote the gods might indicate that a reality once may have been the foundation of the association of such glyphs with the gods in ancient Egypt and other ancient cultures.291
“(b) Weather weapons: hurricanes and immense storms. This implies the existence of a physics to engineer phenomena on a planetary scale by controlling or manipulating the electrodynamic properties of planetary atmospheres.
“But what were the
motivations for this titanic struggle and the development and
actual use of such horrendous weapons?
These are alluded to at the very end of the first tablet and again
in the second tablet of the Enuma
Elish:
137. She gave to (Kingu) the Tablets of Destiny, on [his] breast she laid them, (saying):
138. “Thy command shalt not be without avail, and [the word of thy mouth shall be establisbed]. ”
139. Now Kingu, (thus) exalted, having received [the power of Anu]...292
“The reference to
“the power of Anu” is significant, since “Anu” in the Babylonian
theogony is the name of God. Thus, whatever the “Tablets of
Destiny” were, they conveyed such tremendous power to their
possessor that the power was regarded as being divine.
“If one now combines
the insights of Alford and Sitchin, for whom such ancient texts and
names of “gods” were metaphors of naturally occurring planetary
collisions and catastrophes - a metaphor telling of the destruction
of the fifth planet of the solar system by collision with another
large celestial body - with Sir Laurence Gardner’s understanding of
such texts as a “titular” usage of the proper names of the
sovereigns of the planets or regions involved, then one is left
with the picture of an actual, though
extremely ancient, war of interplanetary celestial, or “heavenly”
scale, exactly as recounted in other ancient
traditions.
“But what was the
reason for this war? According to the epic, it was Tiamat’s
possession of these mysterious “Tablets of Destiny” and the extreme
power they conveyed. This constituted the primary reason for the
war against her and for her utter destruction at the hands of her
opponents. And this brings us to Marduk, the chief of her opponents
in the epic, and to his arsenal and to “The Sequence of Tiamat’s
Destruction.”
(3) The Sequence of Tiamat’s Destruction by Marduk in the Enuma Elish
(a) Marduk ’s Appointment as Sovereign
“The epic quickly
moves to the topic of the appointment of Marduk as the leader of
the coalition to defeat Tiamat:
13. O Marduk, thou art our avenger!
14. We give thee sovereignty over the whole world.
15. Sit thou down in might, be exalted in thy command.293
“Marduk a little
further on is then given a very interesting mission:
31. Go, and cut off the life of Tiamat,
32. and let the wind carry her blood into secret places.294
“The significance of
this mission will be lost unless one bears in mind the titular
pars pro toto paradigm. On that view,
Marduk is charged to destroy the entire planet represented by the
titular term “Tiamat.” The horrendous biological and weather
weapons Tiamat has unleashed on her opponents has called forth an
escalation of the war as her opponents now call for her complete
destruction. This is hinted at by the phrase that her blood - the
life of the planet - is to be carried “into secret
places.”
(b) Marduk’s Weaponry: The “Stealth Suit” and Invisible Weapon
“In this same
context, Marduk is then given two rather interesting weapons, from
this “paleophysical” point of view, one of which, perhaps,
represents some form of stealth technology:
23. “Command now and let the garment vanish,
24. and speak the word again and let the garment reappear!”
25. Then he spake with his mouth, and the garment vanished;
26. Again he commanded it, and the garment reappeared.295
“In addition to this
“stealth suit,” Marduk is given an invincible weapon, a weapon far
exceeding Tiamat’s biological and weather arsenal:
27. When the gods, his fathers, beheld (the fulfillment of) his word,
28. they rejoiced, and they did homage (unto him, saying) “Marduk is King!”
29. They bestowed upon him the sceptre, and the throne, and the ring,
30. They give him an invincible weapon, which overwbelmeth the foe.296
“What this invincible
weapon may be is not described nor named, but its effects appear to
be in view in the following passage:
39. He set the lightning in front of him,
40. with burning flame he filled his body,
41. he made a net to enclose the inward parts of Tiamat,
42. the four winds he stationed so that nothing of her might escape,-...
43. The South wind and the North wind and the East wind and the West wind
44. He brought near to the net, the gift of his father Anu.
45. he created the evil wind, and the tempest, and the hurricane,
46. and the fourfold wind, and the sevenfold wind, and the whirlwind, and the wind which hath no equal.297
“This passage implies
a rather remarkable set of characteristics of the “invincible
weapon”:
“(a) Its use apparently involved lightning, i.e., extremes of electrostatic energy;
“(b) The “net ” used to “enclose the inward parts of Tiamat” recalls the language of another Babylonian epic, the Lugal-e, which forms so much of the material Zechariah Sitchin used to reconstruct his “Second Pyramid War.”298 As was detailed in my first book, The Giza Death Star, the term “net” in the Lugal-e occurred in a context such as to suggest a weapon employing gravity and acoustics as its primary component. Thus, the “inward parts of Tiamat” strongly suggests an interpretation, not of planetary “external” collisions, but something “internal,” affecting the planetary core of Tiamat. Thus, Marduk’s “invincible weapon” appears to be able to tap into the field of space-time, i.e., the medium itself, and thereby the planetary center of Tiamat. While this interpretation is at this juncture highly speculative, it is corroborated in quite strong language at the end of the fourth tablet as we shall see.
“(c) If one understands the “net” in this fashion, as the gridwork or lattice or cellular-like structure of the medium itself, then further corroboration of this reading would appear to be provided by the reference to the “four winds,” which might be taken to mean the compass points, or even more abstractly, coordinate references. In this regard, it will be recalled that the ancient Hindu epics, examined in The Giza Death Star,299 made similar reference to a weapon that was tied to the four points of the compass.“(1) Alternatively, such references to the “four winds” or “the four compass points” or, as is very common, the “four corners of the earth” might also be taken as indicating something even more profound. It will be recalled from The Giza Death Star Deployed that the simplest geometric solid that can be circumscribed in a sphere is a tetrahedron, a four-sided pyramid with four vertices touching the surface of a sphere.
“(d) Finally, the passage refers to weather weapons that are specifically rotational or vorticular in nature: “hurricanes” and “whirlwinds”. In the context of the reading I am advancing here, these might be metaphors for structures involving longitudinal pressure waves in the medium. If this is true, them this is a very significant clue as to the fundamental unifying concept of paleophysics. It is, perhaps, the single most important clue, for it points clearly to vortex physics.
“With these thoughts
in mind, we turn to the Sequence of Tiamat’s Destruction itself.
This “Sequence” comprises the main
theme of the Fourth Tablet of the Enuma
Elish. In it, as we shall see, the signature of Marduk’s
“invincible weapon” points very strongly to it being the type of
“scalar” weapon employing such distortions or pressure waves in the
medium as its primary component, exactly what I have argued in
The Giza Death Star and The Giza Death Star Deployed:
47. He sent forth the winds which he had created, the seven of them;
48. to disturb the inward parts of Tiamat, they followed after him.
49. Then the Lord raised the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon,
50. He mounted the chariot, the storm unequalled for terror,
51. He harnessed and yoked it unto four horses,
52. Destructive, ferocious, overwhelming, and swift of pace...300
58. With overwhelming brightness his head was crowned...
...
65. And the Lord drew nigh, he gazed upon the inward parts of Tiamat...301
75. Then the Lord [raised] the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon...
76. [and against] Tiamat, who was raging, thus he sent (the word):
77. ”[Thou art become great, thou hast exalted thyself on high,
...
78. and thy [heart hath prompted] thee to call to battle....“302
87. When Tiamat heard these words,
88. She was like one possessed, she lost her reason.
89. Tiamat uttered wild piercing cries,
90. she trembled and shook to her very foundations....
...
95. The Lord spread out his net and caught her,
96. and the evil wind that was behind him he let lose in her face.
97. As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent,
98. He drove in the evil wind, while as yet she had not shut her lips.
99. The terrible winds filled her body,...
...
101. He seized the spear and burst her body,
102. he severed her inward parts, he pierced (her) heart.303
“Afterwards, Marduk
then captures Tiamat’s allies,304 recapturing the
Tablets of Destiny from Kingu, and then returns to Tiamat to
complete her destruction:
129. And the Lord stood upon Tiamat’s hinder parts,
130. and with his merciless club he smashed her skull.305
137. He split her up like a fish into two halves;...
...
143. And the Lord measured the structure of the Deep.306
“I believe these
passages reveal a remarkably accurate sequence of what the
destruction of a planet by a “scalar” weapon employing a
longitudinal pulse or acoustic stress the medium itself would
entail, right down to acoustic cavitation and large electrostatic
displays, signatures of the use of such a weapon at extreme power.
Let us note the sequence:
“(a) The “winds” are sent to “disturb” or destabilize the “inward parts” of Tiamat, the planetary core(w. 47-48);
“(b) “Lightning” is then unleashed on the already unstabilized planet from the “four winds”, i.e., from every direction(w. 49-50), or alternatively, at the tetrahedral “vertices”;
“(c) These “thunderbolts” are then apparently directed toward that destabilized core, suggesting that a sudden and extreme pulse is administered(vv. 58, 65, 75-78);
“(d) Tiamat responds with cries and trembles and shakes to “her very foundations”, i.e., experiences very severe earthquakes or acoustic cavitations throughout the planet, to its very core(w. 95, 97-97);
“(e) Tiamat appears unable to break resonance with the weapon (w. 97-98) as Marduk spreads the net and drives in the final “wind” or pulse(v. 98);
“(f) Tiamat reaches maximum instability in her planetary core and mantle (w. 98-99);
“(g) Marduk pierces the crust, and releases the enormous energies that have built up in the planet through the acoustic cavitations, resulting in a colossal explosion with the entire planet as its fuel, rather like bursting a balloon filled to extreme pressure.(w. 101-102, 137).
“All this implies the
existence of a physics sophisticated enough to “measure the
structure of the deep”(v. 143), and to weaponize it.307 This last statement
is the reason why it was argued that the reference to “winds” in
the case of Marduk’s weapon may indicate the types of longitudinal
pressure-waves associated with Tesla-like scalar
weapons.
“Another comment is
perhaps warranted by this discussion. It is to be noted that Marduk
“measures the structure of the Deep” after Tiamat’s destruction. This would have been
necessary in terms of the type of physics being suggested, since
the destruction of a planetary sized body in the approximate orbit
of the asteroid belt would have required an adjustment to
astronomical measurements of the solar system, since its previously
existing celestial mechanics and geometry has been shattered.308 With the explosion
of a planet giving rise to the cyclic return of comets and the
“catastrophes” they bring, one has an explanation for catastrophism
itself. The war and catastrophism are
therefore intimately related, for on this view, the planetary wars
of the “gods” is not a metaphor for the latter, but its very real
origin and cause.
“A final comment is
necessary about the Enuma Elish. The
preceding excerpts would seem to contraindicate its being a
creation account at all. Rather, it would seem that it is more an
epic of “War Among the Gods”.309 That it came to be
interpreted as a creation epic involving dualism and dialectics of
opposites is perhaps due to the quick change from creation in the
opening verses to its preoccupation with war for much of the
remaining epic. In this sense, it is an interpretation that the
legacy civilization - Sumer and Babylon - most likely placed upon
it.310 But read from the
paleophysics standpoint of interpretation being argued here and in
my two previous books The Giza Death Star and
Giza Death Star Deployed, it is
first and foremost the account of a very ancient, very real, and
quite interplanetary war within our own solar system, in a galaxy
long, long, ago, and far, far away.”311
Marduk’s remarks in
the Erra and Ishum are wholly in line
with the outlines of the scalar physics found in the Enuma Elish cited above, referring, for example, to
making the very heavens tremble, changing the positions of the
stars, i.e., the planets of the solar system, even undoing the
control of heaven and earth, a clear allusion to the broken
celestial mechanics of the solar system after the explosion of
Tiamat-Kyrpton (Krypton being another name for Tiamat, I
believe).
And we can fix a date
to this event, on the basis of Van Flandern’s revised Multiple
Exploded Planet Hypothesis: 65,000,000 years ago. Marduk’s warning
to Nergal in the Erra and Ishum is
therefore perhaps obliquely referring to Van Flandern’s second
event at 3,200,000 years ago, for it would seem to be suggested by
the Erra and Ishum that Nergal is
plotting a similar destruction. As we shall see later on in this
chapter, there is other textual corroboration from Mesopotamia of
Van Flandern’s two explosions at these two separate
dates.
Returning to the
Erra and Ishum, Marduk reveals to
Nergal that he actually considered wiping out the survivors of his
destruction of Tiamat and the resulting floods it caused
elsewhere:
(As for) the people who were left from the Flood and saw the result of my action,Should I raise my weapons and destroy the remnant?312
This is an important
statement, for it implies once again that there were observers of the destruction of Tiamat, of the
awesome weapons deployed, and of the celestial displays that
resulted. Shades of Anthony Peratt!
Then follows an
astonishing challenge from Marduk:
I changed the location of the mesu-tree (and of) the elmesu-stone, and did not reveal it to anyone.Now, concerning that deed which you have said you will do, Warrior Erra,Where is the mesu-wood, the flesh of the gods, the proper insignia of the King of the World...?....Where is the pure zaginduru-stone which [ ]threw away?“313
In the next chapter
we shall examine the technological motivation for the war, the
theft by Anzu of the Tablet of Destinies from Enlil. These, as we
shall see there, are objects of technology that conveyed supreme
power to their possessors. Here, Marduk appears to be referring to
some similar objects, without which he hints that Nergal’s plan is
doomed to failure.
Nergal then addresses
Marduk at length, and though the text is decayed at this point,
perhaps one may speculate that he is challenging him to produce the
locations of various stones and objects of power,314 or perhaps, failing
to learn their location, proceeds to persuade Marduk to join him in
his course of action. This, it would seem from what follows, is a
likely conjecture:
When Marduk heard this,
He made his voice heard and spoke to warrior Erra,“I shall rise up from my dwelling, and the control of heaven and earth will be undone.
The waters will rise and go over the land,
Bright day will turn into darkness.
A storm will rise up and cover the stars of heaven.
An evil wind will blow, and the vision of people and living things will [be obscured (?)].315
Marduk, in other
words, appears ready to join Nergal’s war and to inflict a second
cosmic catastrophe. If this would seem to be stretching the text,
it is placed beyond doubt by Nergal’s speech which immediately
follows, and Marduk’s reaction to it:
When Erra heard this,
He made his voice heard and spoke to prince Marduk,Prince Marduk listened to him,“Prince Marduk, until you re-enter that house...
Until then shall I rule and keep firm control of heaven and earth.
I shall go up into heaven, and give orders to the Igigi;
I shall go down to the Absu and direct the Anunnaki
...
I shall set my fierce weapons over them.
At that house which you shall enter, prince Marduk,
I shall make Anu and Ellil like down like bulls, to right and left of your gate.“
And the speech that Erra made was pleasing to him.316
Later on, after his
success, Nergal is praised by Ishum in terms that imply his control
over the very same scalar technology that Marduk used to destroy
Tiamat:
Ishum made his voice heard and spoke to warrior Erra,‘Warrior Erra, you hold the nose-rope of heaven,
You control the whole earth, and you rule the land.“317
Then follows a rather
curious statement, one highly significant given what has already
been said about the Nephilim and the
use of hybrid species as workers and weapons; Ishum is speaking to
Nergal:
“You have changed your divine nature and become like a human!”318
This vaguely suggests
that Nergal was also intimately involved in the hybrid creation
projects.
No examination of the
Erra and Ishum legend would be
complete, however, without citing the lengthy speeches where Ishum
describes Nergal’s genocidal and monomaniacal character:
“You set up the weapons of kidinnu-men as an abomination to Anu and Dagan.You have made their blood flow like water in the drains of public squares.319O warrior Erra, you have put the just to death,
You have put the unjust to death.
You have put to death the man who sinned against you,
You have put to death the man who did not sin against you.
...
You have put old men to death on the porch,
You have put young girls to death in their bedrooms.
Yet you will not rest at all.320Warrior Erra listened to him,And the words that Ishum spoke to him were as pleasing as the best oil.And Warrior Erra spoke thus,“Sea (people) shall not spare sea (people), nor Subarian (spare) Subarian, nor Assyrian Assyrian,
Nor shall Elamite spare Elamite, nor Kassite Kassite,
Nor Sutean spare Sutean, nor Gutian Gutian
...
Nor shall tribe spare tribe, nor man man, nor brother brother brother, and they shall slay one another.”321
What emerges from
this legend is the picture of a supreme warlord, basking in his
sick bloodlust and supreme powers of destruction, affording yet
another glance in the ongoing struggle in the pantheon for supreme
power.