Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian Resources

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Original post: III

Since we are all, in effect, rediscovering the Sumerian 'tradition' in some way or another, perhaps it would prove useful to list those texts that discuss Sumerian sorcery, as well as Akkadian and Babylonian magic(k).

We have, of course, Leonard W. King's Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, which is truly a stellar text, but are there others of great worth out there...?

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Original post: LadyHydralisk

Yes, there are numerous lists like this on Enenuru, and I wouldn't want to plagiarize their work here, so if you would like to look around:

http://enenuru.proboards52.com/index.cgi

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Original post: III

Why thank you.

However, as useful as dedicated forums might well be, some suggestions of further (published) literary output would no doubt prove far more beneficial...

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Original post: Bone_Dancer

I appreciate the link but it's always a bother to have to register just to see if the forum holds any interest. :eh:

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Original post: III

[QUOTE=Bone_Dancer;290324]I appreciate the link but it's always a bother to have to register just to see if the forum holds any interest. :eh:[/QUOTE]
There is at least one thread I found to be of interest - a thread pertaining to so-called vampirism, which discussed the Sumerian perception of what we now know as 'vampire'.

However, we have yet to receive any real recommendations as to Sumerian/Babylonian texts; study material, written incantations, etc. There is, of course, a few of potential worth mentioned in the 'suggested reading' list of Simon's Necronomicon...but I am certain that there are many, many more...

So, I am forever open to suggestion.

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Original post: Skeptismo118

This will get you started with resources

http://www.amazon.com/Mesopotamia/lm/R1ZUQS5AUIDV0M

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Original post: III

[QUOTE=Skeptismo118;290568]This will get you started with resources

http://www.amazon.com/Mesopotamia/lm/R1ZUQS5AUIDV0M[/QUOTE]
Thank you for your assistance, but this material clearly pertains to Mesopotamian history and not specifically to Sumerian or Babylonian sorcery.

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Original post: Suxur-Mash596

The juicy material concerning this awesome of occult literature is scarce. What I mean is the sorcerous kind. There is plenty in the realm of archeological material, but the magickal, limited.

What is a curious mage to do? I say gather what YOU DO HAVE and begin using it. Why not find out straight from the source how to do the magick?

You can learn quite a bit from actual practices. I can honestly say the Simon Necronomicon can be used to great effect. The 50 names of Marduk would be great place to start, ARANUNNA (name 39) and/or MARUTUKKU (name 4) would be great places to start. Thats if you want to work with the magick of ENKI and the Elder Gods. There are a few different paths, such as the one Scorpion Man Akrabu, or serving Erishkigal in her underworld domain. Read up on the histories of the region and the various Gods/Godessess. Remember, in Sumer there were many city/states and each had a different patron Deity.

When I get home, I will post some links I have bookmarked on my home PC. But theyre more in the realm of archeological rather than magickal, as always. Aslo, thats if I remember too.

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Original post: us4-he2-gal2

Id like to thank Naomi for the kind acknowledgement. The board I organize, Enenuru, though on a rare quiet month, does begin to offer considerable insight in to Mesopotamian magic, and regularly adds very difficult to obtain incantations. It may be hard at first to see how representative they are, or how they fit into the overall picture - its one of those topics where a broad understanding is first built and then all the little pieces start to suggest themselves.

I have many literary sources that are key, listed on the board and on hand here. The incantations probably wont be valuble without interest and reading in to Sumer but thats possible for anyone to. Email me directly for orientations if you'd like, as I can show you where to look or what your looking at - most times. One thing I do need to add, is that the Necronomicon is a popular red herring, considered abhorrent in the Sumerological world, and only takes you farther away from Mesopotamian Magic.

cheers.

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Original post: shroudmoth

books:
The Enimu Elish.
Gods, demons and symbols of mesopotamia
The King's List
These three give great background as to the culture, divinities and cross references that most currently practiced world religions have "borrowed" from the first great people. (or at least the ones we can read about.)

Also look into some interesting depictions of the gods as alien visitors and the human race as a slave creation. The god qingu as the source for our humanity and the soul being a demon and the human body is actually "hell".

Sing us a tale of old.

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Original post: New_york_city

If you like fiction then sure Simon Necronomicon is the way to go. I am a practitioner of Old Style Sumerian Magick and a follower of EnKi.


As for Necro and fiction/gibberish, carry on here:

THE SIMON NECRONOMICON AND THE MAQLU TEXT
John Wisdom Gonce, III



Magic, n. An art of converting superstition into coin.
Quotation, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.
The words erroneously repeated.
-- The Devil's Dictionary. Ambrose Bierce



In the first essay of this series I provided a brief overview of the
origins of the Necronomicon as an imaginary book of black magick
mentioned ominously in the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his
friends. I then gave a thumbnail account of the Necronomicon as a
popular literary hoax and a publishing phenomenon. Most importantly, I
promised to deconstruct the pseudo-Mesopotamian elements in the Simon
Necronomicon, which is the most popular Necronomicon of all. By the
time I have concluded this series, I believe you will agree with me
that using the Simon Necronomicon as a sourcebook for Sumerian magick
is a bit like using Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf as a guidebook for the
practice of Judaism.

So let us begin by examining a section of the Simon Necronomicon that
most scholars agree is one of the most authentically Mesopotamian
parts of the book: "The MAKLU Text".
Even before we turn to page 75 of the Simon book to read his version
of the so-called "MAKLU Text" (more properly known as the Maqlu
Series) we find ourselves facing an Assyriological aberration.
Throughout his seemingly interminable introduction (pages vii through
lvi, comprising about an eighth of the book) Simon claims that his
Necronomicon is a work of authentic Sumerian magick. But the Maqlu
Series of tablets, translated into German by Knut L. Tallqvist [1], on
which Simon based his "MAKLU Text", date from the Babylonian period
and not from ancient Sumer, as Simon would have us believe. Even so,
the magickal practices of the Babylonians were inherited from the
Sumerians, and Babylonian magickal incantations were often written and
spoken in Sumerian, so this is not, by itself, such a terrible mistake
from the standpoint of the practitioner who wants to connect with the
magickal current of ancient Mesopotamia.

But even in "The MAKLU Text" Simon's scholarship falls wide of the
mark. From my careful study of Tallqvist's work compared to "The MAKLU
Text" in the Simon Necronomicon, the evidence shows that Simon has
merely taken abbreviated forms of some of Tallqvist's translations,
mixed them with fictional material of his own creation, and used them
in his book.

Before we examine Simon's corrupted version of the Maqlu Series, we
should first examine the real Maqlu Series and place it in its proper
historical and metaphysical context. The Maqlu Series of eight clay
tablets contains some one hundred incantations and accompanying rites.
The text reveals a single complex ritual composed of three major
subdivisions: Tablets 1 through 5, Tablets 6 through 7, line 57, and
Tablets 7, line 58 through 8. The first two divisions were performed
during the night, the third during the early morning hours of the
following day. The ritual is held at the end of the month of Abu. The
two major participants are the incantation priest (ashipu), who
presides as the ritual expert and director, and his client, a cursed
man (possibly the king), who is the ritual actor. The ritualist was
not only acting in his own behalf, but also in behalf of his kingdom
or community. In one part of the ritual, he even takes on the identity
of a priest and messenger to the Gods. The goal of the Maqlu ritual
was to judge, punish and destroy all evil sorcerers and sorceresses,
whether living or dead. Dead sorcerers were exhumed and destroyed,
live ones were slain, and all were annihilated and deprived of any
chance for burial. Thus they were prevented from finding any refuge in
the underworld and were expelled from the cosmos [2]. The word maqlu
itself means "burning", which refers to the destruction of the effigy
of an evil sorcerer by burning or melting a doll or poppet of the
sorcerer made of wax, bitumen, wood, dough, or clay [3]. Simon fails
to explain any of this in the text of his book, thereby failing to
provide a proper context for the incantations he presents.

I arranged to have a small portion of Tallqvist's German translations
of the Maqlu Series translated from the German into English by Ms.
Bernadette H. Hyner of the German Department of Vanderbilt University.
What follows is her translation of the first plate of the first tablet
in the series. The reader is welcome to turn to pages 89 and 90 in the
Simon Necronomicon and follow along (up to a point) by reading the
section entitled "THE BINDING OF THE EVIL SORCERERS":

The Texts of the Maqlu Series
In Conversion and First Plate of the Series Maqlu

Conjuration. I call to you, gods of the night,
together with you, I call to the night, to the covered (?) woman;
I call at night, at midnight, in the morning.
because the wizard (female) has charmed me,
The witch has put me under her spell,
my god and my goddess mourn over me.
Because my sickness (?) painfully plagues me,
I stand upright, neither night nor day do I lay down,
They have filled my mouth with strings,
with upuntu-herb they have stuffed my mouth.
They have reduced the water in my drinks;
my jubilation is lamentation, my joy is sorrow.
Rise, great gods, hear my lamenting,
enforce my right (do me justice), acknowledge my transformation!
I have constructed a picture of my wizard and my wizard (female),
of my witch master and my witch.
I have laid down at your feet and brought forth my lament:
because they have done bad (wrong), they were keen to do that which is unclean,
may they die (each of them); I shall live!
May their magic, their witchcraft, their poison (?) Be dissolved;
.... release me, the disgusting nature (offensiveness) of the mouth
may dissolve in the wind!
May the mastakal-herb, of which the earth is full, cleanse me!
May GIS.SE.SA.KU, of which the grain is full, release me!
In front of you I want to shine like the KANKAL-herb,
I want to be sparkling clean like the lardu-herb.
Disastrous is the conjuration of the wizard (female):
let her words return to her mouth, let her tongue be cut off: [4]

If you've been comparing our translation of Tallqvist to the version
of the same tablet on pages 89 and 90 in the Simon book, you will have
noticed the similarities, showing that both are the works of different
translators translating the same text. You will also notice that
Simon's version is fairly faithful to Tallqvist's translation of the
original tablet until he gets to the seventeenth verse and goes off on
a fictional tangent. Instead of "I have laid down at your feet and
brought forth my lament." Simon substitutes the sentence; "May the
Three Watches of the Night dissolve their evil sorceries!" [5] It, and
all the following verses are fictional products of Simon's
imagination, not found in the original first tablet of the Maqlu
Series.

Ms. Hyner remarked that, while working on the translation, she noticed
that Tallqvist "was at times puzzled himself by its meaning as he
frequently gave a word-for-word translation while only guessing at the
phrase's full implications in their context. Subsequently Tallqvist
marked these particular items with question marks."[6] This would seem
to compromise the argument that the Simon book contains authentic
Mesopotamian magick. "The Binding of the Evil Sorcerers" is a
translation of a translation made by a man who was not entirely sure
of the meaning of the original ancient text. And even this garbled
version is corrupted by elements that are totally fictional. "Another
Binding of the Sorcerers" found on pages 90-91 of the Simon book is
also translated into English from Tallqvist's German translation and
suffers from similar short comings.

All magickal elements in the Maqlu Series of tablets are counter
measures and defenses against magickal attack. The fanciful version
called "The MAKLU Text", as it appears in the Simon Necronomicon, also
contains several conjurations and exorcisms to be used against evil
spirits of all sorts, including "THE EXORCISM AGAINST AZAG-THOTH AND
HIS EMISSARIES" [7]. This would appear to be in direct conflict with
the sober warning on page liii of the introduction to the Simon
Necronomicon, which states, "there are no effective banishings for the
forces invoked in the NECRONOMICON itself." I should also point out
that these extraneous "exorcisms" are not found anywhere in the Maqlu
Series tablets, and are entirely the inventions of Simon's
imagination.

It is perhaps even more interesting to note what Simon didn't use from
the Maqlu Series than what he used. The Maqlu Series includes a
marathon ritual of astral travel or "star magick" in which the
ritualist travels into the heavens, where he identifies with, or
transforms into, a star in the night sky. Like all the rituals in the
Maqlu, its purpose was to protect against - or destroy - evil
sorcerers. The ceremony took place at the end of the month of Abu [8],
when spirits move freely between the underworld and this world, and
the living and the dead interact. It was a time when judgments could
be brought against evil sorcerers by heavenly and chthonic deities
alike. The exorcist, or incantation priest (ashipu), would lead the
ritualist in a kind of guided pathworking in which he would travel to
the heavens in the form of a star to ask the Gods of the night and the
Gods of the sky for assistance [9]. Simon ignored this when he devised
his "Gate Walking" initiation, preferring to concoct a series of
rituals based on Western Ceremonial magick that is totally alien to
Mesopotamian magick and cosmology [10].

Once again, the presence of a few scraps of quasi-authentic magickal
text does not constitute a magickal system or tradition. The way the
brief snatches of the Maqlu Series are presented in the Simon book is
misleading, and seems to at least partially conflict with the original
purpose of this ancient text, and the intent of the Mesopotamian sages
who wrote it so long ago.




Hail EnKi.

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Original post: New_york_city

http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/

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Original post: Brother Butterball

Hello New_york_city,

All of this is "very interesting,"
to quote Artie Johnson from Laugh In,
the old television show.

I was wondering how you view
the introductory ritual
in Simon's Necronomicon
Spellbook.

I like to call this ritual a gateway ritual,
because it presumably opens a spiritual
link with Marduk and the fifty names.

Has this particular ritual been translated
and was it derived from the Maqlu Text?

Regards,

Brother Butterball

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Original post: Suxur-Mash596

[QUOTE=us4-he2-gal2;291968] One thing I do need to add, is that the Necronomicon is a popular red herring, considered abhorrent in the Sumerological world, and only takes you farther away from Mesopotamian Magic.

cheers.[/QUOTE]

This is based on extensive use I assume? While I agree the Necronomicon tends to have a dubious nature due to the circumstances surrounding its creation, if one does take a deeper look at the MAKLU text there is legitamacy to it. Ive seen those incantations, exorcisms and bindings in other sources (deemed credible to the archeological types). Oh, and another thing, THEY WORK! To me, thats all that matters. Getting bogged up in technicalities can keep one from going into the trenches of being a practioner.

Keep in mind, Im not saying actual archeological findings arent of great importance and use. All Im saying is dont write certain sources off as BS if you have never used them for an extended and dedicated span of time.

us4-he2-gal2, I know you already ( my other name is Lord of Babylon), so I know what your style is. Just know my style isnt of academia, its of jumping into that sea and trying navigate those unknown waters thru experience rather than written material. How else you think the original material which people are trying unearth was created? I assume it was recieved straight from the source.

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Original post: Suxur-Mash596

New York City, Im with you in regards to the Necronomicon should NOT be the sole source of practicing this form of magick. In fact, one has to just see the book for what it is, a book. Its a inspiration to seek deeper wisdom. But it works. But it works best when used in conjunction with Qabalistic/Tree of Life material/knowledge. By that, I mean understanding the attributes and duties of the Celestial Gods of the 7 classical planets. Now concerning the 3 Great Watchers (Anu, Enlil and Enki) there is much material concerning Enlil and Master Enki in the various tablets in the form of the mythologies. But one must consider Enki and Enlils importance of climbing that Tree of Life (if one applies the Sumerian/Babylonian deities in place of the Qabalistic Sephiroth).

All Im saying is yes, there is ALOT more to be found out if one wants to accurately and most importantly effectively utilize the magick that IS contained within the Necronomicon and the will of the priest using it. One can deviate from the book (whatever book it is) so long as the devotion to Enki is maintained. Im not saying go off into unknown tangents, Im saying once you get to a certain point, its understood what the actual boundries that do exist for those who are to serve Master Enki. Once this is understood, its not a matter of finding the past, its about creating a future. The past does help mold the future, but it is NOT the future.

I have createde effective banishings from working with the 50 Names of Marduk. These are not in ANY book, yet they are effective. Why is that? Its because I used the knowledge contained to create, manifested from nothingness.

Its not bad to create the new, just as long as the old is respected:) And I do respect the old.