The signs on earth just as those in the sky give us signals.
Sky and earth both produce portents.
Though appearing separately, they are not separate
(becausesky and earth are related (.[1]
Babylonian Diviner’s Manual, c. 7th century BC
That wch is below is like that wch is above
& that wch is above is like yt wch is below
to do ye miracles of one only thing.
Hermetis Trismegisti (“Hermes the Thrice-Greatest”)
Tabula Smaragdina (The Emerald Tablet)
from كتاب سر الخليقة و صنعة الطبيعة أو كتاب العلل للحكيم بلنياس
(Book of Balinas the Wise on the Causes), c. 8th century AD
Sir Isaac Newton FRS PRS transl., c. 1680 AD (Keynes MS 28)
(If you have not yet done so, I urge you to read Part 1 of this series, before continuing with this Part 2.)
Let us take a leap back to the future from our summary introduction to banks, usury, and doublethink in the Roman Empire, with a visit to the ancient Mesopotamian empires.
To fully appreciate the esoteric influences in our ‘modern’ systems of philosophy, politics, religion and economics (but I repeat myself), we must come to see that our long and winding roads all lead back to Bābili(m) (Babylon: “Gate of God”, “Gate of the Gods”). Built “between the two rivers” Tigris and Euphrates, descending from the Creator’s legendary Garden of Eden (“Paradise”, “heaven on earth”) – the Mother’s Womb where some say all life was first born – feeding the waters of life into the fertile valley delta Δ of the Fertile Crescent – the “Cradle of Civilisation”.
Babylon in Fertile Valley delta; Iraq (32°32′11″N 44°25′15″E)
“Good is on the right, evil on the left,
but the supreme excellence is above both…”[2]
We must also come to see that it is all about sex, and ‘gendered’ war. More sex than you can imagine. Most cleverly concealed in a vast matrix of metaphysical allegories, metaphors, puns, euphemisms, colours, numbers, and symbols.
MAN-kind has never gotten over his deep-seated fear of the unknown, the mysterious, the changing, that which is beyond HIS *control* … as embodied in the lunar, and human female menstrual cycles.
There you go. I just summarised the past 5+ millennia of human history.
– @DerorCurrency (Colin McKay)
In order to better understand the hidden forces at work during the Roman Empire, in this and in subsequent essays we will closely examine the early development of these ‘magic’ systems of abstraction, manipulation, and concealment of information, knowledge and understanding by those “in the know”, and their weaponisation as tools of control over the majority who were, and are, not “in the know”.
“In the Knows”/nose – The Wizard of Oz
Perhaps the most important of these clever symbolic systems is hidden in plain sight. It is found in the very forms of the letters in our aleph-bets.
It is disguised in the combinations of those letters, and in the sounds that their forms re-present.
“Why is this script called Ashurit [A-shur-i]? Because it ascended with the Jewish people from Ashur when they returned from their exile in Babylonia.” (Sanhedrin 22a:2)
Its God-like power to create, to destroy, to transform reality, by manipulation and persuasion, is manifested by magicians in the art of evocative, enchanting, Mesmer-ising, spell-bindingly ‘sexy’ language (speech), and writing.
The supreme exemplar of this magic is he who attains the Philosopher’s ‘Stone’ – the alchemists’ Pow(d)er of Projection.
“Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur
in conformity with Will.”
– Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice
Know that all the souls come forth from supernal copulation [ziwwug elyon] from the drop of the five mercies and five strengths that are in the mind [da’at], as is known from the verse ‘And Adam knew his wife Eve’ (Gen. 4:1), for copulation is referred to as knowledge [yedi’ah] since the drop of the copulation [tippat ha-ziwwug] is drawn forth from the brain of the mind [moah ha-da’at].[3]
R. Ḥayyim Vital, Sha’ar ha-Pesuqim 3a (c. 1660 AD)
RABBI SIMEON answered and said: “The lower or passionate nature is always striving to imitate the actions of the higher, with this difference, that what is spiritual and pure it changes into the carnal and impure. The higher nature takes its origin from the right side of the sephirotic tree of life, but the lower from the left side, and is embodied in the female and becomes unified in it, as it is written, ‘His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me’ (Cant. ii. 6). Hitherto we have discoursed on a subject, exceedingly esoteric and unknown to ordinary minds, but now we will speak more clearly so that every one may comprehend and understand them.” On hearing this the student novitiates expressed their great desire to learn more of this mystery of sex.
Zohar [זֹהַר; lit. “Splendor,” “Radiance”] 49a, (c. 1300 AD)
Whether mainstream or alternative view, open or secret society, exoteric or esoteric doctrine, establishment or revolutionary power, beneath all it really is all about sex, and war. In one form or another.
“In the vigour of his age he married Gargamelle, daughter to the King of the Parpaillons, a jolly pug, and well-mouthed wench. These two did oftentimes do the two-backed beast together, joyfully rubbing and frotting their bacon ‘gainst one another.”
Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (c. 1532 AD)
Nothing has changed… in more than 5,000 years.
Or rather – if the carbon-dating of Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain and France (that we will de-mystify in Part 3) is correct – in more than 40,000 years.
It really is time that humanity got over its adolescent obsessions, grew up, and started behaving like an independent, balanced adult. With a higher purpose in life than merely the maximisation of pleasuring our Self.
But we digress.
In recent years we have seen a leading accounting scholar identify the dualist (or “binary”) Input-Output principle of double-entry accounting in Mesopotamia’s clay token / bullae “envelope” record-keeping system of the 4th millennium BC:
[The] ancient people of the Middle East had record keeping systems, the basic logical structure of which was virtually identical to that of modern double entry.[4]
Schmandt-Besserat, “The Earliest Precursors of Writing” (Scientific American. June 1977, Vol. 238, No. 6, p. 50-58.)
The prehistoric clay token accounting system gave birth, first to pictograms, and then, to cuneiform (“wedge”) writing:
SAG (“head”) sign
Stage 1: c. 3000 BC. Stage 2: c. 2800 BC. Stage 3: c. 2600 BC. Stage 4: contemporary to stage 3. Stage 5: late 3rd millennium. Stage 6: Old Assyrian, early 2nd millennium, as adopted into Hittite. Stage 7: as written by Assyrian scribes in the early 1st millennium, until the script’s extinction.
Cuneiform incorporated what later became known as the alchemists’ “Rebis”, or phonetic “rebus principle” (multivalency; multiple meanings or values for the same sign or sound, i.e., puns)…
Heinrich Nollius, Theoria Philosophiae Hermeticae, 1617. © Adam McLean 1997-2017 (alchemywebsite.com). Used with permission.
…and eventually gave rise to the proto aleph–bets (alphabets) of our modern languages.
It is also here, in Babylonia during the 19th–18th centuries BC, that we observe more evidence for the dualist gnōsis (esoteric, mystical “knowledge”) – the philosophical (or rather, theosophical) principle underpinning the dark arts of doublethink, double-entry accounting, and credebt-based usury intermediation.
It is found in the dark magic art of extispicy.
To the ancient Greeks, hepatomancy, and to the Romans, haruspicy.
The divination of omens.
By the examination of anomalies.
Lords of Time, forecasting the fortunes of future time.
In animal entrails.
Sheep livers, mostly.
(n.) secreting organ of the body, Old English lifer, from Proto-Germanic *librn.
Formerly believed to be the body’s blood-producing organ [Claudius Galen, c.129–200 AD]; in medieval times it rivaled the heart as the supposed seat of love and passion. Hence lily-livered, a white (that is, bloodless) liver being supposed a sign of cowardice…
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for yourselves; for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life.
Leviticus 17:11 (Complete Jewish Bible)
–––––––– SIDEBAR ––––––––
As with many biblical quotes, it is unlikely that ‘God’ ever said this to an Egyptian royal family adoptee named ‘Moses’. Even if so, there is a double meaning – an occult (“hidden”) reference to the female gamete (ovum, egg cell), “washed” from her body in conclusion of each monthly cycle, unless fertilised by the male spermatozoon. It is this “life in the blood” that alchemical magicians of the East and West have devised “silver-tongued” philosophistic ‘tricks’ to steal, both literally and analogically, in their pursuit of an “Elixir” of immortality, and the power of wealth, for millennia. The ovum is noteworthy for its Sun-like corona radiata. We will return to this in future, when we examine the Cabalists’ identification of the glans penis corona (“crown”) with the skull’s brain membrane as being female;[5] and, the alchemical ‘magic’ reversal of the natural “flow” of the male’s white “water of life”, whilst simultaneously stealing the female’s red “river of death”, containing her “life in the blood”. A circumcised tip for those who cannot wait: analogically contemplate the form and colour of the royal crowns of Upper (south) and Lower (north) Egypt: hedjet (white) and deshret (red). After reading the next few essays in this series, you may never accuse one seeming to play the fool of being a “dick head” ever again.
Les Vaisseaux d’Hermes: “The ‘Vessels’ / ‘Ships’ of Hermes”
–––––––– SIDEBAR ––––––––
Yes, seriously.
The theosophical, ‘magic’ operative principle of ‘modern’ double entry accounting-based financial credebt intermediation, as the means to make war, by deception, and the manipulation of desires (“La passion”), in order to extract ‘blood’ – life energy, life time; usury – from the many, for the gain of the few, is found in Old Babylonian divination of good or evil fortune, by the colour and position of liver defects.
Or, by the nature and position of foetal birth defects, known as Šumma Izbu.
Just coincidentally, this is also the true explanation for the ancient, purportedly biblical insistence of ‘Moses’ that only “unblemished”, “pure” creatures may be given to the priests at the Temple cult slaughtering yard of justice (Ḥēth ח, 8th Hebrew letter, from an Egyptian hieroglyph for “courtyard”).
Modern Tarot divination card systems often reverse
#8 Justice (Hod, left ‘foot’ of Cabalist “Adam Kadmon”)
and #11 Strength (Da’at דעת “Knowledge”,
the “hidden” emanation).
The essential interchangeability of forms, including letters
and numbers, is fundamental to Cabalist philosophy and theurgy
since at least the first two centuries A.D. (e.g., Sefer Yetzirah)
We will learn more on this when we examine
Jewish gnosticism.
If a creature is clearly dis-eased on external inspection, then its entrails are unreliable as ‘divine’ prophetic reading tablets. The “blemished”, “unclean” animal is thus disqualified automatically from being acceptable for the Temple cultists’ blood ‘sacrifice’ ritual, to cancel / “wash away” the guilt of your endless list of heinous sins.
Like getting your period, or having a wet dream.
This is also the true explanation for why, under the Law that was, allegedly, personally written by The Finger of the All-Wise, All-Knowing, All-Understanding, All-Loving, All-Merciful God – twice – and handed down directly to ‘Moses’ – in the deshret, shortly after he magically divided the Red Sea with his priest brother’s magic alternating flaccid-stiff serpent-‘rod’ – your heinous sin of being born with a defect “in the stones”, or being “wounded in the stones” later in life, automatically disqualifies you from being a tzitzit-wearing, foreskin-deprived male (and thus, fully human) member of the pure and holy Chosen People.
Should you be tempted to react with emotions of resistance, perhaps ranging from mirth to knee-jerk rejection, consider that elite-school experts still practice this today, if only out of scholarly curiosity; or possibly, to be uncharitable, out of passion for personal publicity –
Ancient Mesopotamian Sheep Liver Magic Predicted Trump’s Rise:
The army of the prince will go on a terrifying campaign.
An army will attack the prince in battle.
The god Adad will flood the enemy’s land, or there will be confusion amongst the enemy.
Whatever his circumstances, the gods will protect him.
The prince will not return from the campaign he embarked upon.
The king’s son or brother will flee.
His army will not reach its goal.
The days of the prince will be long.
Dogs will become rabid.
Although it’s tempting to read some of these lines as ominous reflections of the way the Trump campaign played out, these predictions seem vague and even contradictory. [Dr Selena] Wisnom [DPhil (Oxon), University of Cambridge] doubts that they were meant to be taken literally, though. Instead to get your yes-or-no answer, you were meant to tally the number of good or bad omens—and in this case, the numbers came up Trump.
It is no coincidence that the Hebrew bible (Tanakh) is replete with references to divination of the liver (lifer), practiced not only by Babylonian god-kings and other Mesopotamians (e.g., Philistines) but by the Hebrews as well:
Here is what Adonai says, your Redeemer,
he who formed you in the womb:
“I am Adonai, who makes all things,
who stretched out the heavens all alone,
who spread out the earth all by myself.
I frustrate false prophets and their omens,
I make fools of diviners,
I drive back the sages
and make their wisdom look silly.
“You, therefore, don’t listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, magicians or sorcerers, when they tell you that you won’t be subject to the king of [Babylon].”
For the king of [Babylon] is standing at the fork in the road, where the two roads separate, about to use divination — he is shaking the arrows, consulting the household gods, examining the liver.
Ezekiel 21:26(21) (Complete Jewish Bible)
And she bore him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bore
very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus,
full of various wiles…
And ready-witted Prometheus he [“wise Zeus”] bound
with inextricable bonds, cruel chains,
and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him
a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver;
but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as
the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day.
Hesiod (c. 700BC), Theogony (“birth of the gods”) 507-525.
Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
But I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave’s offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
Shakespeare, Hamlet (2.2.520, 550-554)
Go pricke thy face, and over-red thy feare,
Thou Lilly-liver’d Boy.
Shakespeare (1564–1616AD), Macbeth (5.3.10)
Do not laugh. The principles are perfectly rational. Provided that you never stop to contemplate the core assumptions. Just like doublethink, double-entry accounting, state-endorsed and -enforced, exclusively-privileged, covertly above-all-law corporate credebt-based currency intermediation, and “geometric progression” (i.e., infinite $ growth) on finite planet, consumption-driven capital-ism:
Ivan Starr [The Rituals of the Diviner, 1983] found that in extispicy an anomalous feature on the right or the left is related to an auspicious or inauspicious prognostication according to objective principles. The system reflects a familiar symbolic pattern. The right side of the exta pertains to the inquirer and is positive; the left side pertains to his enemy and is negative. In other words, the right constitutes the pars familiaris and the left the pars hostilis.[6]
A heads-up for any reader not paying careful attention to the details.
Where formerly, the good God (“Le bon Dieu est dans le détail”)[7] – and latterly, the Devil – is inclined to hide.
In the following illustrations, when (e.g.) a bad omen for the Inquirer is demonstrated, I have maintained consistency with the divinatory ground rule Right = Positive + , Left = Negative – , by changing the COLOUR of the Right-Left +/– “field” signs.
The LOCATION of the +/– signs (i.e., Right-Left, for Inquirer and Enemy) does not change.
In extispicy the right/left duality serves to polarize a single divinatory context, the exta, into a negative and positive divinatory field. The anomalous features observed were further classified in opposing pairs with positive and negative values. A favorable or unfavorable prognostication is the compounded product of two factors – the positive and negative aspect of the sign and the context against which it occurs. A light colored mark on the right was propitious. If it occurred on the left it represented a sign favourable to the enemy and the resulting omen was inauspicious.
Conversely, a dark colored mark on the right was inauspicious. A dark coloured mark on the left is a double negative. It is detrimental to the enemy and the resulting omen is favorable.[8]
The definitive interpretation attributed to the presence of a given mark in a given zone of a liver part can be obtained by the quasi-arithmetic combination of the positive/negative value of the mark and the positive/negative value of the zone where it occurs: a hole on the right side might portend death for the king, whereas a hole on the left might portend death for the king’s enemy.[9]
In this system we obviously find the reflection of a pervasive symbolic pattern and an orientation that lies at the core of much divinatory practice. When we observe the division of the body into right and left we observe the symmetry that divides the whole into equal halves and the asymmetry that gives one side the edge.[10]
A fundamental, artifice-ial, egoic asymmetry that modern financial and economic doctors of philosophistry refer to by an uninteresting, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” euphemism.
Net Interest Margin.
The difference between the rate of interest paid, and the rate of interest ‘earned’, by the banking Lords of Time.
The stronger right hand and by extension the right side commonly attracts a wide array of positive associations. It is considered to be auspicious and it stands for a variety of positive moral and religious values such as justice, rectitude and purity. The left symbolizes antithetical values and stands for the inauspicious, the sinister, and the impure. The right often represents aspects of reality that can be clearly understood; it articulates what is unambiguous, certain and verifiable. The left can express perceptions more difficult to penetrate. It evokes the shady, the unstable, the mutable – the imaginative.[11]
We might note in passing that these ancient yet perennial associations of Right-Left dualism appear to be contradicted by modern scientific analysis, in one key area. Our brain activity. It is the left hemisphere that neurologists associate with logic, intellect, analytical thought (the ‘light’ of ‘reason’), and the right that is associated with the ‘shady’, ‘unstable’, ‘mutable’ aspects – emotion, imagination, intuition, creativity; the alleged ‘chaos’ of femininity.
In other words, it appears that, when it comes to R-L spatial attribution of the supposed ‘origins’ of human behaviour, the Babylonian dualist divination and philosophical system core assumptions are the exact opposite of scientifically measured reality.
Thus, they, and their philosophical descendants, also have the overarching binary classification categories – “dark” versus “light” – exactly inverted.
The Babylonian “I” – Mr. Intellect, Knowledge, Logic and Reason – assumed to be ‘Good’, is not on the right; he is on the left.
The assumed Evil ‘chaos’, and “enemy” of the Babylonian “I” – Mrs Intuition, Emotion, Holistic Thought, Imagination and Creativity – is not on the left; she is on the right.
In Šumma izbu the opposition right/left in the protasis is reflected in the apodosis as follows: opposition of subjects, opposition of verbal predicates, opposition “ego” vs “enemy”, opposition expressed by symmetrical inversion of syntactical structures, semantic opposition without syntactical symmetry.[12]
It hardly requires a rocket scientist then, to extrapolate the rather obvious conclusion, regarding which side’s characteristic behaviour or fundamental Strengths should represent the Good, and which should represent the Evil … if viewed purely in isolation, rather than holistically; (i.e.), a Balanced view.
But we digress, from the ‘art’ of divining sheep livers.
This ‘magic’ duality system gets more complicated. At least, it appears to do so:
Does this system exist in any other form of Mesopotamian divination? Consistent patterns related to right and left also occur in Šumma Izbu [teratomancy: observation of malformed animal foetuses – CM], but at first glance the pattern appears to be reversed.[13]
Again, we note in passing the remarkable parallels with Roman-era rabbinic analyses of malformed human foetuses, miscarriage emissions, and menstrual blood. In the Babylonian Talmud (e.g., Niddah 19a through 26a), their shape (“form”), consistency, and colour – all corresponding to Old Babylonian divination and to the primary alchemical colours: red, white, black and (yellow-)green[14] – are the subject of detailed analysis and debate by Babylon-resident rabbinic “sages”.
The supposed purpose? In order to determine which of the binary categories “clean” (Good) or “unclean” (Evil) a woman should be classified as – and in consequence, subjected to or relieved from the punishments of ostracism, and economic penalty – by ‘reason’ of all that may emerge from her fertile delta.
Rabbi examined blood in the light of a lamp. R.[abbi] Ishmael son of R. Joseph examined it even on a cloudy day between the pillars. R. Ammi b. Samuel ruled: All kinds of blood must be examined only between the sunlight and the shade. R. Nahman citing Rabbah b. Abbuha ruled: The examination may be performed in the sunlight under the shadow of one’s hand.
‘ONE LIKE DILUTED WINE’? TWO PARTS etc. A Tanna taught:
Sharon wine [diluted] is regarded as the Carmel wine in its natural undiluted state when it is new. R. Isaac b. Abudemi ruled: All these must be examined only in a plain Tiberian cup. What is the reason? — Abaye replied: Generally a cup that contains a log is made of a maneh {100 zuz} and one that contains two log is made of two hundred zuz, but the plain Tiberian cup, even if it contains two log, is made of one maneh, and since it is so thin [the colour of the wine can] be recognized better [than in any other kind of cup].
Babylonian Talmud (Niddah 20b-21a)
One hopes the significance of the card number is not lost on any fertile ladies reading. Gentlemen may have some catching up to do. Fear not, as Part 3 explains all. And offers some big surprises.
R. Johanan remarked: The wisdom of R. Hanina caused me not to examine any blood, for when I declared any unclean he declared it clean and when I declared it clean he declared it unclean. [..] R. Zera remarked: The Babylonian coinage was the cause of my refusing to examine blood; for I thought: If I do not understand the coinage system would I understand the nature of blood? This then implies that capability to examine blood depends on an understanding of the coinage; but did not Rabbah in fact understand the coinage system and yet did not understand the qualities of blood?
Babylonian Talmud (Niddah 20b)
This great obsession of the rabbinic “sages” with female cycles, and their curious association of menstrual emissions with money, also sheds light on the story of Jesus (c.30–33 AD), and his healing of the woman suffering from an “issue” of blood, merely by virtue of her touching the tassles on the hem of his holy garment, with a heart full of faith:
And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians,[a] she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter[b] said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Luke 8:43-48 (ESV), cf. Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34
We can only presume that Jesus, the poverty-embracing, debt Jubilee-proclaiming activist who had “no place to lay his head,” nevertheless somehow obtained tzitzit dyed with the rabbinically-prescribed, rare, Roman elite-restricted, more expensive than gold, 6,6′-dibromoindigo magic light-transformed dye – turning Tyrian “Royal” Purple if processed in the dark, or as-above-so-below, night sea-and-sky[15] Cabalist coal-fired flame[16] indigo blue if processed in sun light – made from the foul fishy-smelling secretions of “unclean” predatory sea snails with shell forms remarkably reminiscent of human female genitalia, and did not take the intelligent and wise approach of using perfect colour copies made from inexpensive, rabbinically-forbidden indigo vegetable dye, or else the magic may not have worked.
Rabbi Simeon said … Whoever wishes to understand the mystery of union with the Divine will do well to reflect and meditate upon the flame proceeding from a lighted candle or a burning coal, in which may be recognized two kinds of flame or light, one white and the other dark or bluish in color. The white flame ascends upwards in a straight line, the dark or blue part of the flame, being below it and forming its basis. Though these be conjoined together, the white flame is always seen clearly and distinctly, and of the two is the most valuable and precious. From these observations we may gather somewhat of the occult meaning of the thekheloth (blue fringes) mentioned in scripture. The dark or blue flame is connected and conjoined with that above it, namely, the white, and also below it with the candle or coal in a state of combustion. It becomes sometimes red, whilst the superior white flame never varies in color and remains invariably the same. Furthermore, it is noticeable that the dark or blue flame consumes and wastes the substance of the coal or candle whence it emanates, but the white pure light consumes nothing and never varies. Therefore, when Moses proclaimed the Lord to be a consuming fire [Deut. 4:24], he alludes to the astral fluid or flame that consumes everything similar to the dark flame that wastes and destroys the substance of the candle or coal.
Zohar (1:50b-51a).
Siebmacher, Wasserstein der Weysen, 1704. © Adam McLean 1997-2017 (alchemywebsite.com). Used with permission.
On the other hand, maybe Jesus did use a cheap organic compound to counterfeit the rabbis’ (or rather, Rome’s) exclusive purple/blue dye, and so that is why the magic worked.
A profound metaphor there, regarding credebt, usury extraction, and exclusively-privileged, money and monthly time cycle ‘doctors’, for those with eyes to see. A touch of mystical in-sight helps.
But again we digress from our main topic – divination of future fortunes, by ‘reading’ the entrails.
And the malformed abortions, or indeed, live births (Šumma Izbu: “If a malformed foetus”) :
A comprehensive analysis of the protases of Šumma Izbu and of their sequential arrangement reveals that in general the descriptions of the malformations fall into five categories:
A) Malformations resembling animal features
B) Absence of body parts
C) Deformed or incomplete body parts
D) Misplacement of body parts
E) Presence of excess body parts
For a given body part these types of malformations tend to be treated in sequence. [..] It should be emphasized that while it is known that malformed births were actually observed, the full range of malformations mentioned in the series .. includes physically impossible phenomena…
[T]he classification of malformations according to the binary opposition right/left is by the far most important and pervasive structuring feature in the series. [..] In addition to the dichotomy right/left, other common oppositions in the series include examples of spatial (above/below, front/rear, inside/outside) and qualitative (large/small, long/short) oppositions (as well as complementary pairs such as male/female, dead/alive, normal/abnormal), some of which can be combined with the opposition right/left in larger classification groups.. .
The corresponding apodoses fall into the opposing categories of favourable/unfavourable predictions, thus combining themselves with the protases to form pairs of omens based on a structure of symmetric oppositions. While this organizational principle is in evidence in all divinatory disciplines, in Šumma Izbu a malformation on the right side (normally the pars familiaris) is considered negative, a malformation on the left (normally the pars hostilis), positive. This is owed to the context of the observation: a malformation being eo ipso a negative sign, the normal meaning of the opposition right (“favourable”) / left (“unfavourable”) is inverted.[17]
Confused?
Cannot see how there is consistency of organising principle between Right = Good, Left = Evil (livers), and Right = Evil, Left = Good (foetuses)?
One must simply pay close attention to the difference in the details. The core assumptions, and the context:
It has been observed over and over that cultures express right/left symbolism consistently, although the values symbolized obviously vary [Hertz 1909, Needham 1973]. If one proposes the not so daring hypothesis that right/left symbolism is consistent in Mesopotamian divination and that a general system of interpretation is based on it, then the apparent discrepancy in Šumma Izbu must be resolved. [..] In a divinatory procedure which judges physical malformations to be either auspicious or inauspicious a defect on the right is bound to be considered threatening and conversely, a defect on the left, which leaves the right side unaffected, must be the auspicious component.
In the following omens one can see the standard right/left symbolic associations operating in spite of the superficial transposition:
“If an anomaly has no right ear – the reign of the king will come to an end; his palace will be scattered; overthrow of the elders of the city; the king will have no advisors; the mood of the land will change; the herds of the land will decrease; you will make a promise to the enemy.”
“If an anomaly has no left ear – the god has heard the prayer of the king, the king will take the land of his enemy, the palace of the enemy will be scattered, the enemy will have no advisors, you will decrease the herd of the enemy, he will make a promise to you.”[18]
It is interesting to observe that the act of making a promise is always considered a negative omen, for the person who is pre-destined to make it. Perfectly logical, really. It means that they are pre-destined to be in their enemy’s debt.
The system where double occurrences transform the prediction can also be explained. Double occurrences are based on additional features and augment the strength of the side on which they occur.[19]
Some examples:
“if a woman gives birth and (the foetus) has two ears on the right and none on the left – the gods (who were) angry will return to the land and the land will live in peace”
“if a woman gives birth and (the foetus) has two ears on the left and none on the right – the advice of the land will be unheeded”
“if a malformed foetus has a second ear inside its right ear – the prince will have advisers”
“if a malformed foetus has a second ear inside its left ear – the advisers of the prince will advise him badly”[20]
Thus a consistent principle of divinatory interpretation underlies both extispicy and Šumma Izbu. It is based on the analogical association of pairs of opposites, whose positive and negative values are well established. This consistent symbolic pattern reveals the binary nature of divination, in general, but does little by itself to elucidate the deeper imaginative patterns. The value of right/left symbolism lies neither in the validity nor consistency of its occurrence, but rather when the patterns are unexpectedly reversed.
In the omen series Šumma Alu, transposition of right/left occurs frequently. In general it is an auspicious omen when an animal crosses from the right to the left.
“If a snake crosses from the right of a man to the left of a man – he will have a good name.”
“If a snake crosses from the left of a man to the right of a man – he will have a bad name.”
“If a man starts out on an undertaking and a falcon crosses from the man’s right to the man’s left – his undertaking will be successful.”
However, when a man sees a crow on the right at the start of a journey, the journey will not achieve its goals. Because of this we are able to determine that the crow has a negative symbolic value as an ominous sign:
“If a man starts out on an undertaking and a crow hovers and caws on the man’s left – he will go where he is established, he will enjoy profit.”
“If a man starts a journey and a crow hovers on the right and caws – that man will not go where he is established, he will be unhappy.”
Reversals of right/left symbolism become an interpretive tool when they simply open our eyes to broader imaginative patterns. The sleep omens of Šumma Alu begin with omens based on the position of the sleeper. If he sleeps on his right side, it is inauspicious.
The unexpected reversal catches our attention and points to a larger pattern. Laughing in one’s sleep brings sadness. Muttering insults while asleep brings an outpouring of friendliness. If one speaks pleasant words, however, his days will be short. The whole tablet comes into focus: sleep is portrayed as the mirror world of waking.
The interpretation of sleep and the dream-world – the unconscious mind – as being the mirror (exact opposite) of waking, is depicted identically in the Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot), the Zohar (c. 1300 AD), and in Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). It is not only double-entry bookkeeping, bank credebt creation, and ‘Orwellian’ doublethink; the fundamental principles of ‘modern’ psychoanalysis too, are identical to Old Babylonian divination, and to Jewish mysticism and magic (see here).
Significant information derives from the reversals, but only by first establishing a consistent system are we able to apprehend their internal logic. The system thus established provides a solid, stable context against which the imaginative patterns work. The mutations of this system show that in many ways divination is left-handed truth.”[21]
The fundamental ‘logic’ or operative principles of double entry bookkeeping – and thus, 97% of bookkeeping credebt entry-based ‘money’, so-called ‘modern’ ‘sophisticated’ finance, and economics – is also “left-handed truth.”
As we have seen in earlier essays (e.g., here, here, here, here, here), it functions in precisely the same way, in service of the same male Ego-driven, hedonistic (i.e., pleasure-maximising), selfish ends.
However, in order to really ram (pun intended) the point home that double-entry principles are identical to Old Babylonian divinatory ‘magic’, here is a further illustration, in express context of ‘divining’ sheep livers, malformed foetuses, and snakes/birds/beasts appearing beside or crossing over one’s path:
Incidentally, we note in passing that this illustration highlights again – at least for yours truly – the failure of most modern economists to (a) think for themselves, and (b) do their job thoroughly, with intellectual honesty. Rarely, if ever, do economists imagining themselves to be modelling economic actions – including those using double entry bookkeeping to do so – take into consideration that every action has more than one, often un-equal and opposite reaction. There are both internal, and external, asymmetric ‘mirror’ reflections of every economic act, by every human being. Impacting on an-Other/s, and on Mother Nature. That is reality. Whether recorded, at all (much less correctly, by and for all affected parties), or not.
The reason why economists have such limited success in predicting the future, is because their academic discipline is based on fundamental principles that are identical to, and thus no more intelligent and rational than the divination of sheep livers, in order to analyse a system (the financialised economy) that is itself based on fundamental principles that are identical to, and thus no more intelligent and rational than the divination of sheep livers.
In concluding our review of Old Babylonian divination as being the theosophical ‘magic’ organising principle that ‘modern’ accounting, finance, and all post-Middle Ages economic theories are based on – particularly neoclassical economic ‘equilibrium’ “Greed is Good” theory, the core ‘rational’-isation for the fiscal and social policies of neoliberalism and globalist “free markets” – there is one further topic of note.
It has profound relevance for our essay series’ titular subject – banks, usury, and doublethink in the Roman Empire. The context is the Cabalist ‘magic’ system of gnōsis. Mystical “knowing”, or “knowledge”.
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.”
Genesis 4:1 (ESV)
The man had sexual relations with Havah his wife; she conceived, gave birth to Kayin [acquisition] and said, “I have acquired a man from Adonai.”
Genesis 4:1 (Complete Jewish Bible)
That topic is animal symbolism:
The symbolic values attributed to animal-like features draws on culturally conditioned notions that can also be observed in other genres of cuneiform literature. Here we just give a few examples:
Lion → the king, royal power and military strength
“if a woman gives birth (and the foetus) has the ear of a lion – there will be a strong king in the land”
“if a malformed foetus has the head of a lion – the prince will seize universal kingship”
[if] a malformed foetus has the eyes of a lion – the prince will have no rival”
Wolf → pestilence, discord and strife
“if a woman gives birth and (the foetus) has the head of a wolf – there will be massacres in the land”
“if a ewe gives birth to a wolf – there will be a plague in the country; madness; catastrophe for the land; disease of the herds”[22]
“if a goat gives birth to a wolf – pestilence (lit. “the god will consume”)”
Dog → pestilence, discord and strife
“if a woman gives birth to a dog – the owner of the house will die and his house will be scattered; the opinion of the land will change; pestilence (lit. “the god will consume”)”
“if a ewe gives birth to a lion and it has the face of a dog – (lit. “Nergal will consume”)”
“if a sow [pig] gives birth to a dog – there will be strife in the land”[23]
As we will discover in future parts to this series, “all Jewish spheres – the prayer book, the Talmud, and Jewish philosophy,” being rooted in “the official theology” of Cabala,[24] and derived from “old Chaldea” (Babylonia), are identically rational.
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Am reminded of hypothesis that leaped to mind recently, while reading an interdisciplinary academic study on several key cultures of antiquity, still having deep influence today. Rather interesting to contemplate, compare those which venerate(d) dogs, versus those vilifying them.
– @DerorCurrency (Colin McKay)
– dogs ♥
– @Koksalakn (Köksal Akın)
כֶּלֶב keleb, keh’-leb; from an unused root means. to yelp, or else to attack; a dog; hence (by euphemism) a male prostitute:—dog.
Outline of Biblical Usage
I. dog
A. dog (literal)
B. contempt or abasement (fig.)
C. of pagan sacrifice
D. of male cult prostitute (fig.)
Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon
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REFERENCES
[1] Oppenheim, A.L., A Babylonian Diviner’s Manual, JNES Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr. 1974), 197-220
[2] Constant, A.L., Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual (A.E. Waite transl.), George Redway: London (1896), p.46
[3] Wolfson, E.R., Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination, Fordham University Press: New York (2005), p.549 fn. 58 cit. Ḥayyim Vital Sha’ar ha-Pesuqim, 3a (online, retrieved 22 Jan 2018)
cf. Kosher Torah School (online, archived from original, retrieved Feb 2, 2019) – “Sha’ar HaPesukim, Ezekiel, Secret of Cain Souls, Lesson 3 – Souls from the “head” of Cain, and those from the “feet.” Source of the souls of Hezekiah, King of Judah, and of Ezekiel the prophet, himself. Secret of the reversal of Gevurot and Hasidim, secret of the reversal of the Levites and the Kohanim. Secret of the rectification and the reversal to the true order in the days of the Third Temple. Secret of the Kohanim Levites, sons of Tzadok. Secrets of reincarnation and rectification. Summary of Rabbi Ḥayim Vital’s profound vision of the secret reality of human souls.”
[4] Mattessich, R., Accounting and the Input-Output Principle in the Prehistoric and Ancient World, ABACUS, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1989, p. 81 — “The significance of the input—output principle for double entry accounting is well recognized in the literature. For example; ‘The writer wishes to emphasize the merit that comes from understanding a double entry bookkeeping as an input-output system of data calculating the amount of capital charged’ (Kishi, 1984, p. 359).” (p. 77, fn 7)
[5] Wolfson, E.R., Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination, Fordham University Press: New York (2005), pp. 76, 133, 137, 184, 739 (online, retrieved 22 Jan 2018) –
To be more precise, the dimension of God that is, paradoxically, present in its absence is the corona of the phallus (ateret yesod). So prevalent is this idea, what I would call the ground concept of the tradition, that I could easily fill a chapter citing pertinent passages that illustrate the point.. . [..] Yesod itself is composed of male and female in the secret of the phallus [yesod] and the corona [atarah] that is in him. Yesod thus exemplifies a dual nature: it is disclosed as the locus of concealment, a disclosure, perforce, that preserves the concealment of what is disclosed.
The phallic gradation of the divine embodies what I have termed ‘hermeneutical duplicity’ – for the secret to be secretive, it must be hidden in its exposure, exposed in its being hidden. The duplicity is engendered by Kabbalists in a hierarchical way that we would expect from an andocentric and at times misogynistic culture: hiddenness, the more inward and consequently more valuable, is rendered as masculine, and exposure, the more outward and consequently less valuable, as feminine. But how is the phallus engendered as both male and female? The male is the shaft of the penis (yesod) and the female the corona (atarah). As Isaac of Acre articulates the matter, “You already know the secret of circumcison [sod ha-milah] alludes to Saddiq . . . and the corona that is revealed through the excision of the foreskin alludes to Atarah.” The identification of the corona .. as the locus of contemplative envisioning can be well expressed by the Lacanian dialectic of the signifier that is veiled in the unveiling of the veil, that is, the object of mystical vision is the phallic sign manifest in the exposure of its hiddenness. [my bold emphasis added – CM]
[6] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), p.5
[7] Bartlett, J., Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature, 17th ed. (2002)
[8] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), pp.6-7
[9] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), p.54
[10] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), p.7
[12] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), p.52, n.38 (cf. Starr 1983, 6.)
[13] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), p.6
[14] Pearce, L.E., Secret, Sacred and Secular – Mesopotamian Intertextuality (CSMSJ 1, 2006), p.13
[15] Sagiv, G., Dazzling Blue: Color Symbolism, Kabbalistic Myth, and the Evil Eye in Judaism (Numen 64 (2017) 183-208) –
The Talmud asserts that tekhelet is special among all colors, basing this opinion on a chain of homologies (Herzog 1987: 87–88; Scholem 1979: 90 n. 11), such as the following version of the Palestinian Talmud: “tekhelet is like the sea and the sea the grass, and the grass the firmament, and the firmament the throne of glory and the throne of glory is like the sapphire” (y. Berakhot I.2). This chain of homologies seems to be leading the worshipper from the tekhelet thread, through the sea, to the divine, thereby imbuing tekhelet with mystical significances. However, it should be noted that the word tekhelet can refer to various shades of blue. Just as tekhelet can be the color of a daylight sky, it can also be the color of the sky at night. In contradistinction to the spiritual promise of tekhelet, there are sources that introduce threatening aspects to this color. One characteristic of tekhelet, which has its origins in the first centuries CE, associates the word tekhelet/ תכלת with the Hebrew roots klh/ כלה (denoting annihilation) and škl/ שׁכּל (denoting bereavement). Hence, tekhelet is an end, and sometimes even a divine power of destruction and death.7 In a similar vein, according to one Talmudic source, “all colors bode well in a dream except the color tekhelet” (b. Berakhot 57b).
(pp. 186-187; fn.7 “Sifre to Numbers associates tekhelet with the annihilation of the elder sons of the Egyptians and the sinking of the Egyptian soldiers in the sea (Neusner 1986: 178). The Onkelos translation of the Bible into Aramaic translates the Hebrew root of bereavement ( שכל ) as .תכל”)
[16] Blumenthal, D.R., Three is Not Enough: Jewish Reflections on Trinitarian Thinking (first published in Ethical Monotheism, Past and Present: Essays in Honor of Wendell S. Dietrich, ed. T. Vial and M. Hadley (Providence, RI, Brown Judaic Studies: 2001) 181-95), citing Zohar 1:50b-51b, modified from F. Lachower and I. Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, transl. D. Goldstein (Oxford, The Littman Library and Oxford University Press: 1989) 1:319-20. (online, retrieved 12 December 2018) –
Rabbi Simeon began by saying: There are two verses [that contradict one another]. It is written, “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24) and it is also written, “And you who cleave to the Lord your God are alive, all of you, to-day” (Deuteronomy 4:4). We have reconciled these verses in several places, but the [mystical] companions have a [deeper] understanding of them…. Whoever wishes to understand the wisdom of the holy unification, let him look at the flame that rises from a glowing coal, or from a burning lamp, for the flame rises only when it takes hold of some coarse matter.
Come and see. In the rising flame there are two lights: one is a radiant white light and one is a light that contains black or blue. The white light is above and it ascends in a direct line. Beneath it is the blue or black light and it is a throne for the white. The white light rests upon it and they are connected together, forming one whole. The black light, [that which has] blue color, is the throne of glory for the white. And this is the mystic significance of the blue.
This blue-black throne is joined to something else, below it, so that it can burn and this stimulates it to grasp the white light…. This [blue-black light] is connected on two sides. It is connected above to the white light and it is connected below to what is beneath it, to what has been prepared for it so that it might illuminate and grasp [that which is above it].
This [blue-black light] devours continuously and consumes whatever is placed beneath it; for the blue light consumes and devours whatever is attached to it below, whatever it rests upon, since it is its habit to consume and devour. Indeed, the destruction of all, the death of all, depends upon it and therefore it devours whatever is attached to it below. [But] the white light which rests upon it does not devour or consume at all, and its light does not change. Concerning this, Moses said, “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire,” really devouring, devouring and consuming whatever rests beneath it…
The Zohar begins this passage in classical midrashic style by showing a contradiction between two verses, one of which speaks of God as a consuming fire while the other advocates cleaving to God. It, then, goes on to draw an analogy to the common flame which is attached to a dark coal, which it must consume in order to burn. The flame itself is composed of two parts — a blue-black center, which is attached to the wick or coal, and a white periphery which encompasses and rises above the blue-black center.
In this passage, the Zohar depicts the central sefira which is Tiferet as the white part of the flame. It rests upon the sefira which is the point of contact with creation, Malkhut, here depicted as the blue-black part of the flame. At the end of this passage, the Zohar calls attention to the invisible part of the flame — the zone of invisible heat which surrounds every fire — and interprets it as Keter (God’s ultimate ineffability).
Finally, the Zohar notes that the blue-black part of the flame, Malkhut (God’s ruling ability), consumes the coal or wick to which it is attached. The coal and wick are material; they depict creation, particularly humanity.
Above the white light rests a concealed light which encompasses it. Here is a supernal mystery and you will find all in the ascending flame. The wisdom of the upper realms is in it.
[17] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), pp.46-48, 52-53
[18] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), pp.7-8
[20] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), p.53
[21] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), pp.8-10
[22] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), pp.61-62
[24] Jewish Mysticism, Aleph Society Inc. (online, archived after original, retrieved 1 Feb 2019)
The vain cultivated the color purple.
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PSALMISTICE 