Enheduanna Quotes

Now any King who wants to call himself my equal wherever I went let him go." Sargon the Great / Enheduanna from Heaven Earth and Time by D P BUCKLEY

I, who am I among living creatures?

With your strength, my lady, teeth can crush flint.

Remembering Enheduanna, who signed her name to her writing, I reopened the books and signed mine: Ana. Not Ana, daughter of Matthias, or Ana, wife of Jesus. Just Ana.

I am En-hedu-ana, the high priestess of the moon god Sin; I am the consort of Nanna. In my body dwells the spirit of Holy Inanna. Holy Inanna, daughter of the moon god Sin, daughter of the moon god Nanna. As it was with Holy Inanna, so the high priestess of the moon god Sin is also the daughter of the moon god Nanna. The brilliant radiance of Holy Inanna is upon me!

Throughout our lives we are confronted with what seems like a never-ending task: trying to grasp the full scope of reality. As children, we adapt to circumstances by using the psychological defenses available to us. As we mature, we have to confront the defensive illusions we have constructed. If our psyches can tolerate the loss, we continue to let in more and more of human nature's reality: its dark and shadowy aspects, its limitations, and finally, recognition of the fragility of our brief sojourn on this planet. Psychological maturity involves the ongoing process of integrating into our conscious, everyday selves the full range of elements that make up the psyche inside us as well as those elements that make up the world that surrounds us. Inevitably what we must face is a mixture of our motives and deeds, and the similar paradox in others.

the walls came alive with brightly hued paintings of ibis-headed men and lion-headed women. We moved along a dazzling corridor covered with Gods, Goddesses, solar disks, and all-seeing eyes. There were boats, birds, chariots, harps, plows, and rainbow wings—thousands of glyphs. I had the sensation of floating through a storied world. When we arrived in the first hall, I could barely take in the sprawling room with its cubicles reaching toward the ceiling, each one labeled and stuffed with scrolls and leather-bound codices. Enheduanna’s exaltation to Inanna was likely in here, as well as at least a few works by female Greek philosophers. It seemed absurd to think my own writings might be housed here one day, too, but I stood there and let myself imagine it. As we moved from hall to hall, I became aware of young men in short white tunics dashing about, some carrying armloads of papyri, others on ladders arranging scrolls in cubicles or dusting them with tufts of feathers. I noticed that Lavi watched them intently. “You are very quiet,” Yaltha said, sidling next to me. “Is the library all you hoped?” “It’s a holy of holies,” I said. And it was, but I could feel the tiny lump of anger tucked beneath my awe. A half million scrolls and codices were within these walls, and all but a handful were by men. They had written the known world.

Emotion is the trace of an activated archetypal pattern. Emotion is the repository of the archaic landscape within each individual. Emotion is the labile, volatile, energetic force linking chaos and order in the psyche. Riding on emotion, a person can go back in time and visit a primordial landscape, untouched by cultural influences. Transported by emotion we make all the stops along the full continuum of our psychological vista. At one end of the continuum we are best by overwhelming primitive rage or terror or longing. At the other end, we experience a calm peace or the satisfaction of everyday accomplishment. The palpable difference in each of these locations is the quality of the emotion.

Inanna was the only Mesopotamian deity whose character so prominently included contradictions... In her actions, Inanna exhibits both benevolent light and threatening dark. Her violence and destructiveness go beyond the boundaries of tolerable human behavior. She carries light and dark to their extremes. Inanna's immense popularity in antiquity must be related in part to the fact that she could reflect not only the best in human nature, but she could also exhibit what is abhorrent, unpleasant, dirty, sinful, terrifying, abnormal, perverse, obsessive, murderous, mad and violent. Inanna is a mirror of what Jung called ¨the abysmal contracictions of human nature.¨ She shows us our oppositions in sharp relief. She is a divine manifestation of the ultimate conjunction of opposites, displaying for humankind its contradictory nature.

In so far as a story of the world can have a beginning, let it begin with Enheduanna , the first named poet.

Sargon himself seems to have worshipped Sumerian gods—his patron goddess was Inanna, and his daughter Enheduanna

Four thousand years ago, Enheduanna was at the height of her splendour when a raider invading the empire attacked her city, seized her and evidently raped her. Not only did she survive but she was restored to power – and recovered by writing about her ordeal. Enheduanna was the first woman whose words we can hear, the first named author, male or female, the first victim of sexual abuse who wrote about her experiences, and a female member of the first dynasty whom we can know as individuals. She was as privileged as you can get in the 2200s BC – a princess of the Akkadian empire (based in Iraq), high priestess of the moon goddess and favourite daughter of the first conqueror that we know of: Sargon. But like every empire, it all depended on power and violence – and when the empire tottered it was she, a woman, who endured that downfall in the form of sexual violence.

Her responsibilities included not only those symbolic and administrative functions one would expect of a religious figurehead, but also overseeing and expansion of the astronomical structures of the empire’s observatory network.

Bright one of the heavens, wise Ishtar, Mistress of the gods, whose "yes" is indeed yes, Proud one among the gods, whose command is supreme, Mu-tal-la-at DINGIR.MEŠ shá qí-bit-sa se-rat Ishtar, at your name all lords are bowed down. I, _____ son of ____ have bowed down before you.

Enheduanna begged: “Precious Queen / Rekindle for me / your holy heart.

Your princess, the silencing princess, the true and great lady of Heaven -- when she talks Heaven trembles, when she opens her mouth there is devastation.

The personal god was not one of the great gods of the Babylonian pantheon, not even the god invoked in one s personal name, but a protective supernatural spirit who like a guardian angel (the customary translation of lamassu guided his protégé through life..... Since one's 'own god' was thought to be intimately associated with the person, any illness or misfortune he experienced as a result of malevolent influences or of ‘sin’ also affected his god.

This deity is usually not named and is referred to by the worshipper as ‘my god’ or ‘my goddess’: apparently it could be a deity of either sex…This unidentified deity acted as a protective influence who watched over the life of the individual. Reference is often made to a person’s ‘god (ilu) and goddess (istaru)’. Sometimes it is said of the personal deity that he ‘created’ the individual who is under his protection. Possibly the name of the deity was known to the individual but was omitted in normal speech, since occasionally a deity is named,…The idea of a benevolent god is close to that of the benevolent sedu (male) or lamassu (female), anthropomorphic beings who accompanied people…In one text the personal god is responsible for sending such beings as agents of his protection….Clearly it was important to placate the personal god or goddess, who might be offended in all sorts of ways, deliberately or unintentionally. It was often said of an unlucky person that ‘his god left him..

The Priest is able to write these words in the air, or mind and clay, earth, or heart and thereby gain success by remembering the formulae and being in submission to the chthonic mind, also known as the deities.” The reader may note that in other writings it has been mentioned that the “chthonic mind” once awakened acts independently from the conscious and subconscious mind. This innermost part of our being is what the ancient Mesopotamian recognized as his personal god.

They have performed rituals on me secretly, I perform rituals on them openly!

Soon after Zecharia Sitchin’s books became more widespread the quality of ancient Mesopo-tamian theology became perverted by the likes of new agers, ufologists, and occultists who lacked true initiation. The results were deplorable. The Western mind has to come to terms with seeing some flaws in their own thinking process before interpreting the spiritual history of an indigenous people. Suddenly the ancient Mesopotamian deities were transformed into aliens,

The Mesopotamians, like other ancient oriental cultures, classified disease and sickness as evil spirits. This was not due to superstition, as many Westerners would like us to believe, but a description of the said ailment and its quality. The reason that we have inserted this topic into our discussion is for the benefit of all who would like to pursue ancient Mesopotamian spirituality as a path. Imagine if the people of Mesopotamia classified a certain disease as an evil spirit, and the Western mind of today insists that this “evil spirit” was just an ancient god. This misconception leaves the dark occultist with the idea of building an altar for this spirit, chanting its name, and dedicating its life to this “evil god.” Now imagine if this evil spirit was actually the name of what the ancient Mesopotamians considered to be tuberculosis by modern physicians. It would be no surprise that our occult practitioner has fallen victim to this disease and his fortune has turned bad. Unfortunately, situations like this have occurred.

Samas is before me, Sin is behind [me], Nergal is at [my] right hand, Ninib is at my left hand

Introduction Sumerian literature comprises one of the oldest collections of written documents in the world. Like other bodies of mythology created by myriad cultures, the Sumerian corpus contains stories explaining the origins of the world, myths of the deeds and foibles of all-too-human deities and semi-divine beings, tales of magic and miracles, and epics detailing the mighty exploits of heroes who by their great strength and skill overcome dangerous beasts and human enemies alike. Surviving texts in Sumerian also include a number of religious texts composed by Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon of Akkad and the high priestess in the temple of the moon god Nanna, as well as the first named author in human history.

In the process of monotheism's development, women suffered a great loss. The essential role women had played in ancient religions as guardians who contained opposites diminished. Women's roles became marginalized and secondary to the roles of men not only in the religious sphere, but also in the realms of politics, economics, social, and cultural life. We who come of age within the basic assumptions of monotheism rarely think about how this paradigm infiltrates every corner of our psychological lives. It does not occur to us that our most entrenched values of good and evil, perfection and impurity, worthiness and corruption are strongly influenced by the splitting which male monotheism imposes on our socialization from birth. It takes a concentrated awareness to realize that this paradigm excludes all other possibilities, and to conceive that our most fundamental presumptions could be different.

Whether the so-called ¨sacred prostitution¨ was actually practiced is doubtful....Henshaw asserts, 'those of us who have studied Mesopotamian civilization for many years have never come across anything remotely near this practice.

March thou on my right hand, Assist me on my left Add thy pure spell to mine, Add thy pure voice to mine, Vouchsafe to me pure words, Make fortunate the utterances of my mouth, Ordain that my decisions be happy, Let me be blessed wherever I tread,

I against whom magic has been performed, figurines of whom have been laid in the ground May my body be purified like lapis lazuli. May [my] features be bright like alabaster. Like shining silver and reddish gold, may I not be dull. GIM KÙ.BABBAR eb-be GIM KÙ.GI ru-she-e a-dir-ta a-a ar-shi

Let the man whom I touch be blessed. Before me may lucky thoughts be spoken, After me may a lucky finger be pointed, Oh that thou wert my guardian genius, And my guardian spirit O God that blesseth, Marduk, Let me be blessed, wherever my path may be! Thy power shall god and man proclaim; This man shall do thy service, And I too, the magician, thy slave. Unto the house on entering Samas is before me, Sin is behind [me], Nergal is at [my] right hand, Ninib is at my left hand When I draw near unto the sick man, When I lay my hand on the head of the sick man, May a kindly Spirit, a kindly Guardian, stand at my side.