Old Anatolian Folk Religion.

Catal Hüyük and Göbekli Tepe: Leopard-hunters and flying foxes. Primordial mystic unity and creation seen as the world of contrast and duality

The bull and the nude goddess on the seal cylinders of Western Asia. Athene - `Anat. The "Sun-eye" and the lion-headed goddess in Egypt, The Gerza-culture, Hierakonpolis.

In the Ugarit texts the old West Semitic High-god is called " ´El, the Bull ". He is " God " par excellence, for " gods " in plural aréelim. He is living inside the mountain of the " night " , Lel, the nightly vault seen as a black mountain dotted with firestones situated by the double offspring of water-streams. He can be compared with the Akkadian god, Ea (Sumerian Enki), who has his temple called " House of abzu " in Eridu surrounded by Euphratian marshlands near the ancient coastline. Abzu is the underground freshwater-basin, and Ea is often pictured with two streams of water running from his shoulders; and his symbol is the goat and the fish, and his priests are dressed in skin of carp. Enki is the great provider of life-giving water as seen in the great poem, Enki and Ninhursag. He lives on the paradise island of Dilmun, called a garden where there is not sickness nor old age or death. This island must be identified with modern Bahrein, a name that in Arabic means " two seas " , i.e. the place where the fresh waters coming from the underground meet with the salt water from the Persian Golf. Ea can be compared with the Luwian god Ia. We have a pair of very old Anatolian gods, Tarku and Ja witnessed by the names given to old ritual singing, triambe and jambe and the names given the priest serving at a temple1 close to the Corycian cave in Cilicia. Jao is also the name given to the Cilician monster, Typhon, overcome by Zeus. Typhon is the personification of the Paradise mountain, Tsaphon, and he is half snake, half man, and tries to get more strength by eating a certain fruit, but it has the opposite effect (cf. Gen 3). Ea in Eridu is not only the provider of life-giving water, but also has a holy kishkanu-tree standing in his temple. God of the Bible,´El/Jah, is simply the old prehistoric high god of the Middle East, the Lord of Paradise with the fourfold river bringing the life-giving water to the world, cf. rivers of fire surrounding the Ancient of Days, Dan 7, and God enthroned by the sea of crystal, and the river of life coming out from beneath his throne in Rev 22,1f. This belief in a life-giving god, in prehistoric time (Catal Höyük) seen riding the bull, or as a bull suffering, killed and surrounded by water, but in the Bible called the good shepherd and the lamb slaughtered, is reaching us through endless ages of human struggle for life. In Greece he was called upon with the call eleleu ju ju (Semitic halleluja), in Rome Jo-Saturnalia. But most often he was forgotten and only survived in the faint memory of a Garden of the Hesperides where the apples of eternal life were guarded by an always vigilant snake or the fair Adonis who was killed on the holy Cedar mountains of Lebanon, in his death giving his blood to the Adonis-river coming out of the mountain side, and every year, at the beginning of the hot season, turning red. At the painted walls in Catal Höyük the bull killed by the hunters seems to be reborn as the young calf. This rebirth is not typical for Adonis. And his Egyptian parallel, Osiris, becomes lord of the Underworld, but is actually reborn in his son Horus. He is not only the giver of the Water of Life, his power can be identified with the vine or the almond trees being the first to blossom in early spring (the Menorah). On the carved slabs from Nineveh we see the Tree of Life nursed by cherub-winged griffons (Gen 3,24), but they can also be seen nursing the king, the king can be identified with the Tree of Life, cf. Jesus calling himself the " True vine ". The blood of Adonis was foaming and giving color to the roses, just as the sperm of Uranos was foaming on the sea and out of it came Aphrodite. Out of the blood of Hyakinthos (with the Hya-/Ia-and suffixes –k-and –nthos) sprouted the hyacinth, and out of the blood of Attis the 1 Strabo XIV 5,10: The priestly potentates of nearby Olba bore the name of either Teucer or Ajax.

God, the Highest, the god of Life and the Garden of Eden. The goddess as serpent power. Seal cylinders of Mesopotamia and Syria.

An Interpretation

Describing and defining early Christian Spirituality

In discussing the origin of Gnosticism one has to take note of the fact that Gnosticism with a libertine practice (Simon Magus, Cainites, Carpocratians, Nicolaitans) is older than Gnosticism with an ascetical practice. The belief in a divine but fallen female principle (Simon, Valentinus) is older that the belief in a fallen primordial man. Now Gnosticism obviously has some similarity with the kind of mysticism cultivated in Hindu religion. We all know that the classical goal of Hinduism is to attain mystic vision by cutting off the flow of information and impressions from the senses. But there is also another method less known by Western students of religion: the Tantric, " left hand " path, where one hopes to attain ecstasy by breaking social taboos, drinking wine, eating flesh and (most important!) engaging in taboo-breaking sexual activities

The leopard, Phersu and the Harlequin-costume

Joan, Eahr Amelia. Re-Genesis Encyclopedia: Synthesis of the Spiritual Dark– Motherline, Integral Research, Labyrinth Learning, and Eco–Thealogy. Part I. Revised Edition II, 2018. CIIS Library Database. (RGS.) , 2018

Phrygian Cybele was sent to Rome from Pessinus in Anatolia by King Attalus of Pergamum (or Pergamon). As prophesied in the Sibylline Books, Cybele was thought to embody the power to save the Romans from Hannibal’s approaching army. On entering Rome, Cybele’s stone emblem was placed in the Temple of Victory on the Palatine Hill at the site of the Virgin of the Ara Coeli. Cybele was believed to inhabit the black Pessinus Stone and was known as the Great Mother to the Romans and later the Supreme Deity of the capital of the Gauls in Lyon, France where her black virgin culture continues to flourish. (CBV: 56-57.)

Joan, Eahr Amelia. Re-Genesis Encyclopedia: Synthesis of the Spiritual Dark– Motherline, Integral Research, Labyrinth Learning, and Eco–Thealogy. Part I. Revised Edition II, 2018. CIIS Library Database. (RGS.)

Leading cities and sites during the 3000-2000 BCE Hattian/Hittite period were Pessinus, Priene, Alaca Hüyük, Yazilikaya, and Bogazkoy plus Karatepe, also known as Cilicia (Kilikia), ancient trade city second only to Bogazkoy. This was Anatolia’s zenith period known for well – traveled trade routes – and – significant artistic use of gold, copper, and bronze. An excellent metalwork example is the Hittite solar disk with a bird goddess at center top. Additional finds from Bogazkoy and Alaca Hüyük include stamps, seals, and thousands of cuneiform writing tablets. These cuneiform writing tablets contain extensive documentation regarding the Hattian/Hittite religious rituals of significant polytheistic practices and deities such as Kultepe’s sun goddess * Arinna and her regal polos. * Further sun goddesses research includes: Anahita (WM: 49); Kultepe (Arinitti); Hittite Wurusemu; Egyptian Sekhmet; Germanic Sunna (Sunnu); Brythonic Aquae Sol (Sulis); Roman Sul–Minerva; Celtic Bridget; Baltic Saule; Finnish Paivatar; Siberian Kajae; Arabian Al–Ilat; and Shinto Amaterasu Omikami.