Sokar

Sokar is one of the most enigmatic entities of Egyptian myth. Sokar was a falcon-headed God of the dead in later Egyptian dynasties, and is believed one of the oldest Egyptian Gods. He was associated with the vast necropolis of Giza, whose first funerary monuments predate the pyramids by many centuries, and was invoked during funerary rites.

Sokar is linked to bja or meteoric iron, which was in pre-metal eras a magical and devastating entity which brought great gift and great destruction in equal measure. It was also linked to the Bennu bird who instigated creation.

Sokar was invoked during funerary rites when the deceased must successfully navigate various regions of the Duat or underworld in order to reach eternal life. The realm of Sokar is a place which snatched away the soul, a place of silence, a gate-keeper in darkness, as black as night. Even the Sun God Ra, on his nightly journey through the underworld, could not enter the realm of Sokar. A place to be avoided at all costs, even by the Gods.

Sokar as a God of the dead.

 Many beliefs of Middle Eastern civilisations developed from older cultures and traditions, and the origins of Egyptian lore can be traced through the older cultures of Sumer and Iraq to the people of Göbekli Tepe, who flourished 8000 years before the dawn of Egyptian civilisation. There is no evidence that the stories of Sokar originate in this period, but it is plausible. Sokar’s existence is ancient and Egyptian lore itself states that Sokar was linked to the First Time, the mythical Golden Age period when the Gods brought civilisation to earth and has been linked to Göbekli Tepe.

Sokar is the realm whose corruptive influence spreads through the entire land of Kur-Gal in Broken Skies. It was the balance to the realm of creation, in a world where everything, no matter how devastating, was a necessary part of existence. This influence is channelled by a fallen star or meteorite, whose link to Sokar was known in Egyptian lore.

As to its physical location in the sky, I have linked it to the Pleiades star group, whose inconspicuousness in no way equals its singular importance in star lore worldwide. This will be the subject of next week’s post.

The Pleiades. Juan lacruz, Wikicommons.

Absu: Heart of Creation

Modern science tells us that the universe was created from a single focal point during the Big Bang, and even after expanding for infinite time and space, that primal essence still links between everything in existence: the enigmatic concept of String Theory, which forms uncanny bridges between astrophysics and the supernatural.

Ancient mysticism from diverse cultures also states a similar point of creation. To the Sumerians, who flourished in the Middle East 5000 years ago and whose cultural ancestry dates back to the time of Göbekli Tepe and the dawn of civilisation, around 10,000BCE, this was known as Absu or Apsu, the primal sea from which the Earth rose and all springs and rivers ultimately source. From this derives our word ‘absolute’, and also ‘abyss’, meaning a vast and unknowable chasm which is feared and avoided, except by those who have the wisdom and skill to enter and understand it. It is sometimes linked to the Pole Star, the axis around which the heavens pivot.

Hittite illustration of Gilgamesh

The hero Gilgamesh descended into Absu during his quest for immortality, but his gift was stolen from him by a snake as he returned. His wisdom proved ultimately lacking, perhaps because immortality for a human would prove a curse rather than a gift.

In Broken Skies, Absu is the source of all existence and all life, where spirits return after life and descend after birth, and for those who have the gifts to access it, it offers glimpses of all places and all times, and the opportunity to rearrange the weave of the threads of existence extending from it. Just as modern String Theory states.

Like all things in existence, Absu has its opposite. The realm of Sokar, a place of destruction and anti-creation, will be the subject of next week’s post.

Wolfstone: Obsidian

Obsidian spearheads with finely worked serrated edges, found at Göbekli Tepe.

Obsidian is a volcanic glass, usually black but occasionally a range of colours, which can be knapped like flint into blades and other tools of surgical sharpness. In the later prehistoric Middle East, it was also polished into mirrors and elaborate jewellery and even today it has near mythical associations.

Obsidian is found in mountainous regions of volcanic origin, and only a few sources are useable for craftwork. In the Middle East, these are focused around Bingöl and Lake Van in eastern Turkey and in Armenia. These are precisely the same regions linked to the paradisiacal land of Eden or Dilmun, home of the advanced people known variously as the Anunnaki, the Irin and the Peri.

Mountainside obsidian deposit. James St John, Wikicommons.

Obsidian from Bingöl and nearby areas was traded across the Taurus Mountains as far as Iraq and the Levant, a remarkable distance of up to 1000km, from as early as 14,000BC. This predates the earliest known dates for Göbekli Tepe by over 4000 years, indicating that an advanced and long-distance social network existed long before any known established civilisation, and long before the Younger Dryas or Thousand Year Winter which near devastated global populations. Following this cold period, obsidian trade increased and continued into the historic period.

At sites such as Göbekli Tepe, dating to 9600BC and associated with the dawn of civilisation, obsidian formed a small percentage of the tools used, and its acquisition was strictly controlled by and for a select few. Only those deemed worthy could possess it.

The Bingöl Mountains. Izzettin Ekinci, Wikicommons

Interestingly, the obsidian trade routes precisely mirror the spread of domesticated cereal plants across the Middle East from their origin in south-eastern Turkey, and indicates that the people who controlled the obsidian trade were also the first to develop agriculture. And these routes also mirror the locations of the legends of an advanced people who long ago educated and subjugated humankind.

Folklore in Turkey and Armenia also refers to the obsidian mountains. In eastern Turkey, once part of Armenia, a region of mountains was known as Gaylaxaz-ut, meaning ‘abounding in wolf’s stone’. ‘Wolf’s stone’ can refer to both flint and obsidian, but only obsidian is sourced in this region.

In Armenian tradition the Wolf Stone Mountains, revered for thousands of years, were linked with powerful people known in modern Christian lore as the ‘servants of Satan’ who were linked with wolves and snakes. Were these the powerful people who once controlled the obsidian trade across the Middle East, who inspired the legends of the Peri and other superhuman people?

This is the basis for the Anunnaki in Broken Skies, who live among the mountains of Dilmun and are known as the Wolf People who terrorise the clanspeople living on the plains.

Mingöl: Mountains of Heaven

Izzettin Ekinci, Wikicommons

The Bingöl Mountains are a vast and largely impregnable range of mountains in eastern Turkey, in what was once part of Armenia. The area has long been revered as sacred and both folklore and archaeology have revealed its importance in the dawn of Middle Eastern civilisation.

Bingöl translates as the Turkish for ‘Land of a Thousand Lakes’, referring to the countless springs which form on the mountain slopes which feed pools and streams which eventually become some of the great rivers across Turkey and the Middle East, including the Tigris and Euphrates. In both a practical and a spiritual sense, the mountains were the source of life for the region.

The area has been ruled by many cultures over the past five thousand years, including the Hittites, Persians, Romans and Byzantines and its name has changed many times, but all reflect the same meaning. The Persian name of Mingöl translates as ‘heavenly waters’. In Classical times it was known as Abus Mons, or ‘Father Mountain’, and in Armenian tradition it is considered the Mountain of Life, akin to the World Mountain or cosmic axis in many mountainous cultures. The more recent historical name of Çapakҫur, meaning ‘River of Heaven’, is said to have been given by Alexander the Great. He made a long journey to drink the healing waters after suffering a long and incurable illness, and was miraculously cured, although he didn’t quite gain the immortality he had been hoping for.

The Bingöl region in Kurdish folklore is associated with the Peri, a race of beautiful, pale-skinned, superhuman entities whose stories are widespread across Turkey, and were probably once linked to the ancient Gods of the region, although local belief states that unlike other beings in myth, the Peri were genuine living people. The legends of the Peri formed the basis for the Irin and the Anunnaki in Broken Skies, and Mingöl is the home of the spirit-walkers, who live in the inhospitable mountains and are feared even by the most powerful people on the plains.

As I’ve said in Broken Skies, mountains have long been linked to spiritual ordeals and spiritual gain. The trainee lamas of Tibet, for example, were once taken to a snow-bound mountain and wrapped in a soaking wet sheet. They weren’t allowed to move until they had dried it using only their body heat, staving off hypothermia using will alone. The enforced physical and mental hardship of constant cold, danger, altitude sickness and lack of oxygen is said to force the body and mind into new ways of existence, the reason for the spiritual gifts the holy people of both ancient and modern times.

An old monastery near Bingöl.