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Sumerian Gods and Goddess: Gugalanna

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Introduction

He was known as the great bull of heaven, in the creation myth of Abzu and Tiamat he is first referred to as Kusariku, [the bull man.] He was reportedly first married to Ereshkigal goddess of all below the surface of the earth, including Hell-hades, underworld call it what you will, but that is somewhat confusing, let us unravel the myth.

Origins

The worship of the bull starts deep in the mists of time; we are sometimes mislead by the general belief that the Egyptians began to worship the bull- Apis when the vernal Equinox occurred during the sign of Taurus, sometime around 4300BC, which changed around 2160BC, as the equinox moved into Aries, a point that Moses tried so hard to get across to the bull worshipping Hebrews, with little or no effect, even Solomon erected shrines to the bull god Molech or Moloch. The very Pyramids of Giza are laid out to represent the stars of Orion in the zodiac sign of Taurus; the bull is commonly portrayed in the oldest of cave paintings, even today oxen, cows, bulls are revered in many cultures, and it has no obvious link to the equinox, but why, to most of us today it makes no sense at all, and no author to date has made it any clearer. One thing is for sure, that is that the worship of the bull began way before the equinox entered Taurus over six-thousand years ago.

Mysteries of the deep Moon and the triplicity of life

As mankind’s mind stirred, three great things governed their lives, Mother earth, the Moon and the Sun; mother Earth bore and feed them, the Sun gave them sight, and the Moon was their teacher, from her came all understanding.

The horns of the bull, the best tactic on the battlefield

How foolish is a man to think that he rules the roost?
when from a woman he was born,
to bear the burden of her ambition and do her chores,
she nurtures, she teaches, she scolds she rewards,
and from his efforts she long endures,
one moment her face looks and smiles full on,
annoy her and she is gone,
the whole on earth frowned upon,
then from darkness her horns appear,
the true bull of heaven begins to appear,
from both sides a man is trapped,
the life blood in sacrifice is sapped to see her face smile once more,
then too late we realise that it is by death we are enthralled.

From Secret vault, books on Egyptian myth

The Lessons of Moses Part 4: Creation Act 2, The Rebellion of Mankind

However, unfortunately even though Hathor had been more than amply successful in her pursuit of Re' enemies, Re, himself was still feeling unnerved by the whole experience and decided he needed a rest from the daily problems of mankind. So, Re, summoned his mother Nut before him and ordered her to change herself into the form of a cow; and he duly climbed up upon her back. When mankind saw Horus the Sun Disc of Re riding on the back of the Celestial Cow, they became angry with those who had plotted against Re and caused him to distance himself from them. And they made bows and shot arrows at them; thus, warfare came to mankind.

So, it would seem the connection between the celestial cow which had horns, and the heavens was very early, and was definitely connected with the moon, as Isis the moon goddess wore a horned headdress, almost all the main gods of the Sumerians, Akkadians, and more, wore a headdress’, with four sets of horns on, it would seem only logical that if the moon was female that her heavenly counterpart would be a bull, and a great symbol of fertility.

The beginning

Gugalanna like Kusariku, was a god born out of Chaos, a great bull of the heavens who made the earth shake as he ran across its surface before atmosphere separated the earth from the heavens, but oddly, or perhaps we haven’t found the relevant tablets yet, he does not appear obviously in myth until the Story of Gilgamesh, which is Akkadian in origin, indeed it seems his Sumerian title is Bilgamesh, and certainly the bull god of the heavens is mentioned, even if not directly named. In the myth of Gilgamesh, Inanna tries to seduce him, but her rejects her, for this rejection, she begs her father to send the bull of heaven to destroy him, but with his companion Enkidu’ help he defeats the bull and cuts it into pieces, threating to do the same to Inanna if he should catch her. Under Kusariku, I mentioned a possible relationship with the zodiac sign of Taurus, now from around 4320BC, the Spring Equinox entered Taurus, thus the Sumerians, Akkadians and the Babylonians would harvest the barley around this time, they would have sowed it around the autumn Equinox which would have occurred in Scorpio at that time, thus the emasculation of the bull would take place at harvest time, when it’s seed was removed, collected, for food and the next sowing. The most important myths generally relate to the agriculture needs of the year. But that does not mean that they worshipped the bull only from that time, because their greatest god at that point was Aquarius, whose name kept changing, at first he was Abzu, or Apsu, later Enki and Ea, Aquarius at that time was a god perceived to rule the heavens which was to them a vast ocean, he was a storm, rain, and general fresh water god, the great waters of Euphrates and the Tigris entered and thus no doubt came from him, and on his head the crescent of the moon supports four sets of horns.

Last thoughts

The slaying or sacrifice of the bull of heaven, may simply signify the end of storm season, for it is said

‘Quand il tonne en Mars,
nous pouvons dire helas.’
(so evil is the thunder of March held to be.)
[March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb].