The Sirrush Dragons guarded the Gate of Ishtar and were assisted by Lions in this endeavour. The Gate is the sacred passage to the Goddess; and this Gate is the entranceway to the Labyrinth. Pass in perfect Love and in perfect Trust; and meet the guardians of the Gate !

Tiamat’s Name originates in the word Tehom, meaning “the deep of the ocean”,  the Abyss or Source of all Creation. Nun is the Creator Goddess  of ancient Egyptian traditions whilst the primal  Mesopotamian Goddess An.Zu is Tiamat, later venerated as Ishtar, the Ancient Near Eastern Creator Goddess.

There were several Middle Eastern Crone Goddesses. We all have the same Mother, and we all come from the same common origins. The Name Mama is possibly the very first Name of the Great Goddess.In Mesopotamia,  The Goddess was called Mami, Mammitu and Mama. The Dark Goddess Kali is known as Ma, Mamki or Mamata and the first child of Tiamat as Mummu. One of the earliest Names of Tiamat ~ Tehom –Mat –or literally Mother of the Deep of the Ocean and Truth; is Ma-Nu, the great fish who gives birth to all creation and ultimately swallows everything back in again in Time. This is such an ancient and universal Name that the Dogon peoples of West Africa also depicted the Great Mother as the Nommo Fish, which emerged from the primeval oceans of outer space and the watery Abyss of the Deep and brought forth life in all abundance.

Chaos ~ the Great Mother and Creative Potential which comprises 99.9999999999999 % of the Universe and all things within it..

The Great Goddess appears as a Dragon, a Fish, a Cat or as a giant Winged bird, whenever She wishes to ~ even as a stunningly beautiful Goddess!

AnZu is portrayed as a fearsome Chaos Monster in later mythos, and this is a way in which human beings  have attempted to describe the Tao. Both creating and destroying, birthing and taking life ~ the very source of all things;  the watery Abyss of infinite creative potential, also called The Great Mother, from whom all things originate and unto whom all things shall return again...The Dark Crone Goddess of Death and All Creation.

All ancient cultures expressed this truth in their own various ways; and the Great Mother Goddess is the thread which runs through all of these.In later patriarchal legends, which were changed over the ages to suit each successive male-dominated religion. In ancient Sumerian myth, An.Zu becomes an underworld Dragon who both assists and protects the Gods and then evidently attempts, in typical Promethean fashion, to steal the Tablets of Destiny which contained the secret formulas and magick of the universe, from the dominant male God who had stolen them from the Mother Goddess in the first place, himself.

The God Ninurta aims his bow into the mouth of his mother, letting fly an arrow – symbolizing wind and fire which splits AnZu asunder to form the Earth and the Water. The symbols of the Goddess are the lozenge, representing the source of birth, the vaginal passage; the crescent Moon and seven-pointed star ; the fish  and Tree of Life. Just as the undirected energy of Chokmah is only focused, becomes channelled and is given form or substance through Binah, Quabahlistically speaking.

This is clearly a tale of the creation of matter, both seen and unseen, from potential or Chaos, being formed in an infinite cycle of existence; which characterizes the nature of our ever expanding and contracting universe.

In this sense it is very similar to the Sumerian tale of Tiamat and Marduk which preceded it. These tales were initially never meant to be allegories for the destruction of the ancient Goddess culture by the patriarchy; however as we can see these later interpretations were superimposed over the original Tales, to demonize the Goddess and to exalt the new and dominant male authoritarian Gods.

These tales are warped and misinterpreted by patriarchal scribes and are actually meant to express the workings of Nature and the Universe, and  interpreted on various levels of deeper understanding, from that of the inner self as well as according to Cosmic events and sequences.. The superfluous meanings connecting our ancient Divinities with concepts of good and evil are later patriarchal constructs!

The seasonal fertility of the lands depends on the right interplay between the Elements to create a favorable balance, conducive to fertility in abundance.  The Yin of the waters and the Earth (An.Zu) is dispersed by the Yang of Wind and Fire (Ninurta) to create new life on an ongoing seasonal basis. Just so, the Lunar Dragon of the Winter is replaced as King by the Solar Dragon in season. This natural symbolism can be witnessed as manifesting in every living thing, as the threefold cycles of life and death unfold continually, facilitated by the constant interplay between Yin and Yang .

The body, or essence of the Divinity is scattered , and becomes vital spiritual nourishment for the devotees. Just so, when the body of Osiris was severed into separate pieces by His brother Death, each piece became a holy shrine where it lay.

And each season, the drama will replay on all levels from the microscopic to the macrocosmic until our natural world ceases to exist any more and is in turn, added to the Crone’s Cauldron, to be reborn...and until then, the people  of the Stars will receive spiritual sustenance from partaking of the body or essence of the Nommo Fish.

The Divine Goddess AnZu is both Creator and Destroyer; the Goddess of Death and Love, Queen of Heaven and Queen of the Underworld.

An.Zu is Tiamat; She is Lilith and Ishtar, Inanna and Ereshkigal ; Isis and Nephthys. From An.zu originates all Life; Her Darkness and the life-giving fluids of primordial Chaos precede any matter, or form to harness and shape the myriad vibrational frequencies which comprise the living Universe. Accordingly, the centre of the stele above is in the form of a perfect circle.

"If you stay in the centre

and embrace Death with all your heart,

you will always be safe"

~Lao Tzu

After all, it is not the spokes of the wagon wheel that make it turn, it is the circle in the centre.

 The Great Goddess assumes the form of An.Zu at the top centre of the stele. The Goddess is supported by the sacred Lions and appears as a giant predatory bird in appearance, with distinctive and familiar talons.

Ishtar (the Goddess’ upper torso and facial features broken from the stele) , walks along the same level of creation as the sacred calf, or new-born again Bull ; containing the regenerative powers of virile fertility within.

Below these levels of existence, or planes of reality; the Cosmic Serpent coils in distinctive figures of eight, as representing the primal cosmic energies of the Universe .The Dragon which cannot be tamed, living at the roots of the Tree.!

This distinctive twining and coiling in certain shapes and forming specific patterns is also seen above in these depictions of the Cosmic Serpent, Apophis and Jorgmandyrr.  Apep represents the primal energies of Nature, and as such , propels the Nun Boat of the Gods on it’s daily voyage across the celestial heavens.; directed safely by  Maat and Her entourage ~  Set , Anubis , Horus, Ra, Wepwawet and Thoth amongst Others.

And the Great Goddess An.Zu is represented  in unique ways and by many Names, over the passage of Time and through the eyes of different cultures. The Great Goddess is seen here as assuming partially human form, in the shape of a woman with irresistible and mysterious beauty, unsurpassed by  that of any mortal. She transforms partially from An.Zu at will  and lends some of Her sacred essence to the large Owls, Her Priesthood. The Goddess is supported by the royal Lions, which like the sacred Bull are representative of the God.

Goddess Diana blows into the bladder of the Ox, or Bull; and it eventually bursts at the point where the darkness of the 99.9999999999999% potential increases past the threshold by a fraction of a decimal point, and the wafer-thin bladder – the 0.0000000000001% - explodes,  and from this explosion; appear  the planets, waters and stars! In the original tales of parthenogenisis, the Mother Goddess divides Herself ; and the Light, or Yang, the Male principle, is born from within of the Great Goddess.  Eurynome creates the Cosmic Serpent Ophion from out of the Winds that She brings into existence, and from their union, the Cosmic Egg is hatched and in Time, the wafer thin eggshell breaks open due to the efforts of the vigorously growing fledgling of all creation.

The Great Goddess of many Names is Chaos, the primeval waters of the deep oceans, outer space and the Earth, Gaia. The Great Mother is the Genatrix of all seeds that grow within the darkness only to emerge into the sunlight, watered by the rains to grow and flourish; produce crops in fertility, and then decline and die – or be destroyed – only to seed again and on again in an infinite cycle of existence.

One can observe that the original symbolism of the Great Goddess and Her beasts remain constant throughout all time and across all pre-patriarchal cultures. The regal Serpents, Owls, Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Dragons and Horned Stags support and protect the Great Goddess; and often this fierce protective instinct – this basic instinct to protect and conserve the the Life Force of the Universe, was expressed in the HORNS worn by the Goddess and Gods of ancient, pre-patriarchal Pagan spiritual traditions.

 The Shrine room at Catal Huyuk

Tiamat is the Crone.

The Crone is the source of Wisdom and owns a rather unique cauldron. This is the churning cauldron of regeneration, and within that cauldron, all things simmer, dissipate into Chaos and are reborn in their turn.

The interconnectedness of all things is so all-encompassing that many fail to realize the interconnectedness of Goddess as She is ever-present and transforms in a magickal instant from Maiden to Mother to Crone... from Inanna to An.Zu to Tiamat and Ereshkigal .

Tiamat is An.Zu; An.Zu is Ishtar; and the Dark Sister of Ishtar is Ereshkigal, the Queen of Seven Hells, and the Underworld.

 Ishtar, as Goddess Inanna, has to descend down through seven gates in order to reach her Sister Eresh-ki-gal ~ Our Lady of the Scented House ~ in the heart of the Underworld. At each gate, one of the Anunnaki gods ~ the Igigi and the Anunnaki ~ had a requirement which had to be fulfilled by the lovely Goddess of awesome power,  in return for the turning of the key.

Inanna went to great lengths to prepare Herself for the epic journey. Seven items of jewellery and apparel were selected to be worn, as Inanna did wish to impress Her Sister when She arrived at the Centre.

At every gate, though, Inanna had to relinquish one of Her precious items of clothing or adornments of jewellery, the like or value of which could never be replaced or duplicated; so that She could pass through and advance along Her path to the next Gate.

Ereshkigal finally received Her sister Inanna after the seventh and ultimate Gate had been successfully opened by virtue of Inanna’s efforts to advance through Her own abilities.

Standing completely naked before Queen Ereshkigal, Inanna had cast off all of the nice but useless trinkets of her false Ego, one at each Gate ~ and had transmuted these vain and wasteful aspects of the outer superficial Ego into the Radiant Inner Ego, or Higher Self.

Inanna had mourned deeply for the priceless adornments which She had given up one by one until there was nothing left at all but Her own naked body.

Inanna once more became sky clad ~ for the first time since birth ~and joining with Ereshkigal’s energies  as One,  returned joyously up through the seven Gates and made an unforgettably triumphant return to the world. The Queen of Heaven’s precious energies and attributes were not annihilated, but transmuted, changed magickally during a process of attuning one’s entire being to the Divine radiance of the Goddess, and so, Inanna emerged fully dressed again, in almost the same way, but just far better. ~ as Light and Dark have become One together.

Hail Ereshkigal! Goddess of Dark beauty and deep wisdom.

Ereshkigal has wings protruding out from the sides of Her head, like Medusa.. And, if one visually replaces the gorgeous facial features of the mysterious and lovely Dark Queen with a glowing Red pranic Disc, we see the Winged Serpent symbol of our ancient Ancestors in relief.

 Nergal was a consort of the Goddess in later Babylonian interpretations of the myths, the Ruler of the Absu, or Underworld which became the Greek Tartarus, or Hades, when Hell became a place of punishment and judgement according to the patriarchy.

The real "hell", my friends, is through the gateway of the Chakras, the "seven hells"; and is a place of inner discovery, fundamental awakenings and the journey of a lifetime, through the Mystery. 

The seven main Chakras or energy centres in the body are semi-dormant, blocked and/or damaged in most human beings who have not yet had the knowledge, willpower or awareness to be able to begin the process of healing and rejuvenating their own interconnected energy centers.

Inanna did not complete the journey of a thousand miles by refusing to start walking, though; and the journey most certainly starts from underneath those feetJ. We are the Tree and the Spirit lives within, awaiting that decision.

The Goddess is within each and every one of us, in all living things – all things; just as is the consort of the Goddess, the Horned God of Nature. We all are miniature copies of the Great Goddess and God of the Universe

Within every cell there is both positive and negative, and so, on a slightly larger scale, there is both a woman and a man within every part of our bodies, including in the physical. The true interconnectedness within the natural universe means that we are all androgynous reflections of Divinity at the very core of our beings.

The balance within that comes from the Goddess  is not only of male and female, it is of the Elements and the forces of Nature that flow gently through us as a sweet clear winding stream of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

)O( Blessed Be )O(

 )O(