In babylonian astrology, the stars Castor and Pollux were known as the Great Twins (MUL.MASH.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL). ‘The Twins were regarded as minor gods and were called Meshlamtaea and Lugalirra, meaning respectively ‘The One who has arisen from the Underworld’ and the ‘Mighty King” according to Gavin White. Meslamtaea is mentioned in Sumerian mythology as Nergal and the same tablet states the ‘Mighty King’ is Ninazu both were born to Ninlil in the underworld whilst pregnant with Nanna the moon.

The Constellation on the eastern horizon at Sun rise, on the Summer Solstice was associated with the netherworld and Enlil who ruled over the sun at its height. This myth which is set pre- Sumer could be a reference to the age of Gemini when Ninlil or Virgo ruled the summer solstice.  The constellation Gemini would rule the Spring equinox which is associated with the constellation being slain by the sun.

Ninazu corresponds with Ningishzida both are healing Gods connected to the underworld., in Sumerian mythology, he appears in Adapa’s myth as one of the two guardians of Anu’s celestial palace, alongside Dumuz /Tammuz /Damuzid.  Ningishzida is sometimes referred to as the son of Ninazu although his parents were Anu and Ereshkigal.  Perhaps this signifies Ninazu and Nergal as the Great twins and Ningaishzida and Tammuz as the little twins.

The constellation of Gemini contained two Babylonian constellations.

MASH.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL = tu’amu rabûtu“The Great Twins”; alpha and beta Geminorum

MASH.TAB.BA.TUR.TUR”The Little Twins”; zeta and lamda Geminorium

Ningishzida is described in a temple hymn as ‘The prince who stretches out his pure hand the holy one of heaven’. In ‘Ningaishzida’s journey to the netherworld’ he is made divine throne bearer.  It would appear that Nergal and Tammuz represented aspects of the spirit / soul being slain then resurrected / returned to life whilst Ninazu & Ningishzida represent healing and long life.  This fits in with their ideas about the equinox.

In ‘Ningaishzida’s journey to the netherworld’ his sister is described as Meshlamtaea a Cow deity who frees him from the netherworld.  This echos the story of Tammuz and Innana, where Tammuz rescues Innana who is associated with Taurus the bull from the netherworld, and who is then to replaced by his sister.  This theme of male, female, is found in all the signs of the Zodiac Gemini is a masculine sign, Taurus feminine, Aries masculine.

The Sumerians could have had an understanding of the precession of the equinox from earliest times.  Nabta Playa has standing stones representing the alignment changes of stars dating between  6400 BC and 4900 BC.

Gemini’s opposite constellation would also then be connected to the netherworld, which it is as Pabilsag / Sagittarius, most likely meaning is ruler of our ancestors.  Ancestors could have been a reference to the dead.  The Great Babylonian fish constellation which was much large than the eastern fish of Pisces now is, would have represented Enki.

Fast forward and we have Ereshkirgal – Scorpio taking over from Sagittarius on the Autumnal equinox.  Legend says she was originally a sky goddess and was forced to rule the netherworld.  Ereshkigal’s husband the great Bull of heaven is now slain on the spring equinox and Dumuzi’s sister replaces him.

Fast forward some more and Aries is now on the Equinox.  Modern-day Aries was known as MULLÚ.ḪUN.GÁ, “The Agrarian Worker” or “The Hired Man”. The earliest identifiable reference to Aries as a distinct constellation comes from the boundary stones that date from 1350 to 1000 BCE. On several boundary stones, a zodiacal ram figure is distinct from the other characters present. The shift in identification from the constellation as the Agrarian Worker to the Ram likely occurred in later Babylonian tradition because of its growing association with Dumuzid the shepherd. By the time the MUL.APIN was created—by 1000 BCE—modern Aries was identified with both Dumuzi’s ram and a hired laborer. The exact timing of this shift is difficult to determine due to the lack of images of Aries or other ram figures. But Dumuzi has freed Inanna.

Inanna also becomes associated with the eastern fish of Pisces.  Whilst Dumuzi is described as the son of Enki and will take his place on the waters of Aquarius. Inanna takes the MEs of Enki in Capricorn.

With Mars on the South Node in Virgo, Austrian anger is still flared up over the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand, with Venus in Leo opposite Jupiter in Aquarius emotions are running high.  Least said soonest mended today as retrograde Mercury conjunct Neptune in Cancer may cause misunderstandings and jumbled communications or thoughts.

This full moon Venus is quincunx Chiron in Pisces making it a difficult time to relate to any emotional pain being felt right now, this is a time to tread carefully and slowly as our lack of understanding may make the situation worse.

With Chiron in Pisces Trine the full moon in Scorpio now might be an ideal time to talk about past issues and create some closure.  The moon starts the day square Mars in Leo, With ego issues and hurt pride on the agenda it may be a good idea to tread softly today first thing, the moon also is in opposition to Mercury making your thoughts more emotional than usual.  The full moon is square Uranus and then Jupiter in Aquarius and can either create a magnanimous atmosphere or it may lead to a self-righteous and arrogant battle of wills in which nobody can win.

This full moon in Libra is square Mars in Cancer, today may be quite intense on the home front.  With Chiron conjunct the North Node in Pisces old wounds from the past have been raising their heads.  This has been made More intense by Saturn in Gemini square Chiron and the nodes.  Making everyone feel the weight of their commitments and responsibilities.

For those who have their Sun in Gemini, Sagittarius, Pisces or Virgo they may be feeling heavy-hearted today as if all the cares of the world are being placed on their shoulders.  those with the Sun in Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn may feel as if they are caught up fights and arguments that seem pointless or futile today.

 

The equinox begins with the Slaying of Aries the ram by the sun at dawn.  Through his blood the earth is reborn, the blood of Aries courses its way through Gaia in a sacrificial offering that awakens the dormant soil.  Aries sacrificial lamb remains buried within Gaia’s soil for six months until he can arise at the September Equinox.

What this means is that Aries travels through the houses 1 – 6, one each month until being freed in September.  Aries travels through the houses parallel to the sun travelling through the signs.  The first house is already ruled by Aries and at the spring equinox our Ascendent is renewed by his life-giving blood.  We are reborn once again and can make a fresh start.  As the sun goes into Taurus, Aries moves into our second house our needs and security become the focus.  If you have personal planets in both Taurus and 2nd house they will both be activated by the sun and by Aries.

This continues with Aries entering 3rd house as Sun enters Gemini, 4th as sun enters Cancer, 5th when sun enters Leo and lastly 6th as the sun enters Virgo.  As Aries enters each house they are rejuvenated by his blood and a new cycle for that house can begin.  As Aries travels through these houses look for any personal planets forming aspects to Venus, High Priestess of the spring Equinox in numerous disguises.

 

Consorting with Eurybia, daughter of Earth (Gaia) and Sea (Pontus), he fathered Astraios and Pallas as well as Perses. The joining of Astraios with Eos, the Dawn, brought forth Eosphoros (morning star), the other Stars and the Wind.  Aries is the first visible constellation in the sky at the spring season, marking the start of the new year in the ancient Greek calendar. This fact may have implied that Crius was the Titan god of constellations, measuring the duration of the year while his brother Hyperion measures the days and months.  The Morning Star (Venus), rules the Spring equinox and her association with Taurus stems from the time when Taurus sat on the Spring Equinox.

Dumuzi, called “the Shepherd”, replaced the Agrarian labourer as the symbol of Aries when the precession changed the Sign of the Spring equinox. Dumuzi was then married to Innana (Venus). Dumuzi was a King of Sumer, and the myth where Inanna avenges her lover Dumuzid’s death, by killing Old Woman Bilulu (or Belili), (Taurus).   In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna and, in his Akkadian form, the parallel consort of Ishtar.Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning in the Ancient Near East, as in the Aegean: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day “funeral” for the god. Recent discoveries reconfirm him as an annual life-death-rebirth deity: tablets discovered in 1963 show that Dumuzi was in fact consigned to the Underworld himself, in order to secure Inanna’s release, though the recovered final line reveals that he is to revive for six months of each year.

“Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto to me, ‘Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” — Ezekiel 8: 14-15

Coeus, Koios, (“query, questioning”) was one of the Titans, the giant sons and daughters of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). His equivalent in Roman Mythology was Polus, the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve. The etymology of Coeus’ name provided several scholars the theory that Coeus was also the Titan god of intellect, who represented the inquisitive mind.

With his sister, “shining” Phoebe Goddess of prophetic Wisdom, Coeus may have possibly functioned together as the primal font of all knowledge in the cosmos.  Given the meaning of her name and her association with the Delphic Oracle, Phoebe was perhaps seen as the Titan goddess of prophecy and oracular intellect.

Mistress of the House of Books is another title for Seshat, being the deity whose priests oversaw the library in which scrolls of the most important knowledge were assembled and spells were preserved.

Usually, she is shown holding a palm stem, bearing notches to denote the recording of the passage of time.  She is frequently shown dressed in a leopard hide. If not shown with the hide over a dress, the pattern of the dress is that of the spotted feline. The pattern on the natural hide was thought to represent the stars, being a symbol of eternity, and to be associated with the night sky.

In her English translation of Irish myth, Lady Augusta Gregory (Gods and Fighting Men, 1904), describes Brigit as “a woman of poetry, and poets worshipped her, for her sway was very great and very noble. And she was a woman of healing along with that, and a woman of smith’s work, and it was she first made the whistle for calling one to another through the night. And the one side of her face was ugly, but the other side was very comely.

Her British and continental counterpart Brigantia seems to have been the Celtic equivalent of the Roman Minerva and the Greek Athena, goddesses with very similar functions and apparently embodying the same concept of elevated state, whether physical or psychological.

She is the goddess of all things perceived to be of relatively high dimensions such as high-rising flames, highlands, hill-forts and upland areas; and of activities and states conceived as psychologically lofty and elevated, such as wisdom, excellence, perfection, high intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship (especially blacksmithing), healing ability, druidic knowledge and skill in warfare.

Lugh’s mastery of all arts has led many to link him with the unnamed Gaulish god Julius Caesar identifies with Mercury, whom he describes as the “inventor of all the arts”.Caesar describes the Gaulish Mercury as the most revered deity in Gaul, overseeing journeys and business transactions. Juliette Wood interprets Lugh’s name as deriving from the Celtic root *lugios, “oath”, and the Irish word lugh connotes ideas of “blasphemy, cussing, lies, bond, joint, binding oath”, which strengthens the identification with Mercury, who was, among other attributes, a god of contracts.

 

Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat necklace. Hathor may be the cow goddess who is depicted from an early date on the Narme Palette and on a stone urn dating from the 1st dynasty that suggests a role as sky-goddess and a relationship to Horus who, as a sun-god, is “housed” in her.

The Ancient Greeks identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite and the Romans as Venus.

Hathor, along with the goddess Nut, was associated with the Milky Way during the third millennium B.C. when, during the fall and spring equinoxes, it aligned over and touched the earth where the sun rose and fell. The four legs of the celestial cow represented Nut or Hathor could, in one account, be seen as the pillars on which the sky was supported with the stars on their bellies constituting the Milky Way on which the solar barque of Ra, representing the sun, sailed. Hathor’s identity as a cow, perhaps depicted as such on the Narmer Palette, meant that she became identified with another ancient cow-goddess of fertility, Bat. Bat was, in some respects, connected to the Ba, an aspect of the soul, and so Hathor gained an association with the afterlife. It was said that, with her motherly character, Hathor greeted the souls of the dead in Duat, and proffered them with refreshments of food and drink. She also was described sometimes as mistress of the necropolis.

Nin-hursag means “lady of the sacred mountain” (from Sumerian NIN “lady” and ḪAR.SAG “sacred mountain, foothill”, possibly a reference to the site of her temple, the E-Kur (House of mountain deeps) at Eridu. She had many names including Ninmah (“Great Queen”); Nintu (“Lady of Birth”); Mamma or Mami (mother); Aruru, Belet-Ili (lady of the gods, Akkadian)^.

According to legend her name was changed from Ninmah to Ninhursag by her son Ninurta in order to commemorate his creation of the mountains. As Ninmenna, according to a Babylonian investiture ritual, she placed the golden crown on the king in the Eanna temple.Her symbol, resembling the Greek letter omega Ω, has been depicted in art from around 3000 BC, though more generally from the early second millennium. It appears on some boundary stones — on the upper tier, indicating her importance. The omega symbol is associated with the Egyptian cow goddess Hathor, and may represent a stylized womb. Hathor is at times depicted on a mountain, so it may be that the two goddesses are connected.  There is also a connection to later Goddess Anahita, represented as a mountain cave rebirthing Mithra – the sun God.  Anahita is also connected to Taurus as the ancient Sign of the Spring Equinox.

Mother of the Sun, Theia of many names, for your sake men honor gold as more powerful than anything else; and through the value you bestow on them, o queen, ships contending on the sea and yoked teams of horses in swift-whirling contests become marvels.

Theia (Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa “wide-shining”, is a Titaness. The name Theia alone means simply “goddess” or “divine”.  Hesiod’s Theogony gives her an equally primal origin, a daughter of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky). Robert Graves also relates that later Theia is referred to as the cow-eyed Euryphaessa who gave birth to Helios in myths dating to Classical Antiquity.

 

 

Nammu was the Goddess sea (Engur) that gave birth to An (heaven) and Ki (earth) and the first gods, representing the Apsu, the fresh water ocean that the Sumerians believed lay beneath the earth, the source of life-giving water and fertility in a country with almost no rainfall.

Nammu is not well attested in Sumerian mythology. She may have been of greater importance prehistorically, before Enki took over most of her functions. An indication of her continued relevance may be found in the theophoric name of Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur. According to the Neo-Sumerian mythological text Enki and Ninmah, Enki is the son of An and Nammu. Nammu is the goddess who “has given birth to the great gods”. It is she who has the idea of creating mankind, and she goes to wake up Enki, who is asleep in the Apsu, so that he may set the process going.

It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos, the first in which Tiamat is ‘creatrix’, through a “Sacred marriage” between salt and fresh water, peacefully creating the cosmos through successive generations. In the second “Chaoskampf” Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos. Although there are no early precedents for it, some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon. In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, she gives birth to the first generation of deities; her husband, Aspu, later makes war upon them and is killed. When she, too, wars upon her husband’s murderers, she is then slain by Ea’s son, the storm-god Marduk. The heavens and the earth are formed from her divided body.

Tiamat possessed the Tablets of Destiny and in the primordial battle she gave them to Kingu, the deity she had chosen as her lover and the leader of her host, and who was also one of her children. The deities gathered in terror, but Anu, (replaced later, first by Enlil and, in the late version that has survived after the First Dynasty of Babylon, by Marduk, the son of Ea), first extracting a promise that he would be revered as “king of the gods”, overcame her, armed with the arrows of the winds, a net, a club, and an invincible spear.

Tiamat also has been claimed to be cognate with Northwest Semitic tehom (תהום) (the deeps, abyss), in the Book of Genesis 1:2.

Tethys was both sister and wife of Oceanus. She was mother of the chief rivers of the world known to the Greeks, such as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Maeander, and about three thousand daughters called the Oceanids. Considered as an embodiment of the waters of the world she also may be seen as a counterpart of Thalassa, the embodiment of the sea.

Although these vestiges imply a strong role in earlier times, Tethys plays virtually no part in recorded Greek literary texts, or historical records of cults. Walter Burkert notes the presence of Tethys in the episode of Iliad XIV that the Ancients called the “Deception of Zeus”, where Hera, to mislead Zeus, says she wants to go to Oceanus, “origin of the gods” and Tethys “the mother”. Burkert  sees in the name a transformation of Akkadian tiamtu or tâmtu, “the sea,” which is recognizable in Tiamat. Alternatively, her name may simply mean “old woman”; certainly it bears some similarity to ἡ τήθη, meaning “grandmother”, and she is often portrayed as being extremely ancient (cf. Callimachus, Iamb 4.52, fr. 194).

As Enlil was the only god who could reach the heaven god An, he held sway over the other gods who were assigned tasks by his agent and would travel to Nippur to draw in his power. He is thus seen as the model for kingship.

At a very early period prior to 3000 BC, Nippur had become the centre of a political district of considerable extent. Inscriptions found at Nippur, where extensive excavations were carried on during 1888–1900 by John P. Peters and John Henry Haynes, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, show that Enlil was the head of an extensive pantheon. Among the titles accorded to him are “king of lands”, “king of heaven and earth”, and “father of the gods”.

Enlil separated Anu (the sky) from Ki (earth), as God of the wind, he brought the rainy season that fertilised Ki in the form of Ninlil.  Having separated heaven and earth he became the only mediator between the two worlds.   Enlil had been given Enki’s Me (divine powers of civilisation), his mace the Sharur may represent Aquarius now usurped as representing Enlil.  In one myth, Enlil gives advice to his son, the god Ninurta, advising him on a strategy to slay the demon Asag. This advice is relayed to Ninurta by way of Sharur, his enchanted talking mace, which had been sent by Ninurta to the realm of the gods to seek counsel from Enlil directly.

Odin is a principal member of the Æsir (the major group of the Norse pantheon) and is associated with war, battle, victory and death, but also wisdom, Shamanism, magic, poetry, prophecy, and the hunt. Odin has many sons, the most famous of whom is the thunder-god Thor.  Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve, are attributed with slaying Ymir, the Ancient Giant, to form Midgard. From Ymir’s flesh, the brothers made the earth, and from his shattered bones and teeth they made the rocks and stones. From Ymir’s blood, they made the rivers and lakes. Ymir’s skull was made into the sky, secured at four points by four dwarfs named East, West, North, and South. From Ymir’s brains, the three gods shaped the clouds, whereas Ymir’s eyebrows became a barrier between Jotunheim (giant’s home) and Midgard, the place where men now dwell. Odin and his brothers are also attributed with making humans.

Odin carries Mimir’s head, mimir God of wisdom (possibly Aquarius) may have been his uncle but was slain, Odin embalmed Mimir’s head with herbs to stop it rotting and keeps it with him as the source of his wisdom.  Some epithets establish Odin as a father god: Alföðr, “all-father”, “father of all”; Aldaföðr, “father of men (or of the age)”; Herjaföðr, “father of hosts”; Sigföðr, “father of victory”; and Valföðr, “father of the slain”.

In the most classic and well-known version of Greek mythology, Cronus /ˈkroʊnəs/ or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky. He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus.  In an alternate version of this myth, a more benevolent Cronus overthrew the wicked serpentine Titan Ophion. In doing so, he released the world from bondage and for a time ruled it justly.

Recently, Janda (2010) offers a genuinely Indo-European etymology of “the cutter”, from the root *(s)ker- “to cut” (Greek κείρω (keirō), c.f. English shear), motivated by Cronus’ characteristic act of “cutting the sky” (or the genitals of anthropomorphic Uranus). The Indo-Iranian reflex of the root is kar, generally meaning “to make, create” (whence karma), but Janda argues that the original meaning “to cut” in a cosmogonic sense is still preserved in some verses of the Rigveda pertaining to Indra’s heroic “cutting”, like that of Cronus resulting in creation.

The Romans identified Saturn with the Greek Cronus, whose myths were adapted for Latin literature and Roman art. In particular, Cronus’s role in the genealogy of the Greek gods was transferred to Saturn. As early as Livius Andronicus (3rd century BC), Jupiter was called the son of Saturn.

Saturn had two consorts who represented different aspects of the god. The name of his wife Ops, the Roman equivalent of Greek Rhea, means “wealth, abundance, resources.” The association with Ops though is considered a later development, as this goddess was originally paired with Consus. Earlier was Saturn’s association with Lua (“destruction, dissolution, loosening”), a goddess who received the bloodied weapons of enemies destroyed in war.

Under Saturn’s rule, humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labor in a state of social egalitarianism, in the “Golden Age” described by Hesiod.

 

In the sleeping quarters, in the flowered bed fragrant like a cedar forest, Enlil made love to his wife and took great pleasure in it. He sat her on his dais appropriate to the status of Enlil, and made the people pray to her. The lord whose statements are powerful also determined a fate for the Lady (Aruru), the woman of his favour; he gave her the name Nintur, the ‘Lady who gives birth’, the ‘Lady who spreads her knees’. (…) Proud woman, surpassing the mountains! You who always fulfil your desires—from now on, Sud, Enlil is the king and Ninlil is the queen. The goddess without name has a famous name now,

When Sud gets the name of Ninlil, wife of Enlil

Ninlil, “lady of the open field” or “Lady of the Wind”), also called Sud, in Assyrian called Mulliltu, is the consort goddess of Enlil. Her parentage is variously described. Most commonly she is called the daughter of Haia (god of stores) and Nunbarsegunu (or Ninshebargunnu [a goddess of barley] or Nisaba). Another source says she is the daughter of Anu (aka An) and Antu. Other sources call her a daughter of Anu and Nammu. Theophilus G. Pinches noted that Nnlil or Belit Ilani had seven different names (such as Nintud, Ninhursag, Ninmah, etc.) for seven different localities.

She lived in Dilmun with her family. Raped and ravaged by her husband Enlil, who impregnated her with water, she conceived a boy, Nanna/Suen, the future moon-god. As punishment Enlil was dispatched to the underworld kingdom of Ereshkigal, where Ninlil joined him. Enlil impregnated her disguised as the gatekeeper, whereupon she gave birth to their son Nergal, god of death. In a similar manner she conceived the underworld god Ninazu when Enlil impregnated her disguised as the man of the river of the nether world, a man-devouring river. Later Enlil disguised himself as the man of the boat, impregnating her with a fourth deity Enbilulu, god of rivers and canals. All of these act as substitutes for Nanna/Suen to ascend. In some texts Ninlil is also the mother of Ninurta, the heroic god who slew Asag the demon with his mace, Sharur.

Ninlil had her sacred furrow in the sky where her ear of cereal grew, mother and provider of the daily bread she was the queen of heaven.  Her son Nanna helped the Sumerians time the sowing and harvest seasons, her other son Enbilulu God of canals ran adjacent to her fields and was important part of ensuring drainage of the swamp areas adjacent to the Euphrates.  Enlil was associated with northerly winter storms. As “Lady Wind” she may be associated with the figure of the Akkadian demon “Lil-itu”, thought to have been the origin of the Hebrew Lilith legend.

Ceres’ name may derive from the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European root *ker, meaning “to grow”, which is also a possible root for many English words, such as “create”, “cereal”, “grow”, “kernel”, “corn”, and “increase”. Roman etymologists thought “Ceres” derived from the Latin verb gerere, “to bear, bring forth, produce”, because the goddess was linked to pastoral, agricultural and human fertility. Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Rome’s neighbours in the Regal period, including the ancient Latins, Oscans and Sabellians, less certainly among the Etruscans and Umbrians. An archaic Faliscan inscription of c.600 BC asks her to provide far (spelt wheat), which was a dietary staple of the Mediterranean world. Throughout the Roman era, Ceres’ name was synonymous with grain and, by extension, with bread.

Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of circa 1400–1200 BC found at Pylos, the “two mistresses and the king” may be related with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.  Demeter’s two major festivals were sacred mysteries. Her Thesmophoria festival (11–13 October) was women-only. Her Eleusinian mysteries were open to initiates of any gender or social class. At the heart of both festivals were myths concerning Demeter as Mother and Persephone as her daughter.

Lakshmi is described as bestowing coins of prosperity and flanked by elephants signifying her royal power. However, in some texts, she has an owl as her vahana. Her expression is always calm and loving. The lotus also symbolizes the fertile growth of organic life, as the world is continually reborn on a lotus growing out of Vishnu’s navel.

Lakshmi is worshipped daily, but special focus is given in the month of October. Her worship ceremonies include people offering food and sweets, chanting her 108 names, prayers being repeated, and devotional songs being sung.

Ashta Lakshmi (Sanskrit: अष्टलक्ष्मी,Aṣṭalakṣmī, lit. “eight Lakshmis”) are a group of eight secondary manifestations of Lakshmi, who preside over eight sources of wealth and thus represent the powers of Shri-Lakshmi. Actually, Mahalakshmi presides over eighteen forms of wealth, ten of which are the eight great siddhis called AshtaSiddhis, the spiritual knowledge or Gnana, and teaching or imparting the spiritual knowledge to the entire world without any class difference.

Mahalakshmi is also known to preside over 16 forms of worldly wealth excluding Ashta siddhis, gnana and imparting gnana. They are as follows: Fame; Knowledge; Courage and Strength; Victory; Good Children; Valor; Gold, Gems and Other Valuables; Grains in abundance; Happiness; Bliss; Intelligence; Beauty; Higher Aim, High Thinking and Higher Meditation; Morality and Ethics; Good Health; Long Life.

Oceanus was to the ancient Greeks the personification of the World River a mythical river circling the earth.  Oceanus ruled all the seas his daughters the Oceanids representing all of the rivers, lakes and natural springs of the earth, over 3,000 are mentioned as existing although a lot less are mentioned by name.

In some mythological Sources Oceanus was the true ruler usurped by Cronos. Oceanus refused to take part in the war between the Titans and Olympians, when the earth is scorched in their battle it is Oceanus’ tears that quench the fire. When Odysseus and Nestor walk together along the shore of the sounding sea (Iliad IX.182) they address their prayers “to the great Sea-god who girdles the world”. It is to Oceanus, not to Poseidon, that their thoughts are directed.  In some myths Hera seeks solace from Oceanus after a dispute with Zeus, she recognises Oceanus as the true ruler of the Gods.

Oceanus is God of all water, of agreements and civilisation, he is not a war God but a god of reason and intellect, he mediates in disputes and gives guidance.

Considered the master shaper of the world, god of wisdom and of all magic, Enki was characterized as the lord of the Abzu (Apsu in Akkadian), the freshwater sea or groundwater located within the earth. In the later Babylonian epic Enûma Eliš, Abzu, the “begetter of the gods”, is inert and sleepy but finds his peace disturbed by the younger gods, so sets out to destroy them. His grandson Enki, chosen to represent the younger gods, puts a spell on Abzu “casting him into a deep sleep”, thereby confining him deep underground. Enki subsequently sets up his home “in the depths of the Abzu.” Enki thus takes on all of the functions of the Abzu, including his fertilising powers as lord of the waters and lord of semen.

In Vedic religion, Varuna (Sanskrit Varuṇa वरुण, Malay: Baruna) or Waruna, is a god of the water and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law, of the underwater world. A Makara is his mount. In Hindu mythology, Varuna continued to be considered the god of all forms of the water element, particularly the oceans. Varuna with his omniscience and omnipotence in the affairs of men has many aspects of a supreme deity. The daily Sandhyavandanam ritual of a dvija addresses Varuna in this aspect in its evening routine, asking him to forgive all sins, while Indra receives no mention.

The Temple at Gobekli Tepe may date back as far as 6,000 yrs before stone henge.  The Lime stone pillars have visible carvings that may represent deities.  We do not know what these deities were and that leaves the field open for guess-work.  For me I see the carvings arranged in a circular pattern as representing the natural cycle and the heavens that revolve with the seasons these two events are inseparable especially to the ancients.

The temple at Gobekli Tepe was built, covered in earth, built upon once more, again covered in earth as part of a ritual we do not understand.  What we can say is that mythology is rich in representations of the underworld connected to cereal Goddesses – Enlil and Ninlil in Sumerian Mythology and Persephone, Pluto in Greek / Roman mythology.  At the estimated time of these buildings wild cattle and grain were beginning to be farmed, this is an important transition point in history.  The temple may represent ancient Gods of our hunter Gatherer ancestors which were replaced by the Gods of agriculture.

These Gods may have been represented in the sky as constellations, significant to their seasons and guides to the traveller, we can surmise that myths and fairy tales were developed to impart information to future generations.  Perhaps these myths might have used the constellation Gods as guides in times of drought etc. The Gods and Goddesses if followed in that direction leading to water sources.

What we do know is the Sumerians spoke of the Annunaki, ancient Gods followed by their forefathers in my opinion this could be the Gods of the Gobekli Tepe, ancient tales that died out as mankind moved forwards from a hunter gatherer life style to agriculture.

Moving on to the Sumerians, we can see lots of representations of their Gods as constellations.  Image the sky at night without the stars and moon that is the Tiamet or Nammu the Original creator Goddess who gave birth to the starry sky and the earth, she is the sea in which the stars and moon float upon.  In astronomy a section of the sky is still known as the sea it includes the Constellations of Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn as well as Pegasus, Equuleus, Delphinus and others.  The Sky was the God Anu and his wife the earth Ki, forever in eternal embrace.  Enki was most probably the constellation of Aquarius, he represented the living waters of rivers – rivers are still the most vital requirement for human settlement, population atlas’ show how humans concentrate around them we need water for life.

Enki was God of the Apsu, fresh water, the Sumerians believed that the earth below the horizon floated in the Apsu, when Sumerians talk of Enki sleeping in the Apsu, it is not much of a leap to interpret this as the constellation being below the horizon.  Enlil was most likely Capricorn and after gaining superiority as head God from Enki also Aquarius would be most likely be associated with him.  Enlil however does not sleep in the Apsu he enters the Underworld with Ninlil, Virgo (ear of grain), impregnating her.

In Greek Mythology we see the same pattern, Uranus God of the Sky and husband of Gaia the earth.  His children the twelve Titans were the first Gods, Oceanus may have been Aquarius pouring water upon the earth.  What we do know is that in all these cultures the Old Gods of the Sky were usurped by the new Gods of the planets.