The 12th Planet

by Zacharia Sitchin

  Sometime during the fifth day, the god Nabu - Marduk's son and heir - arrived by boat from his cult center, Borsippa. But he entered Babylon's temple compound only on the sixth day, for by then Nabu was a member of the Babylonian pantheon of twelve and the planet assigned to him was Mars - the sixth planet.

  The Book of Genesis informs us that in six days "the Heaven and the Earth and all their host" were completed. The Babylonian rituals commemorating the celestial events that resulted in the creation of the asteroid belt and Earth were also completed in the first six days of Nisan.

  On the seventh day, the festival turned its attention to Earth. Though details of the rituals on the seventh day are scarce, H. Frankfort (Kingship and the Gods) believes that they involved an enactment by the gods, led by Nabu, of the liberation of Marduk from his imprisonment in the "Mountains of Lower Earth." Since texts have been found that detail epic struggles between Marduk and other claimants to the rulership of Earth, we can surmise that the events of the seventh day were a reenactment of Marduk's struggle for supremacy on Earth (the "Seventh"), his initial defeats, and his final victory and usurpation of the powers.

  On the eighth day of the New Year Festival in Babylon, Marduk, victorious on Earth, as the forged Enuma Elish had made him in the heavens, received the supreme powers. Having bestowed them on Marduk, the gods, assisted by the king and populace, then embarked, on the ninth day, on a ritual procession that took Marduk from his house within the city's sacred precinct to the "House of Akitu," somewhere outside the city. Marduk and the visiting eleven gods stayed there through the eleventh day; on the twelfth day, the gods dispersed to their various abodes, and the festival was over.

  Of the many aspects of the Babylonian festival that reveal its earlier, Sumerian origins, one of the most significant was that which pertained to the House of Akitu. Several studies, such as The Babylonian Akitu Festival by S. A. Pallis, have established that this house was featured in religious ceremonies in Sumer as early as the third millennium B.C. The essence of the ceremony was a holy / procession that saw the reigning god leave his abode or/ temple and go, via several stations, to a place well out JOT town. A special ship, a "Divine Boat," was used for the purpose. Then the god, successful in whatever his mission was at the A.KI.TI House, returned to the city's quay by the same Divine Boat, and retraced his course back to the temple amid feasting and rejoicing by the king and populace.

  The Sumerian term A.KI.TI (from which the Babylonian akttu derived) literally meant "build on Earth life." This, coupled with the various aspects of the mysterious journey, leads us to conclude that the procession symbolized the hazardous but successful voyage of the Nefilim from their abode to the seventh planet, Earth.

  Excavations conducted over some twenty years on the site of ancient Babylon, brilliantly correlated with Babylonian ritual texts, enabled teams of scholars led by F. Wetzel and F. H. Weissbach (Das Hauptheiligtum des Marduks in Babylon) to reconstruct the holy precinct of Marduk, the architectural features of his ziggurat, and the Processional Way, portions of which were reerected at the Museum of the Ancient Near East, in East Berlin.

  The symbolic names of the seven stations and the epithet of Marduk at each station were given in both Akkadian and Sumerian - attesting both to the antiquity and to the Sumerian origins of the procession and its symbolism.

  The first station of Marduk, at which his epithet was "Ruler of the Heavens," was named "House of Holiness" in Akkadian and "House of Bright Waters" in Sumerian. The god's epithet at the second station is illegible; the station itself was named "Where the Field Separates." The partly mutilated name of the third station began with the words "Location facing the planet . . ."; and the god's epithet there changed to "Lord of Poured-Out Fire."

  The fourth station was called "Holy Place of Destinies," and Marduk was called "Lord of the Storm of the Waters of An and Ki." The fifth station appeared less turbulent. It was named "The Roadway," and Marduk assumed the title "Where the Shepherd's Word Appears." Smoother sailing was also indicated at the sixth station, called "The Traveler's Ship," where Marduk's epithet changed to "God of the Marked-Out Gateway."

  The seventh station was the Bit Akitu ("house of building life on Earth"). There, Marduk took the title "God of the House of Resting."

  It is our contention that the seven stations in the procession of Marduk represented the space trip of the Nefilim from their planet to Earth; that the first "station," the "House of Bright Waters," represented the passage by Pluto; the second ("Where the Field Separates") was Neptune; the third, Uranus; the fourth - a place of celestial storms - Saturn. The fifth, where "The Roadway" became clear, "where the shepherd's word appears," was Jupiter. The sixth, where the journey switched to "The Traveler's Ship," was Mars,

  And the seventh station was Earth - the end of the journey, where Marduk provided the "House of Resting" (the god's "house of building life on Earth"). How did the "Aeronautics and Space Administration" of the Nefilim view the solar system in terms of the space flight to Earth?

  Logically - and in fact - they viewed the system in two parts. The one zone of concern was the zone of flight, which embraced the space occupied by the seven planets extending from Pluto to Earth. The second group, beyond the zone of navigation, was made up of four celestial bodies - the Moon, Venus, Mercury, and the Sun. In astronomy and divine genealogy, the two groups were considered separate.

  Genealogically, Sin (as the Moon) was the head of the group of the "Four." Shamash (as the Sun) was his son, and Ishtar (Venus), his daughter. Adad, as Mercury, was the Uncle, Sin's brother, who always kept company with his nephew Shamash and (especially) with his niece Ishtar.

  The "Seven," on the other hand, were lumped together in texts dealing with the affairs of both gods and men, and with celestial events. They were "the seven who judge," "seven emissaries of Anu, their king," and it was after them that the number seven was consecrated. There were "seven olden cities"; cities had seven gates; gates had seven bolts; / blessings called for seven years of plenty; curses, for famines and plagues lasting seven years; divine weddings were celebrated by "seven days of lovemaking"; and so on and on.

  During solemn ceremonies like those that accompanied the rare visits to Earth by Anu and his consort, the deities representing the Seven Planets were assigned certain positions and ceremonial robes, while the Four were treated as a separate group. For example, ancient rules of protocol stated: "The deities Adad, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar shall be seated in the court until daybreak."

  In the skies, each group was supposed to stay in its own celestial zone, and the Sumerians assumed that there was a "celestial bar" keeping the two groups apart.

  "An important astral-mythological text," according to A. Jeremias (The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient Near East), deals with some remarkable celestial event, when the Seven "stormed in upon the Celestial Bar." In this upheaval, which apparently was an unusual alignment of the Seven Planets, "they made allies of the hero Shamash [the Sun] and of the valiant Adad [Mercury]" - meaning, perhaps, that all exerted a gravitational pull in a single direction. "At the same time, Ishtar, seeking a glorious dwelling place with Anu, strove to become Queen of Heaven" - Venus was somehow shifting its location to a more "glorious dwelling place." The greatest effect was on Sin (the Moon). "The seven who fear not the laws . . . the Light-giver Sin had violently besieged." According to this text, the appearance of the Twelfth Planet saved the darkened Moon and made it "shine forth in the heavens" once again.

  The Four were located in a celestial zone the Sumerians termed GIR.HE.A ("celestial waters where rockets are confused"), MU.HE ("confusion of spacecraft"), or UL.HE ("band of confusion"). These puzzling terms make sense once we realize that the Nefilim considered the heavens of the solar system in terms of their space travel. Only recently, the engineers of Comsat (Communications Satellite Corporation) discovered that the Sun and Moon "trick" satellites and "shut them off." Earth satellites could be "confused" by showers of particles from
solar flares or by changes in the Moon's reflection of infrared rays. The Nefilim, too, were aware that rocket ships or spacecraft entered a "zone of confusion" once they passed Earth and neared Venus, Mercury, and the Sun.

  Separated from the Four by an assumed celestial bar, the Seven were in a celestial zone for which the Sumerians used the term UB. The ub consisted of seven parts called (in Akkadian) giparu ("night residences"). There is little doubt that this was the origin of Near Eastern beliefs in the "Seven heavens."

  The seven "orbs" or "spheres" of the ub comprised the Akkadian kishshatu ("the entirety"). The term's origin was the Sumerian

  SHU, which also implied "that part which was the most important," the Supreme. The Seven Planets

  were therefore sometimes called "the Seven Shiny Ones SHU.NU" - the Seven who "in the Supreme Part rest."

  The Seven were treated in greater technical detail than the Four. Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian celestial lists described

  them with various epithets and listed them in their correct order. Most scholars, assuming that the ancient texts could not

  possibly have dealt with planets beyond Saturn, have found it difficult to identify correctly the planets described in the texts. But

  our own findings make identification and understanding of the names' meanings relatively easy.

  First to be encountered by the Nefilim approaching the solar system was Pluto. The Mesopotamian lists name this planet SHU.PA ("supervisor of the SHU"), the planet that guards the approach to the Supreme Part of the solar system. As we shall see, the Nefilim could land on Earth only if their spaceship were launched from the Twelfth Planet well before reaching Earth's vicinity, They could thus have crossed the orbit of Pluto not only as inhabitants of the Twelfth Planet but also as astronauts in a moving spaceship. An astronomical text said that the planet Shupa was the one where "the deity Enlil fixed the destiny for the Land" - where the god, in charge of a spacecraft, set the right course for the planet Earth and the Land of Sumer. Next to Shupa was IRU ("loop"). At Neptune, the spacecraft of the Nefilim probably commenced its wide curve or "loop" toward its final target Another list named the planet HUM.Ba, which connotes "swampland vegetation." When we probe Neptune someday, will we discover that its persistent association with waters is due to the watery swamps the Nefilim saw upon it? Uranus was called Kakkab Shanamma ("planet which is the double"). Uranus is truly the twin of Neptune in size and appearance. A Sumerian list calls it EN.TI.MASH. SIG ("planet of bright greenish life"). Is Uranus, too, a planet on which swampy vegetation abounded?

  Beyond Uranus looms Saturn, a giant planet (nearly ten times Earth's size) distinguished by its rings, which extend more than twice as far out as the planet's diameter. Armed with a tremendous gravitational pull and the mysterious rings, Saturn must have posed many dangers to the Nefilim and their spacecraft. This may well explain why they called the fourth planet TAR.GALLU ("the great destroyer"). The planet was also called KAK.SI.DI ("weapon of righteousness") and SI.MUTU ("he who for justice kills"-). Throughout the ancient Near East, the planet represented the punisher of the unjust. Were these names expressions of fear or references to actual space accidents?

  The Akitu rituals, we have seen, made reference to "storms of the waters" between An and Ki on the fourth day - when the spacecraft was between Anshar (Saturn) and Kishar (Jupiter).

  A very early Sumerian text, assumed since its first publication in 1912 to be "an ancient magical text," very possibly records the loss of a spaceship and its fifty occupants. It relates how Marduk, arriving at Eridu, rushed to his father Ea with some terrible news:

  "It has been created like a weapon;

  It has charged forward like death . . .

  The Anunnaki who are fifty,

  it has smitten. ...

  The flying, birdlike SHU.SAR

  it has smitten on the breast."

  The text does not identify "it," whatever destroyed the SHU.SAR (the flying "supreme chaser") and its fifty astronauts. But fear of celestial danger was evident only in regard to Saturn.

  The Nefilim must have passed by Saturn and come in view of Jupiter with a great sense of relief. They called the fifth planet Barbaru ("bright one"), as well as SAG.ME.GAR ("great one, where the space suits are fastened"). Another name for Jupiter, SIB.ZI.AN.NA ("true guide in the heavens"), also described its probable role in the journey to Earth: It was the signal for curving into the difficult passage between Jupiter and Mars, and the entry into the dangerous zone of the asteroid belt. From the epithets, it would seem that it was at this point that the Nefilim put on their me's, their spacesuits.

  Mars, appropriately, was called UTU.KA.GAB.A ("light established at the gate of the waters"), reminding us of the Sumerian and biblical descriptions of the asteroid belt as the celestial "bracelet" separating the "upper waters" from the "lower waters" of the solar system. More precisely, Mars was referred to as Shelibbu ("one near the center" of the solar system). An unusual drawing on a cylinder seal suggests that, passing Mars, an incoming spacecraft of the Nefilim established constant communication with "Mission Control" on Earth.

  The central object in this ancient drawing simulates the, symbol of the Twelfth Planet, the Winged Globe. Yet it x looks different: It is more mechanical, more manufactured than natural. Its "wings" look almost exactly like the solar panels with which American spacecraft are provided to convert the Sun's energy to electricity. The two antennas cannot be mistaken. The circular craft, with its crownlike top and extended wings and antennas, is located in the heavens, between Mars (the six- pointed star) and Earth and its Moon. On Earth, a deity extends his hand in greeting to an astronaut still out in the heavens, near Mars. The astronaut is shown wearing a helmet with a visor and a breastplate. The lower part of his suit is like that of a "fish- man" - a requirement, perhaps, in case of an emergency splashdown in the ocean. In one hand he holds an instrument; the other hand reciprocates the greeting from Earth.

  And then, cruising on, there was Earth, the seventh planet. In the lists of the "Seven Celestial Gods" it was called SHU.GI ("right resting place of SHU"). It also meant the "land at the conclusion of SHU," of the Supreme Part of the solar system - the destination of the long space journey.

  While in the ancient Near East the sound gi was sometimes transformed into the more familiar ki ("Earth," "dry land"), the pronunciation and syllable gi have endured into our own times in their original meaning, exactly as the Nefilim meant it to be: geo-graphy, geo-metry, geo-logy.

  In the earliest form of pictographic writing, the sign SHU.GI also meant shibu ("the seventh"). And the astronomical texts explained:

  Shar shadi il Enlil ana kakkab SHU.GI ikabbi

  "Lord of Mountains, deity Enlil, with planet Shugi is identical."

  Paralleling the seven stations of Marduk's journey, the planets' names also bespeak a space flight. The land at the journey's end was the seventh planet, Earth.

  We may never know whether, countless years from now, someone on another planet will find and understand the message drawn on the plaque attached to Pioneer 10. Likewise, one would think it futile to expect to find on Earth such a plaque in reverse - a plaque conveying to Earthlings information regarding the location and the route from the Twelfth Planet. Yet such extraordinary evidence does exist.

  The evidence is a clay tablet found in the ruins of the Royal Library in Nineveh. Like many of the other tablets, it is undoubtedly an Assyrian copy of an earlier Sumerian tablet. Unlike others, it is a circular disc; and though some cuneiform signs on it are excellently preserved, the few scholars who took on the task of deciphering the tablet ended by calling it "the most puzzling Mesopotamian document."

  In 1912, L. W. King, then curator of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities in the British Museum, made a meticulous copy of the disc, which is divided into eight segments.

  The undamaged portions bear geometric shapes unseen on any other ancient artifact, designed and drawn with considerable precision. They include arrows, t
riangles, intersecting lines, and even an ellipse - a geometric-mathematical curve previously assumed to have been unknown in ancient times.

  The unusual and puzzling clay plaque was first brought to the attention of the scientific community in a report submitted to the British Royal Astronomical Society on January 9, 1880. R. H. M. Bosanquet and A. H. Sayce, in one of the earliest discourses on "The Babylonian Astronomy," referred to it as a planisphere (the reproduction of a spherical surface as a flat map). They announced that some of the cuneiform signs on it "suggest measurements appear to bear some technical meaning." The many names of celestial bodies appearing in the eight segments of the plaque clearly established its astronomical character. Bosanquet and Sayce were especially intrigued by the seven "dots" in one segment. They said these might represent the phases of the Moon, were it not for the fact that the dots appeared to run along a line naming the "star of stars" DIL.GAN and a celestial body called APIN.

  "There can be no doubt that this enigmatical figure is susceptible of a simple explanation," they said. But their own effort to provide such an explanation did not go beyond reading correctly the phonetic values of the cuneiform signs and the conclusion that the disc was a celestial planisphere.

  When the Royal Astronomical Society published a sketch of the planisphere, J. Oppert and P. Jensen improved the reading of some star or planet names. Dr. Fritz Hommel, writing in a German magazine in 1891 ("Die Astronomic iler Alten Chaldaer"), drew attention to the fact that each one of the eight segments of the planisphere formed an angle of 45 degrees, from which he concluded that a total sweep of the skies - all 360 degrees of the heavens - was represented. He suggested that the focal point marked some location "in the Babylonian skies."

  There the matter rested until Ernst F. Weidner, first in un article published in 1912 (Babyloniaca: "Zur Baby-lonischen Astronomic") and then in his major textbook Handbuch der Babylonischen Astronomie (1915), thoroughly analyzed the tablet, only to conclude that it did not make sense.