by Brian Godawa
Mastema’s eyes brightened with interest as Ishtar concluded, “It dawned on me that once Elohim prophesied something, it was sure to come to pass. So why fight it? Why not use it to our advantage? After all, he is the one who promised there would be two seedlines of enmity.”
“You are cunning,” said Mastema.
Ishtar crowed, “Instead of defying Elohim’s prophecy, we will simply fulfill it as instruments of his own will.”
Mastema grinned. “We will breed his seedline of opposition. We will give him his war.”
Canaan’s knees almost gave out. He realized he was in over his head. He was a puny pawn in a very dangerous game of gods and men.
Mastema noticed. He bent down and said with a calming voice, “Do not be fearful, human. You will be a patriarch, a king among men. You will be completely under the good graces of our protection. What more could you ask for?”
Maybe the protection of Elohim, thought Canaan. But that was too late. He had already been cursed of Elohim, so this giant divinity was right. He was in the most capable hands of power in the pantheon.
Mastema turned to Ishtar with an interrogating demeanor. And interrogation was his specialty.
He said, “And what exactly do you want as reward for hatching your brilliant scheme, Ishtar?”
“Why to oversee it, of course,” she said like an innocent lamb.
“Of course,” Mastema mimicked with distrust. “But you are correct. My position as the satan in the heavenly court is far too important and public. You are an outcast of the pantheon. You can pursue this without need of the pantheon’s knowledge or approval.”
“It would be our little secret,” purred Ishtar in agreement.
Mastema said, “You should take on the identity of a local deity as disguise.”
“I like who I am,” said Ishtar with a tinge of stubborn inflexibility.
Mastema countered, “Do not worry, the goddess Ashtart fits you well. Same persona, new name, established authority as the Canaanite goddess of sex and war.”
“Well, in that case, Ashtart, it is,” said Ishtar. She had done this before. She liked the idea of being a moving target, too difficult for her enemies to keep track of constantly changing identities.
“I will alert the Canaanite deities so they will not rise up against you,” said Mastema.
“Who are they?” she said.
“The high god El and his consort Asherah, Molech, god of the underworld, and Dagon, god of fertility and the sea.”
“Will the high god’s pride of place become a problem?”
“El is my puppet,” said Mastema. “The old man will not be trouble. And he is stationed in the far northern regions.”
“I defer to your brilliance,” said Ishtar.
“Spare me the flattery, bitch goddess,” said Mastema. “I have just the southern location for you to do it.”
“I am at your command,” said Ishtar. But she thought, I could slice you in half, you pompous ingrate. If it were not for your devious legal hegemony.
Oh, how she hated the power of law. She knew he would not hesitate to crush her with it if she caused him any trouble.
Mastema said, “There is a confederation of five tribes in the southern Jordan valley of the Salt Sea. It is the most fertile area in the Levant with rich resources, and the tribes are ripe for leadership to unite them into a pentapolis of five city-states. Go there and build those cities.”
“What are the tribes?” asked Ishtar.
“Admah, Zeboiim, Zoar, Sodom, and Gomorrah. They are a particularly debauched people who I am sure will be open to your ‘creative depravity.’”
Ishtar could not help but grin. This was going to be fun.
“Well, we had better get hopping, Canaan” said Ishtar. “We have a seedline to breed — and an army to build.”
Chapter 13
Etemenanki, the holy temple-tower of Babylon, took a year to build. The city and its walls were not complete yet, but the temple area was a priority, so Nimrod finished it along with Marduk’s Esagila complex on the other side of the Processional Way. There were other temples throughout the city for Ishtar, Enlil, Shamash, and others, but their construction was deferred to the main temple complex, as well as the royal palace of Nimrod in the northern sector.
Within that year, Semiramis gave birth to a son who was named Mardon.
But also within that year, Nimrod commissioned Terah to establish a school of heavenly wisdom. The school would seek out and train those with sensitivity to the spiritual plane of reality. There were several different institutes for specialized knowledge based on the varying talents of the students. A court of sorcerers and magicians concentrated on enchantments, spells, and other magic. A court of diviners sought interpretations of omens from all manner of sources to discover the future. There was extispicy that studied the position and conditions of eviscerated organs of animals, livers, entrails, hearts, and lungs; auspicy studied the patterns and flights of birds, lecanomancy, the movement of water. Dream interpreters aided the difficult task of understanding the meaning of the king’s dreams. Nimrod was particularly enamored with dreams. As king of Uruk, his mother had instilled in him an obsession with dreams and they had presaged his very future.
But most important of all was the new court of astrologers. Astrology was relatively undeveloped, which is why the god Marduk focused much of his time and attention over this first year in revealing the occult secrets of the heavens to Terah and his court of astrologers.
First, Marduk enlisted the aid of Sinleqi to engrave, “star almanacs” on clay tablets. These tablets were a multitude of charts of the heavens with their constellations and planetary movements. There were seven planets: The sun, the moon, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter. Since the stars and planets were divine, they exerted influence on the course of history, so it was crucial to study their course in the heavens.
As a consequence of this need, Marduk spent countless hours with the scribal scholar Sinleqi elaborating detailed explanations of omens — celestial phenomena and their meanings as signs for terrestrial events. Marduk would dictate and Sinleqi would engrave in cuneiform with his reed stylus.
These omens would take the form of something like, “When Mercury becomes visible in the east in the region of Virgo, its interpretation is: The harvest of the land will prosper;” or, “If Jupiter remains in the sky in the morning, enemy kings will become reconciled.” Since gods and kings ruled the land, and the commoner was relatively insignificant, these omens related only to royalty and their kingdoms, but not to individual citizens.
Of particular importance in spiritual manifestation was the rare phenomenon of planetary alignment. Every few hundred years, all the planets would be lined up in a near eclipse that would exert unprecedented dramatic historical influence on the earth below. It was a celestial spectacle of great importance. Marduk had only recently calculated that the next alignment was due within a generation.
But there was an additional factor that magnified the significance of the alignment. That was the change of astrological ages that was currently taking place. Every two thousand one hundred and sixty years, the constellations above would move through the sky such that a new constellation would become dominant in its position and influence. In the same way that the sun would move through the signs of the zodiac over its yearly course, so the signs themselves would move through a “Great Year” of twenty-six thousand years, but in reverse order. The current age was of Taurus, the Bull. This was an age of earth, agriculture, and the Bull of Heaven, something Nimrod was very familiar with in his past experience. The next age to come was the Age of Aries, the Ram. This would be an age of fire and war, and was the portent of Marduk’s own rule through Nimrod of Babylon.
The ages did not stop and start on specific days or years, but rather blended into one another over decades or even hundreds of years. This was called the “cusp” of the age. Thus they were on the cusp of the age of Aries, and the apex of that cu
sp would occur at precisely the time of the next great planetary alignment.
Marduk knew that this combined cusp and alignment would be the zenith of compounded heavenly forces that would open the new temple tower Etemenanki as a portal to heaven for their plans. Thus, he had told a disappointed Nimrod that the emperor would have to wait another generation before they could consecrate the temple to open the portal and establish it as their new cosmic mountain of the gods. Their plans for world conquest would have to wait another generation.
Such a waiting period was insignificant for the likes of Marduk, whose supernatural being had experienced eons of time. He would simply use the time to labor over concealing all this astrological information behind elaborate religious myths and rituals. It was an ingenious way of embedding his knowledge into the very operations of ancient religion.
But for Nimrod, who was only half god and half man, a generation was like an eternity. Since he knew he could do nothing about it, he would focus on building his glorious city, which would take about as long to finish.
But this anxious interim was to be the least of Nimrod’s concerns, because this very evening, an event would occur that would change the world forever. It would challenge Nimrod’s imperial rule over a godforsaken world given over to its depravity by the Creator.
Elohim was coming back to the land of Mesopotamia.
Chapter 14
One of the advantages of being the emperor of the world with the king of the gods as your patron deity was the supreme authority that Nimrod had over his subjects. He could do whatever he wanted with them. He could use them, abuse them, rape them, beat them, kill them, or eat them as he wished. He had absolute authority over humanity.
One of the disadvantages of being the emperor under the authority of the supreme deity was the deity’s right to do whatever he wanted with Nimrod. Of course, it would be of no advantage to Marduk if he beat Nimrod too badly, or killed, or ate him.
But there was one thing that Marduk could do to satisfy his own lusts, assert his power, remind Nimrod of his station, and keep him in line: Sexual violation. And Marduk did it often. He was a hungry and virile king of the gods.
Because Nimrod was a Naphil, being part god, he could handle more physical abuse than normal human beings without breaking or dying in the god’s hands. Though Marduk was sure to keep Nimrod always in a submissive role and Marduk always as dominator, Nimrod had actually begun to enjoy the abuse. It gave him a richer understanding and deeper arousal and release knowing by experience what his own victims went through when he violated them, or killed them.
Nevertheless, Marduk required Nimrod to play the gimp, beg for mercy, and cower in fear. It had its intended effect of instilling in Nimrod a dutiful and submissive loyalty in public as well as private.
This evening’s nocturnal activities focused around the use of Marduk’s fists. But this was not for beating Nimrod. Rather he was using them in an unspeakable sexual activity that involved Nimrod’s anus.
The clanging of an emergency bell in the palace interrupted them.
“This had better be important,” said Marduk, “or I will slaughter whoever it is interrupting my satisfaction.”
Nimrod half hoped it was the case, since that would mean a reprise for Nimrod, as Marduk would take out his wrath and lust simultaneously on the messenger instead of Nimrod that evening.
The two of them got dressed and made their way to the receiving hall.
When Nimrod and Marduk arrived at the receiving entrance, an entire cadre of wise men from the school greeted them. Some sorcerers, enchanters, and astrologers had apparently been celebrating because most of them were inebriated.
Marduk was steaming. Sinleqi was in the lead, so Nimrod addressed him.
“Where is Terah?” It was customary for any important such aggregation of wise men to be accompanied by Terah, the headmaster of the school of heavenly wisdom.
Sinleqi spoke up. He was not given to much wine because he did not treasure the idea of losing control of himself. He treasured control.
“Your majesty, we just came from Terah’s house. We were celebrating the birth of his new child.”
“Oh, right. Very well,” said Nimrod. He did not care much for such things, so it had easily slipped his mind that Terah had taken some days off for just such a thing.
“So, why are you bothering me?”
“My lord,” replied Sinleqi, “in the midst of our rejoicing, some of us went outdoors to relieve ourselves, those you see here.” There were about twelve of them.
“I have no interest in your scatological releases, Sinleqi, get to the point.”
Sinleqi was shaking. And it was not from drink. “Your highness, all of us saw it. All of us. We looked up into the sky and were astonished to see a very large bright star come from the east and travel the ends of the heavens. This single star swallowed up the four stars of the four sides of heaven. We assembled together and counseled ourselves as to what this celestial matter was a portent of. We consulted our astronomical diaries and star almanacs in order to discover the meaning of this frightening omen. Now, as you may know…”
“Stop!” yelled Nimrod. “I do not want to hear every single scholarly detail and astrological minutia of every single consultation you engage in! Just tell me what it means, Sinleqi.” Nimrod had often thought he would have executed Sinleqi long ago, had his obsession with detail not come in so handy with the bureaucratic details of running a kingdom.
Queen Semiramis suddenly interrupted them. She was with her handmaiden who was carrying her crying year-old son Mardon.
Nimrod looked annoyed. “Woman, must you, at this hour?”
“Forgive me, my lord,” hissed Semiramis, “but a child’s needs are unimpeded by sleep or adult concerns.”
She looked at Nimrod and Marduk behind him with an accusing look, and finished, “Of course, you should not be bothered by such interruptions in your secret affairs of state.”
Her innuendo was her only way to express her disapproval, since she could not do so explicitly without being beaten.
The baby continued to cry. Nimrod closed his eyes.
Semiramis grabbed the child from the handmaiden and opened her robe to feed the baby boy.
When he began suckling her breast, she whimpered with erotic satisfaction, as another kind of jab at her husband. A reminder of what he was not giving to her. It was an unnatural connection that Semiramis had with her son. And Mardon was fast becoming a surrogate object of Semiramis’ affections and intentions.
Sinleqi finished his message. “Imperial Lord, the celestial phenomenon means that a child is born, whose seed will slay great kings, possess their land, and inherit the earth.”
“Are you talking of Mardon?” asked Semiramis.
“No, my queen,” answered Sinleqi, “This portent is of a new born.”
“Whose newborn?” she barked, anger rising in her throat.
Sinleqi glanced fearfully at his other wise men and sighed. But before he could respond, Nimrod responded for him.
“Terah, the captain of my heavenly host,” said Nimrod. He had figured it out within moments.
Semiramis was dumbfounded.
“Send for Terah,” said Nimrod.
“Yes, your majesty,” said Sinleqi. And the group of wise men began to leave.
Semiramis blurted out, “What is the child’s name?”
Sinleqi turned and said, “Abram, your majesty.”
Chapter 15
Nimrod sat brooding on his throne. He was angered that it had come to this. Terah had been a faithful servant of his heavenly host. He had built the school of heavenly wisdom and trained the courts of all of Nimrod’s wise men. Just as importantly, he had created the army of golemim for Nimrod by which he was able to assassinate all his rivals simultaneously and maintain a powerful terror throughout the land. Terah had been so loyal.
But he was also a bit of a sycophant. He was duplicitous and would change his mind to suit the whim of t
he king. Always choosing that which would ensure his survival by maintaining perpetual support of his lord, no matter the issue, no matter the cost.
But was not that preferable to a man with a conscience? A man with a moral conscience could not be trusted to do the will of the king when it conflicted with his petty conventional scruples. And the gods only know what Terah’s wife -- what as her name again? – he could not remember. The gods only know how she was going to respond to the king’s demands.
With all of Nimrod’s well worked out plans, he made one little mistake that would haunt him for the rest of his life. It was making this situation almost unworkable: Terah had the command and control of the golemim.
Nimrod had ordered Terah to create the army of ten thousand strong out of rock down in the desert outside Uruk. He had given Terah the enchantment spell to animate the Stone Ones, but he had neglected to consider the ramifications of his actions. The spell that Terah had to reproduce for all the mouths of the golemim, was written to enslave the army’s obedience to the caster of the spell. But in order for Terah to get the army to secretly march up north to Babylon and hide in the sand and rocks in preparation for the wedding ceremony of Nimrod, Terah had to be the caster.
But once that was accomplished, it could not be withdrawn or authority transferred. The sorcery established Terah as the commander of the army and Nimrod could not take that over. So Terah would always be required as a proxy commander on behalf of Nimrod with the Stone Ones.
If Terah changed loyalties or questioned his station, he could command the army to rise up in a coup against Nimrod. And if Nimrod killed Terah, the army would become a useless collection of immovable rock statues, and much of Nimrod’s military power would be drained. Not all of it, but enough to cause his empire to come into question.