The following story is basically a repeat of the Great Flood tale, which was allowed to wipe out mankind, according to the Sumerian tablets. It was a plan originally devised by Enlil, after he realised that Humankind had become a huge burden on the Anunnaki and the flood would remove the problem very quickly and effectively. The same story is told in virtually every civilisation of the world.
The Yellow Emperor was the supreme god of China, who looked down upon Earth and saw that people were evil and filled with wickedness. So, the Yellow Emperor ordered the ‘rain god’ to make endless rain. A great flood followed causing everything to die. One of the gods named Kun, looked down and was saddened by this devastation. Kun was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor who pleaded with his grandfather to make the rains stop, but the Yellow Emperor did not stop the flood. An old tortoise told Kun that in order to stop the rain he needed magic mud. The tortoise also explained that the Yellow Emperor had a jar of this mud inside his treasury. Kun stole the jar of magic mud and went down to Earth. Wherever he sprinkled the mud, islands grew and the water was sucked up. Kun travelled over the Earth spreading this magical mud and making new land as fast as he could. But the Yellow Emperor saw what Kun was doing and sent the ‘fire god’ down to kill him. Kun saw the fire god coming, so he transformed himself into a white horse and tried to hide. Still, the fire god send down lightning, which struck Kun and killed him on top of a mountain. Out of Kun's body grew a splendid son called Yu, who was a beautiful golden dragon. Yu flew up to the heavens to see his great grandfather, the Yellow Emperor, begging him to end the flood. The Yellow Emperor made Yu the ‘rain god’ with all the powers needed to perform his task, and allowed him all the amount of magic mud that could be piled upon the old tortoise's back. Yu made the rains stop, but much of the land remained under the water. So, he and the old tortoise went down to Earth, sprinkling the magic mud as they went. Then, after this was done, Yu used his tail to plough the mighty rivers of China. While carving the Yellow River, they came upon an obstacle of rocky cliffs. As Yu carved a chasm into the cliffs, he declared it to be the Dragon's Gate, which would always be sacred to dragons. Yu became a hero to the people, they begged him to be their emperor. So Yu transformed into a human and lived on Earth among the people as the Chinese Emperor.
There are so many symbolic similarities to other ancient scriptures it truly boggles the mind. But the one that really tickles me is the close link to the Anunnaki story of the Great Flood. Enlil was the supreme commander of Earth who decided to allow the impending flood to wipe out humanity because of their “evil ways”. People believed that it was Enlil who brought the rain and the flood. But his brother Enki, one of the ‘other gods’was saddened by the devastation and saved Humankind from extinction. He was also known as being the god of water and marshes, with the ability to reclaim land from water, which is what he did soon after arriving on Earth. Enlil outranked Enki and in that way ‘killed’ his challenge to save humans. And just like Kun's son Yu, became the god of the Chinese people, Marduk, the son of Enki, became the ‘god above all’ who lived among the people on Earth by marrying a mortal female and leading the semi-god movement in many civilisations where kings were half-god, half-human. Here are some more Chinese gods to digest:
SHANG-TI (Yu):
The highest deity and supreme ancestor of the Shang and Chou dynasty. The Shang worshipped ‘Shang Ti’, a supreme god who ruled over lesser gods, the sun, the moon, the wind, the rain, and other natural forces and places. Highly ritualised ancestor worship became a part of the Shang religion. Sacrifice to the gods and the ancestors was also a major part of the Shang religion. When a king died, hundreds of slaves and prisoners were often sacrificed and buried with him. People were also sacrificed in smaller numbers during important events, such as the founding of a palace or temple.
CH'ENG-HUANG:
God of walls and moats. Every village and town had its own version of Ch'eng-Huang. This was often a local dignitary or person of importance who had died and been promoted to divine status or ‘godhood’. Such a divine status was revealed in dreams, but ultimately the gods made the final decision. Ch'eng-Huang not only protects the community from attack, but also sees to it that the ‘King of the Dead’ does not take any soul from his jurisdiction without proper authority. Ch'eng-Huang exposes evil-doers in the community itself, usually through dreams. He has two assistants – Mr. Ba Lao-ye and Mr. Hei Lao-ye, who are Mr. Daywatchman and Mr. Nightwatchman.
CHU JUNG:
God of fire. Chu Jung punishes those who break the laws of heaven.
KUAN TI:
God of war. The ‘Great Judge’ who protects the people from injustice and evil spirits. A red-faced god dressed always in green who is also an oracle. Kuan Ti was an actual historical figure, a general of the Han dynasty renowned for his skill as a warrior and his justness as a ruler. There were more than 1600 temples dedicated to Kuan Ti.
KWAN YIN:
A popular goddess of mercy and compassion. A lady dressed in white, she is depicted seated on a lotus, holding an infant. After being murdered by her father, she recited the holy books when she arrived in Hell. The disgruntled god sent her back to the world of the living, where Kwan Yin attained great spiritual insight and was rewarded with immortality by the Buddha. Her temple at the Mount of the Wondrous Peak was always filled with lots of pilgrims shaking rattles and setting off firecrackers to get her attention.
LEI KUNG:
God of thunder. Lei Kung chases away evil spirits and punishes criminals whose crimes have gone undetected. He has the head of a bird, wings, claws and blue skin, and his chariot is drawn by six boys. Lei Kung makes thunder with his hammer, and his wife makes lightning with her mirrors.
PAHSIEN:
These are the 'Eight Immortals' of the Taoist tradition. They were ordinary mortals, who were rewarded with immortality for their good works and good lives, by the Queen Mother Wang, by giving them the peaches of everlasting life to eat. They are:
• LU TUNG-PIN – A hero of early Chinese literature. Renouncing riches and the world, he punished the wicked and rewarded the good, and slew dragons with a magic sword.
• TIEH-KUAI Li – He of the Iron Crutch, who was a healer. Li sits as a beggar in the market place selling ‘wondrous’ drugs. Some of these can revive the dead.
• CHUNG-LI CH'UAN – A smiling old man always beaming with joy, who was rewarded with immortality for his ascetic life in the mountains.
• TS'AO KUO-CHIU – Ts'ao Kuo-Chiu tried to reform his brother who was a corrupt emperor, by reminding him that the laws of heaven are inescapable.
• LAN TS'AI-HO – A young flute-player and wandering minstrel who carries a basket filled with fruit. His soul-searching songs caused a stork to snatch him away to the heavens.
• CHANG-KUO LAO – An aged hermit with miraculous abilities. Chang owned a donkey that could travel at incredible speed. He was the personification of the primordial vapour that is the source of all life.
• HAN HSIANG-TZU – A scholar who chose to study magic rather than prepare for the civil service. When his uncle reprimanded him for studying magic, Han Hsiang-Tzu materialized two flowers with poems written on the leaves.
• HO HSIEN-KU – Immortal Maiden, is a Cantonese girl who dreamt that she could become immortal by eating a powder made of ‘mother-of-pearl’. She appears only to men of great virtue.
P'AN-CHIN-LIEN:
Goddess of prostitutes. As a mortal she was a widow who was much too liberal and creative with her favours. Eventually her father-in-law killed her. She was revered in death by her professional associates who honoured her. She eventually became the goddess of whores.
SHI-TIEN YEN-WANG:
Ten rulers of the underworld who were known as ‘The Lords of Death’. They dress alike in royal robes and only the wisest can tell them apart. Each ruler presides over one court of law. In the first court a soul is judged according to his sins in life and sentenced to one of the eight courts of punis
hment. Punishment is dispensed to fit the offence. Misers are made to drink molten gold and liars have their tongues cut out. In the second court are incompetent doctors and dishonest agents; the third court has forgers, liars, gossips, and corrupt government officials. In the fifth court there are murderers, sex offenders and atheists; in the sixth, the sacrilegious and blasphemers; in the eighth, those guilty of filial disrespect; in the ninth, arsonists and accident victims. In the tenth court is the Wheel of Transmigration. This is where souls are released to be reincarnated after their punishment has been completed. Before souls are released, they are given a brew of oblivion, which makes them forget their former lives.
TI-TSANG WANG:
God of mercy. Wandering in the caverns of Hell, a lost soul might encounter a smiling monk whose path is illuminated by a shining pearl and whose staff is decorated with metal rings that chime like bells. This is Ti-Tsang Wang, who will do all he can to help the soul escape hell and even put an end to his eternal round of death and rebirth.
Just like in the Sumerian, Greek, Egyptian, Mayan and African myths, there were a number of humans who were given immortality by the gods of China for various reasons. We also see the importance of prostitution and sex, represented adequately by gods and goddesses in Eastern mythology. They support the Sumerian and biblical writing that the male gods had a ferocious sex-drive and loved human females, which is evident in the many temples related to sexual acts and prostitution. While the same can be said about the goddesses, there is generally more reference to the sexual needs of male gods which is supported by the temples of virgins and prostitutes. It does not take a trained eye to see the similarities to Sumerian gods and an underlying common thread binding the mythologies together.
Greek gods.
The Greek gods were probably the most anthropomorphic gods of any civilisation. This means that while they were gods, they possessed human attributes. They did however have some important differences to human beings. They were ageless and immortal, unlimited by physical restrictions, could take any shape they pleased, could go anywhere quickly, without much effort and often doing so invisibly. They were allowed to also perform a host of immoral acts, which were reserved for them only. Their sexual appetite was insatiable. Each god had his or her own special function. Just like in Sumer, the gods formed a distinctly untouchable and divine society living around the supreme deity Zeus, on Mount Olympus. Theirs was the highest level of society, which was a reflection of the organisation of societies in the ‘heroic’ age. Just like the Sumerians, the Greeks also had deities who lived on Earth or in the ‘Underworld’. Those were called ‘Chthonian’ or ‘gods on Earth’. The others were the ‘Olympians’ or ‘gods of heaven’. In 1 Corinthians 8:5 there is an intriguing reference to the ‘gods of heaven’ and the ‘gods on Earth’ once again showing that the people of biblical times were not hallucinating, and that there were other deities or gods whom we know nothing about today, mainly through the long and perpetual eradication process carried out by religious authorities.
1 Corinthians 8:4-6
“We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on Earth (as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live…”
In a similar fashion to the Sumerian gods, the Greeks had two groups of gods. The Titans were the first to rule the world, they were the elder group, who were overthrown by the Olympians who were led by Zeus. Although Greek deities were omnipresent and universal, their activities were attached to definite places. Temples in their honour were set within ‘temenos’, which were sacred precincts set aside for gods and deities. They would contain a spring for purification and a grove of trees. There was always an altar, placed in front of the temple, which was the one indispensable item at a shrine, because it was necessary for sacrifice during the main act of worship. Greek temples would house the deity's image and possessions and it was not a place of assembly for worshippers but it was actually seen as the home of the deity. People went to the temple to make offerings, rather than for private prayer. This indicates that the gods actually used to frequent these temples. They expected to be treated well, to be cared for by their human slaves and be provided with all the luxuries they required.
The Titans – First group of Greek gods.
Gaea or Gaiais the Earth goddess. She mated with her son Uranus to produce the remaining Titans.
Uranus is the sky god and first ruler. He is the son of Gaea, who created him without help. Together with Gaea they had many offspring, including the Titans. His rule ended when Cronus castrated him. It is not clear whether he died from the wound or withdrew from Earth. Uranus was jealous of the future power of his children and feared he would lose his rule to them. To prevent this he threw his children into the underworld. At the instigation of Gaea, her son Cronus castrated his father and dethroned him. When Uranus' blood fell upon the Earth (Gaea), the Erinyes or ‘goddesses of vengeance’ and the Gigantes (giants) sprang forth, among many other divinities. You will find out more about Erinyes and their Roman counterparts, the Furies later.
Cronus is the ruling Titan who came to power by castrating his father Uranus. His wife was Rhea and their offspring were the first of the Olympians. To insure his safety Cronus ate each of their children as they were born. Rhea was unhappy at the loss of her children, and tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, instead of Zeus, who would revolt against Cronus and the other Titans, defeat them, and banish them to Tartarus in the underworld. It is said that Cronus was killed by a ‘thunderbolt’ unleashed by Zeus. But other stories say that he escaped to Italy, where he ruled as Saturn. The period of Zeus' rule was said to be the ‘golden age on Earth’, honoured by the Saturnalia feast.
Rhea is the wife of Cronus who made it a practice to swallow their children. Rhea saved her son Zeus by tricking Cronus into swallowing a rock. Zeus grew up and deposed his father Cronus. Rhea is seen as the mother of the gods, daughter of Uranus and Gaea. She is also the mother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus. Rhea is identified with mother goddess Cybele from Asia Minor and is also known as Rhea Cybele and Magna Mater or 'great mother'. She was worshipped with orgiastic rites. Rhea is depicted between two lions or on a chariot pulled by lions.
Oceanus is the unending stream of water encircling the world. Together with his wife Tethys, they produced the rivers and the 3,000 ocean nymphs. He is the personification of the vast ocean, especially the waters outside of the Pillars of Heracles, or the Atlantic Ocean. He was the son of Uranus and Gaia and the eldest of the Titans. He was the father of all rivers by his sister Tethys. The couple also had the Oceanids which personified springs and smaller bodies of water, like lakes and ponds.
Tethys is the wife of her brother Oceanus and the god-mother of Rhea, who was raised during the war between the Titans and the Olympians. Tethys was the personification of the fertile ocean and with Oceanus had 3,000 children which were the springs, lakes and rivers of the world, also referred to as the “three thousand ocean nymphs”. Who were these Nymphs?
In Greek mythology Nymphs were divine females associated with various natural objects. There is debate whether they were immortal or merely long-lived, in which case they would have been half-human, half-goddesses, akin to Sumerian mythology. There was an infinite variety of nymphs representing various localities, rivers, lakes, mountains and more. Nymphs were depicted as young, beautiful, musical, amorous, and gentle, although some were associated with the wilder aspects of nature, while others were vengeful and capable of destruction. Whichever way one looks at it, the Nymph cult was huge in Greece and they possessed all the characteristics displayed by lower ranked Anunnaki deities, who were in charge of the lesser fortified towns as part of the divine control over Humankind.
Hyperion is the Titan of light and an early sun god. He is the son of Gaea and Uranus who married his s
ister Theia. His name means ‘he who goes before the sun’. Their children were Helius - the sun, Selene - the moon, and Eos - the dawn.
Mnemosyne was the Titan of memory and the mother of the nine Muses by her nephew Zeus.
Themis was the Titan of justice and order, one of the daughters of Uranus and Gaea. She is the personification of the ‘divine right order of things’ as sanctioned by custom and law. She has oracular powers and it is said that she built the oracle at Delphi. She is the mother of the Horae and the Moirae. Themis is depicted as a stern looking woman who is blindfolded and holding a pair of scales and a cornucopia. The Romans called her Justitia because her name means law. Themis introduced the ordinances which concern the gods and instructed men in the ways of obedience to laws and peace. Themis delivered oracles at Delphi until Apollo, the lovely son of Leto, came to the city, killed the serpent Python that guarded the oracle, and usurped power. Leto did not give Apollo her breast when he was born, but Themis, who was there, fed him with nectar and ambrosia. Themis told the Titan Prometheus not to join the Titans in their war against the Olympians, because as she prophesied, in that war, the clever, not the brutal, would prevail. Themis was deemed guardian of men's oaths and for that reason also called the ‘goddess of oaths’. She lives on Mount Olympus close to Zeus, who is described as the real all-seeing god as he whispers words of wisdom to Themis.
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