Sun god in a boat

Another interesting seal. Akkadian, Tell Asmar. Description: "Sun god in a boat. On prow long-haired crowned figure with punting pole and human-headed lion, snake's head for stern, plow, vase and two objects above, fertility goddess beside boat, fish below" 

That's it???

Well no obviously...There are a lot of interesting details on this seal that definitely deserve some explanation...

I will start with the "fertility goddess beside boat". 

Well she has grain growing out of her and she is holding poppies...

Why?

Opium poppies were cultivated in Ancient Mesopotamia where they were known as "hul gil", meaning "joy plant" 🙂 So poppy harvest was an important annual event in Mesopotamia...Poppy harvest in Iraq starts in Apr-May. More in my article "Poppies and thunder gods"  

But why is "the fertility goddess", basically mother earth from which protrude ripe ears of grain, holding ripe poppies? Well because the poppy and grain harvests coincide in Mesopotamia. You can see that both barley (main Mesopotamian grain) and poppies harvests start in Apr-May...

The poppy and grain harvest season also coincides with the annual flooding in Mesopotamia which peaks in late April early May...Hence the reed boat...Here is the Euphrates flow table. The water levels suddenly peak in April and May, due to snow melt in Iran...

The reed boat represents summer, hence Sun god as the main passenger. Summer starts in Taurus, end of April, beginning of May, harvest time in Mesopotamia...

What about "snake stern"? 

Summer is the time of snakes, which is why snakes became symbols of sun's heat and summer. You can read more about the snake solar symbolism in my article "Enemy of the sun"...

So the boat of snakes, the boat of sun's heat, sun boat, summer...

Where is Sun god stirring the boat of summer towards? Well towards autumn...Which starts in Leo and is symbolised by a lion...Lion kills snake, summer ends, autumn begins... 

Hence the Sun god ferrying the lion in his boat. 

Towards autumn...

Which is when the first ploughing starts. 

At the end of the lion mating season, which starts in Leo and spans the whole of autumn 

Hence the Sun god is ferrying the plough with the lion. Is this a water jug? The fields are ploughed only after they are flooded to soften the soil...Also summer is the time of drought, the time without rain, the time when fresh drinking water becomes very precious...

That's all I have to say about that...Here is the link to the museum page for this seal. 

Two crosses

This is Sun's sunlight cross. It marks the transitional points on the sunlight cycle in the northern hemisphere:

1. Winter solstice - the shortest day and the longest night

2. Spring equinox - the equal day and night

3. Summer solstice - the longest day and shortest night

4. Autumn equinox - the equal day and night

This is Earth's, climate, vegetation cross. It marks the transitional points of the climatic, vegetative cycle in the northern hemisphere:

Celtic calendar:

1. Imbolc- the beginning of the spring
2. Bealtaine - the beginning of the summer
3. Lughnasa - the beginning of the autumn
4. Samhain - the beginning of the winter

Serbian calendar:

1. St Sava - the beginning of the spring
2. St George - the beginning of the summer
3. St Ilija - the beginning of the autumn
4. St Mitar - the beginning of the winter

As you can see the sun cross and earth cross are out of sync. The earth cross is rotated forward by 45 degrees and the earth circle cardinal points fall right in between the sun circle cardinal points. This is because the earth climatic, vegetative cycle lags behind the solar cycle. 

Winter solstice (21st of December) is the the shortest day. So we would expect that this is also the coldest day. We would also expect that from that day on, as the days start getting longer, the days also start getting warmer. But as we all know, this is not the case. The days do get longer, but the earth continues to cool. It is only at the beginning of February that we start seeing the first signs of the earth warming up. This is why the beginning of spring is at the beginning of February (Imbolc, St Sava (14th of January, but probably a replacement for the old Imbolc which is celebrated on the 1st of February)). The actual mid point is 4th of February. Which falls right in the middle of Aquarius (21 January – 19 February).

Spring equinox (21st of March) is the moment when the day is as long as night. From that day the days are longer than nights. We would expect that this would mark the beginning of the summer. But the real heat does not start until the beginning of May. This is why the beginning of summer is at the beginning of May (Bealtaine, which is today celebrated on the 1st of May, but there are indications that it was once celebrated on the 6th of May. Here we find St George's day celebrated on the 23 of April, probably replacement for old Bealtaine). The actual mid point is 6th of May. Which falls right in the middle of Taurus (21 April – 21 May).

Summer solstice (21st of June) is the longest day of the year. We would expect that this would also be the hottest day of the year. We would also expect that from that day on, as the days get shorter, the days also get colder. But again as we all know, that is not the case. The days do get shorter, but earth continues to warm. It is only at the beginning of August that we start seeing first sings of earth cooling down. This is why the beginning of autumn is at the beginning of August (Lughnasa which is today celebrated on the 1st of August but was once probably celebrated on the, 2nd of August. Here we find St Ilija's day celebrated on the 20th of July, probably replacement for old Lughnasa). The actual mid point is 2nd of August. Which falls right in the middle of Leo (23 July – 22 August).

Autumn equinox (21st of September) is the moment when the day is as long as night. From that day the days are shorter than nights. We would expect that this would mark the beginning of the winter. But the real cold does not start until the beginning of Novermber. This is why the beginning of winter is at the beginning of November (Samhain, St Mitar (26th of October, but probably the replacement for the old Samhain which is celebrated on the 31st of October)). The actual mid point is 5th of November. Which falls right in the middle of Eagle (Scorpio) (24 October – 22 November).

This last drawing is the diagram of transformation of Sun's sunlight cycle into Earth's climatic, vegetative cycle. 

The Sun cross transitions into the Earth cross. This transition is governed by the slow accumulation and release of the heat which is transferred from the Sun to the Earth through sunlight...

Does this golden cross which symbolizes this transition of light into heat into life energy remind you of anything?

This is the never ending wheel of life...

PS: It seems that AngloSaxons had the same rotated vegetative calendar...