Jerusalem of Gold

The Babylonian Talmud (Nedarim 50a) relates that one of the greatest sages, Rabbi ’Akkiva (2nd century AD), who started out as a poor, ignorant shepherd, slept with his beloved wife on the threshing floor...

He is described as pulling straw out of her hair and saying that if he could afford it, he would crown her with a "Jerusalem of Gold" – a "headgear shaped like the battlements or towers of a city", which was worn by "women of high status"...

Is this just a random innocent love scene? Or is there something more here, hidden in plain sight? I think the latter...

In my post about the sacred marriage on the threshing floor, I mentioned this:

"Threshing floors were used for religious ceremonies in Mesopotamia too. The annual sacred marriage reenactment between Ea and Ishtar (Asherah) was performed on a threshing floor".

You know how Asherah was associated with "High places"...Were these originally threshing floors?

As you can see from this article, the choice of the two protagonists of the scared marriage ceremony (sex) is not random. They mark the beginning (Ea- Apr/May) and the end (Ishtar - Jul/Aug) of the grain harvest in Mesopotamia...

Interestingly, the main consort of Ishtar (Inanna) was Tamuz (Dumuzid, Dumuzi), Mesopotamian god associated with shepherds...Whose sister Geshtinanna, was conveniently, the goddess of agriculture...

Ishtar, the queen of heaven, the morning star, is often depicted standing on a lion with the sun above it...

Why? Cause Jul/Aug, Leo, is the time when Sirius rises in the morning with the sun...

Anyway, Ishtar was not the only goddess that that stands on a lion, stands between lions, is driven in a chariot pulled by lions, or sits on a throne between two lions (all meaning "in Leo")...There is one for everyone in the audience, and I listed most of them in my post "Assumption of Mary"...

One of these lion goddesses was Cybele. Here she is, enthroned, with her pet lion, holding cornucopia, and wearing a "crown depicting city walls"!!!. This is a Roman marble made c. 50 AD...

Now Cybele was in turn associated with Greek Demeter, the Grain goddess. The main ceremony of her festivals called Haloa (from "halōs", "threshing floor"), took place in Eleusis, at the threshing floor of Triptolemus, Demeter's first priest and inventor of grain agriculture...

Romans knew Demeter as Ceres, Roman goddess of grain and grain harvest. Here she is, holding a sickle, with ears of grain in her hair and a grain sheaf in her hands...3rd century AD, Roman from Uthina, Tunisia...

Sooooo...After having sex with his wife on a threshing floor, Akkiva, the shepherd, picks the grain out of her hair and promises that he will buy her a golden crown in a shape of city walls...Scene depicting an Ordinary Marriage or a Sacred Marriage? What's going on here?

It's a mess, right?

Minoan sacred marriage seal

This is a Minoan seal which is by archaeologist interpreted as a depiction of "hieros gamos" or the "sacred marriage".  

Hieros gamos ("holy marriage") is a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities.

So who are the god and goddess depicted on this seal? And why are they depicted standing on top of a dog?

In my post "Ognjena Marija" I wrote about the holly marriage between Ognjena Marija (Fiery Mary) and St. Ilija Gromovnik (Elijah the thunderer). 

Ilija Gromovnik (Elijah the thunderer) is the Christianized Perun. But also he is the Christianized Helios, the old titan Sun God. 

In Slavic mythology, Ognjena Marija or the "Fiery Mary" is considered to be the sister of St Ilija Gromovnik and (or) wife of Perun. She is also known as Perunika.

Serbian folk tradition says that if it wasn't for Ognjena Marija, St Ilija Gromovnik, Perun, Thundering fiery sun would burn the whole world. 

The day on which St Eliah the thunderer is celebrated, the 2nd of August, used to be the known as Perun day. 

The period three days before and the three days after the 2nd of August, is in South Slavic tradition called Kresovi meaning Fires. This is the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere, the period of the burning heat. These are the dog days when the dog star Sirius is in the sky with the sun. 

In Serbian folk mythology, Ognjena Marija has been transformed into two female Christian characters: St Marina, known also as St Margaret and St Mary Magdalene.

If we look at the days on which people celebrate these two female saints, we can see that they mark the beginning and the end of Kresovi (the fire days):

30th of July. St Marina, St Margaret, Ognjena Marija
2nd of August. St Ilija the thunderer
4th of August. St Marija Magdalena, Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) Marija

You can see that Serbian tradition Kresovi, the week of fire, starts with the fiery Marija and Ends with kind, benign, mild, gentle Marija. The 2nd of August, Perun day, the day of Ilios the thundering sun, is actually the hottest day of the year in the Balkans. All summer the sun has been burning in the sky. This is the time of wild fires and drought. Everyone is praying for the first big thunderstorms to arrive and save the land from being burnt to cinder. And this is what Ognjena Marija delivers. In Serbia there is a saying: "Od svetog Ilije sunce sve milije" which means "From St Ilija the sun starts getting kinder, milder, gentler". The first part of the 2nd of August is considered to be Summer and the second is considered to be Autumn. And this is what the transformation of Marija from Ognjena (Fiery) to Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) represents, The end of summer and beginning of autumn.

The reign of the sun (Yang, Light, Heat, Dryness, Male principle) is ending and the right of the earth (Yin, Darkness, Cold, Wetness, Female principle) is beginning. 

Basically the god and goddess are Father Sky and Mother Earth...

Is this what the above Minoan seal represents?