The Tree of Light (Life)

3,000 BCE Sumerian Stamp Seal with Impression Tree of Life with Rampant Goats. Mesopotamia. Chicago. Oriental Institute Museum...

This "Tree of Life" looks a lot like Hanukah Menorah...So maybe I should look into it???

Ok First...I got this image and the info years ago and I added it to my notes where it lay until two days ago when I decided to use it as an illustration for this article. Unfortunately, I can't find this image using the Oriental Institute search any more...Searching the net, all I could find was a bigger picture of the same seal in a display cabinet, next to what looks like a top of a plaque (?) with a depiction of a Sumerian deity with characteristic horned headdress...

Because I couldn't find any direct link to the data about this object on the Oriental Institute Museum website, I have to put a big question mark about the data I posted about this seal. I would be grateful if anyone can give me more info about it, where is it, what is it exactly. Thank you.

Anyway...

If this "Tree of Life" was an ordinary looking tree, like this 2600 BC one found in the Sumerian Queen Pu-abi's tomb, I would say Ibex animal calendar markers marking Ibex mating season which overlaps with rain season which supports (the tree of) life...I talked about it in my post "Shell plaque with ibexes"...

But is the shape of that Tree of Life a coincidence? I started digging around and I found this: A 13th c. BC pottery shard from Lachish, an ancient Canaanite and Israelite city in the lowlands of Judea, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. O look, Temple Menorah! Flanked by Ibex goats! Pic from Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses by Irit Ziffer

Soooo...

This is the reconstruction of the menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem, created by the Temple Institute of Israel. Menorah is widely recognised as a symbol of Hebrew culture...

But what was Menorah supposed to have been the symbol of originally?

Apparently Yahveh himself gave the instructions how to make the original Menorah to Moses: 

Hammer a lamp out of one piece of pure gold. It should have a base and shaft, with 3 branches on one side and 3 on the other, ending in cups shaped like almond flowers...

The menorah was made and placed in the antechamber of the Temple sanctuary, over against its southernmost wall...Its cups were lit daily from fresh, consecrated olive oil and burned from evening until morning...

There is a story in Talmud that says that although all the lamps were filled with the same amount of oil, and the central lamp was lit first, all the other lights would run out of oil by the morning, except the central lamp which continued burning oil all through the day too...

This miracle, according to the Talmud, was taken as a sign that the god dwelt among Israel and the central lamp was actually called the lamp of god...

Most people associate Menorah with the winter holiday of Hanukah. The Menorah lit during Hanukah though has 4 branches on each side...Apparently, the Talmud states that it is prohibited to use a seven-lamp menorah outside of the Temple...Hence eight-lamp Hanukah Menorah...

But apparently this is not why the Hanukah Menorah has 8 branches. There are two stories explaining why Jews celebrate Hanukah when they celebrate it (end of Nov/Dec beginning of Dec/Jan, basically mid winter), and why they light Menorah with 8 branches during this celebration...

The first one states that this is to commemorate the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC...

According to the Talmud, there was only enough consecrated olive oil left to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, giving the Jews enough time to press more fresh oil...Hence Hanukah and 8 branch Menorah...

But there is another story, also from Talmud, that says that when Adam, during his first winter, saw the days growing shorter and shorter, he feared that God was angry and planned to destroy the world...

So what did he do while he waited for the end of the world? He feasted for eight days and nights 🙂 Then the light began to grow longer. What did Adam do when he realised that the world was actually not going to end? He feasted for eight days and nights of course 🙂

The next year, Adam celebrated both the eight days of darkness (before winter solstice) and the eight days of light (after winter solstice). The Talmud gives this story as the explanation for the Roman winter solstice festival of Saturnalia...

But Talmud scholars, like Prof. Moshe Benovitz, believe that "The ritual of candle lighting on Hanukkah developed from Roman custom of lighting lights during the Solstice festival of Saturnalia, most likely during the reign of King Herod"... 

Prof. Benovitz also says that it was only later that 8 days of Hanukah and the 8 branches of Hanukah Menorah were connected to the Maccabees, in the form of the miracle of the oil...

Implying that this was just a Roman fashion adopted by the Jews during Roman occupation...

This would mean that lighting of candles over Hanukah (winter solstice) has the same ritual significance as burning of the Yule log during Christmas (winter solstice)...It is a ritual rekindling of the sun's fire...

"The ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice...has survived...in the custom of the Yule log...[once]...widespread in Europe, it seems to have flourished especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs"...From "The Golden Bough"... 

I talked about it in these articles:

"Yule log in English tradition", "Yule log in French tradition", "Yule log in South Slavic tradition", "First footer"...

And this foreign custom was later absorbed into Judaism through Maccabees oil miracle story...Hmmmm...I definitely agree that lighting of the Hanukah Menorah is a winter solstice ceremony. But I would disagree that the Jews learned how to worship sun from the Romans...

I would argue that the original Maccabean Menorah lighting ceremony, which took place in the Second Temple of Jerusalem, was performed on winter solstice too. Deliberately...

In fact, I would argue that the whole Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC was timed to start at "auspicious time", so that lighting of the Temple Menorah can lit in the rededicated temple on winter solstice...

Which would mean that Hanukah is NOT a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt...It is the same winter solstice ceremony Maccabeans performed themselves...

And it is definitely NOT a Roman import...

Do I have any proof for this? 

Weeeell...Remember the Talmud story about the central light of the First Temple Menorah, which was the only light that burned through the day...Just like The Sun, does...The God light...

Knowing the link between Menorah Hanukah and the Sun, the fact that the central candle of the Hanukah (Solstice) Menorah is called Shamash (The name of the old Akkadian sun god), and that this candle has to be lit first, and then used to light all the other candles, shouldn't be a surprise any more...

Of course, we are told that the name of the central Menorah candle, shamash, means "attendant" or "servant"...That could be so...Hebrew is written without vowels...So שמש (sh-m-sh) can be interpreted in different ways, depending which vowels are inserted...Any one means servant?

However, when we look at the Hebrew Old Testament, what we find as the translation of the word שמש (sh-m-sh), is this:

Strong’s H8121, שמש shemesh, a concrete noun meaning, “sun, sunrise,” from an unused primitive root meaning, “to be brilliant.”

Out of 134 times that this word appears in the text

119 times shemesh is translated as “sun.”

9 times it is translated as “sunrising.”

2 times it is translated as “east side.”

1 time each it is translated as “window,” “eastward,” “west,” “westward.”

Like: And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see שמש (the sun), the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which YHVH your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. Deu 4:19

And so it is pretty clear that the central light of the Hanukah (Winter Solstice) Menorah, Shamash, represents The Sun, The True Light which lights up everything else...

Here is another interesting scripture excerpt featuring שמש (the sun):

Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to שמש (the sun), at the entrance to the house of YHVH...and he burned the chariots of שמש (the sun) with fire. 2 Kin 23:11

Remember this? My article "Boaz and Jachin" about the  (First) Temple, built on a Threshing Floor (also used as solar observatory), and "oriented" (made to face east). A "House of God" made to face the "House of (Sun) God"...

And do you remember this? My article "The sun god from the first temple" about the solar cult from the First Temple? In it, I asked: was Helios the Sun God of The First Temple who rode in a horse pulled quadriga? 

I asked this (silly) question, because the sun god worshiped in The First Temple rode on quadriga pulled by 4 horses. And when I wrote that article, way back when, I didn't know that Shamash also rode on a quadriga...3rd mill BC cylinder seal imprint found in Tell Brak, Syria...

I talked about this in these two articles: "Sun god from Tell Brak", "Shamash playing with solar horse"

So I think that the Sun God that Josiah says the Jews worshiped in the First Temple was no other than Shamash himself... 

Interestingly, the quadriga of the sun god Shamash rode on was not originally pulled by horses but by but "kungas", a specially bred hybrids between female domesticated donkey and a wild male Syrian wild ass...Basically a fancy donkey...Pic: Male Syrian wild ass...

Kungas were so highly regarded, that "they were deemed especially suitable for drawing the chariots of kings and gods"...

Kings and gods...Kings and gods...Why did Jesus have to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey/ass again? To prove what?

People would say: He was't proving anything. He was fulfilling a scripture prophecy.

"Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt." Zechariah 9:9

Except he didn't ride on a donkey to show he was humble...He rode on a donkey, cause donkey was the ride of kings since Sumerian times...And he and his "revolutionary" pals new it...And when I say revolutionaries...I talk about religious revolutionaries...Or maybe counter-revolutionaries...Not everyone in Judea liked what Josiah and his followers did...

And even though Jesus says: "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world." John 18:36

There is no way that him and his followers weren't aware of the significance of the fact that donkey was originally the mount for God/King...Shamash...

But I am digressing...This is all really cool so far. But I don't think that this was the (only) original meaning of the Menorah that Yahveh told Jews to make "in a shape of a blossoming almond tree" and which should be lit only by freshly pressed olive oil...

Sure the fact that this Menorah was a lamp made from pure gold hints at the solar aspect of this symbol...But Menorah was a lamp shape like a tree. The Tree of Light? Sure...The Tree of Life too? Let's see what plant calendar markers can tell us...

In Levant, almond trees are the first trees to bloom each year...They blossom in Jan/Feb. At the end of winter, beginning of Spring...I don't think Yahveh chose the Menorah tree randomly...

In Levant, olive harvest season is Oct/Nov/Dec (in the past even Jan). It starts at the end of autumn, beginning of winter...Oil is pressed right after all the olives were harvested...So in Oct/Nov/Dec...I don't think Yahveh chose the Menorah fuel randomly...

Here is why I think Menorah could be a complex calendar marker...This is climate in Levant...You can see that the climatic year is divided into two halves, the hot, dry summer (Apr/May - Oct/Nov), and cool, wet winter (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...

In Levant, it is the rain that falls during the winter that supports "The Tree of Life", that makes life possible...And the wettest time of the year Levant is between the harvesting of olives and blossoming of almonds, peaking right around winter solstice...

And as I said at the beginning of this article, there is one other thing that happens in Levant, Mesopotamia between Oct/Nov and Jan/Feb, peaking around winter solstice: mating of wild ibex goats marked by wild loud buck fights...This is why Ibex was in Levant, Mesopotamia associated with winter, rain and the tree of life...

Interestingly, Hanukah (winter solstice), the rainiest time of the year in Levant, falls at the beginning of the month of Tevet, which usually occurs in Dec/Jan on the Gregorian calendar...BTW, Tevet comes from Araḫ Ṭebētum, the "muddy month"...Appropriate for the wettest month of the year in both Mesopotamia and Levant...

The mazal (constellation) for Tevet is gedi (goat), Capricorn...Capricorn, Tevet, ends when wild Ibex goats stop mating, and almond trees start blooming in Levant, in Jan/Feb...Soon after that the rains stop, and shamash שמש (the sun) god, who disappeared in Oct/Nov comes back...

Sooooooooo....What should we make out of all this? Was Menorah deliberately shaped like a tree of life, because it was originally just burned during the winter, rain season, Oct/Nov - Jan/Feb, during the time when Sun, Shamash, was absent, to symbolically replace his light?

Don't know...I will leave it all this info here. It might be useful to someone for something...

Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Menorah from Nipur

This is one of the most interesting seals I have ever seen. It was found in the scribal quarters of Nippur, and was documented in the excavation report published by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

I am not sure exactly what the dating of this seal is, but the scribal quarter has layers from Akkadian, Gutian and the Third Dynasty of Ur periods...So the late 3rd mil BC...

So why is this seal so interesting? Let me explain: The seal depicts the sun god Utu/Shamash, identifiable by the wavy sun/heat rays emanating from his shoulders.

I talked about this in my post "Utu or Enki" about the above images found in an incredible book called "Seal cylinders of Wester Asia". 

This same symbolism was found not only in Mesopotamia in the late 3rd mil BC...This is a great example of the use of related animal calendar markers. Bactrian two side seal. Sun god with sun rays emanating from his shoulders (like Shamash/Utu), with snakes, symbols of sun's heat and winged lion, Nergal, symbol of hottest part of the year...

I talked about this in my post "Summer and winter BMAC seals"...

Utu/Shamash is  sitting on a throne, holding a cerated knife, another one of his identifying symbols...That tells us that this is old Utu/Shamash, the summer sun...

Sun God Utu/Shamash with sun (heat) rays emanating from his shoulders, standing in in an empty canal, in Leo (between the lions), the hottest, driest time of the year in Mesopotamia, and the time when canals were repaired, holding reed cutting knife...I talked about this in my post "Canals"

I talked about young and old Utu/Shamash here

It is Young Utu/Shamash, Spring Sun, who climbs up the mountains to release Enki/Ea, (god of) fresh water, from (his) it's icy prison. It is he who fills the rivers and canals...And it is Old Utu/Shamash, Summer Sun, who empties them...I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"...

On our Nipur seal, Shamash is flanked by two bull-men, holding (???)...Whatever they are holding, is telling us that we are looking at the sun in Taurus, Apr/May, beginning of summer, ruled by the old Utu/Shamash...

Similar to this:

The sun god stands "between two bulls", which means "in Taurus" (Apr/May). Out of the bulls grows grain, which means beginning of grain harvest in Apr/May...From my post "Bull carrying grannary"...

Sooooo....What's so special about this???

Remember my post "The tree of light/life" about the solar symbolism of Menorah? 

In it I talked about the fact that the central candle of the Hanukah (Solstice) Menorah is called Shamash, and that this candle has to be lit first, and then used to light all the other candles...

Now have a look at the central part of the Shamash cylinder seal from Nippur. Are you seeing what I am seeing, or am I just seeing things...again? Is this a symbolic depiction of the Menorah emanating from Shamash himself?

I think this could finally settle the debate about why the central Menorah candle is called Shamash, and why Menorahs are lit during winter solstice, the time when "people have to make sure the sun's fire does't die"...Which BTW is the point of Yule logs...

"The ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice...has survived...in the custom of the Yule log...[once]...widespread in Europe, it seems to have flourished especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs"...From "The Golden Bough"...I talked about Yule log tradition from around Europe in my posts "Badnjak", "First footer", "La buche de Noel", "Yule log in English tradition"

Now, as I explained in my post about Menorah, Menorah was not just the solar symbol, but also the tree of life symbol...Remember this post, "Bactrian bronze age menorah" about the tree of life depiction on this super cool Bactrian bronze stamp, dated to 2400BC-1600BC...

All the images of the rampant goats flanking the tree of life can be explained through animal calendar markers: Ibex goats mating season, which starts in Oct/Nov, overlaps with the rain season in all these areas, and it is the rain that makes life possible in these arid lands...

The ibex goat mating season peaks around the winter solstice/Hanukah...When the Menorahs are lit up using central Shamash candle...Until now I could not see the direct link between the solar and tree of life meaning of Menorah...But now I can...

Remember, every spring, the young Utu/Shamash, the spring sun, climbs up the mountains to release the fresh water (Enki/Ea) from its icy prison (melt the snow)

Which is why the poem "Enki and Ninhursanga" states that "When Utu [the sun god] steps up into Heaven (Holy mountain), fresh waters shall run out of the ground for you"...I talked about this in my post "When Utu steps up into heaven"...

The snowmelt peaks at the beginning of summer, Apr/May, in Taurus. 

Which is when Tigris and Euphrates flood reaches its peak. 

Which is why Utu/Shamash was depicted as a golden bull (Sun in Taurus) with flowing lapis lazuli beard (flowing water)...

And it is this flood (caused by the snowmelt, caused by the sun, Utu/Shamash) that was the (main) source of life in Mesopotamia...The tree of life literally grew out of Shamash...

Makes more sense now? 🙂

I want to thank my friend @dalaygiz for this great observation: 3-waves on each side, with the solar-head in the centre 🤔

Oh and BTW, in Mesopotamia, summer lasted seven hot months...Which is why local dragon, symbol of summer, had seven snake (symbol of sun's heat) heads...So number seven (seven lights) here becomes kind of obvious??? I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Temple of Isis on Philae Island

This painting by the 19th century French painter Théodore Frère depicts the Philae Island, located near the First Cataract of the Nile in Upper Egypt, with the central structure being the oldest temple, temple of Isis, built by Psamtik II (595 BC – 589 BC)...

The temple was the last temple built in the classical Egyptian style. It was also the place where the last known Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription (394 AD), and the last known Demotic inscription (452 AD) were found...

Finally, it was the last functioning pagan temple in Egypt (the temple was closed down in AD 537).

The temple of Isis was Christianised by carving lots of Coptic crosses into its walls and columns...

My favourite being this one. Why? Cause Christians also carved a star just above the cross...And this is actually an astonishing find. Why? Here's why:

Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol, 3rd c. AD, Vatican. Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god). Interesting...I talked about this in my post "Alexamenos graffito"...

I often wondered if early (Hebrew) Christians did know that cross represented sun god Shamash? 

I talked about this in my posts "The cross of Shamash" and "Sun god tablet"...

You know Shamash, the solar deity of the early Hebrews, to whom they dedicated their first temple (according to their own scriptures)...

Zodiac, with Helios in its center. 6th c. synagogue at Beit Alpha, Israel. Why? Well:

"Josiah removed from the entrance of the LORD's Temple the horse statues...and burned the chariots...which...kings of Judah dedicated to the sun..." 

I talked about this in my post "Sun god from the first temple"...

The First (solar) Temple was built on a threshing floor. Threshing floors were used in the past as solar observatories. Now if you wanted to make a (solar) temple on a solar observatory, and "orient" it (make it to face east), if you wanted to make a "House of God" to face the "House of (Sun) God", how would you do it? Like this:

The two little sticks could then be deified and called Boaz and Jachin...I talked about this in my post "Boaz and Jachin"...

Solar temple dedicated to a Sun god in a chariot pulled by 4 horses...I originally thought that this god was some kind of local Helios...But since then I learned that Shamash also traveled in a chariot pulled by four equids...

I talked about this in my posts "Sun god from Tell Brak" and "Shamash playing with solar horse"... 

So the Sun God that Josiah says the Jews worshiped in the First Temple was most likely Shamash...They still do worship him BTW...

Remember this post, "The tree of life, light", about the origin of the Hanukah (Winter Solstice) celebration? And the link between Yahweh and Shamash, the old Semitic (Akkadian) sun god...

Now in this post, "Menorah from Nipur", about this 3rd mill. BC seal from Nipur, I postulated, based on the fact that Shamash is depicted sitting between two bulls, that the Shamash worshipped through Menorah was Sun in Taurus, Apr/May. The good sun, the sun of life...

But I completely missed the fact that the two bulls have erections, which means they symbolised Jul/Aug, the start of the beginning of the mating season of wild cattle...I talked about this important "detail" in my post "Tree huggers", about this strange moulded plaque, Babylonian, ca. 2000–1600 BC. 

And I also, for some weird reason, ignored the fact that Shamash is holding the reed cutting knife. I talked about the importance of the reed cutting knife in my post "Canals", where I explain why Shamash holds reed cutting knife when he is depicted standing in an empty canal/river bed. About Jul/Aug being the best time to cut reed in Mesopotamia if you want to make long lasting reed boats, houses and canal dams...BTW, see how he is standing between two lions, in Leo...

Both pointing to the fact that the Shamash of the Menorah is Shamash in Jul/Aug...See how Shamash has (mostly) 3 heat waves coming from each shoulder? Togehter whith his head, that is 7...7 months of the Sumerian summer...With the head in Jul/Aug, the hottest part of the year...

Sun in Jul/Aug. Nergal...The deified destructive "burning" sun, which was depicted as a lion man

because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...

Talked abut Nergal in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

Nergal the god of death...Is Jahveh?

As I said, I often wondered if the early Christians did know that cross represented sun god, and I had a feeling that they did. And this particular cross with the star above it proves that at least some of them did know...

Cause carving this cross with the star above it into the column of the temple of Isis only makes sense if they knew that the cross represented Sun. And that the star represented Sirius. And that together, sun and star represented Isis, Sirius rising with the sun in Leo (Jul/Aug).

So what did the person who carved this cross and star really want to tell the world? A lot...

EGYPT. Drachm. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Zodiac series. Lion springing right; above, star and radiate and draped bust of Helios right...

The star is of course Sirius, which rises before the sun in Jul/Aug, Leo. 

This is the same as:

Sirius in Leo, also known as Ishtar...For those who will say "Ishtar was the morning star", yes she was, in Leo (Jul/Aug), when Sirius rose in the morning with the sun...Which is why Ishtar stands on a lion (with sun above the lion) and why Ishtar is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I talked about deified Sirius in many of my posts...

You can start here: You know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus?

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their myths about Sopdet...

I talked about this in my post "Sirius mother of Venus"...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...