By about 3,000 B.C Summerian civlization was developing on the Tigris and the Euphrates. Many of these cities had a population of 10,000 or more. They constructed greatly adorned temples that became academic communities with teachers, mathmaticians, priests, and astronomers. Also, these temples were utilized for food distribution. The Summerians made use of clay tablets for recording commerce and literature including the Epic of Gilgamesh. For the facts used to describe the Neolithic Revolution and the rise of Summer I will cite Dr. Ian Barnes's book "Mapping History: Classical World".
Alchemy is the craft of adding male and female components together to understand the universe and explains the workings of its existence. The Sumerians did not seperate the material from the spirtual. The Phoenician Letters is a series of mystery teachings from a master to a devout acolyte in the Mesopotamian tradition. It is made up of ten letters, each involving one of the following god/goddess; Rimon-Adad, Nabu, Ishtar, Nergal, Shamash, Marduk, Anu, Enlil, Ea-Enki, Sin-Nana. by the master to the acolyte exchanged during the period of two years. The letters cover the training of a future priest-king by a master kept unknown up to the last letter.
In Sumerian mythology Enki is the God of Sweet Water. This includes water in all forms. Furthermore, god of Wisdom, the Magician and Master of all Crafts.The following is quoted from an article titled "Alchemical Symbolism In Sumerian Myth and Religion". This quote is an exercept from "The Phoenician Letters". Please note that when I quote the "The Phoenician Letters" throughout this blog the excerpt comes from the article "Alchemical Symbolism In Sumerian Myth and Religion".
"Consider water in its many states, mist, cloud, rain, hailstones, snow, ice, streams, rivers, seas. The one thing that is the same in all states is susceptibility to change, it is the nature of water to change. Put it into a skin and fills the skin into a pot, it takes the shape of the pot, into air, mist and cloud, snow and ice, into earth, streams and rivers. Even so it is water." (page 61).
Enki is also the pure idea of the form, or the archetypal god. Again, we turn to "The Phoenician Letters", because He is the god from..:
"... the one form many arise. So that from a basic form of table, all the possible forms of table in course of time will appear" (page 62).
In other words, he is the idea of form, the perfect mental conception upon which all deriving forms are based. Also, his ever changing form is illustrated in the quote above. He can be defined as the magician and transformer of all everthing in nature. According to Mesopotomian mythology, the Godess Ninhursag-ki is the Earth mother from her everything important blossoms including the Great Gods and metals. The God Anu is the Skyfather from the start of the universe in the embrace of Mother Nammu, the Sea. Ninhursag-ki is the Eternal First Beloved of Anu. Then when their firstborn, Enlil, Lord Air blossimed they were seperated. The Godess Prima Materia is the living spirit that blossoms and dramatically changes in all kinds of combination. Enki symbolizes Her Beloved Artisan, the Shaman, Magician, and Priest.
The following quotation is an excerpt from "The Phoenician Letters" on the subject of the God of War, Nergal.
:"Nergal is the burner, the destroyer, for this is the last limitation. When a man dies he will, if he fears, burn in the flames of his terror. He will be torn by the dogs of his unfulfilled desires, cut to pieces by his guilt, until all that he has tied to his to himself is purified and a little, just a little metal - it may be gold, or copper, or mercury, or silver or even lead - be left. This test takes place between every breath; between every breath a man dies and is reborn, so every day he is born into the light of day and dies into sleep, that fortaste death wherein the dreams torment and taunt him with the deeds of the day. Here he must be a hero, walking unafraid through the land of his own underworld, mocked by the laws he has acted against. He must meet the demons that he himself has created, he must fight the battles which take place in him every day. This is justice: between breath and breath he may see the judgements he passes upon other, and as he does so visits them upon himself. Only courage and steadfastness in truth and insight are his weapons here" (page 45).
This excerpt refers to the piece of metal that is allowed to burn. The burning metal could be referencing the portion of us that is from our earliest days of life and without a scratch. This merely refers to the seed of the Great Mother Ninhursag believed to be carried within, represented by the metal attributions of Mesopotamian Gods, or the indestructable in us, our Personal Gods.
The older generation of Gods eventually wanted to pass the task of constructing the Earth to the younger generation of Gods. However, even the younger generation became fatigued from building Earth, so they went to Enki for help. Soon after, Enki called out to Ninhursag, and they gathered with several other men and women, they convened to make mankind.
To create human beings, Enki and Ninhursag held rituals of purification along a full moon cycle. Afterwards, a Sumerian God, Geshtu-e, is sacrificed, and Ninhursag combines Geshtu-e´s blood in clay of the sweet waters of the Great Deep, to fashion the base material to create a start to mankind. The younger gods, known as the Igigi, spat on the clay and womb goddesses are contacted to aid in the processes, and collectively they create seven men and seven women. To ensure mankind remembers their divine essence, the spirit of the sacrificed god resonates like a drumbeat in every heart, mind, body and soul for all of eternity.
When the Sumerians came to the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates to settle down there was a more ancient culture already settled there. The Summerians worked with the older culture to build numerous communities accross the Tigris and the Euphrates. Perhaps, the myth of the co-existence of the older generation of Gods with the younger generation of Gods symbolizes the two cultures working together to build a civilization the same way the different generation of Gods worked together to create Earth. Summerian religious and secular lore consists of symbolism and metaphors that often times refer to things that happened in reality. This technique is common amongst ancient civilizations and middle age era cultures.
In about 650 AD Islam began to spread acroos the Middle East and North Africa. By 823 AD the first Persian Muslim dynasty came to power. This was the Tahirid dynasty and they ruled from 821 to 873 AD. All throughout the middle ages modern day Iran was ruled by Muslim dynasties. By the year 963 AD Persia was ruled by a Turkish state called the Ghaznavid Empire. These facts can be attributed to the article "The History of Persia Part IV – Medieval Persia".
One of the most well known mideval Persian alcemist was Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi, or Rhazes. He developed a categorization for the elements and mineral utilized in alchemy. I'm going to quote his categorization from the article titled "Arabic/Persian Alchemy".
"The Major Divisions
- Mineral - These in turn get divided up into categories.
- Vegetable - Self-explanatory, the plants/flora.
- Animal - Self-explanatory, the animals/fauna.
The Six Minerals
- Spirits - There are 4 of them: arsenic sulphate, sulphur, sal ammoniac, and mercury.
- Bodies - There are 7 of them: Moon, Sun, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and--while not considered a planet--Kharsind or zinc (a metal ruled by Jupiter).
- Stones - There are 13 of them: including magnesia, lapis lazuli, gypsum, azurite, and malachite
- Vitrioles - There are 7 of them: including the colored vitrioles, such as yellow, green, black, white, and red
- Borates - There are 7 of them: including natron and impure sodium borates
- Salts - There are 11 of them: including salt, lime, ash, urine, rock, and naphtha"
Like many contemporary Arabic alchemist Rhaze focused on the practicality of his work. However, unlike other Arabic alchemist, he focused much of his attention on alchemy rather than medicene. He rejected the theory of balance. Also, he thought that the transmutation of metals could be completed. Although, after he tried to develop elexir, he became doubtfull of its making. Rhaze thought that elexir could be created through four steps. Again I will quote the article for these four stages.
"The first stage handled the cleansing of impurities. The second stage reduced the substance to its most elementary states. The third dissolved and recombined the solutions with the use of an acidic catalyst. The fourth combined and solidified the solution into the final form."
Rhazes' masterpiece was "Sirr al-Asrar", or "The Secret". In this literature he developed a deeper categorization of the elements utilized by alchemists. He seperated this work into three parts. I'm going to quote the article again for these three parts.
- the description of all the alchemic apparatus used in the laboratories of alchemists and apothecaries
- information on a number of substances within the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms, along with which type was best for a particular treatment
- the seven methods and techniques in creation of the Great Work, including sublimation, calcination, solution, and distillation
Although Rhaze had great intelligence, he did not obtain the popularity or achievement that he was seeking in his life. At one point during his lifetime, Rhaze had modest wealth. One of his backers, Emir Khorassan of Persia, became disapointed in him. After he unsuccesfully tried to transmute gold for the emir, he was banned from the court. Some accounts of his life even state that he lost his sight due to the emir's physical rage. After he left the court, Rhaze lived in poverty for the remainder of his lifetime.
References
"Mapping History: Classical World" book by Dr. Ian Barnes
"Alchemical Symbolism In Sumerian Myth and Religous"
http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/religion/sumalch1.htm
"The History of Persia Part IV – Medieval Persia"
http://irfi.org/articles/articles_2051_2100/the%20history%20of%20persia%20part%20ivhtml.htm
http://alchemyathol.weebly.com/lesson-4.html
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