The temple here is made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement, so that the spirits of the dead (etimmu) can seek absolution for their unknown sins, or find resolution of the idea that one can transgress a divine prohibition without knowing it.
Relax within a cloud of night insects resting on a calm breeze
I thought it said “Summer” so I picked it. The Time Machine came to life and put me into a different place. This is Sumer. I am far from where I belong. Now I have been living here, it’s been something like over ten years. The Time Machine is gone. I forgot the manual. In my village they are called the Black Headed Ones, their families do the weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and stuff like pottery, you know. The farmers are doing well, lots of grain. There are fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands. Now, we are going to seek the council of elders, including both men and women.
Everyone is obsessed with the next life, where we go after this life, this time of testing. There are so many famous songs from the Lyres of Ur that tell of the land of the dead and the place of creation, guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people entering or leaving. They eventually will call it anthropomorphic polytheism but to me it is just my life now. Once I learned to speak Emeg̃ir “native tongue” it was like a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key. I am in the Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of what will one day be called the Persian Gulf. The Gidim (ghost) tells me of how to cross over from the conscious everyday world into the trance world of spiritual ecstasy, by listening to this music. I comply.
The temple here is made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed with mortar or cement, so that the spirits of the dead (etimmu) can seek absolution for their unknown sins, or find resolution of the idea that one can transgress a divine prohibition without knowing it. I hear a bone wind instrument. Soon multitudes of believers will sing and play percussion, wind, and string instruments. In my village we are known to love the pageantry, the musicians are usually accompanied by dancers, jugglers, and acrobats. Everybody always joins and sings lamentation prayers as well as battle music, to carry terror to the hearts of the foe. Ah, the sound of drum, cymbal and shrill double-flutes, the divinity of musical instruments, that pressure accompanied by the pungently nasal sounds.
That experience shows us all how to traverse into the next life.
She will gnaw on their bones and suck their blood ::
Geshtinanna is the goddess of singing in unison, to worship her we use clappers, scrapers, rattles, sistra, cymbals, bells, and drums. Just so you know, as I did not know before I came here, that a sistra is a thing made with odd metal bars which when shaken you can hear strange things from soft clanks to loud jangling. I am not very good at it.
The Sumerians around me now seem to envision the universe as a closed dome surrounded by a primordial saltwater sea. The sky is a series of domes covering the flat earth. Ordinary mortals can not go to heaven because it is the abode of the gods alone. So, after a person dies, his or her soul goes to Kur, a dark shadowy underworld, located deep below the surface of the earth.
Sumerian temples are called ziggurats and are tall, pyramidal structures with sanctuaries, and heaven was a shadowy version of life on earth, reserved exclusively for deities. Upon their deaths, all mortals’ spirits, regardless of their behavior while alive, go to Kur, a cold, dark cavern deep beneath the earth, which is still ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and where the only food available is dry dust. In times to come, we believe that Ereshkigal will rule alongside her husband Nergal, the god of death.
Lamashtu is a daughter of the Sky God Anu. Lamashtu is a female demon, a monster, a malevolent goddess or demigoddess who menaces women during childbirth and, if possible, kidnaps their children while they are breastfeeding. She will gnaw on their bones and suck their blood, as well as a number of other evil deeds. This track is associated with “LAMASTU.”
Dahlia’s Tear – “Crystal Scars Beneath a Bleak Sky” (8:12) — Witness a choir surrounded by little bells and chimes, in the host there are sustained male vocals and deep hollow drones in the midst of some tinkling hand percussion and long sustained atmospheric cavern reverberations. You can hear that the choir owns the cave but there are some strange otherworldly beats struggling to emerge, I hear windchimes and cymbals rattling. A locomotive beat emerges and takes over.
Namtar (‘fate’) is a figure in my new Mesopotamian religion, a minor god of the underworld and a disease demon, that is especially strongly associated with headaches and heart pain, think “twisted hands” now stop. Mouth filled with venom. This track is associated with “NAMTARU.”
Skadi – “Seed of Pestilence” (7:35) — Begin with slow and delicate sustained ringing which gracefully emerges, joined by unworldly deep pounding that reverberates like explosions in the distance, something is here now. Something gigantic has just arrived. Perhaps it is just behind the choir and above the place of the slow drumming/pounding community. I hear distant horns and bombs.
Pazuzu, King of the Evil Wind Demons stands on two legs and has human arms ending in claws, with two pairs of wings, a scorpion’s tail, a snake-headed erect penis, and a horned, bearded head with bulging eyes and snarling canine mouth. He is the son of Hanbu and king of the wind demons, a personification of the southwestern wind, and holds kingship over the lilu wind demons. This track is associated with “PAZUZU.”
Svartsinn & Letum – “One By One I Broke their Wings” (8:09) — The wind is insane, these things are happening within the storm. I hear what sounds like the night machines rumble on and on continuously, to remain long after the storm cools down. I hear fluids flush and gurgle in the darkness. I am obsessed, how can I repair the old time travel machine? I will think it through again. Now the winds are back and demanding our fear, the plodding explosions are getting closer and louder, the insane wind has found a haunted ziggurat castle to rush all about and within, howling and pressing hard.
Isimud, or isimu, Izzummi, is often depicted with two faces, and is a servant of Enki, the Sumerian god of water. This track is associated with “ISIMUD.”
New Risen Throne & Mortiis – “Chants for Isimud” (9:00) — Dark and very old. So very creepy, a very big steel vessel, something is trying to get free, somewhere a human voice intones and answering voices wail, this is where the ghosts circle above in the waning light. Sure enough, an ancient priest starts singing and I hear crashing in the chambers below. Clearly, something really big is angry down there.
Adad is the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He appears bearded, usually holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned headdress. The thunderbolt, bull, and lion are his symbols, bringing on the rain in due season, causing the land to become fertile, and, on the other extreme, the storms that he sends out bring havoc and destruction. This track is associated with “ADAD.”
Inner Vision Laboratory – “Vermin Wiped Clean” (8:06) — After a long period of uncertainty I hear a sham call to summon the beast, in the wind I hear the water sounds, I hear the ocean within a cave. I hear the crashing surf, something very big is getting closer. Now I hear a cathedral organ in the wind, there are lots of elements coming together, the crashing surf, the choir, the organ, the deep reverberating groans of the cave itself, and then… I don’t know.
Now only the ocean remains ::
Gallu demons famously hauled unfortunate victims off to the underworld. They were one of seven devils (or “the offspring of hell”) of Babylonian theology that could sometimes be appeased by the sacrifice of a lamb at their altars. The word gallu may also refer to a human adversary, one that is dangerous and implacable. This track is associated with “GALLU.”
Desiderii Marginis – “The Faceless Bringers of Pain” (8:35) — Relax within a cloud of night insects resting on a calm breeze. In the distance, metal crashing and closing, rising drones weave into melodic fragments. Oh my gods, here they come, do you feel the metallic reverberations? Know that the choir has arrived and is circling in the air above us, the drones are angry and rising, the great forces are colliding and this is all happening slowly and beyond our reach but the feelings are growing more fearful.
Be sure to never speak any of the demon names out loud. Thank you. Pray for me.
Tomb of Primordials is available on Cryo Chamber. [Bandcamp]
