THE EPIC OF CREATION

ON MOST OF THE ANCIENT cylinder seals that have been found, symbols that stand for certain celestial bodies, members of our solar system, appear above the figures of gods or humans.

An Akkadian seal from the third millennium B.C., now at the Vorderasiatische Abteilung of the State Museum in East Berlin (catalogued VA/243), departs from the usual manner of depicting the celestial bodies. It does not show them individually but rather as a group of eleven globes encircling a large, rayed star.

It is clearly a depiction of the solar system as it was known to the Sumerians: a system consisting of twelve celestial bodies.

We usually show our solar system schematically as a line of planets stretching away from the Sun in ever-increasing distances. But if we depicted the planets, not in a line, but one after the other in a circle (the closest, Mercury, first, then Venus, then Earth, and so on).

If we now take a second look at an enlargement of the solar system depicted on cylinder seal VA/243, we shall see that the "dots" encircling the star are actually globes whose sizes and order conform to that of the solar system.

The small Mercury is followed by a larger Venus. Earth, the same size as Venus, is accompanied by the small Moon.

Continuing in a counter-clock-wise direction, Mars is shown correctly as smaller than Earth but larger than the Moon or Mercury.

The ancient depiction then shows a planet unknown to us - considerably larger than Earth, yet smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, which clearly follow it.

Farther on, another pair perfectly matches our Uranus and Neptune. Finally, the smallish Pluto is also there, but not where we now place it (after Neptune); instead, it appears between Saturn and Uranus.

Treating the Moon as a proper celestial body, the Sumerian depiction fully accounts for all of our known planets, places them in the correct order (with the exception of Pluto), and shows them by size.

The 4,500-year-old depiction, however, also insists that there was - or has been - another major planet between Mars and Jupiter. It is, as we shall show, the Twelfth Planet, the planet of the Nefilim.

If this Sumerian celestial map had been discovered and studied two centuries ago, astronomers would have deemed the Sumerians totally uninformed, foolishly imagining more planets beyond Saturn. Now, however, we know that Uranus and Neptune and Pluto are really there.

Did the Sumerians imagine the other discrepancies, or were they properly informed by the Nefilim that the Moon was a member of the solar system in its own right, Pluto was located near Saturn, and there was a Twelfth Planet between Mars and Jupiter?

The long-held theory that the Moon was nothing more than "a frozen golf ball" was not discarded until the successful conclusion of several U.S. Apollo Moon missions.

The best guesses were that the Moon was a chunk of matter that had separated from Earth when Earth was still molten and plastic. Were it not for the impact of millions of meteorites, which left craters on the face of the Moon, it would have been a faceless, lifeless, history-less piece of matter that solidified and forever follows Earth.

Observations made by unmanned satellites, however, began to bring such long-held beliefs into question. It was determined that the chemical and mineral makeup of the Moon was sufficiently different from that of Earth to challenge the "breakaway" theory. The experiments conducted on the Moon by the American astronauts and the study and analysis of the soil and rock samples they brought back have established beyond doubt that the Moon, though presently barren, was once a "living planet."

Like Earth it is layered, which means that it solidified from its own original molten stage. Like Earth it generated heat, but whereas Earth's heat comes from its radioactive materials, "cooked" inside Earth under tremendous pressure, the Moon's heat comes, apparently, from layers of radioactive materials lying very near the surface.

These materials, however, are too heavy to have floated up. What, then, deposited them near the Moon's surface?

The Moon's gravity field appears to be erratic, as though huge chunks of heavy matter (such as iron) had not evenly sunk to its core but were scattered about. By what process or force, we might ask? There is evidence that the ancient rocks of the Moon were magnetized. There is also evidence I hat the magnetic fields were changed or reversed. Was it by some unknown internal process, or by an undetermined outside influence?

The Apollo 16 astronauts found on the Moon rocks (called breccias) that result from the shattering of solid rock and its rewelding together by extreme and sudden heat. When and how were these rocks shattered, then re-fused? Other surface materials on the Moon are rich in rare radioactive potassium and phosphorus, materials that on Earth are deep down inside.

Putting such findings together, scientists are now certain that the Moon and Earth, formed of roughly the same elements at about the same time, evolved as separate celestial bodies. In the opinion of the scientists of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Moon evolved "normally" for its first 500 million years. Then, they said (as reported in The New York Times),

The most cataclysmic period came 4 billion years ago, when celestial bodies the size of large cities and small countries came crashing into the Moon and formed its huge basins and towering mountains.

The huge amounts of radioactive materials left by the collisions began heating the rock beneath the surface, melting massive amounts of it and forcing seas of lava through cracks in the surface.

Apollo 15 found a rockslide in the crater Tsiolovsky six times greater than any rockslide on Earth. Apollo16 discovered that the collision that created the Sea of Nectar deposited debris as much as 1,000 miles away. Apollo 17 landed near a scarp eight times higher than any on Earth, meaning it was formed by a moon-quake eight times more violent than any earthquake in history.

The convulsions following that cosmic event continued for some 800 million years, so that the Moon's makeup and surface finally took on their frozen shape some 3.2 billion years ago.

The Sumerians, then, were right to depict the Moon as a celestial body in its own right. And, as we shall soon see, they also left us a text that explains and describes the cosmic catastrophe to which the NASA experts refer.

The planet Pluto has been called "the enigma." While the orbits around the Sun of the other planets deviate only somewhat from a perfect circle, the deviation ("eccentricity") of Pluto is such that it has the most extended and elliptical orbit around the Sun. While the other planets orbit the Sun more or less within the same plane, Pluto is out of kilter by a whopping seventeen degrees. Because of these two unusual features of its orbit, Pluto is the only planet that cuts across the orbit of another planet, Neptune.

In size, Pluto is indeed in the "satellite" class: Its diameter, 3,600 miles, is not much greater than that of Triton, a satellite of Neptune, or Titan, one of the ten satellites of Saturn. Because of its unusual characteristics, it has been suggested that this "misfit" might have started its celestial life as a satellite that somehow escaped its master and went into orbit around the Sun on its own.

This, as we shall soon see, is indeed what happened - according to the Sumerian texts.

And now we reach the climax of our search for answers to primeval celestial events: the existence of the Twelfth Planet. Astonishing as it may sound, our astronomers have been looking for evidence that indeed such a planet once existed between Mars and Jupiter.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, even before Neptune had been discovered, several astronomers demonstrated that "the planets were placed at certain distances from the Sun according to some definite law." The suggestion, which came to be known as Bode's Law, convinced astronomers that a planet ought to revolve in a place where hitherto no planet had been known to exist - that is, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Spurred by these mathematical calculations, astronomers began to scan the skies in the indicated zone for the "missing planet." On the first day of the nineteenth century, the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered at the exact indicated distance a very small planet (485 miles across), which he named Ceres.

By 1804 the number of asteroids ("small planets") found there rose to four; to date, nearly 3,000 asteroid0 have been counted orbiting the Sun in what is now called the asteroid belt. Beyond any doubt, this is the debris of a planet that had shattered to pieces. Russian astronomers have named it Phayton ("chariot").

While astronomers are certain that such a planet existed, they are unable to explain its disappearance. Did the planet self-explode? But then its pieces would have flown off in all directions and not stayed in a single belt. If a collision shattered the missing planet, where is the celestial body responsible for the collision? Did it also shatter?

But the debris circling the Sun, when added up, is insufficient to account for even one whole planet, to say nothing of two. Also, if the asteroids comprise the debris of two planets, they should have retained the axial revolution of two planets. But all the asteroids have a single axial rotation, indicating they come from a single celestial body. How then was the missing planet shattered, and what shattered it?

The answers to these puzzles have been handed down to us from antiquity.

About a century ago the decipherment of the texts found in Mesopotamia unexpectedly grew into a realization that there - in Mesopotamia - texts existed that not only paralleled but also preceded portions of the Holy Scriptures. Die Kielschriften und das alte Testament by Eberhard Schrader in 1872 started an avalanche of books, articles, lectures, and debates that lasted half a century.

Was there a link, at some early time, between Babylon and the Bible? The headlines provocatively affirmed, or denounced: BABEL UND BIBEL.

Among the texts uncovered by Henry Layard in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, there was one that told a tale of Creation not unlike the one in the Book of Genesis. The broken tablets, first pieced together and published by George Smith in 1876 (The Chaldean Genesis), conclusively established that there indeed existed an Akkadian text, written in the Old Babylonian dialect, that related how a certain deity created Heaven and Earth and all upon Earth, including Man.

A vast literature now exists that compares the Mesopotamian text with the biblical narrative. The Babylonian deity's work was done, if not in six "days," then over the span of six tablets. Parallel to the biblical God's seventh day of rest and enjoyment of his handiwork, the Mesopotamiaii epic devotes a seventh tablet to the exaltation of the Babylonian deity and his achievements.

Appropriately, L. W. King named his authoritative text on the subject The Seven Tablets of Creation.

Now called "The Creation Epic," the text was known in antiquity by its opening words, Enuma Elish ("When in the heights").

The biblical tale of Creation begins with the creation of Heaven and Earth; the Mesopotamian tale is a true cosmogony, dealing with prior events and taking us to the beginning of time:

Enuma elish la nabu shamamu
When in the heights Heaven had not been named
Shaplitu ammatitm shuma la zakrat
And below, firm ground [Earth] had not been called

It was then, the epic tells us, that two primeval celestial bodies gave birth to a series of celestial "gods."

As the number of celestial beings increased, they made great noise and commotion, disturbing the Primeval Father. His faithful messenger urged him to take strong measures to discipline the young gods, but they ganged up on him and robbed him of his creative powers.

The Primeval Mother sought to take revenge. The god who led the revolt against the Primeval Father had a new suggestion: Let his young son be invited to join the Assembly of the Gods and be given supremacy so that he might go to fight singlehanded the "monster" their mother turned out to be.

Granted supremacy, the young god - Marduk, according to the Babylonian version - proceeded to face the monster, and, after a fierce battle, vanquished her and split her in two. Of one part of her he made Heaven, and of the other, Earth.

He then proclaimed a fixed order in the heavens, assigning to each celestial god a permanent position. On Earth he produced the mountains and seas and rivers, established the seasons and vegetation, and created Man. In duplication of the Heavenly Abode, Babylon and its towering temple were built on Earth. Gods and mortals were given assignments, commandments, and rituals to be followed.

The gods then proclaimed Marduk the supreme deity, and bestowed on him the "fifty names" - the prerogatives and numerical rank of the Enlilship.

As more tablets and fragments were found and translated, it became evident that the text was not a simple literary work: It was the most hallowed historical-religious epic of Babylon, read as part of the New Year rituals. Intended to propagate the supremacy of Marduk, the Babylonian version made him the hero of the tale of Creation. This, however, was not always so.

There is enough evidence to show that the Babylonian version of the epic was a masterful religious-political forgery of earlier Sumerian versions, in which Anu, Enlil, and Ninurta were the heroes.

No matter, however, what the actors in this celestial and divine drama were called, the tale is certainly as ancient as Sumerian civilization. Most scholars see it as a philosophic work - the earliest version of the eternal struggle between good and evil - or as an allegorical tale of nature's winter and summer, sunrise and sunset, death and resurrection.

But why not take the epic at face value, as nothing more nor less than the statement of cosmologic facts as known to the Sumerians, as told them by the Nefilim? Using such a bold and novel approach, we find that the "Epic of Creation" perfectly explains the events that probably took place in our solar system.

The stage on which the celestial drama of Enuma Elish unfolds is the primeval universe. The celestial actors are the ones who create as well as the ones being created. Act I:

When in the heights Heaven had not been named,
And below, Earth had not been called;
Naught, but primordial APSU, their Begetter,
MUMMU, and TIAMAT - she who bore them all;
Their waters were mingled together.
No reed had yet formed, no marshland had appeared.
None of the gods had yet been brought into being,
None bore a name, their destinies were undetermined;
Then it was that gods were formed in their midst.

With a few strokes of the reed stylus upon the first clay tablet - in nine short lines - the ancient poet-chronicler manages to seat us in front row center, and boldly and dramatically raise the curtain on the most majestic show ever: the Creation of our solar system.

In the expanse of space, the "gods" - the planets - are yet to appear, to be named, to have their "destinies" - their orbits - fixed. Only three bodies exist: "primordial AP.SU" ("one who exists from the beginning"); MUM.MU ("one who was born"); and TIAMAT ("maiden of life"). The "waters" of Apsu and Tiamat were mingled, and the text makes it clear that it does not mean the waters in which reeds grow, but rather the primordial waters, the basic life-giving elements of the universe.

Apsu, then, is the Sun, "one who exists from the beginning."

Nearest him is Mummu. The epic's narrative makes clear later on that Mummu was the trusted aide and emissary of Apsu: a good description of Mercury, the small planet rapidly running around his giant master. Indeed, this was the concept the ancient Greeks and Romans had of the god-planet Mercury: the fast messenger of the gods.

Farther away was Tiamat. She was the "monster" that Marduk later shattered - the "missing planet." But in primordial times she was the very first Virgin Mother of the first Divine Trinity. The space between her and Apsu was not void; it was filled with the primordial elements of Apsu and Tiamat.

These "waters" "commingled," and a pair of celestial gods - planets - were formed in the space between Apsu and Tiamat.

Their waters were mingled together....
Gods were formed in their midst:
Gor LAHMU and god LAHAMU were brought forth;
By name they were called.

Etymologically, the names of these two planets stem from the root LHM ("to make war").

The ancients bequeathed to us the tradition that Mars was the God of War and Venus the Goddess of both, Love and War.

LAHMU and LAHAMU are indeed male and female names, respectively; and the identity of the two gods of the epic and the planets Mars and Venus is thus affirmed both etymologically and mythologically. It is also affirmed astronomically: As the "missing planet," Tiamat was located beyond Mars. Mars and Venus are indeed located in the space between the Sun (Apsu) and "Tiamat."

We can illustrate this by following the Sumerian celestial map.

In the Beginning: Sol, Mercury, "Tiamat"

The interior planets - the "gods in between" - born.

The process of the formation of the solar system then went on.

Lahmu and Lahamu - Mars and Venus - were drought forth, but even
Before they had grown in age
And in stature to an appointed size -
God ANSHAR and god KISHAR were formed,
Surpassing them [in size].
As lengthened the days and multiplied the years,
God ANU became their son - of his ancestors a rival.
Then Anshar's first-born, Anu,
As his equal and in his image begot NUDIMMUD.

With a terseness matched only by the narrative's precision, Act I of the epic of Creation has been swiftly played out before our very eyes.

We are informed that Mars and Venus were to grow only to a limited size; but even before their formation was complete, another pair of planets was formed. The two were majestic planets, as evidenced by their names - AN.SHAR ("prince, foremost of the heavens") and KI.SHAR ("foremost of the firm lands"). They overtook in size the first pair, "surpassing them" in stature.

The description, epithets, and location of this second pair easily identify them as Saturn and Jupiter.

The SHAR - the giant planets - are created, together with its "emissary".

Some time then passed ("multiplied the years"), and a third pair of planets was brought forth.

First came ANU, smaller than Anshar and Kishar ("their son"), but larger than the first planets ("of his ancestors a rival" in size). Then Anu, in turn, begot a twin planet, "his equal and in his image." The Babylonian version names the planet NUDIMMUD, an epithet of Ea/Enki.

Once again, the descriptions of the sizes and locations fit the next known pair of planets in our solar system, Uranus and Neptune.

There was yet another planet to be accounted for among these outer planets, the one we call Pluto. The "Epic of Creation" has already referred to Anu as "Anshar's firstborn," implying that there was yet another planetary god "born" to Anshar/Saturn.

The epic catches up with this celestial deity later on, when it relates how Anshar sent out his emissary GAGA on various missions to the other planets. Gaga appears in function and stature equal to Apsu's emissary Mummu; this brings to mind the many similarities between Mercury and Pluto.

Gaga, then, was Pluto; but the Sumerians placed Pluto on their celestial map not beyond Neptune, but next to Saturn, whose "emissary," or satellite, it was.

There are added the last two planets - as their image.

As Act I of the "Epic of Creation" came to an end, there was a solar system made up of the Sun and nine planets:

SUN - Apsu, "one who existed from the beginning."
MERCURY - Mummu, counselor and emissary of Apsu.
VENUS - Lahamu, "lady of battles."
MARS - Lahmu, "deity of war."
?? - Tiamat, "maiden who gave life."
JUPITER - Kishar, "foremost of firm lands."
SATURN - Anshar, "foremost of the heavens."
PLUTO - Gaga, counselor and emissary of Anshar.
URANUS - Anu, "he of the heavens."
NEPTUNE - Nudimmud (Ea), "artful creator."

Where were Earth and the Moon? They were yet to be created, products of the forthcoming cosmic collision.

With the end of the majestic drama of the birth of the planets, the authors of the Creation epic now raise the curtain on Act II, on a drama of celestial turmoil. The newly created family of planets was far from being stable.

The planets were gravitating toward each other; they were converging on Tiamat, disturbing and endangering the primordial bodies.

The divine brothers banded together;
They disturbed Tiamat as they surged back and forth.
They were troubling the "belly" of Tiamat
By their antics in the dwellings of heaven.
Apsu could not lessen their clamor;
Tiamat was speechless at their ways.
Their doings were loathsome. ...
Troublesome were their ways.

We have here obvious references to erratic orbits.

The new planets "surged back and forth"; they got too close to each other ("banded together"); they interfered with Tiamat's orbit; they got too close to her "belly"; their "ways" were troublesome. Though it was Tiamat that was principally endangered, Apsu, too, found the planets' ways "loathsome."

He announced his intention to "destroy, wreck their ways."

He huddled with Mummu, conferred with him in secret. But "whatever they had plotted between them" was overheard by the gods, and the plot to destroy them left them speechless. The only one who did not lose his wits was Ea. He devised a ploy to "pour sleep upon Apsu." When the other celestial gods liked the plan, Ka "drew a faithful map of the universe" and cast a divine spell upon the primeval waters of the solar system.

What was this "spell" or force exerted by "Ea" (the planet Neptune) - then the outermost planet - as it orbited the Sun and circled all the other planets? Did its own orbit around the Sun affect the Sun's magnetism and thus its radioactive outpourings? Or did Neptune itself emit, upon its creation, some vast radiations of energy?

Whatever the effects were, the epic likened them to a "pouring of sleep" - a calming effect - upon Apsu (the Sun).

Even "Mummu, the Counselor, was powerless to stir."

As in the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah, the hero - overcome by sleep - could easily be robbed of his powers. Ea moved quickly to rob Apsu of his creative role. Quenching, it seems, the immense outpourings of primeval matter from the Sun, Ea/Neptune "pulled off Apsu's tiara, removed his cloak of aura." Apsu was "vanquished." Mummu could no longer roam about. He was "bound and left behind," a lifeless planet by his master's side.

By depriving the Sun of its creativity - stopping the process of emitting more energy and matter to form additional planets - the gods brought temporary peace to the solar system. The victory was further signified by changing the meaning and location of the Apsu. This epithet was henceforth to be applied to the "Abode of Ea."

Any additional planets could henceforth come only from the new Apsu - from "the Deep" - the far reaches of space that the outermost planet faced.

How long was it before the celestial peace was broken once more? The epic does not say. But it does continue, with little pause, and raises the curtain on Act III:

In the Chamber of Fates, the place of Destinies,
A god was engendered, most able and wisest of gods;
In the heart of the Deep was MARDUK created.

A new celestial "god" - a new planet - now joins the cast.

He was formed in the Deep, far out in space, in a zone where orbital motion - a planet's "destiny" - had been imparted to him. He was attracted to the solar system by the outermost planet:

"He who begot him was Ea" (Neptune).

The new planet was a sight to behold:

Alluring was his figure,

sparkling the lift of his eyes;

Lordly was his gait,

commanding as of olden times... ,

Greatly exalted was he above the gods, e

xceeding throughout...
He was the loftiest of the gods,

surpassing was his height;

His members were enormous,

he was exceedingly tall.
Appearing from outer space,

Marduk was still a newborn planet,

belching fire and emitting radiation.

"When he moved his lips, fire blazed forth."

As Marduk neared the other planets,

"they heaped upon him their awesome flashes," and he shone brightly, "clothed with the halo of ten gods."

His approach thus stirred up electrical and other emissions from the other members of the solar system. And a single word here confirms our decipherment of the Creation epic: Ten celestial bodies awaited him - the Sun and only nine other planets.

The epic's narrative now takes us along Marduk's speeding course. He first passes by the planet that "begot" him, that pulled him into the solar system, the planet Ea/ Neptune. As Marduk nears Neptune, the latter's gravitational pull on the newcomer grows in intensity.

It rounds out Marduk's path,

"making it good for its purpose."

Marduk must still have been in a very plastic stage at that time.

As he passed by Ea/Neptune, the gravitational pull caused the side of Marduk to bulge, as though he had "a second head."

No part of Marduk, however, was torn off at this passage; but as Marduk reached the vicinity of Anu/Uranus, chunks of matter began to tear away from him, resulting in the formation of four satellites of Marduk.

"Anu brought forth and fashioned the four sides, consigned I heir power to the leader of the host."

Called "winds," the four were thrust into a fast orbit around Marduk, "swirling as a whirlwind."

The order of passage - first by Neptune, then by Uranus - indicates that Marduk was coming into the solar system not in the system's orbital direction (counterclockwise) but from the opposite direction, moving clockwise. Moving on, the oncoming planet was soon seized by the immense gravitational and magnetic forces of the giant Anshar/ Saturn, then Kishar/Jupiter.

His path was bent even more inward - into the center of the solar system, toward Tiamat.

The approach of Marduk soon began to disturb Tiamat and the inner planets (Mars, Venus, Mercury).

"He produced streams, disturbed Tiamat; the gods were not at rest, carried as in a storm."

Though the lines of the ancient text were partially damaged here, we can still read that the nearing planet "diluted their vitals... pinched their eyes." Tiamat herself "paced about distraught" - her orbit, evidently, disturbed.

The gravitational pull of the large approaching planet soon began to tear away parts of Tiamat. From her midst there emerged eleven "monsters," a "growling, raging" throng of satellites who "separated themselves" from her body and "marched at the side of Tiamat." Preparing herself to face the onrushing Marduk, Tiamat "crowned them with halos," giving them the appearance of "gods" (planets).

Of particular importance to the epic and to Mesopotamian cosmogony was Tiamat's chief satellite, who was named KINGU,

"the first-born among the gods who formed her assembly."

She exalted Kingu,
In their midst she made him great....
The high command of the battle
She entrusted into his hand.

Subjected to conflicting gravitational pulls, this large satellite of Tiamat began to shift toward Marduk.

It was this granting to Kingu of a Tablet of Destinies - a planetary path of his own - that especially upset the outer planets. Who had granted Tiamat the right to bring forth new planets? Ea asked.

He took the problem to Anshar, the giant Saturn.

All that Tiamat had plotted, to him he repeated:

"...she has set up an Assembly and is furious with rage...
she has added matchless weapons, has borne
monster-gods...
withal eleven of this kind she has brought forth;
from among the gods who formed her Assembly,
she has elevated Kingu, her first-born, made him chief...
she has given him a Tablet of Destinies, fastened it on his breast."

Turning to Ea, Anshar asked him whether he could go lo slay Kingu. The reply is lost due to a break in the tablets; but apparently Ea did not satisfy Anshar, for the continuing narrative has Anshar turning to Anu (Uranus) lo find out whether he would "go and stand up to Tiamat."

Hut Anu "was unable to face her and turned back."

In the agitated heavens, a confrontation builds; one god lifter another steps aside. Will no one do battle with the raging Tiamat? Marduk, having passed Neptune and Uranus, is now nearing Anshar (Saturn) and his extended rings.

This gives Anshar an idea:

"He who is potent shall be our Avenger; ho who is keen in battle: Marduk, the Hero!"

Coming within reach of Saturn's rings ("he kissed the lips of Anshar"), Marduk answers:

"If I, indeed, as your Avenger
Am to vanquish Tiamat, save your lives -
Convene an Assembly to proclaim my Destiny supreme!"

The condition was audacious but simple: Marduk and his "destiny" - his orbit around the Sun - were to be supreme among all the celestial gods.

It was then that Gaga, Anshar/Saturn's satellite - and the future Pluto - was loosened from his course:

Anshar opened his mouth,
To Gaga, his Counsellor, a word he addressed....
"Be on thy way, Gaga,
take the stand before the gods,
and that which I shall tell thee
repeat thou unto them."

Passing by the other god/planets, Gaga urged them to ! "fix your decrees for Marduk."

The decision was as anticipated: The gods were only too eager to have someone else go to settle the score for them.

"Marduk is king!" they shouted, and urged him to lose no more time.

"Go and cut off the life of Tiamat!"

The curtain now rises on Act IV, the celestial battle.

The gods have decreed Marduk's "destiny"; their combined gravitational pull has now determined Marduk's orbital path so that he can go but one way - toward a "battle," a collision with Tiamat.

As befits a warrior, Marduk armed himself with a variety j of weapons. He filled his body with a "blazing flame";

"he constructed a bow... attached thereto an arrow... in front of him he set the lightning"

"he then made a net to enfold Tiamat therein."

These are common names for what could only have been celestial phenomena - the discharge of electrical bolts as the two planets converged, the gravitational pull (a "net") of one upon the other.

But Marduk's chief weapons were his satellites, the four "winds" with which Uranus had provided him when Marduk passed by that planet: South Wind, North Wind, East Wind, West Wind. Passing now by the giants, Saturn and Jupiter, and subjected to their tremendous gravitational pull, Marduk "brought forth" three more satellites - Evil Wind, Whirlwind, and Matchless Wind.

Using his satellites as a,

"storm chariot," he "sent forth the winds that he had brought forth, the seven of them."

The adversaries were ready for battle.
The Lord went forth, followed his course;
Towards the raging Tiamat he set his face....
The Lord approached to scan the innerside of Tiamat -
The scheme of Kingu, her consort, to perceive.
But as the planets drew nearer each other, Marduk's course became erratic:
As he looks on, his course becomes upset,
His direction is distracted, his doings are confused.
Even Marduk's satellites began to veer off course:
When the gods, his helpers,
Who were marching at his side,
Saw the valiant Kingu, blurred became their vision.
Were the combatants to miss each other after all?

But the die was cast, the courses irrevocably set on collision.

"Tiamat emitted a roar"...  "the Lord raised the flooding storm, his mighty weapon."

As Marduk came ever closer, Tiamat's "fury" grew; "the roots of her legs shook back and forth." She commenced to cast "spells" against Marduk - the same kind of celestial waves Ea had earlier used against Apsu and Mummu.

But Marduk kept coming at her.

Tiamat and Marduk, the wisest of the gods,
Advanced against one another;
They pressed on to single combat,
They approached for battle.
The epic now turns to the description of the celestial battle,

in the aftermath of which Heaven and Earth were created.
The Lord spread out his net to enfold her;
The Evil Wind, the rearmost, he unleashed at her face.
As she opened her mouth, Tiamat, to devour him -
He drove in the Evil Wind so that she close not her lips.
The fierce storm Winds then charged her belly;
Her body became distended; her mouth had opened wide.
He shot there through an arrow, it tore her belly;
It cut through her insides, tore into her womb.
Having thus subdued her, her life-breath he extinguished.

Here, then, is a most original theory explaining the celestial puzzles still confronting us.

An unstable solar system, made up of the Sun and nine planets, was invaded by a large, comet-like planet from outer space. It first encountered Neptune; as it passed by Uranus, the giant Saturn, and Jupiter, its course was profoundly bent inward toward the solar system's center, and it brought forth seven satellites.

It was unalterably set on a collision course with Tiamat, the next planet in line. A. Marduk's "winds" colliding with Tiamat and her "host" (led by Kingu).

But the two planets did not collide, a fact of cardinal astronomical importance: It was the satellites of Marduk I hat smashed into Tiamat, and not Marduk himself. They "distended" Tiamat's body, made in her a wide cleavage. Through these fissures in Tiamat, Marduk shot an "arrow," a "divine lightning," an immense bolt of electricity that lumped as a spark from the energy-charged Marduk, the planet that was "filled with brilliance."

Finding its way into Tiamat's innards, it "extinguished her life-breath" - neutralized Tiamat's own electric and magnetic forces and Holds, and "extinguished" them.

The first encounter between Marduk and Tiamat left IKT fissured and lifeless; but her final fate was still to be determined by future encounters between' the two. Kingu, louder of Tiamat's satellites, was also to be dealt with separately.

But the fate of the other ten, smaller satellites of Tiamat was determined at once.

After he had slain Tiamat, the leader, Her band was shattered, her host broken up. The gods, her helpers who marched at her side, Trembling with fear, Turned their backs about so as to save and preserve their lives.

Can we identify this "shattered... broken" host that trembled and "turned their backs about" - reversed their direction?

By doing so we offer an explanation to yet another )ii7./le of our solar system - the phenomenon of the comets. Tiny globes of matter, they are often referred to as the solar system's "rebellious members," for they appear to obey none of the normal rules of the road. The orbits of the planets around the Sun are (with the exception of Pluto) almost circular; the orbits of the comets are elongated, and in most instances very much so - to the extent that some of them disappear from our view for hundreds or thousands of years.

The planets (with the exception of Pluto) orbit the Sun in the same general plane; the comets' orbits lie in many diverse planes. Most significant, while all the planets known to us circle the Sun in the same counterclockwise direction, many comets move in the reverse direction.

Astronomers are unable to say what force, what event created the comets and threw them into their unusual orbits. Our answer: Marduk.

Sweeping in the reverse direction, in an orbital plane of his own, he shattered, broke the host of Tiamat into smaller comets and affected them by his gravitational pull, his so-called net:

Thrown into the net,

they found themselves ensnared....

The whole band of demons that

had marched on her side

He cast into fetters,

their hands he bound....

Tightly encircled,

they could not escape.

After the battle was over, Marduk took away from Kingu the Tablet of Destinies (Kingu's independent orbit) and attached it to his own (Marduk's) breast: his course was bent into permanent solar orbit. From that time on, Marduk was bound always to return to the scene of the celestial battle.

Having "vanquished" Tiamat, Marduk sailed on in the heavens, out into space, around the Sun, and back to retrace his passage by the outer planets: Ea/Neptune, "whose desire Marduk achieved," Anshar/Saturn, "whose triumph Marduk established."

Then his new orbital path returned Marduk to the scene of his triumph, "to strengthen his hold on the vanquished gods," Tiamat and Kingu.

As the curtain is about to rise on Act V, it will be here - and only here, though this has not hitherto been realized - that the biblical tale of Genesis joins the Mesopotamian "Epic of Creation"; for it is only at this point that the tale of the Creation of Earth and Heaven really began.

Completing his first-ever orbit around the Sun, Marduk "then returned to Tiamat, whom he had subdued."

The Lord paused to view her lifeless body.
To divide the monster he then artfully planned.
Then, as a mussel, he split her into two parts.

Marduk himself now hit the defeated planet, splitting Tiamat in two, severing her "skull," or upper part.

Then another of Marduk's satellites, the one called North Wind, crashed into the separated half. The heavy blow carried this part - destined to become Earth - to an orbit where no planet had been orbiting before:

The Lord trod upon Tiamat's hinder part;

With his weapon the connected skull he cut loose;

He severed the channels of her blood;

And caused the North Wind to bear it

To places that have been unknown.

Earth had been created!

The lower part had another fate: on the second orbit, Marduk himself hit it, smashing it to pieces:

The [other] half of her he set up as a screen for the skies:

Locking them together, as watchmen he stationed them. . .

He bent Tiamat's tail to form the Great Band as a bracelet.

The pieces of this broken half were hammered to become a "bracelet" in the heavens, acting as a screen between the inner planets and the outer planets. They were stretched out into a "great band." The asteroid belt had been created.

Astronomers and physicists recognize the existence of great differences between the inner, or "terrestrial," planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and its Moon, and Mars) and the outer planets (Jupiter and beyond), two groups separated by the asteroid belt. We now find, in the Sumerian epic, ancient recognition of these phenomena.

Moreover, we are offered - for the first time - a coherent cosmogonic-scientific explanation of the celestial events that led to the disappearance of the "missing planet" and the resultant creation of the asteroid belt (plus the comets) and of Earth.

After several of his satellites and his electric bolts split Tiamat in two, another satellite of Marduk shunted her upper half to a new orbit as our planet Earth; then Marduk, on his second orbit, smashed the lower half to pieces and stretched them in a great celestial band.

Every puzzle that we have mentioned is answered by the "Epic of Creation" as we have deciphered it. Moreover, we also have the answer to the question of why Earth's continents are concentrated on one side of it and a deep

cavity (the Pacific Ocean's bed) exists on the opposite side. The constant reference to the "waters" of Tiamat is also illuminating. She was called the Watery Monster, and it stands to reason that Earth, as part of Tiamat, was equally endowed with these waters. Indeed, some modern scholars describe Earth as "Planet Ocean" - for it is the only one of the solar system's known planets that is blessed with such life-giving waters.

New as these cosmologic theories may sound, they were accepted fact to the prophets and sages whose words fill the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah recalled "the primeval days" when the might of the Lord "carved the Haughty One, made spin the watery monster, dried up the waters of Tehom-Raba." Calling the Lord Yahweh "my primeval king," the Psalmist rendered in a few verses the cosmogony of the epic of Creation. "By thy might, the waters thou didst disperse; the leader of the watery monsters thou didst break up."

Job recalled how this celestial Lord also smote "the assistants of the Haughty One"; and with impressive astronomical sophistication exalted the Lord who:

The hammered canopy stretched out in the place of Tehom,
The Earth suspended in the void. ...
His powers the waters did arrest,
His energy the Haughty One did cleave;
His Wind the Hammered Bracelet measured out;
His hand the twisting dragon did extinguish.

Biblical scholars now recognize that the Hebrew Tehom ("watery deep") stems from Tiamat; that Tehom-Raba means "great Tiamat," and that the biblical understanding of primeval events is based upon the Sumerian cosmologic epics.

It should also be clear that first and foremost among these parallels are the opening verses of the Book of Genesis, describing how the Wind of the Lord hovered over the waters of Tehom, and how the lightning of the Lord (Marduk in the Babylonian version) lit the darkness of space as it hit and split Tiamat, creating Earth and the Rakia (literally, "the hammered bracelet").

This celestial band (hitherto translated as "firmament") is called "the Heaven."

The Book of Genesis (1:8) explicitly states that it is this "hammered out bracelet" that the Lord had named "heaven" (shamaim). The Akkadian texts also called this celestial zone "the hammered bracelet" (rakkis), and describe how Marduk stretched out Tiamat's lower part until he brought it end to end, fastened into a permanent great circle. The Sumerian sources leave no doubt that the specific "heaven," as distinct from the general concept of heavens and space, was the asteroid belt.

Our Earth and the asteroid belt are the "Heaven and Earth" of both Mesopotamian and biblical references, created when Tiamat was dismembered by the celestial Lord.

After Marduk's North Wind had pushed Earth to its new celestial location, Earth obtained its own orbit around the Sun (resulting in our seasons) and received its axial spin (giving us day and night). The Mesopotamian texts claim that one of Marduk's tasks after he created Earth was, indeed, to have "allotted [to Earth] the days of the Sun and established the precincts of day and night."

The biblical concepts are identical:

And God said:
"Let there be Lights in the hammered Heaven,
to divide between the Day and the Night;
and let them be celestial signs
and for Seasons and for Days and for Years."

Modem scholars believe that after Earth became a planet it was a hot ball of belching volcanoes, filling the skies with mists and clouds. As temperatures began to cool, the vapors turned to water, separating the face of Earth into dry land and oceans.

The fifth tablet of Enuma Elish, though badly mutilated, imparts exactly the same scientific information. Describing the gushing lava as Tiamat's "spittle," the Creation epic correctly places this phenomenon before the formation of the atmosphere, the oceans of Earth, and the continents.

After the "cloud waters were gathered," the oceans began to form, and the "foundations" of Earth - its continents - were raised. As "the making of cold" - a cooling off - took place, rain and mist appeared. Meanwhile, the "spittle" continued to pour forth, "laying in layers," shaping Earth's topography.

Once again, the biblical parallel is clear:

And God said:
"Let the waters under the skies be gathered together,
unto one place, and let dry land appear."
And it was so.

Earth, with oceans, continents, and an atmosphere, was now ready for the formation of mountains, rivers, springs, valleys.

Attributing all Creation to the Lord Marduk, Enuma Elish continued the narration:

Putting Tiamat's head [Earth] into position,
He raised the mountains thereon.
He opened springs, the torrents to draw off.
Through her eyes he released the Tigris and Euphrates.
From her teats he formed the lofty mountains,
Drilled springs for wells, the water to carry off.

In perfect accord with modern findings, both the Book of Genesis and Enuma Elish and other related Mesopotamian texts place the beginning of life upon Earth in the waters, followed by the "living creatures that swarm" and "fowl that fly."

Not until then did "living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts" appear upon Earth, culminating with the appearance of Man – the final act of Creation.

As part of the new celestial order upon Earth, Marduk,

"made the divine Moon appear... designated him to mark the night, define the days every month."

Who was this celestial god?

The text calls him SHESH.KI ("celestial god who protects Earth"). There is no mention earlier in the epic of a planet by this name; yet there he is, "within her heavenly pressure [gravitational field]." And who is meant by "her": Tiamat or Earth?

The roles of, and references to, Tiamat and Earth appear to be interchangeable. Earth is Tiamat reincarnated. The Moon is called Earth's "protector"; that is exactly what Tiamat called Kingu, her chief satellite. The Creation epic specifically excludes Kingu from the "host" of Tiamat that were shattered and scattered and put into reverse motion around the Sun as comets.

After Marduk completed his own first orbit and returned to the scene of the battle, he decreed Kingu's separate fate:

And Kingu, who had become chief among them,
He made shrink;
As god DUG.GA.E he counted him.
He took from him the Tablet of Destinies,
Not rightfully his.

Marduk, then, did not destroy Kingu.

He punished him by taking away his independent orbit, which Tiamat had granted him as he grew in size. Shrunk to a smaller size, Kingu remained a "god" - a planetary member of our solar system. Without an orbit he could only become a satellite again. As Tiamat's upper part was thrown into a new orbit (as the new planet Earth), we suggest, Kingu was pulled along. Our Moon, we suggest, is Kingu, Tiamat's former satellite.

Transformed into a celestial duggae, Kingu had been stripped of his "vital" elements - atmosphere, waters, radioactive matter; he shrank in size and became "a mass of lifeless clay." These Sumerian terms fittingly describe our lifeless Moon, its recently discovered history, and the fate that befell this satellite that started out as KIN.GU ("great emissary") and ended up as DUG.GA.E ("pot of lead").

L. W. King (The Seven Tablets of Creation) reported the existence of three fragments of an astronomical-mythological tablet that presented another version of Marduk's battle with Tiamat, which included verses that dealt with the manner in which Marduk dispatched Kingu.

"Kingu, her spouse, with a weapon not of war he cut away... the Tablets of Destiny from Kingu he took in his hand."

A further attempt, by B. Landesberger (in 1923, in the Archiv fur Keilschriftforschung), to edit and fully translate the text, demonstrated the interchangeability of the names Kingu/Ensu/Moon.

Such texts not only confirm our conclusion that Tiamat's main satellite became our Moon; they also explain NASA's findings regarding a huge collision "when celestial bodies the size of large cities came crashing into the Moon."

Both the NASA findings and the text discovered by L. W. King describe the Moon as the "planet that was laid waste." Cylinder seals have been found that depict the celestial battle, showing Marduk fighting a fierce female deity.

One such depiction shows Marduk shooting his lightning at Tiamat, with Kingu, clearly identified as the Moon, trying to protect Tiamat, his creator.

This pictorial evidence that Earth's Moon and Kingu were the same satellite is further enhanced by the etymological fact that the name of the god SIN, in later times associated with the Moon, derived from SU.EN ("lord of wasteland").

Having disposed of Tiamat and Kingu, Marduk once again "crossed the heavens and surveyed the regions." This time his attention was focused on "the dwelling of Nudimmud" (Neptune), to fix a final "destiny" for Gaga, the erstwhile satellite of Anshar/Saturn who was made an "emissary" to the other planets.

The epic informs us that as one of his final acts in the heavens, Marduk assigned this celestial god" "to a hidden place," a hitherto unknown orbit facing "the deep" (outer space), and entrusted to him the "counsellorship of the Watery Deep." In line with his new position, the planet was renamed US.MI ("one who shows the way"), the outermost planet, our Pluto.

According to the Creation epic, Marduk had at one point boasted,

"The ways of the celestial gods I will artfully alter... into two groups shall they be divided."

Indeed he did.

He eliminated from the heavens the Sun's first partner-in-Creation, Tiamat. He brought Earth into being, thrusting it into a new orbit nearer the Sun. He hammered a "bracelet" in the heavens - the asteroid belt that does separate the group of inner planets from the group of outer planets.

He turned most of Tiamat's satellites into comets; her chief satellite, Kingu, he put into orbit around Earth to become the Moon. And he shifted a satellite of Saturn, Gaga, to become the planet Pluto, imparting to it some of Marduk's own orbital characteristics (such as a different orbital plane).

The puzzles of our solar system - the oceanic cavities upon Earth, the devastation upon the Moon, the reverse orbits of the comets, the enigmatic phenomena of Pluto - • all are perfectly answered by the Mesopotamia!! Creation epic, as deciphered by us.

Having thus "constructed the stations" for the planets, Marduk took for himself "Station Nibiru," and "crossed the heavens and surveyed" the new solar system. It was now made up of twelve celestial bodies, with twelve Great Gods as their counterparts.

Return to Contents