Mulge: The Great God of Ancient Babylonian Magic

One deity that practitioners of the Necronomicon Gnosis and Mesopotamian mysticism may want to employ in their esoteric work is Mul-ge. Though not mentioned in the Simon tome, and rarely seen in modern-day commentaries about ancient Babylon, we do find his importance emphasized in works of the previous century. Migene Gonzalez Whipper in her book, The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies, and Magic, describes historical features of the said deity in the following words:

“The god Ea, one of the busiest and most creative of the Babylonian gods, was also credited with inventing the magical arts. But it was the god Mulge, known as Baal in the Bible and Set in Egypt, who was considered the heart of Babylonian magic and a central figure in many magical systems of ancient times. To the Semitic Babylonians Mulge was Belit, lord of the underworld. The Finns knew him as Ilmarinen and the Arabs as Al-Lat, who married her own son, Saturn.”

 Mul, or Mul-ge, was one of the foremost deities in ancient Babylon and as “Lord of the Underworld” formed one-third of the cosmological trinity, which included the great gods Anu and Ea. Mulge’s influence, however, faded over time. Assyria – Its Princes, Priests and People by A. H. Sayce, under the chapter, entitled, Assyrian Religion, states:

“At the head of the divine hierarchy still stood the old triad of Anu, Mul-ge, and Ea. Mul-ge’s name, however, was changed to Bel, but since Merodach was also known as Bel, he fell more and more into the background, especially after the rise of Babylon, of which city Merodach was the patron deity. At Nipur, now Niffer, alone, he continued to be worshipped down into late times. His consort was Bilat, or Beltis, ‘the great lady,’ who eventually came to be regarded as the wife of Merodach rather than of ‘the other Bel.’ Like Anu and Ea, Bel was the offspring of Sar and Kisar, the upper and lower firmaments…

 One of the bas-reliefs from Nineveh, now in the British Museum, represents him as pursuing with his curved sword or thunderbolt the demon Tiamat, the personification of chaos and anarchy, who is depicted with claws, tail, and horns. As we have already seen, he was commonly addressed as Bel or ‘lord,’ and so came gradually to supplant the older Bel or Mul-ge. Among the planets his star was Jupiter. His wife was Zarpanit or Zirat-panitu, in whom some scholars have seen the Succoth-benoth of 2 Kings xvii. 30.”

Mul-ge’s replacement in ancient Babylonian history was largely due to policies found in ancestor worship. Ancient Mesopotamians didn’t revere their deities in the same manner as a monotheist thankfully, but viewed such as an ancestral rite. It was due to such a perspective that we find some deities replaced, or demoted even, with large migrations of people coming into Mesopotamia. Published in 1904, The Worship of the Dead: Or, The Origin and Nature of Pagan Idolatry by John Garnier confirms this aspect of our discussion:

“Hence, as the voice of antiquity testifies to the fact that the originals of the Pagan gods were human beings, and that the gods of ancient Babylon were the first monarchs of that empire, the identification of the gods with those monarchs must be expected rather from their attributes than their names. “

 Some of Mul-ge’s incantations and works of sorcery can be found in Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development by Francois Lenormant. However, I would advise all practitioners of the modern Chaldean gnosis to investigate attributes of Mul-ge before making this deity a part of your ritual workings.