Wafubeh! One thing that is important for the Initiate to remember is that the cosmology of the Ancient Mesopotamians advanced in time. As the ancient esoteric scientists became more aware of the starry heavens advancements were made. We find this to be the case with the deity Ilu (El). While it is commonly thought that Anu was head of the pantheon, scholars of previous centuries had a different opinion. For example, Eberhard Schrader in the book titled, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, states:
“at the head of the gods of the cosmic universe immediately after the Babylonian supreme god Ilu*, whose place is occupied among the Assyrians by Asur. Anu is the first in the first triad of deities, and has as his numerical sign the predominating number in the sexagesimal system i.e. 60”
Ilu: The Supreme Deity of the Chaldeans
Ilu stood alone, and after Ilu was a triad of deities led by Anu. The importance of the deity Ilu, as the supreme god among the Ancient Babylonians, is further emphasized by Francois Lenormant in his book, Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development, where we read:
“The Supreme God, the first unique principle from which all the other gods took their origin, was Ilu whose name signifies “the god” preeminently. He is the One and the Good whom the Neo-platonician philosophers announced as the common source of every thing in Chaldean theology; * and indeed the first principle is mentioned as “the god One” in documents of the later epoch, which tell us, the philosophic language having been (completely formed in the sacerdotal schools, that in (the beginning the Existing Being (Auv Kinuv) was (begotten of the Abyss (Apsu), and the primordial sea (Tiamat) and was worshipped under this name by Nebuchadnezzar.”
Ilu is more popularly known as El. It is within this name that we can see why the Ancient Babylonians named structures like Babel, due to the high regard they had for this deity. The Ancient Chaldeans interacted with this deity through Ilu’s subordinate pantheon.
