Within our first Issue, we discussed how the term MASSHU is a derivative form of the Akkadian word Mashu meaning twin, as found in the Gilgamesh epics and other Sumerian Mythologies. From our investigation we were able to find out that Mashu was a sacred mountain to the Sumerians. It was located in a Cedar forest within the ‘Land of the Living.’ Additionally, we found quite an importance placed upon this Land of Cedar because Cedar were a very valuable item to the ancient people of Sumer. We find that the book of ‘Black Earth’ is not a work of fiction. Many of the rituals in the Simon Necronomicon require the burning of Cedar incense. Page 99 of the Simon Necronomicon states:
“The Place of calling shall be high in the Mountains…., Thus, the Place, once chosen, shall be purified by supplications to thine particular God or Goddess, and by burning offerings of pine and cedar.”
Gilgamesh in one epic is noted to have burned cedarwood and myrrh to put the gods in a favorable mood. The admonition to burn Cedar during the rituals, as found in the Simon Necronomicon, is not just some random act of chaos magic, but the adherence to ancient ritualistic traditions that existed in Ancient Sumer.
The value of using Cedar was thereby imitated in cultures that followed the Sumerians. According to the Talmud, the Jews were to burn Cedarwood on the Mount of Olives to announce the beginning of the New Year. It is also said that Moses instructed his followers to use the bark of Cedar in circumcision rites, and the Egyptians used Cedar resins in their process of mummification.
As we have discussed in our previous article, Mt. Mashu was a seat that gave one access to the Underworld, the Abode of the Gods, and to the Throne of Ishtar. Mashu represented three different aspects. These three different aspects correspond to the three different Seals of MASSHU, as found in the Simon Necronomicon.
1) The Throne of Ishtar would correspond to the ARRA
2) The Abode of the Gods would correspond to the AGGA
3) The Underworld would correspond to the Bandar or Watcher.
It is evident then that the Three Seals of the Mountains of MASSHU is not just something made up in the mind of Simon, but is relative to Ancient Sumerian legend. Yet the question still remains, what is MASSHU?
Mashu was located in a forest within the ‘Land of the Living.’ This would mean that it is related to something that can be detected by one of the five senses. Its three aspects would represent different states of consciousness. A clue to its physical representation would be the fact that Mashu was considered by the ancients to be the place where the Sun went to in-between its rising and setting stages. This would lead us to identifying Mashu’s physical representation as the pituitary gland.
The term Pituitary is derived from the Latin term pituita which means phlegm. This definition is based on the fact that phlegm was thought to be secreted from the Pituitary Gland. It was called the master gland by the ancients because the hormones secreted by the pituitary gland stimulates and controls the functioning of almost all other endocrine glands in the body. Pituitary hormones also promote growth and control the water balance in the body. It also affects the aging process.
Another point of interest within our study is that the so-called father of medicine, Hippocrates, was the one to correspond phlegm with water, and being that it was one time believed that the Pituitary gland produced phlegm. Modern doctors have denied the function of the Pituitary gland as producing Phlegm, not realizing that it was a reference to the gland being the ‘master gland.’ The Simon Necronomicon identifies Enki; the god of water, semen, and the Master Magician, or the master gland, and being that Hippocrates heavily embraced Chaldean Spirituality and Numerology, the term phlegm may have been a possible reference to how water is integrated into the blood, a function which applies to the Pituitary Gland.
References:
- 1. Simon Necronomicon by Avon Books
- 2. Medical Library and Historical Journal by Association of Medical Librarians
- 3. Medicine before Science by Roger Kenneth French
- 4. Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
- 5. http://www.chsaba.com/history/chaldean.html
