Perhaps we are giving away a good chunk of the thesis right now, with the above selection of quotes. Our present survey concerns the sect known under various names, the Harranians, the Sabians of Harran, the Pagans of Harran, the Star-Cult, the Boghdadians, and so forth. Like the other groups we have been examining, they are connected to ancient Sumerian / North-West Semitic roots, the Chaldean Magi, Gnostic Survivals, and, to the Crusaders. This group also has a mixed tradition. It cannot be claimed that they are merely a group of survivors of the ancient pagan cultus of star-worshippers that we read about.
This type of research carries with it certain problems. Material is not easily available on the subject matter, and what is available relies primarily upon conjecture. Works like the Picatrix are available in print, the Hermetica is still in print, some other studies are available, Maimonides’ work is in print. There are a few works available in the French Journal Asiatique, but, unless we are completely misinformed, few competent studies exist in the English language upon this subject, and when was the last time that Chwolsohn’s work was available, even in its native language?
While the primary subject of this survey is the sect of the Harranians, the mythology upon which the sect was based, and upon which the Hermetica was based, goes back, at least, to Phoenician mythology. Phoenician mythology is one of the later developments of Northwestern Semitic mythologies, and Sumerian derivation can ultimately be found for some of the deities involved.
Also, the fact that the last section of the last chapter dealt with (in brief) the Wise Men of Damcar, it is perhaps worth mentioning that there are definite parallels between the mythical personality Christian Rosencreuz and George Gemistius Plethon, Marsilio Ficino’s teacher.
In addition, the term Sabian and the term Sabaean both can be used to refer to similar groups of people. We gave out a list of the variations at the opening of the section: now, let us elaborate further.
Sabians proper refer to, originally, the Elkesaites and Mughtasilahs. Later the term came to refer to the Mandaeans, and the Harranians. It is quite possible that the term goes back even farther than the Elkesaites, all the way back to the Samaritans, who were sent to Palestine during the Assyrian exchange program.
Sabaeans, proper, refers to the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Saba, in southern Arabia, where Yemen is now located. This also includes Damcar. Saba also sometimes is used to refer to the Ethiopians. This is not a mistake, since Saba and the Axumite kingdom were related once upon a time.
At some point, the Sabaeans and the Chaldaeans met up and a new race was born, that of the Nabateans. The Nabateans, we are told, may have derived their name from Nabu, the Near-eastern name for Mercury. The Nabateans are also considered to be a part of the Sabian / Sabaean family. They certainly are in an important area, particularly as far as the history of Christianity and the Gnosis is concerned.
The entire Transjordan region and the Decapolis (Hauran) exist in what was once a part of the Nabatean kingdom. The Nabatean kingdom once stretched as far north as Damascus, and as far south as Arabia. On the West, the natural boundary was the Jordan River. The city of Bosra was located in Nabatean territory.
When we write of the Harranians, these are all factors that need to be taken into consideration. Like the section on the Yezidis, the present article could be expanded into a book, if all the source materials were at our disposal.
We shall see that the city of Harran goes back to Sumerian times, figured prominently in the past as a major stopping off point on the northern trade route, and was an important prize for the Romans. Not only that, the sect that has come down to posterity as the Sabians of Harran may in fact be a mixture of native, Chaldean, Alexandrian, Gnostic, NeoPlatonist elements that survived in the area, even after the majority of the sect migrated away from the city which they called themselves by. Indeed, while some may have migrated south to Baghdad, it is likely that several remained in nearby cities like Urfa (Edessa), which was an important Gnostic centre.
This group, according to the materials that we have on them, demonstrates an Ophite Gnostic inheritance and connections to the cults of Serapis, Aesculapius, and to the Phoenician cults.
This group also demonstrates an acquaintance with some of the philosophies which were current among the Thebaid solitaries, and their relations in Syria.
This group is claimed to be directly descended from the Chaldean Magi, which is important, since it seems that a great deal of the Gnostic tradition can claim such a descent as well, even though most people mistake Chaldean Magi for the Persian Magi. That is like mistaking a Liberal for a Conservative.
The Harranians are said to have died out sometime by the mid 11th Century c.e., when some of the first snippets of Hermetica reach Michael Psellus in Constantinople.
From there, the transmission of the Hermetica, eventually, by the time of Marsilio Ficino, is in the history books of the Authentic Tradition.
Located by the River Belikh, at 37° N 39° E, Harran lay on the old road from Nineveh to the river crossing at Carchemish. Harran, once a most important city, with a history that extends far back into antiquity, going back to the days when the Anunnaki were still on the Earth. Later known as Carrhae, it is where Crassus was defeated and killed by the Parthians, his head being severed from his body, and used as part of a public enactment of the Bacchae of Euripides. The Feast of the Head shows up in the Harranian tradition.
One of the three greatest centers of trade in 19th Century Mesopotamia, the very name Harran (al-Harranim) meant "Caravan City". Harran, too, appears in connection with the history of the Banu-Yamina or Benjaminites of Mari. (See Book One, The Legacy of the Gift, chapter 8, The Wolf Tribe, for more on the Banu-Yamina. We have extracted material from Albright’s study on the Benjaminites of Mari, presented in Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan.)
In short form, the Banu-Yamina were a large tribe. One clan of that tribe was known as ‘Apiru, or ‘dusty’ men, who were known in Sumerian as SA.GAZ, and were famous as donkey caravaneers when they had work, and brigands when they didn’t. Somehow, the First Dynasty of Babylonian Kings (including Hammurabi) was descended from this tribe. Later, the ‘Apiru (or Habiru, ‘Abiru, SA.GAZ, etc.) became known as Hebrews. We shall comment more on this name when we speak more on the Rose-Croix.
The Hebrews in their turn were divided into twelve tribes. One of these was known, of course, as Benjamin. Named after the original ancestral Tribe. So, then, the Promise of Deuteronomy 33 is not without significance for the WHOLE of the "chosen people".
At Harran, we are informed by Zecharia Sitchin, and in the more scholarly works, that a great battle broke out. This battle is well-known in Mesopotamian myth and legend as the story of how Zu attempted to occupy the center at Nippur and seize control of the "Tablets of Destiny", at the place of the DUR.AN.KI. Sitchin, in The 12th Planet, argues that ZU, whose full name, ZU.EN, or SU.EN, was none other than NANNA/SIN, the Moon God. NANNA’s cult center was originally at UR, until he was exiled. NANNA, we might add, was the first-born son of ENLIL.
"We can now understand why, in spite of EA’s suggestion, the lord ZU (SIN) was punished, not by execution, but by exile. Both Sumerian texts, as well as archaeological evidence, indicate that SIN and his spouse fled to HARAN, the HURRIAN city protected by several rivers and mountainous terrain. It is noteworthy that when Abraham’s clan, led by his father TERAH, left UR, they also set their course to HARAN, where they stayed for many years en route to the Promised Land.
"Though UR remained for all time a city dedicated to NANNA/SIN, Haran must have been his residence for a very long time, for it was made to resemble UR – its Temples, Buildings, and Streets – almost exactly. Andre Parrot (Abraham Et Son Temps) sums up the similarities by saying that ‘there is every evidence that the cult of Harran was nothing but an exact replica of that of UR.’"
So, then, it was to Harran that Sin removed himself. It was to Harran that Abraham and his family moved. It was at Harran where, according to Robert Graves, the ancestors of the Sabians located. These Sabians, Graves asserts, were some of the Sea Peoples, who were of Hittite extraction (according to Albright). And, if we remember what we presented in our survey of the Yezidis, according to James G. Frazer, one of the deities worshipped by the Pagans of Harran was none other than Tammuz, under the name of Ta-Uz.
It is a matter of history that there has been a relationship between the cities of Ur and Harran going back to Sumerian times. Both cities were host to the lordship of Sin, the Moon God. Abraham is said to have migrated from Ur of the Chaldees to Harran, on his way to the Promised Land, so called. The Chaldean ancestry of the place goes back quite a way. Therefore, it would be fitting for a group to be located in this place that carried on esoteric doctrines, taking into consideration the fact that Harran was an important place on the Northern trade route.
This in a nutshell is the Ancestry of the Cult of Harran. This is important, since, as we noticed concerning the ancestry of the Yezidis, there is a connection. This group of Pagans carried on the ancestral traditions, which go back to the days of the Sumerian Empire. It is these Pagans of Harran who managed to acquire, preserve and transmit the Hermetica.
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