THE SABIANS OF THE HOUSE OF WISDOM.

15. THE CITY OF SIN.

3. The Sabians of Harran – General information.

Going into the basic information, the piece that first caught our attention regarding the Sabians of Harran, was the one that probably caught most people’s attention, that of Dame Frances Yates, in Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition:

Digging deeper, we found the following piece of information in Albert Pike’s The Book of the Words, III°, pp. 78-79:

"The God to which this Temple belonged [i.e., Birs Nimrud], was Nebo or Nabu, the Assyrian Mercury. The identification of this Deity with the Planet Mercury is proved, both by the books of the Mendaeans and by the Calendar of the Sabaeans of Harran in which the fourth day of the week (Dies Mercurii) was named Nebuk, with the guttural termination that was so often added after a long vowel.

"He was the ‘holder of the sceptre of power’, ‘the God who teaches or instructs’, ‘inspector over the Heavens and the Earth, Possessor of intelligence, Lord of Lords who has no equal in power, the Sustainer, the Supporter; the Lord of the Constellations.’ He was the Deity of Learning or letters. In the Mendaean Books, he is called the Scribe; and it is to him are to be referred the traditions of the Babylonian Hermes, reputed author of the Chaldaean Oracles."

Robert Graves gives the Calendar, on p. 217, First Edition, of the White Goddess, to which we add the corresponding Seven Names from the Necronomicon, and that which is given in the Fihrist:

The Pagans of Harran, then, provide us an important link between the Sumerian Cultus, the Gnosis, the Hermetica, and the Crusades. E. G. von Grunebaum says (in Classical Islam):

If we can take this as a clue to the transmission, then we have Alexandria – Antioch – Harran – Baghdad. Or,

The above chart should distill the history of this material fairly well into a concise schematic suitable for ready reference. We have a more detailed version in the works.

Nearby, in Edessa, the school of Thomasine Christians (Gnostics) lasted until about the fifth century. The story of the Pagans of Harran, then, is one we must examine in detail, as far as it is possible to do. We shall present the narrative from Scott’s Testimonia to his translation of the Hermetica, as well as materials we have gleaned from other sources, such as the entry on the Sabians that is presented in Thorndike’s History of Magic and Experimental Science; and other source materials that we have available to us.

It is true that the Hermetica bear more resemblance to the teachings of the Alexandrian School, yet there are indications that this material was also taught by the Thebaid Brethren, since some of it ended up being stashed away in the Nag Hammadi Library. The Hermetica are a sort of bridge between the Mysteries taught in the time that Plutarch was writing accounts of them and the Renaissance esotericism that resulted in their translation into the Latin.

Like the system we have been writing about, that of Papus’ Independent Institute of Esoteric Studies, which existed in the late 19^th Century c.e., the schools of the 4^th Century c.e. weren’t much different, in matters of structure: The Hermetic grade was above the Gnostic grade, much like the Science of Theurgy is a grade higher than Magick.

What is not so apparent, is the connection between the Hermetica and the old religious systems of Babylon. This may seem a betrayal of ignorance on our part, yet the mystery remains because the Pagans of Harran were cultists, whose special cult was that of Sin, the Moon God [and, too, perhaps, the Black Venus]. The doctrines in the Hermetica are attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, who, in Egyptian, is Thoth or Tahuti. Thoth is referred to as the Ibis-Headed moon-god, yet is identified in the Graeco-Roman world with Hermes/Mercury. Perhaps Imouthis should be Mercury (son of Ptah and Sekhet, and can be syncretized with Asclepios). Ptah is EnKi. There is little logic in the syncretizations handed down to us. It the Harranians viewed Hermes as Thoth, then the connection to their god Nanna-Sin is clear. This is a subject that needs more Light.

In Phoenician Thoth gets syncretized with Taaut, and the God of Divine Wisdom in the old Sumerian system is Ea or EnKi. Indeed, it was EnKi who was considered Father of Wisdom. It was EnKi who first taught mankind regarding the mysteries of Oil and Water. It was EnKi who brought science, mathematics, writing and building to humankind. And it was EnKi who is said to have brought humankind into existence through the technology of genetic engineering: perhaps one of the "mysteries" of "oil and water", though we tend to read the meaning of the latter as referring to divination.

And, the sworn enemy of Sin, the Moon God, was none other than EnKi, and that is where we presently draw a blank.

We are so far removed from this distant past, yet this is our collective legacy. Perhaps the connecting link may be found in the Gnostic Scriptures. They are filled with symbolism that seems to point, not to Jewish mythology, but to Assyrian, Babylonian, Accadian, and Sumerian mythologies. The Apocryphon of John is one such text. So are the Hypostasis of the Archons, and On the Origin of the World.

It is, perhaps, a good thing, to have acquaintance with Sumerian origins, because we continually return to these things. Whether it be Zecharia Sitchin’s version of the details, or the source materials themselves, it is wise to delve into these things.

The creation of humankind, as slaves for the Rulers, or Authorities, or Elder Gods; the liberation of the first couple and the tricking of the Rulers by the Serpent, also known as the Beast, or Instructor – is little more than a modern (relatively speaking) version of the story of EnKi teaching Man and Woman the mysteries of sex. This, too, is the Sacred Serpent in the Garden: who, rather than damning humankind, is humankind’s savior, because it is He [She in the Gnostic renditions] who teaches the path of Knowledge – guided knowledge or self-knowledge – and it is He who preached the Four Noble Truths from the Vulture’s Peak in Northeast India 2,500 years ago.

So, then, this research leads us to consider in detail the great Cult, that of Serpent Worship. That we shall do, as we survey the factors that led to the birth and development of the Gnosis. For now we must return to our survey of the Harranians.

As The Brethren of the GIFT is but an introduction to the work as a whole, we apologize for seeming terse and incomplete. When one is covering several thousands of years of esoteric history, that is to be expected, and we shall be well into the 21^st century by the time we get to the 20^th century.

We can recommend at this point that you obtain copies of the Hermetica, and the Nag Hammadi Library, if they are not already in your library. These works are confirmed classics and the wisdom they impart is the truly Ageless Wisdom. It is too bad that Walter Scott disfigured his translation with the introduction that betrays his ignorance of the subject he purported to be an expert at. Also, it is a shame that the Solos Press edition didn’t include the Testimonia in its entirety. And, we can say that Frances Yates was a far more advanced scholar (regardless of Israel Regardie’s opinion). It is too bad, indeed, that the Hermetica have not been given the respect they deserve over the years. The Kingsford/Maitland edition is wanting as well, though there are some interesting points brought up in the introductory to their translation of the Virgin of the World.

Similarly, as we shall repeat often, the works on the Authentic Tradition and its Antiquities have been so often committed to incompetent hack-writers who would have had a real time of it trying to convince the world of their abilities (or lack thereof) had it not been for a built-in membership as a base figure on which to plan an edition or two, and the subject as a sensation-grabbing sales feature. Throw out "Secret Rites of the Freemasons" or "Orgiastic Sex Cults" or "Rosicrucian Secrets" or some such thing and you have a classic (eventually, if not in your own lifetime) and it might end up as a best-seller in the genre, or a high-priced item at the antiquarian stores. Now, if you do that, just make sure that there is something worthwhile between the covers, to justify the inflated expenditure and to make the publisher happy. Otherwise, it will end up as valuable as "Babylonian Mystery Religion" or "Should A Christian Be A Mason?" instead of "Ophiolatreia" or "Magick In Theory And Practice"!

Notwithstanding Scott’s nasty intro, we have some useful material in his notes to the Testimonia. Defined, the Testimonia are proofs of the survival of the Hermetica after the Philosophical Schools in the West that were using them were closed down by the "Christian" authorities. After the last of the Philosophers migrated to Persia to live under the patronage of Chosroes, they found they couldn’t establish roots in his domain, so they went to Syria. This, plus the crack-down on speculative Philosophy in Egypt at the time of Pachomius and later. Eventually, the Hermetica which was spawned in Alexandria and other parts of Egypt went to Syria and parts of Mesopotamia, including Harran. In fact, a cult had been there for a long time, a cult of Pagans, left over from the old Babylonian tradition. It had been impossible to convert them to Christianity, for why would they even desire such a thing? Islam, too, certainly, was not on the list of palatable dishes: but the Hermetica was. It is quite understandable, really, when one reads or understands the least of the fragments, why this should be so.

We have quoted the entire section from the notes to the Testimonia, by Scott, on the Harranians, below. We shall offer some comments.

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