The 12th Planet (32 page)

Just as it is evident that the Sumerian astronomers possessed knowledge that they could not possibly have acquired on their own, so is there evidence to show that a good deal of their knowledge was of no practical use to them.

This pertains not only to the very sophisticated astronomical methods that were used—who in ancient Sumer really needed to establish a celestial equator, for example?—but also to a variety of elaborate texts that dealt with the measurement of distances between stars.

One of these texts, known as AO.6478, lists the twenty-six major stars visible along the line we now call the Tropic of Cancer, and gives distances between them as measured in three different ways. The text first gives the distances between these stars by a unit called
mana shukultu
("measured and weighed"). It is believed that this was an ingenious device that related the weight of escaping water to the passage of time. It made possible the determination of distances between two stars in terms of time.

The second column of distances was in terms of
degrees of the arc
of the skies. The full day (daylight and nighttime) was divided into twelve double hours. The arc of the heavens comprised a full circle of 360 degrees. Hence, one
beru
or "double hour" represented 30 degrees of the arc of the heavens. By this method, passage of time on Earth provided a measure of the distances in degrees between the named celestial bodies.

The third method of measurement was
beru ina shame
("length in the skies"). F. Thureau-Dangin
(Distances entre Etoiles Fixes)
pointed out that while the first two methods were relative to other phenomena, this third method provided absolute measurements. A "celestial
beru,"
he and others believe, was equivalent to 10,692 of our present-day meters (11,693 yards). The "distance in the skies" between the twenty-six stars was calculated in the text as adding up to 655,200
"beru
drawn in the skies."

The availability of three different methods of measuring distances between stars conveys the great importance attached to the matter. Yet, who among the men and women of Sumer needed such knowledge—and who among them could devise the methods and accurately use them? The only possible answer is: The Nefilim had the knowledge and the need for such accurate measurements.

Capable of space travel, arriving on Earth from another planet, roaming Earth's skies—they were the only ones who could, and did, possess at the dawn of Mankind's civilization the astronomical knowledge that required millennia to develop, the sophisticated methods and mathematics and concepts for an advanced astronomy, and the need to teach human scribes to copy and record meticulously table upon table of distances in the heavens, order of stars and groups of stars, heliacal risings and settings, a complex Sun-Moon-Earth calendar, and the rest of the remarkable knowledge of both Heaven and Earth.

Against this background, can it still be assumed that the Mesopotamian astronomers, guided by the Nefilim, were not aware of the planets beyond Saturn—that they did not know of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto? Was their knowledge of Earth's own family, the solar system, less complete than that of distant stars, their order, and their distances?

Astronomical information from ancient times contained in hundreds of detailed texts lists celestial bodies, neatly arranged by their celestial order or by the gods or the months or the lands or the constellations with which they were associated. One such text, analyzed by Ernst F. Weidner
(Handhuch der Bahylonischen Astronomie),
has come to be called "The Great Star List." It listed in five columns tens of celestial bodies as related to one another, to months, countries, and deities. Another text listed correctly the main stars in the zodiacal constellations. A text indexed as B.M.86378 arranged (in its unbroken part) seventy-one celestial bodies by their location in the heavens; and so on and on and on.

In efforts to make sense of this legion of texts, and in particular to identify correctly the planets of our solar system, a succession of scholars came up with confusing results. As we now know, their efforts were doomed to failure because they incorrectly assumed that the Sumerians and their successors were unaware that the solar system was heliocentric, that Earth was but another planet, and that there were more planets beyond Saturn.

Ignoring the possibility that some names in the star lists may have applied to Earth itself, and seeking to apply the great number of other names and epithets only to the five planets they believed were known to the Sumerians, scholars reached conflicting conclusions. Some scholars even suggested that the confusion was not theirs, but a Chaldean mix-up—for some unknown reason, they said, the Chaldeans had switched around the names of the five "known" planets.

The Sumerians referred to all celestial bodies (planets, stars, or constellations) as MUL ("who shine in the heights"). The Akkadian term
kakkab
was likewise applied by the Babylonians and Assyrians as a general term for any celestial body. This practice further frustrated the scholars seeking to unravel the ancient astronomical texts. But some
mul's
that were termed LU.BAD clearly designated planets of our solar system.

Knowing that the Greek name for the planets was "wanderers," the scholars have read LU.BAD as "wandering sheep," deriving from LU ("those which are shepherded") and BAD ("high and afar"). But now that we have shown that the Sumerians were fully aware of the true nature of the solar system, the other meanings of the term
bad
("the olden," "the foundation," "the one where death is") assume direct significance.

These are appropriate epithets for the Sun, and it follows that by
lubad
the Sumerians meant not mere "wandering sheep" but "sheep" shepherded by the Sun—the planets of our Sun.

The location and relation of the
lubad
to each other and to the Sun were described in many Mesopotamian astronomical texts. There were references to those planets that are "above" and those that are "below," and Kugler correctly guessed that the reference point was Earth itself.

But mostly the planets were spoken of in the framework of astronomical texts dealing with MUL.MUL—a term that kept the scholars guessing. In the absence of a better solution, most scholars have agreed that the term
mulmul
stood for the Pleiades, a cluster of stars in the zodiacal constellation of Taurus, and the one through which the axis of the spring equinox passed (as viewed from Babylon) circa 2200
B.C.
Mesopotamian texts often indicated that the
mulmul
included seven LU.MASH (seven "wanderers that are familiar"), and the scholars assumed that these were the brightest members of the Pleiades, which can be seen with the naked eye. The fact that, depending on classification, the group has either six or nine such bright stars, and not seven, posed a problem; but it was brushed aside for lack of any better ideas as to the meaning of
mulmul.

Franz Kugler
(Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel),
reluctantly accepted the Pleiades as the solution, but expressed his astonishment when he found it stated unambiguously in Mesopotamian texts that
mulmul
included not only "wanderers" (planets) but also the Sun and the Moon-making it impossible to retain the Pleiades idea. He also came upon texts that clearly stated that
"mulmul ul-shu
12"
("mulmul
is a band of twelve"), of which ten formed a distinct group.

We suggest that the term
mulmul
referred to the solar system, using the repetitive (MUL.MUL) to indicate the group as a whole, as "the celestial body comprising all celestial bodies."

Charles Virolleaud (L
'Astrologie Chaldéenne),
transliterated a Mesopotamian text (K.3558) that describes the members of the
mulmul
or
kakkabu/kakkabu
group. The text's last line is explicit:

Kakkabu/kakkabll.

The number of its celestial bodies is twelve.

The stations of its celestial bodies twelve.

The complete months of the Moon is twelve.

The texts leave no doubt: The
mulmul
—
our
solar system—was made up of
twelve
members. Perhaps this should not come as a surprise, for the Greek scholar Diodorus, explaining the three "ways" of the Chaldeans and the consequent listing of thirty-six celestial bodies, stated that "of those celestial gods, twelve hold chief authority; to each of these the Chaldeans assign a month and a sign of the zodiac."

Ernst Weidner
(Der Tierkreis und die Wege am Himmel)
reported that in addition to the Way of Anu and its twelve zodiac constellations, some texts also referred to the "way of the Sun," which was also made up of twelve celestial bodies: the Sun, the Moon, and ten others. Line 20 of the so-called TE-tablet stated:
"nap
h
ar
12
shere-mesh
h
a.la. sha kakkab.lu sha Sin u Shamash ina libbi ittiqu,"
which means, "all in all, 12 members where the Moon and Sun belong, where the planets orbit."

We can now grasp the significance of the number
twelve
in the ancient world. The Great Circle of Sumerian gods, and of all Olympian gods thereafter, comprised exactly twelve; younger gods could join this circle only if older gods retired. Likewise, a vacancy had to be filled to retain the divine number twelve. The principal celestial circle, the way of the Sun with its twelve members, set the pattern, according to which each other celestial band was divided into twelve segments or was allocated twelve principal celestial bodies. Accordingly, there were twelve months in a year, twelve double-hours in a day. Each division of Sumer was assigned twelve celestial bodies as a measure of good luck.

Many studies, such as the one by S. Langdon
(Babylonian Menologies and the Semitie Calendar)
show that the division of the year into twelve months was, from its very beginnings, related to the twelve Great Gods. Fritz Hommel
(Die Astronomie der alten Chaldiier)
and others after him have shown that the twelve months were closely connected with the twelve zodiacs and that both derived from twelve principal celestial bodies. Charles F. Jean
(Lexicologie sumerienne)
reproduced a Sumerian list of twenty-four celestial bodies that paired twelve zodiacal constellations with twelve members of our solar system.

In a long text, identified by F. Thureau-Dangin
(Rituels accadiens)
as a temple program for the New Year Festival in Babylon, the evidence for the consecration of twelve as the central celestial phenomenon is persuasive. The great temple, the Esagila, had twelve gates. The powers of all the celestial gods were vested in Marduk by reciting twelve times the pronouncement "My Lord, is He not my Lord." The mercy of the god was then invoked twelve times, and that of his spouse twelve times. The total of twenty-four was then matched with the twelve zodiacal constellations and twelve members of the solar system.

Fig. 98

A boundary stone carved with the symbols of the celestial bodies by a king of Susa depicts these twenty-four signs: the familiar twelve signs of the zodiac, and symbols that stand for the twelve members of the solar system. These were the twelve astral gods of Mesopotamia, as well as of the
H
urrian, Hittite, Greek, and all other ancient pantheons.(Fig.98)

Although our natural counting base is the number ten, the number twelve permeated all matters celestial and divine long after the Sumerians were gone. There were twelve Greek Titans, twelve Tribes of Israel, twelve parts to the magical breastplate of the Israelite High Priest. The power of this celestial twelve carried over to the twelve Apostles of Jesus, and even in our decimal system we count from one to twelve, and only after twelve do we return to "ten and three" (thirteen), "ten and four," and so on.

Where did this powerful, decisive number
twelve
stem from? From the heavens.