Thanks a lot Publius...now I have to give a Babylonian religion lesson to a completely unappreciative and unreceptive audience. Oh, well. Here goes nothing. First MA and now you challenge my statements.

Religionists of all stripes and flavors may want to bookmark this one as I'm going to reveal a lot here in a short period. It should open a few eyes. I also say this because I'm not going to take the time to detail this out again.

First off, Ahura Mazda and Ahriman from Zoroastrianism were Persian deities- not Babylonian - and fluorished in what is now Iran. They were only minimally practiced in later days in Sumerian and Accadian (also Akkadian) regions which made up Babylonia.

Earliest Babylonian religion started with nature spirits and Shamanism of the Accadians who lived there:

The Triad of Na
NA - Sky
EA - Earth
MULGE - Lord of the underworld

As the culture became more sophisticated, the Shamanism morphed into a full-fledged religion new gods joined the old spirits and this religion was clearly a sun-worshipping religion, with solar dominance.

This went on until Semitic settlers in Sumer (also Sumir) brought their beliefs with them. The two faith struggled with a new face emerging on Babylon religion - a weird blend of the two. This was the great "reform".

Na, Ea & Mulge became Anu, Ea and Bel the Demiurge, all these were now "children of Zicara". Zicara was the "Lord of the Sky".

A new trilogy of sun god, moon god and air god joined the other four. The seven became "the seven magnificent deities" and this, incidentally, is one of the origins of the number 7 being "lucky" or charmed. Semitic sex-denoting or gendering was applied to the gods at this time too.

So Babylonian religion had a new pecking order:

7 magnificent deities
50 great deities
300 spirits of heaven
600 spirits of earth

Astronomy had a new influence on Babylonian religion. The discovery of Jupiter and five other planets (stars at that time) added 5 new associations to the 7 deities. They now became "The 12 chiefs of the gods". This started the 12 signs of the Zodiac used in astrology today. (Yes, astrologers are right alongside Christians, Muslims and Jews in practicing a form of Babylonian religious observances;-)

A new cosmogony was formed at this time too. Babylonian Cosmogony is the origin of Genesis in the Jehovistic based religion. Babylon had a "Sacred Tree" guarded by Cherubs (another word of Babylonian origin). Genesis' flood story matches the Eleventh lay of the great Babylonian epic found in the fragments of Berossus. Instead of Noah, the original hero was Tammuz "the sun of life" who rides his ark behind the clouds of winter until the rainy season is over. The ark rests on a mountain south-west of lake Urumiyeh. The mountain inspired the Babylonian holy structures - the Zigurats.

Another lay describes Istar's quest for her dead husband (Du-zi another variation of Tammuz) in Hades. Bahu is the queen of the underworld and throws plagues arounds and imprisons the naked Istar in the underworld. her brother the Sun God goes to the moon god and Ea who send a sphinx to pour healing water on her and restore her to sunlight. (The question is did the Greeks rip off this one with Persephone & Hades or did Babylonia rip this on off from the Greeks?)

Mazdaism was introduced by the Turanian (also Magian) peoples who migrated into the region. The Shamanism persisted though and was passed down to the Jews and absorbed in many cultures, reborn anew as Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Christian devil is derived from a Babylonian relief where a demon is chased by the god Adar. This demon was the first portrayed with horns, tail, wings and claws. Jewish Phylacteries also have the same Babylonian origin. Babylonian sorcerers had to bind charms (2x with 7 knots) on the arms of a sick man. Then by pouring holy water on these charms would produce a cure.

YHVH in Hebrew consonants was brought forth from Abraham who was expelled (with a few followers at the same time) from Babylon/Chaldea for trying to mess with their beliefs. He went on to create Judaism from derivatives of the Triad of NA and the many Shamanistic beliefs held by the Babylonians, the sacred tree, Genesis - the whole lock, stock and barrel.

By keeping polytheism mostly out of it, it made it much simpler to grasp and learn for the farm peoples he preached to. In Babylon, the Triad of NA was often pronounced aloud as ANNA (Ah-nah) and meant all three gods (NA, EA & MULGE) combined to create the all-encompassing Sky, Earth and Underworld. Abraham converted AN-NA permanently into one being: YH-VH or Jah-weh.

This YH-VH then became the Allah & Jehovah found in Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

SDAI-Tech1

PS
This knowledge is not secret knowledge, merely knowledge obscured and seems secret because it has been intentionally buried (and by now forgotten) by three religions over many centuries. I just happen to have a LOT of very old rare books and access to unfiltered source data. (It helps to have a gold key to the great Illuminati library;-) Again, bookmarking is a good idea, because this stuff is not common knowledge at your church/temple or even at your local university library. One of the books still available and of relevance is La Magic chez les Chaldeans by Lenormant published originally in 1877.

One of the great joys is hunting down other book references in these old books that lead to other "forgotten" discoveries and observations and the trail goes on till your reach various source materials often dating back several centuries.