Demons in Ancient Mesopotamia

the world of the ancient Mesopotamians was one that was filled with various invisible and supernatural creatures some of which were good but others that were definitely evil there were Gods ghosts witches and demons all of whom were seen as a natural part of everyday life in this region in ancient times indeed the existence of demons was basically taken for granted by the mesopotamus and there was never a question whether or not they existed but rather what should be done if you actually encountered one in fact there was quite a complex and developed demonology in this ancient civilization one that involved theories regarding the personalities of different demons how to interact with them and of course how to get rid of those that were causing trouble or malady so for this year's shocktober we're going to dive into the fascinating world of demons and ghosts and evil well supernatural creatures in ancient Mesopotamia foreign [Music] [Music] I am very excited to say that this is a big collaboration between four different creators here on YouTube I am working together with my friends Dr Justin Sledge from the channel esoterica Dr Angela Pucca from Angela's Symposium and Dr Dan atrell from the channel the modern hermeticist we will all be making videos and releasing them today on some related topics in terms of occultism I guess but also things like spirits and exorcisms I will tell you more about this collaboration at the end of the video but it is truly a blessing and such a privilege to be working with such amazing people that inspire me go check out their channels they're all amazing if you haven't already and and check out their videos which are going to be so so interesting now even though there were certainly many demons in ancient Mesopotamia it's important to remember that the modern idea of demon doesn't really correspond to the way that the Ancients conceived of these beings the idea of demons as an exclusively evil creature associated with the devil that is out to hurt or possess humans is one that very much develops with the writers of early Christianity ancient people in pre-christian times had a rather different conception of demons the word itself demon comes from the Greek term diamond and a diamond in ancient Greece was a much more ambivalent creature basically a diamond was a spiritual being that stood in between the gods and humans the gods were of course the highest beings in existence and US humans are lower physical creatures and in ancient writers such as Plato the diamonds fit right in between They Are Spiritual Beings that are more powerful than humans but not quite Gods as such they often acted as intermediaries between the two Realms and could serve as positive inspiration or as cause for trouble diamonds were neither good nor evil they were both good diamonds and evil diamonds so while the idea of evil diamonds did technically exist there was only one category of this elusive being and with us have a slightly more complex perspective here the situation in ancient Mesopotamia was basically the same demons could be both good or evil with different personalities it's not that any given demon was either good or bad definitively but they could do good or evil things their nature wasn't set in stone but had personalities and emotions just like other creatures obviously the mesopotamus didn't use the Greek word Diamond especially not in pre-hellenic times instead the Sumerian word udog or the equivalent Acadian utoku was used to refer roughly to our concept of demon today or rather the ancient Greek concept of demons as long as we understand that translating it as demon is a compromise and that we should keep in mind that this is referring to a much broader category of beings rather than the Christian evil creatures that we associate with the term today so what were these demons well the demons were everywhere and they were seen as the cause behind all kinds of different issues both personal and larger societal issues it was demons that caused illnesses both mental and physical it was demons that could cause Strife in general in society it could affect the crops in the fields demons that did Evil things which some evil some demons did was a problem to the ancient Mesopotamians and they were feared and they developed ways for humans to control and get rid of these creatures as we both see soon to understand more how they worked I think it's probably useful to take some particular examples so demons could be very ambiguous creatures that could take on different forms or no form at all but there are certain famous demon personalities that had certain characteristics and personalities and were associated with certain things one of the most famous of these demons was a frightening female demon that was primarily seen as a great danger to children and newborn babies indeed the thing she was most feared for was that she would stalk mothers and eat their babies either before or after birth in other words she is definitely a demon that represents the dangers of childbirth and the possibilities of miscarriage if a mother has a miscarriage the baby is stillborn or the mother doesn't survive the birth this is the work of La mashtu quite an unpleasant creature these frightening characteristics and features can also be seen from depictions of her as she's often portrayed with a lion's head and taloned hands clutching snakes and nursing a piglet the theme of motherhood is present here but in a kind of Twisted way the origins of this demon is uncertain but one of the names by which he is known is as the daughter of Anu Anu being the chief God in the Mesopotamian Pantheon in other words it seems like La Master originally came from the world of gods perhaps a goddess herself but that she somehow fell from that position to instead inhabit the world as an evil demon obviously this was the kind of demon that people wanted to get rid of and there were many techniques and rituals aimed at doing exactly this complex incantations that would drive her off connected to this another very famous and well-known demon in this context is Pazuzu indeed he is perhaps best remembered as the demon from the 1973 movie The Exorcist in which he basically plays the role of the villain this is quite interesting because while Pazuzu certainly has a frightening appearance and some incantations do describe him as the king of the evil wind demons he was mostly used as a protective Spirit particularly against la mashtu Pazuzu really looks like a monster he has the head of a beast with long claws and four wings but the figure of this demon would be employed as protection his head would often be worn by pregnant women to keep La mashtu away from The Unborn Child and a statue of him could be kept in the house or used in rituals for the same reason quite the opposite of his role in The Exorcist in other words aside from these two prominent characters we also have other more ambiguous kinds of demons or creatures that roam the lands of Mesopotamia there was for example the so-called liliths or lilithu female spirits of women who died in childbirth that could roam around as well as these similar aradat Lily ghosts of young women who had died unmarried that now drifted with a wind from the hills and haunted men at night many have of course connected these liliths the etymology of which means something like a female spirit or demon with a figure of Lilith in the Bible sometimes conceived of as the first wife of Adam etymologically there's probably a connection and it's another example of the influence of Mesopotamian mythology on the books of the Bible again to protect themselves against all these malevolent forces the Mesopotamians used various techniques of what we could call Magic just like in the later Islamic World basically all magic or occult practices had a protective purpose it sought the help from God or Gods from Evil forces and their influence either to eradicate an already existing problem or to prevent something bad from happening to begin with there are examples of non-protective magic too though and the most famous and prominent example of this is the witch yes there were witches in ancient Mesopotamia too Dina constantopoulos writes that the witch is quote perhaps best rendered as malevolent magic user known as kasheptu and Acadian witches were evil Cosmic beings similar to Demons that used magic to do evil rather than for protective reasons they could hurt or curse people and could be both male and female even though the female version is definitely overrepresented in other words while magic could be used for good or evil the kasheptu or which represented the malevolent use of magic and something that one needed to be protected from so now that we have a kind of General overview of some of the creatures and evil spirits that roam the lands of ancient Mesopotamia what can we say about the actual practices used to ward off these forces I mentioned earlier that there existed various rituals and protective ways that one would counter these evil forces or get rid of them or at least control them in some way and this included fascinating things everything from incantations protective amulets exorcisms and various other juicy things it's definitely true that the Mesopotamians had developed systems that were called protective rituals indeed a lot of such Traditions that we find in other places later in history such as in the Greek magical papyri or in Egyptian and Roman magic may actually originate in places like Babylonia and Assyria we have long text written back then about how to protect oneself from witchcraft or demons and archaeological findings also gives us first-hand examples of what this could look like at the center of this tradition was a class of professional exorcists referred to as ashipu these were ritual Specialists that could do everything from divination herbal medicine and to exercise and banish evil demons a pretty important person in a society in which these forces were omnipresent the art ship who had a bunch of different tools and special knowledge with which he could accomplish this first and foremost when protection was sought from evil spirits or misfortunes this was done from the Gods Not the diamonds right but the actual Gods who ruled the world deities like enki Marduk or Ishtar in other words the ritual specialist would counter evil spirits by invoking the power up and seeking the help of the Gods and he would do so through spells incantations and magical objects such as amulets not only do some of these objects survive but we also have significant writings which attest to these practices and even sometimes give instructions there are very significant works such as the so-called Exorcist manual a compendium of everything that an aspiring professional needed to know in terms of esoteric knowledge incantations medical knowledge and generally how to perform rituals of exorcism works such as these are invaluable for our understanding of how the these magical practices worked in Antiquity on top of just being incredibly fascinating in themselves so say you were being bothered by a demonic Force perhaps your house was being haunted or a family member had mysteriously Fallen ill or you wanted to protect your baby from the child eating lamashtu in that case you could simply call an ashipu who would come and solve your problem he would and it is mostly he in these cases show up to your house and make an assessment of what needed to be done since ghosts and demons were such a taken for granted part of everyday life the vibe here is kind of similar to people today calling for a doctor to help with a medical problem got a demon problem just call your local ashipu and he will help you out and indeed in this culture the doctor was kind of the same person as The Exorcist since the ashipu could also have medical knowledge once the demon was identified or the ashibu knew what needed to be done he would get to work Gathering all the materials that were required for the ritual before it would commence we've already mentioned some of the details of the kinds of practices and material that would be used in these kinds of exorcistic rituals say for example that your troubles were caused by a ghost the spirit of a deceased human being this could happen for various reasons and the effects of the ghost would often be connected to the way they died if you have trouble breathing maybe that's a ghost who died by strangulation or by Drowning do you have a terrible fever maybe you're haunted by a ghost who died in a fire ghosts were again spirits of the Dead who had not quite moved on to the underworlds or in more Sinister examples might have been summoned by a necromancer the job of The Exorcist in these cases was to make sure the ghost could make its way to that underworld through reciting incantations and spells it's all kind of similar to the way that we conceive of ghosts today and the way that they are portrayed in movies and so on the ashipu as part of this ritual could chant incantations that included instructions like I implore you to return to your true Abode in the Underworld and then the ghost would hopefully listen to him for example now if your problems were rather caused by a demon that was a more complicated matter demons are not deceased human beings but Immortal Spirits as we saw standing in between Gods and Men so unlike a witch or a ghost you couldn't get rid of a demon by killing it or destroying it this required more complicated rituals in the case of La Master the baby eating demon we discussed before there were several ways of getting rid of her usually The Exorcist would use a figurine of the Goddess herself which became like a kind of receptable or body for the actual demon the figurine could be placed next to the victim or in general kept in the House Then followed several days of ritual the figurine would be taken care of even perhaps fed and such things almost in way to show hospitality and get the demon on your good side The Exorcist would throughout these days recite incantations and perform various rituals all the effects of the rituals performed upon the figurine were transferred to the demon herself so to say so the the figure of this demon just like when you pray to a god in various polytheistic religions were seen as the kind of as as embodying the demon and what you did to the Statue of the figurine affected the actual Spirit herself lastly then after these days of rituals the figurine would be taken away and buried outside the city walls together with another figurine of a black dog thus one had banished lamashtu in the case of this demon s we also often see the employment of Pazuzu that other demon as a protective force in these rituals in connection to rituals like these or just in themselves for preventive or productive reasons The Exorcist could also make amulets that would protect the prison amulets could look in different ways and be made up of various materials and their contents developed across the history of Mesopotamia for the most part amulets in Mesopotamia were so-called unleathered or semi-lettered amulets in other words they didn't necessarily have anything written on them or inscribed on them lettered amulets would appear later in Egyptian and Roman contexts and adopted a Mesopotamia through that but in the earlier period this was usually not the case an amulet could be a little bag made of animal hire that contained some sort of natural material like a plant or something that was considered protective or the object could be infused with its protective Powers through incantations vocally recited over it by The Exorcist it could then be worn around the neck or hung above the door or bed of someone you wanted to keep safe again in the case of La Master we saw that one very popular amulet was to wear a figurine of the head of the demon Pazuzu who protected against her evil Powers the Spells and incantation used by The ashipur Exorcist could vary also depending on the particular circumstance or spirit that one worked with but in most cases they take the form of seeking help from the gods praising them before asking for the specific favor and ending with a promise to fulfill if help is granted as I said in later periods we also see the prominence of written talismans where images or spells will be written on an object like a piece of parchment or copper or stone and just the fact that those words are written on it means it has protective powers a common spell could look like this quote First there would be the word an which means spell and then it would say the actual spell like like this daughter of Anu prominent one among the gods in in most princely lady but also binder Grievous asako demon ghost that weighs heavily upon mankind so that exalted La Master should not come close to man may you be bound by the spell of Heaven Bound by the spell of Earth this kind of thing becomes incredibly widespread in later periods we see a very extravagant examples of this in the so-called Babylonian incantation bowls of late Antiquity these were often conceived in a Jewish context but functioned in the same way rabbinic or Biblical verses could be written in these bowls which then function to trap evil demons it's fascinating stuff and the later Islamic tradition and there are called practices we see the exact same things with quranic verses or names of God in Arabic being employed as talismans by simply writing them down on different materials some argue that many of these practices have their origins in ancient Mesopotamia as a third example maybe you are being bothered by the malevolent magic of witches or ashaptu this is a little different from demons because witches can be killed the ritual of getting rid of a witch is somewhat similar to a demon exorcism though the ashipu would often make a figurine of the witch and rituals performed on the figurine would transfer to the actual rich just like in the case with LA Master for example in a similar fashion incantations were recited and then the figurine was often burned in a fire so that the witch's Spirit would rise like smoke to the heavens and be punished by the gods and even more mundane problems could be solved with the help of these ritual Specialists perhaps you got stung by a scorpion a pretty serious thing in the ancient Middle East one instruction sounds like this quote a bundle of seven Reeds to be used as a torch then the Scorpion will be placed on the burning torch until it is consumed during that time one will recite Over The Sting the prayer as follows and then there follows a longer prayer which ends like this then let the flowing water carry everything away in its Eddies let the current take it away and may a solitary hand that of envel descend to rest on its victim such is the formula to calm the effects of the sting of a scorpion indeed these are just a few examples of the different ways that the ashipur the ritual Specialist or Exorcist would help people with various evil forces or demons and spirits in ancient Mesopotamia but as we saw this was an accepted reality this was part of everyday life for people and calling for an exorcist was basically the same as us calling for a doctor today the lands of Babylon and Assyria of Sumer and akkad were filled with spooky ghosts and spirits and creatures which sometimes could cause you illnesses or other problems and the only way to get rid of those problems was to call a ritual specialist an ashipu or Exorcist that could use his specialized knowledge and the tools that he had at his disposal to get rid of the issue some of this we recognize very clearly from our modern conception of these things from how ghosts work to demons and exorcisms but we should also be careful not to project are modern ideas onto a context in ancient times that was very different a lot of these Concepts and ideas have a different meaning to the ancient Mesopotamians than they perhaps do to us today but at the very least it remains a fascinating tradition of occult practice a fascinating tradition of ancient religion that not only can tell us a lot about the development of these kinds of ideas all the way to modern times but also of course fits perfectly into this wonderful yearly tradition of shocktober here on let's talk religion as I said in the beginning this is a collaboration with three other creators again Dr Justin Sledge from esoterica who will be making a video about the dibik the very famous kind of possessing uh spirit of Judaism and especially or particularly he will be talking about the first case of dybic exorcism in the I believe the 16th century and that's incredibly fascinating and of course connected to what we talk about here so I'll have talked just now about ancient exorcism the earliest examples of exorcistic rituals in ancient Mesopotamia and Justin will be talking about how that tradition is also present to some degree in Judaism with the case of the dybic so check out that video Dr Angela puka from Angela Symposium will be making a video about ancestor worship again very strongly connected to a lot of what we've been talking about here today uh incredibly interesting stuff so check out that video and then a trail aka the modern hermeticist will basically be putting out a full audiobook of a 17th century translation of the arbatel of magic a fast knitting grimoire from the 16th century about ceremonial magic so do not miss out on those incredibly fascinating videos by some amazingly talented creators and friends and amazing human beings go to their channels there will be links in the description to all of that stuff to their videos and to their channels go watch the videos go subscribe to their channels you will not regret it it is truly some really awesome content here on YouTube I hope this video was a good introduction to some of the earliest examples of magic some of the earliest examples of occult practices and in particular exorcisms and demons in ancient Mesopotamia this is such a interesting topic to to research and talk about I just love doing this stuff and especially on a October evening like this look forward to more episodes in this year's October next week we are talk talking about the Sham Selma Arif the most famous and I should say Infamous book of occult practices in the history of the Islamic and arabic speaking world so I will see you then

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

Views: 228,791

Keywords: Demons in ancient mesopotamia, demons, mesopotamia, ghosts, witches, witchcraft, ancient, ancient witchcraft, exorcism, exorcist, the exorcist, Pazuzu, Lamashtu, ancient religion, ancient history, halloween, ancient demons, history of demons, origins of demons, daimons, history of ghosts, earliest ghosts, let's talk religion, filip holm, Shocktober, spooktober, middle east, iraq, history

Id: hPihRoMVyaI

Length: 24min 45sec (1485 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 23 2022