The Healing Goddess Gula


Book Description

Providing a comprehensive examination of the traits and areas of authority Ancient Babylonians attributed to their healing goddess, this book draws on a wide range of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform sources, including god lists, literary compositions, lexical lists, prognostic texts, incantations, and prescriptions. Analysing the use of selected metaphors associated with the goddess, a new perspective is offered on the explanation for disease as well as the motivation for particular treatments. Special chapters deal with the cuneiform handbook on prognosis and diagnosis of diseases, medical incantations appealing to the healing goddess, and the medicinal plants attributed to her. For the first time a body of evidence for the use of simple drugs is brought together, elaborating on specific plant profiles. The result is a volume that challenges many long-held assumptions concerning the specialized cuneiform medical literature and takes a fresh look on the nature of Ancient Babylonian healing.




The Healing Goddess Gula


Book Description

Providing a comprehensive study of the ancient Babylonian healing goddess, this book employs a range of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform sources. The resulting volume challenges many long-held assumptions concerning the specialised medical literature and addresses the nature of healing in ancient Mesopotamia.




Empirical Models Challenging Biblical Criticism


Book Description

Cutting edge reflections on biblical text formation Empirical models based on ancient Near Eastern literature and variations between different textual traditions have been used to lend credibility to the identification of the sources behind biblical literature and the different editorial layers. In this volume, empirical models are used to critique the exaggerated results of identifying sources and editorial layers by demonstrating that, even though much of ancient literature had such complex literary histories, our methods are often inadequate for the task of precisely identifying sources and editorial layers. The contributors are Maxine L. Grossman, Bénédicte Lemmelijn, Alan Lenzi, Sara J. Milstein, Raymond F. Person Jr., Robert Rezetko, Stefan Schorch, Julio Trebolle Barrera, Ian Young, and Joseph A. Weaks. Features: Evidence that many ancient texts are composite texts with complex literary histories Ten essays and an introduction cover texts from Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Dead Sea Scrolls




The Image of Mesopotamian Divine Healers


Book Description

This book presents the first in-depth analysis of Mesopotamian healing goddesses and their relationship to asûs, “healers”. Through this, Sibbing-Plantholt provides unprecedented insight into the diverse Mesopotamian medical marketplace and how professional healers operating within it legitimized themselves.




A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East


Book Description

From the tragic young Adonis to Zašhapuna, first among goddesses, this handbook provides the most complete information available on deities from the cultures and religions of the ancient Near East, including Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam. The result of nearly fifteen years of research, this handbook is more expansive and covers a wider range of sources and civilizations than any previous reference works on the topic. Arranged alphabetically, the entries range from multiple pages of information to a single line—sometimes all that we know about a given deity. Where possible, each record discusses the deity’s symbolism and imagery, connecting it to the myths, rituals, and festivals described in ancient sources. Many of the entries are accompanied by illustrations that aid in understanding the iconography, and they all include references to texts in which the god or goddess is mentioned. Appropriate for both trained scholars and nonacademic readers, this book collects centuries of Near Eastern mythology into one volume. It will be an especially valuable resource for anyone interested in Assyriology, ancient religion, and the ancient Near East.




Ancient Babylonian Medicine


Book Description

Utilizing a great variety of previously unknown cuneiform tablets, Ancient Babylonian Medicine: Theory and Practice examines the way medicine was practiced by various Babylonian professionals of the 2nd and 1st millennium B.C. Represents the first overview of Babylonian medicine utilizing cuneiform sources, including archives of court letters, medical recipes, and commentaries written by ancient scholars Attempts to reconcile the ways in which medicine and magic were related Assigns authorship to various types of medical literature that were previously considered anonymous Rejects the approach of other scholars that have attempted to apply modern diagnostic methods to ancient illnesses




Dark Metropolis: Planetsong


Book Description

Dark Metropolis: Planetsong is the story about the planet Celesta. She is dying and she sings to her sister planets to save her children. One of her sisters, Gaia takes one of Celesta's children called Cha'Lan to help her fight a war between her children "The Olympians" and the "Ancient Old Ones" in a city called Dark Metropolis.




The Higher Help Method


Book Description

From spiritual teacher Tammy Mastroberte comes an indispensable guide for supercharging your manifestation practice with guidance from the Universe. If you’re struggling to see the changes you desire in life no matter how hard you try to manifest them, it may be time to put down this stressful burden and try something new. There is an easier way to create positive change, and it starts with no longer trying to do it alone. Instead, you can ask the Universe for help and place it in charge to guide you. In The Higher Help Method, award-winning author Tammy Mastroberte affirms the Universe will support you to create what you want—or something even more incredible when you ask it to partner with you and harness its energy. To access the full potential of manifestation, we must learn to invoke the aid and wisdom of the Divine with confidence, receptivity, and trust. Here she shares her tried-and-true system for: • Framing your intentions with clarity—express what you want, why you want it, and how it will make you feel • Calling in specialized higher help—including angels, guides, saints, and loved ones • Shifting your energy—attune to and maintain a higher vibration that magnetizes positive change • Receiving and acting on guidance—recognize how the Universe answers and guides you, and follow its lead You’ll learn how to dive deeper into your practice with specific tools such as custom prayers, exercises, crystals, and rituals for manifesting in seven key areas: money and abundance, health, emotional well-being, relationships, career, parenting, and spiritual connection. “The Universe always responds when you ask for help,” says Mastroberte. “When you learn to trust it as a partner, creating positive change becomes easier, more effective, and much more fun.” With this indispensable guide, you’ll soon become an effective cocreator of your reality, supported by Divine forces to consciously create a life you love.




Darwin’s Heart


Book Description

A middle-aged man dying of heart failure consents to an experimental artificial heart. The post-op course was stormy with no improvement. His wish was to die at home, so he was discharged. At the funeral, his wife presented the doctors with a lawsuit, saying “You buried my husband without his heart.” The doctors found his heart, put it back in his chest, and the lawsuit vanished. This case had a profound effect on the author’s thinking and conduct as a physician cardiologist. Dr. Weiss realized doctors focused on the heart as a pump, rather than the symbolic heart and what it represents. This book surveys how a host of ancient cultures, religions, and civilizations envisioned the homo sapiens heart before the advent of modern medicine, and how that understanding will preserve our species.




The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West


Book Description

This book presents twenty chapters by experts in their fields, providing a thorough and interdisciplinary overview of the theory and practice of magic in the West. Its chronological scope extends from the Ancient Near East to twenty-first-century North America; its objects of analysis range from Persian curse tablets to US neo-paganism. For comparative purposes, the volume includes chapters on developments in the Jewish and Muslim worlds, evaluated not simply for what they contributed at various points to European notions of magic, but also as models of alternative development in ancient Mediterranean legacy. Similarly, the volume highlights the transformative and challenging encounters of Europeans with non-Europeans, regarding the practice of magic in both early modern colonization and more recent decolonization.