Sunday, 24 December 2017

THE POWER OF THE CHALDEANS.

The Chaldeans (which is current days Irak, East Syria, and South East Turkey), are a live continuation of all the indigenous people of Mesopotamia whether their tribal name were Sumerians, Akkadians, Amorites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Aramaeans.
The language of the Chaldean people is Syriac, which is essentially Aramaic (a different dialect than that spoken by Jesus Christ) with a dose of Akkadian, the original language of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Chaldean tribes.
The early kingdoms of Mesopotamia (area known today as modern day Iraq), consisted of Babylonia on the Southern plain and Assyria in the Northern plain. The first known reference to the name Chaldea, is found in the annals of Ashurbannipal II, king of Assyria (884-859 BC). The Assyrians who came on the scene about 1000 years later, quickly became a leading power owing to their military and administrative skills. Regardless of who ascended the throne (power shifted back and forth between Assyria and Babylonian), Babylon always remained as the capital, and the term "Babylonian" remained intact. During the latter years, Chaldean kings played an important role by ruling and maintained separate borders between Assyria and Babylon. The Assyrian Empire, especially under Sennacherib, stood indestructible for centuries. Sennacherib won every single battle he engaged in; a veritable military mind whom no one could destroy - except Babylon. Sennacherib was killed there in one of the Babylonian temples. The name "Chaldean," in this final stage, include both Babylon and Nineveh (Assyria). The Chaldeans and Assyrians of the old were ethnically, cultural and linguistically the same people divided along political and religious allegiances.
The basic characteristic of Mesopotamian religion was its view of the spiritual force behind natural phenomena. Each act of nature was believed to be the force of some entity who had the appropriate appearance in external form. Omens upheld ancestral beliefs in Heaven and Earth as complementary forces without one having more influence over the other. Crop failures, pestilence, wars, the death of a nobleman, were thought to depend upon the balance of these complementary forces. The entities in heaven held positions of power and each person were expected to serve the entity in charge of his well being. Through every situation the individual was likely to seek supernatural guidance through omens, that he might interpret as the will of the gods. From the farmer to the kings and rulers, such guidance was sought in all matters of importance.
Over time, many records of daily lunar activity and periodic solar eclipses were developed and kept for each and every day of the year along with each omen that accompanied the event. Through these records the Chaldeans developed theories that the same phenomena would recur in cycles. One of the cycles was discovering seasonal alignments with fixed stars. It gave them proof that the heaven and the earth were complementary.
The 5th tablet of its creation myth (Enuma elish) states that the Babylonian entity, Marduk, determined the seasonal boundaries and defined the divisions by setting up 3 constellations for each month for the 12-month year. The sets of 3 constellations were set up into 4 groupings. The 4 cardinal points came about by using the summer solstice as a mooring peg. Once established, the Chaldeans followed the Sun along the ecliptic, referred to as the Way of Anu. The year was divided into approximate 90-day periods, depending on the length of the Moon's lunation. These are recorded on tablets, the earliest dating around 1100 BC. The Chaldean astrologers, as priests, were especially renowned astrologers.
Even the Scripture refers to the astrological prowess of the Chaldeans, and during the classical period all astrologers were generically known as Chaldeans.
However, it wasn't until the Seleucid period that the Chaldeans began to develop their science and religion into art.
The Persian conquest into Babylon ended the history of the Babylonians in 539 BC. The Persians continue to rule the Babylonian peoples until Alexander the Great conquered the land in 330 BC. Upon Alexander's death, Seleucid, one of his generals, claimed ruler-ship over the land and began to Hellenize the region. During this Seleucid period (Greeks were enthusiastic diviners and readers of many different oracles), the scribal school at Erech remained active and continue to flourish; collecting ritual text and further developing astrology.

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