The High Priestess Sajaha
Updated on the 5th November 2023
The Ishtar Gate
Sajaha lecture on dreams
Alex talks about the High Priestess Sajaha (German)
Introduction
New translations (1991) of spiritual writings always tend to win supporters and opponents first. Just think how it stands in this respect with probably every new translation of the New Testament - and these are easier to get a grip on than the book of the Sajaha.
Sajaha was a high priestess in Esagila, the temple district of Babylon, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C.). She was also a personal advisor and confidant of the king. However, further details are not known with certainty. Sajaha has left us significant prophecies. She was a seer, which is anchored in the Babylonian-Old Oriental tradition as well as in the Germanic one.
The well-known translation is by no means outdated. However, the language of the turn of the century causes difficulties for many younger readers today.
Moreover, in that translation, in some points, more sense than wording was used. Some passages are very difficult to translate. This is especially the case in Saj. 1 and Saj. 9, but also in the fragments Saj. 16 and Saj. 18. Where there was a danger of distorting the meaning, an unclear and sometimes unattractive sounding German was accepted rather than possibly changing the meaning.
This Sajaha book is largely complete. Even the fragments of Saj. 16-19, which were previously only available in interlinear translation, are included here. Only the second letter to the king was not included, since it is almost completely illegible; one recognizes hardly more than salutation and greeting. Also not included in this book are some existing letters of Sajaha disciples, which were included in the very first edition, but need their own place.
Sajaha 1 (Letter to the King)
My king, as you are now already aware, vibrations and currents of different kinds and forces are everywhere, but everywhere and in everything and everyone, in the merely conceivable even.
So for everything, and so also for human beings, existence is a constant being in the midst of a sea of cosmic and magical vibrations and currents, yes, it is like a vast sea, which in turn holds many different seas. Thus it happens that each and every one receives from such seas of vibrations and currents incessantly and also gives from himself again - but without still being able to determine anything of all this, yes, mostly not noticing it at all.
This powerlessness in the face of the vibrations and the currents, which are nevertheless so all-effective, is mainly due to the fact that the high gifts of the pure, godly people have been almost completely lost since the downfall of the original empire. And the intermingling descendants lost most of the old power.
Hence it has come about that, especially in that sphere which is not consciousness, the streaming forces work there and can be directed a little by wise men only to a small extent, but never really controlled and used for a purpose.
This is because the fine nerves of the ancestors have atrophied [in the people of today], which were necessary for the mastery of the high force, but are no longer present in the descendants and the descendants of the ancestors.
The only tool that can [still] catch the vibrations and currents and make them controllable is the long hair of women. Like a delicate, but large and dense net, they can hold the forces and make them directable, provided that a [woman] understands what is necessary for this, of which is known [from the magical teachings].
Now this means that most people cannot handle the magical currents, although they are in the midst of them; and therefore they are like rudderless boats on an unknown sea.
Therefore, let the empowered few use their ability to hold guiding lights for the many others in the silent invisible sea. [The vibrations of the forces of nature are considered masculine, while the magical ones are considered feminine].
Sajaha 2 („Ereschkigal and the owls“)
„Where, wise men, does the circle have its beginning? And where its end?" - About this Ereshkigal once asked the owls, which dwell in deep caves by day and see the world only at night.
The first owl said, "Where the light ceases is the beginning of the circle, and where the darkness ceases is its end." The second owl said, "For all things once began in the light, pass through the darkness, and return to the light." But the Ereshkigal wanted to know it still differently and questioned further the owls: "You speak to me of the course of the eternity in infinity. But I have drawn here a circle with a stylus on a stone. You speak of that world - I, however, ask for the sense in this one!
The first owl spoke: "Everything that is valid in that world, is also valid in this one; only there are a thousand times more in this one." The second owl spoke: "Your circle, which you show us drawn there, is nothing else than a small image of the big one." Then the Ereshkigal became impatient and called out to the owls: "You want to make into one me what is different from each other! Tell me where in this, my circle, are the beginning and the end!"
Then the first owl laughed, and the second answered, "There are the beginning and the end, where you put the one, like the other, when you drew it. But now you have forgotten it."
And the first owl said, "As thou didst forget this small thing, so didst thou forget the great thing. For if thou knewest the beginning of all being, thou wouldst not ask us because of the circle. But I explain to you, because you must know it, still this following: It is - whatever you begin in the earth-world - not with itself alone, it has its higher counterpart, meaningful in the other world, of which you, Ereschkigal, must know.
If you draw the circle here with the stylus on the stone, you have a line closed in itself, which, according to its kind, apparently can have neither beginning nor end - and nevertheless once had! So it stands also with the great cycle of the eternity in infinity: Connected for ever everything is with each other, from beginning to end known to him who created.
This gives that now everything is inseparable, from the beginning to the end, indissolubly, through all cycles of the eternity. And so you of your drawn circle no longer know to keep apart beginning and end, so it also happens to him who created all being. In the beginning the end is familiar to him and in the end the beginning. One is everything - every breath of the eternity. If you do not yet understand, go and inquire more in the other world."
Then the Ereshkigal got up from the stone on which she had been sitting and left the owls. But the second owl said to the first, "Ereshkigal dwells too often in the underworld. That is why the circle is for her as if she were standing in it and was imprisoned by it. Free, after all, is only he who walks along its line."
But as Ereshkigal walked through the long corridors of her subterranean palace, still mindful of the words of the owls, she suddenly saw at the end of the longest tunnel the distant light of the exit; and she understood that at the source of the light end and beginning meet.
Sajaha 3
Much has been, still much will be, and in the middle of been and to come lies the now.
But the now is always only the span of half a breath; there is no measure to measure it.
The glances of Marduk, however, survey. Before him the drops of the now join to the stream of eternity in infinity. He surveys it all.
He sees the beginning and the end. What lies between, add on earth the people, not they can think, it does the gods. The people are the shadows of the gods. They act according to their own will on earth. Theirs is the merit of the light, theirs is the guilt of the darkness.
The deity hands the footwear to walk. Their ways men choose for themselves.
With pity Marduk looks down on the erring, with joy on those who go the right way. He gives advice to the seekers - not compulsion.
The now is the way. And often the way resembles a spider web. Difficult it is to find the only straight path always.
Sajaha 4 („Dreams“)
Of the dreams that come to you nightly I will speak to you, of strange things, of strange things, I will discover [=unveil] them to you.
For there are dreams of various kinds. There are those which make you walk in the worlds of sleep. There are those that another brings to you. There are also those that you create for others. And also there are some that are boundless. You may see some things in sleep, which are only reflections of the day. Such is not a [real] dream; such is a stringing together of images without deeper meaning.
But when in sleep the inner body lifts itself out of the outer, then you have dreams! For it is so, that the inner body, which comes from the Kingdom of God, cannot uninterruptedly carry the outer, which is its afterbirth for the stay in the world of this world. And that is why sleep comes. During the hours of sleep, the spirit and the inner body [soul] rest. And so the spirit then leaves the earthly body and undertakes excursions. In doing so, it often seeks out another person whose [essence] vibration is similar to its own, and temporarily moves into that person. And if you experience many things clearly in your dreams, then all this has really happened. However, not to you, but to that person, into whom your spirit had moved in as a guest, in order to let itself be carried and to witness quietly.
But it can also happen the other way around, that the spirit of another sleeping person joins yours. This one brings pictures from his life, and these mix with your own. And often it may seem confused. But all images are real in their way.
But these are still the small trajectories of dreams. There are larger ones that are more significant. For example, when your spirit goes out completely and enters totally into the worlds of sleep. There numerous spirits of sleeping people meet and are together there. Thus, images that you remember after awakening are often very strange to you. However, a still further path can lead to the borders of Greenland - and possibly even a bit into it. Then your spirit experiences even much in the hours of the sleep - and far its view reaches.
For from there he also sees the beings of the earth world in their truth, nothing remains hidden to him, all thoughts lie open before him. And what you remember from there, that is truly important knowledge.
But it can also happen, when your sleeping earthly body is abandoned by your own spirit, that strange and demon-like spirits perhaps temporarily take up residence there. This happens when the soul is not strong enough to lock the [earthly] body against the intrusion of strangers. And then danger lurks.
All that you see and go through in the real dreams, that is real somewhere. Nothing is mere appearance. And it is also possible to interpret some things from it. Because the spirit does not look for random ways, but because of its nature - or because it looks for what it lacks. You can learn a lot from it.
If the dreams you have had often seem confused to you after awakening, it is only because you no longer remember them correctly or only incompletely, and also confuse the memory of different dreams you have had.
And there is added to all this the knowledge that everything which has a spirit also dreams; and that also where the spirit is not a comprehending one - that is, in the animals and in the plants.
For all these beings came once out of the realms of the Kingdom of God, following the comprehending ones [angels/humans], or also pulled along by them. And all of them have a spirit after their kind, and this therefore also leaves its earthly body sleeping from time to time.
Sajaha 5
I flew through the starry sky - like an eagle - in the deep blue night, which is another night, and which lasts forever. And it was a picture that came to me: deep blue night between all the stars, the brightly sparkling and the dully shining ones - near and far.
Through time, as it were, my soundless wings carried me. And nowhere was a border - and yet also everywhere. There I saw the earth-world lying, in a sea of currents, which no one else sees, which also I did not quite see, but felt: they were there, everywhere, and came toward the earth-world and embraced it, and held there everything that is necessary as a basis for life.
And the earth world was not great, and the heavenly bodies were not small, and many resembled one another, though all were different from one another. There were red worlds and yellow ones, blue ones and green ones, white ones and also ones of almost black. And others were interspersed with multiple colors. Some shone out of themselves and were very bright, so that I could not perceive any form. Others were of still another kind.
And I saw the sun irradiating the earth world; bright and hot and like glowing gold. The moon also I saw, shining on the earth-world by night. Its shine was dull, and it was not great, as the sun is great. But I saw the earth world as if hanging on imperceptible strings: The sun's ray-hair.
And the vibrations carried me through sparkling lights and through vast darkness and back again - I know not whither. And there I also saw another earth world. Familiar and yet also strange at the same time. On it I went down. But its sky was of bluish red, and there was no other day than just in this light. Another [sun] shone to me [there] and another moon, which was a twin to itself. But I heard languages spoken which I understood [in thought].
Then the vibrations tore me back, a storm whirled and spun me around, and in my hair caught the wing-work, so that it ceased to roar and became calm again. So I floated home, past other worlds, and from one, it seemed to me, came gentle songs. But the night, the dark, the blue, the mild, took me back. I stand on the battlements of the temple and look up at the night. Now it is very silent. She is silent until the day.
Sajaha 6
Demons I saw encamped at the edge of Greenland. And Shaddai crouched before them with all his spirits of evil, begging for succor against Bel's kingdom, inciting to battle against Ilu.
But the demons paid no heed. Their ice-cold breath froze the infernal spirit; they did not care. Then the dark one went home with his hordes to the infernal lake. The smell of slaughtered bodies surrounded them there again. The prince of shadows feels at home, horror is his refreshment, decay is his pleasure; he craves for blood.
To the earth world the evil spirits swarmed out - so I have seen - to cause evil, according to their kind, to instill hatred, to sow murder, to let the peoples drink from cups full of rage, so that war would be everywhere. Blood and fire intoxication seeks the Schaddei.
Demons I saw hovering on the border of this world. An alliance with Jaho [Shaddei] was made by some; mischief threatens the earth people. Some have surrendered to the Evil One here, and such serve him; such carry the cups of fury among the peoples of men, to make them thereby drunk and reeling in belligerence and delusion - that Jaho may sip human blood and feast on the smell of burning human flesh.
The servants of the Evil One serve the Evil One; they are the sender of the evil one, the this-side ejection of hell. Bad things I have seen coming: The emissaries of Schaddein, the spirits of evil on earth, gain power. Terrible things will come - even worse - until finally the spirit of the righteous awakes and takes up Babylon's sword, the pure, the light, to shatter the darkness!
Sajaha 7
A gray cloud drifts closer. But it does not carry rain, it does not bring gentle shadows - it darkens the light. Not joyful I can announce. Darkness drifts in coming time. The temples burst, and the kings fall. The people fall into envy, envy stirs up hatred. Hatred feeds the forces of evil and forms wars out of it.
Not joyful can I proclaim, not beautiful nor light. For the light that shall come in [an] intermediate time, the servants of darkness slay it. And its shine they will mix with false sounds.
And the gray cloud drifts nearer. It clenches into black and darkens the sky above the world. And the inhabitants of the earth, in their majority, no longer distinguish between black and white, they interchange evil and good; staggering unaware, frenzied in delusion. Nothing endures. Everything falls.
I can't announce anything happy - only one thing: The seventh mankind will rise in a later time. But before that all sick souls must perish, which no longer separate white and black.
Sajaha 8
Evil faces are there - and melt away. They do not belong to demons, they do not belong to otherworldly beings: They belong to the earth world - in a strange way.
White flowers blossom. Blue flowers bloomed before. Somewhere there are false plants. They hide under the leaves of the others and proliferate secretly.
Ten empires come and go. That of Babylon and Assur is the first and greatest. That of Arian follows after, and then that of Egypt, then Eran, then Chat, and then that on the coast of the sea, then the Far East and also the Far West, then that over the sea and also the Midnight Kingdom. Later, three afterbirths will follow. These pass quickly; they are not in the light. One eats up another in a moment. Two remain.
Of all the realms, one returns twice - and always in a different place. The vibration which conducts from Bab-Chomet [the Black Sun] causes this.
But the darkness again suffocates the light - and also suffocates itself.
But the heroes almost all fall. No more flowers bloom - only strangler vines. And the desert remains empty. In the branches of the trees squat carrion birds. They have already eaten the owls, they have already eaten the doves, they have already eaten the eagles.
Gray animals grow out of the ground. They gnaw at the roots of the trees until they fall down and in the fall they take down the carrion-eating birds with them. So then these are slain, and the gray beasts eat them up.
Between hills, a blood-red beast sprouts. It grows quickly. The gray rodents carry food to it until it is big. Then it also eats those that feed it up. And the red animal has eyes of false gold.
On the earth world there is no true kingdom anymore, only the afterbirths. And these are sick from birth. They choose the blood-red beast from the hills as their leader. But soon they divide it in strife.
But the red beast now becomes double. And each of the [now] two still has an eye of false gold. Tendrils hold it fast to them. And these tendrils also join the two parts of the beast together. Thus the hostile afterbirths nevertheless also remain connected to each other.
But the blood-red beast bites, and bites into the peoples of the respective own followers. It tears open serious wounds. Much blood flows, and the beast drinks it up. This makes it strong.
But the tendrils are also strengthened by the blood. They now strangle the red beasts and want to rule all by themselves. Deeply their limbs bore into the bodies of the afterbirths. And their peoples bleed again even more.
Then fall the afterbirths and their peoples! By the shadow of the true kingdoms they enter. And the red beast also perishes. And the tendrils perish, because nothing holds them.
There is everywhere a great crying and lamentation and wailing! Unrestrained are the peoples, without order and kingdom. Now they cherish the shoot of a white flower. And this gradually flourishes - it brings forth a blossom. And so a new, a true kingdom becomes. And everything joyfully submits to it. It is from the light.
Many evil spirits have been there. But in the end, one light. The evil spirits dissolve - but the light remains.
Sajaha 9
Three pictures I will show you first; and each of them is a happening at a [certain] time.
The first picture shows you a new king. He lives on the shores of the sea. His lineage is related to us by blood. He sends out many ships. He takes lands that no one from here has seen since the great Sargon I. He is many-knowing; his gods are ours also.
The higher the new king's sign rises in the world's sky, the more enviers forge hatred against him - and soon gather to assault him. Terrible battle comes - for one, for another, and for but another time.
The new king finally succumbs to outnumbering. No trace of him remains - secret knowledge only.
Another king now rules the world as the first. He is not of our blood and has no light knowledge. His land is more distant. By diligence, however, this king accomplishes much. But as diligence passes away, so does his work.
The second picture I want to bring you shows many praying people; much they pray and in many countries. But to the true Godhead they pray not; blinded is their mind. The light that was once there, they have covered in their temples, false inscriptions carry their holy stones. And they offer perverse sacrifices, cut off girls' hair and burn the wise. They no longer see the signs of the gods. And [so] as they pray and sacrifice, so they wage greedy wars.
7. their thoughts are emptied, their spirits [characters] are sick, and their souls deformed. Their gods slurp their blood, burn their flesh, and eat the hair of their women. And they kill very much.
The third image I want to give you today shows another new king rising up in the distance. And he is of our blood. His name is "Hope." For he closes the sources of evil. And every sign of heaven gives him a year; the first half of it in peace and the second in war. But the sources of evil break open again, and they shower the young king with blood and fire from above and below and on all sides. Thus he perishes. And the name "Hope" falls with him. 9 Then darkness completely seizes power in the world. The deluded people sacrifice in dull temples of any unclean kind. Shaddain [the prince of the shadows/evil] determines the courses, mockingly his priests of the lie rule over the earth. Only the heirs of the heirs of Babylon, Assur and Persia stride to the defense. But this became weak long ago. The victory is far away. There is no longer a new king.
10 But a strong one will stir up the remnant of the heirs and awaken some. Like a comet that suddenly gives signs. But victory is far off, and a new king there is not.
11. something strange I also see: it is like a glowing wheel - gigantic in size. And its spokes are people enmeshed in each other, with no gender. Sick they look, selfishness is in their breath. Slaves they are to themselves and to the wheel. Those who hold the glowing hoop burn and scream at the same time. But the next ones follow immediately, although they resist. For the wheel's middle hub is also made of embers; and there the people burn. And so more and more and more new crowds drive themselves towards the disaster which works from the middle of the embers. (?)
This glowing wheel - gigantic to look at - rolls along over the earth. It brings fire, ignites countries and seas. A bad noise sounds from everywhere - cruel and without sense. But the wheel races on. The noise, produced by scorched people in the madness, drives it, makes it faster and more furious. In the madness raving people jump on the ember wheel - and become smoke. Nowhere is silence anymore, everywhere screaming and raving and rushing. People no longer recognize each other. And no one brakes the glowing wheel's ghastly rolling. Far away is a new king.
Then I saw a completely different image - and I do not know where this image came from; it was far from the others. There I saw the golden image of a beautiful goddess. It was set up on a high mast. I took it for Ishtar's image, although it did not bear her mark.
On the pedestal of the Ishtar pole I saw a king standing. And many people were cheering him. All around was a great city, and the whole city was in a jubilant mood. Just as when the king of Babylon makes a speech to his people. And almost I thought to recognize a new Babylon, which lies there in distant time - and I do not know whether ahead in time, or back.
17 A bright sun I saw shining on the city with the golden goddess and on the whole country - up to the sea - up to the mountains. And everywhere there was high happiness, sounded loud rejoicing. And as the sun shone, so did the light of love shine brightly far and wide among the people. Nowhere did I see strife, no anger did I hear, only joy everywhere; and there was no trace of wild madness. Decorated ships sailed on the rivers and joyful chariots in the streets. And the desert was greened in splendid forests.
Sajaha 10
(Fragments) Then a light, like a young star, will shine at the end of the sky. This is the opening lid of the water jar [beginning of the Aquarian Age, or actually Water Jar Age].
And a horror shall fall upon all the servants of darkness, and upon all their helpers. All their gold will melt away into crying tears - under the shining ray of the new Babylon. And all their oaths of vengeance will strike them themselves from the mirror of their wickedness.
But the righteous shall judge the unrighteous - and shall put them to shame by their grace. Then shall be the hour of the panther against the dragon, whom a worm bare in the wilderness, and whom giants nourished in the kingdom of the north--here as well as there.
The defendants will be the plaintiffs; and the hypocrites wail at the glow gates of their darkness.
Low squats darkness in the flesh of the nations - like secret worms - high will it sit: In the saddles [and] on the necks of kings and of princes. The light of the righteous seemeth to be darkened.
But the new Babylon shall shine at the base of the north mountain. And he who was the loneliest will be the new king of Babylon, the king of the new kingdom.
Sajaha 11
(The first verses have been lost).
1. there shall come at that time a great flood upon the high and once bright gardens of the earth; and it shall not be a flood of water, but a breath of rottenness everywhere.
(2) And swarms of ravenous beetles will come up from the lower gardens. These will feed and lay their larvae among the flowering trees, and the larvae will eat away the roots of the trees and die from them. But the trees' blossoms wither - and so do their leaves. And still voracious beetles come. They have no thoughts, they do not know their purpose. New larvae they lay. No fire is thrown to burn them. So the trees wither away - and the shrubs, too, and the grass, too.
3 And everything will wither and be bare already everywhere. From hunger many of the greedy beetles die. The inhabitants of the bright gardens are also starving.
4. there are already more of the beetles than there are people. And the hungry beetles then eat many people.
5. The people have lost their thinking and understanding by the flood of the putrid breath. They could have protected themselves and their children from the disaster. But since they had lost the ability to understand, they did nothing.
(6) And so, before the flood of the ravenous beetles, the flood of rottenness had come into the bright gardens; and the one prepared the way for the other. And so, in the end, men brought their own bad end, because they tolerated.
7 So the first flood will come, paving the way for the second, at the end of which will be extinction.
8. then also in the lower gardens the beetles remaining there spoil, because without the seed of the trees from above nothing thrives any more. Thus this world dies. And the people in the different countries do not know each other any more. Enmity arises everywhere through the dying of the world. Thus the very last ones slay themselves.
9th This I saw, this is [a] coming image. And yet it is warning - not inevitable fate. Repel, ye people, even the first flood! Fail to do so, and you are all lost!
10 In order that you may recognize it, I will show you in more detail the pictures of the first coming flood of which I spoke. Colorful are these pictures, strange and foreign. The wise man knows how to interpret them.
11 A white bird circled over the sea near the mountain of the world; noble and pure. He did not want to harm anyone, anger never came from him.
12. There are [there] numerous other birds - less noble and without the radiant white. And these envied the white one, and flocked together against him, not to let him land again, that he might die of exhaustion and hunger, and then fall down dead from the clouds into the sea, that soon no one might know that there had ever been so white and noble a bird.
13. The white bird circled around for a long time, until hardship forced him to fight all the others. And many of these he struck down, long remaining victor in this fight.
14. Then the others gathered still more comrades and attacked the white one again - after they had forced him to starve again before.
15. And there were again many terrible fights of the superior number against the one. Until finally the white bird lay bleeding on the ground and could no longer fight back.
16. But because he had not sunk into the sea after all, and therefore [something] of his white plumage was still to be seen, the others plucked out all his feathers and ate up his raw flesh.
17. Now the white bird was no more. And soon it was to be seen that he had been the leader of the sunlight and the father of the white clouds of the sky. And henceforth there was no more pure light, and merely gray clouds which stopped the rays of the sun and devoured its warmth between heaven and earth.
(18) But the numerous base birds, which had survived the long struggle, now cried aloud, because it grew cold and darker and darker upon the earth; and they said that the white bird was to blame for this, and that therefore they had murdered him. And so they reversed what had been, and denied their guilt.
19. Now as time went on, there came with the darkness evil demons, which are at home in the dark. With these however also the illness of the ghosts came - and - the no more understanding.
20. for dark demons resemble the appearance: they are essence-less, they know no sorrow and no joy, they have neither fear nor any other feeling. What is consubstantial they do not understand, nor do they care.
21. But in their following came the dark spirits to bring wickedness into this world. And many a one realized that the white bird had also been protective shield against the dark power.
22. so what had been light, for protection against darkness, the envious birds had slaughtered. 23. now they all became victims of the lord of the shadows.
Sajaha 12
First chapter
Conversation between Sajaha and King Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebokadarsur)
Nebuchadnezzar: Speak to me, Sajaha, what course does time take? What course does the world take?
Sajaha: Darkness will cover the heavens over the world and over time. For the worshippers of the evil spirit are not completely destroyed, they arise.
Like poisonous thorns they bore into the bodies of the countries, the evil spirit they also bring into your country, into your city of light. Doom is approaching us, for darkness is growing strong in the world.
4. Nebuchadnezzar: Have I not struck the servants of darkness terribly? Destroyed their places? Burned the shrine of hell? Executed their priests and leaders? Imprisoned their rulers?
5 Sajaha: What is the use, O king, of uprooting the poisonous plant stalk from the bed of the garden, if you do not thereby destroy its seed?
6. fresh seed will take the mischief so and again mingle among the flowers, suck the juice of their roots and eventually overgrow the pure flowers.
7. Soon the day will come when you will no longer recognize the bed of your garden. The flowers will be choked, but the stalks of poisonous plants will dominate the picture.
8. The light will be extinguished by the dark shadows of the poisonous stalks. These will feed on the pith of the noble flowers, which, overgrown now, no longer see the strength-giving rays of the sun. Thus they are weakened and weakened again - until the evil of darkness reigns almost completely.
9. Nebuchadnezzar: I dealt harshly with the emissaries of the dark spirit. But the king of Babylon is a righteous man; he shows mercy to the one who repents and renounces evil.
10. Sajaha: Lies you believed, O king, hypocrites you succumbed to. Can a thorn cease to sting? Can a poison cease to poison? Can a lie cease to be a lie?
11. You, O King, love goodness, and therefore you seek it. Your goodness hinders you to fully recognize the wickedness. So it can deceive you, so the emissaries of the evil spirit have pretended - and you let many of them live. The light generation will still suffer heavily from it.
12. Nebuchadnezzar: I became old, my faithful Sajaha, my mind is turned to the next world. I have never boasted of my wars, for my spirit has always longed for wisdom and brightness - for me and for my people.
13. Powerful is now the empire. A strong Babylonia I will hand over to the one who comes after me. But I was not the Third Sargon.
14. Sajaha: The Third Sargon will come in later times. He will destroy the servants of darkness with all their seed, he will uproot evil by the root.
15. He will know no mercy, not a single one of the enemies of the light will he spare; to none who stood still will he show mercy. He will not tolerate anyone who does not recognize the great. The lower kinds he will crush, the sick souls he will slay all. Of the worshippers of the evil spirit no trace will remain on earth.
16. Dreadful will be the Third Sargon against all that is an obstacle to the unfolding of the pure light.
17. He will purify the world, will slay seven out of ten people, and will wipe out everything that is false and everything that bears the marks of the false.
18. He will be cruel to the dark.
19. he will cause the bodies of the slain to be piled up into high pyramids to be burned.
20. everything base must fall. The eternal order, which will be lost, he restores, sent by the Godhead.
21. Nebuchadnezzar: When, O Sajaha, will all this be?
22. Sajaha: In as many years, reckoned from this day, as have passed since the first Sargon. [The lifetime of Sargon I is not known for sure. Until 1982 one assumed -2800 or -2400 before our era, but since then Sargon I. is put between -3200 and -3800, a study from 1986 calls -3950 before our era. So there is a wide range here and little certainty].
23. Terrible then will be the earth world.
24. But in the span of the third part of a year, the Messenger will have done his work.
25. From the north he will come; unexpectedly he will burst in upon the earth world living in poison, will shake everything with one blow - and his power will be unconquerable.
26 He will ask no one. He will know everything.
27. A company of the righteous will be around him. To them the Third Sargon will give the light, and they will shine to the world.
28. And the righteous shall wade in the blood of the slain unrighteous.
29. Until the work is done, the fires of destruction will burn from one end of the earth to the other.
30. All that is true shall remain.
Nebuchadnezzar: But how does Babylon fare?
31. Sajaha: It will perish for a long time. Only the Third Sargon will rebuild it in the land of the north. There and then there will be a new Babylon.
32. Nebuchadnezzar: Now tell me this more, faithful Sajaha: Will the new Babylon endure through the ages?
Sajaha: Existing and ruling in light it will be for a thousand years, O king!
Second chapter
Nebuchadnezzar: Tell me - so the king said to Sajaha in Esagila - what do you see until the Third Sargon comes? What will be with the people? What will be with the kingdom?
Sajaha: Bad things will be. But nothing is able to avert it, already it takes its course.
The poisonous thorn proliferates and scatters its corrosive seeds near and far. Lies pave its way; lies shower the circle of the world with poisonous arrows, more and more.
The sun darkens its light from Chaldea to the base of Midnight Mountain. But men do not notice it, from the glow of falsehood they are blinded, from the reflection of gold obtained by fraud.
Many good men fall, many guileful ones rise in their place. Schaddein's cruel breath perverts the thoughts of most. What is pure will go down, what is impure will rise. What was below will be above; evil and good will exchange places. People will be drunk. Delusion will rule the world.
Parents lose their children, children disown their parents. No one hears the voices of the gods anymore - except the lonely righteous, who will count for nothing in those days.
Nations will no longer know their purpose. Armies will fight against their generals. Kings will fall, and temples will turn to dust. Filth shall rise, filth shall reign.
All power will be in the clutches of the wicked. These will turn the world upside down.
Custom will no longer be, but vice will be considered noble. Men will consort with boys with impunity; women will no longer want to be women, but will act like men with impunity; men will mix with animals with impunity and beget bastards. And the bastards of bastards will be innumerable in the streets of cities without being exterminated.
And the lowest will be raised to the highest by the servants of the evil spirit. And he rejoicingly beholds all this from his darkness.
Shuddering, the king interrupted the seer. Nebuchadnezzar: O Sajaha! Faithful counselor of thy ancient king! Compassionately give me a better image that I may take with me to the other world.
Sajaha: First must come the terrible - and the still more terrible.
For the evil spirit himself will enter the earth in human form - idolized by all the emissaries of evil.
He will extinguish in the souls of men what the spirit of the Godhead had brought them before, will find a well-prepared camp to make himself comfortable; for the whole circle of the world will be of his spirit - the lonely righteous alone will wait in silence for their hour, which will also come.
Before, however, the evil must rage out terribly on the earth-world.
Everything that is bad will be considered good; everything that is good will be considered bad.
Men will no longer recognize any god. Gluttony and fornication, treachery and deceit will be their gods' names. Blood they will drink and wallow in slime.
Impudent lies they will call truth, and truth will not be in them. Except in the lonely righteous, who longingly wait for the Third Sargon, to whom they have secretly consecrated their courage.
Out of the trampled ground of Chaldea will then come forth the first spark of the new. It will rise to heaven and fly, borne by hurrying clouds, toward the land of the north. Out of its maltreated earth rises the Liberator, the Avenger: The Third Sargon!
And from the north as from the south, the lonely righteous shall then arise, and shall be mighty, and like a storm shall kindle the fire, and carry it forward, that shall burn out all evil everywhere, yea, everywhere.
Then the king raised both hands to heaven. Nebukadnezar: Schrecklich sollen sie sein, die Gerechten, und gnadenlos! Sajaha: So werden sie sein!
Third chapter
The king went to the Sajaha in the temple of the fair Ishtar; and he was old and tired and full of worries for people and kingdom. For although Babylon was mighty and highly respected in all the world, the king nevertheless felt that disaster threatened in the coming times. Also the Sajaha had already prophesied such to him. So he went to her in the temple.
Nebuchadnezzar: Sajaha, my dear faithful one, tell me how it will be when the hour of light returns upon the earth-world, when the times of evil will be over and the happy [times] will spread over my kingdom and the circle of the earth. Sajaha: There will be first the victory of the righteous, of the brave who persevered through all the shadows of evil.
When the Third Sargon will have come and will have fought the battle, these will have been his swords - victorious against many times superior numbers.
Then he, the Avenger, will have thundered across the globe with fiery chariots, hurling lightning bolts against the powers of darkness, until they are utterly destroyed.
After all this, the earth world will be cleansed of all wickedness and misery.
Only small crowds of people will populate the earth world; but they will be the best who now live and rule. A tower will [then] be built - seven times higher than E-Temen-An-Ki.
Beautiful and wonderful will shine the earth world. Strife will be no more. Greed will no longer be known to anyone. Misguidance and immorality will no longer know anyone. Weapons will no longer be needed by anyone.
And thou, my king, shalt behold that [from] the world beyond over the top of the mount of assembly. Then joy will encompass thee.
Nebuchadnezzar: Far is the time. Lonely are the brave and the righteous. But with them is the Godhead!
Sajaha 13
1. two huge scavenging animals I see on earth - and I don't know to say when.
2. they have heads like human heads, but bodies like gray pigs; but their feet have claws like feral hands of a freak. And on the head each bears five stunted horns. The heads are almost like human heads, but still unspeakably ugly. Their noses are broad, like those of pigs or strange apes. Their mouths are bulging cavities. Their eyes resemble black stones that have no luster. And their necks are fat.
3. they trudge through the gardens of the lands and devour everything. They wade through the rivers and seas and eat up everything. They crawl through the streets of the cities and eat up everything. But what they eat is that which of itself decays to carrion before them.
4. But men are so afraid of the two carrion beasts that they die for fear of them. And this alone is the reason why the vile beasts grow larger and fatter and more powerful; because men do not realize that the fiends can eat nothing but carrion, but must greatly fear life.
5. for a long time it remains so. Until in the silence one makes himself a mighty spear, in concealment from the other men, who are merely afraid and dare not fight. The one, however, builds his spear, and Ishtar herself helps him to strengthen the weapon, and Bel arms ... (End of the fragment)
Sajaha 14
1. I have walked on Greenland's seashore for many hours. And I looked down through the clear water to the earthly world. It seemed strange from there; the people seemed strange.
2. I have looked through the times - as on the bottom of a sea. And I saw no before and no after - everything was. The succession, however, I finally felt.
3. above a mountain in grassland I saw softly rising what looked like a strong braid, braided from shimmering women's hair. And at the top a head, which had two faces: to one side that of a man, and to the other side that of a woman. And the face of the woman was very young, almost like that of a girl; and the giant lichen was formed from her hair. High up in Greenland's sky rises this double head.
4. Then I understood that it is Ilu's high sign: masculine and feminine in one, and yet full of contrast, which just for that reason sounds together.
Sajaha 15 („Marduk's spear“)
1. On the summit of the mountain of the gods Marduk rules the time. He sees bad things coming, but cannot prevent this coming for a long time. His spear shaft is firmly stuck in the glass ceiling of the mountain.
2. darkness arises, rules over the light. The midnight land lies trapped in distress. The corpses of fallen heroes rot at the foot of the sacred mountain.
3. The army of darkness presses from the west; wildly rolls from the east the multitude of the speechless. Babylon is no longer to be saved, Assur is no longer there to help - paralyzed lies down the child of the north.
4th Lonely Marduk mourns on the top of the world mountain. Lost is the home of the gods. No more do they sing, no more do they feast, nor do they stormily prepare for battle. Even their thoughts lie in chains. And Ishtar weeps for her people.
5 Then Marduk lifts up his eyes to the borders of the highest light, where Ishtar stands weeping. And he hears Ishtar's voice ringing to him: Lord Marduk! Protector of the midnight mountain! Hurl your spear against the enemy! Save our people, after all!
6. Then Marduk spoke and answered her: O Ishtar! How gladly I would do what you say to me! But the people lies prostrate, the kingdom is crushed, countless is the violence of our enemies - and the new Sargon, the deliverer, the avenger, he is not yet there.
7. And Ishtar looked upon him, and said, O Marduk! Behold, that which has come from below reigns in the earth world and rules our people who once came from above. Do not allow the lower to rule the upper any longer! Throw your spear! The one who catches it from ours will be the new Sargon!
8. Then Marduk plucked the spear out of the ground, lifted it high, and hurled it down with force upon the earth world. And while Marduk was doing this, Ishtar commanded the heavenly bodies to emit a new light, invisible.
9. On the earth-world Marduk's spear did its work: a new will he gave birth to the people, a new fury and weapon - a new Sargon arose to the people; and he soon seized Marduk's spear.
10. And a mighty struggle began - until the lower was vanquished, and the upper exalted, and built was the new Babylon. All this is to be seen in the distant future, all this will be.
Sajaha 16
(fragment)
1. [... This day] is a good one, that day is a bad one. And they lie fanned one into another often like palm leaves.
2. Think healthy leaves and rotten ones on one and the same branch. Still most are healthy - soon most will rot. Poison jumps over, decomposes quickly.
3. evil is like a sharp knife that knows how to hide its form and can wrap itself in gold. A girl found it, mistook it for a glittering comb, and before she knew it, three cubits of hair fell down killed. Years will pass before it grows back.
4. whom the evil bites, he receives fast heavy wounds. Only slowly they heal again.
5. for he who is seized by evil is like the girl whose hair length fell: the strings to receive the vibration of good are taken from him or weakened. It is difficult to resist evil now. - Take this as a sensible image.
6. if thou art strong, strengthen by thee him who was assailed by the bite of evil, unsuspecting. Not everyone ... (end of fragment)
Sajaha 17
(fragment)
1. the giant hand has stretched out. She is reaching for the rays of the sun. Her fingers are bleeding - but not injured by the sun.
2. The giant hand grabbed the sun - and held it nine times. Then she drew back, quenched her pain in the sea.
3. the giant hand was not the hand of a giant. No one knows what she was. Now she is no more.
4. The rising court [corona?] went to the dawn. Some went away with him from Esagila. 5. they knew each other - and yet were also strangers to each other. (end of fragment)
Sajaha 18
(Fragment)
1. A copper mirror - shining - confusing the unknowing. Its bright metal you do not attack, it wants your gaze.
2. And thou lookest through the mirror over the edges of the ages. On its waters the knowledgeable travel.
3. On the summit of the mountain of the world the wanderer's ship lands. Never does the journey find an end, which thus began. The sound of voices you hear, which no one else hears.
4. I looked through the mirror, I saw the wanderer. From the top of the world mountain he beckoned me to follow him. But I stayed, faithful to my king.
5. up there, the wanderer gathers fruit ... (end of fragment)
Sajaha 19
(fragment)
1. The songs of the blessed, accompanied by harps, flutes and timpani, you can well hear, if you listen for them!
2. And more you can do, if your will has the strength.
3. Then you can leave the garment of your this world and go over to other worlds. And take heed: All the deceased you will meet there again - and they are young! And they ...
(end of fragment)
