The Goddess Tiamat and How Heaven and Earth Were Created

 

Human history, i.e. in ancient civilizations we know of, started out with women as the top deities. Mother godesses came first, but many/most of them were "dethroned" or changed into new forms at the rise of the Patriarchy 8,000-10,000 years ago. Historians are still discussing how much real power women had in those ancient societies, for instance were they matriarchies as we understand the word? I suppose that question is to be discussed even more in the years to come, but it's for sure that the old conviction of the naturalness of the sex roles as we see them in modern times has been challenged: These roles do not stem from an inborn/biological system of women as subdued home makers and men as bread winners, the "paterfamilias" who reign his family, his country, etc. as he choses to do.

The Mesopotamian god Marduk 

One of the extremely interesting old time pantheons is to be found in The ancient Mesopotamian Religion. Actually it seems to be closely related to the Israelite religion. They are not the same, but incidents and beliefs that we find in The Bible look like adaptations of parts of the Mesopotamian religion. The one god who grew into prominence as the head god of this pantheon was Marduk. He achieved power by killing the goddess, or demon, Tiamat who was a very, very intricate and nowadays probably quite misunderstood deity, the many-headed, dragon-like embodiment of primeval chaos. The poem Enuma Elish, which dates back to the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1119-1098 B.Ce.), tells the story of this exploits.

Enuma Elish consists of (fragments of) seven tablets and here we also find a story of how Marduk created the world out of the body of the slain goddess Tiamat. He cuts her in half, making the heaven and earth from each their half, but all of her body parts are used in this creation myth. There is no doubt that this age old myth is full of similarities to The Bible, and I find that fact very suggestive. I feel it should be researched within several scholarly fields, including female/feministic history. 

It's interesting that the Mesopotamian legend describes the making of humans: A god is beheaded, but I'm not sure who that god is. However, I suppose it may be Tiamat. Well, after this beheading the blood of the dead god mixes with soil from the Earth and becomes humans. Again, it's not the same as The Bible, but those who wrote this so-called "holy book" must have dipped deeply into the Mesopotamian and Assyrian texts because there are many similarities.

To me the development of a religion is more interesting than the belief in it as I spot some important historical depictions of knowledge and delusions which have had a grave impact on the lives of humans, even today.

Wikipedia

 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tiamat 

 

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Tiamat

Trump Tower

AI and I made this portrait of the former president Donald Trump in the likeness of a miser. How come, and why not depict him as e.g. the criminal he is? The reason for that is that I first and foremost see him as an individual who is rotting from within from bad personality traits. Or put in another manner: What he is, he does.  

Well, AI and I see eye to eye on this special trait so here he goes as a character out of Dickens. This man doesn't need the MAGA-hat to exude what he is, namely an egocentric who always is dreaming of making America great again, but an America in his likeness. What should regain strength and status is himself.

This strong urge to become what he himself thinks he is makes him ignore the lives and needs of other people, like e.g. those he employs. One of the instances of this trait that has made the strongest impact on me is his treatment of the Polish workers who were hired in 1980 to demolish the Bonwit building to give room for his signature work: The so-called "Trump Tower" in New York. What beset him to treat these workers, not only as slaves, but as expendable human beings???? What happened tells me everything I need to know about WHO, Donald Trump is.

 

Once more AI and I see eye to eye when it comes to Trump: He is an ogre, actually a selfish, non-empathic kind of ogre: The Polish crew of 200 undocumented workers had to work 12-hour shifts, and they didn't have any protection like hard hats, gloves or masks. These people came to "The Land of The Free" to earn money for themselves and their families, but the ogre often sort of "forgot" to pay them their measly wages of $4 an hour which is below the union wages. 

WHY when he presumably is a billionaire with several items of gold in his showy home? (One of these items is rumored to be a toilet). To exploit workers like he did doesn't only tell a story of an amazing lack of empathy, but also reveals a deep contempt for his fellow man. 

The Polish workers took this ogre to court, and this was one of the times that Mr. Trump had to go against his principles and settle a lawsuit. However, it sure took a long time: The work of the Polish workers started or was finished in 1980, and in 1998 a settlement in what was a class-action was reached.   

This case against workers who were wronged is something that should be remembered as a signifyer of WHO Don the Con is ....

 

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/trump-ready-settle-trump-university-fraud-cases/    

 

 

The Tale of the Danish Prince Hamlet, Who Was A Brain Child of the Englishman William Shakespeare

 

This is one of my formerly published Ezine-Articles: "Is Hamlet in Reality a True Crime Story About the Murder of Tycho Brahe?"


“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is considered one of the greatest plays of all times. We all know the story of the Danish prince whose mother has married the undisclosed murderer of his father, i.e. his uncle who now has become the new king of Denmark. However, when most of us see this as the well-established plot of the play, professor Peter Andersen (Universite de Strassbourg) sees it as a sort of allegory over the murder of the famous Danish astronomist, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). This controversial theory was published in his new book, “Kunstvaerket” (: “The Artwork”).

 

King Christian IV of Denmark

His key to this interpretation is a story from 1603: “Den Hvenske Krønike”. It is about the enmity of the brother of King James I’s wife, Anna, i.e. the Danish king Christian IV (1588-1648) and the astronomer, the murder by proxy by his relative, Erik Brahe, who admitted his crime in a letter, etc., etc..

The reason for the murder is, according to Peter Andersen, first and foremost the numerous slights by Tycho Brahe against the king’s close friend and advisor, Jon Jakobsen (Also goes by the name of Venusin).

However, another one of the reasons for the king’s hatred of Tycho Brahe may have been the rumours that the astronomer had had an affair with his mother, Queen Sophie af Mecklenburg, and that he had murdered his presumed father, the former king, Frederik II. That made the astronomer out to be the king’s natural father which robbed him of his legitimacy. According to Peter Andersen, the “Elsinore” of “Hamlet” is not the town of Helsingoer, but the small island of Hven which for many years was the home of Tycho Brahe.

Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet

To me this looks like a rather circumstantial evidence in a crime investigation, but Peter Andersen has assembled a large mass of evidence and is very well read. I think this is a book which shall fall totally or stand tall with time. Many will reject it on sight, so to speak, but only time will tell how it shall fare.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Else_Cederborg

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3549519


https://www.thoughtco.com/hamlet-study-guide-4587756

 

Wikipedia

 

The "Crime" of Being Poor, Female, Sick And Homeless

 

This is the only photo of the Ecuadorian serial killer William Wladimir Cumbajín Bautista (born 1971) - known as William Cumbajín - that reveals his looks. He took great precautions in hiding his face, presumably not because of shame of what he did to (at least) nine murdered women from 2002 to 2003 in Quito, Ecuador, but to protect himself when he got caught. 

In many ways this coward was the prototype of a serial killer of women, but in other ways his targeting homeless, poor and sick women makes him stand out as something special: He didn't go for victims who excelled in beauty or sex-appeal, but social, psychological and physiological vulnerability.

What had these women done to him to deserve what he did to them? Nothing on a personal level, but what he did to them reveals the same deep seated hatred of women and the female sex as such that other male killers have exhibited. It makes him interesting in a world of the all too many men who have committed sex-related murders that he took such great pain in mutilating the genitals of his victims. To me it's obvious that he was fascinated by the very femaleness that at the same time may have felt like a threat to his masculinity. 

It is known that his mother was an abusive alcoholic and her abuse may have led to some kind of damages, physical as well as psychological, that made him hat women the more. However, to me it looks like a somewhat too "handy" excuse for what he did ....

He lured the poor and homeless women to come along with him by pretending to be a friend. That may have been easy as they were uneducated and most of them didn't have either family or friends. He gave them small gifts which made them trust him and his fake friendship. Then he drove them to the bushed in the Outskirts of Quito. Here he raped, tortured, mutilated their genitals before strangling them. When he was caught in 2004 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison which is ridiculous when considering the gravity of his crimes. After all, some of his victims had been tied up and tortured mercilessly before the murder. Something he told the police officers who investigated the murders gave him pleasure.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170906155043/https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/13/william-cumbajin-mutilaba-a-sus-victimas

 

https://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/william-wladimir-cumbajin-bautista-el-asesino-que-violo-y-torturo-a-nueve-mujeres-en-quito-ecuador-nndc-noticia/

 

The Murder of The Lovely Niece of Marilyn Monroe

 

Krystal Jean Baker 

This 13 years old girl, Krystal Jean Baker (1982-1996), was a very lovely young girl whom many feel bore a certain resemblance to her famous relative, the actress Marilyn Monroe. Or rather with her great aunt Norma Jean Baker before she was turned into Marilyn Monroe as part of her struggle to become a movie star. Marilyn/Norma succeeded in her field of work, but Krystal didn't even get the chance of spreading her wings as she unfortunately met a man who was horny as well as cruel.

Norma Jean Baker

It seems that young Krystal had taken a day off from school, claiming an earache that made it impossible for her to leave the house of her grandmother - that is, until one of her friends phoned her. Then she "had a miraculous recovery" that made it possible for her to go out to see said friend. 

Sadly enough when she went along to spend time with her friend, happy as a lark, that was the last time anyone in her family saw her alive as she was found dead, obviously murdered, in what has been called The Killing Fields which run along the Texas' Interstate 45. That means that in death she was one of more than 30 young women found dead here. That's a "club" that nobody wants to join, and one wonders how the young teen, Krystal, ended up there. 

As many teens she may have been rebellious, but she didn't lead a life that made her a typical target for murder, so what happened? Well, it took several years to identify her killer, Kevin Edison Smith, and it didn't happen until her semen soaked dress was resubmitted to analysis for DNA. That put a face on the killer and sent him to jail on a life sentence. However, the  question is, did he murder others or was Krystal his sole victim? 

Detectives have described the remote area where Krystal and some of the other victims were found as a perfect dumping ground for a serial killer. Something which has made investigating the cases so difficult that not all of the many victims have been identified. It's very sad to think of all of these women losing their life in this manner. Some believe that they were prey to the wealthy members of a "shooting club", specializing in humans, i.e. women.

 

https://thememorialtribute.fandom.com/wiki/Krystal_Baker

 

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/man-convicted-in-texas-city-girl-s-1996-slaying-3514233.php 

 

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/man-convicted-in-texas-city-girl-s-1996-slaying-3514233.php 

 

The Helper, Some Thoughts And Considerations

 

Helping the helpless patient to have something he craves, like in this photo, is help although smoking as a rule isn't healthy. Maybe especially not for an injured man like this one with injured arms. However, I'll deem it to be a genuine act of helpfulness and as such an instance of kindness. I take it that maybe these two guys became friends after being committed to the same hospital when they were injured. That means that they in some respects were equals, and that the man with the severely injured arms may have been of help to his helper, e.g. by being able to walk ....

Being Red Cross nurses these ladies were professional helpers, just as the presumed doctor tending to the patient. All of them must have been paid for their services although they may have volunteered to join Red Cross. That means that receiving wages their help may have been a genuine act of kindness turned into a way of earning money. Did they sacrifice anything in their private lives to become nurses or did they first and foremost go for a job that gave them the wages they needed? Who knows? Nobody but themselves, but for at long time the job as nurse was one of the few acceptable opportunities for women of a certain social standing who wanted some kind of career.

 

Something like that will not have been part of the job description, but it is in accordance with the romanticizing of the job: "Nurses are angels and will do anything to save people." 

This guy, Christopher Duntsch, wasn't a nurse, but a neuro surgeon who ruined the life of several patients by being an incompetent and also arrogant doctor. Actually, it seems that not only did he blunder when operating, but he set out to harm his patients. These saw him as a "helper" in the old sense of the word, but he was anything but. The only thing he wanted to "help" was his wallet and his own over-blown ego.

Oh yes, but how does one spot that trait in someone who likes the role of an expert? I wish I knew because just like the injured patients of Duntsch I am not sure I would notice it in people of another kind of jobs. For instance, how would one know that what a plumber said wasn't true? And what about professional politicians? Nor easy, right?

 

 

Unfortunately, Competence may in reality be INCOMPETENCE, and we don't know ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_mercy_(criminology)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Duntsch 

 

 

 

The Game of Literary Agents

Does a writer really need an agent to get the attention of a traditional, high-class publisher? So it seems, or at least that's what people keep telling us when we are looking for a publisher. One of those Americans who looks like he is living on the outskirts of the publishing world has targeted me in an attempt to make me sign up for one of his courses. They may be good and worthwhile, but I don't feel tempted to try them out as I don't feel that's what I need at this stage. However, I've noticed that one of the "baits" he uses to get students is to insists that his courses may be a way of getting in touch with an agent who (of course) knows the "art of catching the eye of a publisher". To me that looks like a rather circumstantial way to get something published, but it is in accordance with the information I've had from other writers: One can't approach a traditional, high-class publisher on one's own, but has to go by one's agent.

When I read the pamphlets of the man who runs those before-mentioned courses in publishing it's obvious that the chance of getting an agent is one of the baits, right before the SUPER-BAIT, namely the publishing contract. What he is saying is, that attending his courses would open the door into the publishing firm through the agent. To me it's obvious that it shouldn't be like that, and neither should an author have to pay to get published, unless that's his/her choice to do so because he/she likes the idea of e.g. self-publishing. 

In 1998 a friend and I published this book with St. Martin's Press. We had an agent by the name of Florence Feiler who had done a lot for Karen Blixen and her works in English. Because of my good experiences with Florence as an agent I approached St. Martin's Press when I myself had a script I wanted to publish in USA. By that time Florence had died, and the publishers didn't even bother to reply which to me was a clear indication that those writers who had told me about the difficult modern ways of the publishing world hadn't lied: It's not at all customary anymore that writers approach a publishing firm without an agent. 

Do I want an agent? No, but I may have to try to get one nonetheless, which isn't as easy as one might think. That's why the man with the publishing courses may use the chance of getting an agent as bait for the students he is dreaming of getting ....

The stream of invites for those publishing courses made me think a little more about the nature of the job of a literary agent. What is the education of such an agent? It appears that it may be something of a more or less haphazard nature. There are no fixed exams, and to me it seems it's assumed that they are "well read in life", and - most important, I assume - have contacts in the literary circles. As to their duties they are supposed to find publishers and/or other outlets for their clients' writings. Also they should negotiate terms and contracts as well as collecting incoming payments and royalties. 

If they are on a commission - which definitely is the best - it's customary for them to charge 10-15 % of the money their client earns. That should be OK, I suppose, but what guarantee does an author have that his/her agent is worth his/her money? How does he/she know that they have those contacts that are their bait for an author and which are vital for getting a publishing contract? If there is anything I've learnt about the publishing world these years it is that a lot of people shatter promises of all kinds on the not too easily passable paths of all kinds of writers. All - or most of - these promises may prove to be nothing but air and unsubstantial dreams of getting the hopeful writer to pay much too much for nothing ....

 

https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?query=literary%20agent&source=top-bar&acmpl

  

https://vault.com/professions/literary-agents/requirements 

 

https://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/job-descriptions/literary-agent-job-description 

 

https://blog.reedsy.com/literary-agents/

 

https://www.theliteraryoffice.com/contact 

 

https://literaryagencies.com/list-of-literary-agents/ 

 

https://fabledplanet.com/30-top-fantasy-and-science-fiction-literary-agents/