Babylonia

The Pentagram appears as a sign (UB) in the earliest form of Sumerian pictographic writing (c. 3000 BCE). Although such pictographs do not have a unique meaning, the general sense seems to be "heavenly body."

By the cuneiform period (say, after 2600 BCE) the pentagram means "region," "heavenly quarter" or "direction" (Forward Backward Left Right) and is generally used with the number 4.

It is conjectured that early Babylonians added a fifth direction (Up) because they believed Heaven ruled the Four Quarters; de Vogel makes an analogy with the Jewish Prayer of the Night in which Schekina rules over the Four Archangels (Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel). In Babylon the Four Directions were ruled, according to de Vogel, by the planets Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, but he doesn't say which ruled which; Venus, the fifth planet, corresponded to the Queen of Heaven (Ishtar). (De Vogel, Pyth., App. A)

Although I've been unable to find any evidence for a Babylonian theory of the Elements, there are suggestive indications. For example in the Babylonian Creation Myth "Enuma Elish" (before 1000 BCE) and elsewhere Marduk assigns The Four Worlds as follows:

Luminous Heaven: Anu,

Sky: Enlil (Lord Storm),

Earth: Marduk,

Watery Abyss: Ea.

Thus we have rather clear elemental associations, Anu: fire, Enlil: Air, Marduk: Earth, Ea: Water. Unfortunately only one of these is a planet: Marduk = Jupiter. (King, Enuma Elish, xlix, lxxxiv; Kramer, Sum. Myth., 41; Perry, Lord Four Quart., 75-80)

In anticipation of considering the Greek system I'll observe that there may be a basic incompatibility between the Babylonian and Greek conceptions of the elements. In Babylonia the typical arrangement is (from top down): Fire, Air, Earth, Water, since the Abyss is under the Earth.

In Greece (at least as early as Heraclitus, c.500 BCE) the order (from top down) is: Fire, Air, Water, Earth, since this is the order of increasing density which forms the basis of Plato's Cycle, which is fundamental to alchemy.

In both systems, Spirit (Aether etc.) is above the Four Mundane Elements, but the arrangement of the latter may ultimately depend on whether you prefer the Babylonian or Greek scheme.

The preceding gives one correlation between Elements and Planets but, unfortunately, I've been unable to establish a credible relationship between the other Planets and Directions in Babylonia.

The Seven Planets correspond to Gods:

Sin/Moon

Shamash/Sun

Marduk/Jupiter

Ishtar/Venus

Ninurta/Saturn

Nergal/Mars

Nebo/Mercury

(in their canonical order; yes, the Moon originally had priority over the Sun)

Further, the division of Heaven and Earth into Four Quarters was a central part of Babylonian cosmology. Interestingly, when they assigned things (such as months or days) to the Directions, they did so in the order SEWN, which is reminiscent of the Cabalistic Tree of Life.

If we take the Gods Ruling the Four Elemental Worlds and assign them to the directions in their usual order (Anu, Enlil, Ea, Marduk), then we get: N: earth/Marduk W: water/Ea E: air/Enlil S: fire/Anu

This is certainly a reasonable and familiar arrangement for the Elements, but since it involves only one Planet, its connection with the Pentagram is tenuous. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find other direct associations between the Planets and the Directions, and indirect assignments (via lists of Gods, or the Months and their Gods) have produced dubious results; that is, none associates one Planet with each Direction.

If we assign the planets in their constant Babylonian order (L/Luna, S/Sol, J/Jupiter, V/Venus, K/Saturn, M/Mars, H/Mercury) to the directions SEWN, omitting Venus (which is Up), then we get the following Directional arrangement for the Planets: K J H M which is reasonable, but has little to support it (and disagrees in its placement of Jupiter/Marduk, though here He is in the context of a different rank of Gods). (see Jastrow, Rel. Bab. Asyr., Ch. 22)

Although the Babylonian system, with the special significance it attaches to Venus, does not agree with the Egyptian or Greek systems, which distinguish Mercury, we can perhaps take as a general principal that the distinguished planet corresponds to Up or Center, and the remaining four to the Quarters.

by John Opsopaus November 1993