Assyrian Holy Scriptures

The term "Assyrian Holy Scriptures" is a modern descriptive phrase, not an ancient self-designation. "Assyrian" derives from the city-state of Assur, whose name likely originates from the chief god of the Assyrian pantheon. "Scriptures" comes from Latin scriptura, meaning "writing."

Orientalists show seven such books: the Books of Mamit, of Worship, of Interpretations, of Going to Hades; two Prayer Books (Kanmagarri and Kaninikri: Talbot) and the Kantolite, the lost Assyrian Psalter. Assyrian Trcr of Lifr. "Ashcrah'' ((j.v.). It is translated in tlie Bible by "grove'' and occurs 30 times. It is called an "idol"; and Maaehali, the grandmother of Asa, King of Jerusalem, is accused of having made for herself such an idol, which was a lingham. For centuries this was a religious rite in Judaea. But the original Asherah was a pillar with seven branches on each side surmounted by a globular flower with three projecting rays, and no phallic stone, as the Jcics made of it, but a metaphysical symbol. "^lereiful One, who dead to life raises!" was the prayer uttered before the Asherah, on the banks of the Euphrates. The "Merciful One", was neither the personal god of the Jews who brought the "grove" from their captivity, nor any extra-cosmic god, but the higher triad in man symbolized by the globular flower with its three rays.

The notion of "Assyrian Holy Scriptures" as presented by Helena Blavatsky is less a direct catalog of canonical texts and more a speculative reconstruction of a lost, primordial wisdom tradition, glimpsed through the fractured lens of Orientalist scholarship and her own esoteric framework. Blavatsky, in her characteristic fashion, seeks not merely to identify texts but to excavate their underlying metaphysical import, seeing in the descriptions of the Asherah a symbol far removed from later, more literalistic interpretations. She posits a pre-phallic understanding of this ancient pillar, one that resonates with the concept of a "higher triad in man," a divine spark or principle within the human being.

This interpretation invites us to consider how sacred symbols evolve, how their meaning can be both obscured and reinterpreted across millennia and cultural shifts. Mircea Eliade, in his studies of archaic religions, emphasized the importance of cosmological symbols as anchors to the sacred, connecting the earthly realm to the divine. The Asherah, in Blavatsky's reading, functions as such a symbol, a conduit to the "Merciful One," a principle of life and regeneration, rather than a mere idol or a crude fertility totem. The prayer uttered before it, "Merciful One, who dead to life raises!", speaks to a profound cyclical understanding of existence, a theme echoed in many esoteric traditions, from the cyclical cosmologies of Hinduism to the alchemical transformations explored in Hermeticism.

The challenge for the modern reader is to sift through the layers of interpretation, to discern the kernel of ancient insight from the accretions of scholarly bias and esoteric agenda. Yet, in Blavatsky's engagement with these "Scriptures," there is a compelling invitation to look beyond the surface of religious forms and to seek the universal truths that may lie at their heart, truths often expressed through the language of nature and the human psyche. It suggests that the quest for the divine has always involved a dialogue with the immanent, a recognition of the sacred in the very fabric of being.

RELATED_TERMS: Asherah, Sacred Pillar, Mesopotamian Religion, Ancient Near East, Esoteric Symbolism, Divine Immanence, Primordial Wisdom