Deleted Chapter – The Astrologer

Enki sat at his desk working late at night. The clay tablets before him the only outward evidence of what was happening in his head.

Only the lamps bothered him as they required adjustment from time to time. The moths buzzed around the room in swirling arcs. Uruk was asleep.

Sometime after midnight he put down his stylus and came out of his world of tablets and characters. He looked around his cell. The smell permeating the still air had made the whole room stultifying. He needed fresh air.

He walked outside. There was no moon. All was dark. Then he noticed that from the temple roof, a small flame burned. He walked up the steps to investigate.

A solitary figure stood, away from the flame, gazing into the night sky. Enki knew the temple employed an Astrologer. They had yet to meet. The Astrologer did not mix with the Temple employees. He kept to himself and was reluctant to indulge in daily temple life.

Mostly he was allowed to keep to himself and was only consulted if the priests needed to get advice on what days were most auspicious for ceremonies. 

Enki wondered if the Astrologer would even talk to him. As he approached the Astrologer turned and beckoned him over.

‘What are you seeking?’ he asked.

Enki wasn’t seeking anything but had heard the astrologer had no interest in ordinary conversation.

‘Every night the stars move across the sky.  But as the moon cycles through its stages, different stars appear on the horizon at dusk to journey through the night.’ He stopped there rather than asking a question. He waited to see what answer he would get.

The Astrologer nodded. ‘Even more mysterious than that, the Uduidim, the wild sheep, wander through the heavens. Ninsianna (Venus) can only be seen at dawn and dusk but they she is there during the day watching us.’

He pointed to a bright red star. ‘That is Mulsa (Mars). And there are two more, Genna (Saturn) and Shulpaea (Jupiter), that are coming closer to Mulsa every month. I have been watching closely. It is not often these wanderers align. I have been keeping the Priests informed as to when we expect them to come together. It does not happen often.’

Enki was interested. The Astrologer gave Enki the names of the constellations that the Sun, the Moon, and the Uduidim wanderers travelled through.

♈️ Luhunga – The Farmer (Aries)

♉️ Gu Anna – Great Bull (Taurus)

♊️ Mustabba Bagal – The Twins (Gemini)

♋️ Al-lul – The Crayfish (Cancer)

♌️ Urgula – The Lion (Leo)

♑️ Ab Sun – The Virgin (Virgo)

♎️ Zib Baanna – The Scales (Libra)

♍️ Girtab – The Scorpion (Scorpio)

♐️ Pabilsag – The Soldier (Sagittarius)

♍️ Suhurmas – The Goat Fish (Capricorn)

♒️ Gu-la – The Great One – Aquarius

♓️ Dununu – The Fish (Pisces)

‘How do you know the Sun travels through this path as well?’ asked Enki.

The Astrologer thought for a moment deciding how to explain. ‘There have been astrologers in Uruk for many generations. Over time these astrologers observed major events in the sky. The Sun being blocked from the sky plunging the earth into darkness. To the early inhabitants of Uruk this was a thing of terror. The gods had decided to take the sun away. I was told my the previous Astrologer of Uruk that this was a main reason why the temple created the position of an Astrologer.’

‘Over many years and generations our astrologers observed these events. They found that the Sun was being blocked by the Moon. It took a long time to work this out. Sun blocking events can’t be predicted. But when they occurred the Moon was always absent from the night sky. After a while we were able to note the position of the Sun in the sky when this happened and then confirm the Moon would have been in the same place at that time.’

‘Now we have the role of being able to tell the high priests immediately the Sun begins to dim whether it is the Moon or not. Since we have discovered this, it had always been the Moon.’

‘We accompany the high priests to the Enanna Temple to address the crowd. People panic quickly. They come immediately to the public square to hear from the priests.’

‘I often wonder what I would say if the sun ever blocked and I knew it was not the Moon. It would mean end of days. The gods might have decided to curse us and end the world. I still don’t know what I’d do.’

He grew quiet, gazing up at the constancy of his heavens as a way to soothe his thoughts.

Once that was done he continued. So that is how we know the sun is positioned against the constellations. In the period when the Sun is totally blocked the stars come out and the Sun can be seen against the constellations. That is how we know.’

Enki was struck dumb. He had never heard of the sun being blocked. He imagined how frightening that would be and for the first time understood why the temple had an Astrologer. The temple needed to be a place where answers could be gotten to all the mysteries of life. This was one of them.

They stood silently together on the roof and gazed. Enki spent most of the night listening to the Astrologer as he pointed out the details of the heavens. The seven sisters, the dog star, brightest of all, the pole star keeping a fixed position as they watched all the others hurtling across the sky.

It was a whole other world. At dawn they retreated from the roof and went to bed. Enki practically lived in his cell these days. 

His last thoughts as he fell asleep were of absolute wonder of a world he hardly knew.

The Astrologer’s bed was at the back of compound. His last thoughts as he went to sleep were the same as what had been going through his mind all night and the night before that. What would happen when the planets aligned? It was a bad sign.