Music History

Our world is inhabited by some 66 different civilizations (Global Civilization – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, p 3, by David Wilkinson, at http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C04/E6-97-11.pdf, accessed 4-5-12). These civilizations are divided into four different major races (List of Human Races, at http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-human-races.html, accessed 4-12-12), which are further divided into about 30 different subgroups (World Mysteries website, under words How Many Different Races Are There, at http://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/how-many-major-races-are-there-in-the-world/, accessed 4-12-12). These subgroups are further divided into over a thousand different ethnic groups (Wikipedia, Online Encyclopedia, under Lists of Ethnic Groups, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_ethnic_groups, accessed 4-12-12) speaking some 6900 different languages (Wikipedia, Online Encyclopedia, under words Lists of Languages, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_languages, accessed 4-12-12).

First, the most ancient of civilizations needed to be identified, near as possible to the beginning of earth’s history. Ancient civilizations such as Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, China, India, etc., are some of the oldest. Any existing historical data about these ancient peoples, and especially any of their preserved sacred writings, was painstakingly located, then began the inquisitive and time consuming task of pouring through these sources in order to correctly document and ascertain their specific practices.

Needless to say, this has not been easy. And to make matters worse, shortly after beginning research in 2003, a Wiccan high priestess and her high priest in training moved next door, and almost immediately distracting interrupting troubles began. Over the next several years they spread slanderous, malicious and false accusations about myself in a local paper, over the internet and in other public platforms. Soon afterwards very close long-time friends turned into bitter enemies causing even more problems. But regardless of all these troubles, research continued forward, and after over 20 years of careful research and discovery of conclusive evidence, this author decided to release his findings to the public.

Every ancient civilization was founded and centered upon a particular religious belief, and had established a particular style of music inseparably connected with this belief. These two areas of religious beliefs and music were integrated together until an “intimate relationship between music and religion, and music and ethnicity” (Stony Brook University Undergraduate Study Courses Bulletin, Fall 2012, at http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/bulletin/current/courses/aas/, accessed 4-5-12) was clearly formed. Other researchers have also noted this fact:

“The use of music in religion is universal. Found in every culture, every religion, every period of history”. Magic, Music and Mystery, by Barbara Jackson, published in Synergy magazine, Vol 7, #3, Fall, 1998, p 10, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:dI7q3_-rHPIJ:www.baptistwomeninministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/vol_7_3.pdf+mesopotamia+%22music+in+religion%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShVDLF8muBlT6_OSiLqqNyIUwXcumwMWmBW1kmIpZvdeN18LNz5ZCoOxWnVJE2hYiWmhqrwoc-rbCHl5iGX03Un-Rqx823_BTnur8HslVi71YfjqVNLhRXGmOC2hxLQItw2LFtv&sig=AHIEtbS_1WUT191VN0-u9YDgcZFNpAv8Qw, accessed 4-5-12.

From the beginning, religion has communicated through music, and has become a very effective means of spreading religious belief. Different genres and styles and lyrics are used to convey particular aspects and tenets of faith. In this way, music can communicate religious doctrine just as effectively, or even more so than a sermon preached to its listeners. Listeners would not need to visit any cathedral, temple, shrine, or other sacred and holy site in order to be exposed to the principles, ideas and religious influences contained in any particular style of music.

"What we call an art is one of a number of ways of describing and communicating...to be shared with another organism....[Music] is a way of transmitting a description of experience, in such a way that the experience is re-created in the person receiving it...the movement of the voice, the sound of the instruments are, like colours, forms and patterns, means of transmitting our experience in so powerful a way that the experience can be literally lived by others....it is a physical experience as real as any other.” The Long Revolution, by Sociologist Raymond Williams, p 40-41, Broadview Press, 2001, Orchard Park, NY.

To begin a closer investigation into various types of music and the particular religious beliefs and practices connected with each, we will start with the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is the most widely recognized of all religious books. Historians acknowledge the “Bible is the only work to survive from the Ancient Near East through a literary tradition, that is, to be copied over and over and thus transmitted in an unbroken line of texts from antiquity” (Ancient Literature and Language, A Guide to Writing in History and Classics, Chapter 2: The Epic of Gilgamesh, by Frances B. Titchener, at http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320AncLit/chapters/02gilgam.htm, accessed 3-19-12).

These divine Beings were perfect in all aspects of character and personage (Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Samuel 22:31), were also truthful, good and “righteous in all...ways, and holy in all...works” (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 145:17, 31:5; Exodus 34:6), and were the definition and fullness of love being manifested (1 John 4:7-8, 16; Zephaniah 3:17; 2 Corinthians 13, 11, 14). These righteous Gods were also omnipotent – meaning all powerful (1 Chronicles 29:11; 2 Chronicles 25:8; Nehemiah 9:6, 32; Job 26:7-12, 42:2; Psalms 62:11, 145:3), omnipresent – meaning not limited to just one physical location at a time (Joshua 1:9; Job 34:21; Psalms 139:7; Proverbs 15:3; Jeremiah 23:24; Ezekiel 8:12, 9:9), Omniscient – meaning all knowing (1 Samuel 2:3, 16:7; 2 Chronicles 6:30; Job 26:6; Psalms 44:21), and were infinite in wisdom and understanding (Job 37:23; Psalms 139:2, 147:5; Jeremiah 51:15).

God Himself is not identified by a personal name, but is known by other titles such as – “the living God”, “the Lord God Almighty,” “Almighty God”, “the Ancient of days” (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:22, 19:15; Daniel 7:9, 13), and “the most high God” (Daniel 5:18). This Almighty God is not an invisible essence, but possesses a physical form that can be seen (Genesis 1:26; Revelation 19:4, 20:12, 22:3-4, 7:10, 15, 6:16) and felt (Revelation 21:3-4, 7:15), as well as a voice that can be audibly heard (Genesis 1:26; Luke 3:22, 9:35).

The Almighty lives in a holy kingdom called heaven (Deuteronomy 26:15; 1 Kings 8:30, 39, 43, 49; 2 Chronicles 30:27; Psalms 11:4; Ecclesiastes 5:2; Daniel 2:28; Matthew 5:3), which is situated in a particular area among the stars. He created these stars and then “stretched them out” (Isaiah 42:5, see also Isaiah 44:24, 45:12, 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12, 51:15; Zechariah 12:1) into a vast and immense expanse of universe. In this “holy heaven” (Psalms 20:6) the Almighty rules (Matthew 5:34) as “the great King” over a city (Psalms 48:2). His throne is situated in a temple or sanctuary (Revelation 16:17) which is located “in the sides of the north” of “the holy mountain of God” called “the mount of the congregation” (Hebrews 8:2; Isaiah 14:13; Ezekiel 28:14).

The God Michael is known as “the great prince” and “Prince of princes” (Daniel 12:1, 8:25), is second in authority to God Almighty and also possesses a physical form (Daniel 3:25, 10:19, 21, 12:1; Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7). The Hebrew word for “great” used here is “gadowl” which translates and means exceedingly “great, older, elder, high, and mighty” (see Strong’s Exhaustive Hebrew Concordance, word #1419). The word for “prince” used here is “sar” which translates “head, captain, general, governor, lord, master, prince and ruler” (see Strong’s, word #8269). The Bible uses these words to indicate that Michael was the great Captain, General, Lord, Master and Ruler in heaven, rather than a literal son born from the King - Almighty God.

God the Holy Spirit is referred to as "the Spirit" (Numbers 11:25-26; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Isaiah 32:15; Ezekiel 2:2, 3:12, 14, 24, 8:3; Matthew 4:1; Luke 2:27; John 3:34; Acts 2:4, 8:29; Romans 8:26-27; Galatians 5:16-25; 1 Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:10), the "Spirit of the Lord" (Judges 3:10, 6:34, 14:6; 1 Samuel 10:6, 16:13; 2 Samuel 23:2-3; Isaiah 11:2, 40:7, 13, 59:19; Ezekiel 11:5, 24; Micah 3:8; Luke 4:18; Acts 5:9, 8:39), the "Spirit of God" (Numbers 24:2; 1 Samuel 10:10, 19:20, 23; 2 Chronicles 15:1, 24:20; Job 33:4; Ezekiel 11:24; Matthew 3:16; Romans 15:19), the "Spirit of the living God" (2 Corinthians 3:3), the "Spirit of the Lord God" (Isaiah 61:1), the "Spirit of Christ" (Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11), the "Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:19), the "Spirit of truth" (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13), the "Spirit of Grace" (Hebrews 10:29), the "Comforter" (John 14:26; Acts 9:31), the "Holy Ghost" (Matthew 1:18, 20, 12:31-32; Mark 12:36; Luke 1:67; John 7:39; Acts 1:16, 2:4, 5:3-4, 13:2, 4, 15:28, 16:6, 20:28, 21:11; Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19), as well as the "eternal Spirit" (Hebrews 9:14). The Holy Spirit is not limited to any particular physical form, but can assume different shapes (Mark1:10; Luke 3:22, 4:1, 12:10, 12; Acts 2:2-4), including angelic (Ezekiel 9:1-11 in connection with Ephesians 4:30) and human (Hebrews 7:1-4, 17-22). The Holy Spirit works to make it possible for the mind, will and work of God and Michael to be carried out and fulfilled, as well as Its own mind, will and work (John 16:13-15; Romans 8:26-27; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; Revelation 22:17). It was specifically through the Holy Spirit that the Holy Scriptures were written down and preserved unto the present day (Ezekiel 11:5; Joel 2:28; 2 Peter 1:21; Acts 1:16, 2:17-18).

There were other non-divine beings in heaven, created by The Almighty and Michael who ruled over them (Psalms 148:1-5), and these were known as angels. The word angel is “mal’ak” which translates “to despatch as a deputy, a messenger of God, an angel” (Strong’s, word # 4397). These heavenly angels carry out God and Michael’s will (Psalms 103:20). Every angel was created as an individual “holy” being (Revelation 14:10) and differed from one another by name and by individual gifts and talents. They also possess the ability to communicate through voice (Genesis 19:1-2; Numbers 22:32), and number in the hundreds of millions (Revelation 5:11; Hebrews 12:22).

One heavenly being in particular, an angel named Lucifer, was created with a wealth of musical talents. The word Lucifer itself means “to be clear” in “sound” or in “color” “in the sense of brightness” (Strong’s, word #1966 and #1984). Lucifer was not only bright in appearance, but also clear in sound, specifically created with “tabrets” and “pipes” in his throat (Ezekiel 28:13). Pipes, of course, give different sounds when air passes through them, and suggest that Lucifer was able to sing multiple notes at the same time. The word “tabrets” means “to drum” or “play” like on a “tambourine” (Strong’s word #8596 derived from #8608), and this suggests that Lucifer was also able to maintain the beat or move the song forward in a rhythmic, orderly fashion as he sang. As other angels could also sing (Jeremiah 51:48; Luke 2:13-14; Revelation 5:11-12, 11:15), it is quite probable that Lucifer was the conductor and director of an angelic choir and heavenly musicians.

The Hebrew word for “iniquity” is “evel” (Strong’s, word #5766), and it translates “evil, iniquity, perverseness, unrighteousness, wicked”. It is derived from the Hebrew word “aval” (Strong’s, word #5765), which translates “to distort, to deal unjustly”. The Hebrew word for “sinned” is “chata” (Strong’s, word #2398), which translates “to miss, to sin”; while the Hebrew word for “sin” is “chatta’th” (Strong’s, word #2403 – which is derived from “chata”), and it translates “an offense, or an offender”.

As Lucifer gained supporters and confidence in himself and his arbitrary desire to be recognized and worshiped as a god himself, his rebellion grew until his true motives against God and Michael were fully exposed. No longer working in secret, he sought openly to coerce Them into conceding to his demands, and failing that, he prepared to war with Them. At this, Lucifer’s name was enlarged to include the titles of “the great dragon...that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan” (Revelation 12:9). The Greek word for “dragon” is “drakon” (Strong’s, word #1404), and it translates “to look, to fascinate as a fabulous kind of serpent”. The Greek word for “serpent” is “ophis” (Strong’s, word #3789), and it translates “a snake of sly cunning, an artful malicious person” and is derived from the Greek word #3700 meaning “something remarkable” that causes people to “gaze with wide open eyes”. The Greek word for “Devil” is “diabolos” (Strong’s, word #1228), and it translates “a traducer, false accuser, slanderer”, and the Greek word for “Satan” is “Satanas” (Strong’s, word #4567), and it translates “the accuser, the devil”.

Every angel in heaven was forced to choose a side in this conflict, to exercise their own free will and decide whether to stand with the great dragon Lucifer or to remain loyal to their Creator God and Michael. When all decisions had been made and acted upon, the war came to an immediate and decisive end. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.” Revelation 12:7. Lucifer, along with all “the angels that sinned” (2 Peter 2:4) and who chose “with folly” (Job 4:18) to join his rebellion against God and Michael, “prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out...and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:8-9), as fast as “lightning” (Luke 10:18), for what created being could ever defeat the God who had created them?

But God Almighty, in His infinite wisdom, did not destroy Lucifer and his followers as immediate punishment for their rebellion. He allowed them to continue in their sinful ways as an example to all other heavenly angels who might still harbor sympathy for their fallen comrades. Lucifer’s lies and cunning words had planted seeds of doubt in their hearts, and all heavenly beings still retained their freedom of choice. They must be allowed to witness the true character of Lucifer manifested in the terrible consequences his evil desires would bring about over time, and the sorrow and death it wrought to all who followed him. Only then could they understand without a doubt that God is perfect and righteous and just in His ways (2 Chronicles 19:7; Psalms 5:4), and that Satan’s selfish pride had been the true root of all evil.

Following the banishment of Lucifer and the restoration of harmony in heaven, God and Michael created the earth and everything upon it in holy perfection by speaking it into existence (see Genesis chapters 1 & 2), and their creation commands were carried out by the Spirit of God (Genesis 1:2; Psalms 104:30; Job 26:13, 33:4). Just like with heaven, God did not intend the earth to be a place of silence, but to be alive with sound, especially glorious music and singing. The heavenly angels and other sons of God “sang together...and shouted for joy” (Job 38:7) when creation of the earth was completed.

The Lord God Michael took some of the dust/soil of the ground and with it personally formed a man, calling him Adam (Genesis 2:19). Then the Lord “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” making Adam a living, breathing soul/person (Genesis 2:6-7). This meant that Adam was not created with a living soul, but became a living soul when Michael breathed air into him. Shortly afterwards, Michael caused Adam to fall into “a deep sleep”, and then as a skilled physician He surgically removed a rib, closed up flesh, formed a woman from the rib, breathed into her the breath of life and she then became a living soul/woman (Genesis 2:21-22). After bringing this living woman to the man, Adam called her name Eve (Genesis 3:20).

But this was not to last for long. Despite being cast out of heaven, Lucifer had not given up his ambitions, and eagerly carried his warfare against God down to the newly-created inhabitants of the earth. Adam and Eve were seduced by his wily deceptions like so many of the angels before them, and chose to follow Lucifer’s instructions and ideals instead of God’s (see Genesis 3:1-13). They fell under Lucifer’s dominion (Romans 6:16; 2 Peter 2:19) and lost their innocence. Human nature became fallen, their natural tendencies and thoughts now inclined towards the will of Lucifer instead of the will of God (Genesis 6:5; Isaiah 59:1-8; Mark 7:21-23). Both were then cast out of the Edenic Paradise and away from the Tree of Life, and instantly began to die a gradual death (Genesis 3:22-24).

Lucifer immediately claimed all of humanity as his rightful subjects, this earth as his rightful kingdom (Luke 4:5-6), and his rightful position as being the one and only supreme being and “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Lucifer then developed a religious belief directly opposed to the truth that God was only holy, true, righteous and good at all times. His religion instead was founded upon the falsehood that the character of God was a dual mixture of “good and evil” (Genesis 3:5), and that mankind themselves could become “as gods” (Genesis 3:5) by exhibiting a balance of both good and evil in their lives.

From this point on, humanity became Lucifer’s pawns in his never-ending attempts to slander and triumph over God. They were his new focus, his new potential converts and servants. Because every human born still possessed the power of free will and choice given them by God, Lucifer had reason to employ all his gifts, talents, energy and guile to entice and mislead as many as would heed him. Using the same subtle methods that had brought angels under his control, he worked behind the scenes, influencing humans to think, act, listen or use their voices in ways contrary to God and His will. He stole obedience and honor for himself, deceiving and convincing whole peoples and nations to choose to join him in furthering his rebellious plan to be praised and worshiped as god on this earth.

Sin caused a separation or gulf to occur between God and His sinful creation (Isaiah 59:1-2). God greatly desired to personally console his fallen creation and let them know that He still loved them dearly and was working to save them. But the Almighty could not personally visit with them because if He did they would all be destroyed (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29; Psalms 50:3; 97:1-6; 2 Samuel 22:13-14; Nahum 1:5-6; Isaiah 33:14-17, 21-22). Another problem was that God “cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13). This meant that even if God could find a way to safely visit His people, He wouldn’t be able to understand what they experience in their minds and fallen flesh when Lucifer tempts them to sin, and therefore couldn’t know how to help them overcome these temptations.

The only way to circumvent these major problems and provide salvation for fallen mankind was for God to be miraculously born a human (Psalms 40:6-10; Hebrews 10:5-7; Philippians 2:7-11), so that He could dwell among the people He loved (Zechariah 2:10-11; Jeremiah 33), could live only as a fallen human in order to personally experience at each stage of development from infancy to adulthood (Luke 2:40-52) what human beings feel and experience under temptation (Romans 8:3-4; Hebrews 2:14-18, 4:15, 5:7-9), and then successfully overcome each temptation with divine help (Psalms 40:8; Luke 22:41-46; Revelation 3:21). This would then prove that it is possible for all fallen human beings to also resist Lucifer and not commit sin (Titus 2:12-14; Philippians 4:8, 13). This sinless God/man could then offer up His innocent human life in death as a substitute for sinful mankind (Isaiah 63:1-5; John 1:29) in order to save them from sin’s penalty of eternal death (Romans 6:23), could afterwards use His Godhood in order to provide forgiveness and cleansing to any who would choose to accept His sacrificial substitution as their own, give them divine power to follow His example in overcoming temptation as He “overcame” (Revelation 3:21), and then provide them eternal life (1 John 5:11-12), including resurrecting them back to life if they had died (John 11:25, 5:26-29). Accomplishing all this would make it possible for the gulf that sin caused to be bridged, the personal connection re-established eternally with the Almighty Himself, and every fallen human being could be saved, - if they chose to be (Ephesians 2:13-22). But any who would not choose to accept this substitute sacrifice, or to overcome all sin as He overcame, could not be saved and would suffer eternal death (1 John 5:12).

At the proper time, a “virgin” woman was selected and she agreed to become miraculously impregnated “of the Holy Ghost” sent from God (Hebrews 10:5, 7; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38), in order to give birth to a human son who was named Jesus. Jesus had God for His literal Father - becoming “the only begotten” and “beloved” “Son of God” (Luke 1:32; John 1:18; 2 Peter 1:17; Matthew 3:17, 17:5; Luke 3:32; 2 John 1:3), and a human for His mother - becoming the Son of Man (Matthew 8:20). This made Jesus both God (Isaiah 9:6) and man (John 4:29; 1 Timothy 2:5) at the same time. But Jesus chose not to live on earth in His Godhood, but to live only in His humanity so that He could experience first-hand Satan’s fierce temptations (Matthew 4:1), deny all the desires of the fallen flesh by choosing to live his human life at all times in perfect obedience to God his Father (Psalms 40:8; John 8:29, 42-47) and gain the victory (1 Peter 4:1). This allowed Jesus to provide a way for all mankind to overcome through Him and be saved (Hebrews 2:9-18, 5:7-9).

Christ then manifested His great love for fallen mankind by offering up His innocent life on the cross of Calvary (Matthew 27:35-51; Mark 15:24-39; Luke 23:33-47; John 19:18-30) to become a substitute sacrifice for all mankind (Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 3:16), and then resurrected from the tomb as a conqueror over death and the grave (Matthew 27:53; John 11:25-26; Acts 2:31, 4:2, 33; Romans 1:4). This allowed Jesus to fulfill this great Plan of Salvation (John 19:30; Luke 23:46; Mark 15:37; Matthew 27:50), provide forgiveness, atonement and cleansing from sin (Matthew 9:6, 16:13), access to the Tree of Life once again (Revelation 2:7, 22:2, 14) and eternal life to any who would choose to accept and follow Him (John 3:16-17, 6:27; 1 John 5:11-13; 2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 21:6-8). But any who chose to reject Him could not be benefitted by his substitution, innocent life, sacrificial death, resurrection, would not be able to eat from the Tree of Life and therefore would suffer the same destructive fate as will Lucifer in the end (Luke 20:9-18; 1 John 5:12; Revelation 20:10-15, 21:6-8).

Six generations after Lucifer successfully caused the death of Abel (one who praised and worshiped God by obeying His will) by the hands of his brother Cain (one who disobeyed God’s will and so worshipped Lucifer), Jubal was born. Jubal was from the lineage of Cain, from among the group who opposed God, and Lucifer was able to effectively use him to influence those who “handle the harp and organ” (Genesis 4:21). This meant that songs were produced which praised and honored Lucifer, performed in direct contrast to the lifestyle of those from the lineage of Seth, who chose to follow God and sang only songs of praise to Him.

After the flood, Noah’s descendents were again divided into two groups of people. His son Shem and his children remained faithful to God, and from among them was born the patriarch Abraham (see 1 Chronicles 1:24-27), while his sons Ham and Japheth chose to follow Lucifer, and from their descendents came those who were termed Gentiles. From the lineage of Ham were found those who honored, praised and worshiped Lucifer, including Canaan, from whom came all the Canaanites; Philistim (also called Casluhim), from whom came all the Philistines (see Genesis 10:6, 14; 1 Chronicles 1:12), and Nimrod, who founded Babel or Babylon in the land of Shinar (see Genesis 10:8-10).

The lineage of Ham chose Nimrod as their leader. Nimrod “began to be a mighty one in the earth”, and was also “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:8-9). The Hebrew word for “began” is “chalal”, which translates “to dissolve, to profane, to defile, to pollute” (Strong’s, word # 2490). The Hebrew word for “before” is “paneh” (Strong’s, word #6440), which translates “against, anger, battle, upside down.” Nimrod dissolved any connection between himself and the Lord God, and instead became profane and defiled in life in service to Lucifer. His anger against the Lord became so great that he was willing to do battle against Him and His followers in hopes of turning the truth about God “upside down,” substituting the lies of Satan and making it harder for anyone on earth to discern the true character of the Lord God or how to correctly worship Him.

Nimrod wasted no time establishing “the beginning of his kingdom” (Genesis 10:10) with the city of “Babel.” He then built three other cities in different areas of Mesopotamia called “Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar” (Genesis 10:10). As Babel was the first city of Nimrod’s kingdom, this “whole” land of Mesopotamia became known as the land of Babel or Babel-land or Babylon or Babylonia (Everyday Life in Babylonia and Assyria, p 11, by H.W.F. Saggs, published 1965, Assyrian International News Agency Books Online, at http://www.aina.org/books/eliba/eliba.htm#c20, accessed 12-22-11). In fact, the Hebrew word “Babel” means “Babylon” (Strong’s, word #894).

Understanding the ramifications of Nimrod’s plan, God Almighty said to the Lord God Michael “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do”, and if they were allowed to succeed in this plan, “nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Genesis 11:5-6). God saw that it was necessary that They both directly intervene in the affairs of mankind and declared to Michael: “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Genesis 11:7).

Utter confusion resulted immediately from this sudden splitting of the languages. No longer was there one unified spoken language for mankind, but many! (Note: today there are estimated to be over 5000 different languages – see Wikipedia, online Encyclopedia, under word List of Language Families, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_families, accessed 4-4-12.) People could no longer understand one another, let alone the commands of Nimrod, and his plan for world domination was foiled. The people “left off to build the city” (Genesis 11:8).

“Between Sanskrit (the mother of the modern Hindu dialects of Hindustan), Zend (the language of the ancient Persians), Greek (which is yet the language of Greece), Latin (the language of the Romans and the mother of the modern Romantic languages, i.e., Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Wallachian [Romanian]), Celtic (once the language of a great part of Europe, now confined to Wales and some parts of Ireland and Scotland), Gothic (which may be taken as the ancient type of the Teutonic or German languages – including English – and of the Scandinavian), and Slavonic (spoken in a variety of dialects all over European Russia and a great part of Austria), the researches of philology have within the present century established such affinities as can be accounted for only by supposing that the nations speaking them had a common origin. No one of these nations, whether existing or historical, can claim to be the parent nation of which the others were colonies. The relation among the languages mentioned is that of sisters – daughters of one mother, which perished, as it were, in giving them birth....

After the confusion of languages and scattering of the world’s people, three distinct groups who chose to remain within Babylonia/Mesopotamia came to be known by the names of the Sumerians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians. The Sumerians spoke their own particular language, while the Babylonians and Assyrians spoke “two variant forms” of a single language called Akkadian (or Accadian) (Wikipedia – Online Encyclopedia, under word Akkadian Language, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_language, accessed 4-24-12; and Article - “Akkadian Words in Modern Assyrian”, published by the Assyrian International New Agency, at http://www.aina.org/articles/akkadianwords.html, accessed 4-24-12). The word Akkadian is derived from the ancient city of Akkad (or Accad) (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, under word Akkadian, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000), which was one of the original four cities founded by Nimrod comprising his Babylonian kingdom (Genesis 10:10). The “word Sumer is derived from Shinar” (Tracing Our Ancestors, p 29, by Frederick Haberman, Artisan Publishers, 1989), the territory where Nimrod established his kingdom and built his great religious tower (Genesis 11:2-6).

The particular religious beliefs of Babylonia were clearly exemplified through a Creation Epic called Enuma Elish that was written upon seven clay books or tablets (to read the complete translated epic, go to Looklex Encyclopedia website, under Enuma Elish, at http://looklex.com/e.o/texts/religion/enuma_elish_1.htm, accessed 7-25-12; or Ancient Near Eastern Texts – Enuma Elish, translated by Nancy K. Sandars, at http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/ANE/enumaelish.htm; or The Babylonian Legends of Creation, by E. A. Wallis Budge, 1921, at http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/blc/blc08.htm, accessed 7-25-12). This Babylonian Epic was kept fresh in the minds of the people by being traditionally recited every year during the celebration festivities when the old year was dying away and the new year was being brought in.

The Babylonian Creation Epic declares that in the beginning, before man, the earth, the planets, the stars, or anything else existed, there was nothing but a primordial celestial ocean, a cosmic body of water of chaos and complete darkness from which all things were created. At some point in time a god manifested himself within this celestial body of water, then another god emerged and still another until this celestial body of water became comprised of three different gods named Apsu, Tiamat and Mummu.

Apsu made up all the fresh sweet water and was male in gender; Tiamat composed all the salty water and was female in gender; and Mummu was ungendered and composed “the deep” itself (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Mummu, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummu, accessed 6-25-12), as well as “the waves” upon its surface (Babylonian Mythology, at http://library.thinkquest.org/25535/Babylonian.htm, accessed 6-25-12), and all the mist or watery vapor “rising from the two bodies of water and hovering over them” (The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of the Creation, p 3, by Alexander Heidel, 2nd edition, volume 133 of Phoenix Books under Archaeology, Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1951).

Apsu was “the oldest of” these three deities (Book 1), which implies that Apsu was the first god to be manifested. Out of himself he brought forth the female goddess Tiamat, and together they “conceived” and brought forth their offspring god Mummu (Babylonian Mythology, at http://library.thinkquest.org/25535/Babylonian.htm, accessed 6-25-12; Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Mummu, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummu, accessed 6-25-12; also Ancient/Classical History - Babylonian Gods and Goddesses, by N.S. Gill, at http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/egypt/a/babygodsindex.htm, accessed 6-25-12). This ungendered god Mummu was the servant or “vizier” (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Mummu, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummu, accessed 6-25-12), “chamberlain/intermediatory” of Apsu and Tiamat, as well as a “craftsman” (Ancient/Classical History - Babylonian Gods and Goddesses, by N.S. Gill, at http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/egypt/a/babygodsindex.htm, accessed 6-25-12, also Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Mummu, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummu, accessed 6-25-12). Mummu was depicted as being “the womb” of Tiamat (The Babylon Creation, Enuma Enlish, Tablet 1, B1.18, lines 5-6, at http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer_anunnaki/esp_sumer_annunaki01aa.htm, accessed 6-25-12; also http://dev5.mhhe.com/textflowdev/genhtml/0073523976/1.2.htm, also http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/ANE/enumaelish.htm, accessed 7-25-12) from which all other gods and life itself were later produced.

All of the lesser gods dwelled inside this divine cosmic water composed of Apsu, Tiamat and Mummu. This suggests that the celestial water itself was one single supreme god, the original unnamed deity which divided itself into this “trinity” of manifestations, and from this trinity formed a succession of lesser gods. In this way this single supreme god dwelt in all his creation, and all his creation were different manifestations of himself (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Mummu, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummu, accessed 6-25-12).

But soon these lesser created gods became restless within the waters, and began making waves which disturbed the peace of Apsu and Tiamat (Book 1). Apsu grew angry and wanted them all to “perish” (Book 1), but Tiamat was more peaceful and passive and lovingly declared that “even though their ways are so grievous, we should bear it patiently” (Book 1). Yet even though Tiamat was peaceful and loving, she was gradually looked upon by the other gods as being “wicked” (Book 4), a god of chaos and disorder. Soon they became “disrespectful” (Book 4), and began referring to their mother as being the great dragon lady of the salty waters, and called her “the Old Hag” (Book 1). They really wanted to live under a different order of rule, and finally decided to rebel against their maker and creator’s authority.

These great monsters all joined with other loyal gods to “march into battle together” against the rebellious gods (Book 1). To lead her great army in battle, Tiamat “cast the spell” and “promoted” Quingu (or Kingu) to be the “greatest in the gods' assembly” (Book 1) among the loyal gods. She “conferred upon him leadership of the army” (Book 1), and “gave him the Tablet of Destinies” (Book 1) over all created beings. Even though Kingu was the “son” of Apsu and Tiamat (The Complete Dictionary Of Symbols, under Marduk, p 303, by Jack Tresidder, Illustrated edition, Chronicle Books, 2005; and Notes About the Sumerian and Babylonian Religions, by Gwenhwyfar Aine, at

http://www.paganspace.net/profiles/blogs/notes-about-the-sumerian-and), yet he was not highly exalted or considered powerful by the gods, but was considered “clumsy” (Book 1). But Tiamat went ahead and “set him upon a throne” (Book 1) anyway, declaring that his “word shall be law” (Book 1) and granting him the “Anu-power” – or the power to make uncontestable law (Book 1). The majority of all the gods decided to remain loyal to Tiamat, “rallied” “to her side” (Book 2), and joined her army under Kingu’s command.

Realizing that it would be very difficult to defeat Kingu and overthrow their creator-god without a wise and skillful leader, these rebellious gods sought out and then selected a god named “Bel” or “Marduk” (Book 1) to be “their champion” (Book 4) and leader. Even though other gods claimed to be Marduk’s parents, yet it was really “inside Apsu, [that] Marduk was created...[and] was born” (Book 1). This meant that Kingu and Marduk were actually brothers. But unlike Kingu having to be made powerful, Marduk was created as the “highest among the gods”, and his “godhead was doubled” (Book 1). Marduk was “the perfect one” (Book 2), “knowing all wisdom” (Book 2), the “cleverest of the clever, sage of the gods”, and in regards to the other created gods, he was naturally “elevated far above them, [and] was superior in every way” (Book 1).

Marduk had a prior history of disturbing the peace among the gods, which began shortly after he was born. At one point he was causing such trouble among them that they were “unable to rest, [and] had to suffer”, to the point that he even “stirred up Tiamat” herself (Book 1). So Marduk gladly accepted the rebellious gods proposal to become their Champion in “leading a rebellion of the gods against Tiamat” (see Nimrod, Mars and the Marduk Connection, by Bryce Self (http://ldolphin.org/Nimrod.html, accessed 5-13-12), upon one condition: that after fighting for them and overthrowing Tiamat, Kingu and their army, then he was to be recognized as the supreme god over all the gods, and the one undisputed ruler over the entire universe (Book 3 & 4). To this condition they all agreed.

At first Tiamat did not want to fight, but after several spirited words from Marduk, the battle finally began (Book 4). In the end, Marduk successfully defeated and then forever killed Tiamat, liberating all the gods. He then triumphantly “stood on top of her” dead dragon body (Book 4) and turned his attention against Kingu and his army, which were quickly “scattered”, then “surrounded” and “defeated” (Book 4). Then they “had to bear his punishment, [being] confined to prison” (Book 4). Marduk then takes the Tablet of Destinies from Kingu and makes them his own (Book 4).

After this, Marduk spreads the message of his great victory over Kingu and Tiamat as being the “good news” (Book 4). Marduk then creates “a new world order” (see Marduk Creates the World from the Spoils of Battle, published in Newsfinder, March 13, 2009, at http://www.newsfinder.org/site/more/marduk_creates_the_world_from_the_spoils_of_battle/), by dividing up “the monstrous shape” of the body of Tiamat, and creating “marvels from it” (Book 4). From “half of her” body he formed the roof or dome of the starry heavens (Book 4), which supported a “mass of water, a heavenly ocean”, keeping it in “its place so that it might not break through and flood the Earth” (Books on Egypt and Chaldea, Volume IV, titled Babylonian Religion and Mythology, p 31, by Leonard William King, published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., London, 1899, at http://www.archive.org/details/babylonianrelig00kinguoft, accessed 1-18-12). From the rest of Tiamat Marduk creates the stars of the Milky Way, the 12 constellations, the sun, moon and planets including earth, and on the earth springs and rivers of waters, including “the Euphrates and the Tigris” (Book 5), as well as plants and animals, etc. In this way the great mother creator god does not really die, but lives on as the substance that makes up the entire universe.

Marduk then tells the assembly of gods that the center of the entire universe and capital of the new world order was to be “Babylon, home of the great gods” (Book 5), that in Babylon he would “make my house to be a luxurious dwelling for myself” (Book 5), and in Babylon “we shall make it the centre of religion” (Book 5). Thus Babylon was to become the center of a one world government and one world religion. Also in Babylon there was to be a “shrine” built (Book 5). This shrine and luxurious house was also known as the “tower of babel” (see Online Encyclopedia LookLex, under Enuma Elish, at http://looklex.com/e.o/enuma_elish.htm, accessed 7-25-12).

“The last significant action taking place, before the naming and praising of Marduk, is the creation of Babylon. When it is done, Marduk invites all the gods to a great banquet, where the new world order is confirmed, and the gods vow to obey Marduk: ‘Thus they granted that he should exercise the kingship of the gods and confirmed for him mastery of the gods of heaven and earth.’ Enuma Elish, [book 6].” The Babylonian Creation Myth, by Stefan Stenudd, at http://www.stenudd.com/myth/enumaelish/enumaelish-5.htm, accessed 5-13-12).

With Marduk now in possession of such power, he is the king, master and god “of the gods of heaven and earth” (Book 6). Having defeated Kingu and Tiamat, he now assumes their positions, takes the “Anu power” and so “His word is firm, his command cannot alter; No god can change his utterance” (Book 7). Marduk could bring back to life any “with his pure incantation” or magical spell (Book 6), or “destroys those who oppose him” (Book 6). Thus all the universe must unerringly follow and obey his every order and command as absolute law (Book 5). All were to “trust in him” and in no other god (Book 5). All were to recognize that Marduk was their “Lord, that...[had] set us free” (Book 6), he was “THE SON, THE MAJESTY OF THE GODS”, and “in his bright light” they were to “walk forever more” (Book 6). The gods shouted “Let us elevate the name of the son, the warrior, Our champion who looks after us!” (Book 6).

All this praise and exaltation so overjoyed Marduk that “he made up his mind to perform miracles”, and mankind was created on the earth (Book 6). The creation of mankind, however, required the following: “Let one god be slaughtered, then...mix clay with his flesh and blood. Let that same god and man be thoroughly mixed in the clay. Let us hear the drum for the rest of the time. From the flesh of the god let a spirit remain, let it make the living know its sign, lest he be allowed to be forgotten, let the spirit remain” (The Epic of Atrahasis, line 208-217, at http://www.livius.org/as-at/atrahasis/atrahasis.html#The_Great_Flood, accessed 12-10-11). So mankind was created from clay or dirt, and the divine flesh and lifeblood of a god who gave him life, and the spirit of that god would continue to live forever as part of that human being. Thus the Babylonians believed that mankind possessed an immortal spirit, and while life lasted they would “hear the drum” (or heart beat) of life (The Epic of Atrahasis, line 227, at http://www.livius.org/as-at/atrahasis/atrahasis.html#The_Great_Flood, accessed 12-10-11).

But the real reason why so much was sacrificed in order to create mankind was not to exalt human beings, but so they could do all the “drudgery” of “forced labor” on the earth which the gods once had to do. With mankind doing such work as “digging watercourses”, “canals”, “wells”, “rivers”, etc., (The Epic of Atrahasis, line 240-242, at http://www.livius.org/as-at/atrahasis/atrahasis.html#The_Great_Flood, accessed 12-10-11), the gods themselves would be set “free” from work and could therefore “be at leisure” and rest (Book 6; also The Epic of Atrahasis, line 240-242, 245 at http://www.livius.org/as-at/atrahasis/atrahasis.html#The_Great_Flood, accessed 12-10-11).

Newly created mankind “did not know about wearing clothes; they went about with naked limbs in the land. Like sheep they ate grass with their mouths and drank water from the ditches” (Sumerian Tablet of The Debate Between Sheep and Grain, lines 23-25, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr532.htm, accessed 4-23-12). Mankind needed guidance, and so Marduk became “as [a] shepherd over...his creation” (Book 6), teaching them all that they needed to do to survive and thrive as an intelligent people. Mankind were then charged to always “revere him”, to always “be mindful of him, and name him as their god” (Book 6). They were to remember that Marduk was the “Giver of cereals and flocks”, “producer of grain...Who brings rain of abundance over the broad earth, and makes vegetation grow profusely”, “the Producer of riches and abundance”, and the “One who maintains pure ploughland in the countryside” (Book 7). To this end, Marduk “designed its cults, created its rites” (Book 5).

With Marduk recognized as their only god and “their righteous shepherd” (Book 7), mankind were to build shrines in gratitude to his glory. In these shrines ritual worship services were established which included incense burning where one could “smell the qutrinnu-offering” (Book 6), and in which all the people were to assemble in honor of Marduk, chant and “speak in worship and sing his praises” (Book 7). In faithfully doing these things Marduk promised that he would take care of and “look after their shrines”, as well as “make their chant joyful” (Book 6).

The gods themselves then spent two years building up Babylon from “mud bricks” (Book 6), including the huge “ziggurat” or tower, and did “build high the shrine” (Book 6). They also “founded a dwelling for Anu, Ellil, and Ea likewise” (Book 6), the three special gods or helpers of Marduk, and also connected their own personal “individual shrines” with this sacred temple at Babylon (Book 6). Special “nindabu-offerings” were to be brought by mankind “[to] their god (and) their goddess” who would intercede for them to Marduk (Book 6).

Just as “Marduk achieved power by means of a religious revolution, and his victory established a new order and a new way of looking at the universe” (see World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics, p 151, by Donna Rosenberg, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill Professional, 1993), so the same with Lucifer. He gained power by means of a religious revolution, was victorious over one third of the heavenly angels (Revelation 12:3-4; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6), as well as over the human race (Genesis 3:1-24; Ezekiel 28:13-19; Romans 5:12-21). Though Lucifer’s plan to take the throne from God failed, his anger and jealousy and desire to be a god himself continued. He worked tirelessly to corrupt mankind with lies and to establish a new world order on this earth so that he can indeed be worshiped among his followers as the one supreme god over all (2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 4:4; Ephesians 2:2-3).

This one supreme god Marduk, or Bel, “literally means ‘bull calf of the sun,’...[and] he was also a deity of fertility” (see Online New World Encyclopedia, under Marduk, at http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Marduk, accessed 5-13-12). Marduk was a “double-headed sun god” (see Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology, under Marduk, cited on Answers.com website, at http://www.answers.com/topic/marduk, accessed 5-13-12), and with Marduk being “the two-headed sun god” (cited on Encyclo Online Encyclopedia, under word Marduk, at http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Marduk, accessed 5-13-12), he had a total of 4 eyes and 4 ears (Book 1). One of his heads was male and the other was female, and he was “described as [being] both father and mother” or “lord/lady”(see Intertextuality in Ugarit and Israel, p 123, by Johannes Cornelis de Moor, Brill, 1998; see also, Die akkadische Gebetsserie “Handerhebung”, p 74-75-78-79, by E. Ebeling, Berlin, 1953, and Creation Accounts in the Near East..., p 18-21, by R.J. Clifford, Washington, 1994).

Since the Babylonians believed that their one supreme god, as well as some lesser gods, were both male and female and possessed mono-procreative abilities, this fostered the doctrine of duality in their culture. With their gods being dual in nature, and Marduk having created the universe on this dual principle of his own nature, the Babylonians concluded that this duality was needed in order for the universe to function. Male needed female, light needed darkness, good needed evil, etc., and should one principle become more powerful than the other, the universe would become imbalanced.

Marduk is depicted as not only being good and doing good, but also being evil and doing evil. After he rebels and kills his own mother Tiamat and his brother Kingu (Enuma Elish, books 1, 5-6, at Looklex Encyclopedia website, under Enuma Elish, at http://looklex.com/e.o/texts/religion/enuma_elish_1.htm, accessed 7-25-12), Marduk commits adultery against his two wives Nana (or Inana or Ishtar) and Sarpanitum (or Zarpanitum) (Handbook To Life In Ancient Mesopotamia, under word Nana, p 122, and under word Sarpanitum, p 125, by Stephen Bertman, illustrated, reprint, Oxford University Press, 2005) with his consort or mistress the goddess Belit (or Beltiya) (Avalon Project, Glossary of God and Definitions, under Belit, at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/codeind1.asp, accessed 5-7-12); etc.

Given the unlimited abilities of this Babylonian supreme god, it was not surprising to find that Bel or Baal was worshiped as the father of the sun god, as the sun god himself, and even as “a moon god” (Myths of Babylon and Assyria, p 51-52, by Donald A. MacKenzie, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2004). Even though the Babylonians believed in “some ‘65,000’ different deities” (The Story of Civilization: Part 1 – Our Oriental Heritage, Chapter IV, Moral Elements of Civilization, p 234, by Will Durant, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1954, at http://www.archive.org/stream/StoryOfCiv01_OurOrientalHeritage#page/n331/mode/2up, accessed 1-25-12), all of these gods and goddesses were just visible manifestations of just one god – Marduk. While to the casual observer, the worship of these pagan Babylonians might appear to be polytheistic – worshiping many different gods, yet in reality it was monotheistic – worshiping one god manifesting himself in many different forms.

Bel was also depicted as being accompanied with three main deities who were his companions or helpers. These three companion helpers were known as “Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar, guardians of the firmament, which they thereafter patrolled as the Sun, the Moon, and Venus” (see Babylonian Astrology at http://numberonestars.com/life/babylonian_astrology.htm, accessed 7-25-12). Just like Anu, Ellil and Ea – the three deities in the Creation Epic that Marduk exalted above the several hundred other deities to help keep the heavens in harmony, so Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar were appointed by Bel as his helpers to patrol the heavens and keep things in harmony. And "There were [more] triads of gods" in Babylonian religion than just these (Babylonian and Assyrian Religion, p 14-40, by S.H. Hooke, Norman, Oklahoma, 1963).

But this idea goes even further. Bel or Marduk himself was only the visible form of the one supreme god. This hidden form of this supreme god, the god behind the scenes, the god manifesting itself as the celestial water who then divided itself into three different manifestations, remained unknown and hidden in the background. In worshiping Marduk, the Babylonians were also worshiping this one supreme hidden god. And since the real being behind all the pagan teachings of Babylon was the Biblical Lucifer, whom Marduk and all the rest of his male/female deity manifestations ultimately represented, the Babylonians were unwittingly worshiping Lucifer.

The music of these pagan groups of Babylonia/Mesopotamia was inseparably connected with their religion. They “held the specific application of music as a tenet that was central to their religion and culture” (Progenitive Music: A Study of the Ancestry of Western Society, In Regards to Music, Religion and Culture, p 6, by Jason Rae, 2007, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 4-5-12). “Historians have traced the connection of religion and music back to primitive man” (Face the Music, by Leonard J. Seidel, Springfield, VA, 1988, at http://www.christianheritagemins.org/articles/Face%20the%20Music%20-%20Contemporary%20Church%20Music%20on%20Trial..htm, accessed 4-5-12). Music “almost certainly began in (Mesopotamian) religion as a form of worship” (Progenitive Music: A Study of the Ancestry of Western Society, In Regards to Music, Religion and Culture, p 13, by Jason Rae, 2007, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 4-5-12), and this connection with their religious beliefs was so strong that music could not be properly practiced without involving it.

Following in Jubal’s footsteps other musical instruments were developed over the years as the Babylonians continued to experiment with music. These included: “the cornet, flute, harp [of from 6 to 15 strings], sackbut (lyre of from 3 to 12 strings), psaltery, dulcimer (bagpipe), and all [other] kinds of music” (Daniel 3:5), including bells, clappers, sistrums or sistras, cymbals, tambourines, horns, trumpets, reeds, double reeds, etc. (see Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 239-245, editor: Egon Wellesz, publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957). Also included with these instruments were quite “a variety of drums” of different types and sizes (see Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 233-238, editor: Egon Wellesz, publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957).

This author has identified at least nine different types of drums within Babylonian literature: the adab, ala, balag, lilis or lilissu, meze, sem, sim, tigi and ub (see Sumerian Cylinder of The building of Ningirsu's temple (Gudea, cylinders A and B), Cylinder A, Section 18, line A18.19 (cumulative line 501), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-29-12; The Sumerian Tablet of Inana and Enki, Segment J, lines 100-101, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr131.htm, accessed 4-29-12; Sumerian Tablet of Enki's journey to Nibru, line 62, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr114.htm, accessed 4-29-12; Sumerian Tablet of The marriage of Martu, lines 60-62, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr171.htm, accessed 4-29-12). These drums ranged in size from the “Giant frame drums...and small cylindrical drums played horizontally and vertically” (Encyclopedia Britannica, under Egyptian Art, at http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-180644/Egyptian-art, cited in History and classification of Percussion instruments, at http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/kallidaihari/classification.htm, accessed 5-13-12), to both small and large sacred kettledrums. Their frames could be made from wood, or metal. These drums were tuned “properly” (Sumerian Tablet of Enki's journey to Nibru, line 124, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr114.htm, accessed 4-29-12) so that they correctly and consistently provided the particular sound desired. Some of these drums were beaten by hand – such as the smaller hand-held ones, but some of the larger drums were beaten with “drumsticks” (see Sumerian Tablet of Enki's journey to Nibru, line 62, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr114.htm, accessed 4-29-12; Sumerian Tablet of The Kesh Temple Hymn, 7th house, line 117, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4802.htm, accessed 4-30-12).

The Babylonians were expert astronomers and mathematicians believing that “there was a perfect harmony existing throughout the universe”, and had developed a system of astrology based upon the movement of the planets/stars within the major zodiacal constellations believing that “the motions of the stars” cast “their effects on men’s destinies”. Naturally, they mixed and welded these beliefs with music. They developed a “musical theory” based upon the belief that “man could make music whose principles reflected this perfect harmony [in the universe] and thus come into tune with it” (The Pelican History of Music, vol 1 titled Ancient Forms to Polyphony, p 16, edited by Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens, published by Penguin Books, Baltimore, Maryland, 1960, at http://www.archive.org/stream/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp_djvu.txt, accessed 3-19-12). The Babylonians “thought that mathematics, religion, and music were all related to each other” (The History of Musical Temperament and Pitch Before 1750, by Christine Denton, published online on December 6, 1996, at http://www.the-compound.org/writing/tuningpre1750.pdf, accessed 4-5-12), and developed music based upon and in harmony with the cosmos “as a means of helping to maintain or reflect universal harmony” (Encyclopedia Britannica, under word Music, p 1091, 1965).

This endeavor led the Babylonians to the “discovery that the most important musical intervals are related to the ratios of whole numbers” (The History of Musical Temperament and Pitch Before 1750, by Christine Denton, published online on December 6, 1996, at http://www.the-compound.org/writing/tuningpre1750.pdf, accessed 4-5-12). For instance, the Babylonians recognized that “the primary divisions of a string-length gave four intervals which can be expressed in mathematical ratios as follows 1 : 1 (unison); 1 : 2 (octave); 2 : 3 (fifth); and 3 : 4 (fourth). These they [then] correlated with the four seasons (spring, summer, winter, autumn)” (The Pelican History of Music, vol 1 titled Ancient Forms to Polyphony, p 16, edited by Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens, published by Penguin Books, Baltimore, Maryland, 1960, at http://www.archive.org/stream/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp_djvu.txt, accessed 3-19-12; see also Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 252-253, editor: Egon Wellesz, publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957). As there were seven planets/stars used to determine their astrological predictions, “the Babylonian scale was based on seven tones [heptatonic or diatonic scale], and linked to the planetary system as the manifestation of the will of gods” (Music in Assyria and Babylonia, p 7, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 6-14-11; see also Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 247, editor: Egon Wellesz, publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957; The Pelican History of Music, vol 1 titled Ancient Forms to Polyphony, p 16, edited by Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens, published by Penguin Books, Baltimore, Maryland, 1960, at http://www.archive.org/stream/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp_djvu.txt, accessed 3-19-12; and The Rise of Music in the Ancient World: East and West, first edition, p 99-100, by Curt Sachs, W.W. Norton, 1943).

Further, the Babylonians developed “a system of tuning a lyre in the seven diatonic modes, complete with technical terms for the modes and even a description of the tritone (augmented fourth or diminished fifth interval) as the ‘unclear’ interval of a given mode” (Sacred Music in Antiquity, by John Wheeler, at http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/sacred.htm, accessed 3-19-12). Defining this interval as being “unclear” apparently meant that this “tritone was considered ‘dissonant’ by the ancient Mesopotamians” and thus its harsh sound was not considered beneficial “for melodic and harmonic practice” (Sacred Music in Antiquity, by John Wheeler, at http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/sacred.htm, accessed 3-19-12). Also with some of the Babylonian harps and lyres containing just 5 strings and others 12 strings, “both the pentatonic [5 different pitches] and chromatic scales [12 different pitches]” were also likely to have been utilized by the Babylonians as both of these scales can “easily be derived from the diatonic scale” (Sacred Music in Antiquity, by John Wheeler, at http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/sacred.htm, accessed 3-19-12).

The Babylonians understood “the art of music” (Sumerian Tablet of A Praise Poem of Shulgi (Shulgi E), line 155, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr24205.htm, accessed 4-27-12), they understood the “art of song” (Sumerian Tablet of Inana and Enki, Segment I, line 51, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.3.1#, accessed 4-27-12), as well as understanding “the art of singing” (Self-praise of Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan A), Segment A, line 68, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr25401.htm, accessed 4-27-12). They knew “the occasions when praise songs are to be sung”, and knew “how to intersperse appropriate words with the accompaniment of the fingers and instruments” of music (Self-praise of Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan A), Segment A, lines 69-72, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr25401.htm, accessed 4-27-12). They had “completely mastered the developed aspects of the art of singing and the recondite points of…songs” and musical performance (Self-praise of Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan A), Segment A, lines 74-75, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr25401.htm, accessed 4-27-12). Their “songs” were intelligently sung, and the accompanying musical performance was “harmonious” in tune and conducted with skill (Sumerian Tablet of A Hymn to Nance (Nance A), line 42, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.14.1&charenc=j#, accessed 4-27-12).

The musical theory of Babylon was well developed, and in fact “was a cornerstone in the doctrine of Ethos” (Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 252-253, editor: Egon Wellesz, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957). Ethos is a Greek word meaning “moral force”, or the ability of the music to affect and move the soul or inner person of the listener. Babylonian music was performed in such a way to move and affect the innermost feelings of the listener towards a particular goal.

Ea was represented by a bull, which was a manifestation of the Babylonian’s one supreme god Bel-Marduk, and “the skin used in the Babylonian drum was made of the hide of a bull”. There was “an elaborate ritual involving the fixing of the skin head of this sacred instrument” (Music in Assyria and Babylonia, p 2, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 6-14-11; see also Percussion Instruments and Their History, p 156-157, by James Blades, 4th edition, publisher: Bold Strummer, 1992). After “divine powers have been transferred by magic means” into the “ritually prepared’ bull, the priests then kill this sacred bull, “in order to transfer its potency and sacredness to the kettle drum" through its skin (Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, Second Edition, p 179, by A. Leo Oppenheim, University of Chicago Press, 1964). Once this ritual was completed, this drum became “The Divine Lilissu (kettledrum)” (Rituels Accadiens, p 12, by F. Thureau-Dangin, Paris, 1921, cited in Percussion Instruments and Their History, 4th edition, illustrated and revised, p 157, by James Blades, publisher: Bold Strummer, 1992).

As the kettledrum was the special sacred drum of the god Ea, other drums became special to other gods as well. For instance: the “holy ub and holy lilis drums” were played especially “for her [Babylonian goddess Inana]” (Sumerian Tablet of A Sir-namursaga to Ninsiana for Iddin-Dagan (Iddin-Dagan A), 3rd Kirugu, line 37, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.5.3.1#, accessed 4-27-12). The “balag drum” became the “beloved” drum of the war god Ningirsu. The Babylonians believed that this “drum will make the inclination of the lord -- which is as inconceivable as the heavens -- will make the inclination of Ningirsu, the son of Enlil, favourable for you...With his powers, which are the greatest, the warrior [god] will make the house [temple] thrive for you” (Sumerian Cylinder of The Building of Ningirsu's Temple (Gudea, cylinders A and B), Cylinder A, Section 7, lines A7.1-5, 7-8) (cumulative lines 165-169, 171-172), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-27-12). When the Babylonians played this particular drum, or any of the other holy drums, they understood that the gods who favored these would become so happy with their worshiper that their “requests will then be taken as if they were commands” and would be quickly and abundantly answered (Sumerian Cylinder of The Building of Ningirsu's Temple (Gudea, cylinders A and B), Cylinder A, Sections 6, lines A6.26)(cumulative line 164), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-27-12).

This led the Babylonians to believe that the musical instrument of “drums belong to the divine powers” (Sumerian Tablet of The temple hymns, line 7, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4801.htm, accessed 4-29-12). They believed that the drums were sacred and “holy” above every other instrument (The Sumerian Tablet of Inana and Enki, Segment J, lines 100-101, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr131.htm, accessed 4-29-12; Sumerian Tablet of The lament for Urim, line 300, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.2.2&charenc=j#, accessed 4-29-12).

The kettledrum was a representation of their god “Ea, the divine Patron of Music”, and “the dread sound of which was the personification of his essence” (Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 231, editor: Egon Wellesz, publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957) or his spirit in their midst. By playing this drum the Babylonians called or summoned Ea into their midst to bless their gathering with his essence or spirit. It was the sound of the drum itself, aside from any lyrics, that was the personification of the essence of Ea, and through him Bel-Marduk. The longer and louder the Babylonian musicians would beat upon these sacred drums, the more of the presence of the god of music would be encouraged to come into their midst, fill the entire area, and affect all the listeners with his essence or spirit.

These drums were not played in a haphazard manner, nor beaten without rhythm. They were skillfully played so that “ala drums and balag drum will sound in perfect concert with the sim drums” (Sumerian Cylinder of The building of Ningirsu's temple (Gudea, cylinders A and B), Cylinder B, Section 15, lines B15.21-22 (cumulative lines 1177-1178), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-29-12). It took a lot of practice before a Babylonian drum player could say that “I have mastered the drumsticks” (Sumerian Tablet of Self-praise of Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan A): Segment A, line 372, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at

Babylonians played their drums in a perfect rhythmic cycle and tempo designed to reflect the harmony and precise mathematical functioning of the universe. This fact is clearly shown in an ancient Babylonian drawing wherein “we find rhythmical sounds of the drum here employed apparently for the purpose of facilitating the execution of some menial labour [which was cutting down the palm trees belonging to a captured city]” (The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, p 101 by Carl Engel, Reeves London, 1864, cited in Percussion Instruments and Their History, p 158, by James Blades, 4th edition, Publisher Bold Strummer, 1992). These particular rhythmic drum sounds unified and harmonized the workers.

The Babylonians “deeply revered music, which was perceived to be a gift from the gods and the means by which to worship” them (Progenitive Music: A Study of the Ancestry of Western Society, In Regards to Music, Religion and Culture, p 43, by Jason Rae, 2007, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 4-5-12). After all, Enki – their patron god of music – was depicted to have himself “made” some of the many musical instruments which the Babylonians were fond of using – such as “the lyre, the algar instrument, [and] the balag drum with the drumsticks” (Sumerian Tablet on Enki's Journey to Nibru, line 62, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr114.htm, accessed 4-27-12).

In connection with this fact, “each of the translated tablets that relates to music of psalms for religious worship, places the music in the scale of ‘nid qabli’, meaning ‘of the gods’” (Progenitive Music: A Study of the Ancestry of Western Society, In Regards to Music, Religion and Culture, p 21, by Jason Rae, 2007, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 4-5-12). And since there were seven different divine gods who controlled the heavens and determined the fates of individuals and nations, the Babylonians represented these seven different astrological powers in their music.

Religious music performed in Babylonian temples frequently had “seven singers [who] sang” (Sumerian Tablet of Enki's journey to Nibru, line 67, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr114.htm, accessed 4-29-12) to the accompaniment of “seven instruments” (Sumerian Tablet of A praise poem of Shulgi (Shulgi C), Segment B, line 80, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr24203.htm, accessed 4-29-12) which played songs containing the seven different musical tones, whose musical rhythm was then enhanced by, of course, “seven” drums – especially “tigi drums” (Sumerian Tablet of Enki's journey to Nibru, line 123-125, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr114.htm, accessed 4-29-12), “ala drums” (Sumerian Tablet of The marriage of Martu, line 61, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr171.htm, accessed 4-29-12) and “balag drums” (Babylonian Tablet of The cursing of Agade (Old Babylonian version), Line 197, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr215.htm, accessed 4-29-12).

This music was specifically and intelligently designed to harmonize with the cosmos where the Babylonian gods dwelt. These seven musical notes, singers, musicians and especially drums were all purposely arranged to harmonize together so that they could please the seven astrological gods who controlled all things, and encourage these gods to come and visit with them and fill them all with their divine essence or spirit. This reason lay behind Babylon’s theory of music, and the purpose and goal of their music being performed in its particular style and rhythm!

Each of the Babylonian temples were "staffed by priests, priestesses, musicians, singers, castrates and hierodules [prostitutes]” (The Treasures of Darkness: a History of Mesopotamian Religion, by Thorkild Jacobsen, Yale University Press, 1976; also Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, under Music, p. 461, Abingdon Press, 1962), and these temple “musicians and singers, [included] both male and female” performers (Everyday Life in Babylonia and Assyria, Chapter 9 on Religion, p 111, by H.W.F. Saggs, published 1965, Assyrian International News Agency Books Online, at http://www.aina.org/books/eliba/eliba.htm#c20, accessed 12-22-11; also Sumerian Cylinder of The Building of Ningirsu's Temple, Cylinder B, section 3, lines B4.5-6 (cumulative lines 890-891), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-23-12). Some became “cantors of laments, some cantors of carols, [and] many were musicians” (Babylonian Religion, by Dr. M.D. Magee, at http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0235Marduk.php, accessed 5-13-12; also Sumerian Cylinder of The Building of Ningirsu's Temple, Cylinder B, section 3, lines B4.5-6 (cumulative lines 890-891), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-23-12) – including drummers! Especially could the “pašeš priests beat the drumskins; [as] they recite powerfully, powerfully” (Sumerian Tablet of The Kesh temple hymn, 7th house, Lines 114-115, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4802.htm, accessed 4-29-12). “Musical knowledge, like that of astrology, was initially considered the sole purview of the priests and the temples” (Progenitive Music: A Study of the Ancestry of Western Society, In Regards to Music, Religion and Culture, p 21, by Jason Rae, 2007, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 4-5-12).

In the temples especially these “sacred hymns, the psalms and lamentations [were] chanted by trained singers in accordance with a well-defined liturgy, to the accompaniment of diverse instruments: lyres, flutes, cymbals and drums” (The Arts of Assyria, Volume 2 of Arts of Mankind, p 297, by André Parrot, published by Golden Press, 1961). “Orchestras played and singers sang, individually and chorally” in praises to the gods of Babylon (The Story of Civilization: Part 1 – Our Oriental Heritage, Chapter IV, Moral Elements of Civilization, p 254, by Will Durant, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1954, at http://www.archive.org/stream/StoryOfCiv01_OurOrientalHeritage#page/n351/mode/2up, accessed 1-25-12). Sometimes just one type of drum would be played, other times several different types of drums would be played in unison to make “them resound to Enlil” (five different drums playing simultaneously listed in the Babylonian Tablet of The Cursing of Agade (Old Babylonian version), lines 197-200, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr215.htm, accessed 4-29-12). But in most all occasions, “drums...were freely employed in sacred music” of Babylon (Babylonian and Hebrew Musical Terms, by Professor Stephen Langdon, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol 53, Issue #2, 1921, p 169-191, at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5682892, accessed 6-14-11), especially during the chants as “the precentors [priest as a choir director]...[would] chant to the drum” (Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 234, editor: Egon Wellesz, publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957).

This free use of drums within the religious worship services of Babylonian temples is clearly shown in a “Sumerian Stela” or song of lamentation written about 2400 BC. This song stated: “O temple, thy skilled master [priest] is not present; thy fate who decrees? The psalmist, who knows the song, is not present; thy fate to the drum he chants not! He that knows how to touch the drum is not present; thy fate he sings not!” (Sumerian Stela, cited in Essays on the Origins of Western Music, Essay #5: Thoughts on Music and Religion in Ancient Civilizations, p 1, by David Whitewell, published at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ZKMNk2nMooAJ:www.whitwellessays.com/docs/DOC_869.doc+babylon+%22music+in+religion%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh_4kdq1qqr_Aq-CzzmuIkn052WHkMviWfneDf4jkOj8Y6oHXImJHc-QawVS6T2i3U5WzuCxt-7d9oMsn6X4y8-z-1ZG9xGU7jiKEmeOxS28sq22q-KCRCeI_eEnS7xGtwn84VV&sig=AHIEtbSDrxXzpT18FeQr9cjc80uNHXodPg, accessed 4-5-12.) The drums were an integral connection to the priests and psalmist, one of the most important musical instruments to be heard within any of the worship services of the temples. Without them their ritual ceremonies could not be properly conducted, and the spirit of their god of music could not be present to bless the temple goers, leaving them without his power.

“...the words which Enki [god of music] composed about me [king Shulgi], and which Jectin-ana [goddess of song] joyously speaks from the heart and broadcasts far and wide, shall never be forgotten, I have had them written down line by line in the House of the Wisdom of Nisaba [goddess of writing] in holy heavenly writing, as great works of scholarship. No one shall ever let any of it pass from memory....It shall not be forgotten, since indestructible heavenly writing has a lasting renown. The scribe should bring it to the singer, and can let him look at it, and with the wisdom and intelligence of Nisaba, let him read it to him as if from a lapis-lazuli tablet. Let my songs sparkle like silver in the lode! Let them be performed in all the cult-places, and let no one neglect them” Sumerian Tablet of A Praise Poem of Shulgi (Shulgi E), lines 243-255, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr24205.htm, accessed 4-27-12.

Like Babylonian music, their lyrics were also never haphazardly composed, but were written to contain rhythmic patterns. The “Metrical structures of [Mesopotamian] poetic texts (hymns, myths, and other poetry) fall in the category of accented verse, and frequently exhibit four ‘beats’ to each line of poetry” (Study titled Music and Dance in Ancient Western Asia, by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, published in the book Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol 4, p 2608, editor: Jack M. Sasson, publisher: Charles Scribner & Sons, Farmington Hills, MI, 1995).

In addition to frequently carrying four beats to each line of poetry, these materials were also repetitious in nature. At times the second line of text was repeated in the fourth line (see Enuma Enlish, tablet 4, lines 3-6), or a pair of lines would essentially say the same thing twice (see Enuma Enlish, tablet 1, lines 1-2), or the first line would be repeated in the second line but with added details (see Enuma Enlis, tablet 1, lines 42-43). And “these repetitional devices occur frequently” all through sacred Babylonian literature placed to music and sung in the temples. These “most often take the form of couplets, [but] sometimes repetitive pairs stretch out over a full quatrain or are collapsed into half-lines”. This means that “there is a rhythm” upon “which the verse was sung”, although “no discernable meter” has yet been discovered in Babylonian artifacts (Ancient Literature and Language, A Guide to Writing in History and Classics, Chapter 2: The Epic of Gilgamesh, by Frances B. Titchener, at http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320AncLit/chapters/02gilgam.htm, accessed 3-19-12).

Since each line of poetry frequently contained four beats of accented verse, then the singing of this verse as well as the musical accompaniment would likely have followed this same four beat pattern. This would have made the tempo and meter of many of these Babylonian songs to be played in a 4/4 time (NOTE: one of the earliest known Mesopotamian songs with musical notation is known as the Hurrian Song. Here it is being played in 4/4 time at this link: http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Hurrian-DG.mid). Also, given the fact that many of their sacred verses were repetitive in nature over a full quatrain, which accented second and fourth verses, then this would have lent to the musical score or tune repeating itself to match the repetitive text (NOTE: a different translation of the Hurrian Song, where its repeating musical tune can more clearly be heard, is at this link: http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/kilmer.mid). Given what has been stated above, we can conclude that Babylonian music was played in a 4/4 beat rhythm, with the second and fourth beat accented, and with its tune repeating itself at various intervals.

The Babylonian gods of the cosmos were at times in conflict with one another, sometimes happy, sometimes angry; one moment they were perfect and holy, the next imperfect and evil. Their sun god Bel-Marduk only shone for half a full day, and then the opposing god of darkness ruled for the last half; etc. Yet the Babylonians did not attribute this dualism or conflict among the gods to there being a lack of harmony in the cosmos, but instead embraced the concept that these apparent conflicts and rhythmic differences were necessary in order to maintain complete cosmic harmony.

The wrestlers were a physical, visual representation of the continual conflict taking place in the cosmos. The two different sets of seven drummers playing on two different sets of seven drums were an audio representation of the conflict. The number seven represented the seven major gods with their forces of good and evil, forever at war with each other. As one set of Babylonian drummers caused their sem drums to produce a “rumbling” sound, the other set of Babylonian drummers caused their ala drums to resound to a different rhythmic beat.

With this being true, as each of these two groups of drummers pounded out their own particular rhythmic pattern, these two conflicting rhythms would begin to pulse and resonate against each another, filling the city temple with deep pulsing vibrations that would be felt by the Babylonians gathered therein. This type of pulsing, resonating conflict would affect the listeners in different ways than would music played to one harmonious beat. History shows that this conflict in beat and rhythm within music was first developed by the Babylonians.

In addition to the Babylonian priests performing these different styles of music to harmonize with the cosmos, the music was also specifically designed to teach the listener various aspects of their mystery religion. Music “in Mesopotamia, was considered as part of education” (Music in Assyria and Babylonia, p 4, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 6-14-11). Whenever the various styles of musical performances occurred at these temples, the priests and priestesses worked to cement the various teachings of the Babylonian mystery religion into the minds of each worshiper through the very music they heard being performed.

For instance: A typical religious service would be as follows: there would be offered “sacrifices, in which supplications to the gods were supported by musical ceremonies” (Essays on the Origins of Western Music, Essay #5: Thoughts on Music and Religion in Ancient Civilizations, p 3, by David Whitewell, published at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ZKMNk2nMooAJ:www.whitwellessays.com/docs/DOC_869.doc+babylon+%22music+in+religion%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh_4kdq1qqr_Aq-CzzmuIkn052WHkMviWfneDf4jkOj8Y6oHXImJHc-QawVS6T2i3U5WzuCxt-7d9oMsn6X4y8-z-1ZG9xGU7jiKEmeOxS28sq22q-KCRCeI_eEnS7xGtwn84VV&sig=AHIEtbSDrxXzpT18FeQr9cjc80uNHXodPg, accessed 4-5-12). Then “a chosen priest applied the magic formula necessary for the purification and consecration of the participants. Then the psalmists had to sustain the opening supplication with their singing; a professional musician furnished the required instrumental accompaniment. The principle psalmist (a sort of “high priest”) chanted a hymn to the gods Ea, Shamash and Marduk...Sacred services ended with the singing of an epic poem, which must have been well known to everyone, since the entire congregation took part in it” (Music in the Social and Religious Life of Antiquity, p 33, by Alfred Sendrey, Rutherford, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1974).

From this you can see that “music had such a powerful functional rule in the celebration of religion by the ancients”, with both “vocal and instrumental music playing an important role in religious ceremonies” in Babylon (Essays on the Origins of Western Music, Essay #5: Thoughts on Music and Religion in Ancient Civilizations, p 1, by David Whitewell, published at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ZKMNk2nMooAJ:www.whitwellessays.com/docs/DOC_869.doc+babylon+%22music+in+religion%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh_4kdq1qqr_Aq-CzzmuIkn052WHkMviWfneDf4jkOj8Y6oHXImJHc-QawVS6T2i3U5WzuCxt-7d9oMsn6X4y8-z-1ZG9xGU7jiKEmeOxS28sq22q-KCRCeI_eEnS7xGtwn84VV&sig=AHIEtbSDrxXzpT18FeQr9cjc80uNHXodPg, accessed 4-5-12), so much so, that one could not be properly conducted without the other. The congregation themselves became involved in singing the lyrics, as “psalms and hymns were sung sometimes by the priests, sometimes by the congregation, sometimes by both in strophe and antistrophe” (The Story of Civilization: Part 1 – Our Oriental Heritage, Chapter IV, Moral Elements of Civilization, p 242, by Will Durant, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1954, at http://www.archive.org/stream/StoryOfCiv01_OurOrientalHeritage#page/n339/mode/2up, accessed 1-25-12).

Also, not all such psalms, hymns, lamentations and chants were performed in the common language of Babylon. Sometimes, especially with the “chants” (see Babylonian and Hebrew Musical Terms, by Professor Stephen Langdon, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol 53, Issue #2, 1921, p 169-191, at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5682892, accessed 6-14-11), “they were written in the ancient Sumerian language” which very few if any of the worshiper understood except the priests (The Story of Civilization: Part 1 – Our Oriental Heritage, Chapter IV, Moral Elements of Civilization, p 242, by Will Durant, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1954, at http://www.archive.org/stream/StoryOfCiv01_OurOrientalHeritage#page/n339/mode/2up, accessed 1-25-12). Only the priests themselves knew the real meaning of the Babylonian teachings in these songs, and could hide or reveal them to worshiper at will.

Whether the lyrics were Babylonian or Sumerian, music in the Babylonian mystical worship system was played in such a way that its listeners would be “moving into the presence of god”. They believed that one had to “work your way up to god through the worship facilitator with music” (Music, Drama, Dance as Change Agent, by Kenneth Sublett, at http://www.piney.com/WinZoe2.html, accessed 5-13-12). This facilitator was known as “the precentor”, and it was “his duty to chant and intone the liturgy” (Music in Assyria and Babylonia, p 4, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 6-14-11), and other sacred songs. In other words, he was the song leader who would establish the proper pitch and tone, while others in the choir would then follow his lead and make “the responses in the liturgies” or sing along in the other hymns of praise (Music in Assyria and Babylonia, p 4, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 6-14-11).

Sometimes these litanies were “attended by a procession on the part of the choir, a choral march, [and] a real recessional was performed at the end of the litany” (Music in Assyria and Babylonia, p 4, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 6-14-11). At other times these contained “the antiphon” where the song would alternate “between two groups of singers”, such as in the “Liturgy and Prayer to the Moon God”, or in the “Babylonian antiphonal lamentation” over the destruction of some of their land by the invading Guti (Music in Assyria and Babylonia, p 4, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 6-14-11). The Mesopotamian liturgies are believed by certain historians to be “the greatest system of musical ritual in any ancient religion” (Ancient and Oriental Music, Volume 1 of New Oxford History of Music, p 236, editor: Egon Wellesz, publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957).

Babylonian music and songs were performed in many different ways and manners, but all connected with their religious beliefs and designed to educate listeners to the various aspects of the Babylonian mystery religion. “...most musicians depicted in early Mesopotamian...art [are shown to] participate in sacred rites” (Music, by Bryce Rytting, published in Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media,, p 275, Daniel A. Stout editor, Routledge, NY, 2006, at http://www.bandung2.co.uk/books/Files/Religion/Encyclopedia%20of%20Religion,%20Communication,%20and%20Media.pdf, accessed 4-5-12).

We see this illustrated in Inanna, who was also called Ishtar or Astarte, and who was known as the queen of heaven as well as the goddess of sexuality. The Babylonians believed that Inanna went to visit Enki or Ea, who was the god of music and “the god of wisdom, who knows all things” (Inanna queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer, p 12, by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, quoting from “Inanna and the God of Wisdom”, New York: Harper & Row, 1983). And Enki gave Inanna “the art of love making. He gave me the kissing of the phallus. He gave me the art of prostitution....He gave me the resounding musical instrument. He gave me the art of song” (Inanna queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer, p 17, by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, quoting from “Inanna and the God of Wisdom”, New York: Harper & Row, 1983). And especially was the “drum” one of “the precious gifts of Ishtar” or Inanna (The Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet 12, lines 7 & 9, at http://looklex.com/textarchive/mesopotamia/gilgamesh12.htm), that was delivered to her by Enki or Ea as its sound was the personification of his presence in the midst of his worshiper.

After Inanna/Ishtar had received these sexual instructions and musical gifts, she then brought all these to her people and commanded them to “Let the little children laugh and sing. Let all Uruk (populace of a large city in Mesopotamia) be festive! Let the high priest greet the Boat of Heaven with song. Let him utter prayers. Let him slaughter oxen and sheep. Let him pour beer out of the cup. Let the drum and tambourine resound. Let the sweet tigi-music be played. Let all the lands proclaim my noble name. Let my people sing my praises” (Inanna queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer, p 24, by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, quoting from “Inanna and the God of Wisdom”, New York: Harper & Row, 1983).

If you notice the progression in the above story, religious teachings on sexual worship were first obtained from the god of wisdom, and immediately afterwards the same god gave Ishtar resounding music and the art of song. When these gifts were ready to be brought forth to the people, their spirits were first loosened up with laughter, singing, drinking and festivity. As the high priest began his work of instructing the people, the music became more intense with drum and tambourine and other instrumental music resounding. The people gave in to this rhythmic musical bombardment and embraced the instruction, which directly led them to honor, worship and praise the sexual goddess, as well as Enki – the god of music and wisdom – who gave her these gifts.

Thus this one great god Enki or Ea, who knows all things; this one god who gave the Babylonians their particular knowledge of music, art of song and the particular style of playing their musical instruments enhanced by the beating of the drum to represent his essence and summon his presence; was this one god who connected with this music the various practices of free and unrestrained sexuality! But as we have discovered, this one all-wise god Enki/Ea was just another manifestation of the one supreme god Marduk, who was just a manifestation of the one supreme hidden god - which represented Lucifer. Thus Lucifer was the real power hidden behind the throne and music of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4-12).

References to dancing found in the ancient tablets or shown in reliefs, were “usually in reference to the cult” practices connected with the temples of worship (Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Chapter 8 - Recreation, p 170, by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998). Dances were performed “by both men and women”, and were “done in time to music, singing and clapping” (Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Chapter 8 - Recreation, p 170, by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998). The number of dancers at any one time ranged from “performing solo, in pairs, and in groups”, and when in groups they would usually be arranged “in a row or circle” (Study titled Music and Dance in Ancient Western Asia, by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, published in the book Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol 4, p 2609, editor: Jack M. Sasson, publisher: Charles Scribner & Sons, Farmington Hills, MI, 1995).

Various types of dances were performed, which included “acrobatic dancers” who would perform all kinds of acrobatic moves to the delight and awe of the watchers (Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Chapter 8 - Recreation, p 170, by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998). Also “whirling dances” were performed where the dancers would spin around and around (Study titled Music and Dance in Ancient Western Asia, by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, published in the book Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol 4, p 2609, editor: Jack M. Sasson, publisher: Charles Scribner & Sons, Farmington Hills, MI, 1995).

In fact the god Ea even commanded to “let a whirling dance take place” in celebration dealing with the goddess Ishtar (Agushaya Poem (II.6), Tablet II vii 16, referred to in Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, vol 2, second Edition, p 504, by B. Foster, Bethesda, MD., 1996). Thus “whirling dances were done in her honor” particularly during Ishtar’s “annual feast”, and the “‘whirling’ was usually done by men” arranged in a row or a circle, but could also be done by women (Study titled Music and Dance in Ancient Western Asia, by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, published in the book Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol 4, p 2609, editor: Jack M. Sasson, publisher: Charles Scribner & Sons, Farmington Hills, MI, 1995). This whirling dance then became a “form or attribute of Ishtar” and was therefore associated with her worship and performed in her temples (Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, vol 2, second edition, p 879, by Benjamin Reed Foster, publisher: CDL Press, Bethesda, MD., 1996). Performing this dance was another way in which the performers and worshipers could move into her presence and become filled with and possessed by her spirit, so she could communicate religious instruction.

This type of music and dance could be heard not only within Babylonian temples, but also in “palaces, and at the feasts of the well-to-do” (The Story of Civilization: Part 1 – Our Oriental Heritage, Chapter IV, Moral Elements of Civilization, p 254, by Will Durant, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1954, at http://www.archive.org/stream/StoryOfCiv01_OurOrientalHeritage#page/n351/mode/2up, accessed 1-25-12). Just like in temple services, alcoholic beverages were also freely provided to help lessen reason, and to loosen self-control. And also just like in temple services, the songs and music performed in ways to encourage the listeners to give loose reign to emotions and engage in sexual practices.

This type of religious musical carryover to the secular arena could be clearly seen being exhibited in the ale houses and taverns. These taverns were usually “run by alewives, [and] were houses of pleasure where men drank, listened to music, and had intercourse with prostitutes. The walls of the taproom were decorated with clay plaques of naked women or other erotic scenes. Ishtar, the goddess of love, was the patron of taverns” (Daily Life in Mesopotamia, p 137, by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998), especially since she was given “the holy tavern” as her own habitation by Enki (Inanna queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer, p 17, by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, quoting from “Inanna and the God of Wisdom”, New York: Harper & Row, 1983). Thus the same type of “musical expression”, as well as the same kind of low “religious morals” that were being taught and practiced within the Babylonian mystery religion, played “a vital part in [their] cultural development...and social values of a given community”, and all was attributable to “the quality of the music that they produced” (Music: the Sound and the Unsound, by Rebekah Smith, published in Only Believe magazine, Vol 4, #3, December, 1991, at http://discerningmusic.wordpress.com/music-%E2%80%93-the-sound-the-unsound/, accessed 4-5-12).

During these musical performances, temple musicians played their “instruments loud enough to drown out the south wind-storm” (Sumerian Tablet of Inana and Iddin-Dagan (Iddin-Dagan A, line 206, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr2531.htm, accessed 4-23-12). These loud musical performances were also “accompanied by tigi drums, and ala drums [which] roared for him [the temple god] like a storm” (Sumerian Cylinder of The Building of Ningirsu's Temple, (Gudea, cylinders A and B), Cylinder B, section B19.1-2 (or cumulative lines 1243-1244), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-23-12).

Temples were purposefully constructed with a “great music room” (Sumerian Tablet on Enki and the World Order, lines 150-151, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr113.htm, accessed 4-27-12), and a “drum hall” (Sumerian Cylinder on The building of Ningirsu's temple (Gudea, cylinders A and B), Cylinder A, section A28.14-17 (cumulative line 771), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature website, at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.7#, accessed 4-23-12), so that the loud music and pounding rhythmic drum beat could be sent into all parts of the temple and also into all parts of the worshiper. In fact, the whole complex of their “Ancient temples were often constructed in such a way that the songs sung during services would have a maximum effect on the mass” (Some Very Interesting Information on 666, by Ragnar Redbeard, at http://apodion.com/vad/static/126.html, accessed 5-13-12).

This type of division between those who knew, versus those who were ignorant, falls well within the ideology of that hidden “Babylonian Cult” society which secretly functioned within the Babylonian mystery religion. This aspect of “control, or manipulation at least, exerted through the music” that the religion and state of Babylon utilized against its own citizens (Progenitive Music: A Study of the Ancestry of Western Society, In Regards to Music, Religion and Culture, p 45, by Jason Rae, 2007, at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache, accessed 4-5-12), is just another identifying mark pointing directly back to Babylon for its origin and establishment.

The mystery religion and controlling musical practices of Babylon were not isolated within Mesopotamia. When all the languages of people were changed at the Ziggurat tower of Babel, and the people and languages dispersed, the Babylonian religion and styles of musical arrangement, verse, drum, etc., traveled along with these groups throughout the world. Thus the music originating in Babylon and connected with its religious ceremonies, rituals and services, were now spread worldwide to become a foundational part of every civilization!

“The tower [of Babylon] was a symbol of worship and protection and became well known by many as the ziggurat of Etemenanki, in honor of the Babylonian supreme god Marduk; a dominant central point of worship that spread out to many other nations that were to come (thirty-four of these staged towers have now been located in twenty-seven ancient cities of the Middle East - the greatest of them all was the one at Babylon”. Nimrod, Mars and the Marduk Connection, by Bryce Self, at http://ldolphin.org/Nimrod.html, accessed 5-13-12.

North America – including American states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin; etc (see Wikipedia On-line Encyclopedia, under word Step Pyramid, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_pyramid, and under word Pyramid, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid, and under List of Mississippian sites, all accessed 3-22-12; World Pyramids, at http://www.world-pyramids.com/project.html, accessed 3-22-12; Ancient Pyramids Around the World, By Amanda Bensen, at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ancient-Pyramids-Around-the-World.html, accessed 3-22-12; UnderWater Pyramids, at http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/phikent/japan/japan2.html, accessed 3-22-12; The Ancients: Pyramids Around the World, at http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Pyramids_World.html, accessed 3-22-12).

The musical instruments of Egypt included string instruments such as harps, lyres, lutes; wind instruments like flutes, clarinets, pipes, double pipes, trumpets, and oboes; percussion instruments like drums, rattles, sistrum, clappers or castenets, tambourines, bells and cymbals (Music in Ancient Egypt, by Kathleen Ek, September 19, 1999, at http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/westciv/EgyptianMusic.html, accessed 3-16-12; Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Ancient Egypt, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt, accessed 2-5-23).

Regarding drums, there were many different varieties, both large and small, both stationary and carried (Percussion instruments and their history, p 154-156, by James Blades, 4th edition, Publisher Bold Strummer, 1992). These musical instruments were not played haphazardly, but were played with “rhythm, harmony, [and] meter” (Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p. 65, by Johannes Quasten, Pastoral Press, June, 1983). The Egyptians wrote lyrics and “sang hymns” and also performed sensual “dances” in honor of their gods (A Treatise on the Life of Moses, book 2, p 162, by Philo).

This combination of lyrics, music and sensual dance became quite popular among the Egyptian populace. In fact, "Women and girls from the different ranks of society were proud to enter the service of the gods as singers and musicians. The understanding of this service was universal: these singers constituted the 'harem of the gods'" (Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p 41-42, by Johannes Quasten). Song, music, and dance were inseparably connected with the worship of their gods and goddesses, especially during their festivals. Their music was played in such a way that “was calculated to stimulate the deepest religious emotions, and fan the flames of ecstatic joy" (The Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile, p. 171-172, by Walter A. Fairservice, New York, 1962). “...singers and dancers performed to the music of harps, lutes, drums, flutes, cymbals, clappers and tambourines. During festivals, crowds chanted and clapped, carried along by the vibrant rhythm of Egyptian orchestras, while dancers performed amazing feats, leaping twirling and bending their bodies in time with the music” (Music and Dance, by Christina, at http://www.panhistoria.com/www/AncientEgyptianVirtualTemple/music.html, accessed 2-5-23).

One form of the rhythmic sensual dances performed by the temple priestesses is what we commonly refer to today as the “belly dance”, also called “Zaar” or “Zar”. This dance by the priestess was “a dance of spirits” associated with Osiris and Isis (Belly Dance Merseyside website, Article - “The Zaar- A Healing Dance”, citing Diriye Abdullahi, at http://www.bellydancemerseyside.co.uk/wb/pages/articles/dance/the-zaar-a-healing-dance..php, accessed 2-5-23). In this Egyptian dance, the “shoulders, buttocks, stomach and breasts” of scantily-clothed priestesses were “all separately or simultaneously rotated, wagged or otherwise set in motion” in rhythmic harmony to the musical beat (Osiris, p 245, by Earnest A. Budge, University Books, 1961).

Osiris, who was also called Ausar, was known as the lord of lords and god of gods, and not surprisingly, was a god who was “fond of music and the dance” (Diodorus of Sicily, Book I [18, 4]), and he was the god who “induced people to accept his teachings, not by force of arms, but by the use of persuasive lectures, spiritual hymns, and music” (Anuk Ausar - The Kamitic Initiation System, Chapter 7 - The Story of Ausar, p 139, by Ra Un Nefer Amen, at https://archive.org/stream/samoht/aasdewq_djvu.txt, accessed 2-5-23; see also On Isis and Osiris, by Plutarch, section 13, p 11, at https://sacred-texts.com/cla/plu/pte/pte04.htm, accessed 2-5-23).

The Egyptians also worshiped a god of the moon called Thot or Thoth. “Plutarch credits Thoth, also known as Hermes, with having been the one who invented music” (The New Grove Dictionary Of Music and Musicians, p 70). He was also “the originator of the drum” to the Egyptians (Percussion instruments and their history, p 154, by James Blades, 4th edition, Publisher Bold Strummer, 1992). He was also known as “the Lord of the voice”, the one who “discovered the incantations which evoke and control the gods”, as well as the “melodies of these incantations” (History of Egypt, Vol 1, part B, Chapter 2 – The Gods of Egypt, p 209-210, by Gaston Maspero, The Grolier Society). Incantations are magical spells, and were combined by the Egyptians with their music and dance, which affected all listeners.

In addition to these musical gods of Osiris and Thot, one of the most popular goddesses they worshiped was called Het Hert, who was also called Heret or Heru. She was also known as Hathor the cow goddess of fertility who bore the sun-god Ra and placed him as a sun disk between her horns. She was called “the Mistress of Music, the Queen of the Harp Playing, the Lady of the Choral Dance” (Historia Religionum: Handbook for the History of Religions - Religions of the Past, p 1, by C.J. Bleeker and G. Widengren, 1971). The one who has “Power Over the Gods and the Goddesses”, being “the Lady of Hymns”, whose “heart rejoices when Thou hearest our songs” (Hymn of the Seven Hathors from the Temple of Dendera, from the 5th Crypt of the Temple of Dendera, Mariette: Dendérah, Tome 3, pl. 60). “Hymns to Het-Hert found at Dendera and in her temple at Philae mention the music, rhythmic dancing, and intoxication of her festivities, all of them ways of experiencing her presence” (Music and Dance of Ancient Egypt, http://www.hethert.org/musicdance.htm). These songs or hymns were sung by choirs, and "these choirs generally sang the so-called epiphany hymns, which were intended to invite the gods to appear” (Music & Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p. 76, by Johannes Quasten). And, of course, drums were the major part of their musical performances to the gods/goddesses.

The end result of all the music, rhythmic drumming and sensual dance was an ecstatic emotional high upon the listeners and a loss of their restraint and self-control. Many were then led to indulgence in orgies and other sexual practices, and some were even taken possession by the god they were worshiping. “The priestesses [of Her Heret or Hathor] would often enter into an altered state of consciousness during erotic dance, becoming the goddess manifest in human form” (Erotic Dance, by teenwitch.com website, at http://www.teenwitch.com/magick/eroticdance.html, accessed 2-5-23).

In Canaan, including Tyre and Carthage, religion and music were inseparably combined, and “almost all popular music reflected the worship of Ishtar [or Ashtarte], the goddess of fertility. Popular songs were usually a prelude to sexual orgies led and organized by the goddess’ “thousands of hierodules (temple prostitutes)." (Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, under Music, p. 461, Abingdon Press, 1962). Every temple was staffed with musicians, singers and dancers trained to apply and perform their craft in order to generate the proper spirit among their audience!

Molech was a brass statue of a bull’s head on a man’s body whose arms and hands were stretched out with palms turned up for the offering to be placed upon. At certain times, this statue was heated by fire from beneath and infants and young children were placed on its red hot arms as a sacrifice, being caused “to pass through the fire to Molech” or “Baal” (see Jeremiah 32:35, 19:5). Archeological evidence reveals that “in Carthage, child sacrifice was indeed common practice” (Palestine Exploration Quarterly, by John Basil Hennessy, 1966, cited in Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under word Carthage, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage#Child_sacrifice-question, accessed 12-11-17), as they uncovered a “a large quantity of urns containing...children’s bones” in their excavations of the area (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under word Carthage, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage#Child_sacrifice-question, accessed 12-11-17).

Macedonia, from which the nation of Greece arose, is “referred to as the land of Hani” with Hanaeans being “the name of a people and a kingdom of Old and Middle Babylonian periods situated on the middle Euphrates” (see http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/antiochus_cylinder/antiochus_cylinder2.html, accessed 12-11-17). The land of the Hanaeans was once part of the kingdom of Babylon (see Current Anthropology, vol 43, #1, February, 2002, p 67, Article - “Archaeology and Language”, by C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, at https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/260f/240e22913c536f64e1689d11650b73156802.pdf, accessed 12-11-17). The Hanaeans were noted for their military prowess (see People of Ancient Assyria, p , by Jorgen Laessoe, Routledge, 2014; see http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/antiochus_cylinder/antiochus_cylinder2.html, accessed 12-11-17), and at some point the kingdom of Hani “seceded from Babylonia and began a war against it” (Kadasman-Harbe I’s Kudurru (YBC 2242) and Some Problems of the Political History of Babylonia, by Alexandr A. Nemirovsky, Journal of Ancient History, vol 4, p 295, at http://ydi.igh.ru/issues/153/aticles/2715?locale=en, accessed 12-11-17). This reveals that the origins of the Greek people began in the land of Babylonia (see http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/antiochus_cylinder/antiochus_cylinder2.html, accessed 12-11-17) before they traveled north-west to inhabit the territory we refer to today as Greece.

Similarly, the religious beliefs and practices of the Greeks are almost identical to those practiced by the Babylonians. So similar, in fact, that when Alexander the Great conquered Babylon, he had its priests declare him through solemn ceremony to be its king and the son of Marduk, or Marduk reincarnated (see Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, by 146-147, by A. Brian Bosworth and Elizabeth Baynham, Oxford University Press, 2000; Alexander the Great: the God King, BBC Documentary, part, narrated by Dr. Tony Spawforth). Also when “Alexander the Great traveled to Egypt during his conquest to be proclaimed son of Amon-Ra” - the supreme sun god of the Egyptians (see We Are God's Offspring, by Jim Davis, at http://www.focusongod.com/ChildofGod.rtf; also Alexander the Great: the God King, BBC Documentary, narrated by Dr. Tony Spawforth, online presentation, part 3 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3FCFj84LNc, viewed 12-11-2017), Alexander became the representation of the supreme deity in Egypt, as well, because Bel-Marduk, Ishtar and Tammuz of Babylon, along with Amun-Ra, Isis and Osiris in Egypt, were just different names for Zeus, Hera and Dionysus, gods the Greeks themselves worshiped.

Music reached a fine art in Greece under the influence of Pythagoras, the father of Greek music. Many of the musical instruments they used were borrowed from other cultures, including stringed instruments - such as lyres, lutes, harps; woodwinds - such as an aulos, panpipes, flutes, trumpets, horns; percussion - such as tambourines, cymbals, rattles, clappers, drums; as well as other instruments - such as xylophones, bagpipes, bronteion (produced thunder noise), and even keyboard organs (see Ancient Greek Music, Part 1: Instruments, by Michael Lahanas, http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Music.htm, accessed 12-28-22).

The Greeks believed that music was produced only by the art of the Muses, nymphs or goddesses born to their supreme god Zeus who brought inspiration for song, music and dance. The leader of the Muses was Apollo. Apollo was known as the god of light (Phoebus) and the sun-god (Helios). He was also known as the god of music, a master musician, and was the director of the choir of the Muses. He was also the god who brought harmony into each song, “because he moves all together by an harmonious power as...musicians ingeniously declare. And he is the god who presides over harmony, and makes all things move together, both among gods and among men” (Cratylus By Plato With Socrates & Hermongenes, translated by Benjamin Jowett). Here, we can clearly see the similarities between Apollo and Lucifer.

Also “The music of the Greeks did not signify merely the harmony of sounds, but actually embodied the idea of inner harmony of the spirit, the becoming at one with the spirit of the Muses, so that the soul responded in harmonic rhythm to the beat of universal harmony. Music with the Greeks, therefore, included, besides vocal and instrumental music, choral dancing, rhythmic motions, and various modes of harmony expressed in action...It was culture of the essential person, the ego or soul...” (Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary, under music, at http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/mp-mz.htm, accessed 12-28-22).

This ritual worship through rhythmic music, drum and dance was a prelude to sexual orgies, exemplified by the Satyrs, who were fertility gods in charge of dance and exuberant sexuality. They were depicted as being half man and half goat, who “indeed had power to entrance mankind by means of [musical] instruments; a thing still possible today for anyone who can pipe his tunes” (The Symposium, by Plato, section 215c Alcibiades to Socrates, at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0174%3Atext%3DSym.%3Asection%3D215c, accessed 2-2-23).

“So, also, certain others of these ecstatics become entheast or inspired when they hear cymbals, drums, or some choral chant; as for example, those who are engaged in the Korybantic Rites, those who are possessed at the Sabazian festivals, and those who are celebrating the Rites of the Divine Mother....and others depending on singing [to become ecstatic]...” Iambilchus, in Theurgia or The Egyptian Mysteries, Chapter 1 – Letter of Porphyry to Anebo, under Oracles and Divination, at http://www.esotericarchives.com/oracle/iambl_th.htm, accessed 2-2-2023.

“I [Socrates] perceive, Ion...there is a divinity moving you...the Muse first of all inspires men herself; and from these inspired persons a chain of other persons is suspended, who take the inspiration. For all good poets, epic as well as lyric, compose their beautiful poems not by art, but because they are inspired and possessed. And as the Corybantian revellers when they dance are not in their right mind, so the lyric poets are not in their right mind when they are composing their beautiful strains: but when falling under the power of music and metre they are inspired and possessed; like Bacchic maidens who draw milk and honey from the rivers when they are under the influence of Dionysus but not when they are in their right mind. And the soul of the lyric poet does the same, as they themselves say; for they tell us that they bring songs from honeyed fountains, culling them out of the gardens and dells of the Muses...For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles.

“Many are the noble words in which poets speak...they do not speak of them by any rules of art: they are simply inspired to utter that to which the Muse impels them, and that only; and when inspired, one of them will make dithyrambs [hymn sung to Dionysus], another hymns of praise, another choral strains...for not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine...therefore god takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners...in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that god himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us....the poets are only the interpreters of the gods by whom they are severally possessed.” The Ion, by Plato, paragraphs 67-68, translated by Benjamin Jowett.

The musical instruments utilized by the Arabs included wind instruments like pipes, reed-pipes, horns, and trumpets; stringed instruments like the lute, harp, and a type of Sitar Sanscrit; percussion instruments like tambourines, as well as a variety of different drums including kettledrums, hand drums, and vase shaped drums. They even had what was called the Harmonium, which was a hand pump keyboard organ (see History of Music In Islam, Chapter 1: Cultural Influences On Islamic Civilization, by Radiant Valley Association, at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/mysticalpathwaynurhu/, accessed 2-2-23).

“In pre-Islamic days, called the Days of Ignorance, the religious background of the Arabs was pagan, and basically animistic. Through wells, trees, stones, caves, springs, and other natural objects man could make contact with the deity. The heavenly bodies, so familiar to pastoral people, were revered; the moon, the shepherd's friend, was worshiped, though the sun, the Bedouin's terror [because of its burning heat in the desert], was placated.” Allah, the Unique Name of God, by The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, at http://www.muslim.org/islam/allah.htm, accessed 2-2-23.

“The scientific theory of music in those days in Persia was present in treatise on music of pre-Islamic times. Practical theory is evident; in the Dastanat of Barabad, seven modes and 360 melodies are mentioned; relating to the numerical metaphysics of Ancient Mesopotamia [Babylon]. From al-Hira, the capitol of the Lakhmids, Persian musical practices filtered into Arabian lands, and those people were great lovers of musical arts.” History of Music In Islam, Chapter 1: Cultural Influences On Islamic Civilization, by Radiant Valley Association, at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/mysticalpathwaynurhu/, accessed 2-2-23; see also Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-cultural Study, p 6-7, by Amnon Shiloah, Wayne State University Press, 2003.

In addition to these seven musical modes and three-hundred and sixty melodies, there were “thirty modulation forms” (see Persian System of Modes, at https://fis-iran.org/ebook/persian-system-of-modes/, accessed 2-2-23). The reason for these exact numbers of melodies correlates with their worship of the sun, moon and stars, including the Solar/Lunar cycles. They followed the Babylonian calendar. Each week was made up of seven days, each month was made up of thirty days, and each year only had three-hundred and sixty days in it – interestingly, exactly like the Egyptian calendar (see Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under 360 Day Calendar, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360-day_calendar, accessed 2-2-23), and “in the calendar of every nation of antiquity” (see The Ancient 360 Day Year, p 60, by Dale W. Wong, Advantage Media Group, 2006). The remaining “5 days [of the year] were just celebrated and not counted as part of the year” (see Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Barbad, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbad, accessed 2-2-23), or a “13th month was added every six years to keep the calendar synchronized with the seasons” (see Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Iranian Calendars, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_calendar, accessed 2-2-23).

“The music practiced in religious ceremonials in ancient Arabia were practiced by believers who where encircling the (Ka'ba) "house of worship" and the "Black Stone"-"Seat Of Mankind" housed therein, and chanted a musical cantillation (talhin)...These modes of musical chant were practiced during pilgrimage-(hajj) accompanied with fife/flute (shahin) and drum (bandir/tablah) during circumnabulation (raqs) around the "Ka'ba" and the "Black Stone" therein.” History of Music in Islam, Chapter 3: Music Art Sciences, by Radiant Valley Association, at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/mysticalpathwaynurhu/, accessed 2-2-23.

“During the holy prophet Mohammad's (sws) time and after his death, there developed new Islamic art of musical styles in the Hijaz in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina...Envisage the transformation of explicit and systematic inference of the Great Traditions, as applicable to urban and non-urban cultures, emerging and meeting in new centers under new religion of Islam during prophet Mohammad's (sws)time and the succeeding caliphs. This synthesis, effected in spirited compromise, it resulted in an agreed successful arrangement of old and new, a representative of orthogenesis....

“Prophet Mohammad (sws) recommended reciting/cantillation of Quran in musical melodies of the people from Nejd region of Arabia, as he preferred the pre-Islamic simple musical forms of huda and rakbani...Holy prophet (sws) had recourse to old Arabic tunes used in classical recitation/cantillation of poetry, together with classical poetic rules of parosody which was a transvaluation expressed by Ibn al-Arabi: "The prophet Mohammad (sws) wanted Quran to be an exclusive passion to replace styles that all chanters were accustomed to singing during that period in time.” History of Music in Islam, Chapter 3: Music Art Sciences, by Radiant Valley Association, at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/mysticalpathwaynurhu/, accessed 2-2-23.

“In pre-Islamic times music was closely connected with poetry, and dance. Being essentially vocal, pre-Islamic music was an emotional extension of the solemn declamation of poems in Bedouin society.” Britannica Online Encyclopedia, under Islamic Arts-Mucis, at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islamic-arts/Music, accessed 2-2-23. “The period of Islamic music begins with the advent of Islam in about 610 CE. A new art emerged, elaborated both from pre-Islamic Arabian music and from important contributions by Persians, Byzantines, Turks, Imazighen (Berbers), and Moors.” Britannica Online Encyclopedia, under Islamic Arts-Mucis, at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islamic-arts/Music, accessed 2-2-23.

This “new” style of music ushered in by Mohammad was still at its core the old pagan music and ritual worship style, but instead of chanting to their old gods, the people now chanted passages from the Quran.The music among the religious circles of the Arabs, particularly the Sufis, or Muslims (followers of Islam) who practice Sufi - a mystical science through which one can travel into the presence of the Divine - includes “both vocal and instrumental music as part of their spiritual practices....The great Sufi mystic poet Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (died 1273)--revered equally by the orthodox and the Sufis–heard the divine voice in his stringed musical instrument...” (Britannica Online Encyclopedia, under Islaam-Religion and the Arts, at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam/Religion-and-the-arts, accessed 2-2-23).

“The Sufi musicians (mitribs) now start to play their sacred lilting music with vibrancy and sweetness, depicting The Most Beloved Allahu. The sounds of the instruments escalate in volume, and the throbbing of drums keeping steady rhythm simulating heart-beats, as the rest of the instruments used play in perfect harmony, making all the many participants in this sacred, spiritual, dance, ecstatic in trance as the Sufi dervishes sway, and turn smoothly in unison in time with the lilting, spiritual music, and with this loving ecstatic experience unlocking the very Essence (Dhat) of Allahu's presence in their minds, hearts, and souls, oblivious to all who are present. Now the sacred, spiritual Divine ecstacy dance ceremony starts as follows:...The sacred dance consists in turning on left heel to toe, simultaneously followed by the right foot, then rotating around the hall or courtyard with eyes closed, arms stretched outward on each side of their body, hands held open with right palm facing up and left palm facing down so the blessings of Allahu flow trough them while they rotate/turn (daur-raqs)....the dance of Divine ecstasy lasts about two hours.

“The Sufi musicians (mitribs) their task well done, now leave carrying their instruments as the assembly disperses, where each listener holds within them the fullness of a world of sacred tunes of spiritual melody of sounds heard, that still lingers over the now silent hall/courtyard. With this Divine Essence (Dhat) power of The Divine love (eshq), permeating sounds of spiritual music speaks, is most welcome sound to all ears with a familiar sweet message, while revealing to the "seekers of the Truth " of the realms beyond their human knowledge, leading them each on their own personal spiritual pathway, and yet joining all together in revered fervor of shared sacred, spiritual, mystical music experience.” History of Music in Islam, Chapter 2: Sufis Music of Ecstasy, by Radiant Valley Association, at https://www.angelfire.com/ca2/mysticalpathwaynurhu/SufisMusicOfEcstasy.html, accessed 2-2-23.

This “spiritual, mystical musical experience” that “speaks” to all listeners even after the musical performance was ended, was designed to reveal “truth of the realms beyond their human knowledge”, or knowledge of the gods, to the common people. The dancing, drumming and musical experience allowed the Sufis to pass through several spiritual stages which are referred to as Selam. The main goal of all Dervishes is to reach the Third Selam where they become one with and completely submissive to their god.

“The Third Selam is the rapture of dissolving into love and the sacrifice of the mind to love. It is complete submission, unity, and the annihilation of self in the Beloved [Allah]. This is the state that is known as nirvana in Buddhism and fana fillah in Islam....the whirling dervish, after the ascent of his spiritual journey, returns to his task, to his servanthood. He is a servant of God...” The Whirling Dervishes, by Hyder Gulam, at https://www.academia.edu/32579735/The_Whirling_Dervishes, accessed 2-2-23; and Sema, The Universal Movement, by The Threshold Society, at https://sufism.org/origins/mevlevi/sema/sema-the-universal-movement-by-dr-celaleddin-b-celebi-2, accessed 2-2-23.

Nirvana in Buddhism is where the mind enters “enlightenment” (Four States of Nirvana, by Original Buddhas website, at https://www.originalbuddhas.com/blog/four-stages-of-nirvana, accessed 2-2-23), and has achieved the “luminous mind” or “the liberated mind” by reaching a certain spiritual place (see Wikipedia under Nirvana (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Nirvana, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana, accessed 2-2-23). Nirvana in Hinduism is the uniting of oneself “with the Supreme” Being whom they refer to as Brahman or god, and then gaining the “infinite expansion of consciousness” (See Eastern Definitions: A Short Encyclopedia of Religions of the Orient, p 277, by Edward Rice, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1978).

Fana Fillah in Islam is the place “to lose oneself in Allah” (see Seven Levels of Being, by Shaikh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi, at http://www.jerrahi.org/articles/seven_levels_being, accessed 2-2-23), where one is “reposed in the Divine Being” (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Muraqaba (meaning meditation), at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muraqabah, accessed 2-2-23), where “absorption into the Deity” occurs (The Confessions of Al Ghazzali; Mystics and Saints of Islam, p 159, by Claud Field, Kessinger Publishings, 2005), and where one “merges into the cosmic mind” or where “mergence in God” occurs, to the point that “He becomes God” (Sai Baba and the Muslim Mind, by Professor Zeba Bashiruddin, India, 1988, at http://sss.vn.ua/sb_mm.htm, accessed 2-2-23).

These religious songs and sacred music of Islam is called Sama. During Sama, where these religious songs are accompanied by drums, chanting, singing and instrumental music, Muslims can experience ecstasy and go into trance, where they can scream, shake, dance, tear their clothes, fall down, etc., but all in the hope of being able to meet with their god Allah and receive instruction. But without these Sama songs and music, no such meeting with their god can occur because they understood the place “with which music and dancing are used to create a spiritual hypnosis-trance for attainment of higher religious sublimation to Allah” (History of Music in Islam, Chapter 2: Sufis Music of Ecstasy, by Radiant Valley Association, at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/mysticalpathwaynurhu/, accessed 2-2-23).

“Songs on the part of one who seeks the love and pleasure of God and to meet with Him, is lawful. Sama brings out from the recess of his heart the power of sight of different matters...The condition of intoxication is termed by the Sufis as Wuzd [also Wajd] or ecstasy. This appears in mind as an effect of religious songs which did not exist before. The fire of ecstasy arising in mind burns the uncleanliness of mind...The result is the shining of mind in which Mushahadah [the vision of God obtained by the illuminated heart of the seeker (Britannica Online Encyclopedia, under Mushahadah, at https://www.britannica.com/topic/mushahadah, accessed 2-2-23)] and Mokashafah appear. In other words, his inner eye is opened by which he sees the secrets of nature. This is the goal of the lovers of God and the last stage of their search. He who can reach that stage gains nearness of God. It is possible only by Sama songs....

“After the understanding of songs, the stage of ecstasy comes. Junnun Misri said that Sama songs bring truth. Abu Hussain Daraj said : In Sama, there is connection of ecstacy which is a deep feeling in mind arising out of the effect of songs. He said Sama has taken me to the field of beauty and given me drink of sweets in the cup of purity and thereby I gained the station of contentment. Shibli said : The open form of Sama creates disputes and its internal form gives instructions....Hazrat Amr-b-Osman Makki said: No word can explain ecstasy because it is a secret thing of God to the believers and men of firm faith. Abu Sayeed-b-Arabi said that the meaning of ecstasy is lifting a screen, meeting with Lord, seeing of unseen things, appearance of secret words....Wuzd means presentation of an open thing, a secret thing..., an unseen thing...Then there is walk without feet....

“The great Arab mystic, Abu Sa'id ibn al-Arabi (d.952) believed ultimate truth could be caught only through Divine ecstasy, as the lifting of a curtain-veil, and witnessing the Watcher Allahu. An epitome of potent means for attainment of ecstasy to achieve is ‘listening (sema-sama)’ of sacred music. Dhu'l-en Nun Misiri, the Egyptian mystic said: ‘We have in this "listening (sema-sama)" a power that creates a Divine influence which stirs the heart to seek Allah, and leads one to find the existence of the Truth behind the spiritual curtain-veil.’” History of Music in Islam, Chapter 2: Sufis Music of Ecstasy, by Radiant Valley Association, at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/mysticalpathwaynurhu/, accessed 2-2-23.

“...the hearer of songs who reached the highest stage of Ma'arfat after crossing different conditions and different stages. He is lost to everything except the knowledge of God. Even he loses his own personality, his own condition and his own actions and deeds. He is like a man who is tossing in the ocean being submerged therein....Thus the Sufi loses himself and enters the stage of Fana Fillah, emergence in God. He loses himself from all things around him....He is like that intoxicated man who loses sense of all things.” Ihya Ulumuddin (Revival of Religious Sciences), vol 2, The Book of Worldly Usages, Chapter IX - Music and Ecstacy, by Imam Al-Ghazzali.

Just like with the Bacchic maidens of Greece, who fell under the power of music and became “drunk” “under the influence of Dionysus”, who could “draw milk and honey from the rivers” and drink from “honeyed fountains” of inspiration, and could only be united with their god while not “in their right mind”, so Muslims also fall under the same power of music. They also become “intoxicated” under the influence of Allah and have “emergence in God”, where they are also able to “drink of sweets in the cup of purity” and obtain knowledge and instruction while each one “loses all consciousness in this world”.

The Romans worshiped the goddess Magna Mater, or the Great Mother of the gods, who was also known as Cybele and even Rhea. During their worship services, “her priestesses led the people in orgiastic ceremonies with wild music, drumming, dancing, and drinking” (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, under Cybele, at https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/47711, accessed 2-3-23). This “music was distinguished for its having a steady beat, no doubt through the use of drums and the percussive effects of clapping and stamping” (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, under Music of Ancient Rome, at https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2048574, accessed 2-3-23).

“The Chinese believed that music’s ‘essence was conceived not to be sound but a transcendent power’...The early Chinese culture believe that ‘...the power to sustain (or if improperly used to destroy) Universal Harmony was but an extension of the belief in the magic power of sounds’...it could influence objects and all the phenomena of Nature”. The New Oxford History of Music, vol 1 - Ancient and Oriental Music, The Music of Far Eastern Asia, by Lawrence Picken, p 87, Egon Wellesz editor, London: Oxford University Press, 1957, cited in Music As An Archtype in the ‘Collective Unconscious’ Implications for a World Aesthetics of Music, P 194, by Anthony J. Palmer.

The type of musical instruments the Japanese used in their music combined with dancing included: Wind: flutes, horns. String: harps, and a type of guitar. Percussion: bells, and drums “of all kinds” (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. VIII, Japanese Mythology, chapter 3 - Fairies, Celestial Beings, the Men of the Mountain, p 261, by Masaharu Anesaki, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1928, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra81gray/mythologyofallra81gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-16-23).

Not only were stringed instruments used in connection with the gods, but also music which was “performed on flute and drum” (An Introduction to Japanese Folk Performing Arts, Chapter 2 -Ritual Music, Dance and Theatre of Shinto Shrines, p 23, by Terence A. Lancashire, Routledge, NY, 2016). Some of these sacred music instruments were even believed to be directly “possessed” by the gods (see Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under word Itako, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itako, accessed 2-18-19).

They believe that some of their drums were sacred, having seen them being played by “the fairies of the cherry-blossoms” (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. VIII, Japanese Mythology, chapter 3 - Fairies, Celestial Beings, the Men of the Mountain, p 261, by Masaharu Anesaki, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1928, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra81gray/mythologyofallra81gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-16-23). They also believed that thunder was caused by the god of thunder beating on his sacred drums in the heavens (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. VIII, Japanese Mythology, chapter 4 - Demons, Vampires and other Ghostly Beings, p 288, by Masaharu Anesaki, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1928, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra81gray/mythologyofallra81gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-16-23).

Once the sacred music, dancing and “shamantic” chanting had summoned the gods and they had been sufficiently entertained, then it was hoped that the gods would favor the Itako, or the performer, by entering into and possessing them, and sometimes even the worshiper. Only in this “possession-trance” state could communication with the gods occur, and information hopefully be given (see Shamanic Dance in Japan: The Choreography of Possession in Kagura Performance, published in Asian Forklore Studies, vol 57, #2, 1988, by Irit Averbuch, at https://www.jstor.org/stable/1178756?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents, accessed 2-18-19).

The various Australian tribes of indigenous Aborigines ingeniously used about 30 different musical instruments derived from local materials in order to perform music that was combined with dance. Wind instruments like whistles (from bone, reed or folded leaf), trumpets (Llpirra) and large conch shells, and didgeridoo. Percussion instruments such as seed rattles, rasps or scraped idiophones, bark or skin bundles, sticks, clubs, boomerang clapsticks. They also used drums that were made from hollow logs and others from skins. All these percussion instruments were either struck with the hand or palm, or with other sticks, or beaten against the ground. Other percussion sounds were produced by hand clapping; lap slapping by the women; thigh slapping by the men (Aboriginal Art and Culture, at https://www.aboriginalart.com.au/didgeridoo/instruments.html, accessed 12-25-20).

These instruments, including voice (singing and chant), formed the basis of the traditional music of indigenous Australians which heavily relied upon percussion designed to unite “consciousness with the invisible laws and energy patterns of nature” (Music, Dance and Art, 10th February, 2009, by Mary Rose Costello, at https://developmenteducation.ie/feature/a-focus-on-aboriginal-australia/music-dance-and-art/, accessed 12-25-20). “Music is used throughout an aboriginal's life to teach what must be known about their culture, about their place in it, and about its place in the world of nature and supernature. As a very young child, the aboriginal is encouraged to dance and sing about everyday tasks. At puberty, s/he learns the first karma songs - about totemic plants and animals of his/her clan and the history and mythology of the group” (Australian Aboriginal Music, Aboriginal Art 4, at http://hmcs.scu.edu.au/musicarchive/AusGeneral.html, accessed 12-25-20). This meant that maturity was measured by “the esoteric knowledge he has acquired through song, and as an old man, he knows that his honour is based partly on his mastery of the secret sacred songs of the band” (Australian Aboriginal Music, Aboriginal Art 4, at http://hmcs.scu.edu.au/musicarchive/AusGeneral.html, accessed 12-25-20).

This heavy percussion beat music helps participants and listeners to unite their consciousness with nature and enter into a trance-like state called “Dreaming” or “Dreamtime”. “The Dreaming' or 'the Dreamtime' indicates a psychic state in which or during which contact is made with the ancestral spirits, or the Law, or that special period of the beginning” (Mudrooroo, an Aboriginal writer, Us Mob, p 41, by Mudrooroo, 1995, cited in What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'? - Creative Spirits, at https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming, accessed 12-25-20).

“Music is an integral part of Aboriginal ceremonies, also known as corroborees” (Music, Dance and Art, 10th February, 2009, by Mary Rose Costello, at https://developmenteducation.ie/feature/a-focus-on-aboriginal-australia/music-dance-and-art/, accessed 12-25-20). It is during these musical “ceremonies that the trance-like dreaming state seizes the Aboriginal people and they connect with the ancestral beings” (Us Mob, p 44, by Mudrooroo, an Aboriginal writer, 1995, cited in What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'? - Creative Spirits, at https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming, accessed 12-25-20). These ancestral spirit beings “rose and roamed the initially barren land, fought and loved, and created the land's features as we see them today. After creating the 'sacred world' the spiritual beings “turned into rocks or trees or a part of the landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated men” (Aboriginal Art and Culture, Dreamtime Meaning, at www.aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html, accessed 1-5-23). “The spirits of the ancestor beings are passed on to their descendants, e.g. shark, kangaroo, honey ant, snake and so on and hundreds of others which have become totems within the diverse Indigenous groups across the continent” (Penny Tripcony, Manager, Oodgeroo Unit, Queensland University of Technology, at www.oodgeroo.qut.edu.au/academic_resources/academicpape/tooobviousto.jsp, cited in What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'? - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming, accessed 12-25-20). The Aborigines believe that “art, songs, dance...is written into the land itself” - “it is the living world itself”; because that is where they find their ancestral spirits, and they connect with them through Dreaming (Djon Mundine, Bundjalung man and Aboriginal Curator, Campbelltown Arts Centre, from Arts & About program, Sydney, 2009, cited in What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'? - Creative Spirits, at https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming, accessed 12-25-20).

Those influenced by the beat and music to enter into trance connect with these spirit beings, where information is communicated and “deep mental archetypes and images of wisdom which we take on to be guided by them” (Die Welt der Aborigines, p 211, by Mudrooroo, 1996, cited in What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'? - Creative Spirits, at https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming, accessed 12-25-20). It is during these spirit guiding sessions that some people “find ceremonies or songs in a state of dreaming” (Us Mob, p 41, by Mudrooroo, 1995, cited in What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'? - Creative Spirits, at https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming, accessed 12-25-20).

Oceania is a vast region of the Pacific Ocean, and is “divided into three sub regions, namely Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia” (Instruments Used in Polynesian Music, at https://www.zzounds.com/edu--polynesianmusic, accessed 9-30-21). Polynesia includes the island of New Zealand, Easter Island and the Hawaiian Islands. Micronesia includes the Yap, Truk, Marshall and Gilbert islands. Melanesia includes the islands of Papua New Guinea, Solomon, Vanuatu and Fiji. Even though all these Oceanic islands can be separated by 1000s of miles, yet the “music and culture of the each subregion is extremely connected to the other” (Zzsounds.com website, Article - “Instruments Used in Polynesian Music”, at https://www.zzounds.com/edu--polynesianmusic, accessed 9-30-21).

While there were no stringed instruments used among these ancient Oceanic island peoples, the musical instruments they used included Wind: bamboo nose flutes; shell trumpets, and pan pipes. Percussion: bamboo rattles, tapping sticks, clicking stones, sounding boards, stamping tubes, gourd drums, coconut knee drums, slit drums from logs, skin drums of various shapes and sizes made from shark, string ray or snake skin, as well as rhythmic hand claps and body slaps (Zzsounds.com website, Article - “Instruments Used in Polynesian Music”, at https://www.zzounds.com/edu--polynesianmusic, accessed 9-30-21; Music of the Pacific Island Nations, at http://hmcs.scu.edu.au/musicarchive/PacificInfo.html, accessed 1-15-23; All Around This World .com website, Lesson 1: Oceania and the Pacific Islands–Instruments, at https://www.allaroundthisworld.com/learn/oceania-and-the-pacific-islands/oceania-and-the-pacific-islands-instruments/#.Y8SItn3MJdg , accessed 9-30-21).

Another reason was the belief that man and woman were originally given life when their creator god added a drum beat to his dancing (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. IX, Oceanic Mythology, chapter 1 - Myths of Origins and the Deluge, p 106, by Roland B. Dixon, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1916, at https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.283528/2015.283528.The-Mythology_djvu.txt, accessed 1-16-23). Thus the way to summon, or to honor the god who gave them life, was through the beating of sacred drums combined, at times, with dancing. The harder they beat their drums, the more energetic and sensual their dancing, revealed just how much appreciation they had for their gods and for life.

In North American Indian cultures, music and dance were considered sacred and were inseparably combined. While performing these musical dances, “something happens...by means of music and movement, that lifts the lives of the participants out of their ordinary courses to a plane that would have to be called transcendent” (A Paradigm of Navaho Dance, by David P. McAllester, in Parabola, vol IV, No 2, p 31, 1980, cited in Music As An Archtype in the ‘Collective Unconscious’ Implications for a World Aesthetics of Music, p 195, by Anthony J. Palmer).

Through sacred dance and drumming many were led into “ecstasy and trance”, believing that “wisdom comes to us in dreams” (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. X, North American Mythology, chapter 7 - Prophets and the Ghost-Dance, p 150, by Hartley B. Alexander, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1916, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra10gray/mythologyofallra10gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). During the dream or “trance the man is borne away” to one of the homes of the spirits “and there given an initiation which he carries back to his people” (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. X, North American Mythology, chapter 11 - The Pacific Coast, p 241, by Hartley B. Alexander, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1916, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra10gray/mythologyofallra10gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). These initiations can include learning more of “their mysteries, or dances, thus conferring upon him the powers” of certain spirits (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. X, North American Mythology, chapter 11 - The Pacific Coast, p 240, by Hartley B. Alexander, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1916, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra10gray/mythologyofallra10gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23).

The desire to enter trances and ecstasies “in every instance seizure by the controlling spirit is the end sought”, so that "the spirit speaking through" the initiate could occur and all could be benefitted by the information obtained (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. X, North American Mythology, chapter 11 - The Pacific Coast, p 247, by Hartley B. Alexander, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1916, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra10gray/mythologyofallra10gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23).

Thus drums and dance were an important and integral part of their worship of the spirits and gods. Some drums were considered “sacred and powerful” (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. X, North American Mythology, Note #4, p 269-270, by Hartley B. Alexander, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1916, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra10gray/mythologyofallra10gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). In fact, even in land of the dead, “the country of souls”, there was located a “dance house of the spirits”, and more “than half the people are dancing and singing to the accompaniment of drums. All are naked” (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. X, North American Mythology, chapter 6 - Mountain and Desert, p 147-149, by Hartley B. Alexander, published by Marshall Jones Company, Boston, 1916, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra10gray/mythologyofallra10gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23).

Music, singing and dance “was a constant and important part of life” among the various tribes of South America, and was used as “a way of passing on culture, of sharing an understanding of religion” (Aztec History website, under Aztec Music, at http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-music.html, accessed 12-17-20). And music played a vital role “in communicating with gods, ancestors, and other spiritual beings” (MexicoLore website, under Ancient Maya Music, at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/teachers/ancient-maya-music, accessed 1-27-21). Many of their songs “were sacred hymns” to commemorate or seek favors from “the gods” and were “accompanied by special ritual dances”. On more “mystical” occasions, Cantares or “ghost songs” would occur where the “spirit world was symbolically portrayed, and the participants would work themselves into a trance as they sang and danced for hours on end” to achieve “a special connection with the ancestors and gods at this time” (Aztec History website, under Aztec Music, at http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-music.html, accessed 12-17-20).

The musical instruments used included Wind: clay flutes, reeds, pipes, ocarinas, whistles, shell trumpets and horns. Percussion: bead or pebble rattles, rasps, shakers, striking sticks, tinkles and a variety of drums made from wood, clay, stone, metal or even a turtle shell (the Ayotl) (Aztec Drum Rhythms, at http://www.philtulga.com/Aztec%20Music.html, accessed 12-17-20; Aztec History website, under Aztec Music, at http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-music.html, accessed 12-17-20; Aztec Music, at https://aztecsandtenochtitlan.com/aztec-civilisation/aztec-music/, accessed 12-17-20; Drums and Warfare in Aztec Society: An Iconographic Approach, p 16, by Maria Carlotta Vocca, at https://www.academia.edu/8394188/MA_Thesis_2013_Drums_and_Warfare_in_Aztec_Society_an_Iconographic_Approach, accessed 12-17-20; The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter IX. The Tropical Forests: the Amazon and Brazil, p 293, 297, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23; The Wood-Carver's Art in Ancient Mexico, p 54, 60-63, by Marshall H. Saville, New York: Museum of American Indian, Heye Foundation, vol 9, at https://archive.org/stream/woodcarversartin00savi/woodcarversartin00savi_djvu.txt, accessed 1-18-23; Encyclopedia.com website, under Music, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-music-and-religion-mesoamerica, accessed 12-23-20). There were no stringed instruments. But all their instruments were considered “sacred objects of worship, believed to hold spiritual powers” (MexicoLore website, under Aztecs, at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/kids/aztec-music, accessed 12-23-20), with some depicted as “playing of their own accord and calling certain divine beings associated with the fertility cult” (Encyclopedia.com website, under Music, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-music-and-religion-mesoamerica, accessed 12-23-20).

Their drums were of various sizes, ranging from small to those “of immense size” which “could be heard for two leagues about” (The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter II: Mexico, p 48, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). But out of all their drum varieties there were two that were considered special and very sacred, which were the Huehuetl (a large hand drum which produced a lower and higher pitch tone), and the Teponaztli (a wooden slit log carved out to form a letter H where the 2 opposite vibrating tongues were hit with “drum-sticks” or “mallets” producing two distinct tones) (Aztec Drum Rhythms, at http://www.philtulga.com/Aztec%20Music.html, accessed 12-17-20; Aztec History website, under Aztec Music, at http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-music.html, accessed 12-17-20). These two sacred drums were believed to house “two gods [that] were banished to the earth in the form of these two drums” (Aztec History website, under Aztec Music, at http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-music.html, accessed 12-17-20). This meant that every time they used these drums these gods were believed to be in their midst to bless, help and enlighten them. These “were traditionally played together” (Hofstra University Museum, JP Morgan Chase Art Travelers through Time: Literacy and History through Art https://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/community/museum/teponaztl.pdf, accessed 12-17-20), but the Huehuetl drum could also be used by itself as a call for war, while the Teponaztli - “drum of the gods” was especially beaten by itself when “human victims were about to be sacrificed” to the gods (An Iconographic Approach: A Master’s Thesis, by Maria Carlotta Vocca, at https://www.academia.edu/8394188/MA_Thesis_2013_Drums_and_Warfare_in_Aztec_Society_an_Iconographic_Approach, accessed 12-17-20).

Drums “played a big part” in their music as “there is not a single festival in which they are not beaten” (The Wood-Carver's Art in Ancient Mexico, p 58, by Marshall H. Saville, New York: Museum of American Indian, Heye Foundation, vol 9, at https://archive.org/stream/woodcarversartin00savi/woodcarversartin00savi_djvu.txt, accessed 1-18-23). They were beaten in rhythmic sequence either alone or to accompany the tune (Aztec Drum Rhythms, at http://www.philtulga.com/Aztec%20Music.html, accessed 12-17-20; Aztec History website, under Aztec Music, at http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-music.html, accessed 12-17-20). Other than log drums, animal or reptile skins were used for the drum head (The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, under Ancient Aztec Drum, April 27, 2015, by Sergio Beristain, at https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4920460; The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter II: Mexico, p 48, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23).

Some drums had the god of music carved or painted on them, and when beaten it summoned the god into their midst (Drums and Warfare in Aztec Society: An Iconographic Approach, p 16-17, by Maria Carlotta Vocca, at https://www.academia.edu/8394188/MA_Thesis_2013_Drums_and_Warfare_in_Aztec_Society_an_Iconographic_Approach, accessed 12-17-20). Other drums had “figures of devils painted on it, which they strike at the beds of sick persons, to drive the evil demon, which causes the disorder, from the body” (The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter X: The Pampas to the Land of Fire, p 333, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). They also had drums with specific animals carved or painted on them because they “believed that gods could transform themselves into specific animals”, and by beating that drum the particular god associated with that animal would “descend and listen” and hopefully bless them with the “supernatural” (Drums and Warfare in Aztec Society: An Iconographic Approach, p 21, by Maria Carlotta Vocca, at

https://www.academia.edu/8394188/MA_Thesis_2013_Drums_and_Warfare_in_Aztec_Society_an_Iconographic_Approach, accessed 12-17-20; The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter IX: The Tropical Forests: the Amazon and Brazil, p 297, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). They also believed that “drums are...divine creatures that originate from the sun”, or “that drums represented sounding idols—‘vessels’ in which the respective deities resided”, and in playing or sounding them the “voices of divine beings” could be heard (Encyclopedia.com website, under Music, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-music-and-religion-mesoamerica, accessed 12-23-20). This reveals that “drums served as vehicles with which the path into the spiritual world was taken” (Encyclopedia.com website, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-music-and-religion-mesoamerica, accessed 12-23-20).

The whole purpose behind their music, drum and dance “ceremonies” was to “connect with the deities” (Encyclopedia.com website, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-music-and-religion-mesoamerica, accessed 12-23-20). They believed that the gods themselves “were considered to be made of music as well as fed by it” (MexicoLore website, under Ancient Maya Music, at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/teachers/ancient-maya-music, accessed 1-27-21), and thus music and “song acted as a sort of offering in addition to helping to bridge the gap between the two worlds. Because music was considered a living part of divine beings, [and] to perform it was to summon the gods” (MexicoLore website, under Ancient Maya Music, at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/teachers/ancient-maya-music, accessed 1-27-21). Many of their vessels depicted musicians as a “armadillo, rabbit, dog, jaguar, insect, deer, and unidentified rodent...playing drums, rattles, and turtle shells” believing that when human musicians dressed up or wore masks of animals or of a “mystic being, they were thought to have undergone a spiritual possession of sorts in which the gods or deities assumed bodily form” through them (MexicoLore website, under Ancient Maya Music, at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/teachers/ancient-maya-music, accessed 1-27-21).

“Great attention was paid on musical rhythms and sounds...and even dance movements” to these rhythms because “all had religious meanings” (Aztec Music, at https://aztecsandtenochtitlan.com/aztec-civilisation/aztec-music/, accessed 12-17-20), and to play music well “was to heighten one’s ability to connect and communicate with gods” (MexicoLore website, under Ancient Maya Music, at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/teachers/ancient-maya-music, accessed 1-27-21). Their musical performance, song and chants “tended to build up gradually over several hours, getting louder, faster and stronger, backed by steady, driving rhythms” (MexicoLore website, under Aztecs, at https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/kids/aztec-music, accessed 12-23-20). These “repetitive rhythmic structures...put the musicians, dancers, and singers into a trance” (Encyclopedia.com website, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-music-and-religion-mesoamerica, accessed 12-23-20).

While in trance “prophetic revelations” might be revealed to that person, or the message of the gods might be “stammered out in incoherent words” which the priests would then interpret (The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter I: The Antilles, p 35, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). This trance state and speaking in tongues was not something they believed was self-induced, but it was their god which “caused them to dance to his singing until they were as men intoxicated or demented” (The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter II: Mexico, p 66, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). And at times they believed that even their god joined in with their sacred worship festivities “to sing and dance with his followers” (The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter VI: The Andean North, p 204, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23).

Because religion was so closely connected with their music, many of the musicians were “priests who played music for religious rituals and sacrifices” (Aztec Music, https://aztecsandtenochtitlan.com/aztec-civilisation/aztec-music/, accessed 12-17-20). Sacred music was “practiced by specialized priests” and these “priest-musicians lived in the temple” and “assumed the position of expert mediators. They established a form of communication with the spiritual world that helped the voices of the gods to be heard” (Encyclopedia.com website, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-music-and-religion-mesoamerica, accessed 12-23-20). Especially were these priests expert drummers of a “high degree of formalization of musical practices” (Encyclopedia.com website, under Music and Religion in Mesoamerica, at

These dances were not just casual, but “sexual” (The Mythology of All Races, vol XI, Chapter IX: The Tropical Forests: the Amazon and Brazil, p 290, at https://archive.org/stream/mythologyofallra111gray/mythologyofallra111gray_djvu.txt, accessed 1-17-23). The Aztec god Huehuecoyotl was “the auspicious Pre-Columbian god of music, dance, mischief, and song” as well as “the patron of uninhibited sexuality”, and the way to publicly honor him or gain his favor was to perform rhythmic music, dance and uninhibited sexuality (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under word Huehuecoyotl, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu%C4%93huecoy%C5%8Dtl#, accessed 12-23-20).

The earliest civilization to inhabit what we know as Europe today has been referred to as the Corded Ware culture. This civilization existed between 2900 BC – 2350 BC, and inhabited a vast area of Central, Northern, Eastern and Western Europe “including most of modern-day Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, northwestern Romania, northern Ukraine, and the European part of Russia, as well as coastal Norway and the southern portions of Sweden and Finland” (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Corded Ware Culture, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corded_Ware_culture, accessed 10-1-21, referencing Corded Ware Coastal Communities, by Sandra Mariët Beckerman, published by Sidestone Press, 2015; Cambridge University Press, November, 12, 2020, Article - “The Forgotten Child of the Wider Corded Ware Family”, by Kerkko Nordqvist and Volker Heyd, at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-prehistoric-society/article/forgotten-child-of-the-wider-corded-ware-family-russian-fatyanovo-culture-in-context/6309A60F638130BF6F7FD96135AA1B37, accessed 1-15-23).

The various tribes comprising ancient Europe used singing, chants, and drums combined with dancing, which “invoked their tribal gods” to appease their anger or to help them in times of need (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Ancient Celtic music, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Celtic_music, accessed 1-15-23). The musical instruments used by them were: String: Lyres of various string combinations. Wind: different shapes of brass Trumpets, Tubas and Horns; bone and wooden flutes, bone and terra cotta whistles, tube and pipe woodwinds. Percussion: bronze and wood bells; terra cotta rattles, clappers, rhythmic beating on shields, various hand-held drums “similar to the African djembe”, another drum like the Malemort (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Ancient Celtic music, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Celtic_music, accessed 1-15-23).

A very large number of different languaged groups traveled South West from the tower of Babel to inhabit their own portion of a vast territory, which we know today as the continent of Africa. There are estimated to be about 3000 different tribes making up Africa (Africa Facts website, under Africa Tribe List, at http://interesting-africa-facts.com/Africa-People/African-Tribe-List.html, accessed 2-18-18), with each generally speaking their own language or dialect (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under List of Ethnic Groups of Africa, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_of-Africa, accessed 2-18-18), but all of their various religious beliefs “are incredibly similar” to one another, despite having been passed down orally through the millennia (Biography chap 4: The Origins of the Gods, by Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, at http://credomutwa.com/credo-mutwa-biography/biography-04/, accessed 1-2-18). This clearly indicates a common source of origin.

Most ancient African cultures “believe in a Supreme Creator in one form or another. A God behind the Gods, a Supreme God who created everything.” Even though most “African traditional religions have multiple gods” (African Mythology, at http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/A-Am/African-Mythology.html#ixzz535ljn0nz, accessed 1-2-18), yet “traditional African belief is overwhelmingly monotheistic” (African Mythology - The Gods and Spirits of Africa, at http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/african-mythology.php, accessed 1-2-18), and includes “a three-in-one trinity god” (Olodumare - supreme god of the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Benin, from African Mythology - The Gods and Spirits of Africa, at http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/african-mythology.php, accessed 1-2-18).

The type of musical instruments common among the various tribes and people of ancient Africa were stringed instruments: N’goni (lute-like with strings suspended over a drum) or Banjar (4 strings suspended over a drum) and both are ancestors of the Banjo, Kora (21 strings - left hand plays 11 and right hand 10), Goji (1 string and played with a bow like a fiddle (ancestor of the violin); Krar also known as Maghreb or Sahel or Guinea (ancestor of the guitar), Gimbri (double-bass), harps, lyres, zithers. Woodwinds: Algaita (double-reed), flutes, whistles, trumpets, horns. Percussion: Calabash (a dried gourd rhythmically beaten), Shekera of Axatse (dried gourd covered with a net containing beads that is hit with the hand or against the knee), Udu (clay water pot with an additional hole, produces a bass sound), bells (Agogo or Gankogui - single or double bells of various sizes and tones that were hit) or Lobi (small bells arranged in circular fashion and shaken), clappers, rattles, rasps, tappers, gongs, Djembe or Jembe (a goblet-like drum played with bare hands), and the Tama or the “talking drum” (a flexible drum that is beaten with one hand and then squeezed or relaxed under the other arm and accentuated with that hand to produce higher or lower notes, and thus in the hands of a master drummer it can be made - as it were - to speak “the language of the drum” (Spot On Mali Music, at http://www.spotonmalimusic.org/instruments/, accessed 12-31-17). Other musical instruments were the Balafon or African piano (17 - 21 various lengths of wood placed on Calabash gourds and hit with a mallet to produce its own note - ancestor of the Marimba) (see Spot On Mali Music at http://www.spotonmalimusic.org/instruments/, accessed 12-31-17; Ask Naija website, under phrase “What Are Ancient African Musical Instruments, at https://ask.naija.ng/culture/what-are-ancient-african-musical-instruments-i25469.html, accessed 12-31-17; http://home.earthlink.net/~tshack2/termproject/shacklett/goje.htm, accessed 12-31-17); Africa House, Article - “The African Origin of the Modern Musical Instruments: From the Fiddle to the Guitarro”, September 21, 2013, by Don Jaide, at http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/jide-uwechia-the-african-origin-of-the-modern-musical-instruments-from-the-fiddle-to-the-guitarro/, accessed 12-31-17; Hartenberger World Music Collection of Historical Instruments, under Africa, at http://www.hwmconline.com/Africa/Africa.php, accessed 2-18-18).

“The essence of African music is rooted in the concept that simple rhythmic patterns played on rattles, drums, bells, horns, and other musical instruments simultaneously form a dense mixture of polyrhythmic impulses that fade in and out, constantly renewing and recombining as a kaleidoscope of sound textures....The music invites the active participation of each member of the community, and distinctions between performer and observer become blurred as the infectious rhythms demand that the body react....

“Names and personalities of deities, spirit possessions and trance, divination, ritual language, sacrifice, healing practices, music, and instruments all parallel African religious practices. Trance-induced dance and possession by spirits are crucial elements in these religions, and a knowledgeable drummer, able to coax spirits to a gathering and to recognize signs indicating the presence of individual deities, is essential for a successful meeting. Drums call a spirit who takes control of the initiate, who in turn serves as a contact between humans and gods.” Enduring Rhythms by Ken Moore, at https://www.furious.com/perfect/enduring.html, accessed 2-5-23.

Using primarily mud-brick for construction, which knowledge they brought with them from Babylon, they built houses with 2 or more stories (Ancient History, Know India website, at http://knowindia.gov.in/culture-and-heritage/ancient-history.php, accessed 12-13-17), and erected some 1500 cities, among which was the city of Harappa (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under History of India, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_India, accessed 12-13-17). These cities were built and arranged similar to their homes in Mesopotamia (Ancient India, by Joshua J. Mark, published 11-13-12 on WorldHistory.org website at https://www.worldhistory.org/india/, accessed 2-5-23). Harappa was the first city excavated by archeologists along this Indus Valley, and this early civilization has since been referred to as the Harappans.

The Harappans or Hindus or people of India, were wholly devoted to the worship of a pantheon of different pagan gods/goddesses. Bel-Marduk, Ishtar and Tammuz of Babylon now went by the Indian names of Indra, Indrani (also known as Sachi or Aindri) and Jayanta (KamalKapor website, Article - “Goddess Indrani”, at http://www.kamalkapoor.com/hindu-deities/goddess-indrani.asp, accessed 12-15-17; Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Indra, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra, accessed 12-15-17; The Indian Theogony, p 279, by Sukumari Bhattacharji, CUP Archive, 2007); or Indra, Kunti and Arjuna (New World Encyclopedia, under Arjuna, at http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/etry/Arjuna, accessed 12-15-17).

The type of musical instruments common among the people of ancient India were stringed instruments: Ektara (1 string), Tanpura (4-6 strings), Veena (4 main and 3 sympathetic strings), Dilruba (up to 18 strings), Ravanahatha (1 to 4 main, with 8-12 sympathetic), Sitar (7 main and 11-14 sympathetic), Sarangi (3 main and 35-37 sympathetic), Santoor (up to 100 strings), harp (Yazh - 7-21 strings). Woodwinds: flutes (Bansuri - 6 or 7 holes, Venu - 8 holes), pipes (Pungi, Been - up to 7 holes), double-reeds (Nadaswaram), quadruple-reed (Shehnai). Percussion: Ghatam (produced a tinny sound), Kanjeera (tambourine like), small cymbals (Manjerra), drums (Mridangam - double-sided metallic sounding with one side sounding bass and other treble; Tabla - pair of different sized hand-held; Dholak - two-headed hand; Dumroo) (see Ancient Musical Instruments of India, part 1, at https://www.dollsofindia.com/library/veena/, accessed 12-19-17; Ancient Musical Instruments of India, part 2, at https://www.dollsofindia.com/library/musical-instruments/, accessed 12-19-17; Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Music in Ancient India, at https://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Music_in_ancient_India, accessed 12-19-17; Indian Musical Instruments, at http://www.indianmirror.com/music/music-home.html, accessed 12-19-17).

Hindu music was divided into different themes called “ragas” and “talas”. Ragas formed a set of rules and patterns which consisted of five, six or seven tones each. Talas was a system of rhythmic structures wherein certain beats would become stressed or enhanced in the tune. During the musical performance “the musician constantly returns” and repeats the note patterns and chords of the ragas, as well as the talas of enhanced beats (The Story of Civilization, Volume 1 - Our Oriental Heritage, Book 2 - India and Her Neighbors, Chapter 21 - India Art, Section 2 - Music, p 588, by Will Durant, Simon and Shuster, New York, 1935, at https://erenow.net/ancient/durantcivilization/137.php, accessed 2-5-23).

And just like with the Arabs: “An appropriate raga was for instance assigned to each hour, to be sung with the object of heightening its particular mood, such as morning adoration and evening merriment....the minor element (more flat notes) imbue the ragas of the quieter hours (midnight to the heat of the day), and a major character those sung between six o'clock and midnight. Aptly then have ragas been described as celebrations of different moments in the ritual of living, and in this sense we can understand that extensive mythology which illustrates the benefits flowing from the right use of ragas and the misfortunes attending those who dare to sing them at the wrong time. And so through the centuries there developed a whole system of correspondences which related music not only to moods, hours, and seasons, but to heavens, zodiacal signs, planets, days of the week, elements, colours, voices of birds, human complexions, sexes, temperaments, and periods in human life as well” (The Pelican History of Music, vol 1 titled Ancient Forms to Polyphony, p 30-31, edited by Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens, published by Penguin Books, Baltimore, Maryland, 1960, at http://www.archive.org/stream/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp/pelicanhistoryof002704mbp_djvu.txt, accessed 3-19-12).

Unsurprisingly, Hindu Music was also played to honor, please or become one with their gods/goddesses who ruled in the heavens. The musical melodies they performed were all derived “from one or another of the thirty-six traditional modes or airs” (The Story of Civilization, Volume 1 - Our Oriental Heritage, Book 2 - India and Her Neighbors, Chapter 21 - India Art, Section 2 - Music, p 588, by Will Durant, Simon and Shuster, New York, 1935, at https://erenow.net/ancient/durantcivilization/137.php, accessed 2-5-23), with each mode or air honoring one of “the thirty-six steps of the Hindu Vishnu through the starry host of heaven” (Dawn of Civilisation, p 205, by Maspero, cited in The Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times in India, p, by James Francis Katherinus Hewitt, Constable and Company, 1895). The constellations and stars of deities who ruled the celestial heavens was a knowledge and belief they carried with them from Babylon (Indian Constellation Myths, at https://fokelore.wikispaces.com/Indian+Constellation+myths, accessed 12-19-17; Episodic Survey of the History of the Constellations, Section M: Indian Constellations, Sub-section 23: Early Constellations in India, at http://members.westnet.com.au/gary-david-thompson/page11-23.html, accessed 12-19-17).

“The Hindu musician is like the Hindu philosopher; he starts with the finite and ‘sends his soul into the infinite’; he embroiders upon his theme until, through an undulating stream of rhythm and recurrence, even through a hypnotizing monotony of notes, he has created a kind of musical Yoga, a forgetfulness of will and individuality, of matter, space and time; the soul is lifted into an almost mystic union with something ‘deeply interfused,’ some pro-found, immense and quiet Being, some primordial and pervasive reality that smiles upon all striving wills, all change and death.” The Story of Civilization, Volume 1 - Our Oriental Heritage, Book 2 - India and Her Neighbors, Chapter 21 - India Art, Section 2 - Music, p 588, by Will Durant, Simon and Shuster, New York, 1935, at https://erenow.net/ancient/durantcivilization/137.php, accessed 2-5-23.

Some instruments were even believed to be directly possessed by gods. Within the stringed instrument of the Veena, it was believed that “Lord Shiva resides in the body, while Parvati is in the strings. Vishnu lives in the bridge, while his consort, Lakshmi, resides in the main resonator. Brahma resides within the secondary kudam, Saraswati in the nabhi (center of the board which gives out maximum sound), Vasuki in the pegs and Surya (Sun God) in the Jeevala. Thus, playing this instrument is believed to invoke all these Devas and Devis” (Ancient Musical Instruments of India, part 1, at https://www.dollsofindia.com/library/veena/, accessed 12-19-17).

Ganesha is so revered as the Lord of Music that he is known by the following revealing titles: “Lord Ganesha who knows the philosophy of sound; who is always enjoyed in music; who is revealed through music; who is the spirit of music; who is the goal of music; who is the origin of music; who always likes to hear His praise through music; who is the energy of music; who is the inspiration to sing; who is the source of singing; who is the shining gem; who is decked with the ornament of music; who is the life of music; who is supreme among celestial singers; who is the inner spirit of music; who reveals Himself through devotional music; who enchants through music; who is merged in music; who loves the rhythm of music; who is god among singers; who is the master of musical rhythms; and who is god of music” (see The litany of the 1000 names of Lord Ganesh, The Ganesha Sahasranam, at https://trueayurveda.wordpress.com/2015/06/29/ganesha-saharasranama/, accessed 2-5-23).

“The Hindu dance...[is] a form of religious worship, [and is] a display of beauty in motion and rhythm for the honor and edification of the gods...To the Hindu these dances were no mere display of flesh; they were, in one aspect, an imitation of the rhythms and processes of the universe.” The Story of Civilization, Volume 1 - Our Oriental Heritage, Book 2 - India and Her Neighbors, Chapter 21 - India Art, Section 2 - Music, p 588, by Will Durant, Simon and Shuster, New York, 1935, at https://erenow.net/ancient/durantcivilization/137.php, accessed 2-5-23.

The various Araiyars, or those in charge of worship rituals including singing and music, sought to help their listeners “to internalize the supreme being by music and dance” (Google word search on “Araiyar”, metatag explanation under Araiyar.com). During the worship service, an Araiyar would chant a select number of the Lyrical Psalter of the Alvars, set their chants to celestial music, and as he sang he would dance and go into raptures, “or falls in a swoon from sudden emotion, when he sees the glory of the divine eyes.” (The Crown of Hinduism, Chapter 8, p 326-327, by J.N. Farquhar, M.A., New York, 1986, at https://archive.org/stream/thecrownofhindui00farquoft/thecrownofhindui00farquoft_djvu.txt, accessed 2-5-23).

Their rhythmic, repeating and undulating music, song and erotic dance was designed to lift the soul into a mystical union with their god, where communication with the god could be achieved. These sacred musical performances were conducted “for the honor and edification of the gods”, who were the creators, and was “an imitation of the rhythms and processes of the universe”, which was created through the sexual union of the gods. Naturally, the worship of sex was an integral part of Hindu religion.

Shiva or Siva was known as the Hindu god of dance and death, and was also called Nataraja. He was depicted as being “half man and half woman”, and his symbols were the erect male phallus which was called the lingam, as well as the female phallus which was called linga or yoni (see Shiva Linga, by Sreenivasarao Vepachedu, August, 1996, at http://www.vepachedu.org/linga.htm, accessed 2-5-23). Shiva is also called “the great deceiver” (The Crown of Hinduism, Chapter 10, p 431, by J.N. Farquhar, M.A., New York, 1986, at https://archive.org/stream/thecrownofhindui00farquoft/thecrownofhindui00farquoft_djvu.txt, accessed 2-5-23).

The dance of Shiva was called Bharatanatyam and was an expressive dance to melody and rhythm. Shiva was also known as the cosmic dancer, and was the embodiment and manifestation of the eternal energy, which included creation, destruction, and concealing or hiding the transcendental essence behind the garb of other things. Shiva was thought to bring “enlightenment, true wisdom, and release from the bondage of existences” (allaboutdancelessons website, under “Bharatanatyam”, at https://allaboutdancelessons.wordpress.com/about/dance-genres/bharata-natyam/, accessed 2-5-23).

“In the temples of Siva...the linga is treated precisely like an image....and in the greater temples, especially in South India, hymns are sung, both in Sanskrit and the vernacular....the hymns of the Alvars stir quite as deep emotions. Bells are rung and drums are beaten at various points in the service. On special occasions the Devadas [servants of the gods, or temple prostitutes] and the temple-band take part in the liturgy with instrumental music, dance, and song....in the temples of Kali, and in vast numbers of village temples, animal sacrifice is still in use. [But “human sacrifice used to be carried on”]....

“The ritual is all performed by the priests, and they also repeat the liturgy. But the worshipper is by no means left out of count. Though he can only watch the ceremonial and join in the hymns of praise, yet he is the guest of the god, and receives all the honours of the temple....If he visits the Devadas, he does no more than he expects to do when he reaches the heaven of his gracious god; for that is the meaning of the obscene sculptures on the gate and the idol-car, and of the lascivious paintings on the ceilings.” The Crown of Hinduism, Chapter 8, p 314-315, by J.N. Farquhar, M.A., New York, 1986, at https://archive.org/stream/thecrownofhindui00farquoft/thecrownofhindui00farquoft_djvu.txt, accessed 2-5-23.

Hindus worshipped the act of sex which they believed to be continually involved in creation. They expected that, after successfully reaching “the heaven of his gracious god” through death or eternal enlightenment, they would be practicing sexual union with various virgin partners for eternity. What, then, was the harm in having sexual intercourse now with the temple virgins for the enjoyment and edification of their watching god? And “for thousands of years, these two ideas -- the divinity of sex, and the divinity of the aesthetic experience [working your own way up to god-hood] -- used to be fused together in the temples of South India in the institution of temple prostitution. For thousands of years, right up to mid-1800's, Southern Hindu temples maintained large dancing troupes of women, who danced before the altar to please gods, and slept with pilgrims in return for temple offerings” (Gods, Dance and Sex, by HeavenTree, Saturday, July 16, 2005, at http://heaventree.blogspot.com/2005/07/gods-dance-and-sex_16.html, accessed by 9-17-2008; see also The Ancient Practice of Temple Prostitution in India, Medium.com Website, October 12, 2020, by Kabir, at https://medium.com/the-collector/the-ancient-practice-of-temple-prostitution-in-india-bb6c9500b58e, accessed 2-5-23).

“The worship of idols in other lands was of the same character, and the ritual startlingly similar. Let any one read pp. 71-73 of Flinders Petric’s little book, The Religion of Ancient Egypt, and note how amazingly like the above description of Hindu ritual his account of Egyptian worship is. In Babylonia, in Greece, and in Syria we find the same general features. The priests wait upon the idols like servants, attending to all their personal wants, offering them incense, flowers, and food; and in many places the worship is deeply stained with phallicism and immorality.” The Crown of Hinduism. Chapter VIII, p 310, 316, by J.N. Farquhar, M.A., New York, 1986, at http://digilib.bu.edu:8080/dspace/bitstream/2144/1047/3/thecrownofhindui00farquoft_djvu.txt.

The fact that there were so many different deities under different names served to hide the truth from people, to prevent them from knowing to whom they were truly paying homage. Adonis, Apollo, Attes, Baal-zebub, Bacchus, Cupid, Cybele, Dagon, Dionysus, Enki, Ganesha, Hathor, Hercules, Inanna, Ishtar, Januis, Linus, Kali, Krishna, Kronos, Marduk, Mars, Merodach, Molock, Narcissus, Oannes, Oden, Orpheus, Osiris, Pluto, Ra, Rhea, Shiva or Siva, Teitan, Thithra, Thot, Typhon, Vulcan, Wodan, Zoraster, Zeus, and other names from other civilizations were all one and the same being – Lucifer. The entire system of pagan ritual and rhythmic undulating sensual music was inspired by the Devil under many different names, and established as a way to please and worship him going all the way back to Babylon!

“What this means, of course, is that people around the world worship the Supreme Being and Siva is one of the many names of the Supreme Being. Thus an even fuller expression of this second idea of Hindu unity is that Hindus are united by the understanding that not only Hindus, but also the followers of all religions of the world, in truth, worship the same Supreme Being.” Hindu Unity, by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, transcript of talk given at Draupadee Ammen Temple in Rose Hill, Mauritius, Africa, at https://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/bd_2004-09-01_hindu-unity, accessed 2-5-23.

“Hinduism too is based on the theory of one God. The many personal Gods (for example: Goddess Saraswati and Lord Ganesh) represent aspects or subsets (knowledge and wisdom, respectively) of the Supreme God. They are presented as personifications so that people can meditate and focus on certain specific attributes of the Infinite. For the mind to concentrate on the formless infinite is difficult, a picture helps bridge the gap. These various personal God’s, along with the individual soul and the manifested Universe, are all contained within One Final Absolute Existence –– the Supreme Soul i.e. God.” Real Religion Lies in Realization, A Note on Hinduism, from Wise Religious Quotes, at http://www.spiritualbee.com/religious-quotes/, accessed 4-5-16.

“Satan is...describing our deity....a God of Knowledge and Enlightenment without challenge from other God’s residing on Earth, so as the King of Earthly Gods there is no God after him that is comparative or with his emanation of power or influence, while other God’s and Goddess’s interacted with him, they seldom challenged his wisdom and while he did not go by Satan we have his original name in process currently, being sorted from the hundreds of Sumerian Dialects....Satan has many recasts and Gods which are renamed from his original nature....American Indian God’s while spirit formed in nature all were controlled by the original deity Satan at one time, as he provided them relevance and life on his realm, not theirs.” Pagan Answers, January 21, 2011, by Grand Magister Blackwood, at http://voiceofsatanism.com/2011/01/21/pagan-answers, accessed 1-30-2011.

"What we must say to the crowd is: We worship a God, but it is the God that one worships without superstition. To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say, so that you can repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees: -The Masonic religion must be, by all of us initiates of the high grades, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine....Yes, Lucifer is God...The true and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer...God of Light and God of Good...” Instructions issued to the 23 Confederated Supreme Councils of the World, by Albert Pike, Confederate General, 33rd Degree Mason and Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry, on July 14, 1889, documented by A.C. De La Rive in La Femme et l’Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie Universelle, page 588.

The major time divisions of classical music are as follows: the Early music period, which includes Medieval (500 - 1400) and the Renaissance (1400 - 1600); the Common practice period which includes the Baroque (1600 - 1750), the Classical (1730 - 1830) and the Romantic (1804 - 1910; and the 20th & 21st Century (1901 - Present) which includes the Modern period (1890 - 1950), and Contemporary or Post modern period (1950 - Present) (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Classical Music, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music, accessed 2-26-23).

During the Medieval period of Early Classical Music, most all of the music performed was in churches and cathedrals, and centered around worshiping God and Jesus Christ (Michael) of heaven. The predominant form of musical style until around the 12th century was monophonic in nature, consisting of Plainsong music or Gregorian chants. During and after the 12th century, this monophonic style of singing gave way to the polyphonic or multi-voiced style of song, which continued to be developed and refined through to the 15th century – or the beginning of the Renaissance in music.

The Renaissance was a period of Early Classical Music in which musical styles changed quite dramatically. Typical musical instruments of the Medieval period were stringed, such as the harp, lute, vielle and psaltery; and woodwind, such as the flute, recorder, shawm (similar to an oboe), trumpet and bagpipe. The Renaissance period introduced the development of fine bass instruments, the viol, the hurdy-gurdy, portable varieties of organs and other keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and harpsichord, as well as a wider variety of brass and reed instruments.

More complex voicings of motets and interweaving melodic lines were composed, elaborate music for mass and other Latin celebrations. Consorts and ensembles of different sizes were arranged to perform greater musical pieces. Also the Canzona, the Ricercare, Fantasia and variations of instrumental music were developed (see Timeline of Art History, Music in the Renaissance, by Rebecca Arkenberg, Department of Education, The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/renm/hd_renm.htm, accessed 2-5-23). Pipe organs were brought into churches to accompany singing choirs.

During this time period, the religious movement known as the Protestant Reformation had begun. The Catholic Church and its religious rituals had become corrupt and apostate from God, and people began to separate themselves away and to form their own churches. These Protestant churches adhered to the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God, written down by God’s own chosen people the Israelites centuries before, for guidance in worship and daily practices. This led to Christian hymns being written and sung - such as Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

The movable-type printing press allowed these written compositions to be mechanically reproduced and sold on paper, and then distributed far and wide, no longer restricted locally (see Timeline of Art History, Music in the Renaissance, by Rebecca Arkenberg, Department of Education, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, at http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/renm/hd_renm.htm, accessed 2-5-23). This greatly limited and discouraged improvisation, which in-turn prevented performers from getting carried away with the spirit, such as what happens during pagan rituals.

Composers during the Early Classical Period included: for the Medieval - the Troubadors and Trobairitz; William IX, Duke of Aquitaine; Peire Cardenal; Hildegard of Bingen; Alfonso X, Spanish King of Castile; Denis, King of Portugal; Wolfram von Eschenbach of Germany; Bernard de Cluny of France; Flemishman Jacob Senleches; and Giovanni da Firenze of Italy. For the Renaissance - Roy Henry (probably King Henry V); John Milton; William Byrd; Guillaume Du Fay; Jean Maillard; Michael Praetorius; Andrea Gabrieli; Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; Claudio Monteverdi; John IV of Portugal; Andreas de Silva; and Tomás Luis de Victoria; and Henry VIII.

The Baroque period (1600 - 1750) saw the prominent use of a complex tonal counterpoint with a continuous bass line. The sonata began to take shape. Formalization of theme and variations in music, as well as majors and minors controlling dissonance and chromaticism, was the favored method. Keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord and pipe organ, and vocal forms like the Cantata and Oratorio, became popular. The violin family of instruments were developed, and operas became staged musical dramas (see A History of Western Music, p 300-332, 341-355, by Donald Jay Grout, Norton, 1973 ISBN 0393094162).

During the Classical period (1730 - 1830), the areas of music composition, presentation and style became more refined and standardized. The piano was the predominant keyboard instrument, and the harpsichord fell out of popularity. The orchestra became more standardized as well, with a wider array of instruments added to its overall composition. Musical performances were often led by the lead violinist. The clarinet family of single reeds, as opposed to double reeds like the oboe or the bassoon, were increasingly included in chamber and concerto settings (see A History of Western Music, p 463, by Donald Jay Grout, Norton, 1973 - ISBN 0393094162).

During the Romantic period, from around 1804 - 1910, the beginning of a kind of rebellion against the accepted ideas of exposition and development of Classical musical themes was stirring. Composers either ignored or minimized these accepted forms, and instead wrote music that was more dissonant, chromatic, and tonally colorful. More attention was focused upon melody and rhythm, while the tensions surrounding key signatures in the music were increased (see The Vintage Guide to Classical Music, p 201, by Jan Swafford, Vintage Books, 1992 - ISBN 0-679-72805-8).

Music grew more popular in the middle-class, and the piano was the main instrument of choice taught to their children. Various organizations for the teaching, performance and preservation of music were founded during this time. Refinement in Brass instruments allowed a wider range of notes to be played. Symphony orchestras were founded in various European countries, and grew in size from around 40 during the Classical period to now over 100 (see The Vintage Guide to Classical Music, p 201, by Jan Swafford, Vintage Books, 1992 - ISBN 0-679-72805-8).

The 20th & 21st Century period of Classical music began from around 1901 and continues to the present day, and refers to the musical periods known as the Modern, and the Contemporary or Post Modern. Different musical styles which deviated from the accepted norm were more quickly developed during this time than at any other previous period. It was a time when composers were “challenging and reinterpreting older categories of music,” where “innovations that led to new ways of organizing and approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music” were developed (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Modernism, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism_(music), accessed 2-26-23). The different styles which emerged “influenced composers to follow new trends, sometimes as a reaction to that music, sometimes as an extension of it, and both trends co-existed” (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under 20th Century Classical Music, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th-century_classical_music, accessed 2-26-23). This meant that there was no clearly dominant style of music during this period.

Neoclassicism (1920 - 1950) was a time in which “composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of “classicism”, namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint. As such, neoclassicism was a reaction against the unrestrained emotionalism and perceived formlessness of late Romanticism, as well as a “call to order” after the experimental ferment of the first two decades of the twentieth century. The neoclassical impulse found its expression in such features as the use of pared-down performing forces, an emphasis on rhythm and on contrapuntal texture, an updated or expanded tonal harmony, and a concentration on absolute music” (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Neoclassicism, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism_(music), accessed 2-26-23).

After World War II, “modernist composers sought to achieve greater levels of control in their composition process (e.g., through the use of the twelve-tone technique and later total serialism). At the same time, conversely, composers also experimented with means of abdicating control, exploring indeterminacy or aleatoric processes in smaller or larger degrees” (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Contemporary Classical Music, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_classical_music, accessed 2-26-23).

Through all of these periods, European Classical music refused to remain connected to the religious themes and rituals of its origins. Music was widely written and performed for its own sake, a creative expression of the composer rather than any reflection of God. As time went on, most musical performances had nothing to do with religion or the Gods of heaven at all, but centered instead upon various themes of everyday social life. Prostitution in particular was a popular theme for musical performances and operas, which continued to grow in popularity.

The Classical revolution in style of music spread from Europe throughout the whole world, aided by modernized instruments and the mobile-type press. Especially around the early 1800's and during the Romantic period, the “influence of the European musical ideas,” as well as the instruments they developed and were performing with, spread “beyond the boundaries of Europe, as European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world” (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Classical Music, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_classical_music, accessed 2-5-23). And its effect on the world continues unto this present day.

“The [Voodoo] drummers keep up a terrific throb and beat which very easily takes possession of the sensibilities of the worshipers. Observers say that these drums themselves are able to bring a person to a place where it is easy for the deity [Loa] to take possession of their bodies--the defenseless person is buffeted by each stroke as the drummer sets out to ‘beat the loa [god] into his head: The person cringes with each large [accented] beat as if the drum mallet descended upon his very skull; he ricochets about the place, clutching blindly at the arms extended to support him.” Lecture of Voodoo dance expert Pearl Primus, given at Mount Holyoke College, Holyoke, Massachusetts, in Mary E. Wooley Hall, 1953, cited from Face the Music: Contemporary Church Music on Trial, p 42-43, by Leonard J. Seidel, 1988).

“...upon the [Voodoo] drummer that the burden falls of integrating the participants into a homogeneous collective. It is the drumming which fuses the fifty or more individuals into a single body, making them move as one, as if all of these singular bodies had become linked on the thread of a single pulse--a pulse which beats...sending the body into a slow serpentine undulation which begins in the shoulders, then the spine, legs and hips.” Divine Horseman--The Living Gods of Haiti, p 235, by Maya Deren, New Paltz: McPherson & Co., 1953.

"Each woman moved to the pulse of the drum....[her] movement increased in intensity and speed, her eyes half closed, she appeared totally oblivious of her surroundings, abandoning herself completely to the dance. Her movements flowed freely from the inside out, from her torso to her limbs, gaining strength and speed...till finally, she threw her arms up and was about to fall, but the Kodia guided her to the floor..." Diriye Abdullahi describing a Zar ceremony, cited in American Journal of Dance Therapy, September, 1994, Article - “The Zar: Ancient Dance of Healing”, by Howaida El Guindy, Claire Schmais, at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02358570, accessed 2-5-23; also cited in The Zar Revisited, by Me’ira, at http://www.bdancer.com/zarrevis.html, accessed 2-5-23.

“During a Zar performance the beating of drums continues...The rhythm gets faster and the singing becomes louder until the patient [one whom the ceremony is for] becomes emotionally stimulated and feels the impulse to move and dance. With the heightening of excitement, the patient manifests various behavioural reactions...and the patient may pass into a trance-like state.” Tendency of Patients Towards Medical Treatment and Traditional Healing in Sudan, chapter 4, part 3, p 196 by Afaf Gadh Eldam, at https://d-nb.info/1007414634/34, accessed 2-5-23.

This Zar or Belly Dance is also well known among the Arabs. They believe the Zar to be evil and mischievous Jinns or invisible spirits originally created by Allah to be good. But these spirits “tried to change the order of things. During the course of the revolt, one of the evil jinn, Iblis, gained great power and became the Satan or Lucifer of the Arab world. Iblis retained his power even after the angels of Allah had quelled the rebellion” (Islam and the Arabs, p 11, by Rom Landau, 1958). These evil Jinns now cause all sorts of trouble to human beings.

One of these Jinn spirits stated to the Muslim prophet Sulaiman: “I will appear at the end of time and trouble both men and women” and that the only way people could stop me from troubling them was through “dance, music and perfumes [incense].” The Zar spirits also stated that “they would be pleased to come down by the smell of incense and the sound of drums”, and could only be appeased to stop causing trouble by “dancing, singing and [offering] luxurious things” (Tendency of Patients, chapter 2, p 44 by Afaf Gadh Eldam, at https://d-nb.info/1007414634/34, accessed 2-5-23).

A Shamanic priestess was in charge of appeasing the Jinn spirits, and she was referred to as a Sheikh or Sheikha, or Kodia in Sudanese. She would be called upon to perform a “Zar Ceremony” comprised of ritual belly dancing, music, drum playing, and even sacrifice because “she has the understanding of the spirits and she knows the special songs and beats of the summoning spirits” (see Tendency of Patients, chapter 2, p 45 by Afaf Gadh Eldam, at https://d-nb.info/1007414634/34, accessed 2-5-23). After every person in the particular ceremonial gathering had their chance to respond or had entered into a trance like state where they would sing, dance, speak “in unknown tongues”, laugh or cry, etc, then the ceremony ended with an “animal sacrifice” (see Tendency of Patients, chapter 4, part 2, p 176-178 by Afaf Gadh Eldam, at https://d-nb.info/1007414634/34, accessed 2-5-23).

“The exposure of this African music and dance tradition to the public provided an opportunity for it to influence and be influenced by European musical tradition. The unique rhythmical emphasis of these dances plus many other ingredients and entertainment practices combined to form a music called JAZZ. Authorities agree that work songs from cotton fields, rural and urban blues, banjo styles from minstrel shows, syncopated brass bands and ragtime, all played an important part. Even Voodo had its influence on jazz....

“They are so entirely possessed by the music they play, that they can't stop themselves from dancing inwardly to it in such a way that their playing is a real show. When they indulge in one of their favorite effects, which is to take up the refrain of a dance in a tempo suddenly twice as slow and with redoubled intensity and figuration, a truly gripping thing takes place: it seems as if a great wind is passing over a forest or as if a door is suddenly opened on a wild orgy.” (Revue Romande [Swiss paper], review of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, conducted by Will Marion Cook and featuring Sidney Bechet on clarinet, by Ernest Ansermet, 1918, at http://jassroots.com/bechet.html, accessed 2-5-23).

Brothels would try to outclass each other by employing the best Jazz band. The band with the most appealing music would encourage the most people to come and socialize with their prostitutes, and the popularity of this combination spread beyond the slums and reached ever growing naive audiences. Jazz became a “symptom of a glorious release from the bonds of moral restraint” (Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History, p 135: also see Jazz, p 47, 50 by Mervyn Cooke, London: Thames and Hudson, 1999).

"Shortly after it began to emerge in 1901, Pentecostalism sensed through some strange form of intuition that success would come through emotionally-charged music. The first pattern was jazz. Speaking of the years 1901 to 1914, Howard Goss said, 'Without it (jazz) the Pentecostal Movement could never have made the rapid inroads into the hearts of men and women as it did. Neither could we have experienced a constant victorious revival over the fifty years'.” The Winds of Change, p 212, by Howard Goss.

“The spirit moved some to dance, others to speak in the unknown tongue, to shout, to jerk, or to fall in a dead trance. Mourners in ever-increasing numbers fell on their knees, elbows in a folding chair, at the altar, while the exhorters clapped hands to the time of the music¼After half an hour of this, the singing came to an end. Also the instrument strummers, worn out, dropped out one by one, leaving only the piano player and a tambourine whacker, whom I could not see, to carry on the steady and almost terrifying rhythmic noise. Terrifying because it impressed me as being the production of the wild, subconscious human animal, one which we seldom come upon in such frightfully self-regimented herds. But the extreme mesmeric orgies of such primitive groups have been often enough described. And after all, my purpose is simply to make clear how the indigenous song merges into the hypnotic rhythmizing used in this indigenous type of religious practice.” White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands: The Story of the Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and "Buckwheat Notes," Chapter 32 - “God’s Music” In The Country Churches, p 406-407, by George Pullen Jackson, published by Chapel Hill, NC, 1933, at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000011873597&view=1up&seq=483&q1=strummers, accessed 2-17-23.

A British man named Cyril Scott was a musician and also a student in the occult religion known as Theosophy in the early to mid 1900's. He believed that there was a “Hierarchy” of “Initiates, Sages, or Masters [who] seek to further the spiritual evolution of all humanity by inspiring” them, especially in the area of music (see Cryil Scott website, under Author, Poet, Philosopher, at http://www.cyrilscott.net/cyrilscott-author-poet-philosopher, accessed 2-5-23). Scott believed that the Master and High Initiate, named Koot Hoomi, who was supposedly the Greek philosopher and musician Pathagoras the Sage in a previous incarnation, had specifically come to him to make known some of the plans of the Hierarchy, and chosen him to deliver certain messages to others. There is even a portrait drawn of this spirit Master, which, by the way, looks strikingly similar to pictures of Jesus Christ (see http://www.alpheus.org/html/source_materials/scott_anrias/TEM-KH.htm, accessed 2-5-23). And so what were some of the messages this Master from the spirit world delivered to Scott?

This master spirit stated that he “takes a special interest in the evolution of Western music....Indeed, he considers it advisable that students of occultism of all schools should more fully appreciate the great importance of music as a force in spiritual evolution, and to this end he has revealed much that has hither to not been revealed, and that cannot fail to prove of paramount interest to all music-lovers” (Music: Its Secret Influence Throughout the Ages, p 31-32, by Cyril Scott, Aquarian, 1933).

Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally developed in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It was formed from a blending of traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music, hokum, and old-time music, and evolved rapidly in the 1920s (see Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity, p. 9, by Richard Peterson, 1999). In the beginning it was commonly known as “Hillbilly music”. But when the name Hillbilly fell out of popularity in the 1940's, its name was changed to “Country” music.

In the Western States of the US, both “Cowboy” songs and “Western music” were popular, especially after being put out on vinyl records in the 1920s. The primary traditional difference between the two styles is that Country music is simpler and uses fewer instruments, relying on Spanish guitar, Irish fiddle, Italian mandolin, African banjo, and harmonica; whereas Western music tended toward steel guitars and big bands whose style verged on swing (e.g., the songs from The Light Crust Doughboys).

“...the great Initiates have vast and imposing plans for the musical future....Music in the future is to be used to bring people into yet closer touch with the Devas [gods]; they will be enabled to partake of the benefic influence of these beings while attending concerts at which by the appropriate type of sound they have been invoked....The scientifically calculated music in question, however, will achieve the two-fold object of invoking the Devas and at the same time stimulating in the listeners those faculties by means of which they will become aware of them and responsive to their influence....

“...a higher Initiation...most inevitably [will] affect each unit [person] within His [the Master spirit’s] consciousness. New cosmic currents of force are beginning to circulate throughout His aura, inspiring new and harmonious qualities, tendencies and ideals; and it will be the exacted function of music to help focus these currents and further their rhythmic distribution. Great floods of melody will be poured forth from the higher planes, to be translated into earthly sound by composers sensitive enough to apprehend them...

These great Initiates, or spirits of Lucifer, revealed their true purpose in refining and focusing the sound and rhythm of music in America - namely, to summon gods into the midst of the listeners to influence, inspire and communicate with them and secretly prepare people to accept the return of The Christ of the occult – or Lucifer himself! To be worshiped in the place of God and Christ has always been Lucifer’s great ambition, and the end goal of his plan, which began with Jubal and then after the flood continued with Nimrod and Babylon and down throughout earth’s history, was now seizing the Americas.

Country artists Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, and especially Gram Parsons - who is known as the "king of country rock," - helped to bridge the gap between traditional country and 1960s rock. In the 1970s The Marshall Tucker Band, The Eagles, Zac Brown Band, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, as well as Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton all had a great influence in combining Country with Rock (see https://www.google.com/search?q=country+music+artists+about+rock+and+roll&sca_esv, accessed 5-12-26 and https://sites.dwrl.utexas.edu/countrymusic/the-history/country-rock/ accessed 5-12-26). Since then this combining of Country and Rock continued on until a great numbers of Country songs you hear today contain the same paganized beat of Rock ‘n’ Roll (see Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, under Country Music, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music, accessed 2-5-23). In fact, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, who turned to Country in his solo career, has said: “Country is the new rock ’n’ roll” (see Rolling Stone Country Magazine, June 12, 2015, article titled "Steven Tyler On Going Country, 'Idol' and the Future of Aerosmith", by Andy Greene, at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/steven-tyler-on-going-country-idol-and-the-future-of-aerosmith-55324/2/, accessed 5-12-26). This becomes evident when you understand that famous Country artists like Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dolly Parton, Bill Monore, Jimmie Rodgers, Elvis Presley, Bob Wills, James Burton, Floyd Cramer, Johnny Gimble, Sam Phillips and Hank Willams have all been inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! (see https://www.billboard.com/lists/rock-roll-hall-of-fame-country-hall-of-fame-dual-inductees/chet-atkins/, accessed 5-13-26, and IMDB website, article titled Singers and Musicians in the Country and Rock & Roll Halls of Fame, at https://www.imdb.com/list/ls565037751/, accessed 5-12-26).

“In a very real sense rock was implicit in the music of the first Africans brought to North America. And implicit in their music were centuries of accumulated rites, rituals, and religious fervor. The music of those first brutalized and bewildered slaves, ripped from cultures as old as the Pyramids, those ancient chants and tribal stomps, didn’t simply evoke the spirits of the forest gods; they animated and immortalized them.” Music historian Robert Palmer, in Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock ‘N’ Roll, edited by Jim Miller, New York: Random House, 1980.

“The idea that certain rhythm patterns or sequences serve as conduits for spiritual energies, linking individual human consciousness with the gods, is basic to traditional African religions and African-derived religions throughout the Americas. And whether we’re speaking historically or musicologically, the fundamental riffs, licks, bass figures, and drum rhythms that make rock and roll ROCK can ultimately be traced back to African music of a primarily spiritual or ritual nature. In a sense, rock and roll is a kind of ‘voodoo,’ rooted in a vigorous tradition of celebrating nature and spirit...” Rock & Roll: An Unruly History, p 53, by Robert Palmer, Harmony Books, New York, 1995.

“In the Caribbean and South America, slaves were allowed to keep their drums and thus preserved their vital connection with the Orisha, though the sudden mingling of so many different tribes produced new variations like candomble, santeria, and vodun...and out of this severing came jazz, the blues, the backbeat, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll – some of the most powerful rhythms on the planet...It is hard to pinpoint the exact moment when I awoke to the fact that my tradition – rock and roll – did have a spirit side, that there was a branch of the family that had maintained the ancient connection between the drum and the gods.” Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead, Drumming at the Edge of Magic - A Journey Into The Spirit Of Percussion, p 209-210, 212, Harper-San Francisco, 1991.

So, where does the name “Rock ‘n’ Roll” come from, and what does it mean? The origin of the name can be traced back to the early 1950s to a Cleveland, Ohio disk-jockey named Alan Freed. He was one of the first white people to be involved in "Rhythm & Blues" music. Freed was also one of the first white people to play this new Rockabilly style of music on his radio program, and was wondering what to call it. As he had been receiving bizarre reports concerning how this music was affecting young people, he decided to name it after a ghetto term that blacks used for pre-marital sex in the back seat of a car – “rock 'n' roll” (see Christian Rock?, by Ric Llewellyn; also Satan’s Music Exposed, p 83, by Lowell Hart).

Another integral part of Rock music is called Syncopation. Syncopation changes the normal accents in a piece of music in order to create a contradiction in the rhythm. Syncopation misplaces the normal beat, or accents beats between the regular beats in the music. For example, syncopation would take the following rhythms of Rock and make them occur all within a single 4/4 bar: one and TWO and three and FOUR; one and two and THREE and FOUR; one and TWO and THREE and four. Using a back beat is part of syncopation, but not all. Just as Babylonian and African music used different rhythms or poly-rhythms in a piece of music, so Rock uses syncopation to bring these same conflicting rhythms into its music, often using two or three different syncopated rhythms simultaneously (see How to Sing for Money, by Charles Henderson).

The melody in Rock music generally consists of between 3-6 notes or chords that are continually being repeated throughout the song (see The Music Matters, by Joe Burns, at http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME06/Music_matters.shtml, accessed 2-5-23; It's rock and roll, p 28, by Gene Busnar, New York: Julian Messner, 1979; Village Voice, 1994, p 37, 74, Article - “Three-chord Catharsis”, by Steve Anderson; and Booklist, 1994, p 90, Article - “The Arts: Mid-life Confidential”, by Mike Tribby).

Rock is often performed at high volume with electric guitars, keyboards and drums. The back beat of the rhythm is amplified, and the force of the sound and beat drown out all other noise distractions. This recalls the ancient music groves dedicated to Baal or Molock, wherein the priests and musicians would play and drum their instruments so loud that no one could hear the screams of the children being sacrificed in fire to Lucifer. All distractions become drowned out – including conscience, leading the innocent listener towards sacrificing their body, their morality, and possibly their eternal life to burn with Lucifer himself in the lake of fire (see Revelation 20:10-15).

“Probably the most important development in the scientific investigation of music was the discovery that music is perceived through that portion of the brain receiving the stimuli of emotions, sensations, and feelings without being first subjected to the brain centers involving reason and intelligence.” Music - How it affects the Whole Man, by H. Lloyd Leno, quoted in Ministry Magazine, November, 1973, p 24, at https://cdn.ministrymagazine.org/issues/1973/issues/MIN1973-11.pdf?_ga=2.40378020.703416134.1677184055-490046968.1677184055, accessed 2-23-23.

“Drumming is made for trance and for ecstatic states. The basis of percussion is redundancy and redundancy is the basis of trance....Everywhere you look on the planet people are using drums to alter consciousness¼.I’ve discovered, along with many others, the extraordinary power of music, particularly percussion, to influence the human mind and body....There have been many times when I’ve felt as if the drum has carried me to an open door into another world.” Drumming at the Edge of Magic, by Mickey Hart of the rock group Grateful Dead.

“Once you have some type of rhythm, like it can get hypnotic if you keep repeating it over and over again. Most of the people will fall off by about a minute of repeating. You do that say for three or four or even five minutes if you can stand it, and then it releases a certain thing inside of a person's head. It releases a certain thing in there so you can put anything you want right inside that, you know. So you do that for a minute and all of a sudden you can bring the rhythm down a little bit and then you say what you want to say right into that little gap. It's somethin' to ride with, you know. You have to ride with somethin'. I always like to take people on trips. That's why music is magic.” Jimi Hendrix, cited in “Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky”, p 356, by biographer David Henderson.

“Atmospheres are going to come through music, because the music is a spiritual thing of its own....You can hypnotize people...and when you get people at [their] weakest point, you can preach into the sub-conscious minds what we want to say....People want release any kind of way nowadays. The idea is to release in the proper form. Then they’ll feel like going into another world, a clearer world. The music flows from the air; that’s why I connect with a spirit, and when they come down off this natural high, they see clearer, feel different things.” Jimi Hendrix, rock star, in Life, October 3, 1969, p 74.

“It [giving sexual gestures during his rock concerts] happens subliminally...it's the music that compels me to do it...you don't think about it, it just happens...i’m slave to the rhythm.” Rock star Michael Jackson, in 1993 Michael Jackson Talks to Oprah Live Interview, at https://slavetotherhythm.home.blog/2018/11/26/1993-michael-jackson-talks-to-oprah-live-interview/, accessed 2-5-23; see also LA Times, Article - “Glove Comes Off in Jackson Interview : Entertainment: In a talk with Oprah Winfrey, the pop star denies he has had his skin bleached or undergone much plastic surgery”, at https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-12-me-1274-story.html, accessed 2-23-23.

“...rock and roll has an insistent, powerful impetus -- basic backbeat and shuffle rhythms...which demanded a physical response. So the harsh, direct syncopation of rock and roll came as a physical manifestation of its content -- a challenge to loosen up, to break the old molds of convention and propriety, to express real emotions. The musicians themselves moved and danced as they played, begging the listener to cast off his inhibitions....Its strength (has) always been rooted in the sexual energy of its rhythms...Rock and roll made you want to move and shake and get physically excited.” Rock Music, p.16-17, 25, by William J. Schafer, Augsburg Publishing House, 1972.

A well respected psychologist John Kappas, clearly revealed that people “are truly susceptible to conscious messages on a record and that excitation and melancholy can be created by music/sensory overload...Any time you overload the mind, the person becomes very suggestible. They will take in anything that you suggest at that time because they have no defenses against it. People can walk out of concerts in a hyper-suggestible state...Music has a tendency to defuse thinking and create moods. And in turn, the messages seep in” (Psychologist John Kappas, cited in Satanism: Is Your Family Safe?, p 151-152, by Ted Schwartz and Duane Empey, Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 1989; also in The Closing of the American Mind, p 68-81, by Allan Bloom, N.Y. Simon and Schuster, 1987).

When you examine the themes of the vast majority of all Rock music lyrics, you will notice seven main categories into which most all of these lyrics fit. These categories are: Romance; Sex; Alienation; Justice/Injustice; Introspection; Dance; and Other, including worship of God, Jesus, or Satan, revolution, violence, murder, etc. (see the Rock Window, A Systematic Approach to an Understanding of Rock Music, Spring, 1988, by Paul Friedlander, University of Oregon; American Journal of Sociology, 1957, Article - "The Dialogue of Courtship in Popular Songs", p 62, 569-578, by D. Horton; Psychiatry, 1969, Article - "The Ideology of Autonomy in Popular Lyrics. A Content Analysis", p 32, 150-164, by J.T. Carey).

In what is termed “heavy metal” Rock music, one study revealed that of the 700 most popular heavy metal songs, 50% spoke about killings, 35% spoke about Satanism and 7% spoke about suicide. This fact led a professor of lyric writing at New York University to state that we all "better give serious attention to the content of pop songs and to evaluate not only what lyrics are saying to society but, more important, what they may be doing to it" (Professor Sheila Davis, in USA Today, October 11, 1985, p. 10).

Familiar sounds trigger memories in the brain and images or feelings pertaining to the things those particular sounds are associated with. For instance, if you heard the sound of a machine gun going off, or a bomb whistling through the air and exploding during the song, you would think that a war was going on. What if you heard gunshots followed by squealing tires? Has someone been shot and the murderer is getting away? What if you heard glass breaking and a burglar alarm going off? Or a car crashing? Or a bedroom door slamming shut? Or a match being struck and someone puffing on a cigarette? Or a cat meowing or dog barking? What would you think of if you heard a woman moaning in pleasure?

“From the subconscious sector in the human brain, the messages are transported to the conscious sector of the brain” revealing that “these (music) stimuli are ‘decoded’ and, over time, can become embedded in our long-term memory and can shift the balance of our attitudes and beliefs. These new, recently decoded stimuli are then fed back into the left hemi-sphere, where they become accepted, conscious ‘truths.’ The recently introduced stimuli—now accepted as ‘true’—have the ability to alter a person’s ‘Self Image’ and effect changes in attitudes, beliefs, interests, and behaviors.” This means that “backward recordings could be understood subconsciously and even 'become fact' in the minds of unsuspecting people” (William H. Yarroll II, paraphrased and cited testimony before the California Legislature, in http://www.tex-is.net/users/csbrocato/rockmus.htm, accessed 2-8-2005, http://www.academia.edu/35403630/Satan_Subliminals_and_Suicide_The_Formation_and_Development_of_an_Anti-Rock_Discourse_in_the_United_States_During_the_1980s, accessed 2-12-19, and https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/05/03/Legislators-ask-is-the-devil-in-rock-n-roll/8087389246400/, accessed 2-12-19).

This clear Back-Masking connection between Rock music and Satan cannot all be attributed to mere coincidence. So many different songs exalt Satan by name! Even if it is not always the intention of a particular Rock group to purposely produce these back-masking messages, Lucifer knows how to. Being the author of such music, and with these musicians summoning him into their midst every time they play their rock music, he can easily inspire them with exactly the right words needed to achieve these satanic messages.

“...Robert was penciling down lyrics; he must have written three quarters of the lyrics on the spot. He didn't have to go away and think about them. Amazing, really." Jimmy Page interview by Dave Schulps, senior editor of Trouser Press, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, June 16 and 17, 1977, at https://teachrock.org/article/jimmy-page-the-trouser-press-interview/, accessed 2-23-23; also appears in Rolling Stone Magazine, July 4, 1985, Issue #451, Article - “Power, Mystery And The Hammer Of The Gods: The Rise and Fall of Led Zeppelin”, by Steven Davis, at http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17537975/the_rise_and_fall_of_led_zeppelin_power_mystery_and_the_hammer_of_the_gods.

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were both into the occult. Page was very interested in magic. He even owned an occult bookstore and publishing house called Equinox, and was a follower of Satanist Alister Crowley – who wrote that it was God and Christianity “that I hate and will destroy” (The World’s Tragedy, p xxviii-xxxi (preface), by Alister Crowley, 1910). Page even purchased Crowley’s Boleskine house in Scotland in 1971 – the same year Stairway to Heaven was released! He also wrote the soundtrack for the movie “Lucifer Rising.”

“...Metatron delivered some important messages. ‘You will be inside the radio frequency,’ Metatron told him, ‘for the purpose of connecting the molecules with the light.’ Carlos Santana understood. He would make a new album and be on the radio again. And he would connect the molecules with the light: He would connect an audience with some of the spiritual information he now had." Carlos Santana, in Rolling Stone magazine, March 16, 2000, p. 41, Article - “The Epic Life of Carlos Santana”, at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-epic-life-of-carlos-santana-89485/, accessed 2-5-23; see also https://rollingstoneindia.com/the-epic-life-of-carlos-santana/, accessed 2-5-23; https://classicrockreview.wordpress.com/2021/08/21/carlos-santana-the-epic-life-of-carlos-santana-2000/, accessed 2-5-23; https://www.thecoli.com/threads/conspiracy-thread.442/page-63, accessed 2-5-23).

“Joni Mitchell's own strongest creative impulses come to her in a somewhat unusual way. She deeply believes in a male muse named Art, who lends her his key to what she airily calls ‘the shrine of creativity.’ Her relationship with him is easily the most serious and enduring thing in her life. ‘I feel like I'm married to this guy named Art,’ she whispers. ‘I'm responsible to my Art above all else.’ Art rules, and when he calls, Joni will abruptly leave parties or excuse lovers.” Rock star Joni Mitchell, interviewed in Time magazine, December 16, 1974, p 39, Article - “Rock 'n' Roll's Leading Lady”, by David DeVoss, at https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=5, accessed 2-5-23.

“He [Jimi Hendrix] used to always talk about some devil or something was in him, you know. He didn’t know what made him act the way he acted and what made him say the things he said, and the songs and different things like that¼just came out of him. It seems to me he was so tormented and just torn apart and like he really was obsessed, you know, with something really evil.” Fayne Pridgon (Jimi Hendrix’s girlfriend) interview, from Sound Track Recordings from the Film “Jimi Hendrix”, side 4, tracklisting D3, Interviews IV, also cited in Heartbeat of the Dragon, p 50.

“I’ve always considered that there was some way where we were able to channel energy, and that energy was able to be, from another source, if you like, like a higher power or something, that was actually doing the work. I’ve often thought of us just being actually just the earthly beings that played the music because it was uncanny. Some of this music came out extremely uncanny....A lot of the times we didn’t write the f------ songs at all. We showed up and something else wrote them for us. We were conduits.” Bill Ward drummer of “Black Sabbath”, cited in Black Sabbath: An Oral History, p. 6-7, by Mike Stark, 2002, New York, Harper Entertainment.

“When the Siberian shaman gets ready to go into his trance, all the villagers get together...and play whatever instruments they have to send him off [into trance and possession]. There is a constant pounding, pounding, pounding. It was the same way with The Doors when we played in concert....It was like Jim [Morrison] was an electric shaman and we were the electric shaman’s band, pounding away behind him. Sometimes he wouldn’t feel like getting into the state, but the band would keep on pounding and pounding, and little by little it would take him over. God, I could send an electric shock through him with the organ. John could do it with his drumbeats...and he’d be off again [in trance].” Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Rock group “The Doors”, cited in No One Here Gets Out Alive, p. 158-160, by Jerry Hopkins and Daniel Sugerman.

There is no such thing as “Christian” Rock music. These two terms are contradictory to each other. Just as there is no truth to the term “Christian adultery” or “Christian homosexuality” or “Christian murder”, there is no truth to the term “Christian Rock.” Lucifer is directly opposed to Christianity, and so his Rock music in any of its forms cannot be Christian – no matter the attempt to baptize it by adding lyrics about God or Jesus. Music is not neutral: it conveys its message to the listener irregardless of the lyrics.

"Some would have us believe that all music is a-moral and that it is only the words that make it Christian or not. I beg to differ with this philosophy!...music in itself is a language which can capture and control the very thoughts and actions of an individual, a crowd, or a nation. It is the fountainhead for good or for evil! As one must be discerning in the advice of their friends and their food for a happy and healthy life ... so we must be careful and prayerful in the music we chose to listen to or sing." Satan's Music Exposed, foreword, by Lowell Hart.

And finally, this beat and back beat was syncopated and refined even further until Rock & Roll – Satan’s ultimate masterpiece of deception, was developed. Rock & Roll, in all its various forms – including CCM – has become the ultimate moving force in rhythmic music in honor and worship of Lucifer! Regardless of the words used, the Satanic identifying rhythm and paganistic beat remains the same. It comes from Babylon, and Babylon is not the kingdom of God and light, but the kingdom of Lucifer and darkness. And hundreds of millions of people are blind to this fact of truth!

“Rock has always been the Devil’s music....I believe that Rock & Roll is dangerous....I feel that we're only heralding something even darker than ourselves.” David Bowie, rock star, in Rolling Stone magazine, February 12, 1976, issue #206, Article - “Ground Control to Davy Jones”, by Cameron Crowe, at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/david-bowie-ground-control-to-davy-jones-77059/, accessed 2-5-23; see also https://www.theuncool.com/journalism/rs206-david-bowie/, accessed 2-5-23.

“They [the youth] have a keen ear for music, and Satan knows what organs to excite to animate, engross, and charm the mind so that Christ is not desired. The spiritual longings of the soul for divine knowledge, for a growth in grace, are wanting...Music, when not abused, is a great blessing; but when put to a wrong use, it is a terrible curse. It excites, but does not impart that strength and courage which the Christian can find only at the throne of grace while humbly making known his wants and, with strong cries and tears, pleading for heavenly strength to be fortified against the powerful temptations of the evil one. Satan is leading the young captive. Oh, what can I say to lead them to break his power of infatuation! He is a skillful charmer luring them on to perdition.” Testimonies, vol 1, p 497, by E. White.

God and His Son do indeed enjoy and appreciate music and singing. The Lord God spoke His message to Elisha while music was being played (see 2 Kings 3:15-17). He allowed His Spirit to inspire prophets to prophesy while music was being played (see 1 Samuel 10:5-7). God came down from heaven and filled Solomon’s Temple with His presence and glory while the Levite priests were singing and playing music (see 2 Chronicles 5:11-14). God Himself defended His people from their enemies and gave them victory while they were singing (see 2 Chronicles 20:21-24), and also worked to deliver Paul and Silas out of jail while they were singing (see Acts 16:25-34).

God and Satan have nothing in common (see 2 Corinthians 6:14-15). Lucifer and his ideals are completely opposite and contrary to God’s, and so any music containing the paganistic beat cannot honor God. Not even when Rock, Country and Western, Blues, Jazz, etc. are masked or blended with Christian gospel themes and lyrics. God inspired the apostle Paul to rebuke the medium of the Devil even though she was declaring words of salvational truth! (See Acts 16:16-18). So music containing Christian lyrics that are combined with a satanic beat are not pleasing to God, but also will receive His rebuke.

The various types of musical instruments commonly used in ancient Israel included Wind instruments: flutes, pipes, double reeds (similar to an oboe or bassoon), organs (or double reeds being supplied air other than from human breath), horns (ram’s or antelope’s), cornets, trumpets and whistles. String instruments: psalteries, viols, harps and lyres. Percussion instruments: small hand-held drums, tambourines or timbrels or tabrets, high and loud sounding cymbals, clappers, rattles, and bells (see 2 Samuel 6:5; 1 Samuel 10:5; Psalms 150:2-5; Musical Instruments in Ancient Israel, by David Campbell, university of Texas, at http://www.utexas.edu/courses/wilson/ant304/projects/projects98/campbellp/campbellp.html, accessed 10-26-09).

The main uses of these trumpets were for sacred purposes, which included calling the people to assemble at the sanctuary (Numbers 10:2-3); “in your solemn days” (Numbers 10:10); “in the beginnings of your months” (Numbers 10:10); “over your burnt offerings” (Numbers 10:10; 2 Chronicles 29:26-28); “over the sacrifices of your peace offerings” (Numbers 10:10); or in some holy feasts (Leviticus 23:24). They were also used during the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 3:10-11) and of the city of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:27, 35), as well as “before the ark of God” (1 Chronicles 15:24, 28). These priestly trumpets could also be used to prepare the people for journeying (Numbers 10:2), for warning (Numbers 10:5-8; 2 Chronicles 13:12; Jeremiah 6:1; Ezekiel 33:3-4), for war (Numbers 10:9, 31:6-7; 2 Chronicles 13:14-15), or even for times of “gladness” (Numbers 10:10).

It was not the priests themselves who performed this type of music. The priests were strictly dedicated to the service of the Lord God Michael in their duties in the sanctuary and ministering before the Lord for the people. Others, working closely with the priesthood both within and without the court of the temple, also descendants of the sons of Levi (Gershon, Kohath and Merari) entrusted with sacred temple duties, were chosen to sing as well as to write and perform sacred music and song (1 Chronicles 6:31-32).

The kind of sacred song and music these non-priest Levites performed were not chants like those heard in pagan temples. Nor were they sung to repetitious and sometimes meaningless or unintelligible words like those spoken during pagan rituals – especially during trances. These sacred Israelite songs were specifically written for the purpose of worshiping, praising and glorifying the Lord God Michael (i.e. Psalms 29, 33, 57, 66, 76, 81, 96, 98, 103, 147, 150), and were intelligently sung “with understanding” (Psalms 47:7).

The musical tune accompanying these lyrics of praise was sung and played very “skillfully” (Psalms 33:3). It was very melodic (Amos 5:23) and not mono-toned. It was “solemn” in sound (Psalms 92:3), not boisterously lively in tempo, nor did it overpower the voice or the words sung. “The real service of praise in the Temple was only with the voice. The instrumental music served only to accompany and sustain the song” (Solomon’s Temple, under The Duties of the Singers and Musicians, by 3D Bible Project at http://www.3dbibleproject.com/en/temple/details/priest_service.htm, accessed 6-21-11). This was in stark contrast to the pagan style of religious music, in which rhythm and beat primarily dominated and drowned out the voice and lyrics.

This sacred song and music was to be performed every “morning” (Psalms 92:2), “day and night” (Psalms 92:2; 1 Chronicles 9:33) in praising the Lord God Michael “as every day’s work required” (1 Chronicles 16:37). The non-priest Levites could not minister within the first or second apartment of the tabernacle itself, as they were not dedicated holy priests from the lineage of Aaron, but they were to perform their music and duties within the sacred boundaries of “the house of the Lord” (1 Chronicles 25:6; 2 Chronicles 29:25) in the court of the sanctuary or “before the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the congregation” (1 Chronicles 6:32).

Under the direction and “commandment of the Lord God by His prophets” (2 Chronicles 29:25-26), these musically-gifted Levites were organized into specific groups, with chiefs or leaders presiding over each group. During the time of David there were three noted chief singers, each a descendant from a different Levite son. Heman was chief among these three, and he was from the Kohathites (1 Chronicles 6:33, 15:17). Asaph, from the Gershonites, stood on Heman’s right side (1 Chronicles 6:39-43, 15:17), and Ethan, from Merari, stood on his left (1 Chronicles 6:44, 15:17).

These three chief singers were accompanied by some 288 other Levite singers (1 Chronicles 25:7) “of the second degree” (1 Chronicles 15:18). Some of these singers could also accompany their singing “with instruments of music” (1 Chronicles 15:16, 19). There were yet another 4000 other musicians that only played instruments (1 Chronicles 23:5). The “chief musician” among all these talented instrumentalists was Jeduthun (see chapter heading of Psalms 39, 62, 77). The one man above and in control of all these singers and players of musical instruments was the director or conductor “Chenaniah the master of the song with the singers” (1 Chronicles 15:22, 27).

The Levite priests were divided into 24 courses (1 Chronicles 24:1-19). Likewise, the Levite singers and musicians “were also divided into 24 courses” (Solomon’s Temple, under The Duties of the Singers and Musicians, by 3D Bible Project at http://www.3dbibleproject.com/en/temple/details/priest_service.htm, accessed 6-21-11; 1 Chronicles 25:8-31). This meant that on any given day there were at least 12 singers accompanied by over 160 musicians to perform all the sacred song and music during their course of duty.

These chief singers were not only to perform songs that had been already written, but were also to write new sacred music in praising and worshiping God (Psalms 98:1). These written songs were commonly referred to as “Psalms” (see chapter heading of Psalms 66-69, 75-76, 83, 87-88, 92 and 108), which were basically religious poems set to music (Strong’s, Hebrew word #4210). Out of the 150 songs found recorded in the book of Psalms, it documents that Heman wrote at least 1 song (Psalms 88); Ethan also at least 1 (Psalms 89), and Asaph at least 12 (Psalms 50, 73-83).

But it was not just songs written by these chosen Levite men which could be sung in praise to the Lord God. The Scriptures document that the first written song of any Israelite was by Moses (Exodus 15:1-11), and he wrote at least 1 other recorded song (Psalms 90). King David wrote at least 75 songs (Psalms 3-9, 11-32, 34-41, 51-65, 68-70, 72, 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 131, 133, 138-145); and there are 61 other documented songs that are from unknown authors (Psalms 1-2, 10, 33, 42-49, 66-67, 71, 84-85, 87, 91-100, 102, 104-107, 111-121, 123, 125-130, 132, 134-137, 146-150). Even the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 5:1-30) and Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3:1-19) wrote songs of praise to the Lord God of heaven.

These sacred songs were not all written in the same manner, nor were they all performed in the same manner. Some were prayers set to music (6 such prayers – Psalms 17, 72, 86, 90, 102, 142). Others were for the purpose of instruction, such as imparting wisdom or morals (13 such Maschils – Psalms 32, 42, 44-45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88-89, 142), or to engrave or inscribe the truth in the heart (6 such Michtams – Psalms 16, 56-60). Still others were musical pieces performed in climatic elevating progression for the purpose of causing the thoughts of the listeners to rise to a higher place and become centered upon God “in the beauty of holiness” (1 Chronicles 16:29; Psalms 29:2, 96:9) (15 such songs – Psalms 120-134). Statutes and laws of the Lord God Michael were also put to music (Psalms 119:54) in order to be more readily memorized as Scripture songs, and become an unforgettable guide throughout life.

Such a variety in the types of sacred songs and music performed and heard in praising God was encouraged because every person was different, and thus could not be reached or benefitted by the same style of sacred song. What would work for one would not necessarily uplift another. But even in variety, all song and music was directed to, and focused upon, praising the Lord God Michael and extolling His glorious, holy and beautiful character. And the Bible states that the Lord God Michael Himself accepted and was delighted by such worshipful melodies in praises to Him!

Just after the stone temple had been finished, all the priests, singers and musicians gathered together to dedicate the temple. You can imagine that with some 288 singers and 4000 accompanying musicians performing in harmony, the wonderful melodic songs of praise to the Lord God Michael must have sounded awe inspiring! Michael personally let His people know that it pleased Him: “It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:13-14).

Despite Lucifer’s gross misuse of his own musical talents, the Lord God is not repulsed by the sounds of His people worshiping and praising Him in song and instrumental music – whether it be singing accompanied with instrumental music (Psalms 98:5, 144:9, 149:3; Isaiah 38:20), singing alone (Psalms 104:33), or instrumental music alone (Psalms 71:22). He is attracted to come and personally dwell among those who sing His praises! The Scriptures declare that the Lord God Michael is the holy One “that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Psalms 22:3). The Lord God Michael is pleased more “with a song” of praise that “will magnify him with thanksgiving”, than with the sacrificing of many animals (Psalms 69:30-31).

In regards to the various kinds of musical instruments listed earlier that were common to the Israelites, the Scriptures document only some of these instruments being used by the Levites within the sacred precincts of the sanctuary or temple itself. These specific instruments included cornets (Psalms 98:6), cymbals (1 Chronicles 16:5, 42, 25:6; 2 Chronicles 5:12-13, 29:25; Ezra 3:10), harps (1 Chronicles 16:5, 25:6; 2 Chronicles 5:12, 29:25; Psalms 43:4, 98:5), horns (1 Chronicles 25:5), psalteries or lyres (1 Chronicles 16:5, 25:6; 2 Chronicles 5:12, 29:25), and trumpets (2 Kings 11:14; 1 Chronicles 16:6, 42; 2 Chronicles 5:12-13, 7:6, 23:13, 29:25-28; Psalms 98:6; Ezra 3:10).

It may be of interest to note, however, that when King David sought to bring the ark of God into Jerusalem for the first time, he did not carefully follow the God-given instructions for proper transportation of the ark, and one person was struck dead because of it. Timbrels or small drums were being used to accompany the musical procession (see 1 Chronicles 13:3-10) when this tragic event occurred. But after understanding the reason for Uzzah’s death, and carefully following God’s instructions for proper transportation of the ark, the musical instruments then used were limited to those only played by the Levites and priests within the sanctuary. The timbrels, tambourines or tabrets were not used in any way to accompany the second musical procession, and King David was able to successfully bring in the ark of God into Jerusalem without any further problems (see 1 Chronicles 15:14-21).

Outside the precincts of the sanctuary and temple, the rules governing musical instruments were less strict. The Israelites utilized all of the musical instruments available to them to accompany their public singing of praises to the Lord God Michael – including drums (1 Samuel 10:5-6; 1 Chronicles 13:3-10; Psalms 81:2, 149:3, 150:4). But the drums they used were small hand-held instruments played with the hand like timbrels, tabrets and tambourines. These helped move the tempo of the music without drowning out the melody. They were not the larger and louder drums beaten with sticks used by the pagans in their temples and worship services.

Public songs and musical praises to God heard outside of the temple often occurred during sacred processions through the city (1 Chronicles 13:3-10, 15:16-28), where “the singers went before, the players on instruments followed after”, and “among them were the damsels playing with timbrels” (Psalms 68:25). They were publicly performed before warfare (2 Chronicles 20:21-22), after victory in warfare (Judges 5:1-31; 1 Samuel 18:6-7; Psalms 18:48-49, 27:6), but especially after times when the Lord God Michael miraculously defended His people (Exodus 15:1-19) or delivered them from harm (Jeremiah 20:13) or from captivity (Psalms 126:1-3; Isaiah 51:11, 52:5-9). They were also publicly performed at the dedication of important things, such as the completion of the stone temple (2 Chronicles 5:1-14); or the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt (Nehemiah 12:27-43).

Public songs and musical praises burst forth at any time in which God’s followers were overjoyed at what He had mercifully done for them (Psalms 13:6, 30:3-4, 89:1, 101:1, 147:6-9; Isaiah 51:3, 52:9). Praises were sung in gratitude for healing (Psalms 30:2-4; 147:1-3; Isaiah 35:6); for forgiveness (Psalms 51:14-15); redemption (Psalms 71:22-23); salvation (1 Chronicles 16:23; Psalms 96:2; Isaiah 12:2-3); and protection (Psalms 59:16-17; Jeremiah 20:13). The people sang public praises to God for providing for their needs: such as for water (Numbers 21:16-18); rain and growing vegetation (Psalms 147:7-8); food (Psalms 147:7, 14; Jeremiah 31:12), or even being raised back to life (Isaiah 26:19)! And God’s people also sung and played instruments for no other reason than because they were happy (Proverbs 29:6; Isaiah 65:14; Ephesians 5:19; James 5:13).

Public songs welcomed and invited listeners to join in with singing to God. These songs were encouraged to be sung among the heathen (Psalms 18:49, 57:9, 96:1-3, 10, 105:1-2, 108:3-4, 145:7-12; Isaiah 12:4-6, 24:14, 42:10-12, 48:20-22), and even before their gods (Psalms 138:1)! In this way, songs of praise to the Mighty Lord God for all that He had done for His people would serve as an intriguing and often effective witness to the pagans, bringing them the truth about the Lord God Michael. If the tune happened to be a memorable one, it might become lodged in their minds and work like leaven to help bring about their conversion from paganistic darkness into the light of God (Psalms 96:1-13, 47:6-8, 57:8-11, 66:1-10, 138:1-8, 145:6-21). In fact, it was prophesied that God’s followers “shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea” (Isaiah 24:14), and “From the uttermost part of the earth have we [heathen peoples] heard songs, even glory to the righteous” Lord God (Isaiah 24:16).

Outside the temple, however, many Israelites danced along with the sacred song and music being played in praise to God (Psalms 149:3). This included King David himself when he was bringing the Ark of the Covenant within the city of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:13-17; 1 Chronicles 15:29). Some would dance just because they were joyous (Psalms 30:11; Ecclesiastes 3:4; Jeremiah 31:4, 13). “Miriam the prophetess...took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances” (Exodus 15:20) in joyous celebration for their deliverance from the pursuing Egyptian army. After King Saul and David returned victorious from warfare, “the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music” (1 Samuel 18:6). When Jephthah returned safely after subduing the enemies of Israel “his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances” (Judges 11:34). Also the “daughters of Shiloh [would] come out to dance in dances” in celebration of a good harvest (Judges 21:21).

These dances were not displeasing to God, nor did He frown upon them. God delights to make and to see His people happy (Psalms 105:43, 113:4-9; 2 Chronicles 20:27; 1 Kings 8:66; Ezra 6:22; Isaiah 61:1-3, 51:11-12). This happiness in turn promotes strength (Nehemiah 8:10), alleviates sickness (Proverbs 17:22), produces peace and rest and contentment (Habakkuk 3:17-18), and a grateful, loving heart willing to serve the Lord God who freely bestows such blessings (Psalms 89:15-18, 27:6, 95:1-7, 100:1-5; Jeremiah 33:11).

The Scriptures document secular songs and music dealing with laboring in fields or vineyards, and these could be heard being performed while working in these fields (Isaiah 16:10). Other secular songs and music dealt with drinking liquor, and these could be heard during drunken feasts (Isaiah 5:12). Songs about sexual promiscuity could also be heard during these gatherings (Exodus 32:6, 18, 25). Others dealt with mourning a bad harvest (Isaiah 16:9-11), or misfortune (Isaiah 54:1), or were lamentations for the loss of loved ones (2 Chronicles 35:23-25). Still others surrounded prostitution and harlotry (Isaiah 23:16).

The Hebrew word for “inhabitest” means to “sit down...to dwell...to remain” (Strong’s, #3427), and the word “praises” means “hymns” (Strong’s, #8416). The Bible declares over and over again that the people of God are to “sing praises (hymns) to the Lord”. When we do, the great God of heaven – our heavenly Father – and our Lord God Michael/Jesus Christ comes down to dwell with us! And with such proper uplifting music in our midst, the heavenly angels are equipped to drive the Devil and his evil angels far away from us (see 1 Samuel 16:23).

This very important choice is now up to you to make, dear reader, and what a solemn and life-changing decision it is! We are in the last days of earth’s history, where Lucifer is depicted as being a roaring lion doing all that he can to ensnare and captivate you (see 1 Peter 5:8). But with your eyes now opened to Lucifer’s grand and doomed plan, you have an advantage over most of his unwittingly-deceived worshipers. It is up to you to decide whether to join the swelling ranks of his army and war against God, or to shun evil and choose the good and to become a child of God.