So… it dawned on me that although the modern interpretations of the ancient Storm vs Sea myth tend toward psychoanalysis, the story is literally about the seasons, with potential additional layers. Reread the Marduk myth with this in mind.

In the beginning, salt water and fresh water were eternally, primordially married, interwoven like an estuary, a tidal marshland. Their names were Tiamat, which means salt water, and Absu, which means fresh water. Then the gods killed Absu and lived off his remains. This enraged Tiamat, and she waged war against them. After a long, losing war against Tiamat, one god rises from among the gods, Marduk, lord of the storm, and slays Tiamat with all the winds and lightning. They then make the world out of her corpse, and humans from the body of her strongest monster.

This is the story of Mediterranean climate, a story of the seasonal water cycle. In the beginning, in the spring, there is fresh water flowing into the ocean, the estuary and wetlands of modern Iraq, Syria, and Kuwait—which used to be much lusher, just as the San Joaquin Valley was much lusher before modern agriculture, even though it could still get really hot, the water kept things cool. As the year went on, drought began with the summer heat, the fresh water dried up into pools, underground pockets. The “gods” lived off the remains of fresh water. Then what happens? The ocean rises in warmth, not releasing any of its moisture. Go inland and into the mountains, and there are summer monsoons. But near the ocean, in coastal mediterranean climates, there is an absence of rain. The ocean seems to be fighting against those who live on land, withholding her moisture. Then, with the advent of fall, what comes to bring back the water? The storm comes, the air is cool, the ocean moisture is given up, the ocean is warmer than the cooling air so it evaporates, and then that moisture falls to earth, returning life to the land. Then the cycle repeats. I’ve yet to dig into the Baal cycle with this in mind.

Marduk, Baal, Yahweh, Zeus are all variants of a mediterranean storm god. Maybe we should look at them at face value, as literal storm gods who bring lifegiving rain in the cooler months, and then ask, when did additional interpretative layers come? How did a story of a seasonal cycle evolve into a mind-matter duality?

I think there is something to be said about how water is at the basis of life, and of consciousness. The movement of water flows into the mind-matter distinction. There is a sort of root principle common to the movement of water and the movement of life and the movement of consciousness.


Novemeber 29, 2023
Esco