THE NEPHILIM

This is a story that goes back to the very beginning of history, history as we know it, the beginning of time itself. It is a strange and peculiar story, one that dates back to a time where we find our first glimpses of and insights into the thinking and ways of doing of the peoples of the ancient Middle East. Our story delves into a theme, a leitmotif or a golden thread so to say, found in the oldest myths of the ancient shamans who once roamed the northern Zagros Mountains in the northwest of present-day Iran. This unique and fascinating theme is also found in the writings of the first people to have settled on the southern plains of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, who were also the first people to have invented phonetic writing, writing that enabled them to write down their thoughts and ideas for posterity and others to read. Our story concerns nothing less than the very tradition of those greatest of heroes, the demigods or scions of the gods, also called the Nephilim… the so-called Fallen Ones!

The real story of the Nephilim belongs to the most ancient of traditions, a tradition that harks back to the ancient lands of Sumer and Egypt. It is among the peoples of those ancient lands that we in fact discover the story of these demigods of old who were said to have been descended from the (fallen) gods. We read, among other things, that some of the most illustrious royal families of those times, such as the House of Uruk, who ruled the land of Sumer during the First Dynasty of Uruk, were descended from the gods. We also read about great and mighty heroes, such as the well-known Gilgamesh, who were fathered by spirit beings during sacred marriage rituals.

As it so happens most modern Westerners incidentally already know something about these traditions because of the way they are presented in the biblical tradition. We read that “the sons of God” fathered such heroes with the “daughters of men”. Although the Nephilim of the biblical tradition are often exclusively seen and regarded as giants, this only concerns one small part of the story and a much more comprehensive convention. I will also show that the biblical tradition only presents one version of a much broader tradition about these families, which continued to live on and develop through the ages.

I take the reader on a journey to distant lands to explore these ancient traditions. I focus on the “speculative theology” of those ancient peoples, discovering their ways of thinking about the cosmos, the gods, the demigods or Nephilim and how they all fit together. Although students of history do not always and in particular concern themselves with it, speculative theology constitutes the main theme and focus of this work as this is exactly the area where we gain access to the ancients’ way of thinking about these matters.

While some may call this work a study of the “secret treasures of darkness”, others, who may be more scholarly inclined, will rather see it as a systematic study of the speculative theology of the ancient Middle Eastern world, focusing on the traditions of the demigods or scions of the gods. The important thing is that I have done something that none other has attempted or done before, namely to explore the ways of thinking of the ancient peoples of Sumer, Egypt, Canaan, Israel and others about the Nephilim.

What is more is that I do not simply study their speculative theology, reflecting on their own ways of thinking about their place in the cosmos, I also found that many things can be much better explained if my new chronological model for the ancient Middle East, which had recently been published in the peer-review journal, Journal for Semitics,[1] is utilised and applied. This model has since been dramatically confirmed by the recent discovery of a cuneiform text from the Epic of Gulkišar, a Sealand king from southern Babylonia.[2] When the ancient world is viewed from this perspective, using my chronological model in tandem with the focus on the ancient Nephilim traditions, that is, on the speculative theology of the ancients, totally new and unexpected ways of thinking about the past become available. Apparently, the secrets and enigmas associated with the Nephilim tradition could only be unlocked if their stories are assigned to the correct and appropriate periods in history in terms of the important role the celestial skies played in their secret doctrine.

In this book I endeavour to present the story of those ancient traditions and the mighty heroes who form an integral part of them, in a clear and easily understandable way. My research eventually led me to the conclusion that there was a remarkable similarity and consistency in those peoples’ thinking about these matters throughout the ancient Middle East, with some traditions even spreading throughout a wide geographical area stretching far beyond the confines of those ancient lands and times.

The Greatest of Heroes

In this study, the focus does not fall on a mere scholarly recreation of the history of those ancient lands nor the details of all the many kings who ruled during that early period. The reason for this is that only a few distinguished and very exceptional dynasties were considered to have belonged to the Nephilim. These particular kings ruled during the greatest heroic ages of ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian tradition. As such, the focus only falls on the greatest of heroic epochs and how the ancients understood those events in the framework of their speculative theology.

Our story of the Nephilim is not a mere attempt at the popularisation of ancient history. Nor is it a repetition of already familiar material found in popular contemporary sources. In contrast to such populist approaches, this work is an extensive scholarly study, the first of its kind on the topic, written in a popular style so as to make it accessible to the general reader and a wider audience as well. It is unfortunate that these populist approaches have had the negative effect of the topic having become somewhat of a taboo for many a serious scholar, which is actually a shame considering the fact that we can learn so much of the ancient world by making use of this point of entry. With reference to an old expression, we should guard against throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

I present a story which not only starts at the beginning of history itself but a story which goes much further by exploring the folklore, legends and popular mythology of those ancient peoples. In doing so, I made use of all the ancient sources, including archaeology, iconography and the oldest available texts. As such, the work presented in this book is groundbreaking and original. I, in fact, present the reader with a story that has never been told before. In keeping with the claim that the Nephilim were great and famous heroes of old, I focus on the great epochs when they obtained unparalleled glory, glory recorded in epic tales and stories told by court bards, amongst others, throughout the ages.

The first part of the book tells the story of the great heroic deeds of the kings from the Sumerian House of Uruk, who ruled over large parts of ancient Mesopotamia during the late fourth and early third millennium BC. Their stories were in later centuries compiled in the Gesta Urukaeorum, the legends of the kings of Uruk. I am, however, not only retelling their stories but also interpreting them within the context of their speculative theology, a theology according to which those kings belonged to a different sphere of existence, a sphere in which they were regarded as Nephilim, descendants of the great gods themselves.

In the second part of the book, the focus falls on the great deeds of the Semitic god-kings from the Akkadian dynasty who ruled over the distant corners of the ancient Middle Eastern world (c. 2370-2190 BC). Their stories belong to the Gesta Akkadaeorum, the legends of the kings of Akkad. Their epic tales survived in some of the greatest legends and myths of all times. Again, our primary concern is how the ancients viewed and understood these kings, whom we may for good reason and anachronistically call Emperors, as having been Nephilim. Their story is a continuation of the one about the Urukite rulers. In fact, both form part of one continuous story unfolding through the ages.

It is important to note that the great heroes of the past belonging to this tradition do not only include men. Amongst the greatest of all those who belonged to the epochs of Sumer and Akkad, one finds, for example, the princess, the high priestess and the poetess, Enheduanna, daughter of the founder of the Akkadian empire, Sargon the Great. She wrote three beautiful poems in honour of the goddess, Inanna-Ishtar. One of these poems served as a cult song, a song which enables us to track the cult practice founded by her down to some of the most unlikely of places in later history. Amongst other things, she was the first to place weapons in the hands of the female attendants of the cult and she brought men to castrate themselves during ecstatic frenzies. Her impact on history and the tradition of the Nephilim, and the cult they belonged to, had been spectacularly powerful and enduring throughout the ages.

These are ancient traditions, some of them going back to a distant past, long before alphabetic writing was invented. Although the cuneiform tablets on which these epic tales were later recorded are often damaged, scholars have worked tirelessly to reproduce them into coherent narrations. One may, for example, mention Herman Vanstiphout’s Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta and Joan Westenholz’s Legends of the Kings of Akkade. These epic traditions of Sumer and Akkad have, however, and sadly, I may add, not been afforded the same attention in Western society as, for instance, the Homeric tales. This is extremely unfortunate as these heroic tales reflect a period of unparalleled and unique greatness and should therefore at least enjoy equal importance.

I also look into the Egyptian traditions, going back to the Predynastic Period, the Early Dynastic Period and the later Old Kingdom Period. I explore and discuss the legend of ancient gods who once came to Egypt from their original homeland in the period after a great deluge and built the very first temples there. In this legend, these gods are presented as divine personages who lived on earth but were descended from the earth-god. They are portrayed as having belonged to a great heroic age some time in the distant past. Later, in the Old Kingdom, the myths of Osiris and his son, Horus, became very popular. These stories also had their origin in a great heroic age and I will show how they are connected with our story.

During these heroic epochs, one finds that it is not only the great deeds of the mighty heroes which are emphasised but also where they fit into the great cosmic design and struggle of higher forces, reaching far beyond mere earthly events. It was exactly during these heroic periods that the strange and peculiar albeit very interesting views those ancient people held about themselves and their place in history, came into focus.

The story told here is primarily concerned with the speculative theology that underlies the great epic tales of those ancient peoples. Also closely related to our story is another deeper layer of tradition, a hidden tradition handed down through the ages in secret and only to the initiated. This is a hidden tradition which, for obvious reasons, is extremely difficult to navigate and explore. The main purpose of this book then, is to find that which is hidden and to reveal that which is secret.

A Secret Tradition

References to the secret nature of this hidden tradition appear in some of the oldest available texts from the earliest times. These were only intended for restricted circulation within closed and initiated communities. We already read in the ancient Sumerian texts that certain secrets were only to be divulged to those who were initiated into the order of sages that had existed since the dawn of history. One of these was Enlil-mubalit, a sage from the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur, who said that “a non-initiated may show it to an initiated but an initiated must not show it to a non-initiated”.[3]

Texts that contain such information were marked with the words, “Secret of the Great Gods”.[4] In the well-known Epic of Gilgamesh, we read how such secrets were revealed to the hero: “I will disclose to you, Gilgamesh, things that are hidden, and I will relate to you the secrets of the gods.”[5] The question immediately arises: What were these secrets? I endeavour not only to provide sensible answers to such questions but also an understanding of the wider context in which these secrets were handed down from generation to generation.

In exploring secret traditions, we are obviously faced with enormous challenges. The very nature of such traditions is that they are supposed to be secret! There are, however, ways to negotiate and find a way through such obstacles. One of these is to read the ancient stories and myths in conjunction with the accompanying iconographic traditions. As all secret groups through the ages used certain symbols to express their thinking, we often find that a study of these symbols, especially if they can be tracked down over sustained periods of time, provide us with important information, which can in turn be considered together with and carefully applied to the texts.

Once a comprehensive insight into the texts and other data relating to this secret tradition is gained, its essential features emerge and become clear to the careful reader. This is when one discovers that this tradition was from the outset deeply influenced by shamanism. The image of the great bird sitting high above in the cosmic tree or on the cosmic pillar (and lets not forget the serpent at the bottom thereof!) is a recurring theme, a theme starting with the story of the initiation of the ancient Sumerian dwarf-king of Uruk, called Lugalbanda, into the shamanistic Order of the Thunderbird. Lugalbanda is said to have somehow been transported into the nest of the Thunderbird high up in the cosmic tree, presented as existing in another kind of realm than our own. After his initiation, Lugalbanda was duly considered having been reborn into the family of the Thunderbird.

We find something similar in Egypt, where the influence of shamanism is again visible in the earliest strata of religious thinking. The Egyptian counterpart of the Sumerian Thunderbird is the Phoenix, that mighty mythological bird that became the paradigmatic and quintessential symbol of rebirth and cyclical return. In the same way the Thunderbird was encountered high up in the cosmic tree, the Phoenix resided on a stone pillar in the temple of Ra at Heliopolis. And both these mighty birds were of course identified with the concept of rebirth.

The Egyptians called the Phoenix the “Bennu” bird and the stone on which it perched the “Benben”, names derived from the word “ben” which means “seed” (as it is also found in the Semitic languages where it means “son”). I will show that the Phoenix and its seed belong to the strong and ancient tradition of the seed of the gods. In this way, the Benben stone is a vivid symbol of the “divine seed” or “children of the Phoenix”, as one might call the supposed descendants of the so-called Nephilim.

A Great Cosmic Design?

As a dynamic tradition, our story does not merely involve stories about a long gone mythological era but also about a hidden tradition which has accumulated various elements as it unfolded through the ages. Due to restrictions in available data, I take only one particular branch of this tradition into consideration, namely the one that moved from ancient Sumer through Egypt to ancient Greece and Rome and on to Europe, where we, for instance, encounter it in the medieval Grail romances, amongst other things. This forms the basis of the story I endeavour to tell through the course of the three volumes of this work, with the first volume laying the groundwork for the others. At different times each of those lands provided the fertile earth in which the age-old secret tradition could germinate, sprout and branch out. It is in actual fact an unfolding story even to this very day!

One of the fascinating aspects of this tradition is that its initiates held a view of history not restricted to events in the earthly realm. Through the ages, they believed the history they were part of involved a cosmic order that went far beyond any human involvement in that history. In those secret circles, there has always been a collective awareness that their reality is much bigger and involves much more than mere history, where certain earthly events were taken to be visible manifestations of the progressive nature of the story in which the cosmic and earthly domains became integrated as part of a greater unfolding order in the universe.

What I in fact found is an ancient belief that the celestial skies serve as a “blueprint” for the earthly existence of those families considered to have been divine descendants of the gods. And, somehow, their very existence was thought to have been related to the celestial skies where the stars were identified with those very same gods. As a result, the “writing of the night sky”, as the Sumerians referred to it, or “heavenly scroll” (an idea which is strangely enough also found in the Bible![6]) was carefully studied and interpreted. Sages then also used and applied this cosmic plan in the physical layout and design of the land, that is Sumer, Egypt and other lands, in the belief that the celestial movement of the stars would also find some kind of equivalent in earthly events.

According to their way of thinking, a rhythm existed in the ever changing gears of the celestial skies, a rhythm that also determined the rhythm in the occurrence of earthly events, especially as part of the great astronomical cycles of the ages, which the ancients somehow thought was reflected in the great epochs of history. In fact, this way of thinking and understanding of things and events constitutes only a tiny segment of a much broader and more detailed concept pertaining to these families, descendants of the Nephilim, in terms of a principle that popularly became known as “As Above, So Below” (Note, however, that this has nothing to do with the Chaldean astrology of later periods). The hidden knowledge of the ancient interpretation and enigmas of the celestial sky as a “scroll” containing the details of future events about these families, could be described as a “celestial code”, a code presumably only accessible to the initiates of this tradition.

From our modern perspective, the views held by those ancient people may seem outlandish and totally impossible. Once we discard these strange views and try to restructure ancient history on our own terms, we actually end up with a reductive view, a view far removed from the realities of that time. If we harbour any hope of bringing even a small part of the reality of that ancient world into focus, we have no choice but to view and look at them on their own terms, not on our terms, as people who did in fact believe such things, as I will show in these volumes. Even though we can never obtain more than a partial insight into their way of thinking, we need to take and accept this aspect of their world seriously if we want to obtain any hope of understanding them. 

New Avenues of Thinking 

My focus on the ancient Nephilim traditions, on the speculative theology of the ancients, opens up new avenues of thinking and allows for fresh interpretations of that which we popularly call the distant past. In fact, my unique point of departure leads to a dramatic reassessment of many well established notions about the ancient world, which enabled me to rediscover and shed new light on numerous unexplored gaps in our knowledge about those times. My story explains many things in totally new but remarkably coherent and sensible ways. My goal, however, was not to reconstruct “true history”, which I believe is beyond our means, but to nonetheless rediscover something “true” or “real” about the ancient world, viewed through the eyes of the very people who lived in it.

As this is not meant to be a sterile academic treatise, I do not discuss all the technical detail, possible interpretations and learned opinions, I simply went with those interpretations that made sense to me. An extensive enterprise of this nature is simply not possible within the limited scope and purpose of this book. I do, however, include additional information of a more technical nature, as well as alternative views, in the many notes in the text.

The views and interpretations developed in these volumes do not merely make sense on their own but also within the larger picture unfolding before us, a holistic picture which can account for all the many shades and nuances of the ancient world we are exploring. In doing so, I have taken great care in bringing all the data together in a sensible, coherent and integrated whole. My challenge was to weave all the many threads together in one grand and beautiful tapestry.

I freely admit that this work is merely an interpretation of an old tradition in light of all that we know about the ancient world. More particularly, it is an interpretation of the speculative theology of a hidden tradition which has existed throughout the ages. An interpretation of the secret tradition of the Nephilim, the supposed descendants of the (fallen) gods. I am only telling a story, albeit a well informed and well founded one, but nonetheless merely a story.

A Grail Journey

Our story concerns not only ancient ideas but also ancient places. Together with a group of close friends I have over a period of years travelled to many places throughout the Middle East and North Africa, the Caucasus and the Black Sea area, all across the Mediterranean Seacoast as well as Europe and the British Isles. When visiting these places one often gets a very different idea and perspective from the typical “armchair” approach of merely reading about them. Not only does one see and experience the remains and ruins one visits as well as the wider context they are situated in firsthand, one so often also finds information and details at these sites not always readily available in books and other publications.

In this way, we were often able to gain a better insight into and a much deeper understanding of the traditions we were studying. In fact, we often found that our own experiences and observations brought the way of thinking, the way of life of those ancient people much better into focus. We made seven such extended journeys, which in time we came to call “Grail journeys”. These took us to many faraway and wonderful places, ancient sites, ruins and spots where initiates from the underground stream of the hidden tradition, once built palaces and temples where they gathered in secret.

We climbed and clambered over fences and walls (which we would rather not recount here!), we swam in streams and lakes and sailed over many seas, sometimes in bad and stormy weather. We crossed great mountains with staggering heights and dangerous cliffs, sometimes on dirt roads and in pouring rain or dense fog, sometimes thinking that our last day on earth has arrived! We often reached godforsaken places belonging to a distant past, in a certain sense we reached the end of the world itself. In a way, this study, in all its facets, became our very own Grail journey.

I have included short anecdotes of some of these visits to allow the reader to share something of that which we felt and experienced during our travels and visits. My ambition was to write a book that will not only inform but also entertain. At the start of this volume, I provide maps of the ancient Middle Eastern world as well as a timeline of important events related to our story using my recently published new ancient Middle Eastern chronological model to assist readers in understanding an ancient world with which they may well be unfamiliar. At the back, a short glossary is also included.

I hope the reader will enjoy my company as guide for the duration of this journey through the past.

Enjoy the ride!

Willem McLoud
September 2021

[1] McLoud 2019
[2] McLoud 2020a
[3] Reiner 1961:10
[4] Horowitz 1998:5
[5] Parpola 1993:169
[6] Isaiah 34:4; Revelation 6:14