​CHAPTER 28. THE LITURGY TEMPLATES

The appendices that follow this chapter contain the full formula collections derived from the Udug Hul and Maqlû, organized by word-count. The formulas within each count are modular: they can be used as standalone strikes or assembled into chains following the principles of Chapter 24.

Three complete ritual templates are given here as examples. All follow the phases: opener, incision, aperture, containment, return seal, invoke Ninlil and Lilitu as the membrane-governors and perform the inversion.

​The Anti-Exorcist Liturgy

Performed at night, facing the steppe. Before beginning, press into wet clay or just draw on the paper the name of Ninlil in cuneiform: 𒊩𒌆𒆤, without the divine determinative.

​Phase 1: Membrane Awakening

an-ta ki-ta dNIN.LIL₂ udug hul a-lá hul gidim hul kur-ra edin-na bar-šè zi-ga hé-gub (14 words, 7 times)

From above, from below, Ninlil, evil udug, evil ala, evil ghost, in KUR, in the steppe, outward, rise, stand.

The place-sequence moves from kur-ra to edin-na, tracing the ascent from hollow to threshold; bar-šè zi-ga hé-gub delivers the triple seal: direction, activation, establishment.

​Phase 2: Vector

udug hul-gal an-na ki-a lil hul asag hul kur-ra bar-šè zi-ga hé-gub (12 words, 8 times)

Great evil udug, in heaven, on earth, evil wind, evil asag, in KUR, outward, rise, stand.

The sequence ends in kur-ra rather than a verbal seal because the force arrives at the hollow and holds there, waiting for the aperture.

​Phase 3: Flow

dNIN.LIL₂ li-li-tu₄ lil hul-a giš-gi-a hé-en-da-gub-bu ardat lili an-ta ki-ta kur-ra edin-na bar-šè zi-ga hé-gub (15 words, 10 times)

Ninlil, Lilitu, evil wind in the reedbed, stand here with me; phantom maiden, from above, from below, in KUR, in the steppe, outward, rise, stand.

AN.TA and KI.TA close the phase as the pincer reaches symmetrical pressure.

​Phase 4: Projection

dNIN.LIL₂ an-ta ki-ta udug hul a-lá hul gidim hul maškim hul kur-kur-ra edin-na bar-šè zi-ga è é lú-ka-šè ku₄ hé-gub (20 words, 4 times)

Ninlil, from above, from below, evil udug, evil ala, evil ghost, evil maškim, of all lands, in the steppe, outward, rise, come forth, to the man's house, enter, stand.

The place-sequence moves from kur-kur-ra through edin-na to ana bīt amēli, "to the man's house." É-ta è means "come out, enter". The final hé-gub seals the presence at the target.

​Phase 5: Seal

Dissolve the clay (or burn the paper) as the seal is spoken.

tit kur ba hul gub (5 words, 10 times)

dNIN.LIL₂ bar-šè ba (3 words, once)

dNIN.LIL₂ kur-ra du (3 words, once)

Clay of KUR, break through, evil, stand. Ninlil, outward, break. Ninlil, in KUR, come.

Directed will sealing the rite. The sigil's dissolution completes the return: the force that was shaped in clay returns to the membrane-substance.

​The Witch-Empowering Liturgy

Performed at night, using clay figurines. Before beginning, shape a witch sigil in clay: 15 strokes for the Violet Key, the kaššāptu's form. The ceremony begins at midnight. The fire that burns in Maqlû's original ceremony appears here as Girra operating as 𝔚₉₆.

​Phase 1: Witch Awakening

an-ta ki-ta dNIN.LIL₂ kaššāptu hul li-li-tu₄ girra gal du₈ edin-na giš-gi-a kur-ra bar-šè hé-gub (14 words, 7 times)

From above, from below, Ninlil, evil witch, Lilitu, great Girra, release, in the steppe, in the reedbed, in KUR, outward, stand.

Nu-un-zi, "unbind", the witch's daylight-order binding is released before she is directed through the place-sequence. The path moves from edin-na through giš-gi-a to kur-ra as the full descent from the surface.

​Phase 2: Vector

Burn a figurine as this phase is spoken: Girra's fire consuming the surface-world constraint, not the witch.

dNIN.LIL₂ kaššāptu hul-gal an-na ki-a li-li-tu₄ girra gal kur-ra bar-šè zi-ga hé-gub (12 words, 8 times)

Ninlil, great evil witch, in heaven, on earth, Lilitu, great Girra, in KUR, outward, rise, stand.

The great evil witch addressed, her presence in both AN and KI established, Girra's fire directed outward through bar-šè. The kaššāptu is released into her full power.

​Phase 3: Aperture

dNIN.LIL₂ kaššāptu hul-a giš-gi-a hé-en-da-gub-bu li-li-tu₄ girra gal an-ta ki-ta edin-na kur-ra bar-šè zi-ga hé-gub (15 words, 10 times)

Ninlil, evil witch in the reedbed, stand here with me; Lilitu, great Girra, from above, from below, in the steppe, in KUR, outward, rise, stand.

The witch placed in the reedbed where IM forms. Where the original ceremony returns the witch's curse to its source, this phase returns the witch herself to her source — to Lilitu as her prototype.

​Phase 4: Containment

dNIN.LIL₂ an-ta ki-ta li-li-tu₄ kaššāptu hul im-du₇ hul gidim hul kur-kur-ra edin-na bar-šè zi-ga é-ta è é lú-ka-šè ku₄ hé-gub (20 words, 5 times)

Ninlil, from above, from below, Lilitu, evil witch, evil clay figurine, evil ghost, of all lands, in the steppe, outward, rise, from the house come forth, to the man's house, enter, stand.

Im-du₇ hul, the evil clay figurine, appears here as the object that the witch shapes and animates, the TIT-body of her practice. Gidim hul marks the witch's capacity to move between the living and the dead. The formula closes with the same targeted projection as the anti-exorcist liturgy: ana bīt amēli.

​Phase 5: Seal

Melt the clay sigil into water as the seal is spoken: the witch-form dissolving back into the membrane-substance, the kaššāptu returning to Lilitu's field after the rite completes.

im-du₇ girra ba hul gub (5 words, 6 times)

kallatu mūši hé-gub (3 words, once)

kaššāptu kur-ra hé-gub (3 words, once)

Clay figurine, Girra, break through, evil, stand. Night-bride stand firm. KUR-witch stand.

​The Šurpu Liturgy (Burning of Law)

Performed at night, using a clay figurine wrapped in linen. The ceremony follows the third great series, Šurpu, "Burning", whose target is māmītu: the oath, the invisible ligature that ties a body to the moral and ritual grid of 𝔄₆₀. Where Maqlû burns the witch's constraint, Šurpu burns the law itself.

The original Šurpu patient is afflicted because he has broken a taboo or offended a god, and the transgression has generated a binding force that wraps around him. The binding is māmītu and the cure is fire. The Šurpu priest holds a peeled onion, a tuft of wool, a strip of reed, a piece of linen (substances that can be unwound, torn, burned) and as each violation is named, the material is destroyed. The fire consumes the vehicle, the māmītu dissolves.

The material of particular weight here is kitû: linen. The linen garment is the priestly covering, the fabric of ritual authorization. When kitû appears in Šurpu, it is torn and burned as the vehicle of broken sanctity.

Preparation: shape a figurine from clay, im-du₇. Wrap it in a strip of linen, kitû, the demiurgic covering, the garment that marks the wearer as property of 𝔄₆₀. The figurine inside is the practitioner's TIT-body.

​Phase 1: Enumeration

Recite the bonds to be burned.

an-ta ki-ta dNIN.LIL₂ māmītu du₈ hul kur-ra edin-na bar-šè zi-ga hé-gub (11 words, 3 times)

From above, from below, Ninlil, oath released, evil, in Kur, in the steppe, outward, rise, stand.

māmītu nu-un-zi, "oath unbound", inserted as the central command: the cosmic ligature named and dissolved before the place-sequence launches.

​Phase 2: Tearing

Tear the linen from the figurine — ḫid, to break, to crack a surface. Each gate of Inanna's descent is an application of ḫid to the coverings of divine authorization. Šurpu performs the same stripping through fire.

Speak at the moment of tearing:

dNIN.LIL₂ li-li-tu₄ kitû ḫid māmītu du₈ kur-ra an-ta ki-ta girra ba ga-àm-è (12 words, 4 times)

Ninlil, Lilitu, linen torn, oath released, in KUR, from above, from below, Girra breaks through, I emerge.

he verbal chain opens with the material action (kitû ḫid), names the dissolved bond (māmītu nu-un-zi), establishes the axes (kur-ra an-ta ki-ta), invokes the fire-agent (girra ba), and seals with the cohortative ga-àm-è — first person: I emerge.

​Phase 3: Burning

Burn the torn linen and the figurine together. Girra consumes the vehicle and the bond and the clay-body that carried both. What burned in the original Šurpu was a single accidental transgression; what burns here is the entire fabric of imposed law.

im-du₇ kitû girra ba māmītu hul gub (7 words, 4 times)

Clay figurine, linen, Girra, break through, oath, evil, stand.

​Phase 4: Seal

Scatter the ash. TIT is freed from its inscription.

dNIN.LIL₂ tit kur ba māmītu girra ga-gub (7 words, 2 times)

an-ta ki-ta tit hul bar-šè zi-ga ga-àm-è hé-am₃ (8 words, once)

Ninlil, clay of KUR, break through, oath, Girra, I stand. From above, from below, clay, evil, outward, rise, I emerge, so be it.

The cohortative ga-gub closes the liturgy in first person. The Nightside practitioner is cured and does not return.

The full formula collections are in the appendices. Each formula is modular. It can replace the corresponding phase in either liturgy, or be assembled into custom chains. The word-counts are exact; the root palette is consistent with the vocabulary; the verbal seals are selected for compatibility with the nominal class of the primary force being addressed. The appendices are a generative grammar, the formula-elements from which the one may construct their own sequences as the work develops.