Through The Red Shepherd, Samuel David invites you to enter into the presence of the god of both the living and the dead whose name and power are the breath of life which quickens the child in the womb; the eroticism of the virile lover; the psychopomp who leads ghosts in his train; the intercessor who takes the burden sickness and disease from his supplicants.

Myth would inform us that Dumuzid was merely the effete, hapless shepherd god who invoked the anger of his wife, Inanna, and became little more than a footnote in myth.

Erotic poetry; liturgical texts and hymns; magical formulae, however, indicate something greater. In such texts, we find that Dumuzid is more than a mere pastoral deity standing guard over the sheepfold. He appears as a king; high priest; warrior; captain of the host and commander of chariots; a god who stands at the gates of Heaven, possesses a throne upon the Earth, and is seated beside Ereškigal, the great queen of the Underworld.

Wholly informed by academic sources and personally applied praxis, The Red Shepherd: Towards a New Image of Dumuzid includes relevant myths and mythopoetic lacunae texts; transliterated liturgical compositions written by the author; ritual texts inspired by historical source material.

CONTENTS:

Preface, by Alexander Eth

Introduction

Lacunae Myths of the God

The Shepherd
The Son
The Bridegroom
The King
The Descent
The Ascent

Liturgy of the God

He Who Stands Watch
He Who Delights His Mother, He Who Delights His City’s God
He Who Comes Forth In Radiant Splendor
He Who Stands In Eternal Joy
He Who Stands Upon the Road of Lamentation
He Who Rises Anew

Rites of the God

The Sheepfold
The Horned One of the Steppe
The Hand of the Kurgarrû
The Petition to Utu for the Aid of Spirits
The Allalu Bird
The Cult Image
The Syncretic Rite to the God of Many Faces

The God in Retrospect

The God
The Names & Epithets of the God
The Cult Centers & Temples of the God
The Cult Festivals of the God

References & Recommended Reading

Afterword