The Red Shepherd
The Red Shepherd: Towards a New Image of Dumuzid
by Samuel David
Illustrations by Rowan E. Cassidy
Typeset, Layout, & Design by Joseph Uccello
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…
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Format: 5.25 x 8.25 inches (215.9 X 133.35 mm Portrait). 192 pages. Hardbound 100pts, Half-bound in ‘Rust’ Stone-Like Textured Material and Iridescent Weave Ivory-colored buckram bookcloth. Bronze foil blocking on rounded spine. Bronze & White foil stamping front cover. Carmine Red + Black interior, with Vermillion colored, textured Endpapers. Dark Brown Headband and Tailband. Fully Illustrated by Rowan E. Cassidy. Fine typography, design & layout by Joseph Uccello. Preface by ceremonial magician Alexander Eth, host of the Glitch Bottle podcast. Printed on Fedrigoni’s Freelife Kendo White 150gsm paper. Comes with a numbered tipped-in carton-plate signed by the Author.
Limited to approx. 1000 copies | ISBN: 978-1-989339-27-5
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Format: 5.25 x 8.5 inches. 192 pages. Hardbound 100pts, half-bound in Genuine Matte Black Leather & Basalt Rock heavily textured book-cloth. Silver foil blocking on rounded spine, and Blind Deboss pattern on the Black Leather / Black Metallic Foil Rock material portion of the cover.
Fully illustrated interior by artist Rowan E. Cassidy and Joseph Uccello, with hand-custom-made Marbled Endpapers by artisan Nancy French. Red coloured Headbands & Silk Ribbon. Fine typography and layout by Joseph Uccello. Printed on Fedrigoni Freelife Kendo White 150gsm paper. + Comes with a signed carton-plate insert glued on the interior.
Diagonally-Cut Slipcase bound in Smooth Black Bonded Leather with Red Interior and Red Metallic Foil stamping on the two halves' cover side, as well as on its "front-spine".
Strictly limited to 21 copies | ISBN: 978-1-989339-27-5
Contents
Preface, by Alexander Eth
Introduction, by Samuel David
¶ 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
Description
Illustrations by Rowan E. Cassidy, and Joseph Uccello.
Preface by Alexander Eth (Ceremonial magician and host of the Glitch Bottle Podcast).
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.
Through this book, 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.
