Sogmatar

 Here is a koan for you: What could a $3-discounted t-shirt possibly remind you of? 

The highlight of our South East Turkey trip for me was Sogmatar. If I could describe my experience in the Sogmatar temple in one word it would be non-duality. Let me describe what non-duality means to me. It’s when I drop all thoughts, judgements, have no expectations, feelings or emotions, and am totally immersed in the present with an open heart. It’s when boundaries disappear and there is only contentment of being (“being” written with the smallest possible letter).

If you expect to see fancy ruins, towers or temples, you’ll be highly disappointed in Sogmatar. In fact, there is almost nothing visible immediately when you get to Sogmatar. 

It is the most simple village I’ve ever seen in Turkey - I use simple for lack of a better word, almost barren, where you feel sorry for the children enthusiastically greeting you and trying to tell you stories about their antique city so they can make little money or take whatever you’re willing to give them, maybe candy or gum.

Apparently it rains a lot here in winter filling up the wells with much needed water in summer months; the name Sogmatar (or Yagmurlu) means “rainy”.

 

Soğmatar was a pagan religious center and dates back to the 2nd century. 

Close to Harran, south of Urfa, it is also known as the Town of Seven Temples, as the people of Harran worshiped the moon and planetary gods. 

I typically read about places before I visit them. I’ve read books and watched videos about the other places we visited during the past 10 days, prior to joining a tour in our last 2 days which included visiting Sogmatar. About Sogmatar, I knew nothing! Absolutely nothing! I haven’t even heard of this name before. In fact, I thought we were visiting a Moon temple in Sogmatar. But my personal experience proved otherwise. I think the experience is always more precious than the knowledge anyway.

In the center of the cult center there is what is called a “Sacred hill”, an open-air temple, also called the temple for the Lords of the Gods, surrounded by 7 temples dedicated to the Sun, the Moon and 5 planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury. These surrounding temples are within a half mile radius, forming a half moon shape. As our guide explained, ancient pagans used to honor each of these 7 temples on a certain day of the week, that’s where Monday comes from, in fact it’s Moon day. They also wore a certain color for each temple visit and made different offerings in each temple.

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Before we started climbing to the open air temple, we walked by the Sun god (Shamash) and the Moon god (Sin) relics. This was extra special for me as it brought up the Reiki Master symbol, Dai Ki Myo. 

Dai Ko Myo means Great Bright Light and experientially Reiki leads the practitioner through various tools and practices to experience and to eventually become the Great Bright Light which is in practice a state of non-duality.
Reiki does this gently with the practice of visual, audio and mind tools, or in other words through symbols, mantras, meditations and the practice of precepts supported with hands-on healing. 

The word “Myo” or “Bright” in the Japanese kanji of “Great Bright Light” is depicted by the sign of the Sun and Moon coming together. Their union represents and creates the ultimate brightness as they are the two light sources for our planet, in day and night. 

Maybe subconsciously, I walked into the ritual area with this in mind and as we were led into a meditation by shamanic drumming, I kept saying this experience is not just the Moon, but the ultimate brightness of the Sun and Moon together.

I think the builders of these temples used the synergies of the Shamash (Sun) and the Sin (Moon) with other planets to bring alignment and create harmony and Oneness. It’s still palpable 2000 years later.

Speaking of energy…Sogmatar is definitely a special site for energetic qualities. As I was reading and researching, I found that a group of researchers from SB Research Group (SBRG) have studied the archaeoacoustic properties of Sogmatar. The same group does similar research for archaeoacoustic properties and physical phenomena in other ancient sites and temples throughout Europe. They think these qualities might have influenced communities to consider and choose a particular site as their sacred site. 

In silence, they recorded a strong natural frequency around 14Hz which they claim, has a strong effect on brain waves, creating a relaxing effect. They detected similar frequencies present at other sacred sites in Europe. They also observed a strong spiral magnetic field on the wall located on the right of the central niche, in the Moon temple. 

Is it the chicken or the egg?… Did they build the temple here because they felt its naturally existing frequencies and they used that to enhance their sacred experiences or has the vibration of the space been raised because of how they set up the temples and because of their continued practice? Maybe both. I’ve seen an ordinary apartment building in Northside that feels like you’re in heaven because of decades long deep dedicated practice performed in it. You certainly feel the sacredness as soon as you walk in it. 

Then a month later as I was strolling in Istanbul, this t-shirt caught my eye. It's all an Illusion after all, isn't it? 

How can you talk about non-duality if you still talk about the Sun, the Moon and the planets? How can you talk about non-duality if you say “I” had this experience”, then who is this separate I? 

Maybe it’s the chicken, maybe it’s the egg. Maybe it’s the natural energy of this sacred place. Maybe it’s the planetary objects, planetary Gods. Does it matter? 
The Sun and the Moon, Shamash and the Sin, were the fingers pointing and enabling this Union, at the temple of Gods in Sogmatar. 
For me what’s important is not getting caught up in the details, to honor them, use them as stepping stones but also know that they’re all an Illusion, pointing to the truth, non-duality.

Here is the link to the Archaeoacoustic research paper on Sogmatar:

http://www.sbresearchgroup.eu/Immagini/ReportfromSogmatar.pdf

Ancient Origins coverage on Sogmatar:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-ancient-places-asia/celestial-temple-sogmatar-sacred-site-dedicated-sin-and-planets-009352

• * Special thanks to Gokturk Ramu author and researcher, for feeding us with his extensive research, emphasizing the importance of Sogmatar and continuously leading tours to this area for years; Neslisah Cevahir at Via Maris Turizm (viamaris.com.tr)for enabling this 2-day-packed-trip  with utmost comfort and ease , our professional tour guide, historian, Halit Aygat for giving both sides of the story, the official and the unofficial and Ates Shaman Zafer Algül for leading us into insightful meditations with his shamanic drumming.

The answer to the koan is on the T-shirt.