In 1929 a team of archeologists led by Leonard Woolley discovered fragments of lyres and a harp in what used to be the ancient city of Ur (Abraham), now contemporary Iraq. The lyre on the photos above is roughly 4500 years old and exhibited in the Penn Museum, Philadelphia USA.
The depictions that are applied with great skill and detail tell us again of the awareness of the dimensional reality the Sumerians lived in and of the importance of fulfilling  one’s life task during the earthly existence. That task was to transcend the Mind Consciousness System in self (ego) that sees separation of self and others and reinstall the Equal- and- One-reality of Higher Consciousness within the individual. The lyre symbolized a specific aspect of this lifelong duty, desire as the directive principle in humanity and as such it had a very deep symbolic meaning for musician and audience alike.
As is shown many times before for other artifacts  on this website this instrument and artifact also conveys the universal message of the various dimensions that human beings live in. The lyre of Ur though, is very specific in its depictions.
From bottom to top (photo left) three dimensions are visible, the fourth is hidden beneath the blue beard (heard that name before?), which symbolizes the 5th dimension. A quick reminder: Yin energy is the receiving pole, inner directed, negative, love. Yang is the manifesting pole, outer directed, positive, will.
1st dimension at the bottom, the physical level of a human being: spirit living in matter that is made up with a dual nature, a god-self and a bestial nature. A scorpion-like man and a upright standing horned goat-like figure appear as representation of the physical dimension of polarity, two in one. The jar carries a “scroll” indicating the life task for the spirit while alive in its physical body. The goat represents the unconscious (hence bestial, group mind) Yin energy in duality, represented by the two items that it carries. It is ready to climb “the mountain of consciousness” of the subsequent 5 dimensions innate in mankind. The male figure represents the physical and the Yang energy (will) and the personal choice mankind has as to whether to climb the mountain or not. Both figures thus represent a human being in its conscious and unconscious personality make-up. The scorpion man has 5 circular segments in the body; they are a mirror image of the five segments of the bull headed depiction as a whole wherein the beard of the bull represents the 5th dimension. It is another way of expressing that biblical verse: “you are made in the image and likeness of God” (see first hologram).The tail of the scorpion is deadly when used to kill the enemy but in this case it is pointing upward to indicate that the ego (the personality self), living in the lower three dimensions, is striving to overcome itself and is used to integrate itself within its higher expression of Self.
2nd dimension, the emotional level of the personality make-up of the individual: a standing bear has its right paw, that seems to have three horizontal lines, pointing upward. It refers to the lower three dimensions that are intended by Yang (right hand side of body) to be risen and re-united into Oneness. The bear itself represents the ego personality, as Yang driven by (unconscious) desires. The desires are represented by the “prey” of the sheep (Yin) that seduces the bear by playing the strings of emotions from the lyre with 8 strings representing the 8 levels of consciousness of the human personality, each representing a desire on a particular level. While the bear (Yang) and the sheep (Yin) exchange energies from their ego aspect of self, the “golden bull” (Yin) and the little “lamb”  (Yin) exchange dynamics from their higher Self aspect without the self-driven ego energies. The lamb now seduces the bull by playing the sistrum to encourage him to exert his Yin using his workforce and manifest the stability of Love. In this way an X-like construction emerges of crossed energies: the sheep vs. the little lamb and the bear vs. the bull. This X-like depiction reappears on the next level of the lower three dimensions in the offering table carried by a lioness.
3d dimension, the mental level of the personality, the mind: a lion, the king of beasts, represents the mind of humanity, his human dual brain, that, when used properly, makes him king over all his bestial inclinations. The proper use of his brain makes it a servant to the Yin sovereign  within (heart), the Love principle within mankind. He follows the lioness, Yin (link), to sacrifice the ego personality, represented by the heads (unconsciousness) of the bear and the goat. The human being in his King of beasts aspect, uses  his mental abilities to deconstruct his ego self.  Now he has resolved the karma that he was given when he took on a physical form in this life time. He has done his inner work on the self, follows his inner Yin aspect and manifests it during his lifetime. Hence the karma is sacrificed, represented by the leg of the goat as our karma, ancestral energies reside in our legs (link). The jar, holding the karma,  now has the familiar diamond (link, link, link) pattern on it; integration of the lower self into its higher aspect of Self is has become the focus in his life. The lioness wears a knife on the left side of her body to indicate that she is a Yin “warrior”, striving to bestow victory [innerFullWidth][/innerFullWidth]over Yang by Yin within self and surrendering her own Yang energies in this way to Yin.
This process of clearing one’s mind consciousness system is hard work and for most of us it takes a lot of time to dig into the inner self to find and face the dark parts of self. In this way one is able to release ancestral karma that was built during the evolutionary journey into the lower three dimensions and realize one’s life task. This is the mission for all of us on planet Earth. The Sumerians still had The Knowledge that most of humanity has lost 4500 year later. Fortunately, we have the Lyre of Ur to teach us again….
The 4th  level/dimension. As is visible on the left photo the 4th dimension is hidden beneath the blue beard of the golden bull, the sun god Shamash. It demonstrates in this way that the 4th dimension in self and in the outer world is not visible unless the human being has done the work on the personality self and reinstalled the Yin factor within. We have to cross this “gap” (link, link, link ) in ourselves  by balancing and harmonizing the two divine energies of Yin and Yang within self as the intention (choice), the will to embody and manifest as  Love during this earthly existence. It is an inner movement upward (Yang/Yin) and an outer movement downward and horizontal (Yin/Yang), the crucifix; manifesting Divine Will on Earth. Mankind has brought up in himself, (vertical axis within men and women alike) the dark unconscious energy that made up his karma (horizontal line of crucifix). This is shown in the two upward pointing goat legs next to his head; both goat bodies lack one of their forelegs. The goat bodies have the heads of a cow, representing Yin, with a beard of 4 lines, the horizontal divisions on the front have been erected now in the cows beard. The individual has thus restored the authentic Self by reinstalling balance between Yin and Yang in  Self. The human being, as balanced Yin/Yang energy, with a balanced and integrated brain in a physical form, is now ready to enter into
The 5th  level/dimension, depicted as the beard of the golden bull, the sun god Shamash. It is made of lapis lazuli, a rare kind of stone that at the time came from Afghanistan. It was considered to be holy because of its blue color. In the Human Energy Field (HEF), the fifth level has exactly this color. It is the divine “blue”-print of mankind that is a mirror image of the divine that is present within the human being (the 5 segments of the scorpion-like human figure at the bottom) that has to re-discover and re-install this blueprint within himself during his life time; quite an intricate game!
The beard itself has 6, now vertical dimensions that one has gained access to once connected to the 5th dimension. In the 6th the individual prepares to walk the bridge to the trinity of Yin and Yang, represented by the dual two and one on either side of the “moustache”. The golden shine of the sun god Shamash will then reveal itself to the individual. The gold of the bull is contrary to the silvery impression that the front of the lower part of the lyre makes upon the viewer. Silver was considered to be the metal belonging to the moon. Moon represents the unconscious mind of mankind, located in the belly area.  Gold represents divine consciousness of the Bull of Heaven, located within the integrated brain hemispheres.

The lyre itself has 11 strings to play on. Whoever would play them would repeat the pattern displayed on the lyre (as within a holographic picture) and evoke Yin (desire) and her servant the bull (will, the directive principle) in the self and would recreate the Yin/Yang sound as energy of Love for the outer world. In this way the musician would be a manifestation of god himself (number 12) as sound/frequency is the tool of Creation. The real message of this instrument is: your desires (thoughts, emotions) create your outer world!
The design of the lyre of Ur teaches the viewer that the “bridge” of consciousness into Unity is crossed in the 7th level, the 7th golden band. In between are 5 layers of alternating dark and white triangles, representing the different levels of consciousness of an individual. Oneness with all that is and ever will be awaits here and we will hear the “music of the spheres”.
The bottom of the lyre is decorated with diamond patterns that appear frequently on this website and that refer in all ages and all over our globe to the same principle of integrating the lower Self into the Higher Self. The bottom represents the solidness, the denseness of the world of matter that we live in as opposed to the etheric realm with its heavenly music that awaits when the work on the 4 horizontal levels that govern the earthly realm, is done by the individual.
The depictions on the lyre of Ur also refer to astronomical and astrological knowledge though this distinction was made later on in history and resulted in the devaluation of astrology as “science”. These people were familiar with the energetic exchange of planetary, cosmic and galactic forces that influenced human being living in the lowest of dimension on Earth. But I will not elaborate on this subject here.