I made this painting for Nisaba, the Sumerian Goddess associated with writing, and also grain, after performing her rituals for Rod and Ring this month. I want to do something extra to honor each deity as I complete their rituals. I call is Dub Sar: Nisaba and the Invention of Writing. She was originally associated with grain, but became associated with writing after its invention due to the use of reeds as styluses. I used the most famous carved image of Nisaba as the inspiration, but switched the grain stalks she held for her lapis tablet and golden stylus to emphasis her importance as a patron goddess of scribes, know as dub sar in Sumerian.
I was originally writing articles for HubPage’s network site Exemplore (where they route all pagan-related topics, along with other, but decided to switch to paintings. I still need to go back and complete my paintings for Gibil, Ninurta, and Ishkur. I’ve realized that HubPages isn’t the best place to try to elevate the gods since they lump all things pagan in with garbage like conspiracy theories, UFOs and Aliens, New Age, etc.
I also did a painting for Nanna this month during the dark moon. I call it Udnua, which means New Moon in Sumerian. This one features Nanna seated before the dark moon. I made the initial sketch by tracing one of my favorite stone images of him. I tried to emphasize the shining gold details of the Shining One and his divine magical accoutrements.
Both of these art peices are available as prints from my various art sales channels. I particularly recommend these mini prints that come with wooded bases, available on my Threadless Artist Shop. These are perfect to use as images of the deities for your altar or shrine!
So far I have Inanna, Marduk, Nanna, and Nisaba. I’m working on making one for Dumuzi, and will soon start painting Gibil, Ninurta, and Ishkur. Next month I will start working on one for Ningal, and then Gestinanna after I complete their rituals for Rod and Ring. I’m already working on one for Dumuzi, but I might make another one once I complete his ritual.
I received the samples of my first batch of products from Spreadshop. Some items turned out great, while others… need to be pulled from the shop before I start promoting it. I only bought samples of a handful of the items to review. I still need to order items with my newer designs to test out.
First, the apparel:
This is the knotted t-shirt in mauve with my til zu-bir ki-aĝ (Live Laugh Love in Sumerian) dseign. In some lighting conditions, the text is a bit difficult to see, but as I wore the shirt throughout the day, I started liking it more and more. In bright light, I think it looked great, so I’m keeping this shirt in the shop with all the color variations.
This is the same design on the lightweight terry hoodie. Its a bit big (I forgot unisex sizes are much bigger than normal women’s sizes and got the XL), but I really like the fabric. It does have the “raw” edges, so some people might not like that. I do have normal hoodie styles available too. The design shows up nice on this color too.
This is the women’s flowy tanktop with the black text version of the Live Laugh Love design. I haven’t worn this shirt yet, but the print looks great! I think I prefer the brownish textured version of the design though, but the flat black version looks great printed on pink fabric!
Accessories/Home items:
I ordered a variety of stickers in different variations (clear background, matte, glossy). These look pretty nice. Which type to order depends on your preferences and where you want to put the sticker.
Metal magnets. These were printed off center. The metal itself is nice, but the off centered printing is a deal-breaker. I removed all of these from the shop. Maybe later on in the future I’ll look for a different magnet manufacturer if there is any demand for magnets.
Pillow case. The design was printed much smaller than I had it in the mockup. I also didn’t pay enough attention to the listing to realize it was just a pillow case and not a whole pillow. I feel like other people will probably make that mistake too. Between that and the tiny printing, I’m pulling this item from the shop.
The buttons looks fine. Just as good as the buttons I used to make back in high school until the teacher banned me from playing with the button maker. I should have tested it with a more colorful design though.
I’m about to start promoting this shop, I think. I just have to get all the branding and tax stuff squared away. Its ready for orders, now though.
I am also testing out another print provider, Printful, which seems to be more highly esteemed by artists than Spreadshop/Spreadshirt. Printful doesn’t offer a standalone shop page, but it does integrate with Etsy, Ebay, and a bunch of other eCommerce platforms. I’m thinking of just launching the Etsy shop earlier than I had planned, and offering a few print-on-demand items featuring my digital artwork while I work out the details with my handmade items.
Today I thought I’d share what my daily devotional practice to Inanna looks like, and how my altar is currently arranged. I just switched the table I use for my altar to a slightly taller one with slightly more surface space a couple days ago.
This is what my altar currently looks like. On a riser in the center is a statue of the goddess Inanna. In the riser in front of her is a small offering bowl where I burn incense. She is surrounded by a few small stones which are symbolic offerings to Her. I eventually want to make a new riser to look like a whole ass ziggurat to put Inanna’s image on, but I don’t know what materials to use to make such a thing yet. I want the statue to sit a bit higher up compared to the plants, but I still want plants on there, and they need to be in large enough pots to account for their roots.
On either side of Inanna I have two potted plants. The pink pot to the left contains a crepe myrtle and a hibiscus. There’s no specific symbolic reason for these particular plants. I wanted something that flowers to represent a “spring/beginnings” and feminine sort of energy, and I had plenty of seedlings of these outside (Crepe myrtles from my Arbor Day society membership and hibiscus just pop up everywhere in my yard and garden). The cypress to the left was a gift. I feel it represents more of a masculine energy, as well as fall/winter as an evergreen. It’s not doing too well indoors, so this one will probably be planted outside around November and replaced with something else. I’m thinking a spider plant or something else that does well indoors and is safe for cats. The other two from the pink pot will eventually go outside too.
I have three candles. The center one represent Inanna. I light this one first during my daily devotionals and rituals. I use a large circular clear multifaceted candle holder, which I feel nicely represents the pure yet multifaceted energy of Inanna. Using a utility candle, I light the left one that is in the pink skull candle holder from the center candle’s flame. I think of that one as representing myself, and Inanna’s light shining through me. The third candle holder is where I put candle used in spells or specific rituals if I have one I’m doing that day. Otherwise I light it at the beginning as representing sharing my light with the world at large. I use tea light candles typically, as they burn out quicker if I forget to put them out when I’m done. I’m currently using Hanukah candle as my utility candle because I found some that share a portion of the profits with Sharsheret, an organization that helps women with hereditary breast cancer from the BRCA1/2 mutations that are commonly found in women with Jewish heritage. It feels like a nice way to honor my ancestors too, even if I don’t worship the same deity they did in recent generations.
I light incense offerings from the left candle that sort of represents myself to represent giving of myself to Inanna or any other deities I’m giving offerings to at that time.
After the candles and incense are lit, I do a short prayer/meditation using the wrist prayer beads I keep on my altar. I got the prayer beads from etsy seller HearthfireHandworks and I use the prayer that she included with the beads, with slight modifications, though one of these days I’ll probably rewrite the entire thing to better reflect my personal relationship with Inanna.
All of the classical elements are represented throughout my altar, but they are more “concentrated” in certain designated spots. On the left side of the altar, I have the tools related to the feminine elements of water and earth. I have a container for holy water and a sprinkler tool (made from a miswick stick, rope, and a quartz crystal) for water and earth. I also have a coaster to designate the spot for my chalice, a selenite pentacle altar tile (for charging and cleansing small items), a wood altar tile with an ankh symbol (where I set spell components until I need them. There is goldenrod freshly harvested from my pollinator garden on it in the picture.) The cup is in the way in the picture, but I also have a trilobite on the riser next to the skull candle holder for water and earth, also to represent the past (Earth’s past, obviously, and mine. I got it from the Seneca Cavern’s gift shop as a child). There is a painted shell that says “love” on top of the soil of the left potted plant. I found it while cleaning up trash in the Metroparks. I meant to re-hide it, but it found it’s home on my altar for now. I also have an peat turf sculpture of a cat from Ireland, which I feel gives my Irish ancestors representation, again, even if I haven’t been called by their particular deities.
On the right side, of course, I have greater concentrations of the air and fire elements, commonly considered more masculine in energy. The cauldron I use as an incense holder brings back a bit of feminine energy to the air/fire of the incense being burned. I have my little bell that I got from the Buckland Witchcraft Museum gift shop (I really like museum gift shops, if you haven’t noticed), which also represents air. Its not really visible, but there’s a lava rock I illegally brought back from the beach of Hawaii’s Big Island for fire (and also earth!). The skull-shaped speaker I use to play ritual music through is kinda hidden behind the big candle holder. I usually keep it on the floor, but I had extra space when I rearranged everything. I might swap it out for a garden gnome though, and put the speaker back on the ground. I guess I don’t really have the masculine elements represented as much as the feminine ones, but I’m also completely okay with it. This is my personal practice. I do what I want!
For music, lately I’ve been using the album “Inanna” by Neurotree. I don’t know anything about the artist, I just found it on Amazon while looking for books about Inanna (I bought the album from iTunes though). I found literally nothing about the artist other than that one album when I tried to look them up. It seems kinda sus, since usually there would be at least some info about the actual humans behind the music somewhere on the interwebs, but whatever. I like it.
In the center, right in front of the riser for Inanna’s image, I have a big chunk of quartz. I got it at some witchy/Halloween event last year in Lakewood in a scoop of “witch confetti.” The lady I bought it from picked it out of her mixture of odds and ends special for me, which was so nice! It reminds me of a mountain top, so I like to keep in down in front of Inanna, like she’s rising up above the underworld. (“Kur” can mean both “underworld” or “mountain” in Sumerian. It can also refer to foreign/eastern lands).
The tablet behind the quartz translates to “The strength of my god completes my own. Inanna is praised!” Idr if I posted the tablet as a blog post yet.
The yoga cat statue is kind of like a stand-in worshipper sort of thing. I read something before that back in the day figurines of worshipers would be left at the shrines of deities to continue “worshiping” the deity in the person’s absence. Idk how true that interpretation of the artifacts is, but I liked the idea, so I’m using the yoga cat statue in that way. It even has an 8-point star on its tummy!
This is all my own personal practice and what is meaningful to me. If I were ever called upon to put together something for the community at large for whatever reason, it would obviously stick more to traditional kinds of imagery and associations (i.e. less just making things up as I go along).
I’ve been wanting to get back into drawing, and finally decided to splurge and get a drawing tablet (well, I did get a pretty good deal on it. It must have been a Labor Day sale, though I didn’t even think about holiday sales when I was shopping for it). I got the XP Pen Artist 16 and I’ve been experimenting with digital painting, mainly in Adobe Fresco, but also Photoshop and Illustrator. Here are two of my favorite paintings I did so far:
Inanna Rising was inspired by Inanna’s descent to – and subsequent ascent from – the underworld.
Ama Nita is a pun on the Amanita muscaria mushroom and the Sumerian word “ama” meaning “mother” (“nita” is also a word in Sumerian meaning “male,” so I supposed Ama Nita could be thought of as a fusion of the sacred feminine and masculine properties, or as a “mother of men” – interpret it as you wish!). Mushrooms have been considered sacred in numerous cultures throughout history, so an Amanita mushroom as a mother goddess seems fitting to me. I’m not sure if the Sumerians or any other Mesopotamian culture had any sacred associations with mushrooms or any other entheogens. I don’t recall reading anything (from legit sources) about such things, but who knows?
I think I’m going to have prints made of these. Would it be too narcissistic to hang my art up alongside the art I bought from “real” artists? Idk. I might offer prints once I get my etsy shop up and running too. I might not be the greatest artist of all time, but I like my digital paintings enough to want to display them, so maybe someone else out there might too.
I don’t really have much to compare the XP Pen tablet to, but I’m really enjoying using it so far. Because of the large screen and matte finish (and matte screen protector I put on it) it is a lot nicer to draw on than my iPad mini or Surface tablet (1st gen I think?). I also like it much more than Hans’s old Wacom tablet (an entry-level non-screen one), which I never got the hang of.
Anyway, I’ve been throwing around a new idea for a children’s book for a while, and now that I have a nice drawing tablet, I think I can actually execute it, so stay tuned for whenever I actually make some progress with that. I have so many different projects I want to bring to life.
I translated the phrase “Live Laugh Love” into cuneiform to make a tablet to hang on the wall. I realized that, for someone who loves pumpkin spice lattes and is just generally a “basic white girl,” I didn’t have any of the the type of artwork that is generally associated with “basic bitches” hanging up in my house. You know the type, random words just displayed on the wall for no reason. So I remedied that with my own spin.
Most of my tablets I just leave plain because I like the old-timey ancient look, but this one felt like it needed something more, being a translation of a modern-day saying, so I carved a couple hearts and painted it with some metallic paint I had left over from painting a brick to make a bookend a while ago.
I’m working on utilizing print-on-demand services to offer canvas prints and t-shirts featuring this translation.
I’d also be open to taking a few commissions here and there if anyone is interested in commissioning a similar clay tablet (or one with something less silly written on it). I’m hoping to continue improving my art skills and developing them into a viable “side hustle” in case I get sick again and have to take a break from my regular day job (apparently I’m dumb for continuing to work in a daycare throughout chemo and radiation last year, but w/e. I do what I want!).
After I made my smaller travel figurine of Inanna, I wanted to make a larger one with more iconographic details.
The clay was still a little wet in this picture, but this is the size difference between my original travel figurine and my new one.
I’m not sure where she will ultimately live in my house. I kinda want her on my main altar, but I also really like the statue I have on there already that I bought from a Ukrainian artist on Etsy. For now, I have her on top of my bookcase where I keep my pagan and magick books. It’s become a kind of secondary altar/shrine to Inanna as well as Ninshubur and Dumuzi. I place offerings of freshly cut flowers there, and light candles for those three deities. The main altar is in front of a big picture window looking out into the backyard, and is where I do my actual rituals and meditations and whatnot.
I had an idea to start an online shop to sell artwork, particularly sculptures and cuneiform tablets, which then led to the idea to make other kinds of more marketable wearable art too. Since I found a website that will print and ship items with my designs for me, I’m starting with that while I work on deciding where to sell physical artwork (as well as testing and choosing the best clay and other materials to use for my sculptures, and working on creating molds to reproduce small figurines, altar tools, etc that I make).
Anyway, since I already have my LLC that I haven’t done much with, I’m going to relaunch it for my artwork. Since in was originally for my game Petal Quest, and then I added my self-published books as part of the business, I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to also add other types of art.
I’m using SpreadShop to sell shirts, stickers, mugs, and more. I have a few simpler designs ready to go, and a few more complex design ideas I’ve started drawing (I have a bad habit of jumping between different pieces as I think of new ideas, but they will all get done eventually). I have two different categories so far: “Fun and Memes” for silly things I think of, such as a shirt that says “Live Laugh Love” translated into Sumerian; and “Sumerian Polytheism” for designs to show your devotion to the deities of the Sumerian pantheon. I’m planning on making some designs for other pagan paths as well. My SpreadShop link is nybiru-studio.myspreadshop.com.
I’m waiting to promote anything on social media until the sample items I ordered arrive. I want to make sure everything is good enough quality, especially for the items bearing deities’ symbols.
For the physical artwork, I’m looking into using either Etsy or ArtPal, but I want to see what other options are out there too. Etsy is the most well-known site for selling artwork, so it’s probably the best choice for gaining exposure, but a lot of artists I know are moving away from there because of their excessive fees. I don’t know much about ArtPal, but it looks like they don’t take so much profits, and they also offer print-on-demand art prints in case I ever want to offer something like that as well.
I want to redesign my business website one of these days too. There’s a way to embed the SpreadShirt shop into my own website, so I’ll probably do that to make it more professional. I’ve started rewriting the copy for Nybiru Studio too. I’m also in the process of replacing text containing the accented ý with a normal y since it gets rendered weird sometimes, and the legal name is Nybiru Studio, LLC. This is what I put for the About page:
About Nybiru Studio
Nybiru Studio is in the processes of relaunching with a new array of Mesopotamian- and pagan-inspired artwork, altar tools, and clothing items.
The first phase of this relaunch will include wearable items and other accessories featuring my digital artwork. These items will be processed, printed, and shipped by my manufacturer.
Next, I am planning on launching a shop for handmade clay artwork, including figurines, altar tools, cuneiform tablets, and more. This is going to take more time to launch. I’m still looking into options for hosting this shop/processing payments.
I originally started this company to publish and market my game Petal Quest. Eventually I expanded it to include my books and other artistic pursuits.
About the Artist
Jennifer is an artist, writer, and Sumerian polytheist. She started working with clay to practice writing cuneiform while learning the Sumerian language and quickly discovered a love for sculpture, which she has found to be an excellent creative outlet and means of regaining fine motor strength after suffering neuropathy of the hands after chemo for breast cancer.
She began learning Sumerian as a means of connecting deeper with the Sumerian deities, particularly the goddess Inanna.
Aside from art and sculpture, Jennifer has a background in writing and graphic design for a variety of different genres and industries. She has published several books including a YA novel, a comic book, and a children’s ABC picture book.
Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University, and an Associate of Applied Science in Computer Games and Simulation Design and an Associate of Arts from Lorain County Community College.
What Does the Name Nybiru Mean?
Nybiru Studio comes from Jennifer’s nickname “Ný” and the word “Nibiru.”
Nibiru is a term that appears in ancient cuneiform tablets to refer to a crossing point over a river, such as by boat or ferry. It can also be used to refer to certain astronomical phenomena involving crossing points of the planets, particularly Jupiter.
“Nibiru” may also refer to a fictional planet that conspiracy theorists claim is the home of aliens who visit Earth from time to time. These theories have no basis in reality and no scientific or archeological support, but they can be fun for science fiction writers to play with!
I made this tablet last Friday in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. Translated to English it says: “The strength of my god completes my own. Inanna zami.”
The first part is a Sumerian proverb. There is some debate over the authenticity of this quote, but it is listed in the CDLI. Besides, I like the quote.
usu diĝir-ĝa2 ni2-ĝa2 ba-til
𒀉𒄨𒀭𒂷𒉎𒂷𒁀 𒌀
The second part, Inanna Zami, means “Inanna be praised.”
𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩
Then on Sunday I made a new cuneiform stylus to make smaller wedges and tried it out by making these tiny clay tokens. I made ones featuring the names of Inanna, Ninshubur, and Dumuzi. I also made a smaller version of the “Go Away” amulet that I made earlier and one that translates to “Live, Laugh, Love” for funsies. I made the new stylus from one of those sticks that comes with poly-fil stuffing and squared it off on the end. Well, it’s more of a triangle than a square.
Then I made a similarly-sized token featuring Inanna’s star to test out my new set of clay carving tools. After making all of these simple projects I felt like trying my hand at sculpting something more complex. I decided to make a small pocket-sized figurine of Inanna for a travel altar. I wanted something small and simple to practice sculpting. I posed Her arms crossed against Her body so they wouldn’t be broken as easily during travel, but She kinda just looks like She’s done with my shit, so I feel like I should carry this representation of Her with me when I know I’m about to make poor decisions.
I already want to make a larger similar statue with more details representing more of Her iconography, including Her 8-point star, and the rod and ring symbol that frequently appears in images of deities in Mesopotamian art.
I wanted to practice my cuneiform writing on smaller projects before attempting a larger tablet I want to make soon, so I made a couple smaller things over the weekend.
The first is a “magickal” amulet meant to keep people (by “people” I mean my husband) out of the room while I’m doing ritual work. Or if I just feel like being alone. It has many uses! The cuneiform says “kita ĝena,” 𒆠𒋫 𒁺𒈾, which means “go away” (lit. “leave from here!”). I found this translation on a Tumblr blog called Sumerian Language. I put a hole with a ribbon through it so it can be hanged on the door.
I didn’t actually do any type of magickal working on it. It’s really more of a “privacy please” sign. If you need magick to keep the people you live with out when you need alone time, you should probably find new people…
The second tablet says 𒁲𒄳, “Hello world!” I made it for my husband, who is a programmer. I just thought it was amusing to use the world’s first written language to make a representation of the first program everyone ever makes when learning a new programming language because I’m a dork. It is transliterated as “silim gulkin.” Silim, 𒁲, was used as a greeting, and literally means “to be healthy.” Gulkin, 𒄳, means “inhabited world.”
I found the “Hello World” translation on the same Tumblr blog as above. That blog seems really good for finding translations of things that are useful in the modern world. It appears that the author there frequently takes translation requests from other Tumblr users.
While making these tablets, I also figured out that this particular clay I am using requires about 3600 times more water than I think I should use while forming the tablets to prevent cracking (the air in my house is very dry). I’m still working on my technique, but I’m confident I can get them to actually look nice eventually. I’ll probably try a different brand of clay that someone recommended to me on FaceBook after I run out of my current supply, however.
I wanted to represent Dumuzi and Ninshubur on my altar, but I was having trouble finding statues of either of these deities to purchase. I ended up just making my own, based on ancient artifacts that were found in Sumerian ruins. I know my sculpture skills are exactly on par with those of actual artists, but I hope the gods appreciate them none the less. I presented them to Dumuzi and Ninshubur at the Temple of Inanna and Dumuzi’s monthly devotional this month, along with food offerings and roses for Inanna (all handmade by me or harvested from my garden). I like to think that the gods appreciate everything we make for them with love. I mean, I enjoy it when kids give me a picture they drew, saying that it’s supposed to be me. Maybe it’s the same kind of thing?
Votive Figurine for Dumuzi
I based my votive figurine for Dumuzi on a statue of a shepherd that was found in the modern-day site of Tell Telloh in Iraq, what was once the ancient Sumerian city Girsu. I came across the original artifact while searching for statues of Dumuzi. There are some recovered ancient statues that are more certainly meant to represent Dumuzi, but I used one that is only identified as a shepherd for my inspiration. It is a simpler design that I could more closely replicate myself, and it just looked whimsical to me. The design made me happy to look at, and I wanted to capture that joy in my offering to Dumuzi. I just really like that particular artifact, I can’t completely explain why.
This particular artifact was labeled as being a representation of Dumuzi on Bing image search, via some sketchy website (as soon as I saw references to Sitchen, I left and tracked down the original source for the image). I traced it back to the Louvre, where the artifact is currently housed, and found out that it is thought to represent a shepherd holding a baby goat or sheep.
The original artifact is missing an arm, but I made both arms for him. I also embedded a goat bone (I think it’s probably a spine bone) into his back. I got the bone in a goat curry meal from a local Jamaican restaurant like a year ago. I didn’t know what I was going to use it for at the time, but it looked super cool, so I cleaned it up, removed all the soft tissue that remained, and kept it packed in a cup of diatomaceous earth until I thought of a use for it. Since Dumuzi is a shepherd god, I thought it would be a nice offering to him.
I used the same air-dry clay that I used to make my cuneiform flashcards. Both figurines looked a bit crumbly when they dried, but I kinda like how it makes them look more ancient and old-timey, so I didn’t try to fix it before glazing them.
Votive Figurine for Ninshubur
I used the same basic process to make my votive statue for Ninshubur. Her figurine is based on two ancient artifacts depicting her, though both original statues are missing their heads, so I had to make up that entire part. The head didn’t want to stay attached, so I used wooden rods inside to hold the whole thing together.
The first original artifact I used as inspiration is a statue from the Sumerian city-state of Der, the modern-day site of Tell Aqar in Iraq. This one is currently housed at the British Museum.
The other statue I was inspired by was found in the Sumerian city Adab, modern day Bismaya, Iraq. It is currently on display in the Sumerian Gallery of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Like the statue from Der, this one is also missing her head.
For my figurine, I made a head featuring a horned crown, as seen on many ancient depictions of deities. I tried to make her features a bit androgynous since there is some confusion over Ninshubur’s gender in the various ancient texts. She is depicted as female in the texts related to Inanna, but I kind of feel like she has a more non-binary androgynous energy about her.
I also added a staff in her hands because the staff is her symbol as Inanna’s sukkal. I kept her posed with her hands clasped, like in the original statues, but I put the staff in her hands. The staff is made from a willow branch. Willow is one of the types of trees that the Huluppu tree from the myth is theorized to have been, though it could have also been a date palm. There are probably other theories out there too. Anyway, I only had a willow branch dried and ready to be used, so that’s what I went with. Willow is my favorite type of tree anyway.
I was planning on inscribing both deities’ names in cuneiform directly onto the figurines, but I kept squishing them too much in the process (I’m already clumsy, and I think my hands aren’t working as well as they were since having chemo). I made separate little name plaques for them instead.
I might make one for Inanna some time too. I already have a few representations for her, but maybe she’d like a homemade one too (other than the eye-idol one I made for her a few months ago). I might make them for Geshtinanna and Ereshkigal eventually too. I just need to do more research on their iconography and existing known representations of them.