For this month’s ritual for the Rod and Ring initiatory journey, I met with the goddess Geshtinanna. I was already somewhat familiar with her and have recently incorporated her into my regular practice, so it was a somewhat different experience from the previous months were I met deities with whom I was less familiar.
Since Geshtinanna’s energy was already a bit familiar to me, it felt sort of like meeting up with an existing friend, whereas previous month’s rituals had me meeting new deities for practically the first time. Geshtinanna, or Amageshtin as I prefer to call her in ritual, has a very motherly nurturing type of energy that is instantly recognizable after working with her for the last couple of months or so.
I made Her a painting, which I based a little bit on the 9 of Pentacles tarot card. That card always reminds me of Her when it comes up, particularly in the Ethereal Visions deck (I have the Luna edition, though I think that card is the same in both versions).
I anticipate that next month’s ritual with Dumuzi will feel similar, as I am even more familiar with Him than I was with Geshtinanna. I’ve also started reading Samuel David’s newest book The Red Shepherd in preparation for my ritual meeting with Dumuzi.
I’ve also started the series of rituals for the Seven Who Decree Fate from the book Evil Speech Stand Aside by Vanessa Kindell, in which the book instructs the ritualist to perform on the night of the full moon for seven months. For this first month, I connected with Nanna, whom I have already been working with every month the night before performing the main Rod and Ring rituals. At least thus far, I’ve found that I don’t connect with the rituals from this book as deeply as I do with the ones from Rod and Ring. I’m not quite sure what the problem is, but I’m going to keep working at it. If nothing else, it will help me to become more familiar with the Seven Who Decree.