Tag: Sumerian Polytheism

My Introduction to Ningal

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

As I mentioned in a previous post, this month I did the Rod and Ring ritual for Ningal. I did have a brief experience with this goddess during the previous full moon before this new moon ritual.

The previous full moon, I also felt a connection to Ningal during ritual work. This was kind of strange to me, since I didn’t intend to connect with her. I was expecting to feel a connection to Nanna as I gazed at the moon, and maybe Marduk, as Jupiter was visible as well. (He keeps kind of showing up, but I don’t quite know how to work with him or if I even want to tbh.) I wasn’t doing a ritual for any specific purpose, just some light trance work to see what came through.

At this point, while gazing upon the full moon, I got the impression of Ningal kind of introducing herself, and that she wanted to be acknowledged as a deity of the moon in her own right, not just as the consort of Nanna. Understandable. Women are too often cast aside in the shadows of their male counterparts. Deities are apparently not immune to this. While Ningal is a loving mother and wife, she is also much more than that, and I think she wants her worshipers/Mesopotamian polytheists in general to acknowledge that. At least that’s the impression I got. And perhaps that the full moon is when she should be acknowledged (while Nanna, at least in this section of Rod and Ring, is acknowledged at the dark moon. Not sure if the later sections are the same, I haven’t read ahead).

At this point, I had forgotten that my next step in the Rod and Ring journey was with Ningal. I had it in my mind that Geshtinanna was next for some reason. But during this full moon experience, I got the impression that no, Ningal would be seeing me at the new moon. I double checked the book the next day, and sure enough, Ningal was, in fact, next.

During her ritual for Rod and Ring, I got similar impressions of her, and I think I felt a deeper connection to her than I did to some of the other deities that I’ve encountered in this initiatory journey thus far. I also got the impression that I should be honoring her in some way as part of my regular practice, particularly at the full moon as a moon goddess. Though she is the consort of the moon god Nanna, I don’t recall actually reading anything from scholarly sources that she was actually regarded as an astral deity the way Nanna, Inanna, and Utu are. I think I recall seeing random neopagan type sources refer to her as a moon goddess however, so maybe other people have had similar personal gnosis experiences as well, though you have to be careful with that sort of thing since a lot of neopagan websites/books just straight up make things up, especially the ones that just list a bunch of deities from completely different pantheons as simple random correspondences. So disrespectful, both to the deities and to the entire cultures to which they originally belonged.

I also got a sort of mental image of doing some kind of ritual honoring her over the ocean, perhaps on a boat or near the coast, with a particular focus on the tides. If we regard her as a moon goddess, this makes sense. Ningal is also the daughter of Enki, who is associated with water. The natural forces of water combined with the influence of the moon results in the tides, so I think it would be apt to regard her as a metaphysical embodiment of tides. The gods are essentially personifications of natural phenomenon and aspects of human experiences anyway. Traditionally, she is associated with reed marshes, a type of environment joining water and earth, not the ocean, however.

After making that connection, I did, however, find one small bit of evidence linking Ningal to the full moon and to tides. Last week, I read the book Evil Speech Stand Aside: Ancient Mesopotamian Ishib Magic for the Modern Magician by Vanessa Kindell (I haven’t tried all the rituals from that book yet). At the end of the book, the author listed some of the Mesopotamian deities along with some of their qualities. Ningal was described as a goddess of the reeds, the tides, and the full moon. The book didn’t cite where this information came from (historical source, vs unverified personal gnosis, vs random non-scholarly source, etc), but it is evidence that at least one other person who worships the Mesopotamian gods has made a similar connection.

A side note on unverified personal gnosis: I think the gods give different people different information because they just think its funny to watch humans argue over trivial shit. And it kind of is. At least that’s how I interpret it. Aside from cases of people just making things up.

I wasn’t really able to connect with Ningal this past full moon. I don’t know if it was some kind of personal block, or the fact that it was also a lunar eclipse that day. I don’t know enough about the effects of astrological phenomena on such things to know for sure, but it felt like it was blocking a connection from being made or something, even though the eclipse was earlier in the day. Or it may have been I was just too distracted/focused on other things at the time. It happens. There will be plenty more full moons to experiment with.

Lately I’ve also kind of been associating her with the Queen of Cups tarot card whenever that card comes up in a reading. I know Mesopotamian mythology doesn’t completely lend itself to the symbolism of tarot, but certain deities tend to show up regularly in my readings lately. I haven’t even been using my Babylonian deck much lately, but they still show up!

My Introduction to Geshtinanna

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

I’ve been exploring the worship of several other deities in the Sumerian pantheon lately, in addition to Inanna. Early this year, I started my journey through Samuel David’s Rod and Ring in an effort to become better acquainted with some of the other deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon. The main motivation being that, by becoming acquainted with and better understanding some of the other deities in Inanna’s circle and in the wider Mesopotamian pantheon, and better understanding the original religious context that she was worshiped under, I can build a deeper relationship with Her. I already have a place for Dumuzi, Inanna’s consort, and Ninshubur, Inanna’s sukkal (advisor) in my personal practice. I had been feeling drawn to Geshtinanna, Dumuzi’s older sister and Inanna’s sister-in-law, but I didn’t really where to start with her. Most of the information I find on her only mentions her in passing in her role in Dumuzi’s descent. Technically, I will be working with Geshtinanna as part of my journey through Rod and Ring next month, but it turns out she decided to show up a bit early.

As “coincidence” would have it, this month in one of the ANE polytheist groups I recently joined, the service was all about Geshtinanna! The autumn equinox had recently passed, making this the time of year when Geshtinanna returns to the underworld to take Dumuzi’s place.

One of the things I learned about her that stood out the most was that, of all the deities, Geshtinanna was the only goddess who was regularly depicted with close female friends other than those directly related to her. As such, she can be revered as an embodiment of sisterhood between women and supportive female friendships.

Geshtinanna was also considered a sort of mother-figure as well. As Dumuzi’s older sister, Geshtinanna filled a mother role for Dumuzi. She was regarded as a caring and loving sister to Dumuzi.

These aspects of caring female friendships and nurturing family support are energies that I desperately need to bring into my life, not going to lie. I feel like, since I’ve invited Her into my practice, I am slowly starting to better understand/experience these things. Do those count as Mes? I’m not really sure, but I feel like that’s the best word to describe such things. It’s obviously a slow process. She can help guide me in the right direction, but I know she isn’t just going to do the work for me. Despite what a lot of pagans seem to think (based on questions I see posted to social media all the time and spell instructions urging practitioners to invoke random deities they may or may not actually worship), you can’t (or at least shouldn’t!) try to invoke deities you have no existing relationship with just to “make” them do some task/help you with something just because it’s related to one of their associated domains. That’s just rude. That would be like if some random stranger just knocked on my door and asked me to babysit their kids just because they heard I work in childcare as my day job. No going to happen, and please get off my lawn! But that’s a whole rant for a separate post.

Geshtinanna is associated with grapes, grapevines, and wine and her name is often translated as “the grapevine of heaven.” She is also known as Amageshtin or Mutinanna (in the Emesal dialect). In my own UPG she seems to prefer to be called Amageshtin (“Ama” meaning mother). I find she has a very caring and motherly type of energy about her (in the few weeks I’ve been actively working with her).

I made for her a little statue to include her on my little shrine that also has space for Inanna, Ninshubur, and Dumuzi. I made it from wild grapevines that I harvested in the rain during the last new moon, which was also the day of a solar eclipse. I made some wreaths with my harvest as well. While my other statues were made from clay, I thought it was appropriate to make Geshtinanna’s from grapevines. This figurine is a bit fragile, so eventually it may have to be remade or perhaps reinforced with clay, but I like how it turned out. It could always be re-crafted once I improve my vine-weaving skills.

I don’t have Her whole shrine spot ready yet, but Her statue lives alongside Inanna, Ninshubur, and Dumuzi.

Since Amageshtin is so intimately entwined with the grapevine, I was a bit hesitant to start working with her in the beginning. Wine isn’t really my thing, and isn’t something I naturally connect with, and I typically avoid alcohol in general now since the whole breast cancer thing. (I typically use hibiscus tea as a substitute for wine in rituals that call for wine – it has that same deep red color and its energy is just lovely. In my experience, Ninshubur in particular enjoys hibiscus – obvious UPG alert!). But wine can still be offered to deities even if you don’t personally imbibe, and she seems to enjoy regular grape juice just as much. I’ve been using grape juice as offerings more than wine. Since I don’t personally care for wine, offering it always feels like “here, I didn’t want this, so I guess you can have it,” whereas grape juice feels more like “this is good, so I wanted you to have some too!”

I’ve also been working with Ningal a bit too. I did her ritual from Rod and Ring this month (technically I had my first experience with her during the full moon last month while doing some light trance work as well. I’m not sure if it was “real” or whatever, but I’m trying to learn to trust my intuition in these types of things) and felt a connection there, and a feeling that I should be involving her in my regular practice in some way. I’m still exploring what this means, which I suppose is technically a lifelong process (anyone who tells you they have all spiritual things figured out is either delusional or trying to sell you something or both). I’ll make a separate post about Her soon once I’ve gathered my thoughts a bit more and finish the painting I’m making for Her in Adobe Fresco so I can include it in the post. I want to make her a statue too and set up a shrine, but I’m still thinking about what the statue should look like, and whether or not she should share the same space as Inanna, Ninshubur, Gestinanna, and Dumuzi or have her own space.

My Daily Practice and Current Altar

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

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.

Close-up of the statue. Made by Etsy seller Blagowood.

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.

I think of raccoons and crows as my animal guides, so they are represented on my altar. The raccoon represents the earth element to me, and the crow is obviously air.

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).