I originally posted this to Instagram before I realized that normal landscape videos and are frowned upon there.
This is an improv exercise I came up with to practice between classes. I draw a tarot card and then perform a short scene based on the card. The card for this one is the 6 of Arrows from the Babylonian Tarot. I played an old-timey doctor who is attempting to treat a patient who presented with an arrow to their shoulder. (I literally just acted out the scene pictured on the card. I need to get better at “A to C” thinking).
It’s not great acting by any means, but I really like how I was able to combine three of my biggest interests: Mesopotamian religion, tarot, and improv!
I know I wrote an article about this for HubPages a while ago. I’m not sure if I posted the link to that article here or not, but I thought it would be an interesting topic for my YouTube channel, so I also made a video about it.
I made a second video for my YouTube channel today. Well, technically I filmed it yesterday and finished putting it together today. Its a short tarot reading to connect with the Goddess Inanna to ask her how she feels about the idea of me making a YouTube channel to talk about my spiritual journey and my relationship with Her.
I do have a more in-depth spread that I usually use to communicate with Her. I believe I’ve posted about it here before, but I’ll probably do a video explaining it too one of these days. For my first tarot video, I wanted to use a smaller spread.
I think for tarot videos, I’m going to stick to showing different spreads using an example reading for myself. I’m not really into the “general reading for whoever happens to see it” videos that a lot of people make.
This tarot spread is based on the myth of Inanna’s descent to the underworld, and is meant to guide you through your own version this myth to help you confront your own “dark side.” I found this spread on a WordPress blog called Occultopraxia, but the blogger says they got it from a book by Hans Banzhof (whom I can’t find any information on). This spread seems to draw on Jungian psychology, which has some issues, but I find that it’s still a useful spread.
Unlike the previous tarot spread I shared here, this one isn’t for communicating directly with the goddess. Instead, this one is to help you confront your own psychological “stuff,” drawing on the characters and plot of the myth as your guide. This spread takes you through the seven gates of the underworld, the confrontation with Ereshkigal, and the ascent out of the underworld.
The meanings of each card in the spread are as follows:
1. “Inanna” – bright or visible side of personality, which may become whole and healthy by confrontation with the shadow (10).
2. “Neti” or “Reception at the gate to the Underworld” – motivation to confronting the shadow, and what it looks like from the outside.
3–9. Values, ways to behave, habits, wishes, positions, expectations etc. which we must renounce.
10. “Ereshkigal” – the shadow to break free from or integrate with. The hidden or dark side of personality, what should be extracted, understood, what existence should be accepted.
11. “Ninshubur” – a helpful force, ally “in the upper world”.
12. The first stimulus to rebirth.
13. The second stimulus to rebirth.
14. The reborn, whole and healthy person.
15. “Dumuzi” – “the sacrifice”, motives and attitudes that we must give up for a long time.
The original author of the spread said to divide the deck into major and minor arcana, and shuffle these separately so that cards 10, 12, 13, and 14 are drawn from the major arcana and the rest from the minor arcana. I don’t do this. I just draw the whole spread from the whole deck, and it works just fine for me.
The blog where I found the spread also gives the following additional instructions for using the spread:
The interpretation begins with cards 1, 10 and 14, which constitute the skeleton of the spread. The first card represent the querent as she or he feels about her- or himself now, how she or he perceives her- or himself. Because of some reason, as Inanna who wanted to get into the Underworld, the querent wishes to look at some hidden features of her or his personality, even though finding and waking them up may be a dangerous path. Card no. 10 shows the querent what those features are. They may consist of suppressed emotions or abilities (like aggression, assertiveness, sexuality, sensuality, even artistic talents despised by the parents) or unhealed traumas. If the querent decide to confront them and accept them (if they are positive but neglected abilities) or ultimately get rid of them (in case of negative emotions or traumatic past), she or he will became a person represented by the card no. 14. This card actually shows if the process is worth going through.
Interpretation for other questions
The spread may be also used for questions concerning important decisions in life, like accepting a new job, changing a profession, moving to another city or state etc. Then the interpretation of cards differs slightly. Card no. 1 may tell about how the querent feels about her- or himself, but may also show her or his position in the society. Card no. 10 may indicate the qualities the querent will have to find within her- or himself and demonstrate, if she or he makes that decision. It may be, for example, aggressiveness or selfishness, needed for making a career. The interpretation of the card no. 14 doesn’t really differ from the described above. But cards no. 3 – 9 and 15 are very important and they can be decisive. They show all the things the querent will have to get rid of or will loose. Sometimes it may turn out that even though card no. 14 shows a successful, rich person, some cards from the group 3 – 9 or 15 indicate a family breakdown, lack of free time or loss of health, which may be a price the querent doesn’t want to pay.
Inanna’s Descent Tarot Spread with the Babylonian Tarot
Above is an example of a reading I did using this spread. I also included the base card. Two other cards also randomly fell out of the deck, so I included them in my interpretation as well.
Originally this post was going to contain two different spreads that I recently began using that both deal with the goddess Inanna, but as I was writing it, I realized I should make two separate posts, since the goals of these two spreads are so completely different. I didn’t create these spreads. I found them both online. The first spread I want to share was designed to help you to communicate directly with Inanna.
Humans have been using divination methods to communicate with their gods as long as there have been humans and gods. Luckily for modern worshipers, with the “recent” invention of the printing press, we can now use tarot cards instead of sheep livers.
I found it on a blog called Journey of an Eclectic Witch, hosted on Tumblr. The layout of this spread is based on Inanna’s symbol, the 8-point star. The position of each card is based on one of the cardinal directions, so I find it most useful to sit facing North when using this spread, just to avoid confusion.
The creator of the spread offered to different ways that they like to use the spread. It can be used to identify both your feelings and Inanna’s feelings about the situation, or only Inanna’s feelings and thoughts. I’m also working on some other ways to utilize this spread (I might make an additional post to share later depending on my results. I’m still experimenting with it). The instructions and layout photo provided by the author of Journey of an Eclectic Witch (I can’t find their name. I’m terrible with Tumblr) are as follows:
This is the spread I use for communicating with Inanna. I explicitly work with Inanna, but it will carry over perfectly well to work with Ishtar. It is based off of her symbol of an 8 pointed star. This is a very flexible spread, and I use it different ways. However, with all of them when I have completed reading all 8 cards, I will lay one final card in the center to bring the overall message into focus. One thing I have found particularly beneficial when working with Inanna is using a deck which is very imagery heavy, as she often ignores the traditional meaning of the cards in favor of emotions evoked by the art. Using this deck, the Paulina Tarot by Paulina Cassidy, was our negotiation as an additional means of communication beyond reading clouds. The below methods of reading this spread are identify card positions as if they were on a compass rose.
1. The first way I read this is by identifying the North card as my thoughts and emotions, the South card as Inanna’s thoughts and emotions, the East card as the future, and the West card as the past. NE, NW, SE, SW, then are the ties, either in how the transition occurred or in our thoughts on the matter.
2. The second way I read this is to read Inanna’s thoughts and emotions either generally or on a specific matter. I use this technique if I don’t have strong emotions that I need help reconciling with what she will tell me. For that, N is her thoughts and feelings, S is her divine aspect as it plays into the situation, W is the past, and E is the future. Again, the remaining four cards show the relationship between each cardinal direction.
When I use this spread, I layout the cards a little bit differently, just for my own ease of use.
Inanna’s Star tarot spread with the Crow Tarot deck
For this reading, I used the second suggested way to read the spread, with Inanna’s thoughts and emotions represented by the north card and Her divine aspect as related to the situation for the south card. I did change it a bit though. Instead of past and future for the west and east cards, west represents advice/suggested path to take and east represents the likely result if the advice is followed. I’ve also been experimenting with using the base card (the card at the bottom of the deck after laying out the rest of the spread) in my readings for additional clarity lately.
As suggested, I try to use decks that are imagery-heavy with this spread, particularly the Crow tarot (as in my photo) and the Babylonian tarot (which I guess isn’t super imagery-heavy, but I find it useful having Mesopotamian-themed imagery for this sort of reading, so that Inanna can more easily use symbols related to Her myths to get the point across.)
Inanna’s Star spread using the Babylonian Tarot
When I use this spread, I like to start by lighting some incense as an offering to Inanna on my altar. Its the least I can do for bothering Her for advice.
I’ll post the second spread in its own post. The other one is based on the myth of Inanna’s Descent into the Underworld.
