Tag: Inanna

Rod and Ring – Descent: The 7 Gates

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

This month I did the second part of the descent rituals for Rod and Ring. Technically I did it a day earlier than I was supposed to because I wanted to see what would happen if I did it on the night of the solar eclipse. And I think I made the right choice for me. I think adding that energy into my ritual gave it a bit of extra power. To me, the moon eclipsing the sun kind of represents the hidden mysteries coming to the forefront over what is normally revealed in every day life. So it seemed like a good time to do work relating to the underworld.

At the first gate, I had to relinquish my light/fire. The book didn’t give any actual physical actions to symbolize this, but in the moment I felt like I was supposed to extinguish the candle on my altar that I use to represent myself (or sometimes mortality in general – it’s in a pink skull candle holder), so I did that. I set up my altar the same way I do for my daily devotional and magickal workings, and just add whatever else I need for the Rod and Ring work, so I already had it burning.

Then, for each of the rest of the gates, I felt like I had to give up something physical as well, so I removed the pieces of jewelry that I thought best corresponded with each gate. Except for gate six, in which I had to give up my “song,” so I turned off the background music I was using and did the rest of the ritual with no sounds except the ritual words. I don’t read the actual ritual text ahead of time because I like it to be as immersive as possible, but if I had, I think I would have prepared the items to “give up” a little bit better. Though I guess it might have been better this way, not knowing ahead of time that I would be physically removing things (though I’ve read the descent myth a billion times, so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise).

I stopped to meditate on each gate for quite a while before proceeding to the next. After the ritual, I stayed at my altar in meditation for a while and I think I did pass out for a bit, and then I got really sick and threw up. I’m only documenting that so if anyone is thinking about starting this journey, you’ll be aware of how it can affect you physically. It’s probably not a journey for everyone to undertake, but I’m glad I’m doing it.

The book said to do each of the underworld sections three months apart, but I was talking to Prisca, the priestess who runs Circle of Inanna, and she said that Samuel David said it was ok to do the three rituals over three months total. The last couple days, I’ve been thinking over if I want to keep my House of Dust ritual three months after the 7 Gates, or just do it on the next new moon. I think I’m going to keep it for July as I had originally planned. I have two reasons for this:

First, I’m going to be exploring some caves just before I have this ritual planned, and I think keeping the sensory memory from that experience fresh in my mind will add an extra dimension to the ritual. Kind of like how I used my time at Kalahari in the first part of Descent back in January when I crossed the river.

Second, keeping it scheduled how I have it planned mirrors my cancer treatment journey from a couple years ago, which began in January and ended in July. And I think an intentional journey through the underworld that mirrors the same time frame is going a long way in helping me to integrate and come to terms with that very much unwanted “underworld” experience.

I know some Mesopotamian polytheists have a problem with interpreting the myths in a psychological way like that, but myths are first and foremost stories – the oldest stories – and stories are meant to be interpreted in many different ways. There’s no one “correct” interpretation or one “correct” way to work with any particular myth. In some of my classes for my English/Creative Writing degree, we were expected to read and analyze stories from many different perspectives. Of course 5000 year old myths can be approached from many, many, many different perspectives! Maybe some of the more mainstream modern religions like Christianity take a mythic literalist approach where they believe each of their biblical myths literally happened and can mean only one thing, but I feel like that is nonsensical and would miss the point of paganism entirely. That’s just not how literature works! And in my opinion, myths in particular are humans’ interpretations of divine energies and how they interact with each other, not something that literally happened, though a lot of them might be loosely based on actual historical events and people.

Oh, and the solar eclipse itself was amazing! I watched it from the front patio at work, and I wish I would have planned better and taken the day off to watch it from home, but it was still an amazing and awe-inspiring experience. I think my favorite part was getting to see Venus in the middle of the day! Of course I had to stop to pray to Inanna (silently in my head – I don’t need to subject coworkers and children to my religious practices. Take note, conservatives!)

And I could see Jupiter too! I think Jupiter is my second favorite planet after Venus. I have a weird relationship with Marduk that I’m still figuring out. Like, I’m not super drawn to Him, but he keeps kinda showing up in my practice when I’m really trying to focus on deities that were worshiped more in earlier historical periods. But I did name my LLC after Him/Jupiter in a way, so maybe I should start paying more attention to Him? idk. Right now, since I’m doing the underworld part of this initiation, in addition to Inanna, I’m more focused on Ereshkigal.

Fiber Magick – Crochet Projects

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

Aside from my religious/spiritual activities, over the last couple months in my free time I’ve also been getting back into crochet and I started taking an improv class. I know I try a lot of different hobbies. I’m not sure if improv is going to be another all-consuming interest or if it is going to become one of the many different art forms I cycle back and forth between. It’s too early to tell, but so far I am really enjoying it and I plan on taking the next class after this one is over.

Anyway, in this post I wanted to share some of my recent crochet projects. I got a book called “Fiber Magick,” which shows how to use fiber arts, particularly crochet, as part of magickal workings. I love being able to combine my different interests together, and crochet is particularly well-suited for crafting magickal items.

My favorite project I made from that book is my prayer shawl. It was made using basic stitches and was an easy pattern, but it is the largest project I’ve crocheted so far. The pink/black/purple yarn (Lion Brand Mandala Ombré in Felicity) represents love, protection, and spirituality. The blue border (Lion Brand Mandala Ombré in Harmony) represents Inanna. I also thought I was clever using Lion Brand yarn for something representing Inanna. Its one of my favorite yarn brands I’ve tried so far anyway. I’ve been wearing my prayer shawl during my daily devotionals to Inanna since I finished it.

I also made this Goddess of Journeys poppet project from Fiber Magick. Instead of using it for protection on physical journeys, I made mine to represent Ninshubur, who I usually evoke when doing spiritual journeying work to help guide me back should I get into trouble. I gave her a staff, which I made by writing out the part of the Descent myth where Ninshubur asks for Enki’s help in rescuing Inanna from the Underworld on a piece of parchment, rolling it up like a scroll, and crocheting all around it.

I also made a bunch of the smaller projects like spell bags, drawstring storage bags for crystals/herbs/etc, and appliques (which were called “sigils” in the book, but aren’t really what I think of when I think of sigils. I’m just using these as charms and decorations).

(I’m back dating this post, because I originally wrote it weeks ago, and forgot to come back and add the pictures and publish it. 4/23/2024)

Descent

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

I started the descent portion of my initiatory journey through Rod and Ring last month. This ritual was the most intense part of this working so far, as one would expect continuing deeper down the path.

In the week or so before beginning my descent, I noticed a couple of strange signs/coincidences that seemed to coincide with my upcoming descent into the underworld. For maybe a week or so, a bunch of big flies got into the house somehow. I never did figure out where they were coming from. According to the Seek app, these were blue blowflies, which are commonly associated with death and decay. Apparently forensics experts can use this species to identify how long a body has been dead and that sort of thing. I think I counted 7 by the time they stopped appearing in the house.

Then I found a dried up worm on the floor inside the closet of my temple room. I have no idea how it could have gotten there. I do have a worm bin downstairs in the laundry room, but there is no reasonable way that one could have gotten all the way through the house, up the stairs, and into the closet. I was a bit grossed out, not gonna lie, so I put the worm in my compost bucket and took it outside to perform the funerary rite I use for the mice that the neighborhood cats like to bring to me in my garden. It’s very simple, I created it before I was comfortable enough to be open about my religious practices, so it is very low-key so as not to draw attention from neighbors. I simply bury the subject in a specific area of the garden that I have dedicated for this purpose, and I light a few incense sticks as an offering (and to hide the smell from scavengers – though this isn’t really an issue with the worm). In more seasonable times of year, I’ll also lay fresh flowers over the grave for the same reasons. Then I just quietly say a quick prayer to Ereshkigal to welcome the creature into her realm. I don’t know if the Sumerians actually had any kind of beliefs about animals in the afterlife, but this feels like the right thing to do, so its what I do.

Anyway, when I got back inside, I realized that the worm and the flies were probably connected to the descent ritual I was about to undertake, so I felt less creeped out. It is always nice to receive a warm welcome when arriving somewhere new (or returning to a place, as the case may be).

I prepared a black garment/robe to use in the rituals, as prescribed by the book. I also made a black veil to incorporate into the rituals. I felt like Ereshkigal was pushing me to add that. The robe I’m using exclusively during the Rod and Ring rituals, whereas I’m using the veil in the main R&R rituals as well as in supplemental rituals I’m adding in throughout the journey. It really adds something to the atmosphere of the ritual to help me get into the headspace of going down into the underworld.

My robe/”burial shroud” and veil.

I was at Kalahari for a few days before the new moon because my husband’s job sent him to a conference there, meaning I got a free mini-vacation. I used this as an opportunity to prepare for my journey across the River Huber. I essentially spent three days mentally collecting water-based imagery and physical sensations to use during the ritual experience while meditating in the lazy river/wave pool/hot tub bar. For the first time, I really figured out how to use alcohol for entheogenic purposes – it’s actually really great for finding the sacred within the profane if you don’t over do it. I try not to drink too much nowadays after the whole breast cancer thing, but when in Rome! I sort-of turned my free mini-vacation into my own little private spiritual retreat (all those fake shamans who run those expensive “spiritual retreat” things would hate me!), which culminated with doing the actual rituals after we got home.

As far as the ritual itself, it was such an intense, emotional, and beautiful experience. I was literally trembling as I put on my black garment, and again as I crossed over the river. What struck me the most was that traveling to the underworld felt in no way scary to me. I was overcome with a profound sense of peace, love, and awe. I got this feeling like everything was just perfect and as it should be, and that as long as I didn’t try to fight it everything would be just fine. The underworld isn’t something to fear. Ereshkigal is often portrayed as “scary” and “cold,” but believe that is simply the human fear of the unknown being projected upon her. There is no escaping death, but at least She is there to care for you when you do get there. I got a sense that she is more nurturing and loving, if misunderstood, than she is often given credit for. I’m sure I’ll get a clearer sense once I proceed through the gates and meet her face-to-face.

The rituals in the descent section are meant to be performed three months apart, so I won’t be proceeding through the gates until April’s new moon. I am planning on working through the rituals from Samuel’s other book, The Red Shepherd during the months that I’m not actively working on Rod and Ring.

Since beginning my descent, I have set up a shrine to Ereshkigal. I’ve also moved Geshtinanna’s statue to Ereshkigal’s shrine for the time being, as this is the time of year when Geshtinanna is in the underworld.

My shrine to Ereshkigal and Geshtinanna. I’m still working on it. It needs an altar cloth of some type and I want to make sculpture based on the Burney Relief to put in the back. For Ereshkigal’s statue, I used a bit of the extra netting from my ritual veil to create her veil.

I’ve also started veiling as a way of symbolically reminding myself of my current place in the underworld, and that I belong to Ereshkigal just as much as I belong to Inanna. I’ve been wearing lacy headscarves to do this, like those triangle ones that were popular in the early 2000s. It’s a subtle enough style that it doesn’t draw too much attention, but is still true to what I believe the gods want of me. When I want to wear a different hat or hair accessory, I also consecrate it in the same way as the scarves/veils so they can be used in the same way. I’m using mainly lacy black scarves because they kind of remind me of a less conspicuous version of Victorian mourning veils. I’m planning on continuing to do this until I depart the underworld and have left my clay replacement.

Apparently veiling is already a thing in the pagan community, though I haven’t seen anyone say they’re doing it for quite the same reason. I don’t think I’ve heard of any other Mesopotamian polytheists doing it for any reason, though I haven’t spent a whole lot of time researching the subject.

Dumuzid – And My December Rituals

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

In December I finished the second section of the Rod and Ring initiatory journey. For the main ritual I met Dumuzi/Dumuzid (I see both spellings equally when reading about Sumerian religion, so I’m not sure which is actually the preferred rendering of his name – so far I haven’t gotten any sort of sense that He prefers one or the other like I did with Amageshtin/Geshtinanna).

As with the Geshtinanna, I was already familiar with Dumuzi before meeting him in this ritual. Aside from Inanna Herself, Dumuzi and Ninshubur are the deities I most revere (I only began working with Geshtinanna in the last several months).

To be honest, I was a bit hesitant to start worshiping Dumuzi to begin with because I wasn’t all that interested in having male deities. Which is also part of why I was never really interested in learning about Wicca when I started learning about paganism and witchcraft. I’m sure there’s some psychological reasons in there that I need to uncover and deal with through shadow work, but I digress.

To enhance the experience with Dumuzi, I also started reading Samuel’s newest book, The Red Shepherd right before the last new moon. I expanded on the rituals of thanksgiving for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th nights of the Rod and Ring initiation by also incorporating the liturgy from the Red Shepherd and extending the ritual activity by 2 days to make room for all 6 liturgical texts.

There was one final ritual for this part of Rod and Ring to be done on the full moon, so I did that on the 26th. I skipped doing the ritual from another book I’m going through, Evil Speech Stand Aside, last month, and I’ll just start doing them on months when I don’t have another full moon ritual to do to make it last longer, rather than doing a bunch of different things on one night.

I also did the Sheepfold rite from the Red Shepherd already, and plan to do the rest of the rites throughout the year. I’ll write more about those later. I’m not actually going by the Babylonian calendar to schedule these like the book suggested since the agricultural cycle of the US is different from that of Mesopotamia, and my lifestyle isn’t really based on the agricultural cycle anyway as a suburban woman in 2024. The next section of Rod and Ring skips some months, so I’ll probably start doing the Red Shepherd rites around the new moon of months that I don’t do Rod and Ring activities.

I did something different for my artwork offering this month. I got a set of watercolor pencils for Christmas, so I wanted to experiment with those. I have no idea what I’m doing with them, but I suppose that’s also the case with most things…

The first one is a painting of my statue of Dumuzi (which I based on an ancient figurine of a shepherd found in Girsu/Tell Telloh. The original probably wasn’t meant to be Dumuzi, but I am just so amused by how that particular statue looks, I had to recreate it), along with my skull candle holder and selenite plate. I just thought it looked nice on my altar during the rituals, so I made the painting to commemorate the ritual itself in addition to the deity. These items could also represent earth and the underworld.

I also made a rendition of Inanna and Dumuzi, based on a relief carving depicting their marriage. I have no idea why I interpreted it in this way…

For Yule/winter solstice, I just did a simple Yule Log ritual and gave Inanna a special gift/offering. I don’t know that the Sumerians actually had a celebration for winter solstice, but I’ve been adapting different holidays and celebrations to fit my own religious practices. I used a small bit of apple wood for my yule log. It came from my apple tree that was destroyed in a snowstorm a few years ago. We cut down the remains of the tree but left the stump. The tree is regrowing now, and the wood I used was from the regrowth, symbolizing a time of rebirth and renewal.

I like to give Inanna offerings of fresh roses from my garden throughout the growing season and was sad that I won’t be able to grow any for several months, so I got Her a gold dipped rose (which is a product I only knew about from listening to Howard Stern, so I hope She isn’t too offended! lol). I picked a sparkly blue one that reminds me of lapis lazuli and the night sky.

On Christmas, I decided it would be most appropriate to honor Dumuzi. I was already working with him a lot in December through the Rod and Ring initiatory rituals. And of all my deities, he is most similar to the Christian one, being a shepherd god and male. I gave him a nice offering of cheese on Christmas day. It was a simple and quick ritual.

Back in November, did something similar, but a little bit more involved, to adapt Thanksgiving. I did a feast for all of my deities with offerings of things that they enjoy (like cheese for Dumuzi, dates for Inanna, etc.) right after doing a ritual to rededicate my temple to Inanna. I had recently thought of a name for my personal temple, E Ama Piring, Temple of the Mother Lioness, and I made a brick with the name inscribed in cuneiform to add to the dais, so I thought that improvement deserved a re-dedication ceremony (I hadn’t yet read ahead enough in Rod and Ring to know that I will be doing a temple dedication as part of my initiatory journey anyway, but that’s okay. That’s still months away and I’m sure I will have made plenty more changes by then).

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.

Inanna and the Huluppu Tree – Children’s Book Progress

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

I’ve been working on a new children’s picture book based on the Mesopotamian myth of the Huluppu Tree. I’m hoping to have it ready to release next month, by Thanksgiving (and the holiday shopping season!)

I wrote first draft of the text last month. I based it mostly on the popular translation by Samuel Noah Kramer, but simplified for the children’s picture book format. I did change “Lilith” to an owl, as respectable Assyriologists now agree that the Sumerian term ki-sikil-lil-la-ke from the original Sumerian version of the myth isn’t related to the Semitic folklore figure Lilith. One theory is that this inhabitant of the tree was simply meant to be an owl. It may have also been meant to represent a spirit or demon of some sort. For the purpose of a children’s book, I think that an owl is the best translation to get the point across. Owls are mysterious creatures of the night, while still being something that a child raised in the modern world can understand (without having nightmares).

In addition to the draft of the story adaptation itself, have also completed the story board and started working on the illustrations. I’m about a third of the way through drawing the illustrations right now. In the illustrations, I have interpreted the Huluppu tree as a willow-like tree. There are other interpretations of what kind of tree the Huluppu tree could have been, but willow seems to be the most common interpretation. I’ve also seen it proposed as a date palm. Aside from the willow interpretation being more popular, I think the symbolism and magickal properties of the willow tree work a little bit better than the date palm. Willows feel like they have a more feminine type of energy than the date palm to me, and they can symbolize rebirth, healing, and rapid growth. (The date palm would also have been a good choice symbolically, as they can represent fertility and abundance, though I feel like the willow is slightly more fitting for the purpose of this book).

From one of my in-progress illustrations for “Inanna and the Huluppu Tree.”

I still need to finish the illustrations, write the text for the front and back matter (glossary, brief historical overview, about the author, etc), and revise and edit the text and illustrations.

If this project goes well and there is any interest, I may eventually make a whole series of children’s books based on Sumerian myths. I will likely focus mainly on myths involving goddesses, especially Inanna.

I got the idea to write children’s books based on Mesopotamian mythology from the one existing picture book I found based on Inanna’s Descent. That one got the story completely wrong and changed so many details that it was completely unrecognizable aside from the characters’ names. I’d like to write my own children’s book version of the Descent myth and the myth where Inanna receives the mes from Enki. The challenge will be adapting them to be appropriate for modern-day children while still remaining accurate to the original myths.

I also have an idea for an novel (or more likely, novella – right now I’m estimating about 30,000-40,000ish words, though that could always change drastically as I add and/or remove ideas – I’m still in the very early stages of planning) based on the myths involving Inanna as well. I’m working on researching and outlining it now, and I’m planning to start writing it next month during NaNoWriMo. While I plan to write during NaNoWriMo, I think I’m going to do the challenge in a non-traditional way this year. I’m planning on writing the first draft for this short novel, and also finish up the children’s book during November, but not get caught up on word counts. I want this book to be more of a lyrical, succinct style, reminiscent of books like Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and the like. Something that has spiritual value, and that feels more like a classic rather than just another run-of-the-mill fantasy based loosely on mythology.

Whenever I do NaNoWriMo, I tend to get too caught up on quantity of words, rather than quality. This means I end up with a manuscript filled with useless nonsense that I never feel like wading through to salvage a story that I actually want to share with anyone. I like NaNoWriMo for the fact that it pushes me to write even when I don’t feel like I have the time, but I also recognize that it does encourage the bad habit of writing in a way that focuses on higher word counts over quality story telling.

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).

Adobe Fresco Goddess Paintings

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

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

Inanna Rising was inspired by Inanna’s descent to – and subsequent ascent from – the underworld.

Ama Nita

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.

Statue of Inanna – Air Dry Clay

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

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.

Lastest Clay Artwork: Cuneiform Tablet, Inanna Pocket Figurine, Tiny Cuneiform Tokens

Posted on by Jennifer Wilber

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.