Vendredi: Chthonian Histories

One of the first published authors in western history was a woman who wrote about a woman.  In fact, she may be the first author in the world.  Enheduanna, High Priestess of the moon god Nanna in Ancient Sumer, documented her love for another deity in hymns of praise and apocryphal stories around 2,300 BCE.  Enheduanna’s chosen subject was the greatest goddess in her people’s pantheon.

Known to the Sumerians as Inanna, who ruled for the most part benevolently from her temple in the city of Erech, she would be called by many more names before Rome conquered her people and eradicated her cult.  In Babylon she was Astarte, then in Assyria and Ancient Persia she became Ishtar.  Her name was also memorialized in the Hebrew Bible; the heroine in the Book of Esther bears a Canaanite form of her name.

The most famous story of Inanna, told by Enheduanna in bits and pieces throughout her hymns, is that of her descent to the underworld realm of her fearsome sister, Ereshkigal.  This chthonian history was a mythological device long before the rise of Sumerian civilization, and it became a lynchpin in the all important New Year’s ritual of Sacred Marriage between the living king and a priestess representing Inanna.

According to the story, Inanna married a mortal shepherd, Dumuzi (Tammuz in the mythos of Ishtar), who she raised to the level of king in Erech.  The couple was happy and the land prospered.  As was typical, though, Inanna grew bored and looked around for more worlds to conquer.  She set her heart of the netherworld empire of her older sister Ereshkigal, where a vast horde of gold, silver and jewels was said to be stored.

Though Dumuzi, Inanna’s attendants – including Dumuzi’s sister Geshtinanna – and the god Enki implored Inanna not to pursue such folly, she brushed their good advice aside.  Dressing in her finest linens and jewels, with the crown of Erech on her brow, she went down the perilous stairway to the Underworld.  Her one concession to the potential danger of her undertaking came in the form of instructions, not to her husband, but to her steward, Ninshubur.  She told this demigod that if she was not back within seven days he must petition Enki for her freedom, for she would surely be among the dead.

Inanna’s journey began at the first of seven gates that led to the royal hall of the Queen of the Underworld.  Here the ghastly demons known as galla demanded tribute from the goddess before they would let her pass.  First her jewels, then her gowns and finally, at the seventh gate, her crown went to the monsters until she stood naked before her dolorous sister.

Ereshkigal, insulted by Inanna’s attempt to usurp her power, turned the soul-stealing eyes of the Judges of the Underworld upon her sister.  Inanna promptly dropped dead on the dusty floor of the hall.  Ereshkigal had her body hung from a hook mounted on a tall stake where it could be seen by all who entered her throne room.

Meanwhile, Ninshubur waited the allotted time and, when his mistress did not return, he hurried to the hall of Enki, the Lord of the Waters.  Enki, who was uncle to Inanna and Ereshkigal, descended into the Underworld.  As he was a stronger deity even than the Queen of the Dead, Ereshkigal made no initial protest when he took Inanna’s body down from the stake and revived her with the “water of life”.  But as the god and goddess went to leave, Ereshkigal reminded them that no one who had become one of the dead could permanently return to Earth or even Heaven without supplying a substitute to join the minions of her realm.

With a pledge to do just that, Inanna was allowed to pass through the seven gates where her finery was returned to her.  But a retinue of the galla followed her in their role as harvesters of souls.  They would kill her chosen substitute in the worst possible way, and drag him or her back to the chthonian world of their Queen.

Inanna wandered the land, visiting the gods and goddesses of city after city.  All of them bowed down before the Queen of Heaven and reminded her of good deeds they had done her and gifts they had given her.  Because of their kindnesses, she let them live and moved on finally arriving at her own beloved Erech.

Here, to her great surprise and disgust, she found her beloved husband Dumuzi not in mourning but sitting on her throne.  He made her people his playthings and “left no man his fortune nor no virgin to her father.”   Outraged, Inanna ordered the galla to take her own spouse to the Underworld as her replacement. 

Dumuzi set out into the countryside that he knew well, and for a time found refuge thanks to his father-in-law Utu, Lord of the Sun, but the galla were relentless.  Eventually Inanna’s shepherd-husband was caught by the galla, tortured, killed and dragged off to the Underworld.

The poignant dénouement of the story comes with the self-sacrifice of Inanna’s lady in waiting.  Geshtinanna travelled to the Underworld and offered herself in her brother’s place.  Ereshkigal, impressed with the girl’s courage, cut her a deal.  Dumuzi would stay half the year in the Underworld.  Geshtinanna would replace him the other half not as a pathetic, dust-eating shade but as Ereshkigal’s personal scribe.

In this way the shepherd-lover Dumuzi embodied the fertile months of the year while Geshtinanna became synonymous with winter.  The resulting rite of Sacred Marriage, then, ensured the kings of Sumer, Babylon and Assyria not only personal power, but the fruitfulness of their kingdoms.  And it is thanks in large part to the first author in history, a lady named Enheduanna, that we know what happened when the Queen of Heaven went boldly into the Underworld.

Header: Ishtar in Hades (Inanna before Ereshkigal) by E. Wallcousins

Jeudi: Curios

As we’ve discussed before, crystals, gems and metals that are frequently used in all forms of magick would probably be classified under the heading of curios in hoodoo. Many of these items are new to root work, although some use of rocks and minerals has a long-standing tradition in Voudon. Sometimes there is a bit of a cross-over, however, and today’s metal is one of those exceptions.

Copper is a very old metal that has been used in religious and ritual magick for centuries. Copper was sacred to the Queen of Heaven in ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, Persian and Arab cultures. Copper objects have been dedicated to all the goddesses of love and battle, Inanna, Astarte, Ishtar and Al-Uzza for instance. This in turn has led to copper’s association with Venus, the Morning Star. Copper talismans were common in Ancient Egypt and usually worn by people who could not purchase gold or silver. Copper was also sacred to the Native cultures of the Pacific Northwest.

As copper is an excellent conductor of energy, it is often used in the making of “magick wands”. These are used by individuals and groups to focus magickal energy.

The use of copper as both healer and protector is also long standing. Indigenous healers in Central and South America use copper, often in the form of old, all-copper pennies, as a conductor for removing physical or psychological illness from a body. This has translated to the New Age habit of wearing copper bracelets or anklets to balance bodily energy. According to Scott Cunningham, these should be worn on the left side by right-hand-dominant people, and vice versa.

Old Indian Head pennies are used in hoodoo for protection. The idea is that the Native American on the copper coin stands as a “watcher” to keep trouble away from a person or place. This usage of a copper penny is thought to be particularly effective for shady or outright illegal businesses. Such pennies are also believed to bring luck and money, particularly if minted in a leap year.
Finally, probably because of its ancient affiliation with Venus, copper is thought to attract love. Scott Cunningham advises that an emerald set in a copper ring is an excellent talisman for improving one’s love life. Bonne chance ~

Header: Babylonian Statue of Ishtar wearing copper jewelry c 1,000 BCE

Jeudi: Great Spirits

Islam is, of course, one of the “big three” world religions.  Like its progenitor Judaism and its sibling Christianity, it is a markedly patriarchal system.  Given these facts, it should come as no surprise that Islam has also tried to stamp out the memory of any goddesses that ruled over its people before it swept through and “saved” them.  The religion has done a pretty good job, in all fairness, but a trinity of goddesses – one of whom was once worshipped by the family of the prophet Mohammed – still lingers in the collective Semitic memory.

The ancient Arabic ladies known as Al-Uzza, Al-lat and Menat form a sort of Maiden/Mother/Crone group that will be familiar to many pagans.  Much like the same sort of trinity in Wiccan and Druid traditions, these goddesses stand alone at times, meld with each other at others and are sometimes confused or even mistaken for one another.  For instance, the temple thought to be dedicated to Al-Uzza, the virgin warrior, at Petra in modern Jordan, is also mentioned as a place of worship for Al-lat, the fertile mother.

The confusion here is particularly easy to understand.  Just as Al-lah simply means “God”, so Al-lat means “Goddess”.  This is not uncommon in languages of the ancient Near East.  A similar quirk in the Phoenician language, for instance, created the god Ba’al (Lord) and his consort Ba’alat (Lady).  It is worth noting that the acacia tree was sacred to Ba’alat, just as it was to the warrior Al-Uzza.

Al-Uzza was the particular goddess of Northern Arabia and the Koreishite tribe into which Mohammed was born.  She was thought of as a nubile woman whose name meant “the strong”.  Her particular symbol was the morning and evening star and, much like Astarte and Ishtar before her, she took on the oversight of love and war.  Her sacred acacia grove, whose trees were thought to house the spirit of the goddess, was just south of Mecca.  Mohammed had the grove and its temple destroyed as he strove to assert the rule of the “One true God”.

Al-lat, the Goddess, was compared by the Romans to their Ceres.  She has also been compared to the Egyptian Isis.  A goddess of fertility and protector of her people, she was often symbolized by sheaves of wheat or other grains.  She also had a shrine near Mecca where she was venerated in the form of a giant block of white granite.  According to Patricia Monaghan, women were required to appear before the block of stone naked, and circle it once around.  Doing so would guarantee the granting of any boon asked of the goddess.  Ancient Arabians swore oaths by the name of Al-lat, as she was considered to be as permanent and steadfast as the white granite block at her shrine.  Needless to say, this too was destroyed with the coming of Islam.

The third component to the triad was Menat or Menata.  Her name meant, alternatively, “fate”, “allotment” or “death”.  Much like the Angel of Death in Christian myth, Menat was the spirit who came for a person when it was time for them to die.  She was called down when curses were necessary; provided the curse was righteous, Menat would punish the evil-doer.  Like Al-lat, Menat was thought to inhabit a block of stone.  Hers was a huge piece of black granite at Quidaid near Medina and its location is still a place associated with the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

As is often the case with goddesses, people are reluctant to abandon them all together.  Thus the Koran lists Al-Uzza, Al-lat and Menat as three of the daughters of Al-lah.  In that holy book they are longer goddesses, but spirits who intercede for humans much like the Virgin Mary in Catholic Christianity.

Header: Al-Uzza, Al-lat & Menat by Thalia Took (find her fascinating site listed on the sidebar)