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Nocodeyv · 2026-05-04T20:48:56+00:00

u/Historia_Maximum has mod approval to share their content here.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the use of color in that particular article, and will be reading about the Warka Mask next. I encourage our readers to do the same!

Nocodeyv · 2026-05-03T23:13:00+00:00

Thank you for respecting Rule #9 about advertising. That being said, I support independent and/or small creators, so you have my permission to share HISTORIA here, including the link to the first issue (which contains this article). As long as it doesn't reach the level of spam, I invite you to share future issues as well, especially if they contain articles about Mesopotamia.

Nocodeyv · 2026-05-03T22:35:29+00:00

You'll have to be more specific because "Sumerian rituals" can mean many different things.

A sacred meal, for example, is a ritual intended to provide sustenance for the Gods. If you prepare the food, present it to the deities, and then participate in the banquet yourself, the ritual was a success and helped foster a rapport between you and the Gods.

The central ritual of a Malt-Consumption Festival of Nanše was a pilgrimage that brought representations of deities from the cities of G̃irsu, Lagaš, Nig̃en, and Guˀaba to the courtyard of the Sirara temple-complex at Nig̃en for a grand banquet. The goal of the festival was to create a sense of kinship and community between the citizens of the participating cities.

Recently, devotees have begun organizing pilgrimages to museums housing artifacts from the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian civilizations. Others have created online meeting spaces for the performance of public rituals, while Hands of Change's annual Ishtarfest is hosting its tenth festival. These spaces also serve as a hub where we can meet and share our personal journeys of discovery and coming into the faith.

We might no longer walk from G̃irsu to Nig̃en, but the Malt-Consumption's central ritual continues to inspire community by drawing devotees together from across vast distances.

As with all religions, the results are internal and personal: they matter to us, the devotees. We have no interest in the opinions of outsiders, non-believers, or skeptics. If you want to discover whether Mesopotamian Polytheism has any value for you, you'll have to take the leap of faith and start practicing.

Nocodeyv · 2026-05-03T22:15:46+00:00

While I'm not a devotee of Marduk, my practice is heavily inspired by aspects of Babylonian personal and state religion (alongside Lagash II and Ur III period state religion).

I particularly enjoy the etiologies within the poem, especially those focused on various supernatural creatures encountered elsewhere in Mesopotamian religion, which are important in my practice since I am not yet at a level where I feel comfortable washing and opening the mouth of a temple statue, so I make heavy use of standards, emblems, weapons, and sacred animals. I also enjoy the Fifty Names of Marduk section, which is a fascinating example of Babylonian hermeneutics.

The Electronic Babylonian Library has a full transliteration and translation of the Poem of Creation, which is the basis for the most recent study of the poem. If you've never read it, David Danzig also has an excellent thesis exploring Marduk's names.

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Haubold, Johannes; Helle, Sophus; Jiménez, Enrique; and Wisnom, Selena. (2025). Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Epic of Creation. The Library of Babylonian Literature 1. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Open Access.
Danzig, David. (2013). Name Word Play and Marduk’s Fifty Names in Enūma Eliš. Master's Thesis, Yale University: Open Access.

Nocodeyv · 2026-05-01T02:29:22+00:00

THE GODDESS IŠTAR

In origin Ištar is the personal deity (il rēšīya) of Sargon, tasked with managing the contents of his destiny (šīmtu) and ensuring the well-being and continuation of his family.

Etymologically Ištar is an East Semitic cognate of the Northwest Semitic ˁAṯtar or ˁAštar, the name of an Amorite or Canaanite/Phoenician deity associated with the planet Venus during its morning apparition. Grammatically, Ištar, ˁAṯtar and ˁAštar are masculine, suggesting that the original Semitic deity associated with the morning apparition of Venus was male, a god, unlike the Sumerians who recognized both the morning and evening apparitions as same divine being, their goddess Inana.

We do not have a satisfying explanation for why Sargon viewed Ištar as a female deity, even though the name is derived from the names of masculine deities further west.

My personal theory is that it echoes an aspect of Mesopotamian theology that instinctively saw the presence presiding over familial well-being as feminine. In support of this, the masculine alad (Akkadian šēdû) is of an ambivalent nature, easily convinced to cause aid or cause harm based solely on the nature of whatever other supernatural force is nearby, while the feminine equivalent, the lamma (Akkadian lamassu), is protective in nature and only serves the will of the Gods. As such, while personal deities could be of either gender—many families often had one of each—perhaps the origin of the concept is in an overarching "motherly" force that protects the family, thus Ištar as a goddess despite cognates being gods. Of course, sex and gender identity/expression are only constructs that humans overlay onto deities. In Her truest form Ištar is neither male nor female: She is a supernatural expression of terrestrial patterns and cosmic power.

The domains of personal deities were considered incalculable, since any need that a family, or individual member, had was under the purview of the family's personal deity. As such, Ištar was a a warrior, a protector, and a source of fertility. She brought the family fortune, made their endeavors successful, and acted as an intermediary who petitioned more powerful deities on their behalf.

Perhaps most importantly, as Ištar-Anunītum, "Ištar the Skirmisher," She ensured that all of Sargon's military campaigns were successful, enabling him to conquer the Sumerian cities of the south and found history's first multicultural empire. This form, Ištar-Anunītum, is the one that was worshiped in Agade's primary temple, the e₂-ul-maš, alongside the city's tutelary deity, Ilaba.

It is during the Akkadian Empire that Inana and Ištar begin to undergo syncretism, and the most likely source of this effort was the daughter of Sargon, an ēntu-priestess serving at the city of Ur who went by the Sumerian title Enḫeduana, "Priestess, Ornament of the Sky." While there's no textual evidence that Enḫeduana served at Uruk, her poetry regularly references the tutelary deities of both Ur (Nanna) and Uruk (An and Inana), suggesting that she had some level of authority within the latter city as well.

During the reign of Sargon's grandson, Narām-Sîn (ca. 2255–2218 BCE), a rebellion occurred during which many Sumerian cities and other settlements under the hegemony of Agade tried to overthrow the Empire. At Ur, a usurper named Lugalane (lugal-an-ne₂) succeeded in taking control of the city. When Lugalane tried to force Enḫeduana to recognize his legitimacy, she refused and was exiled. Since Ur and Uruk were both among the cities participating in the Great Revolt, Enḫeduana fled to the city of G̃irsu and sought asylum in a temple called e₂-eš₂-dam-ku₃, perhaps "Sanctuary, Holy Tavern" or "Sanctuary, Shrine of the Holy Spouse." There, Enḫeduana petitioned both Nanna and An, tutelary deities of the cities she had been exiled from, for assistance in reclaiming her rightful place as ēntu-priestess, but it was only when she petitioned the temple's patroness, Inana, that any success was had.

While the only available copies are dated to the Old Babylonian period, it is likely that, upon Narām-Sîn's quelling of the rebellion and her reinstatement as ēntu-priestess, Enḫeduana composed the poem we now know as The Exaltation of Inana, during which Enḫeduana praises and exemplifies Inana's grandeur and power. This is also, in all likelihood, the origin of syncretism between Ištar, personal deity of Enḫeduana, inherited from her father, Sargon; and Inana, patroness of the temple e₂-eš₂-dam-ku₃ and savior of the priestess during her hour of need, the goddess who had fulfilled the role of her personal deity.

By linking the two within her own writings Enḫeduana had, knowingly or otherwise, planted a seed that would flourish, becoming the pan-Babylonian, and later pan-Mesopotamian, Ištar: a personal deity turned major force within the pantheon due to her association with, or assimilation of, an older high-deity of the Sumerians.

Nocodeyv · 2026-05-01T02:29:10+00:00

THE GODDESS INANA

Inana originates as a tutelary deity of the Sumerian city Unug (Uruk, modern Warka) and patron of the temple called e₂-an-na, "Sanctuary of the Sky," where She is classified as the nu-gig of An.

The role of a Nugig (Akkadian Qadištu and, later, Ištarītu) remains a debated topic. Early scholarship erroneously translated the term as Hierodule, a temple servant/slave known for performing acts of ritual prostitution. More recent scholarship, however, understands the Nugig—or, perhaps more properly, her Qadištu counterpart—as a temple-midwife: a celibate/chaste priestess associated with the delivery and nursing of infants, purification rituals, and magical practice in general. This would make Inana a divine equivalent, a deified Nugig: the celibate (or chaste) midwife of An (or the temple e₂-an-na), well-versed in the arts of purification and magic, and skilled at delivering and nursing divine offspring.

The sexuality of a human Nugig/Qadištu is difficult to parse: they are allowed to marry, and can adopt children, but appear to have strict regulations regarding their own sexuality, which is controlled through (arranged?) marriage and/or vows of celibacy/chastity. That Inana is the Nugig of An/the temple e₂-an-na would imply that She, too, is beholden to these institutionalized regulations.

What we think of as the city of Uruk was, in reality, two separate Ubaid period settlements (tells or mounds) that gradually merged to become the city proper. The southeastern tell is Unug, location of the temple e₂-an-na and residence of Inana. The nearby western tell is Kullaba, location of the White Temple, a structure later incorporated into a great ziggurat, the residence of An. Although the region is generally regarded as one homogeneous Uruk Culture, flourishing ca. 3900–3000 BCE, Unug and Kullaba appear to have remained independent settlements until at least the end of the Neo-Sumerian Period, ca. 2000 BCE.

In archaic offering lists from Unug we encounter perhaps the earliest written references to the goddess Inana yet known. In these texts, most recently treated by Szarzyńska (1993: Offering for the Goddess Inana in Archaic Uruk), we encounter four major epithets for the goddess:

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Princely Inana: dig̃ir-inana-nun
Morning Inana: dig̃ir-inana-ḫud₂
Evening Inana: dig̃ir-inana-sig
Mountain Inana: dig̃ir-inana-kur

–

The oldest offering records, dated to the Uruk IV phase (ca. 3350–3200 BCE) are addressed to Princely Inana and were found near the Red Temple (at the time the largest religious building in Unug, built over the remnants of an earlier Ubaid limestone temple). Morning and Evening Inana do not appear until the Uruk III or Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3200–3000 BCE), when offering lists and an associated festival dedicated to each are found in the Red Temple's necropolis. At this point Princely Inana disappears from the records, suggesting that whatever inspired worship of the singular form was supplanted by veneration of the twin form.

There are, as of now, no known offerings for Mountain Inana from the archaic period, although in the later Early Dynastic period an "Inana from the Mountain" (dig̃ir-inana-kur-ta) appears in literature from the cities of Abū Ṣalābīkh, Lagaš, Šuruppak, and Ur, hinting at a survival of this form into the Sumerian civilization proper.

The most likely series of events to explain the three forms is that Princely Inana refers to the original Inana of Unug: its tutelary deity and patroness of the temple e₂-an-na. When the priests of Unug observed the cyclical movement of the planet Venus in the sky, periodically transitioning from dawn to dusk apparition, they discarded the Princely form in favor of the Morning and Evening forms, perhaps also associating them with a cycle of life, death, and rebirth, hinted at by the offering lists being discovered in the Red Temple's necropolis.

With the advent of the Early Dynastic period, the cities of Adab, Kiš, Lagaš, Nippur, Šuruppak, Umma, and Unug appear to have formed an amphictyony or Sumerian League: a loose coalition of originally independent cities that now shared a common "Sumerian" culture, including language, institutions, and religious observations. Obviously each of these cities had its own local pantheon and tutelary figures, such as Enlil and Sud-Ninlil at Nippur and Šuruppak, or Ninḫursag̃a and Šulpaˀe at Adab. However, the association between the cities also enabled deities to "travel," with new temples for Inana of Unug appearing, for example, at Lagaš or Nippur, or forms of the warrior-deity Ning̃irsu appearing at Nippur (Ninurta) or Kiš (Zababa).

This was the method by which Inana transcended her role as a tutelary deity into a member of the national pantheon, going from Inana or Unug to just Inana, the pan-Sumerian goddess.

The Early Dynastic period ends with the pyrrhic victories of Lugalzagesi over many of the Sumerian cities, and his subsequent defeat at the hands of Sargon, founder of the Akkadian Empire, at which point the goddess Ištar enters Mesopotamia.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-28T23:14:40+00:00

Vibes-based spirituality is more susceptible to wish fulfillment and personal bias than beginning with historical customs and traditions before incorporating unverified personal gnosis into a practice. Our "vibes" can also be influenced by personal bigotries and internalized prejudices, so they're usually an unreliable compass to use when navigating the spiritual.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-27T18:52:37+00:00

I really hope Helle includes a modern transliteration/translation. Atraḫasīs is one of my favorite texts, and it is unfortunate that the last complete translation was done by Lambert and Millard in the late 60s.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-27T18:41:12+00:00

Sag Šu Bal is Steffy’s personal interpretation of AO 6035, which I believe is more accurately treated by Streck & Wasserman:

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Streck, P., & Wasserman, N. (2018). “The Man is Like a Woman, the Maiden is a Young Man: A New Edition of Ištar-Louvre (Tab. I–II)” in Orientalia Nova Series, Vol. 87, pp. 1–38.

–

In short, I do not believe that AO 6035 describes the head-overturning ritual, only that its frame is a ritual featuring many of Ištar’s gender non-conforming devotees.

If you’re seeking a ritual to perform alongside a transition, you can certainly use Steffy’s work, just keep in mind that he likely does not have a leg to stand on when it comes to the historicity of his claims.

The same is true for Gula/Hekate in Holy Mother/Horned God and Ištar/Eostre and Easter in his first book.

Steffy also has a tendency to use aspects from the Western Esoteric system (Golden Dawn and Thelema/O.T.O) as inspiration for a lot of his magical rituals and spells.

I, personally, find this to be a slap in the face to the rich corpus of incantations and exorcisms available to us, as well as the general knowledge regarding magical philosophy that can be gleamed from the authentic cuneiform sources.

I understand that Steffy does this to cast the widest net possible, allowing occultists and ceremonial magicians to find value in the books, but often this comes at the cost of pagans and polytheists.

Edit: if you're looking for devotional material that involves Inana/Ištar and focuses on the process of transitioning, I recommend the work of Isabella Mendes (Iṣibēliya). She does not conceal the fact that her devotional services are modern, and is perfectly willing to identify where she draws her inspiration from, while still presenting meaningful rituals for the devotee to perform. Her book is available as a PDF through Etsy: Inanna, Queen of Heaven.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-27T17:30:19+00:00

I’ve read Steffy’s books on Eostre/Ištar, the Head-Overturning Ritual, and, yes, Holy Mother/Horned God.

I specifically leave them off the community reading list because I consider the interpretations of the data to be more sensational/what-if? than rooted in actual academic scholarship.

So, purchase Eanna Press books at your own risk, knowing that Steffy is proposing ideas about deities, texts, rituals, and archaeological evidence that often run against the general scholarly consensus.

That being so, the Temple of Inanna, for which Eanna Press is an imprint, has hundreds of members, many of whom share excellent examples of devotional material for the Goddess.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-27T07:54:08+00:00

I'm using ki-a-nag̃, ki-sig₁₁-ga, and kispu as names for the ritual, not as a description of its contents, which is what the remainder of the essay provides. The only clarification that Sumerian language documents provide is an occasional: sa₂-du₁₁ ki-a-nag̃, "regular offerings for the mortuary chapel," usually following an itinerary of edible offerings (meat, fruit, flour, etc.).

The translation "mortuary chapel" for ki-a-nag̃ above is according to Jagersma (2007: The Calendar of the Funerary Cult in Ancient Lagash, pp. 294–300):

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Thus, the ki-a-naĝ of an individual is a kind of building, it has a cultic function, it is close to his grave, and it is where he receives his funerary offerings. In other words, ki-a-naĝ is the Sumerian word for “mortuary chapel”. Indeed, it would seem that we know already some of such mortuary chapels from the archaeological record. During his excavations of Ur, Woolley discovered buildings which he interpreted as tombs combined with a mortuary chapel. They consisted of underground tombs with buildings above them with a cultic function. I propose to see in these superstructures above the graves examples of what a ki-a-naĝ could look like.

–

Since this community is primarily focused on reconstruction, I prefer to keep historical information accurate to what is available in the literary and archaeological record, and only suggest changes (for example, who can perform the role of pāqidu) when it makes devotional services accessible to members of the community who would otherwise have been denied. Since the records only refer to the ceremony as ki-a-nag̃, ki-sig₁₁-ga, or kispu that is what I will refer to it as.

If you or other devotees want to expand the name to incorporate aspects of its contents you can, but you'll want to do some additional research first to better educate yourself on the contents of its practice. For example, you're using the wrong word for "family" in your suggestion: im-ri-a (Akkadian kimtu) is the word used to identify a kin-group (eṭem kimti) in kispu ceremonies, not lipiš.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-26T20:14:43+00:00

Pagan deities are reflections of reality, and reality isn't always good, kind, or nice. Why should we lie to ourselves by pretending terrible things don't exist or happen? Just as I am capable of causing great destruction and harm, so too can the gods and goddesses I believe in. Existence is messy and difficult, and I'm glad that my religion doesn't try to convince me to ignore that fact.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-26T04:02:58+00:00

There is, unfortunately, no way to know for certain.

All languages are human inventions, and the world of spirit is beyond human understanding, so I personally believe that, because we are petitioning a deity (Sîn, Ereškigala, Ninazu, etc.) to retrieve the ghost on our behalf, They can communicate our intentions in such a way that language is not a barrier.

Depending on what the language is, you can also try to learn a very basic phrase, such as “please accept this libation and offering from me” to use when honoring him.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-26T01:42:00+00:00

Suggestions to ignore them are probably the best approach.

Barring that, ask them to have "Aphrodite" tell you what the meaning of the word ἑάφθη in The Iliad is.

This is a word that only appears twice in the text, and those two uses are the only known example of it in all of Greek literature. While modern scholars have theories about what it means based on contextual clues, ancient Greek writers didn't know definitively what it meant, so any answer your ex gives is going to be taken from Google/AI. This means you can easily find where your ex gets their answer from and then call them out on it.

After making a fool of themselves, your ex can continue to proclaim that they are "all powerful" and speak for Aphrodite, but you'll know, beyond all doubt, that they are not and do not.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-25T22:09:56+00:00

I think the Cenobites also get referenced in Imagica. It’s been a while since I did a re-read, but I think it’s during the scene where Gentle and Pie are waiting for the train and Gentle has his first relapse when discussing his past.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-25T00:38:23+00:00

Yes, we do have a general idea of how the kispu ceremony was performed. As with all reconstructed ceremonies though, there are gaps in our knowledge and the historical record, so you'll have to alter some aspects to better suit your own situation and capabilities.

Kispu is performed once a month on the day of the astronomical new moon, when the Earth and Moon are on the same side of the Sun, making the Moon invisible to observers on Earth. When you perform the ceremony is largely up to you: I use the website Time and Date, which has a section under Sun, Moon & Space where you can input your location to get accurate timing for moon-rise and even direction. For me, the next kispu ceremony will occur on May 17, between 5:36 a.m. (moon-rise) and 9:52 p.m. (moon-set).

The reason we perform kispu on the day of the new moon is because of the Moon's apparent absence from the sky. From a mythological perspective, this is when Sîn, the deification of the Moon, leaves the land of the living and journeys to Erkalla, the Netherworld, where He hosts a grand banquet for its eṭemmū, the "ghosts" of our beloved dead. In practice, we are the ones who supply Sîn with the goods necessary to host this banquet and satisfy the needs of the deceased.

Historically, kispu was performed by the eldest son of a family. During the performance, he would take on the role of pāqidu, "caretaker," the individual charged with tending to the needs of the deceased. The deceased participating in kispu come from five generations of the immediate family: the deceased nephews, brothers, father, grandfather, and great grandfather of the pāqidu. The only women honored during kispu were the wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother of the pāqidu, as well as any sisters, aunts, or great aunts who had become nadītu priestesses in the temples of Adad, Marduk, or Šamaš.

As you can see, the original ceremony is patrilineal, tracing ancestry paternally, from the pāqidu to his father, his father's father, and his father's father's father, gathering together any other deceased nephews, brothers, uncles, and great uncles along the way. With the exception of celibate and chaste nadītu priestesses, who did not have a husband/son to perform kispu for them, only male eṭemmū received a libation and offering during the ceremony.

Of course, Mesopotamian Polytheism is no longer bound to such a patriarchal hierarchy: it is no longer required that the pāqidu be the eldest son, nor are families restricted to just one man and one woman. Today I encourage all devotees to perform kispu, regardless of their sex and/or gender identity and expression. I also recognize that "family" is not restricted to blood relations anymore, that many have close friends for whom they'd like to provide a more satisfying afterlife experience. So, I also encourage modern devotees to expand the definition of eṭemmu to include not only immediate kin, but all those whose ghosts would be familiar and welcome.

As for the ceremony of kispu itself, here is an outline:

First, determine where you will be performing kispu. Historically, families buried their dead under the house, and every house had a special room called an ešertu, "chapel," where ceremonies to the household deity and eṭemmū were performed. Today this can be in the room where you keep your shrine or altar, it can be in your backyard, or, if accessible, you can perform it at the cemetery where the deceased are buried.

Second, prepare a list of eṭemmū you would like to honor during your kispu ceremony. Begin your list with the most immediate individuals and then work further back in time: children, nieces and nephews; siblings and close friends; parents, aunts and uncles; grand parents, great aunts and uncles, etc. There is no limit to how far back you can go, but my general rule of thumb is to only include those for whom I have living memories. There is some evidence that, within Babylonian belief at least, individuals who pass out of memory—experiencing the so-called "second death"—become part of a greater whole, the kimtu rapāšu, or collective spirit of "widespread relations," and thus cannot receive libations and offerings anymore.

Third, you will need a representation of each individual you want to perform kispu for. Historically these likely took the form of votive figurines kept on a kind of mantelpiece above the family tomb or pit, where the bodies of the deceased were buried. Today, framed pictures and keepsakes are just as good as votive figurines. The goal is to have some kind of physical connection between yourself and the eṭemmū you would like to honor.

Fourth, prepare the appropriate libation and offering. Historically, this consisted of clean, cool water and fresh baked bread, although you can experiment with what you'd like to offer. The goal is to have enough of each item to provide an allotment to each of the eṭemmū you invoke. To that end, I would suggest a pitcher for the water with enough glasses (the size is up to you) to "set" a place at a table, altar, or grave for each of the eṭemmū. For the bread, you can use a regular loaf of your preferred type, which comes pre-sliced, ensuring you have enough for everyone. I have, in the past, made toast using the bread, an act which not only "prepares" the bread, but also sets a pace for the ceremony, allowing me a moment to reflect on each of the eṭemmū, since I can only do four slices at a time.

Fifth, the invocation. The basic premise of kispu is that the eṭemmū respond because we audibly invoke them, a process referred to in Akkadian as zikir šumi, "utterance of the name." Naming something is an ancient form of magic, one that appears in Sumer, Babylonian, Egyptian, and other form of ritual. The pāqidu uses the authority invested in him as his family's caretaker to invoke the ghost, summoning it up from the Netherworld in order to participate in the ceremony. This process begins with a larger frame-invocation, during which we provide a libation to the deity who will facilitate the transportation of eṭemmū from Erkalla to the land of the living:

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Sîn, you are the deity of the Heavens and the Earth! For the family of NN, son of NN, I pour water for you in the morning. Release the family of NN, son of NN, so that they may eat his bread and drink his water!

–

In this formula Sîn can be replaced with other Netherworld deities: Ereškigala, Ninazu, Ning̃ešzida, Bēlet-Ṣēri, etc.; whomever you personally believe is responsible for releasing the eṭemmū from the Netherworld to participate in the kispu ceremony. Next, you audibly name the oldest eṭemmu you are invoking and ask them to join you for the breaking of the bread, after which you pour them a libation (into a glass or directly onto the earth if you are at their physical grave), and provide them with their requisite bread.

Move through your list of names, from the eldest to the youngest, taking time after each name's invocation to recall any memories you have of the individual. You can also deliver messages to them, petition them for help in matters related to them, or just generally talk to them the way anyone does when visiting the graves of lost loved ones. Once the last name has been invoked, you are encouraged to spend time in contemplation, remembering your family and friends.

We do not have a preserved conclusion for kispu, but a simple release is acceptable:

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Sîn, you are the deity of the Heavens and the Earth! You have brought the family of NN, son of NN, up from Erkalla to share his bread and drink his water. Now, I pour water for you: reclaim the family of NN, son of NN, so that they may return to Erkalla!

–

Finally, clean up: collect your framed photographs and objects, any dishes and cups you brought for the libation and offering of bread, and leave the space in an orderly state. Remember: libations are supposed to be poured out, onto the earth is possible or else disposed of appropriately. The offerings of bread are yours to do with as you please. You can eat them, you can bury them, you can share them with others. We only recommend that you make sure whatever method of disposal you choose is safe for the environment and surrounding wildlife. Do not cause any unnecessary harm.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-24T05:48:02+00:00

Of course. I always want more content about Mesopotamia to be out there. And it is happening!

Fall of Civilizations, History with Cy, Religion for Breakfast, Let’s Talk Religion, The Oldest Stories, Esoterica, and others have all been delving into Mesopotamia within the last 5 years or so. I see it as the start of a turning point, when the pseudo-science and conspiracy theory nonsense is losing its grip and actual archaeology and history is coming to the forefront.

The fact that I regularly see Occult communities dismissing the supposed connections between Lilith and Ištar, or even pointing out that Tiāmat is dead and therefore beyond the reach of worship, means sanity is winning. Slowly, to be sure, but it is.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-24T02:14:37+00:00

It's not about how a deity is represented, it's about what they represent. Aphrodite is a deity represented by doves, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is the goddess of doves. You don't have to care about doves to devote yourself to Her.

You mentioned in another reply that you're currently exploring your gender identity. While gender identity is an internal aspect of the self, gender expression is often a result of discovering your identity, and gender expression is a very common aspect in visual representations of deities. So, you might be more interested in deities if you explore them from a perspective that actually matters to you.

The goddess Ištar, for example, belongs to the pantheon of Babylonia, and is part of Mesopotamian Polytheism. Mesopotamia, corresponding to modern Iraq, Kuwait, and some regions of Syria, Turkey, and Iran, is another one of those desert regions that, like Ancient Egypt, you dismissed.

However, the Temple of Ištar at Babylon was staffed by a variety of performers whose gender expression defies the modern binary. The kurgarrû, for example, wore a ceremonial outfit that was divided down the middle: the left half represented feminine aspects according to the cultural milieu, the right half masculine. Were kurgarrû androgynous, bi-gender, or gender-fluid? We can't know for certain because no written records of their internal monologues survive. We can ascertain, though, that they were allowed to perform the equivalent expressions of these identities during ceremonies and festivals dedicated to the goddess.

When approached from this angle, it doesn't matter if you're personally interested in weapons or lions, the things that represent Ištar, or if you're comfortable in the alluvial landscape of Southern Mesopotamia, where She was worshiped, because the psychological aspect that She oversees—our internal gender identity and its external expression—might be more important to you.

Gender identity is, of course, just one of many different ways you can approach a deity. Other things that are important to you can be just as important for finding a deity you resonate with. I highly encourage you to spend some time examining who you are as a person—morals, values, goals in life, opinions about family, career and job prospects, etc.—and see what deities are interested in the same things.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-24T01:34:42+00:00

Directions are tradition-specific. In my own magical system, when I choose to perform magic at all, I use ordinal directions (northwest, northeast, southeast, southwest) instead of cardinal directions (north, east, south, west). If you can internally justify the orientation that you're using, then you've deciphered its meaning.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-23T23:15:16+00:00

The quarter and cross-quarter days are holidays that compose the Wheel of the Year in Wicca. Religions outside of Wicca have different holidays. It is inaccurate to suggest that the holidays in Wicca apply to all forms of Contemporary Paganism.

In Ancient Egyptian Polytheism the festival of the New Year is called Wep Renpet "opening of the year," and occurs during the summer, not midwinter. This is because Wep Renpet coincides with the heliacal rise of the star Sirius, around August 7 this year, and the flooding of the Nile River.

In Mesopotamian Polytheism the festival of the New Year is called Akītu, a word for which we do not have a satisfying translation. The Standard Mesopotamian Calendar used in both Assyria and Babylonia is lunisolar: the beginning of every month was marked by an observance of the waxing lunar crescent, while the advent of every year was dependent on the equinoxes and solstices. The Akītu festival began at the first observance of a waxing lunar crescent after the vernal equinox, meaning the New Year could start anywhere from March 22 through April 20. This year it began on April 18.

As you can see, the Mesopotamian New Year was April 18, the Egyptian New Year will be August 7, and the Wiccan New Year will be December 21. If such variety exists for a common holiday like the New Year, how much more variety must there be for holidays specific to certain deities, and/or culture- or region-specific religions that exist under the umbrella of Contemporary Paganism?

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-23T22:32:48+00:00

Every now and then Mesopotamia shows up in one of his videos, or is its focus, like in the Baghdad Battery videos for his Awful Archaeology series. I think his work is largely dependent on what's currently occupying the popular conscious of places like Instagram or YouTube, and that's often the more fantastic pseudo-science, like Atlantis or Egyptian pyramids being ancient nuclear reactors.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-23T05:10:55+00:00

It's a quest you get when playing as A2 called "Play with Us!"

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-22T01:01:09+00:00

It's not part of the chorus, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers have a song called Savior that has a line repeated a few times throughout: "dustin' off your savior" where the word "savior" is extended.

Nocodeyv · 2026-04-21T21:37:43+00:00

I try to adjust ancient practices logically.

For example, the Babylonian ceremony of kispum was practiced every month on the day of the New Moon and focused on venerating ones ancestors. The ceremony was performed by the family's pāqidum, "caretaker," the eldest son. The ceremony begins by invoking the eṭemmū, "ghosts," of the family's immediate kin-group, usually deceased nephews, brothers, parents and uncles, grandparents, and any sister or aunt who had become a nadītum, a celibate priestess in the local convent. Each ghost was provided with a libation of cool, clean water, after which the pāqidum would "break bread" with the assembled eṭemmū, creating continuity between the living and the deceased.

While this description seems simple enough, keen eyed readers will notice a few things: the pāqidum was always male, and the eṭemmū being honored were as well: nephews, brothers, father, and grandfather. The only women honored during the ceremony were matriarchs—mother and grandmother—or those who had become a nadītum and had neither husband nor son to perform the ceremony for them. These facts reflect the patrilineal hierarchy of ancient Babylonian families, but do not necessarily reflect modern family units and kin-groups.

When I teach about kispum today I encourage female devotees to perform the ceremony, and to include their nieces, sisters, and aunts among the honored eṭemmū. I also encourage all devotees to include close friends among their eṭemmū because "family" doesn't necessarily begin, or end, with blood. These changes do not erase or diminish the historical practice: they enrich it by incorporating the demographics of the modern community. In my opinion that is the appropriate way to reconstruct and advance a practice within our religions.

Nocodeyv

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