the-tangled-thread

[the-tangled-thread]

[to any deity in particular]: Hi. I’ve brought shitty alcohol, two electric candles, a chocolate bar, my many issues, and an undying love for you. Can you help me un-fuck myself?

[deity]: sighs deeply

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Uruk, Iraq 

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People scream, suffocating with happiness, And moan so sweetly, and breathe so quickly…

It is all quite  rosy.

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There are strange things that lay in the deep,

I tread and I wait.

five minutes of gaining ground.

five minutes of rest.

I hold my cloak close to me as the flowing cold fills my lungs and runs through me like needle through cloth.

I've been wandering for days,

days that feel like months,

none last long, fewer I meet still on this same pilgrimage are alight when I come across them.

I can feel my own fire failing me, but I cover myself, and I continue on.

There's something here.

I stride forward, wrapped in warmth, only briefly broken by daggers of cold,

empowered until I find the base, the point where sky meets the frigid ground,

I stumble my way in, through the precipice and towards the zenith.

Each step feels difficult, and I can feel myself flickering, but I can't stop now.

I am emboldened as if a dagger were gripped in my hands, prepared to fight the deep.

I will not be snuffed out here.

I do it for myself as I do it for her.

This fire has a purpose.

#personal #inanna #levpag

[the-tangled-thread]

Hail to the Queen of Heaven!

#inanna #levpag #queen of heaven

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“Night”

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wallpaper designs by: artyprose (please don’t remove the credit. thank you)

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Conviction - Richey Beckett

#Inanna #felidae #levpag #art

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Proud Queen of the Earthly Gods, Supreme among the Celestial Gods. Loud Thundering Storm, you pour your rain over all the land and people. You make the heavens tremble, and the earth quake. Great Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart?

You flash like lightning over the highlands; You throw your firebrands across the earth. Your deafening command, whistling like the South Wind, Splits apart great mountains. You trample the disobedient like a wild bull; Heaven and earth tremble. Holy Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart?

Your frightful cry descending from the heavens devours its victims. Your quivering hand causes the midday heat to hover over the sea. Your nighttime stalking through the sky chills the land with its dark breeze. Holy Inanna, the riverbanks overflow with the flood-waves of your heart…

On the seventh day, when the Crescent Moon reaches its fullness, You bathe and sprinkle your face with holy water. You cover your body with the long robes of queenship. You fasten Combat and Battle to your side; You tie them into your girdle and let them rest.

—Sumerian Hymn to Inanna

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She streaks across the sky, I cannot see her, but I briefly feel her. She is the bright star who covets the morning, she coils around everything, around birds, around wolves, around me, she coils and she embraces in holy exctacy, my lady embraces and she speaks such sweet words of ravishing beauty, she dulls the pain, the stress and the woe, all in her love, in the divine excitement she brings. She makes my mind a woven web, detangles the strings and cleans the dust, she leaves me a smiling woman whose only wish is to praise, and oh worthy of praise is she.

Praise Inanna.

#levpag #Inanna #Polytheism

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A Very Sumerian Christmas

So, some friends of mine and I were thinking about the utter lack of Christmas-adjacent holidays in Sumerian Polytheism. My brain snagged on the idea of Santa Claus and Nanna’s Journey to Nibru.

The result?

Ma-gur, or the festival of the processional boat.

A celebration which starts seven days before the winter solstice. The celebration in question is of the seven who decree fate and the world which they have given us. It’s a holiday about family as well as it is about honoring the gods.

An - Solemn prayer and many candles to represent the stars. Sanctuary candle is lit and kept lit throughout the days to honor all the gods and symbolize how they guide us.

Enlil - wishes for the new years and messages for the gods.

Enki - prank war, and a general day of humor and celebration of the world order.

Ninhursag - Day of charity and getting out into the world which the gods have created.

Inanna - Day of giving to yourself, indulging and giving love to yourself and the gods.

Utu - Day of improving the world around you. Fix broken things, commit to a cause, improve your life a bit. Rest and enjoy peaceful time with your family otherwise.

Nanna - Gift giving and wild celebration. Winter solstice. Ends, as all the nights do, with offering and prayer to the god in question as well as tribute being given to one’s ancestors, followed by the snuffing of the candle as the holiday comes to a close.

That’s the gist of it. Sounds like a good time either way. This is the slightly crisper version of a list that included things like “Inanna’s Day- go clubbing” and “Ninhursag’s Day- drag the kids into the mountains for bonding time”. Also various ideas like tying wishes to balloons for Enlil’s Day, water purification on Enki’s Day, and letting some sunlight into my dark den of nerdiness on Utu’s Day. Feel free to play with it. Pass it on?

#levpag #neopagan #mesopotamien

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As cliché as it may sound, I feel like I've managed to find my way to the gods more often in the quiet moments of late nights than during the times when I've tried to initiate with them. In weaker ways, yes, but despite how much I love to get drunk on the feeling of worship undivided, I relish those smaller moments as well.

Honestly I've focused so much on the formal part of my worship over the last few months that I feel like I've forgotten a bit that these gods that I worship, the goddess I adore included, have their hands in so much in my life, and in the world at large. But I'm starting to get back to that balance I think, and it feels good. It feels good to feel a bit more connected, and a bit more alert in noticing the little things.

#personal #talking to myself

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Oh lady, my lady, sweet lady Inanna, who comes to me in the brightest of days and the bleakest of nights, as I often do, I lay, and as I lay, I think of you.

I think of the struggles which I have faced in my life, and all the victories through which I've overcome those struggles, and looking back, I can not fail to see you, in the wings or at my back. You quietly guided my hand my lady, like a mother with a child you guided my hand and only really spoke up in my lowest time, but then you did, and though I was lost with what to do once I had found you, you took my hand, and you lead me onward.

But then I worried, I worried for the longest time that I was not doing enough, that I could never be enough, faced with a power that, before I could recognize its intent, filled me with such fear. But you were there, Lady Inanna. You were there to be the hand on my shoulder to say that I am enough.

Your love is ever-present to keep me at lead, to cover me like a blanket, to prod and push me forward, to push me into becoming stronger, and for that I am eternally thankful.

The comfort of your firey embrace cannot be said in words any more than your entirety can, sweet lady. You are beauty, poise, you create flame within me like flint, and for that I praise you in whatever way I can.

#11/18/18 #Inanna #levpag #mesopotamian polytheism

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A hymn, long overdue to be made

My head is full of stars,

Dimmed by your radiance,

Imperial, heavenly, greatness unfathomable and undeniable.

Sweet lady, whose entirety is like a fire, warm and powerful,

Queen of heaven, whose beauty is like the sun on the setting horizon, and twice as grand,

Great Inanna, goddess who fills my heart with joy; protector, guide, encompassing embrace whenever it is needed, I praise you for all that you have done, and all that you will ever do.

I praise you, and if I could I would praise you with every moment for the rest of eternity,

Graceful lady, whose name is like honey on the lips, and as silk on the tongue,

Who makes my soul flutter in excited devotion,

Your greatness is unmached in heaven nor earth, and may you be hailed forever as you truly deserve,

Whose voice is powerful, like the roar of a lion,

Smiling lady, who bears the blade and nocks the bow,

Who embraces me now, who finds me and lifts my low heart up into fervent adoration, who comes to me, sweet lady, beautiful beyond belief,

my queen who comforts me in my hours of insecurity,

she who inspires my art and inspires me to have strength in all things, explorer; clever, beautiful, regal beyond measure, who words cannot describe, who song cannot describe, who art, nor film, nor vision may encompass,

ravishing, you stand vigilant and dominant over all that you survey,

Who pierces me with your touch, like arrows, leaves me overwhelmed with adoration at your presence,

Bringer of love into the hearts of all

War-dancer, rose of radiant petals, heavenly spear, stellar,

who bends mountains and straightens rivers,

I praise you,

And I praise you who empowers,

She who is a queen,

Who rains fire upon the wicked,

You who is like a rushing, powerful storm,

Whose will is like iron,

whose strikes are precise and steady,

whose breath is filled with embers,

whose words are sweet and songlike,

Through whom men can lift 50 score pounds or more,

Great lady who empowers, who emboldens,

Queen Inanna, mistress whose resplendency fills the morning,

Sacred keeper, mistress whose resplendency fills the evening,

Destiny weaver, mistress whose resplendency fills my soul,

Who overfills my cup, and makes me drunken in passionate veneration,

Majestic warrior, my sweet lady, who can tear stone like cloth,

who devastates,

For any earthly weapon would be effortlessly outclassed by you, any lover outmatched, any traveller outpaced by you,

High priestess of high priestesses, empowered and of passionate heart,

Merciful and great,

Who bears the sacred mes in one arm, and spear in the other,

Whose eyes are like burning coals,

Whose locks flow like the sea,

Lo! Whose eminence, whose true ubiety would unravel any to their very soul,

I praise you, and I worship you,

I pray that you guide me forevermore,

I pray you guide me, as a shepherd guides his trip into pasture,

And for you, sweet inanna, beloved of the divine kingdom,

I hope only that I may be a servant worthy of your luminescence,

so I may please you,

so I may worship you,

and so I may love you unto infinity.

Praise Inanna.

#inanna #levpag #writing

[the-tangled-thread]

Welcome

Take a seat, the adoring exhaltation should begin as soon as I can make it.

#inanna #levpag #sumerian polytheism #writing