Hathor

 

The Sky Goddess

Pantheon: Egyptian

Element: Water

Sphere of Influence: Love and Joy

Preferred colors: Turquoise, Gold, Copper

Associated symbol: Horned cow

Animals associated with: Cow

Best day to work with: Friday

Best Moon phase: Full Moon

Best time to work with: Midnight

Strongest around: Mabon

Suitable offerings: Mirrors

Associated Planet: Venus

Hathor is a lover of music, dance, art and inspiration. Her names means “The Dwelling of Horus”. She is a protector of mothers and lovers. The Sun-God Horus lay within her breast each dusk and was reborn each dawn. She will act as a muse for those that honor her. She is often depicted with either having a cows head, or a womans head with cow horns.

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor (“the house of Horus”) was an extremely popular fertility goddess, associated with the cow. Her name refers to her position as the celestial cow which encircles the sky and hawk god, Horus. She was also a goddess of royalty. Her cult was centered in Dendera and was led by priests who were also dancers, song|singers or other artists, for she was a goddess of art as well. Her priests were also oracles and midwife|midwives. She was the mother of Ihy and of Horus. Some academics have suggested a sacred marriage between Hathor and Horus as part of the annual festival at Luxor. 

In earlier Egyptian mythology, Hathor was portrayed as a cow with a stylized sun between her horns, or a woman wearing a headdress with horns, the stylized sun and sometimes a uraeus. One of the myths of Hathor sees her as the wandering eye of Amun, which he replaced, when Hathor returned he made her into his uraeus. In addition to the cow, Hathor was associated with falcons, cobra (snake)|cobras, lionesses and hippopotamus|hippopotami.

She was associated with the menat, the sistrum (a type of rattle), and mirrors, as well as the goddess Sekhmet, Bata and Bastet. She was eventually identified with Isis.

Hathor was both the daughter and wife of Ra. Hathor and Ra once argued, and she left Egypt. Ra quickly decided he missed her, but she changed into a cat that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth, disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing her to return.

 

Diana

The goddess Diana was very highly worshipped in ancient Rome. Her greek counterpart, fell under the name Artemis. Diana in Roman worship, was known as well as a maiden huntress, protector of all that is wild and free. This is virtually the same context that the greek Artemis fell under. However, as centuries past and ancient Rome grew, so did the followings of the goddess Diana.

Diana no longer was classed simply as a maiden huntress, but grew to the status of motherhood. By the birth of her daughter Ariadia. Then her path grew as well, to become known as the Queen of Witches.

 

( This during the famous witch hunts, falling between the 15th and 17th centuries. )
Diana became the mistress of majick. The teacher of spells, healing, and at the same time still holding her status as the protectress of all things wild.

 

For more information of the goddess Diana; highly recommended ‘Ways of the Stega’ by, Raven Grimmasi. As well as books by the authors; Leland, Frazier, and Janet & Stewart Farrar.

Demeter

The Greek earth goddess par excellence, who brings forth the fruits of the earth, particularly the various grains. She taught mankind the art of sowing and ploughing so they could end their nomadic existence. As such, Demeter was also the goddess of planned society. She was very popular with the rural population. As a fertility goddess she is sometimes identified with Rhea and Gaia.

In systematized theology, Demeter is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus by whom she became the mother of Persephone. When Persephone was abducted by Hades, lord of the underworld, Demeter wandered the earth in search of her lost child. During this time the earth brought forth no grain. Finally Zeus sent Hermes to the underworld, ordering Hades to restore Persephone
to her mother. However, before she left, Hades gave her a pomegranate (a common fertility symbol). When she ate from it, she was bound to spend a third of the year with her husband in the infernal regions. Only when her daughter is with her, Demeter lets things grow (summer). The dying and blossoming of nature was thus connected with Demeter. 

 

In the Eleusinian mysteries, Demeter and Persephone were especially venerated. When she was looking for her daughter, in the shape of an old woman called Doso, she was welcomed by Celeus, the king of Eleusis (in Attica). He requested her to nurse his sons Demophon and Triptolemus ‘. To reward his hospitality she intended to make the boy Demophon immortal by placing him each night in the hearth, to burn his mortal nature away. The spell was broken one night because Metanira, the wife of Celeus, walked in on her while she was performing this ritual. Demeter taught the other son, Triptolemus, the principles of agriculture, who, in turn, taught others this
art. In Demeter’s honor as a goddess of marriage, women in Athens, and other centers in Greece, celebrated the feast of Thesmophoria
(from her epithet Thesmophoros, “she of the regular customs”). Throughout Classical times members of all social strata came from
all parts of the Mediterranean world to be initiated in and celebrate her Mysteries at Eleusis. 

 

In ancient art, Demeter was often portrayed (sitting) as a solemn woman, often wearing a wreath of braided ears of corn. Well-known is the statue made by Knidos (mid forth century BCE). Her usual symbolic attributes are the fruits of the earth and the torch, the latter presumably referring to her search for Persephone. Her sacred animals were the snake (an earth-creature) and the pig (another symbol of fertility). Some of her epithets include Auxesia, Deo, Chloe, and Sito. The Romans equated her with the goddess Ceres. 

 

Inana

  

  

The goddess Inanna (Innin, or Innini) was the patron and special god/goddess of the ancient Sumerian city of Erech (Uruk), the City of Gilgamesh. As Queen of heaven, she was associated with the Evening Star (the planet Venus), and sometimes with the Moon. She may also have been associated the brightest stars in the heavens, as she is sometimes symbolized by an eight-pointed star, a seven-pointed star, or a four pointed star. In the earliest traditions, Inanna was the daughter of An, the Sky, Ki, the Earth (both of Uruk, (Warka)). In later Sumerian traditions, she is the daughter of Nanna (Narrar), the Moon God and Ningal, the Moon Goddess (both of Ur).

On either side of her cult statue shown above is the ring-post, also known as Inanna’s knot. This was a sacred symbol of Inanna, associated exclusively with her. It represents a door-post made from a bundle of reeds, the upper ends, bent into a loop to hold a cross-pole. The ring-post is shown on many depictions of Inanna, including those of the famed Warka Vase.

  

  

Owl – Eye Symbology 

Wings – Evolution of Consciousness in the Alchemy of Time 

Palms – Jesus – Holding Omega – Endings – Leo – Lion 

Twin Lions – Breast of the SphinxInanna was one of the most revered of goddesses
among later Sumerian mythology.

 

Inanna’s Descent

 A winged goddess wearing a multi-horned crown stands with her head in the realm of the deities and their devotees. Her bird-clawed feet rest in a place, likely the underworld, inhabited by strange and demonic creatures. This shows the duality of her nature – as well as our own – above and below. Some think her to be Lilith, but the crown shows her to be a great goddess, almost certainly Inanna. Mesopotamian cylinder seal. Hematite. 2000-1600 BCE.

 She was said to descend from the ancient family of the creator goddess Nammu, who was her grandmother. Inanna held “full power of judgment and decision and the control of the law of heaven and earth.” Her sacred planet was Venus, the evening star. She was often symbolized as a lioness in battle. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna.

 The temple of E Anna, Inanna’s House of Heaven, in Uruk, was the greatest of these. This temple was 5000 years old and had been built and rebuilt many times to hold a community of sacred women who cared for the temple lands. The high priestess of Inanna would choose for her bed one she would appoint as shepherd. He would represent Dumuzi, sacred son/lover of Inanna, if he could prove his worth.

 In later times, Inanna’s lost some of her attributes, which were then said then to have been given her by Enki, rather than by her grandmother Nammu and her mother Ningal.

 The myth states that Inanna traveled to Eridu and was given the one hundred Mes, which were the gifts of culture such as truth and justice, as well as practical skills such as weaving and pottery-making. Though Enki regretted his drunken decision to release the Mes to her and sent mighty sea monsters to stop her boat as it sailed the Euphrates, she was able to defeat them and bring the knowledge back to Uruk.

 

 Inanna and DumuziAbout 3200-3000 BCE.

 

Tammuz or Tamuz – Sumerian Dumuzi – was the name of a Babylonian deity. In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna and in his Akkadian form the parallel of Ishtar’s consort, the Syrian Adonis who was drawn into the Greek pantheon. The name “Tammuz” seems to have been derived from the Akkadian form Tammuzi, based on early Sumerian Damu-zid. The later standard Sumerian form, Dumu-zid, in turn became Dumuzi in Akkadian. Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning in the Ancient Near East as in the Aegean: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day “funeral” for the god, which was observed even at the very door of the Temple in Jerusalem, to the horror of the reformer Ezekiel. 

 

The Myth

In the Sumerian King List Dumuzid the Fisherman appears as “Dumuzi the Fisherman, whose city was Kua, reigned 100 years” the third king of the first dynasty of Uruk (Dumuzi is likely Tammuzh or Tamizhi – a Pandyan king of ancient Tamil Nadu in South India,with his capital at Kuadam, his emblem as fish”=”min”), reigning between Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh the son of Lugalbanda, a situation not explained in extant texts. Nor is it explained why in other texts Dumuzid is always a shepherd, not a fisherman. The king list does list aDumuzid the shepherd the fifth of the kings who reigned in Eridu before the flood. But Eridu, surrounded by freshwater marshes, is exactly where one would expect a fisherman and not a shepherd. 

In any case a number of pastoral poems and songs relate the love affair of Inana and Dumuzid the shepherd. A text recovered in 1963 recounts “The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi” in terms that are tender and frankly erotic. 

Then Inana (Ishtar in the Akkadian texts) set off for the netherworld, for Kur, which was ruled by her sister Ereshkigal, perhaps to take it as her own. Inana/Ishtar passed through seven gates and at each one was required to leave a garment or an ornament so that when Inana/Ishtar had passed through the seventh gate she was entirely naked. Despite warnings about her presumption, Inana/Ishtar did not turn back but dared to sit herself down on Ereshkigal’s throne. Immediately the Anunnaki of the underworld judged her, gazed at her with the eyes of death, and Inana/Ishtar became a corpse, hung up on a hook.

Inana’s faithful servant attempted to get help from the other gods but only wise Enki/Ea responded. The details of Enki/Ea’s plan differ slightly in the two surviving accounts but the end is that Inana/Ishtar lived again. But a “conservation of souls” law required her to find a replacement for herself in Kur. She went from one god to another, but each one pleaded with her and she had not the heart to go through with it until she found Dumuzid/Tammuz on her throne, apparently quite pleased that she was gone. Inana/Ishtar immediately set the demons on Dumuzid/Tammuz. At this point the Akkadian text fails as Tammuz’ sister Belili, introduced for the first time, strips herself of her jewelry in mourning but claims that Tammuz and the dead will come back.

There  some confusion here. The name Belili occurs in one of theSumerian texts also, but it is not the name of Dumuzid’s sister who is there named Geshtinana, but is the name of an old woman whom nother text calls Bilulu.In any case, the Sumerian texts relate how Dumuzid fled to his sister Geshtinana who attempted to hide him but who could not in the end stand up to the demons. Dumuzid has one close call after another until the demons finally catch up with him under the supposed protection of this old woman called Bilulu or Belili and then they take him. However Inana repents.

Inana seeks vengeance on  Bilulu’s murderous son Girgire and on Girgire’s consort Shiru “of the haunted desert, no-one’s child and no-one’s friend”. Inana changes Bilulu into a waterskin and Girgire into a protective god of the desert while Shirru is assigned to watch always that the proper rites are performed for protection against the hazards of the desert.

Finally, Inanna relents and changes her decree thereby restoring her husband Dumuzi to life; an arrangement is made by which Geshtinana will take Dumuzid’s place in Kur for 6 months of the year.

Dumuzid/Tammuz being the god of the vegetation cycle, this corresponds to the changing of the seasons as the abundance of the earth diminishes in his absence. He is a life-death-rebirth deity.

 

The Lion was her sacred animal.

Inana could be cunning. She was a powerful warrior, who drove a war chariot, drawn by lions. In the duality of our reality she is portrayed as gentle and loving, a source of beauty and grace, a source of inspiration. She endowed the people of Sumer with gifts that inspired and insured their growth as a people and a culture.

She is also depicted as a passionate, sensuous lover in The Courtship of Inanna and Damuzi, which established the principle of Sacred Marriage. Indeed, one aspect of Inanna is as the Goddess of Love, and it is in this aspect that she embodies creativity, procreativity, passion, raw sexual energy and power.

During the time the Goddess Inanna ruled the people of Sumer, they and their communities prospered and thrived. The urban culture, though agriculturally dependent, centered upon the reverence of the Goddess – a cella, or shrine, in her honor was the centerpiece of the cities. Inanna was the queen of seven temples throughout Sumer.

Erech or Uruk, near modern Warka was Inanna’s sacred city. It was one of the oldest cities of Sumer. The Bible said that King Nimrod founded it. Dumuzi, Inanna’s consort was a shepherd king of Uruk, as was Gilgamesh and his father Lugalbanda. The Temple of Inanna was in Erech. Also known as the E-ana or House of Heaven, this was her most important temple. The shrine of the Goddess was built on an artificial mound some forty feet above the ground level and was reached by a staircase. A statue of the Goddess was housed within the shrine.

Queen Shub- Ad reigned from the First Dynasty of Ur. Her grave was excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley of the British Museum in 1929. She was buried with her King in a vast tomb complex about 2900 BCE, with the accompaniment of what Woolley called “human sacrifice on a lavish scale,” for along with the King and Queen, numerous male and female attendants, soldiers, grooms, handmaidens, ladies in waiting, etc. were also buried; even a harpist and her golden harp, inlayed with lapis. Chariots, carts, and their animals were also buried with them. The Queen wore the beautiful headdress of spirals of gold, terminating in lapis-centered gold flowers (or stars). The Queen also wore large golden earrings of lunate shape that hung to her shoulders; lapis amulets of a bull and a calf, and strands of lapis, agate, carnelian and gold beads. The Queen’s grave was much more elaborate than that of the King, perhaps indicating her equal oreven greater importance.