Ereshkigal
All respects to Lishtar, I'm having a bit of a problem accepting her essay on Ereshkigal and Nergal.
When I read the myths, of any culture, I pick up on older stories underlying a newer one. When I read about Ereshkigal and Nergal, I read about a woman raped and then forced to accept her rapist as her husband and to submit to his will which is the standard practice in the Middle East. What I read in this story is an older story of when women had a better position in society, and that position is taken over by men who subjugate her. It is a story re-told from the point of view of the conqueror.
To me, this is NOT a love story, it is one of invading brute strength over an already settled society and forcing it to change to the will of the new-comers.
Re-telling older tales was a common practice. The Celtic myths is a good example: since the ancient Celts didn't write much of anything down, it was passed on verbally where it was picked up by the new Xtian monks who put a new spin on the tales which is how we know the myths now. That isn't fantasy on my part, just take a good look at the art work in the Book of Kells. It was the monks who put the myths into words and thus spread them out to the world.
Tales are still being re-written -how many people remember that young man in China standing down advancing tanks? The entire world saw it, it's on film, but China claims it never happened.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Meso myths, Inanna beats in my heart and the Shakinah is every breath I take. I haven't read one of the myths, though, that I would say is a true love story. Lots of passion and lust, no love. What they call love is fleeting, it is of the moment, it is of a need. Inanna loves Dummuzi -as long as he worships her. Inanna loves the king -with proper worship.
Living in a desert myself, part of me understand this. The sun can literally cook a person out here. Fry an egg on the sidewalk? Absolutely. Hardboil it. The winter nights can freeze a person to an ice cube. If this were 2000 years ago, there wouldn't be room for what we know as "love". We would cling tightly to each other, to family, fight to the death for our own because we NEED each other for survival. It isn't a choice. Life in the desert, without modern conveniences, is a daily fight for life itself. This is how it would have been in the Middle East back then. And it still is. Has anyone taken a good look at modern husbands and wives from there? Marriages are still arranged, women and children are still considered property. A woman, unmarried, taken by a man, has two choices -she is stoned to death by her own family or she marries the man who took her. Whether or not it was her choice to be taken doesn't matter, it also doesn't matter if he makes her want to puke. It's cold, it's hard, it's a fact. No different now then it was when Ereshikgal was taken.
While I agree with you about the retellings of myths, I must take issue with your cultural analysis. It is ridiculous both to apply modern social standards to the ancients, and to say that culture in the ANE was similar to culture in the modern near/middle east.
Comments such as:
"I read about a woman raped and then forced to accept her rapist as her husband and to submit to his will which is the standard practice in the Middle East."
and:
"This is how it would have been in the Middle East back then. And it still is. Has anyone taken a good look at modern husbands and wives from there? Marriages are still arranged, women and children are still considered property."
are not logical. One cannot reasonably assume that the modern people of the region are culturally identical to the people of that region in ancient times. The same is certainly not the case in Britain or Africa; why would it be so in Mesopotamia? I know that it is very tempting to apply our modern ideologies, but it is poor scholarship.
Also, to me anyway, your comments reek of bigotry. While in some Middle Eastern nations and cultures, women and children are property, this is not the case in all of them. The American media has long propagated the idea that the Middle East is a barbarous, chauvinistic place. And some parts of it are- just as are some parts of the United States. Some parts of it, on the other hand, are enlightened and modern.
Also, you wrote this:
"Life in the desert, without modern conveniences, is a daily fight for life itself. This is how it would have been in the Middle East back then."
"Back then", mesopotamia was not a desert. It was a hot but fertile area; in fact early in Sumerian culture it was a marsh! As time went on, the climate began to change, and become drier; the marshes developed seasonal flux. The mesopotamians maintained their fertile climate and groundwater via a complex and important system of irrigation. The land was still hot- especially in summer- but it was also fertile, and in winter it was quite moist. It was a cracked-earth-in-summer kind of hot, much like Texas in the summer, rather than a blowing-sand kind of hot.
Even now, it is not a barren desert- although the land there today is much more arid than it was in the time of Sumer, it still receives seasonal rainfall. In fact, Iraq's agricultural community is rejoicing this year, because they are receiving heavy rains and thus expect a bountiful harvest. Consider that today's Iraq is much drier than the same area thousands of years ago- but this week, the fields are muddy.
Television and movies often portray the entirety of the Middle East as a barren, sandy desert. While some parts of Saudi Arabia and Egypt are certainly ths way, not every part is.
The modern Middle East bears little to no resemblance to the ancient Middle East, largely due to the work of the Mongols, who when they originally invaded what was then the Persian Empire, destroyed the irrigation system. The system had lasted an amazingly long time, but it needed constant upkeep. The Mongol invasion threw society into such turmoil that the upkeep virtually ended, and the system quickly broke down and could not be effectively repaired.
In closing, I ask that you reread Lishtar's essay with an open mind. While I doubt that her analysis is an accurate *historical* analysis of the myth, I think that as modern people, it gives us a new paradigm within which we can *choose* to interpret the myth of Ereshkigal and Nergal.
Ereshkigal and Nergal
Thank you for your insight, and no bigotry or insult was intended. I hold no bias toward the Middle East, I did study women and religion in the Middle East in a recent college course, and I have friends who are Middle Eastern.
I think, though, that modern Pagans, in their attempt to find their roots, have a tendency to take their chosen ancestral homes and gloss over them, refusing to see the negatives along with the positives. Things were not pretty and serene before the Mongols, much less after. Accepting the ugly with the beauty does no alter my love for the place.
And Madam Lishtar is welcome to her opinion of the myths, just as everyone else is, and I would fight for her right to see them any way she wants to. And just as I am asked to re-read her essay, this time with an open mind -assuming that it was closed in the first place which is a pretty broad assumption to make of a stranger- I ask you to re-read the myth itself, this time reading the entire story and interpreting it as to what words and phrases would have meant to their society, and not the pretty frosting that a modern Pagan wants to see.
I give thanks to all the gods for Ms. Lishtar, I certainly wasn't attacking her. If I didn't like what was being said on this site, I wouldn't be getting involved. How about a little less attacking of the stranger and a little more welcoming of a new opinion to discuss?
Eresgkigal
I agree with 00Goddess that ancient Mesopotamia had a much different climate (and culture) than that of modern times. In Sumerian times its climate was more like that of modern central and southern Africa, and was inhabited by similar wildlife, including lions. The barrenness of modern Iraq is largely caused by the salinization of the soil as a result of countless years of irrigation. The customs of the land have, like its soil, become -- well -- dry and barren for the most part. That isn't to say that they are in any way more reprehensible than the dry and barren prjudices (and economy) of America under the "burning Bush."
In defence of Batela, the great scholar Thorkild Jacobsen was also rather apalled by the myth of Ereshkigal and Nergal. Jacobsen dismissed the surviving version that has come down to us as the product of what he called the Dark Age of Mesopotamian literature and culture. In all fairness, some (but by no means all) of the negative attitudes and behaviors found in this later literature and culture do have their correspondences in the history and customs of the medieval and modern Near East. The custom of forcing women to wear veils, for example, seems to have hit its stride among the Neo-Assyrians. The Prophet Mohammad and his followers weren't advocating anything new. However, the postmodern Near East, like the postmodern West, is culturally and spiritually confused.
00Goddess has posed a fascinating and valid point about the dangers of interpreting ancient literature and customs through the muddy window of our own modernist worldview. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the raging controversy over so-called "sacred prostitution."
Ereshkigal and Nergal
Thank you, Makarananda, for your calming voice of peace. I try very hard not to interpret things based on modern view-points, but instead wait until I've read some of the history and culture from the time period that is being spoken of. I'd hazard a guess to say that most Westerners don't approve of how the Middle East treats it's women, but then they aren't asking for our approval. They don't approve of us, either. The things we believe at a basic level are dependent upon our upbringing. Truth, ethics, morals, are relevent to the one person, not the entire community, no matter how hard any religion tries to convince people otherwise. Middle Eastern men believe that the way their women are treated is good because they are protecting their women. I don't judge that, I've met too many of their women who are happy in their lives. I'm a Pagan, bisexual, SM Domina -who am I to judge anyone their lifestyle?
Vails -When I read about Ba'al and how he demanded a house with no windows so that his wives and daughters could not be seen, this struck me as a possible beginning point of vails.
Sacred prostitution -I really don't understand all the hulaballu about it. If it was part of the temple, then at some point it must have been an accepted practice and therefore a normal part of society. I can see where it would have been a reasonable thing to do. A clear delineation can be seen in the Gilgamesh story: all men dream of a visitation from Inanna, and yet Gilgamesh not only rejects her but he calls her whore and other names. And this goddess, who is not only capable of walking through Heaven but also walking out of the underworld, who comands armies and sends kings to their knees, goes crying to daddy over an insult?? Daddy, go beat up the bad man he hurted my feelings?? To me, this is a clear dividing point in a society/culture that is quickly changing.
I personally have no problem with a woman doing whatever she wants with her body, but obviously Gilgamesh did. Writers write from the point of view of the mores of what is currently acceptable in their culture. By the time Gilgamesh came around, what the temples were doing was beginning to come under closer subject of the king and his thoughts on what the temple should be doing. Or shouldn't be doing.
And thank you for the info about Thorkild Jacobsen. I've only just begun to read The Treasures of Darkness. My nose has been buried in Pritchard and Kramer, and dusty old books from my university's library.
Batela, as I said in my original response, I agree with you about the retelling of the myth. I don't think it's a beautiful love story, but rather an attempt to reconcile two or more myths, including the changing culture. In a similar vein, myths of Inanna taking over the Eanna, the House of Heaven, which was originally the Temple of An, are veiled references to a social upheaval which led to Her worship predominating.
My point was that mesopotamia was not a desert- it was not called "the fertile crescent" for no reason- and that the modern "Middle East" is not a barbarous place where women are considered property. It's a place of many cultures, not only one, and those cultures vary. I guess the best way to put it is to say that the Middle East is a region, not a country or an ethnicity. These aren't matters of opinion- they are just fact.
While things were not "pretty and serene" before the Mongols came, the Persian Empire at that time was very prosperous and peaceful. Artistry and wealth abounded (Islam was once a religion greatly supportive of art). However, the negative side to that was that such a culture was largely supported by slave labor.
As for your statements about pretty frosting, I'd be insulted, but you don't know me at all, so I'm not. You don't know what applies to me and what does not. I assure you that I am not a fluffy-bunny pagan. This, however, also means that I don't believe that once the world was a happy matriarchal wonderland before the big bad patriarchs took over.
Sumerian linguistics have long been a fascination of mine, due to the poematic element of Sumerian myth and liturgy, and also the predominance of double entendre in Sumerian language. I am not trying to gloss over the myth- as I said, I agre with you about its origins. However, myths are not, IMO, static things- they grow and change with us, as do religions. A new interpretation of a myth, a new paradigm to take away and as Lishtar would say "heal" the characters involved. is, imo, a positive thing, as long as we do not forget its origins.
Ereshkigal and Nergal
In reply to what Batela wrote earlier: thank you, Batela, for your kind response to my earlier reply on this thread. I am not usually considered the "voice of peace." Because I spent such a long time as a martial artist, as a jouster, and as a metaphysical gadfly harassing the Necronomicon-worshipers and laying waste to all their works, I would more likely be considered a man of war. Fortunately I do most of my fighting with a keyboard nowadays. In fact, right now I'm taking a break from checking proofs to write this post. Thanks for the recreation.
With regard to the customs of the modern (or is it postmodern?) Mid East, I can only say that many of the current customs reveal ancient roots. For example, if you want to get any respect in Saudi Arabia, don't lead with the left hand. If you want to know why, look up "Right Hand and Left Hand" in Black and Green's GODS, DEMONS AND SYMBOLS OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
With regard to veils: that was a good observation about the house of Ba'al, I had never really thought about that. You can see where the sons of Islam got many of their ideas. "Allah" by the way, is just male form for the divine (God) in Arabic, the female form (Goddess) is "Allatu". We don't hear much of that one anymore for some reason. In Akkadian it is Illu (God) and Illitu (Goddess), I think. My Akkadian is a little rusty these days, since I've spent most of my time on Sumerian lately. I'm composing a worship ritual to Inanna for the Pagan Unity Festival in Nashville, TN this spring. Say what you will about Eastern versus Western barbarism, prejudice and chauvinism, at least the Southern Baptists don't practice genital mutilation on their daughters. (Shhh, let's not give them any ideas!)
On the subjects of Gilgamesh and sacred prostitution: those are subjects for a book rather than a post. I'll say this much: the sacred prostitute was not an ordinary "sex worker" -- she was an oracle. When the worshiper made love to her, he (or she) was making love to the Goddess Herself. After Samhat had sex with Enkidu for seven days and nights (no doubt causing an intense erotocomatose trance), she told him he was like a God, and that he must go to Uruk to meet Gigasmesh. This was not just call girl pillowtalk, Samhat was speaking the oracle of Ishtar, she was decreeing Enkidu's destiny. I know what I am talking about from experience; my former consort used to channel Inanna during sex. When Inanna/Ishtar made Her proposal to Gilgamesh, She was offering to legitimize his rule by the Sacred Marriage Rite. As the Sumerians said: "AGA gish GUZA gish GIDRU NAM LUGAL SUMU INANNA ZAKAM" ("The crown, the throne, the scepter, and name of kingship are yours to bestow, Inanna!") Gilgamesh had ruled Her city, Uruk, as an unworthy usurper up until that time. His refusal of Her offer angered Her on several different levels. BTW, I believe that the surviving examples we have of the Epic of Gilgamesh are also of the degenerate "Dark Age" sort. There is an ancient Sumerian story, "Inanna and the Huluppu Tree," in which Gilgamesh is Inanna's friend and ally, and stands with Her even when Her father Nanna and Her brother Utu refuse to help Her. Quite an about-face from his behavior in the surviving versions of the Epic.
As regards Jacobsen: Isn't he a delight to read? There is one particular piece of information I got from Jacobsen that filled in a vital gap in my understanding of a dream I received. Anyway, I'll bore you with that some other time.
Re: Ereshkigal and Nergal
Oh, Wise Fierce Lion, (my totem is feline )
You want a religious experience? See what messages the gods send after you've spent a weekend flogging people! WOW!
I have all three books you've mentioned, my copy of Gods and Demons is almost ready to fall apart. And I use my Inanna book to recite daily tributes to Her.
And I agree with you about the Necronomicon. Unfortunately, when I go looking for other Sumerians around here, all I find are OTO members using that book. UGH!
I could use some advice about a New Year Festival. A Spring Equinox timeline works better for around here than an Autumn one does, so I've been trying to come up with a ritual for it. I've taken apart the ritual from the texts, surprising myself by coming up with pretty much the same understanding of it that is written on this site, but I'm having a hard time putting an actual ritual together. 1- I don't have a temple. 2- the only assistance I have are my friends who are willing to humor me, but who are also Druids and really don't have it in their hearts. Any ideas?
My primary totem is the lion, for reasons I will not bore you with now.
As for flogging: I wouldn't know much about being on the receiving end, since I am more of a sadist than a masochist. As for abusing other humans as a religious experience: The Gods gave me some splendid messages when I used to spend my weekends breaking lances on other men, or breaking wooden, aluminum, and sometimes sreel swords over their heads. My first conscious contact with Inanna/Ishtar was with Her aspect as Mistress of the Horse, Lady of the Chariot, Lady of Battles, Lady of Victory, etc. Lishtar says this is unusual because most people seem to relate to Her first through Her aspect as Goddess of Love. When I was in the jousting company, most of my comrades were Norse Pagans -- Asatru. The Germanic tribes never seemed very equestrian to me compared to the Sumerians, who first tamed equids. They invented the war chariot and used it as a Bronze Age tank or Armored Personell Carrier. Then the Akkadians and the Hittites redesigned it as a light-weight search-and-destroy vehicle. By my reckoning, the Gods of the Two Rivers made all the others look like wimps. My hammer-headed Asatru friends just didn't get it.
You have a copy of the NINMESHARA? Cool! Which translation? I use Enheduanna's invocation to Inanna as a standard ritual text. I chant the invocation in Sumerian (as it was theoretically pronounced).
Don't get me started on the Simon Necronomicon! For my opinions regarding that wretched book you can read my two essays on the subject on this site. Lishtar was kind enough to post them. As for Necro-worshiping, psuedo-Sumerian OTO members, don't get me started on those idiots either! I wonder if any of the Necro-nerds in your neck of the woods are affiliated with Kenneth Grant's Typhonian OTO. They're the worst!
I'm afraid I wouldn't be of much help with a New Year Festival. Festival liturgy isn't really my thing. Right now most of my experimentation is in the area of [1] daily libation ritual and liturgy, and [2] recostructing the lost art of the Washing of the Mouth (Mis Pi) and Opening of the Mouth (Pit Pi) ritual. I have also spent a great deal of time on building and reconstructing sacred images (ALAM, idols) according to the iconographic specs in the ancient texts. [See BORN IN HEAVEN AND CREATED ON EARTH by Dick, Eisenbrauns 2001] I'm also about to start experimenting with constructing and consecrating Babylonian apotropaic figures from the original texts. Lately, everything has taken an alchemical twist since I've been working on concocting the purification elixer ("holy water") used in the Mis Pi rituals from the recipes provided in the surviving tablets. (Try finding tamarisk in Tennessee!) On top of everything else, I still have copy editor's proofs to go over, and that ritual for PUF to finish.
My house is my temple. And my local friends are of more help: One of them is a South African who was initiated as a Zulu sangoma, and has a thing for ancient Egyptian magick, so at least we are together as far as the Ancient Near East. Some of my best friends are Druids, including Ian Corrigan (National Preceptor of the Ar nDriocht Fain), who helps run the Starwood Festival in New York.
Yes, I have a website: <members.tripod.com/necronomiconfiles/>
Unfortunately, it is devoted to my ongoing war against the Necronomicon. This is an assignment that was given to me by NIN-KUR-KUR-A, the Devastrix of the Lands, Herself, so I will not rest easy until it is completed.
ISHTAR LAMASSU UMANISHU! (Ishtar is the Guardian Angel of Her warriors!)
Re: Ereshkigal and Nergal
The book I use is Inanna by Wolkstein and Kramer. I adore it! It also confirmed several things I had thought myself after reading the texts.
And I never quite saw Inanna as a goddess of love, -sexuality maybe, but not love. She appeals to my warrior sense, to my passionate side.
And I've met Ian. My grove is ADF, and we were at Wellspring last summer. One of our members is the national office manager, Don Davis.
INANNA by Wolstein and Kramer is one of my favorite books. It is a splendid source of liturgy in English. Like Bonewits, however, I am a big fan of conducting liturgy in the ancient languages, so I have taken much of my actual liturgy from THE EXALTATION OF INANNA[NIN-ME-SHAR-RA] by William W. Hallo and J.J.A. Van Dijk (Yale University Press, 196 . The book provides an excellent transliteration of the original Sumerian with English translation on the facing pages. Since it is out of print, you can do what I did and get it through interlibrary loan and photocopy it. There is nothing quite like the feel of incantations in ancient Sumerian and Akkadian -- even if we moderns aren't pronouncing them correctly. The Goddess is most understanding.
I'm afraid I do see Inanna/Ishtar as a Goddess of love -- love in its fullest sense, beyond sexuallity or passion. In a public testament, the Hittite king Hattusilis discusses his covenant with Ishtar:
"At the command of the goddess I married Puduhepa the daughter of Bentisharri the priest. We fulfilled (the oracle to marry) and the goddess gave us the love of husband and wife. And we got sons and daughters. Then the goddess, my Lady, [said] to me: 'With (your) house be subject to me!' Then I together with my house put my trust in the goddess. And for us the goddess dwelt within the house we were making..." ["The Apology of Hattusilis III" from FORGOTTEN SCRIPTS; Their Ongoing Discovery and Decipherment. by Cyrus H. Gordon, Barnes and Noble 1993]
There is too much that we still do not understand about the Lady of Many Offices. Even scolars like Jacobsen, Kramer, Black, Green and others have made the blythe assumption that Inanna/Ishtar has no association with love beyond physical sex, with matrimony, with (Venusian) harmony and so forth. How then do we explain passages like the one above? Perhaps it's all too much for our tiny, compartmentalized, modern minds to comprhend. I can only say this: Inanna has taught me the way of the warrior, and I have discovered that without love you cannot be a great warrior. Without love there is no hate. Without passion there can be no *com*-passion. In the same testament quoted above, King Hattusilis apprehended political enemies of his who were working sorcery against him. He pardoned them and their families. (Surprise!) I'm sure mercy is a quality that few modern scholars associate with Ishtar.
So you are in an ADF grove? Cool. And you've met Ian! Haha! He's a great guy isn't he? He invited Daniel and me to speak at the Starwood Festival after THE NECRONOMICON FILES first came out way back in 1998/99. Ian can drink more than any human I've ever met. He is a tremendous Lovecraft fan as well, and he was happy to have somebody who was not a nec-worshipper discuss the Necronomicon phenomenon at Starwood's workshops. I've been back to Starwood every year since until last year. In 2001 I did a workshop there entitled "The Flame of Inanna, An Introduction to Real Sumerian Magick"
OTO and the Necronomicon
There is a "Sumerian coven" down here which uses the Simon Necronomicon as their holy book. It's pretty sad, really. They call themselves Sumerian reconstructionists, but since their religion is based upon Wicca and the Simonomicon, they are obviously not recon.
However, I don't know any OTO members who believe that the Simon Necronomicon is an actual book of Sumerian magick. Nor do I know any who use it in any way; and of course, no Necronomicon of any sort is a text of OTO or used in official OTO rituals.
In what neck of the woods do you live, Makarananda? OTO down here tends to be very intellectual, but I suppose it could be different elsewhere.
Re: OTO and the Necronomicon
Oh, the OTO here in the desert are very into both Crowley and ol' Simon. They actually believe that a few names of gods and demons make it authentic. Depressing.
Re: OTO and the Necronomicon
I think it's possible that some people, who are members of OTO, are into the Necronomicon. OTO itself has no regard for the book, and it is not a part of OTO lore or canon in any way. There is no official OTO policy regarding the Nrcronomicon, and no official publc rituals of OTO in which it is utilized in any way.
While I believe that, in the hands of a magician, the Necronomicon can be as effective as any other book (magick being a matter of will) I personally have no interest in it, and I can't imagine that anyone who has done any study would believe it authentic. However, I don't know any siblings in Arizona, so I can't vouch for their level and breadth of study, or for their intelligence.
In fact, Grand Lodge lists no active local bodies in Arizona at all (which does not, of course, mean that there are no members there); the closest body would be Serpentine Splendour Lodge in Las Vegas, or one of the bodies in New Mexico.
Re:OTO and the Necronomicon
Please forgive my wretched failure to keep up with monitoring this site and making timely replies to messages on the Board. Let's just say I've been busy.
In answer to your question as to my whereabouts, 00Goddess, I live and work in Nashville, TN. No, I am not a redneck. I am a scion of the Old South -- a Southern gentleman, if you will. Racism was not tolerated in my family. This was not so much for moral reasons, but because it was considered "bad form" as the British say. I grew up listening to Mozart, Wagner, and Chopin rather than Country music. I don't think I even knew the Grand Old Opry existed until I was about twelve. Despite my penchant for horsemanship, I never wear cowboy hats or cowboy boots.
With regard to OTO groups, Batela could have run across a group that is not considered legitimate by the Grand Lodge. Kenneth Grant's Typhonian OTO is not recognized as having a legitimate imprimature from Crowley by many of the more conventional OTO groups. And it was Grant who dropped H.P. Lovecraft and the Necronomicon into the stew of modern Western occultism. (I happen to be personally fond of Uncle Kenneth, myself, even though I consider him to be barking mad, and disagree with many of his ideas.) Then there is Bill Siebert's Cthonic Auranian OTO, which doesn't even pretend to have any imprimature from Uncle Al. Siebert's group started out on the east coast and was an offshoot of a Lovecraftian occult group called the Esoteric Order of Dagon (E.O.D.), a group which Grant helped found (or at least encouraged). Grant is an Englishman (served as Crowley's secretary in his youth), and Grant's OTO is based in the UK. I deal with the proliferation of Lovecraftian magick cults at greater length in my book THE NECRONOMICON FILES, which will be out this coming August from Red Wheel/Weiser Publishing.
One of the reasons I resent the Simonicon so bitterly is because of the bad press it has given Mesopotamian magick/religion. The other reasons are...personal.
ISHTAR LAMASSU UMANISHU!
Urmah-Zu, was Makarananda
I would never assume that, simply because you are from the South, you are a redneck or a racist. I'm from Texas myself- not quite the South, but close enough to share many cultural markers.
It's interesting, the comment you made about racism being "poor form." We had the same idea in my family. A few years ago, I recall, an acquaintance told me that a toy popular at the time was also popular in her childhood, but that the name by which she had known the toy was based upon a racist slur which I will not repeat here. She said something along the lines of "Well, back then, it was okay to say that- everyone said it, even the black kids." I responded by telling her that my mother and grandmother were around "back then"- and in our family, it was by no means okay to say that word- we were taught that it was not something done by people of quality.
And of course, it would be foolish to assume that a Tennesseean would wear cowboy boots- there are no cowboys in Tennessee. Have people really thought so?
If you never listened to the Opry, though, you're missing out. The glory days of the Opry were truly a glory for American music. I have very diverse musical tastes myself, and I'm not one of those who believes that listening to only one type of music (the older the better, it seems, among some people) is any indication of greatness, or in fact a point of pride.
So, I have to ask: why are you so sensitive about stereotypes which may be applied to Southerners? You spent an entire paragraph describing yourself in terms of what you are not, which tells me that this is an issue which hits very close to home, and has some baggage for you.
Speaking of Bill Seibert, aka Alobar Greywalker, when you get your LJ up and running, you might want to have a look at his LJ. His username is "alobar." While I have a great deal of regard for his ex-wife, a friend, and I like the idea of CAOTO, I have very little regard for what I have seen of Alobar himself. The personality he presents in his LJ seems prone to strange anger and much bitterness, and I have seen him support anti-Semitism of the most foolish, conspiracy-theorist type.
I have not gotten around to reading Grant. However, I'm quite aware of his role as the Great Beast's secretary and almost-successor. (Unfortunately for Grant, Uncle Al changed his mind, and that's that.) While I am interested in the idea of non-literalist interpretations of Liber AL, I place no credibility in the idea that the gods are actually extraterrestrial aliens.
My biggest problem with the Simonomicon is not with the book itself, but with people who, while following said book, insist that they are practicing the actual religion of Mesopotamia. Such people not only give ANE paganism a bad name, but they make it all the harder to find legitimate practitioners.
Yes, as you so astutely observed, I have a great deal of 'baggage' and defensiveness about being a Southerner. I think its just my reaction to my fellow Southerners. While there are few, if any, real cowboys in Tennessee, cowboy hats and cowboy boots are a riguer dress for the Music Row crowd in Nashville, (vomiting noises) though most of the wearers wouldn't know the eating end from the defecating end of a horse. I ride Western rather than English style, but I am a knight (jouster), not a cowboy, though some of my ancestors drove herds of moss-back longhorns across Texas after the Civil war.
As to Seibert, you can find my thoughts on him, and learn more than you ever wanted to know about his magickal history, in the upcoming 2nd edition of THE NECRONOMICON FILES in the subsection entitled "Sects, Drugs, and Rock'n Roll." He undoubtedly stole the name "Alobar" from a book entitled JITTERBUG PERFUME by Tom Robbins. Alobar was the name of the male hero. JITTERBUG is one of my favorite works of fiction, so this pisses me off no end. Seibert's antiSemitism doesn't really surprise me. He is always searching for new venues in which to reveal his bad taste, stupidity, and utter lack of class.
My website is back up at its domain of <www.necfiles.org> So please surf on in and leave some hate mail on our guestbook. Daniel and I love that sort of thing.
Uncle Kennie is worth reading if only for a hoot. As I mentioned earlier, I dearly love the old boy even if he is totally whacked. The best place to start with Grant is probably HECATE'S FOUNTAIN, which will give you some idea of his approach to Lovecraftian magick -- an outrageous approach to a psuedoparadigm of psuedomagick that is already outrageous to begin with. CULTS OF THE SHADOW is also good for a few belly laughs. If you are any kind of serious Thelemite, this stuff will also probably make you angry. Don't say I didn't warn you.
As to why I don't like the Simonicon: I have reasons for disliking the book itself, in addition to disliking the misguided audience it has created. Let's just say that what the book has done to Mesopotamian Paganism is right at the top of the list.
Anyway, thanks for replying to the previous post, and for tolerating my arrogant, opinionated, hard-assed stance.
meanings
I have read the original and I have read the one on the site, they are little alike. In Sumer quite a lot has double meanings. Not bowing before Namtar means not fearing death for example. One thing that bothers me though is this strange belief that there was some matriarchy that once ruled the land and was supplanted by an evil patriarchy. This is a modern neo pagan belief grounded in a Victorian fiction.
Re: meanings
I'm just reading the Jacobsen version of the Ereshkigal and Nergal myth, and I fail to see how this is a story about a woman who is raped and then forced to marry her rapist, a la Old Testament rules. It just doesn't seem in line with the respective gods' personalities. Here are my arguments as to why I do not see the story this way:
1) Nergal stays with Ereshkigal for seven days, and when he leaves, Ereshkigal demands that he be sent back to her, threatening to unleash the dead upon the living. She has already shown her power over other deities in other myths. Why then, would someone able to kill Inanna and send a plague of hungry undead upon Sumer allow Nergal to stay with her for a week, and them demand marriage from him if he indeed raped her? This does not seem consistent with Ereshkigal's personality.
2) Who is to say that this is just an example of gods who like rough sex? This is how I initially took the story. I think it is a much richer mythology if the gods show the same sexual diversity as humans do. Inanna is willing to sneak out and have a tryst in the canebreak with Dumuzi, and then make up a story to cover her tracks (just like all young girls do!) Why not have the war god and the underworld goddess be into rough sex?
3) Ereshkigal says she is "unclean" and "defiled" which may indicate rape, but may also allude to the fact that she has just spent a week sleeping with a man who is not her husband, which may be considered shameful behavior for a recently widowed Queen.
4) There is a story in which Inanna was raped by a gardener. She is furious about this and sends plagues upon Sumer. The version I read is Kramer's version and not a direct translation, but I gather from it that she is sending those plagues to find the gardener and rip him a new one, not marry him. I especially think this considering how much her husband Dumuzi had to woo her before she would consent to marry him. She also does not seem the type to show destructive power, but then go ahead and marry her rapist because it's the rule.
I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. -Voltaire
That isn't to say that they are in any way more reprehensible than the dry and barren prjudices (and economy) of America under the "burning Bush." 
Because I spent such a long time as a martial artist, as a jouster, and as a metaphysical gadfly harassing the Necronomicon-worshipers and laying waste to all their works, I would more likely be considered a man of war.
In fact, right now I'm taking a break from checking proofs to write this post. Thanks for the recreation. 
(Shhh, let's not give them any ideas!) 
When Inanna/Ishtar made Her proposal to Gilgamesh, She was offering to legitimize his rule by the Sacred Marriage Rite. As the Sumerians said: "AGA gish GUZA gish GIDRU NAM LUGAL SUMU INANNA ZAKAM" ("The crown, the throne, the scepter, and name of kingship are yours to bestow, Inanna!") Gilgamesh had ruled Her city, Uruk, as an unworthy usurper up until that time. His refusal of Her offer angered Her on several different levels. BTW, I believe that the surviving examples we have of the Epic of Gilgamesh are also of the degenerate "Dark Age" sort. There is an ancient Sumerian story, "Inanna and the Huluppu Tree," in which Gilgamesh is Inanna's friend and ally, and stands with Her even when Her father Nanna and Her brother Utu refuse to help Her. Quite an about-face from his behavior in the surviving versions of the Epic.
There is one particular piece of information I got from Jacobsen that filled in a vital gap in my understanding of a dream I received. Anyway, I'll bore you with that some other time.
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