#babylonian witch

[witchykinny]

I'm beginning to feel called to Babalon so here are a few things I associate with her. Crowley is a questionable source at best, and most other credible works have been destroyed by xtians, so I feel that personal association will work best in devotion/working with her.

-Dragon's blood incense (most deities like this, I see!), other scents being fruit, flowers, and incredibly specific perfumes (like those ones on TikTok that are like "how to smell like a library")

-Finery, like gold and jewels- the aesthetics of royalties

-Architecture. Like the above point, aesthetics of royalties

-Music. My favorite: 'Babalon' by Twin Temple

-The colors red, gold, brown, purple

-The numbers 7 and 777

-Livestock and farm animals, especially goats, cattle, and livestock protection dogs

-Crystals: onyx, jasper, ruby, garnet, rose quartz, tiger's eye, citrine

-Indulgences, especially in food. Treat yourself!

Some of her dominions:

-Mothers, motherhood, pregnancy, and the medial fields. Parenthood is gender neutral but specifically geared towards AFAB people. Menstrual cycles, menopause, hysterectomies, tubal ligations

-Sex workers, "gold diggers", sugar babies, etc.

-Self-liberation, questioning of authority, personal research, knowledge of one's self (physically, spiritually, mentally, etc)

-Blood magic and sex magic

-Protection magic, especially protection of the self and of one's property

-Transgenderism- ties into self-liberation. Intersectional feminism/activism. Nonconformity, challenging of gender roles.

-Of course, abominations. Anyone who challenges society by simply existing is under her protection. Marginalized folks are considered 'abominations' by the elite.

[thescarlettbitch]

Worshipping Inanna / Ishtar

This is an informative post about how Inanna was worshipped, or believed to be worship, back in her time, and at the end I'll share how I worship her.

Ritual sex - her high priestess would have ritual sex (whether it was true sex or symbolic is unknown) with the new king to ensure his fortune.

Gender non-conformity - her cult was primarily composed of those outside the binary, and shows men and women adopting the opposing dialect and engaging in sex with each other.

Music and art - most of her myths are in the form of Hymns, and most of her followers were artists, musicians, or dancers. Specifically, war dances would be done in her temple.

Libations - a libation is the ritualistic act of pouring a liquid offering straight from a container onto the earth. In depictions, the person doing the offering was naked.

Unfortunately, due to the passage of time, many specific rituals have been lost. I've scoured and this is really all I can find about her ancient original worship, and a lot of it is disputed because no one knows what was a metaphorical ritual or an actual ritual.

That being said, here is how I worship her in the modern day.

Self-confidence - Inanna was not one to be meek, it is said by many experts and proven in her myths that she was headstrong and didn't care how she was perceived. To honor her, I wear whatever I want. I have a very alternative style and I used to fear people looking at me. She has helped silence my worry and in turn, helped me gain confidence.

Non-conformity - I'm nonbinary, and although my femininity is a major part of my identity, so is masculinity, and so is androgyny. Learning that she had a queer cult following was so liberating, as before learning that I felt like it was wrong of me to work with her. So every little thing I do that isn't in the social construct of the gender binary is for her.

Libations - lucky for me, this is one area of her ancient worship that can be done in a modern setting. I don't have a "proper" container, I just use a normal glass. I've done it with water, coffee, tea, lemonade, and even kool-aid.

Honey/Butter cakes - in, I believe, Inanna and The God Of Wisdom, Enki welcomes her with honey/butter cakes and alcohol. I have only made a honey cake once before and it was shit, but I plan on trying again soon to combine both into a honey bourbon cake. I know they didn't have bourbon back then, but it's a local good I can find and adds a personal touch.

Self love - my fiancé lives across an ocean, so some things we can't do together (both living with family and thin walls), so to honor and worship her, self love is a great way for those in similar situations and she enjoys it from what I've seen.

Offerings - usually dates, sometimes cherries, often lemonade or tea, and more recently honey whiskey. These offerings might not be "traditional" in style, but they work for me and her. I have a small glass from an old Costco tiramisu and an iridescent bowl I got half off at our local grocery, both have an 8pointed star on them. Usually I sit them out for days at a time, or at least over night, and then either ingest them or just toss it in the trash (any other alternative isn't doable in my current situation)

Music - I listen to a variety of music with her, songs about sex, love, anger, fighting, injustice. She loves it, and if you want more detail on this I have a post about the songs on her playlist here.

Driving with the windows down - I love driving, and I feel like doing so with the windows down is an easy multitasking way to cleanse myself and invite good vibes in. Usually I do this while playing her playlist.

Making posts - it may seem a little silly, but a way I honor her is keeping her and her family alive. They are old deities, their civilizations and worshippers lived about 6,000 years ago, and some of her family have had their names lost to time. Making posts about them helps get word out, and keep them "alive".

Digital temples - I play the sims 4 and I saw someone talk about how they wanted to make a temple to their goddess in the game, so... I'm making my own. And will probably have my sims "worship" her via a club. Some people don't see this as an act of worship, but I do. As @thrashkink-coven said in this post, the gods are as modern as they are ancient. I know she enjoys it.

I will go through and make a full post detailing specific UPGs (personal practice things not backed in historical fact) with her, for anyone interested.

[lifeanddeathcustoms]

And on her forehead a name was written, MYSTERY…

[creature-wizard]

Is the spiritual person a conspiracy theorist? A list of red flags

They talk about a shadowy group of people supposedly manipulating everything behind the scenes. They might refer to them by terms such as globalists, bankers, international bankers, secret rulers of the world, the elite, the cabal, Kabbalists, Talmudists, satanists, satanic pedophiles, pedophiles, generational satanists, satanic bloodlines, the Illuminati, the Babylonian Brotherhood, lizard people, Reptilians, Orions, regressives, regressive entities, Khazarians, Marxists, cultural Marxists, or leftists. Sometimes, very rarely, they'll just come right out and say "Jews."

They claim that the conspiracy has been working to conceal historical and spiritual truths from humanity.

They claim that the conspiracy uses stuff like food, entertainment, and medicine to control the masses. For example, "additives in food suppress our psychic abilities" or "Hollywood films contain subliminal messages" or "COVID vaccines were actually created to alter your DNA to make you more docile."

Also, claims that the conspiracy controls people via spiritual or technological implants, 5G, or alter programming, with or without explicit mention of Project Monarch (a conspiracy theory promoted by far right cranks such as Mark Philips and Fritz Springmeier, who used hypnosis to respectively convince Cathy O'Brien and Cisco Wheeler that they'd been put under mind control by a global satanic conspiracy).

They claim that this conspiracy is controlling the media, has fingers in every institution they disagree with, and is generally behind everything they disagree with. (EG, the conspiracy created the Catholic Church; that other New Ager they disagree with is actually controlled opposition, etc.)

They claim that the conspiracy is trying to keep people in fear.

They claim that the conspiracy harvests something from people. Blood and adrenochrome are common ones. Loosh is somewhat less common. Expect to see something else pop up eventually.

They claim that the conspiracy practices genetic engineering; EG, creating animal/human hybrids, using vaccines to genetically sever people's connection to God, etc.

They claim that true spiritual wisdom can be traced back to places like Atlantis, Lemuria, or Mu.

They claim that world governments have secretly been in contact with extraterrestrials for years.

They appeal to known frauds and cranks, including but not limited to Erich Von Daniken, Zechariah Sitchin, David Icke, David Wilcock, Graham Hancock, Jaime Maussan, Bob Lazar, Steven Greer, Richard C. Hoagland, Fritz Springmeier, and Drunvalo Melchizedek.

Appeals to forged documents, including but not limited to the alleged diary of Admiral Richard Byrd, The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean, and The Urantia Book.

Appeals to channeled information, such as that provided by Edgar Cayce, Carla Rueckert, or George Van Tassel.

"But all of this has to come from somewhere, doesn't it?"

Oh, it all comes from somewhere, all right, but the where isn't what most people imagine.

A lot of the stuff above is just a modern spin on the content of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a Russian hoax created to justify violence against Russian Jews. The Protocols itself was plagiarized from a political satire and incorporated a lot of the post-French Revolution conspiracy theories about Freemasons and Jews being behind the French Revolution. I wrote a summary of the conspiracy tropes found in The Protocols over here.

The stuff about Satanic sacrifices and the consumption of blood, adrenochrome, loosh, or whatever are simply just variations on blood libel, an antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims Jews practice ritual cannibalism. Blood libel can be traced back to ancient Greece. (With the Greek version, I really can't help but notice the similarity to modern urban legends of gangsters kidnapping random people for initiation rituals.)

Many of these tropes can also be linked back to the early modern witch hunts. It was believed that witches sacrificed babies to Satan, practiced cannibalism, and put people under mind control by way of diabolical magic. It was also believed that some witches didn't even know they were witches; they'd go off to attend the Devil's Sabbath at night and come back in the morning without remembering a thing. In the late 20th century, this witch hunter's canard would be reinvented as the alter programming conspiracy theory when media such as the 1973 book Sibyl and its 1976 television adaptation put DID (note: the woman who inspired Sibyl did not have DID) into the public consciousness. For a more complete list of witch panic and blood libel tropes, I wrote a list over here.

Lemuria was a hypothetical landmass proposed to explain the presence of lemur fossils in Madagascar and India while being absent in continental Africa and the rest of Asia, because if lemurs evolved naturally, they wouldn't be in two separate places with no connection to each other. The discovery that India and Madagascar were once connected not only made the hypothesis obsolete, it precludes the existence of Lemuria.

The whole notion of Mu began with a horrendous mistranslation of the Troano manuscript. A man named Augustus Le Plongeon would link the mistranslation with the story of Atlantis, and use it to claim that Atlantis actually existed in the Americas. (For Plongeon, Mu and Atlantis were one and the same.) And then other people (like James Churchward) got their hands on the whole Mu thing, and put their own spins on it, and the rest is history.

Le Plongeon's ideas influence modern Atlantis mythology today; EG, the idea that it was in the Americas. Another guy who helped shape the modern Atlantis myth was Ignatius L. Donnelly, an American politician. Dude claimed that Atlanteans spread their oh-so-superior culture far and wide. He also claimed that Atlantis was the home of the Aryan people, because of course he did.

The idea that all of the world's wisdom can be traced back to Thoth/Hermes goes back to Hermeticism, a product of Greco-Egyptian syncretism. Hermeticism produced a fascinating body of mythology and an interesting way to consider the divine and its role in shaping human history, but that doesn't mean it was right. And the Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean is a modern text that has fuck-all to do with ancient Hermeticism and more to do with HP Lovecraft.

This idea that the conspiracy uses pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines for evil also has roots in Nazi Germany. The Nazi government, wanting to reserve real medicine for their soldiers, told the general populace that said medicine was the product of evil Jewish science and prescribed alternative healing modalities instead. (Said alternative healing modalities did not particularly work.) It also echoes the old conspiracy theories about Jews spreading the Black Death by poisoning wells.

The idea that the conspiracy uses genetic manipulation to create subhuman beings or sever humanity from the divine is a permutation of the Nazi conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to destroy the white race through race mixing. The idea of evil reptilian DNA goes back to the ancient serpent seed doctrine, which is indeed old, but no less pure hateful nonsense for it.

"But there's got to be somebody up to something rotten out there!"

Oh sure. But these people aren't skulking around in the shadows. They're acting pretty openly.

The Heritage Foundation has been working to push this country into Christofascism since the early 1970's. They're the ones responsible for the rise of the Moral Majority and the election of Ronald Reagan. They're also the ones behind Project 2025, which intends to bring us deeper into Christofascism. (Among many other horrible things, they intend to outlaw trans people as "pornographic.")

The Seven Mountains Mandate is another movement pushing for Christofascism. They intend to seize the "seven spheres" of society, which include education, religion, family, business, government/military, arts/entertainment, and media.

There's also the ghoulish American Evangelicals who support Israel because they think that current events are going to bring about the Second Coming of Jesus and cement the formation of a global Christofascist empire. Don't let their apparent support of Jews fool you - they believe that the good Jews will become Christians and the bad ones will go to hell.

All of these people are working toward monstrously horrific goals, but none of them are part of an ancient megaconspiracy. In fact, these are the kinds of people pushing the myth of the ancient megaconspiracy. From the witch hunts to Nazi Germany to the American Evangelical movement, if history has taught us anything, the people pushing the conspiracy theories are always the bad guys.

[acesw]

Knowing our Arcanists 4: Dikke

Welcome to entry four of my series: "Knowing our Arcanists"! This is a series in which I introduce and tell the stories of our fellow characters in Reverse: 1999. For today's character we have: Dikke!

Ah one of the first characters hit by the yuri-beam that became very popular in the fandom for her being easily paired with other characters. Her character is pretty interesting, as being one of the vessels of justice and one of the oldest characters in the game. Just wish that her kit was as powerful as her canon, anyway lets get started!

Lady Dikke is a European arcanist coming from the middle ages, born on October 10th. She is the current magistrate and Supreme Chief of the Special Court, and is a very eccentric person who carries out justice in unconventional ways.

Her arcane skill involves an ancient Babylonian soul, who resides in the flaming sword "Justice" and is often depicted as a spiritual claw looming over Dikke's shoulder. While ferocious, it has been her guiding spirit when it comes to doing her job. She states that its sentient, being easily swayed by what it thinks is an injustice. Whether it'd be an action or some believed meaningless rumors, it will respond accordingly.

It can be assumed that this soul is likely based off of Babylonian King Hammurabi, as he is the creator of the law code that ultimately became the law code for others. The code, named after him, is one of the earliest, longest, and best-preserved legal texts made in the ancient Near East.

We don't know too much about Dikke as herself prior to her work, but when she grew older, she first became a chancellor in the (Medieval) Inquisition. Its power started to grow in Europe to carry out cases and trials in place of the secular courts, and when Dikke became bishop, it grew more powerful, gradually prevailing control over the courts and laws across the region.

The Inquisition also had some degree of control on handling the cases of arcanists, both innocent and guilty. While being viewed as cruel and abusive by some, it can't be doubted that it held a special place in the arcanum world. Dikke usually carried out some of these trials herself, providing justice for the guilty and giving mercy for those innocent.

Some time after the Black Death pandemic, Dikke visited one of the villages to investigate the death of a member of a church, conducting a long investigation that seemed unconventional but fully efficient to be able to reach a conclusion.

She found that all the townspeople (including the church) were guilty, as multiple factors led to the death of the church member and the case was silenced further before her arrival. However she carried out no punishment.

At some point, she went to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pamiers in France, and became a magistrate and Supreme Chief of the Special Court there. During this time, she became in charge of conducting retrials of temporal court cases, to prevent wrongful convictions.

She used this to her advantage, as her control of this aspect led to many innocent arcanists to be saved from the witch hunts carried out by humans.

Dikke can be described as a very straightforward and active character, always making it a point to be fair and to be truthful. She never really lies, and continuously works towards carrying out the justice that guides her in every step she makes. Dikke is very insistent on it, and is often reluctant when it comes to accepting a position of power due to its connection with greed.

Despite these, she's not a stone cold person. She'll occasionally have a drink, make a humorous jab about the corrupt and the guilty, and enjoys quiet nights when the day ends with her goals fulfilled.

Dikke's belief in justice aligns with her layered empathy, but she is in no way to consider making an exception. She even tells herself that if she were to carry out an injustice that she too must deserve punishment. No guilty person can escape the blade of justice, neither will the wealthy and the powerful. Dikke will make sure of that.

[traegorn]

dude i think they might be right about Lilith. The sheer fact that judaism is multifaceted and not any person can speak on it like without recognizing its diversity is a commonly held belief

What are you even talking about?

Let's break this down. I said "Lilith is a figure exclusively from Jewish Folklore, and Jewish people get to decide whether or not their culture is open."

I am not Jewish, and I am not drawing any line beyond that basic premise. This random person has gone on a multi-month campaign of harassment going back like half a year, calling me antisemitic, transphobic, and a slew of other insults.

A bunch of Jewish people said they don't consider it an open part of their culture. Maybe some don't agree with that. I don't know. I just know it's not my decision, and that the vast majority of folks I've talked to say it's closed. Jewish people can hash that shit out between themselves, and until then I'm taking the "Don't be a fuckhead" tack of recommending non-Jewish witches leave Lilith the fuck alone.

That's the great "crime" I committed. You apparently think it's acceptable that I spend months being harassed because of that.

And what the hell have they been right about to begin with? In all the random ass asks they've sent me, they've never made a single argument for why they're right. The only argument they've made included citing an article that literally does not support what they're saying. Other than that? Random insults. They have not been making a case for anything.

(Also, most non-Jewish witches justify their working with Lilith with a breadth of misinformation and ahistorical bullshit where most of the time I'm just debunking that. Like, Lilith is not and has never been a "Goddess," nor was she Babylonian -- it's a whole thing. Like, if you go back to my now infamous podcast I think I said I don't think non-Jewish people should work with Lilith. Like, it was fucking advice -- I need to reiterate that I have never presumed to be in charge of any of this shit.)

[kshkshks]

trying to understand that goddamn speech from wolfy. help.

this is part one of this post

˚⁎⁺˳ ✦ ༚ spoiling imaginarium theatre. for free!!

so wolfy’s boar story + nicole line.

“ Why not wolves? Many a tale has wolves in it, and even the compendium personally burned by Madame Mage had a wolf character!

It is said that the Boar Tribe were once all wild boars, but the boars did bad things, so the master wanted to punish them. The master took out a rusted set of scales, and told the boars to stack their own things on both sides. If the scales tipped to one side, they could leave.

But the scales were so rusty that putting just a small amount of weight was not enough to move them.

Those boars who placed their heads on the scales became wolves, lizards, and snakes, leaving only their strength. Those who offered their muscles became rabbits, leaping three paces to a bound, instinctively guiding people to treasure.

But there was one boar who placed things evenly on both sides, until the rusted scale broke right down the middle...

And so she became a mute person — for she had placed her voice upon the scales as well.

She is also a friend of Madame Mage, and I hear she likes to speak in people's heads! “

tldr: the seelie got their husk forms via Scale Punishment for a ‘bad thing’ they did. they were punished by a 'master'. (in this context, it may be implied to be PO.) and, depending on which metaphorical parts of themselves they gave away, they turned into multiple different creatures. btw, it's hard to tell how metaphorical the scales are. they may very well be actual scales because mihoyo is just cheeky like that.

“Legends of Jueyun” and "Amethyst Crown". they differ, which leads me to believe that "legends" is not to be taken literally, at least anymore. nabu malikata's account is much clearer: the Scale Punishment might have happened right after the Second Who Came (Nibelung potentially), when PO was anxious of their empire crumbling. and that Scale Punishment was the great exiling of seelies, "divine envoys of heaven".

Arama in “Aranyaka: Part III - Nursery of Lost Dreams, Part 2: For the Children of the Past”: the ‘bad thing’ should be falling in love with humans. i interpret this as protecting humans at large, as a race. or maybe creating nephelim. or maybe that's one and the same. "Song of Seelie": the 'Boar Tribe' likely lived in the Dark Sea and/or Abyss, as that's where the seelie are said to have had palaces before being exiled.

"The Little Witch and the Undying Fire": teyvat's people (imo it's unclear if that's the UC or current ones) are nephilim — fusions of angels (probably seelie) and regular humans.

funny thing: little husk seelie + nabu malikata and vishaps have horns and their designs seem to be based on the same animal — varieties of sea slugs. they are also connected to the moon sisters, not only through “Legends of Jueyun” but also because of something you may not want to read, so skip ahead. here i go:

now, goddess selene/luna (depends on the religion) in her description looks like nabu malikata and the seelie ladies who appear in various stories; she's always a beautiful pale woman (see for example "drunkard's tale"), and in nabu malikata's case, they're both horned. regardless, selene/luna are stemming from the moon gods like men and mah, and all of those guys always have the visual of horns of a crescent rising behind. and the very old babylonian moon god suen/sin/nanna is additionally the god of cattle. the husks of seelies we interact with in game have tiny horns themselves, too (so nabu malikata isn't an outlier).

there's an achievement in enkanomya called "phosphorus's guidance" that you get by following seelies to their courts, which implies phosphorus being, like, either all seelies collectively, or, more likely, their ancestor from "legends of jueyun". phosphoros literally means 'morning star', they are the god of planet venus (sometimes called morning star). another word is heosphoros which means 'torch-bearing' and that's how hecate and diana appear in their iconology. additionally, selene is a sister of the goddess of dawn eos. with dawn comes the morning star, venus is mainly the goddess of love, her name meaning 'desire', and eos's description is overwhelmingly just how lusty she was. in roman mythology lucifer's mother is aurora, which etymologically leads us to, again, eos. lucifer literally means 'light bringing', and is not only the name of the christian devil, but also diana's title -- lucifera. her name, btw, means 'divine, heavenly', and 'morning sky'.

tldr: phosphoros (the seelie god or something according to a genshin achievement) is basically diana, the moon goddess.

˚⁎⁺˳ ✦ ༚

personal speculations

✦ rabbits — seelie husks. offered (at least) their physical bodies, soul. maybe that's control of their fate, power to change anything themselves "A Song of Seelie": "stripped of all that the body once held close and [stripped of] the soul once held dear"; "Ay-Khanoum's Myriad": "stripped of their minds"; Wolfy: "guiding people to treasure".

✦ wolves — khaenriahns and/or surtalogi and/or a figure surtalogi is mirroring. offered (at least) 'head'. “A Drunkard’s Tale”: “what you humans call wine, we wolves call the abyss”; this post and this comment thread on surtalogi’s connection to woobakwa and the wolf pup in “The Boar Princess”.

✦ boars — survivors of the Unified Civilisation, such as Enkanomiya and possibly Sal Vindagnyr (see "Dragonspine's Glacial Secret"). offered nothing? if they even exist still after the Scale Incident, which they may. since boar princess travels with not-boar animals who are still considered to be from her kingdom. this is a can of worms however since the boar princess was theorised to be the princess of sal vindagnyr.

✦ foxes — some weird spirit guys. i don’t know. definitely have an istaroth connection. “The Dandelion Sea” whole; the wind spirit turning into a fox in "A Drunkard's Tale"; "Imperatrix Umbrosa Chapter: Act II - Transient Dreams, Part 3: Radiant Sakura": makoto's plan (ei planting the sakura in the plan of euthymia) involved istaroth, and i the cutscene of it coming to fruition foxes come along.

✦ turtles — ambiguous.

✦ lizards — something something vishaps this is not in my competence. offered (at least) 'head'.

✦ snakes — ambiguous. offered (at least) 'head'. maybe khaenriah, another group or all instead of wolves, simply because dainsleif’s contemplation is ourobouros.

✦ nicole — gambler. went all in. 99% turn away just before they hit it big. you should bet your house your wife your kids and your organs. offered (at least) her body, voice, possibly 'head' and/or soul.

✦ nabu malikata — i don't know anymore. read fun fact below. i don't know what she offered. should i be afraid? fun fact: there's a mathematician called Nicolo Tartaglia Fontana. first is his actual name, second is a nickname, third is a (possible) surname. HM. this was the only link connecting childe to nicole before, so i thought it could have been a fluke. BUT NOW, since 'wolves' with nicole are of one species originally, and assuming the wolf in "the boar princess' references surtalogi... "The Dirge of Bilqis, Part 6: The Eternal Dream, Ever Lush": when traveler sees nabu malikata in liloupar's memories, they describe her gaze as being faced with "nothingness". oh what's that. childe just happens to have this weird detail where his eyes don't have a sparkle. HM HM OH THERE'S MORE. "Ay-Khanoum's Myriad": jinn addressing nabu malikata "Please, dream-mother, mistress of forgetting and wine, we beg of you — remain queen of this garden." DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT WINE IS. WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'DREAM-MOTHER'. LIKE NIGHT-MOTHER?? *grits teeth* i don't know what exactly is going on there but this may be related to the 'head'. purple (colour of padisarahs) is the colour of abyss and hexenzirkel and the imaginarium type in hi3 too and don't dare tell me this is not important.

what the fuck is head

[yamayuandadu]

Hey I am kinda curious are there any sorcerers in Mesopotamian mythology

Great question, genuinely a joy to research.  Depends how you define this term, I suppose. If you want to go with the dictionary definition of sorcerer as someone who possessed magical powers and uses them to harm others, the answer is pretty much yeah. More under the cut.

There’s some debate in Assyriology when to call things “sorcery” and when “witchcraft” - Tzvi Abusch (who is great when it comes to covering Mesopotamian magic but… less great on other matters) argues the difference is essentially that sorcery can be employed by anyone, and witchcraft is a label applicable to actions of a specific category of malevolent individuals (this is a distinction made in other fields too). However, Daniel Schwemer treats these terms as interchangeable because, as he points out, there is no indication such a distinction was present in Mesopotamian culture, and on top of that neither Sumerian nor Akkadian have distinct terms for these two phenomena. I personally lean towards his approach, but I admit I’m biased because I generally like his work while Abusch wrote one of my least favorite Assyriological hot takes, the dreadful DDD Inanna entry.

A good summary of the Mesopotamian image of witchcraft (kišpū), witches and warlocks (or, if you prefer these labels, sorceresses and sorcerers) can be found here and here. Witches were known as kaššāptu; the masculine equivalent, kaššāpu, is less common and never really appears alone. A second term used to refer to male witches was bēl dabābi, literally “opponent in court” but more generically also “adversary”; in this case, the feminine equivalent, bēlet dabābi, is less common, even though ultimately bēl dabābi played second fiddle to kaššāptu. 

Sometimes specific applications of witchcraft could be referred to with distinct terms. These include zikurudû, “cutting of the throat” (sending ill omens); kadabbedû, “seizing of the mouth” (causing speech disorders, but also more generally making someone incapable of verbal defense); dibalû, “distortion of justice” (pretty similar, but with obvious judicial connotations); and zīru, “hate” (exactly what it says on the tin; the goal was to isolate the target socially).Witchcraft was ultimately a pretty abstract matter, and most references to witches come from anti-witchcraft rituals. While ex. laws of Hammurabi do contain passages dealing with it - and with false accusations of engaging with it - we have no real evidence this was a matter commonly handled by courts, and there is little evidence for mass hysteria leading to actual witch hunts. The Mesopotamian image of a witch was at times essentially closer to an intangible supernatural creature than a real person (as a matter of fact, there are two Old Babylonian texts referring to a witch as a “wind demon”, lil, and as a “daughter of Ereshkigal” which might be a poetic indication of coming from the underworld). However, instructions on performing witchcraft do sometimes pop up in the textual record - there is a surviving step by step kadabbedû guide, for example.

Distinction has to be drawn between witchcraft and “white magic” (āšipūtu), which was firmly considered exorcistic or purificatory in character, and was performed by specialists called āšipu or mašmašu, typically “incantation priests” or “exorcist”. There were also less well documented related professions, like eššebû (“owlman” according to Daniel Schwemer) or mušlaḫḫu (snake charmer). Additionally, there was a large “gray zone” sometimes referred to as “aggressive magic”: love spells (rāmu; technically the opposite of zīru), rituals meant to bring success in court or in business, and so on. These are difficult to firmly classify as a part of either category, and it is quite likely that even āšipu performed them if requested to do so. 

Despite there being an enormous text corpus of “anti-witchcraft” rituals, I actually can’t think of many literary characters who could be described as witches, let alone sorcerers, though.  

One exception I can think of is the myth Enmerkar and Ensukukešdana, in which the latter of the two eponymous characters depends on the services of a certain Urĝirinunna (or perhaps Uralimnunna; see here), a nefarious sorcerer “whose skill was that of a man of Ḫamazu”. He can make livestock speak, and ends up making cows and goats debate him to convince them to stop giving milk. The milk was supposed to be turned into butter and other offerings for Nisaba, though, so soon he meets his match, a woman named Saĝburu. Her professional credentials are not described in detail but she easily overcomes him in a number of magical challenges and then kills him, stressing that she did this with divine sanction from Nisaba (these were her offerings, after all) but also other deities. After his defeat, Enmerkar is acknowledged as the winner by Ensukukešdana. I suppose this is also as good of an opportunity as any to also once again mention Kanisurra, the fakest sounding genuine Mesopotamian deity. She was the bēlet kaššāpāti, “lady of the witches” (on top of her better attested association with sex and a suggested connection with the underworld reflecting the origin of her name, which is likely a mangled form of ganzer, a rare poetic term for the entrance of the underworld). What exactly did that entail? I honestly have no clue, and I have seen basically no attempts to explain this role in scholarship. Perhaps she was responsible for keeping them under control much like how Ninkilim controlled field pests or Pazuzu wind demons.

[haggishlyhagging]

“In the Chinese myth of the great flood, the Moon Goddess sent her representative to earth, after the waters had subsided, to repeople the world. In the Babylonian account, Ishtar, the Moon Goddess, is reported to have both caused the great flood and to have saved a remnant of her people. Here her dual character is clearly seen, for she herself sent the flood and then lamented over the havoc she had wrought. On the Eleventh Tablet of Creation is told the story of the flood. It is called "The Lamentation of Ishtar at the Great Deluge." According to this ancient record the goddess Ishtar prophesied evil which immediately came to pass. If a person endowed with magic power prophesies, according to the "magic" way of thinking, she evokes that which she has prophesied, whether it be good or evil. We are still swayed by this old attitude when we feel it to be unlucky to suggest that something may go wrong, or that there may be an accident, or other misfortune, and we can still "feel" a hint of the dread which was caused by a witch's curse. For the curse was by no means only a wish that evil might be fall, it was believed actually to bring to pass the evil that had been "wished on" the cursed one. This colloquial expression gives the nearest modern equivalent to the old concept of a witch's prophecy or curse. So Ishtar, who was a noted prophetess, as were all the moon goddesses in whom the dark side of the moon was represented, prophesied evil, thus bringing the flood upon the earth. Then when mankind and all the animals were threatened by the rising waters, she pitied their plight and saved them.

Spake Ishtar like a child uttered the great goddess her speech, “All to corruption are turned and then I in the presence of the gods prophesied and

As I prophesied in the presence of the gods evil, to evil were devoted all my people and I prophesied

I the mother have begotten my people and like the young of the fishes they fill the sea

The gods concerning the spirits were weeping with me

The gods in seats seated in lamentation covered with their lips for the coming evil

Six days and nights passed

The wind, the deluge, storm overwhelmed.

On the seventh day in its course, was calmed the storm and all the deluge

Which had destroyed like an earth quake,

Quieted.”

As the poem proceeds, Ishtar is depicted in the boat which she has made and from which, like Noah from the Ark:

“On the seventh day in the course of it I sent forth a dove and it left”

. . .

"I sent the animals forth to the four winds"

There was probably an earlier version of this myth which makes the Moon God the central figure. Noah, in the Old Testament story, is probably a form of Nuah, a Babylonian moon goddess, and like Ishtar, he saved a remnant of the world from destruction in an ark which he built. Then when the waters subsided, Noah, taught by a dove, the bird which is invariably associated with moon deities, came out onto the land. The depopulated earth was repeopled from him and his family alone. He was thus the father of all who were born subsequently. As he had taken with him in the ark one pair of each animal species he was thus the generator or creator of all animal life on the renewed or redeemed earth.

The word ark is cognate with the Hindu word argha, which means crescent, and also with the arc of a circle. The ark in which Father Noah carried the animals over the flood was thus a moon boat. This story is put into the form of history, in the Old Testament, as is so much of religious myth. Even today, controversy still centers around the problem of the factual basis for the almost generally accepted legend of a great flood. Whatever may be the truth in regard to the deluge, it is clear that the story of the moon boat refers to psychological events. In the Chaldean story the whole happening is concretized. It is living men and animals who are transported over the floods to the "New World." In the Egyptian story Osiris, the Moon God, ferried the dead man who had been initiated into his rites, over the waters to the Isle of the Blest, and so gave him immortality. This also was a concretization. It was thought of as having an actual physical reality. But the Hindus, who were more psychologically minded than either the Chaldeans or the Egyptians, speak of the moon as carrying the souls of the dead over the waters to the sun where they live a redeemed life. This transition is represented in the Tantric diagrams of the Seven Stages of Consciousness. There the crescent moon is seen in the watery region, above which comes the fiery region of the sun. But already this is realized as symbol. The psychical is no longer projected into a concrete semihistorical happening, but the myth is recognized as representing stages of consciousness or of psychological development.

The moon boat of the Hindus carries the souls to the new world, the new incarnation, it is the boat of immortality. The Chinese moon goddess after the flood gives birth to all living things. It is a renewed world and a new creation. Men, women, and all animals arise from the different parts of her person. The moon goddess of Western Asia and of Europe similarly gave birth to all living creatures. The statues of Diana and those of the Asiatic moon goddesses in their hieratic form show animals and plants springing from heads, limbs, and breasts. For the Moon Goddess is the Many Breasted Mother of All, creator of all life on the earth.

The Moon Goddess is, in literal fact, the mother of all living things and yet, strange though it may seem, not only is she the life-giver but also the destroyer. She creates all life on the earth, and then comes the flood, which overwhelms it. And this flood is her doing, for she is cause of rain and storm and tide and also of the flood. But like Ishtar of Babylon, she laments at its consequences and does her best to save her children, who have all become ‘like the fishes of the sea.’ Similarly, though she stands passively by when her son is killed, the Moon Goddess mourns, as Aphrodite did, at the defeat and death of Adonis, an event that was commemorated annually, in the festival of the ‘weeping for Adonis.’”

-M. Esther Harding, Woman’s Mysteries: Ancient and Modern

[aeltri]

Watch Image of the Fendhal, Wanda is a witch.

Oh, I know but she's not a very good one though Cunter's arguably worse. Both fancy themselves priestesses belonging to a druidic sect of the same Babylonian Death Cult that I keep referring to. I've heard that cultists in the UK form covens that use ancient languages like Pictish and Welsh for ritual purposes. I know that one of Ben's Alters speaks the latter so Wanda obviously does as well. She also has links to the Sabbateans of Thessaloniki (Salonika) and maintains a vacation home there because both sects overlap. You see, Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz were deified and came to be known by different names throughout the Middle East and Europe. "Nimrod was trying to turn the people into atheists so they could have a constant dependence on his power rather than God’s. Also, Nimrod wanted to build a tower higher than any future flood should God choose to flood the world again. Nimrod was rebelling against God and creating a tyrannical one world order." There's also an ancestral connection to Cain and the Nephilim which became demons upon death. Demons are subservient to the Archons who are fallen angels. Practices associated with their worship often include orgiastic rites, blood sacrifices and cannibalism. Cultists become slaves to those entities after they call upon them to get the abilities and/or resources that they lack. I'd like to remind them that not everyone needs to resort to that to get things done...

[msclaritea]

WHO IS THANOS?

I knew he was a genocidal maniac, and a Rightwing symbol, especially after seeing trolls repeat, and nauseum, for years that "THANOS WAS RIGHT! THANOS WAS RIGHT!"

But even knowing most characters in Marvel are based on old myths, I didn't dwell on it. Until yesterday, when I saw this:

Wolf imagery. The video posted was full of wolves. That's when I decided to look closer. Playing around with the letters in the name, I first stopped on SONTHA, which is both Hindu and the name of one family from Ayrshire, Scotland.

But then, I tried SONATH, and bingo:

The name Somnath is of Indian origin, specifically from Sanskrit. It is derived from the combination of two words: "Soma," meaning moon, and "Nath," meaning lord or protector. Therefore, Somnath can be interpreted as "Lord of the Moon" or "Protector of the Moon."

https://parenting.firstcry.com › mea...

BUT SOMNATH IS ALSO THE NAME FOR LORD SHIVA, GOD OF DEATH, DESTRUCTION. AND THE CONQUERER OF TIME.

Thanos is basically a Dropped Letter Cypher.

"Symbolism of Wolves in Hinduism

Jackals, however, are associated with certain fierce deities like Bhairava (Shiva), Kāli, and Tara. Most of the time they are shown in the ..."

I spoke with Aeltrileaf about all of this. Well, we had a long discussion. She believed Thanos to be based on Thanatos, the Hindu equivalent of Yama, God of Death:

Thanatos, in ancient Greek religion and mythology, the personification of death. Thanatos was the son of Nyx, the goddess of night, and the brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. He appeared to humans to carry them off to the underworld when the time allotted to them by the Fates had expired.

https://www.britannica.com › topic

Thanatos | Death, Personification & God - Britannica

My personal choice was still Shiva, due to other similarities...the Purple, the Wolves, etc. I did acknowledge that the Hindu and Greek might be related. It's too much of a coincidence that Thanatos is associated with Night and sleep and SOMNATH is too. Aeltrileaf hit on it, saying that Greek is Indo-European, so if you go back far enough, there is overlap. I think at some point, Thanatos got reversed to Somnath, or vice versa.

She said, "The Babylonian equivalent of Soma was called SIN, also a 🌙 deity." The deities are intertwined:

It's basically all Death Cult stuff. Now, who exactly were they advertising, while pushing Thanos, AGAIN, just last night:

Scientology has been bending over backwards, to rehabilitate Jonathan Majors, just so he doesn't lose the Kang role. Also spammed under Thanos was Homelander, The Joker, Darth Vader., and of course, Scarlet Witch. I've said for a long time, the rule of thumb with these groups is relentlessly advertising who they control, or are associated with, under certain tags.

You know, IF Thanos makes some sort of comeback in the upcoming round of Marvel films, fine. But people should be aware of what inspired him.

[creature-wizard]

Yes, Gigi Young is literally just another conspiracy theorist.

Since I have this anon who's upset that I made a post awhile back criticizing some shit Gigi Young said, I figured I'd pop into her YouTube channel and see what she's doing these days.

I watched the video titled "The Occult Purpose of War & Satanic Super Technologies," which was uploaded in November of 2023, as well as the video titled The Esoteric Keys To Disclosure: 10.It's a Genetic Modification Cult, which was published back in September of 2023. So just to be clear, these are fairly new videos. This is basically what she believes and teaches right now, as of the time I am making this post. (December of 2023.)

Before I go into what she specifically says, I'm going to say right now that a lot of the stuff she's saying is basically the same stuff pushed by Fritz Springmeier, a far right conspiracy theorist with a history of extremely shady behavior and an undeniable mancrush on Dr. Joseph Mengele. (The guy really liked to talk about how handsome and irresistible this professional Nazi torturer supposedly was. I still feel queasy at the memory of reading what Springmeier said about him.)

Springmeier's work was influenced by the likes of Edith Starr Miller and Alexander Hislop. Edith Starr Miller was into all that Protocols stuff, and basically attacked anything that didn't conform to her ideals of what true Christianity was, claiming it was part of the Evil Conspiracy. Alexander Hislop was the Protestant dude who pulled a bunch of shit out of his ass about Roman Catholicism secretly being the continuation of an ancient Babylonian mystery cult.

Springmeier basically claimed that the world was under the control of thirteen Satanic bloodlines. In terms of what the conspiracy was supposedly up to, it was all a blend of the antisemitic hoax The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion with early modern witch panic and blood libel. He modernized it, of course. Springmeier claimed that the conspirators were experimenting with the creation of human/animal hybrids and developing advanced mind control technology.

It does not actually matter whether or not Gigi Young personally considers herself part of the far right in any sense. What matters - literally all that matters - is that she is spreading their beliefs and their rhetoric.

The impact and devastation is the same regardless of what Gigi Young personally considers herself.

She could hang a trans flag on her wall, wear an "I ❤️ Communism" shirt, spit on Hitler's picture in front of the camera, and it would not make a single iota of difference.

So in The Occult Purpose of War & Satanic Super Technologies, Gigi Young essentially proposes that a reason for Israel's assault on Gaza is that the satanic families supposedly controlling the world want to start World War III, for the purpose of conducting a massive blood ritual to summon the Antichrist. Here's a direct quote:

I absolutely think that they want to create World War III. World War III needs to happen for there to be enough blood in the soul for Ahriman to incarnate or for the Antichrist to incarnate. There needs to be a global war for the Antichrist to come into being.

The idea that there is a satanic cult that wants to bring about the rule of the Antichrist is basically the Christofascist conspiracy theory. The blood ritual element is another permutation of blood libel.

Young goes on to say that she believes that there's a faction within the dark elite that view nuclear bombs not as a weapon, but as an occult ritual.

She also makes indirect reference to the conspiracy theory that CERN was meant to open a portal to hell by claiming that particle accelerators tear a hole in the veil that allows demons to come through.

She repeats other common far right conspiracy theories, including the one where the conspiracy supposedly has Babylonian origins and practices dark rituals for the purpose of mind control over the populace, and that the conspiracy is genetically modifying plants and people for evil conspiracy reasons.

She also referred to elemental beings as "subhuman," which is a eugenicist term - literally a translation of untermensch. The fact that Young uses this word tells you something about the ideological bent among whatever people and literature influenced her beliefs.

In her video titled "The Esoteric Keys To Disclosure: 10.It's a Genetic Modification Cult," she talks more about this alleged satanic conspiracy. She claims that the conspiracy was told by demons and fallen angels that they were descended from alien gods, and that the conspiracy is all about genetic modification in order to become gods themselves.

So first of all, claiming that beliefs you disagree with came from demons and fallen angels is a move right out of the Christofascists' playbook. Normal people just accept and admit that people just come up with shitty ideas sometimes.

Secondly, Young's objection to the idea of alien ancestry and alien genetic modification in this video are very clearly part of her broader antivax and anti-GMO views. She believes that GMO foods are the work of the conspiracy, and that vaccinations were created by the conspiracy to modify people's genetics. She's literally an antivaxxer, y'all.

And like. The way to handle these conspiratorial alien origin myths isn't to reframe them in a slightly different conspiracy theory. The way to handle it is challenging and destroying the conspiracy theory altogether. It literally makes no different whether Young believes humanity is descended from aliens or not, so long as she's pushing this kind of conspiracy narrative.

Her views on GMOs and such this are pretty obviously informed by an attitude that natural = pure = good. What she's trying to pass off as anti-eugenics is actually a kind of belief in genetic purity, which is itself a form of eugenics.

She even claims that the downfall of Atlantis was caused by genetically modifying organisms. She claims that genetic modification actually "degenerates" the form. (For someone who claims to hate Nazis so much, she sure does use their language.)

She apparently believes that the conspiracy has a depopulation agenda. This one's been circulating far right conspiracy theory circles for decades.

She makes some bizarre claims about New Age alien beliefs. She tries to pin the whole thing on Scientology, which she claims was Nazi esotericism. While it's true that Scientology and New Age alien beliefs are similar, the latter were developing well before Scientology was a thing. Scientology, rather, was influenced by the ideas of its time. And while it's true that Nazi ideas have influenced New Age beliefs, Gigi Young cannot actually point to any specific cases; instead, she acts like the entire thing is ultimately a Nazi conspiracy, which is bullshit.

She also acts like New Age spirituality is extremely materially reductive. While I do think that New Age spirituality can be somewhat materially reductive, it's nowhere near to the degree that Gigi Young is describing. She seems to think that New Age ideas will somehow lead to people accepting DNA modification through vaccinations, which is just bizarre given how New Age is also rife with antivax conspiracism.

Her radfemmy gender essentialist shit comes back when she blames the world's condition on the overgrown and distorted male impulse that wants to control the feminine and take over creation, and says that if you're creating something in a petri dish, you're not allowing the holy womb of the woman to create life, which is what it's for.

So yeah, no, Gigi Young is not better than these New Age conspiracy theorists out there, not even a little bit. She's every bit as bad. Don't be fooled by the fact that she's dunking on people you hate; she's still pushing the same kind of conspiracy crap they believe in.

[harvestmoss]

🧵 Knot Magic (and witches ladder)

(image credit: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.)

Knotting is the original binding spell, the art goes back to Babylonians. Any intentions or force can be controlled by and tied to the magical knots. Focus and intention is the key to make a knot magical, concentrating on every single knot and trapping the magic in them. Materials can include ribbons, cord, robe, metal wire, hair, plant stems, threads, etc. If a knot can be made, the material can be useful. Knot magic can both be used for dark and light magic, common uses include love spells, healing spells, wealth spells, and even weather spells. One can tie a knot to create magic or untie a knot to release magic. Colour magic is used for the cord, red is traditional.

Basic knot spell

Focus on your intentions and goals while holding a (red) ribbon.

Tie a knot.

Keep it in a safe and secure place until you want to release it or not.

Traditional knot spell

This incantation is accompanied by tying 9 knots

By knot of  ONE, the spell’s begun.

By knot of  TWO, it cometh true.

By knot of  THREE, so mote it be.

By knot of  FOUR, power I store.

By knot of  FIVE, the spell’s alive.

By knot of  SIX, this spell I fix.

By knot of  SEVEN, this spell I leaven.

By knot of  EIGHT, it is fate.

By knot of  NINE, what’s done is mine.

Witches Ladder

A witches ladder is much like knot magic, save for the fact that it incorporates decorations, typically in the form of feathers, but can incorporate anything onto it as one pleases such as shells, hag stones, beads, sticks, crystals, keys, flowers, bones, hair, herbs, etc. A witches ladder is a form of talisman one can have in their house or wear. Much like knot magic, it is a versatile tool that can be both used for malevolent and positive purposes.

The first recorded witches ladder was found in Wellington that says “A witches ladder made with hen's feathers. Said to have been used for getting away the milk from neighbour's cows and for causing people's deaths. From an attic in the house of an old woman who died in Wellington.”  The witches ladder was found with an old armchair and six brooms

As you braid or knot the chosen cord, add your materials, typically the traditional knot magic is used here, but no need to do so if one wishes to add more or fewer items to their witches ladder.

[schoolofholywitchery]

🌿Correspondences for Ostara (Spring Equinox)🌿

🌿Other Names: Eostre, Eostre’s Day, Spring Equinox, Vernal Equinox, Alban Eiber, Bacchanalia, Lady Day

🌿Dates: March 19 – 22nd

🌿Colors: Pink, Yellow, Grass Green, All Pastels, Robin’s Egg Blue

🌿Altar Items: Eggs, Rabbits, Potted plants, Seeds, Maiden goddesses, Flowers, Quartz crystals, Cocoons, Bees, Baskets, Lambs, New Moon

🌿Activities: Conception, Egg painting, Gardening/planting a garden, Actualizing potential

🌿Spell Work: Manifestation, Healing, Energizing, Rededications, Removing obstacles, Restoring balance, Love attraction, Abundance, Home blessings, Spring cleaning

🌿Animals: Rabbits, Snakes, Chicks, Birds

🌿Stones: Aquamarine, Amethyst, Rose quartz, Moon stone, Bloodstone, Red jasper

🌿Foods: Eggs, Honey, Sprouts, Fresh fruits, Sweet breads, Seeds, Poppy Seed Cake, Banana bread, Chocolate, Sweet Wine, Milk and other dairy foods

🌿Herbs: Celandine, Cinquefoil, Jasmine, Rose, Tansy, Viole, Acorn, Crocus, Daffodil, Dogwood, Honeysuckle, Iris, Lily, Strawberry

🌿Trees: Birch, Ash, Alder

🌿Meaning: Balance, New Life/Rebirth, Goddes and God in Youth, Non-Celtic End of Winter, Light Overtaking Darkness, Fertility, Balance, New Beginnings, New Love, Growth,

🌿Ritual Oils: Lotus, Magnolia, Ginger

🌿Incense: Jasmine, Light scented florals

🌿Mythical Creatures: Mermaid, Dragons, Unicorn

🌿Goddesses: Aphrodite (Greek), Athena (Greek), Cybele (Roman), Eostre (Teutonic), Eriu (Irish), Gaia (Greek), Hear/Juno (Greco-Roman), Iris (Greek), Lady of the Lake (Welsh-Cornish), Madhusri (Hindu), Melusine (Franco-Scottish), Moon Mother (Native American), Ova (Greek-Etruscan), Renpet (Egyptian), Salamaona (Middle Eastern), Vesta (Greco-Roman), Anna Fearina (Roman), Astarte (Canaanite), Coatlicue (Aztec), Doda (Siberian), Erce (Slavic), Flidais (Irish), Garbhog (Irish), Ishtar (Babylonian), Isis (Egyptian), Libera (Roman), Ma-Ku (Chinese), Minerva (Roman), The Muses (Greek), Persephone (Greco-Roman), Rheda (Anglo-Saxon), Vesna (Slavic), Venus (Roman), Freya (Norse), Rati (Hindu)

#SpringEquinox #Ostara #Spring #pagan #Witchcraft #Witch

[a-witch-in-endor]

Hiii witch of endor, I got a question on Jewish lineage. I'm half east Asian/ Jewish but the Jewish part I'm not so sure of since going through your blog. My dad comes from a long line of rabbis on both sides ( maternal and paternal) and his sister has been able to track our family's bloodline to the tribe of Issachar. My dad isn't religiously Jewish and neither am I, but I've been told all my life that we (my father and I) are Jewish. Is that correct? I'm proud of my Jewish heritage but I don't wanna go around accidently proclaiming to be someone I'm not.

Hi! Thanks for reaching out, and do feel free to un-anon and message directly.

That's cool about your rabbinic lineage - do you know anything more about that?

As to tribal lineage - it would be really impressive, and almost unheard of, if you could actually trace your tribal lineage to Issachar. The tribes that weren't lost with the destruction of the North (when Israel was the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722BCE) are mainly just Judah and Levi. (That's why we're now called Jews - because Judah is the main surviving tribe.) Those are still maintained, and there were some Benjaminites hanging around about 2000 years ago, but... I would double-check where that info on Issachar is coming from, because it's an extremely rare thing to be able to do. For context, I basically only spend time with Jews IRL, and I don't think I've met anyone who's not either Judah or Levi.

The other piece you're asking about is matrilineal descent. So. In biblical times, the idea of tracing being an Israelite by either matrilineal or patrilineal descent wasn't really heard of. You can write off anything before Sinai (so, the time of Moses) because it wasn't really solidified at all by then. Tribal lineage (as in, whether an Israelite belonged to the tribe of Levi or Benjamin, etc) was certainly through patrilineal descent, but questions of being an Israelite were murkier. Most likely, it came down to either parent as long as one lived in Israel, because Biblical Judaism was really all about relationship with the land itself.

By the time of rabbinic Judaism (so, Judaism in a post-biblical world), Jews were counting Jewishness by matrilineal descent. At this point, we'd lived through one short-lived exile (Babylonian Exile, or the First Exile) and multiple occupations, and were getting into the Second Exile (the one that stretches from 70CE to the modern day, arguably ending with the Third Jewish Commonwealth, i.e. the establishment of the State of Israel). At this point, questions of mixed parentage were getting a lot more traction, and rabbis, being legal nerds, were trying to sort out the implications. The law was settled on matrilineal descent. This is probably due to multiple factors: unclear paternality, where a baby goes when parents don't form a marital unit, how external law works. Either way, that's how the law fell.

There was another category for those who were born of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, for what it's worth: zera Yisra'el, or "seed of Israel". This would refer to someone who's of Jewish stock, but not technically a Jew.

Now, into the modern era, some areas of progressive Judaism have decided to count things a little differently. This is for multiple reasons: a lack of adherence to traditional law (the Reform Movement likes to say "the tradition gets a vote, but not a veto", which I think is very cute) mixed with living in a world with intermarriage without anyone converting, being more certain of paternality, etc. Some progressive Jewish instutitons say that as long as a child was raised Jewish and with no other religion, they count as Jews. Some have all kids go through the conversion rituals before becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a way to handle unclear cases. Some just accept paternal descent.

All that is to say, according to the areas of Judaism that understand Jewish law to be binding, you're what we would call zera Yisra'el. That is to say, you're family, but not obligated under the law (which is a pretty cool spot to be in, I personally think). According to some Jews who don't ascribe to the idea that law is binding, you might be considered to be a plain ol' regular Jew.

(BTW, full disclosure, I am very much not a progressive Jew. 100% Jewish law gets a veto in my opinion, which is why pork will never be kosher. I hope I haven't misrepresented anything about progressive Judaism here, but you should know my biases!)

[haggishlyhagging]

In Rome, Diana was the protectress of the plebians, and in particular the guardian of slaves, outlaws, and thieves. Her temple stood in their city quarters, the Aventine. Roman slaves celebrated Diana's festival in mid-August (which is also the sacred festival day of Hecate, and of the Irish Triple Goddess Brigid). To the Christians, Diana the Moon was the Devil incarnate. Ninth-century church fathers in Europe condemned "deluded women who believe that in the dead of night they ride upon certain beasts with Diana—or the Witch Queen Herodias—and fly through the sky, among multitudes of women." Long into the Renaissance, she was imaged as a terrible demon. (Christians sometimes call the devil "Lucifer"; Lucifer, the "light-bringer" was in early legend Diana's twin brother, the morning star. The morning star, also the evening star, is Venus, which along with the moon was observed with very accurate calculations by ancient astronomers worldwide. To the Aztecs it was Quetzalcoatl, to the Mayans Kukulcan; to the Sumerians and Babylonians it was Inanna-Ishtar. Whenever Christians encountered astronomical-astrological observations and texts on Venus and the moon, they saw only "Devil-worship"; hence they destroyed library after library containing ancient wisdom and knowledge, including the Mayan astronomical library at Mani, as well as the library of Alexandria. Mayan astronomical knowledge was probably the most advanced in the ancient world; they invented the zero long before the Arabs did. In 1552 the Spanish Friar Diego de Landa, confronting all these texts containing Mayan intellectual brilliance as well as spiritual data, stated that they “contained nothing in which there was not to be seen superstitions and lies of the devil” and so “we burned them all.” Early Christian smashing of Dianic cults in the Mediterranean, as well as later church persecutions of witches in Europe, must be seen in this global context: wherever Christians saw knowledge—herbal, medical, astronomical, symbolical—they saw demonism, and moved to destroy it. The witch persecutions were not simply aimed at "Devil-worshipers," but at ancient human knowledge of the world.

-Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering The Religion of the Earth.