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ikhet_sekhmetI've been rummaging on teh Intarwebs, and as always it's full of profound rubbish when it comes to mythology. IMNSHO it's disrespectful and lazy when Pagans just make up any old crap about their deities - doubly so if they're doing it to sell something.
Triply so if they're ripped off a living Native culture and then made up a bunch of crap about it so they can sell something. Today I stumbled across a pair of earrings, made by a Californian artisan, which pinches an Indigenous Australian design. I emailed the seller to ask for details on the design, and apparently neither she nor the artisan have the slightest idea what the figures represent - it took me about two minutes to find out online from an Indigenous art shop.
Despite what you may read online, the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna didn't create the universe, nor civilisation. Like a Greek god, She came later in the story of the cosmos, and rather than being born great, She made Herself great. To neglect that part of Her story, with its trickery and thievery, is to distort Her character. Nor was Inanna a mother goddess, nor a moon goddess, nor a comet goddess. She has so much personality in the surviving translated literature, She is such a unique individual, that blurring Her into generic roles means losing sight of her altogether.
When I first became a Wiccan, I was doing a lot of ritual and a lot of buying, and not much in the way of study. That's changed over thirteen years - now there's almost no ritual and no buying, and it's all study. I risk becoming a snob - but basic information about these deities is available to anyone at the local library.
Triply so if they're ripped off a living Native culture and then made up a bunch of crap about it so they can sell something. Today I stumbled across a pair of earrings, made by a Californian artisan, which pinches an Indigenous Australian design. I emailed the seller to ask for details on the design, and apparently neither she nor the artisan have the slightest idea what the figures represent - it took me about two minutes to find out online from an Indigenous art shop.
Despite what you may read online, the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna didn't create the universe, nor civilisation. Like a Greek god, She came later in the story of the cosmos, and rather than being born great, She made Herself great. To neglect that part of Her story, with its trickery and thievery, is to distort Her character. Nor was Inanna a mother goddess, nor a moon goddess, nor a comet goddess. She has so much personality in the surviving translated literature, She is such a unique individual, that blurring Her into generic roles means losing sight of her altogether.
When I first became a Wiccan, I was doing a lot of ritual and a lot of buying, and not much in the way of study. That's changed over thirteen years - now there's almost no ritual and no buying, and it's all study. I risk becoming a snob - but basic information about these deities is available to anyone at the local library.
