Queen of Swords

The last few weeks have been incredible.

I met with my spiritual director yesterday and was startled by how much there was to tell him that hadn't even been on the horizon a month ago: new erotic and romantic energy in my life via the Scottish Gentleman and our long-distance chat dates; receiving ordination -- direct transmission of energies and contacts -- from Ereshkigal and Inanna via ritual laying on of hands with my teacher at Pantheacon, followed by a similar, unmediated transmission from Tiwaz when I stood before my household altar at home; having my ordination energies sealed and partially integrated through an erotic but non-sexual encounter with a "sacred stranger" (actually an acquaintance) the next day at P-con; my creativity come back more strongly than it's been in a year or so; making contacts at P-con that will help move my spiritual direction path forward; insights and healing through the meetings I've been having with my therapist which really are reaching down into the roots of longstanding issues; continuing to stretch with Nia; and, oh yes, my first boyfriend, Nick, got engaged last week, and he and his fiancee (who I have yet to meet) may want me to perform the wedding ceremony.

So. . . a lot going on. . . I'll try to post here more often

I was making notes for my class this morning, and it suddenly occurred to me that I don't have any personal experience with ritual scourging as practiced in some branches of Traditional witchcraft (or other groups with codified rituals and initiations).

Does anyone here have that experience, or know someone who does who would be willing to share with me? Or have a pointer to good material on it? (There's an account in Kaldera's Dark Moon Rising, but I'd like to have several resources.)

You can comment here, refer friends here, and/or use the Send Message feature to contact me privately.

Thanks!

I'm finally making doing the kind of work again in my spiritual life that I can write about coherently in an unfiltered post to my main journal. There's been a lot going on, but so much of it has involved Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG) and/or sacred sexuality -- not to mention being very much in the figuring-out-what-it-means phase -- that writing publically has been problematic. But I made some cognitive connections recently. . .

First: Ereshkigal. She's the goddess who rules Irkalla, the Sumerian underworld. She's most widely known these days as the sister of Inanna. When Inanna finally makes it through the seven gates of the underworld during The Descent of Inanna and enters Ereshkigal's throne room "naked and bowed low," Ereshkigal "fixes her with the eye of death," kills her, and hangs her body on a peg for three days until a couple of innocuous messengers arrive, empathize with her labor pains, and move her to generosity. Her lesser known myth, called Ereshkigal and Nergal is about how she comes to marry and share her rule with Nergal, the god of war and disease. Whether their story is one of the gradual subjugation of the Divine Feminine to the Divine Masculine, or one of sacred marriage and the re-enchantment of the Sumerian underworld is a matter of personal perspective.

Although I started doing underworld work shortly after uncrowned_king died, Ereshkigal is not someone I deliberately contacted. The connections were made during two inner journeys that started out with me either not knowing where I was headed or getting something different than what I had expected.

I'm realizing a couple of things about Ereshkigal.

1. The Descent of Inanna has been a powerful myth for me, a significant source of both healing and inspiration, but previously I've only addressed it from Inanna's side, her perspective. Working with Ereshkigal and her side gives me a more holistic understanding of the myth and, on a deeper level, a participation in the energies that preside over descent rather than make a descent.

2. In both her primary myths, others violate her and/or her realm in some way. For whatever reason, people think they can cross her with impunity. In both cases, they are proven wrong -- but it's an interesting pattern, however limited the source material.

3. Looking back on the three words/phrases I posted yesterday: they are all shadow aspects of myself, things that aren't usually talked about openly or touching parts of myself that I have marginalized and/or hidden over the years. Ereshkigal, as Queen of the Underworld, is in a psychological sense a queen of our suppressed and hidden selves. Through my work with Her, I've been strengthening these shadowed parts of myself so I can draw on them with more confidence -- and more openness. My base of personal power is widening and deepening.

( Still more, so I'll cut for length )

Feral: a creature who was domesticated but is now wild, living outside the boundaries and rules of domesticity

Underworld Priestess: one who works with deities and contacts in the underworld, sometimes one who helps others spiritually excavate and illuminate the shadow aspects of their own lives, and/or who helps others make deliberate, voluntary descents or heal from involuntary ones

Hierodule: literally "sacred slave" but in common usage, one who channels the love of the divine (usually a goddess) through erotic and/or sexual contact; one who worships using the ritual of the hieros gamos ("sacred marriage") either with a mortal partner, with a spirit partner, or with a deity.

And yes, I am all three of these things.