mastabas-and-mushussu - Behold! Let there be nerd rants.
Behold! Let there be nerd rants.

A blog full of Mesopotamian Polytheism, anthropology nerdery, and writer moods. Devotee of Nisaba. Currently obsessed with: the Summa Perfectionis.

987 posts

If I Might Cut In To This Waltz:

If I might cut in to this waltz:

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The main reason my altar(s) are so pared down is because, if you haven't glanced over my blog, I'm car-homeless. I would like my devotional spaces, if and when I choose to share them, to be an example of what you can do even when you have nothing. They are not to be used to disparage other people's religious choices.

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I am not practically an ascetic by choice, though there is nothing wrong with choosing that path. I reiterate: I'm homeless. Before that, I was rather literally in the closet, and I used a set of shoe cubbies as my altar.

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My dream endgoal is actually a cedar shed behind my eventual house. Stone flooring, bead curtains, statuary, peacock feathers, flowers. Copper offering vessels, ridiculously expensive cuneiform tablets from Etsy, lamassu statues from a museum gift shop in Berlin, star maps and barley sheaves and lanterns. Everything with a meaning, a purpose. A certain amount of personal pride, sure. But I want that space FOR MY GODS.

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Because I'm a visual person, an artist, and when I'm in love with someone or something I kiss their ring while throwing the contents of my wallet in their general direction. Also, I write a lot of sappy poetry. Hence my blog.

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Live and let live. Be in good health, and don't cause yourself such undue stress at the sight of a post on the internet that you proceed to stalk the person like some sort of offended ekimmu. At the very least, there are better things to obsess over, like the influence of the printing press on the Protestant Reformation, or whether all that we see or seem is aught but a dream within a dream.

you say for the shrines don’t focus on elaborate displays? everything is secondary? listen to your own advice then

Hello again hate anon. I’m assuming this is in reference to my comments on @mastabas-and-mushussu altar?

Let’s use your BS hatred to teach others for a moment:

🔹An altar/ shrine can be as little as one wants or as large as one wants.

🔹An altar/shrine can have the bare necessities or have many additional objects and tools. Or only representations as a space to be a focal point for the Gods.

🔹An altar/shrine can be in a plain clean spot or it can be decked out with decorations.

🔹An altar/shrine can be a practical simple space for the person’s religion or it can be a piece of art.

🔹Altars / Shrines will also take different forms based on different traditions. Not everyone is the same.

🔹Someone else’s altars or shrines are no one else’s business. No one, I repeat no one, has the right to look at someone elses altar/shrine and say “thats wrong.” Or as you said in the last ask “gaudy” and “not focused on the gods”

🔹Any altar/shrine made with sincerity and love towards the Gods is acceptable and beautiful.

Mine are a personal piece of art, are very decorated, and usually have more than the minimum necessities on it. However, this isn’t always the case.

My altars can be elaborate:

You Say For The Shrines Dont Focus On Elaborate Displays? Everything Is Secondary? Listen To Your Own

Or only have the bare requirements of offering vessels and basic ‘tools’:

You Say For The Shrines Dont Focus On Elaborate Displays? Everything Is Secondary? Listen To Your Own

Or are tiny and plain without all the tools but are simply a shrine space I make for the Gods:

You Say For The Shrines Dont Focus On Elaborate Displays? Everything Is Secondary? Listen To Your Own
You Say For The Shrines Dont Focus On Elaborate Displays? Everything Is Secondary? Listen To Your Own

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Here are excerpts from a post I wrote about altars awhile back:

“ […] My altar and my idols are my everything inreligion. Prayers, offerings, any rituals, all come as a package deal to maintain my altar which is my relationship to the Gods. The importance to me is simply not fully describable, kind of like sometimes people can’t fully describe other spiritual experiences.”

and

“Some say that the gods can be anywhere they want to be, at any time, which I agree with. But animating an Idol makes the God tangible & visible, in my mundane, physical space. No astral, or dreams, or meditation; they are there [on the altar] and I am charged with taking care of this gift they have blessed me with.”

What are your tips for maintaining an altar for a...
Heiress of Suns & Souls
Anonymous said: What are your tips for maintaining an altar for a deity or group of deities? How often do you suggest changing water or bury

My altars are for the Gods. The piece of artwork, as I describe it, is specifically for the Gods. In all ways, it is offered to them and meant for them. If I want to craft one that is super simple or extra elaborate is none of your business. Altars are one of the fundamental necessary aspects of my religion. They are the core representation of my relationship with the Gods— just as the idols were to the ancient Sumerians. You know absolutely nothing anon, take a hike.

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Previous hate BS: https://michi-izkur-ereshkigal.tumblr.com/post/179488659203/your-altars-are-too-gaudy-and-not-focused-on-gods

Also, I have a side blog where I keep my altar related posts only, because they are important to me. My Altar Timeline

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More Posts from Mastabas-and-mushussu

6 years ago

NaNoWriMo!

It is that time of year, folks. I haven't done this before, but I'd say it's high time. Especially considering my personal goddess, y'know? National Novel Writing Month is upon us, and I'm going to take the time to write up 50,000 words of poetry, prayers and more featuring the Anunnaki. If anyone has ideas, I'm all ears. This is a very unique combination of despair and delight, I must say. I am so not prepared, but so very ready to do this.


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6 years ago

tag yourself!!!

red wine - desperately trying to study french in your spare time, reading poetry by the candlelight, coffee shops, silk bed sheets, smeared lipstick, having a passion towards everything

white wine - reading two books at the same time, niche humour, dried flowers, french pastry, flower scented hand creams, feeling your mascara on your cheeks after crying

vodka - angry logic, forgetting to go to bed because you were too busy thinking, short hair, reading dostoyevsky, trees covered in snow, cold hands, bruises appearing out of nowhere, smeared mascara

whiskey - leather jacket, falling asleep on the couch, under eye circles, vintage crime films, messy hand writing, has no mental stability, eye contact, unfinished letters, modernist books on bedroom floors

beer - night outs with your friends, old jean jackets, eating fast food instead of a healthy dinner, road trips, falling asleep on the backseats of your car

brandy - chocolate cake, keeping a dairy, the feeling of velvet on bare skin, lace lingerie, antique shops, hollywood classics, wavy hair, browsing through fashion shows instead of sleeping

cognac - blonde hair, watching french new wave films, black coffee, rose pink blushes, pearl necklaces, daydreaming about being in love in a foreign country, choppy bangs

rum - tousled hair, talking about greek mythology, sound of ocean waves, echoing laughter, messy ponytails, hawaiian shirts over black bikinis, dancing alone in your room

gin - empty perfume bottles, watching the sunset in your balcony, vintage lace shirts, petting street cats, jazz music playing from a distance, playing poker with your friends

scotch - quoting your favourite authors, midnight confessions, admiring good architecture, reading classics in rainy days, silver necklaces, stargazing from your window

6 years ago

Just a little something for anyone who's worried about offerings. You can make fancy cakes and hunt down expensive historically accurate wheat. Or you can make a midnight run to Walmart and whip up some sweet, totally healthy and very appropriate deliciousness. In fact, I might try making some by squishing dates in a Ziploc and shaking that in a bag of chopped pistachios. Who knows. Is this what they call a life hack?


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6 years ago

samantha comes home late & she smells like liquor and blood. she’s going to have to scrape her heart off the underpass later and if she ever forgives herself for it, she will have nothing left. she tells me how tired she is of being a mad woman. a madwoman. she says the only kind of ecstasy she feels is manufactured. i can taste the bacchanal on her breath when she sighs, body swaying like she’s still thinking about dancing. the blisters on her feet have burst and the blood leaks onto the couch but i tell her its fine, its fine, we’ll learn how to stop curling ourselves around what isn’t really there, cut out the maenad crowding her mind and she cries, she cannot stop. what is there but the frenzy?

6 years ago
Love Being Brutally Called Out By The British Library

Love being brutally called out by the British Library