/r/Sumer
A place for those looking to practice the ancient religions of Mesopotamia.
Welcome to /r/Sumer, a subreddit dedicated to the academic reconstruction and spiritual revival of ancient Mesopotamia's many polytheistic religious traditions.
Mesopotamia—from the ancient Greek root-words μέσος (meso: middle) and ποταμός (potamos: river) meaning: Land Between the Two Rivers—refers to the historical region of the Tigris-Euphrates river-valley system.
In the modern day, this region occupies nearly all of Iraq and Kuwait, with additional sites located in eastern Syria, southern Turkey, and western Iran.
For the purposes of this subreddit, discussion is limited to the religious traditions that flourished in Mesopotamia c. 4500-500 BCE; namely, Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian & Babylonian polytheism.
Please check out our Wiki for a growing collection of essays on basic topics related to Mesopotamian history, language, and religion.
Rules and Codes of Conduct:
Reddit's content policy and the rules of rediquette apply to all discussions on this board.
/r/Sumer is actively moderated. Use the report button to identify any malicious content.
Content should be of an academic nature. Personal work is welcome.
Content of an occult nature is welcome, but subject to removal at the discretion of the Moderation Team.
Content related to the "ancient alien" hypothesis is not welcome.
Posting Tricks
The Sumerian language makes ample use of subscript and superscript in its transliterations. The presence or absence of these characters not only changes the "type" of thing being described, but also the meaning of the word itself. To help avoid such confusion, I've enabled the use of both subscript and superscript on this reddit.
If you type: *_234_* the result will be: 234
If you type: ^(ŋeš) the result will be: ŋeš
Right now these only work on the desktop version of the sub. Sorry mobile users, I can't really edit much of the code used to create your experience.
Academic resources:
Linguistic Resources:
Theistic Resources:
Useful Subreddits:
/r/Sumer
I've seen this "translator" used a lot for extremely unfunny facebook memes (unfunny in that the joke is literally lost in "translation") and someone earlier got an actual fucking tattoo using this so please, heed this:
This is not Sumerian. This is Old Persian cuneiform. People like and make scammy stuff on the internet, this is one of them. Not only that, it's not even translating into the Old Persian language, it's just horribly transliterating English.
You can tell it's Old Persian Cuneiform by how simple the letters are, and how it's the same unicode block as Old Persian
For example, here is Xerxes: 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠
And here is Hammurabi: 𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉
Please do your research before blindly trusting an online "translator"
Here is the offending "translator": https://lingojam.com/Eng-Cuneiform
So to put in some context, I am brand new into working with deities of any sort and am still learning as much as I can. A few weeks ago I did a deity confirmation session where I learned that I would likely be working with Inanna OR other deities such as Hecate, Morrigana, etc for a lifetime. It was up to me to decide but I felt a strong calling to Inanna. The fact that Inanna’s card had fallen out of the pile of cards I was meant to shuffle and I put it in a random place in the deck and it STILL came out on top? I felt in my soul that it was her. I also indulge in ✨shrooms✨ every once in awhile and through my trip I felt a solid “yes” flow through me when I asked if Inanna was the one that I was meant to worship.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY. I created an alter for Inanna with her favorite crystals, some protective eucalyptus, candles with her associated colors, and a statue of her. I offered her some water and an apple and asked her if she would allow me to worship and work with her. After a moment the candle closest to her on the left grew really large and danced for a moment before dying back down. the rest of the candles remained steady. I’ve tried to look up candle reading meanings but I am still unsure. Do you think she said yes? I feel like I felt her presence as whenever I looked at her, i felt warm and tingly but I don’t quite have a knack for these things yet. What do you think?
TL;DR: Created an alter for Inanna and asked her to work with me and the candle to her left grew and began flickering wildly. Was that her saying yes?
Hi everyone. I've been worshipping Hellenic and Kemetic deities for a view years now, so I'm not completely new to Polytheistic religions. But recently I researched about Lady Ishtar and I've started to feel drawn to her. Like she is calling me to her. She kinda feels really lovely and passionate. I'll definitely going to do even more research about her and start to worship her!
(I’m reposting this because I think my app bugged out and didn’t properly post this. It seemed to be locked.)
To start, I took a liking to her after learning of her dualistic, almost contradictory nature; lovemaking and warmaking, masculine and feminine, her ferocious beauty and her beautiful ferocity. Not to mention how she offers support to sexual minorities such as myself, a gay man.
I’ve heard of some of her typical offerings and symbolism: lapis lazuli (representative of celestial presence), carnelian (representative of inner vitality), lions, bread, pork, beef, fish, poultry, dates, and sweets. Could this be extended to species/items outside of Bronze Age Mesopotamia, such as jaguars (I happen to own lots of leopard/jaguar print already 🤭), chicken, turquoise (or other contrasting blue/red orange stones), bananas, and modern day pastries?
I’ve also seen incense and candles mentioned a lot. My parents aren’t very keen on anything flammable in the house, so would it be possible to use other types of fragrance? If so, feel free to suggest some because I tend to just get for-profit websites rather than educational ones whenever I search “Inanna incense/fragrance/what have you”.
I also want to ask if Hermeticism and Eclectic Paganism directly contradict Sumerian faith. I’ve been practicing manifestation and applying Hermetic laws throughout, including the Law of Polarity. That particular law is actually what drew me to Inanna, with how she seems to control polar opposites such as love/hate and creation/destruction. And while I want to worship Inanna, I’m also open to other deities such as Hermes or Thoth. If I believe in the idea that everything is oneself pushed out, is it okay to apply this to Inanna (and other Annunaki), so long as I acknowledge that their manifestations in this world and others are more powerful than my mortal body and mind?
Lastly, pardon me if there is an obvious answer that I somehow overlooked, and thank y’all for any help!
nyny !! forgive me if i get some things wrong in this post, i’m still learning about the terminology and history around our respective practices. i’m a kemetic polytheist interested in the historical syncretism with various mesopotamian gods such as anat, ashtart, and ba’al hadad. i’ve been a bit nervous to broach the subject of actually involving them within my practice, as i’m unsure of many of the differences in worship, research and worldview between the two. so i hope you don’t mind me asking a few questions !!
what are the moral values associated with your beliefs, if any? (i.e. any equivalent to the concept of ma’at?)
how do you approach the gods with offerings and prayer? are there restrictions on the consumption/disposal of offerings? are there any specific purity rituals i should know about?
what are some differences and similarities between the pantheons?
if it’s not too much to ask, does anyone have any resources specifically related to this syncretism? books, websites, research papers, anything works really !!
Šulmu one and all,
I hope everyone is doing well as we near the advent of another new year with the vernal equinox and Akītu festival of Marduk and Nabû, for those who celebrate.
Recently, there's been an increase in threads focused on the religious traditions of Judaism and how they're connected to Mesopotamia. While I generally try to remain as hands off as I can, only policing a thread when a rule has been blatantly broken or disregarded, the community's regulars have made it clear to me that they do not like seeing these kinds of discussions for a variety of reasons:
While it is true that there are many shared motifs and themes between, for example, the deluge myth as it appears in Sumerian (Eridu Genesis), Akkadian (Atraḫasīs), Babylonian (Poem of Gilgamesh), and Jewish literature (Genesis), the overlaps between these literary works have been known for decades, and there are numerous articles and books available that explore the subject.
In essence: you're not the first one to notice that Ziusudra, Atraḫasīs, Utnapishtim, and Noah all built a big boat to save their families and various animals from a worldwide deluge. If you are encountering this idea for the first time, then you would do well to explore topics such as cross-cultural literature, intertextuality, and comparative religion before making any claims of plagiarism or literary theft.
I invite you to bring these discussions to either r/ComparativeReligion or r/ComparativeMythology if you simply must talk about what the Jews did or did not steal from other people.
I digress though.
The community's regulars have spoken, and their will has been heard. Two new rules have been added to the sidebar and will be enforced beginning immediately:
Rule 6 is about comparative elements between religions:
Rule 10 is specifically about Lilith:
As much as I dislike making new rules, the community for Mesopotamian studies here on Reddit is overrun with misinformation and bad faith takes, so I must do what I can to maintain the integrity of r/Sumer.
Thanks for reading.
I find it a bit too convenient that the major religions all share the similar "great flood story" in their religious texts like they had to have all stolen the idea from somewhere?
Let me explain:
Judaism, Islam and Christianity - In the hebrew bible, the Christian bible and the Quran it describes how God sent a flood to wipe out humanity due to its wickedness, sparing only Noah, his family, and pairs of animals aboard an ark - it varies a little by religion tho like islam for example believed that Noah was also a prophet of god much like Muhammed.
The ancient Sumerians also had a great flood story and it goes like this:
In the Epic of Gilgamesh the ancient Sumerian flood myth goes like this: the god Enki warns Utnapishtim of the impending disaster and instructs him to build a boat to save himself, his family, and various animals.
Don't u agree that it's proper convenient how similar they are? - That everything in the stories match up to the Sumerian story's timeline event by event - which predates the other stories found in the Bible, Quran and Hebrew bible by atleast 2500-3500.
These are all facts that you can verify, If my theory is correct then this would mean that the major modern religions are based on the longest ever running game of Chinese whispers...
Hi all, sorry to bother, but very new to the scene and needed some help. I was looking for any and all resources on Sumerian occult practices for a pet project magic system I'm writing. I wanted to include the language and legitimate practices as either words of power or traditional rituals that had to be fulfilled.
I read the epic of Gilgamesh, what else do I read?
Edit: I mean religious texts, not the sidebar stuff
I honestly don’t know if this is the right sub for this question but I was looking for all of the know forms of the name Enki. If this isn’t the right sub for this I apologize. If not, does anyone know of a more appropriate sub for this question? Thanks
Looking for info on Cuneiform curse tablets. I know that was a big thing in greek/roman times but I'm wondering if there are similar examples from Sumerian or other folks in the region.
Hello! I don't know if I should post this here but I want to begin an attempt to create a ziggurat in the Midwest! I am looking for any tips, engineers, advice or ideas that could be relevant. Thanks in advance!
I’m a school teacher so I made this for my kids. They love it!
Hi! I'm so sorry if this is the wrong place to put this. I have adhd (and am most likely autistic) so I'm not the brightest sometimes when I'm nervous like this.
Tldr: I'm a medium who wishes to become friends with people who can connect with/follow the Sumerians as well.
So here's a bit of a backstory. Almost a year ago an ex friend introduced me to the Sumerians. I've come to know, love, and cherish them (the gods). I'm a bit of a medium and I believe I have contacted some. Do any of y'all know if there's a group out there who also connects with the Sumerians and follows them? Would this be that group or is this just historical facts about what they have done? Like artifacts and writing. Yes I saw the ritual flair but I thought that it could also mean rituals that were written down and found. I used to be a Christian and I miss the community. I only had that friend but now there isn't anyone I know.
Building an altar and a shrine in my closet. It's really the only room in the house to do this in but it's not exactly healthy to burn incense in it as the ventilation is very poor. Does anyone know any good way to do it or any work arounds? I've been tempted to burn the incense in the bedroom and let the room fill up that way but it wouldn't be on the altar itself. I'm not sure if that's strictly neccesary but I'm getting a bit worried and anxious I won't have it setup properly
I was comparing the Book of Enoch with Ancient Sumerian texts and in the book of Enoch it talks about the fallen angels revolt against God and how they give divine knowledge to humanity, so my question is whether any other God's or anyone else helped Enki with giving knowledge to humanity.
I know their ofcourse important, but was it one of the Epic of Gilgamesh tablets or something less significant. Still extremely infurating seeing all those artefacts getting destroyed.
Figured you guys would like this :)
Creating a Sumerian mod for Ck3 and need atleast 15 to 20 names, thanks.
Almost all these religons, including Ancient Greek Hellenism, speak of a God who gets punished for giving knowledge to humanity, Prometheus, Satan, I believe that they are all the same person, Enki. As you many know Enil was a tyrant that wanted to wipe out humanity and Enki saved it from a Great flood, same as Noahs Flood story. I have been down a rabbit hole recently and I believe the Ancient Sumerian religon is the true religon
What’s some good YouTube videos to watch to learn more about sumer and their religion.
Hey I'm new to the sub. I was looking for information on the list of deities that pertain to sumerian worship. My history with Sumer goes back to middle school when I learned about ancient Mesopotamia.
I never learned much in way of religious their belief outside of them being polytheistic (Perks of catholic school). Now that I'm a practicing witch I seek to work with this pantheon. My goal is learn about them and understand their history.
Who are the members of this pantheon? What do they control? What are they associated with? Do they have specific colors associated with them?
If she really was that demon who's raping people and eating children as Jews portrayed her?
Like the title says, I'm looking for personal names that are derived from Inanna/Ishtar. I haven't found much online for some reason and would appreciate some info with sources if possible.
Hello! I am writing a piece of historical fiction set in the time of Sargon the Great. It's important to me that I write rituals and ceremonies that are believable to experts like those in this group and am looking for some great sources.
I have done extensive research on the time period, have a good understanding of of the basics, but I have yet to find a good source on specific practices. For example: on this occassion, go to the alter at this time and say these words to this god while doing these hand gestures. (Perhaps this doesn't exist in the historical/archeological record?)
If this is the wrong group for this question, apologies and thank you in advance.