Local Habitation

This is the final installment of a series of posts on how modern Neopaganism is truly the ‘Old Religion’ because it contains similar tropes and beliefs as the oldest recorded Indo-European religion, in this case, Mesopotamian, which far predates Abrahamic monotheism.

For the Mesopotamians, the characteristics that I’ve written about (Immanence, Name and Form, Intransitiveness, Festivals, Polytheism, and Magick) come together in what Thorkild Jacobson, author of The Treasures of Darkness, terms ‘local habitation.’

For the Mesopotamians, local habitation took on several forms. It included cult drama rituals such as the New Year’s Akitu festival and the Sacred Marriage rite. Magico-religious art such as the Ishtar Vase illustrates the goddess Ishtar surrounded by animals. The Mesopotamians believed in the creative power of words, including poetry, hymns of praise, lamentations, and incantations. Finally, temples provided literal habitation for deities in Mesopotamia. The most dramatic being the giant ziggurats at the heart of each city-state meant to provide a home for the gods.

Ishtar Vase

Neopagans share the practice of local habitation, even though the details are reimagined. We use rituals, magico-religious art, the creative power of words in poetry, praise, and incantations. While we lack temple structures, we build altars for both magick and to bring down the gods to dwell among us.  

I hope this series of blog posts has shown the crucial similarities between Neopaganism and the beliefs of the world’s oldest recorded civilization. The phrase ‘Old Religion’ does not mean a direct and unbroken line of continuation between the Paganism of the ancient world and the Neopaganism of today, as some claim. Neopaganism is the old religion because it shares the tropes and characteristics of humanity’s earliest recorded faith.

Magick

This is another installment of a series of posts on how modern Neopaganism is the ‘Old Religion’ because it contains similar tropes and beliefs as the oldest recorded Indo-European religion, in this case, Mesopotamian, which far predates Abrahamic monotheism.

The belief that humans can influence fate or probability through the force of will (i.e., magick) is found in most Neopagan traditions. The practice of magick may be Neopaganism’s second most distinctive feature after polytheism. Mountains of Neopagan books exist on how to perform magick.

 

The Mesopotamians didn’t believe in a separation between the natural and the supernatural. They believed that gods, demons, ghosts, and monsters lived among us, even if they could not be seen. Not only were supernatural beings everywhere, but they were also constantly interacting with people and the rest of the world in good and bad ways. Whether it was a good or bad occurrence, there was most likely a spirit at work behind it. 

To Mesopotamians, the spirit world was complicated. Unlike how we in the contemporary West view gods and demons, they didn’t see gods as always good and demons as always bad. A god could be benevolent or evil. The same was true for demons because there were both good and evil. There were even demonic gods. Because of this, if something terrible happened, it often wasn’t easy to determine the source.

With this belief system, magick was seen by Mesopotamians as essential for survival. A magick user, known in Akkadian as an āšipu or mašmaššu, would first try to determine the source of suffering. Was it due to a god, demon, ghost, or something else? Once determined, the magick user had numerous tools in their toolbox. Divination, incense, talismans, purification, sacrifice, magick circles, and more would have been used as deemed by the magick user.  

Most Neopagans don’t share the Mesopotamian belief that everything, good or bad, is the product of supernatural beings. However, our practice of magick is similar to the Mesopotamian in many ways. We even use modern variants of the same tools in our magick practices. 

Neopaganism is truly the old religion.  

Polytheism

This is another installment of a series of posts on how modern Neopaganism is truly the ‘Old Religion’ because it contains similar tropes and beliefs as the oldest recorded Indo-European religion, in this case, Mesopotamian, which far predates Abrahamic monotheism.

Polytheism, a belief in multiple gods, is a definitive feature of Neopaganism. This is true whether it’s soft polytheism in which there are two deities (a God and a Goddess who manifest as numerous avatars) or hard polytheism in which there are many gods, each with their own agency. Both forms of polytheism are found in Neopaganism.

 

The Mesopotamians were also polytheists. According to Thorkild Jacobson, author of The Treasures of Darkness, Mesopotamian polytheism was closely tied to their belief in ‘intransitiveness.’ As mentioned in a previous post, intransitiveness means that a deity is located within a phenomenon and only within that phenomenon. Intransitiveness would require that each phenomenon must have its own deity. Numerous phenomena require numerous gods. For example, if there is a god or goddess of rain and only rain, one would need a different god or goddess for something else, such as sunshine. Here’s an excellent list of Mesopotamian gods and goddesses. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Neopaganism is the Old Religion.

Festivals

This is another installment of a series of posts on how modern Neopaganism is truly the ‘Old Religion’ because it contains similar tropes and beliefs as the oldest recorded Indo-European religion, in this case, Mesopotamian, which far predates Abrahamic monotheism.

 

Last Thursday, Neopagans celebrated the Spring Equinox. For those who follow the Wiccan Wheel of the Year, this festival is called Ostara. The festival’s name is derived from the European pagan goddess Eostre, which includes planting seeds, creating seasonal altars, spring cleaning, and feasting.

The Mesopotamians also celebrated Spring with a festival they called Akitu. Because they considered the new moon auspicious, the Akitu festival began on the first new moon after the spring equinox. Also, they considered the number 12 to be sacred. Therefore, the Akitu festival lasted for 12 days. Akitu was considered the most important festival for Mesopotamians. 

Akitu marked the beginning of the New Year for the Mesopotamians. It marked the rebirth of nature and the re-establishment of the kingship by divine authority. Akitu focused on the triumph of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, over the forces of Chaos, symbolized by Tiamat. 

It bears repeating: Neopaganism is the Old Religion.

Intransitiveness

This is a continuation of a series of posts on how modern Neopaganism is truly the ‘Old Religion’ because it contains similar tropes and beliefs as the oldest recorded Indo-European religion, Mesopotamian, which far predates Abrahamic monotheism. 

In classic Paganism and modern Neopaganism, our gods have a characteristic called ‘intransitiveness.’ This word, which one doesn’t hear daily, means that a divinity is located within a phenomenon and only within that phenomenon. 

'Oak King' and 'Holly King' by Anne Stokes
https://nelliecole.com/2020/06/19/folkdays-the-oak-king/

 

Thorkild Jacobson, in his book The Treasures of Darkness, gives an example of intransitiveness with the Mesopotamian god Dumuzi. Dumuzi is the Mesopotamian god of fertility and harvest. Jacobson points out that “there is no instance in which the god acts, orders, or demands; he merely is or is not. He comes into being in the spring, is celebrated as bridegroom in the cult rite of sacred marriage, is killed by powers of the netherworld, and is lamented and searched for by his mother and young widow; any action, any achievement, any demands by the god are absent altogether.” (page 10).

Examples of intransitiveness in Neopaganism are the Holly King and the Oak King. These two gods, considered manifestations of the Horned God by Wicca, are personifications of winter and summer, respectively. Neither god makes demands upon us. The seasons are their domains, and that’s the total for them. 

Neopaganism is the Old Religion.

Name and Form

In a prior post I wrote about how Neopagans share the concept of Immanence with the Mesopotamians. In this post, I want to continue this topic with the Mesopotamian practice of finding divine in name and form and how that continues today.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh we read, “Gilgamesh prayed to the Sun god for help. The Sun god heard the entreaty of Gilgamesh…” For the Sumerians, the sun in the sky as well as its divine presence were called Shamash. For them, immanent divinity had both name and form.

 

Neopagans follow similar practices. In Wicca, for example, the Triple Goddess of Maid, Mother, and Crone is associated with the Moon. She’s also evident in Wicca symbol of the full moon with the crescent moon on each side. This Wiccan practice is a modern form of recognizing immanent divinity in both name and form.

Immanence

We Neopagans sometimes refer to our faith as ‘The Old Religion.’ This term was initially used by the early Elders of Neopaganism, who believed that Neopaganism, especially Wicca, was a continuation of an ancient religion that had survived unbroken over the thousands of years of Christian domination. Their belief came from the writings of early twentieth-century anthropologists such as Margaret Murray.

The belief of an underground ‘witch cult’ is no longer supported by scholarship. However, the term ‘Old Religion’ is still valid. Rather than meaning an unbroken ancient religion, calling Neopagan the 'Old Religion' is appropriate because it shares many of its tropes, beliefs, and practices of pre-Abrahamic Western traditions.

Mesopotamian artwork of the goddess Inanna.

 

One Neopagan belief that makes it part of ‘The Old Religion’ is its view of the divine. The acclaimed Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, in his book The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, compares the Mesopotamian view of the divine with the Abrahamic. In the Abrahamic view, the divine is transcendent, meaning it exists outside nature. Meanwhile, the Mesopotamians viewed the divine as immanent, something inside nature. 

Like the Mesopotamians, Neopagans see the divine in nature. We revere lakes, streams, mountains, forests, and the rest of the natural world. It’s because of this reverence that Neopaganism is often referred to as an Earth-Based Religion.

Akitu

March 20, 2023, marks the Spring Equinox called Ostara in the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. The festival Ostara, named after the goddess Eostre, is very popular in Neopaganism, as evidenced by all the bloggers and website owners writing about it.

This blog post isn’t about Ostara.

I’ve posted before that my Patron Deity is the Sumerian goddess Inanna, known to the Babylonians as Ishtar. Akitu was one of the highest festivals in Babylon and marked the beginning of the New Year. While the Babylonians celebrated it in the Spring, the festival occurred during the Autumn Equinox in Sumer. 

The Babylonian Akitu festival was a twelve-day event that began on the first New Moon following the Spring Equinox. The first four days consisted of reciting the Babylonian Creation myth and manufacturing two statues to represent the demons of Tiamet, who were defeated by Marduk. One statue would have a viper in its left hand, while the other would have a scorpion. The rest of Akitu would consist of parading the statues along with their decapitation, the king proving his humility, and concluding with the sacred marriage of the king to the goddess Ishtar 

Scholars theorize that the Akitu festival served several purposes within Babylonian society. One was for the king to reassert his position of power. The other was to ensure a prosperous New Year for the people.   

While I don’t follow the letter of Akitu, I strive to celebrate its spirit. My personal celebration includes rituals to remind me of my sovereignty. I also include rituals to aid in the prosperity and good fortune of myself, my friends, and my family.