#deity research

**[Work - In - Progress]**[More will be Added]**

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݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁DEITY WORK SERIES ݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁

101: What Is Deity Work & Is It For You?

201: Research Before Reaching Out

301: Building Genuine Relationship

401: When To Step Back

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݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁Magical Mechanics ݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁

ENERGY ANATOMY: Chakras, Meridians, & the Aura

HOW BELIEF CREATES REALITY: Psychology Meets Metaphysics

SYMPATHETIC MAGIC, CONTAGIOUS MAGIC & SIGIL MAGIC: The Three Core Technologies

WHY SOME SPELLS WORK AND OTHERS DON'T: Troubleshooting Failed Magic

PLACEBO EFFECT VS. REAL MAGIC: Does It Matter?

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݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁Divination Deep Dives ݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁

Tarot: Beyond Memorizing Meanings (Reading Intuitively)

Pendulums: How They Actually Work (Ideomotor Response)

Scrying: Training Your Mind to Receive Instead of Project

Bibliomancy: Finding Messages in Randomness

Dreams: Shadow Work Through Dream Analysis

݁₊ . Bone Reading, Charm Casting, Rune Casting, Tea Leaves ₊ . .....

CASTING DIVINATION PART 1: Bones, Charms & Runes

READING DIVINATION PART 2: Tea Leaves, Coffee Grounds & Wax

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݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ Elements & Correspondences . ⟡ ݁₊ .

Why Do We Assign Planets To Days Of The Week?

Color Magic: Psychology or Energy? (Both)

HERB MAGIC: Medicinal Properties vs. Magical Properties

CRYSTAL SCIENCE: What's Real, What's Placebo, What's Marketing

WHY MOON PHASES MATTER (Gravitational Pull on Water = Us)

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݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁ Protection Magic ₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ . ݁

PSYCHIC PROTECTION VS. PSYCHOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES (They're the Same Thing)

Warding Your Home Without Paranoia: A Grounded Approach to Magical Protection

Recognizing Energy Vampires vs. Projecting Your Shadow Onto Others: Know the Difference

Shielding Techniques That Don't Require Constant Maintenance

The Shield vs. The Wall: When Protection Magic Becomes Avoidance

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݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ PRACTICAL SKILL-BUILDING₊ . ⟡ ݁₊

How to Write Your Own Spells (Not Copy Pinterest)

Raising and Directing Energy (The Part Everyone Skips)

Timing: Does It Actually Matter? (Yes, But Not How You Think)

Ingredients: Substitutions and Why They Work

Grounding After Spellwork (Why You Feel Weird After Rituals)

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݁₊ . ⟡ ݁₊ Altar Design & Sacred Space ₊ . ⟡ ݁₊

Altars for People With No Space/Privacy

Altars That Evolve With the Seasons

The Difference Between Decoration and Devotion

Digital Altars: Do They Count?

When Your Altar Becomes a Dust Collector: What That Means

What are they? What's the difference?

Hey, I'm Red. I've been a devotee of Inanna for a couple years, and I've been working with deities longer. When I first started, I had no idea what either of these things really meant, as my only exposure to offerings were either from the Percy Jackson books or from action movies talking about "virgin sacrifices as an offering"

This is an informative post meant to help beginners form their own opinions. If you have different understandings of these, or think I'm wrong about something, be kind but let me know. This is just my understanding of these terms.

A quick PSA: just because I am talking about it, does not make me an expert. I am not an expert. I will never be an expert. I am speaking from experience, but I do not know everything. I am a stranger on the internet. Do your own research. Form your own opinions. Your practice is your own.

Overview

Pretty much every religion I know anything about has their own form of these. Catholics sacrifice (or give up) things for Lent, Jewish and Muslim people have periods of fasting, all of them have some form of head/hair covering, etc etc. These are things that you do in honor of your god(s). I was raised Southern Baptist, so I'm not well-versed in every aspect of Catholicism, Islam, or Judaism, so pardon me if that's not quite right.

Offerings

Things you give your deity(es)

Objects. Something physical (or digital). My most common offerings are fruits and alcohol, but I also have some jewelry that is for Inanna. I don't wear that jewelry, it sits in her offering bowl.

Devotional Acts

Things you do for your deity(es)

Actions. From veiling your hair, washing your face, reading a book, anything that you do in honor of who you work with. I veil my hair occasionally, and treat personal hygiene as a devotional act so I will do it (and my Goddess understands if I don't have the energy to do it). I also have devotional jewelry that I wear in honor of her. I treat this jewelry the way one might treat a rosary or cross/star of David necklace, or perhaps prayer beads. I touch it when I think of her or am praying.

Sacrifice

Things you stop doing for your deity(es)

Kinda the opposite of a devotional act. Instead of doing something for your god(s), you give something up. Say you enjoy drinking alcohol recreationally, a sacrifice would be you deciding to not drink alcohol for a period of time in honor of your deity(es).

Modern vs Traditional

One of the beautiful things about our believes and practices being so ancient is that they have changed over time. Some aspects have persisted. Whether you want to be more traditional or modern is completely up to you.

I'm sure you will run into sources that refer to these rather interchangeably, and yea, they kind of are. They are all ways to honor your deity(s), and there really isn't, to my knowledge, a specific reason that you couldn't call a devotional act an offering or a sacrifice. To me, it's mostly the format, whether it is something you do, something you give, or something you give up.

I hope this helps a beginner understand these terms in a way I did not when I started out. As always, your definition may be different, and that's okay. Every practice is different, as long as it works for you, then it works.

***Please please please understand this is a first post on research I am doing about the deity known as Inari. If you have other information, please let me know so I can decide if I need to edit/update stuff within my notes!***

Inari, Japanese deity, maybe a series of deities?  The Kami of Rice, Prosperity, Sake, Love, Fertility, Kinship, Craftsmanship, Agriculture, Tea, Foxes, & Ghosts.

Patron deity of actors, sex workers, blacksmiths, warriors, fishermen, & farmers.

Color association of blood red, white, cream.

Depicted as an old man carrying rice accompanied by a white fox, a beautiful young woman, sometimes with the tail of a red fox, an androgynous bodhisattva, or a kitsune.

Shrines to Inari typically have Torii gates & (minimum a pair of) statues of foxes wearing red bibs. (Approximately 1/3 of Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari!)

Symbolic items are foxes (surprise!), a wish-fulfilling jewel, a key, a fox cub, a scroll, & a sheaf of rice.

Festival day is the 6th day of the 2nd month (I found this written as the first horse day of the 2nd lunar month, so...February 6th). Inari is also celebrated during Oban. However, 5 days before the full moon in November, prayers & a festival go for a week to honor Inari & ask for protection.

Traditional offerings are rice, fruit, sake, Inari-zushi (fried tofu sushi with fox ears!), & fox related items.

When it rains while the sun is shining, in Japan it is referred to as “Kitsune no Yomeiri” (狐の嫁入), or the marriage of the kitsune.

During WWII, at the main Inari shrine in Kyoto, devotees held rituals similar to seances to seek aid from Inari. 

Some traditions show asking Inari for cures & healing of basic ailments.

Kitsune (& subsequently Inari) ward off demonic presence.

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So my personal experience with Inari so far...

These are simple acts of devotion that I do, as a devotee of Inanna (goddess of sex and war). I always try to at least do one act of devotion a day. I have a lot of issues that Inanna (and Lady Ereshkigal) are helping me through.

Say goodmorning/goodnight - whether it is right when I wake up or an hour or say later, right before I close my eyes or right before I do my nightly doomscroll, I try to say goodmorning and goodnight every day.

Washing my face - I try to turn things I know are good for me into devotional acts so I will want to do them. I usually only have the time and energy to wash my face once a day, but even so, it's still something.

Listen to music with her - usually done on my way to or from work, I will play her playlist, or another one, but invite her to listen with me, and I almost always feel her presence. If I get the feeling she doesn't like a song, my car radio screws it up and repeatedly pauses it until I change the song.

Drinking water - water is a necessity in life, and access to clean, cold, safe water to drink is a luxury that people who originally worked with her didn't have access to the way I do.

Eating food - I've made a post before about how Inanna is sad when I don't eat if I'm hungry, so if I was feeling her presence I will devote the act of eating to her.

Wearing jewelry - I have a lapis lazuli necklace I wear for her every day. It's simple, I got it off of etsy, but you could easily dedicate anything you have to them. I've had a (locally and ethically sourced) coyote Claw bracelet for a few years now and I am thinking wearing it for Lady Ereshkigal.

Veiling - I don't veil every day, I used to but it ended up causing me issues with my hair. Currently I veil about once a week, but it is something small that can fairly easily be done every day

Libation - libations are the act of pouring a liquid directly onto the earth, and it can be done with anything from tap water to top shelf Whiskey. If you have the means to pour out $100+ of liquor you go right ahead, I will continue giving my goddess(es) the first like ounce/ounce and a half of my daily coffee from my local shop. Or, if there is anything I try and do not like, they get the rest of it. Some people might think it rude to give them things you don't like, but I don't. If it doesn't go towards my gods it's getting thrown away, and that doesn't sit right with me. It's not getting drank by me so it might as well go to them.

This is a list of basic questions you can look into when you're trying to find a deity or figure out who it is calling to you. This isn't quite a complete list, but it's a good starting point. Research is not a small task. It is very time-consuming, and you should be prepared to do a lot of it.

As a rule of thumb, I would avoid tiktok. It seems to be an endless funnel of misinformation and cultural appropriation. I know of maybe two creators on tiktok who I believe are worthy of listening to, but no one person should be your only source of information. Multiple people on witchblr have masterposts of sources and information, but you should fact-check everything.

What god is associated with (x)

X = whatever sign you've been experiencing.

This will usually give you a variety of answers, as some deities have the same or similar symbols. For example, Inanna and Aphrodite are both symbolized with roses and doves, Bastet and Freyja are both symbolized with cats, and so on and so forth. Reword the question and ask again, just to be sure that you've got all the options.

(Deity) associations

When you have a list of all the deities associated with the signs and symbols you're experiencing, you're gonna wanna find out their other symbols and associations. Some sources may be contradictory, so be sure to fact check!

At this point, you can probably divinate whether or not you've got the correct deity.

You can do this by asking tarot (or playing) cards, a pendulum, or simply flipping a coin. It should be a yes or no question - "Is (deity) calling to me?" "Does (deity) want to work with me?" Etc etc, be sure to ask multiple times so you can be absolutely sure, and avoid confirmation bias. If the answer is no, mark them off the list. If you only had one name and got a no, start again at the top.

(Deity) pantheon

Find out what pantheon the deities are from, and whether or not they're an open practice. If they're not an open practice, mark them off the list. (Or, ask your cards, pendulum, or a coin to determine whether the deity is them or not. If it is, and their practice is closed, tell them no thanks (respectfully)). Learn about their relationships to other deities.

(Deity) myths

Once you've got a basic idea of who it is, it's time to research them specifically. Wikipedia is a great source, as it is community based and free, with sites and links to their sources, misinformation is taken down immediately, if it even has a chance to be on there to begin with. But as always, fact check. If you can find direct translations of their myths, that's great because you can interpret them for yourself, but don't fret if not. Many myths have multiple versions, so be sure to check out as many versions as you can, and figure out which versions you connect with.

Start looking for your community!

A good deal of my posts are research driven, and it's rather difficult to find sources, so I figured I would make a whole post dedicated to listing them. This will get added to as I find more.

General information

First and foremost, Wikipedia - unlearn what your middle and high school teachers taught you, Wikipedia is a free source that is highly edited and reviewed by professionals and it lists their sources. (Also they are fighting to keep the site up, support them if you can) Should it be your only source of information? Hell no. But it will give you more information than you had before. It's a great starting point. It also lists its sources at the bottom of each page!

World History Encyclopedia

The Collector

Britannica - this site now has a chatbot feature that it didn't before. Do with that what you will.

The Open Richly Annotated Cunieform Corpus - I haven't delved deep on this source, but I don't want to lose it.

The Electronic Text Corpus Of Sumerian Literature

Mifologia - this one I am unsure about, it seems to be accurate as far as I can tell, but the images they use strike me as AI (I have no proof other than a vibe so correct me if I'm wrong) which is a red flag.

Specific Mythos

The Descent of Inanna PDF

The Epic of Gilgamesh PDF

Inanna and Su-Kale-Tuda

Inanna and the Huluupu Tree

A breakdown of Inanna Prefers The Farmer

Inanna Prefers The Farmer

Dumuzid and Emkidu

Ereshkigal and Nergal

Enuma Elish PDF

Atra-Hasis PDF

Hymn to Inanna from her Priestess

Additional information on the above Hymn

More to come!

Folklore

Folklife - this is an article on Appalachian folk practicioners, with information on different books and websites.

Holy Stones and Iron Bones - a digitalized grimoire of Appalachian Folk history and practices.

Research Papers

University of Chicago Press, Ancient Mesopotamia, Copywrite 1964

My name is Red and if you've seen any of my posts, you may have noticed a few things regarding how I refer to my Deities. This is just a post explaining what these titles are, and how I use them.

What are Honorifics?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, honorifics are conferring or conveying honor or belonging to or constituting a class of grammatical forms used in speaking to or about a social superior.

Examples of honorifics (from wikipedia):

Mr.; Mrs.; Mx.; Ms.

Master; Mistress; Messrs

Sir; Ma'am

Lord; Lady

Gentlemen; Dame

Dr.; Esq.

And so on. These can also be referred to as "titles".

What purpose do they serve in Paganism?

As the dictionary states, they convey respect and a sense of "superiority" towards the receiver, in this case, towards the deities or spirits one works with. It establishes that you respect whoever you're referring to, that you hold them in a place of esteem, that they are important.

How I use them

As you may have noticed in previous posts, I rarely use honorifics when referring to Inanna, and I only ever use honorifics when referring to Lady Ereshkigal, or anyone else in the pantheon I worship. Why?

I don't use them with Inanna because of our relationship. She has walked with me for my entire life, but I have worked with her extensively and exclusively for about five years (pardon me if my math is wrong). During that time our relationship has become incredibly casual. We are constantly talking, she and I refer to each other as "bitch" and "slut" and "whore" and a million other curse words that would be offensive if said to someone out of the context of friendship. That's what it is. She's more of my best friend or an older sister than anything else, and that is how our relationship works.

I use titles for Lady Ereshkigal because our relationship is far more new and formal. I've been working with Lady Ereshkigal for five months, I wanna say. She's more a teacher than a friend at this point in our relationship, helping me connect with my ancestors, process my past, and use the past as a guide for my future. I would NEVER call her any of the things Inanna and I call each other, in fact I rarely ever swear at all when in discussion with her, just as I would never swear in front of my teacher or my parents.

For similar reasons, I use titles for the rest of the pantheon because I have little to no relationship with them. I do not know what they do or do not like, I do not know their boundaries, they do not know mine.

I default to honorifics when referring to deities from other pantheons as well, a practice I am just now starting. In the past I have not, mostly because I wasn't aware of it being a "thing" and spoke to every deity the same. I have since learned that all deities are not the same. They have preferences.

Should I be using honorifics?