Full List of Different Types of Psychic Abilities

f you’re looking into developing psychic abilities you first need to know how many are there, so in this post we have displayed a full list of different types of psychic abilities for you to extend your knowledge regarding this topic.

First, let’s have a look at what the words ‘psychic abilities’ mean and which attributes you need to develop if this is something that interests you particularly.

Using Your “Sixth Sense”

Common sense has it that possessing psychic ability is using your ‘sixth sense’. Indeed the perception of bioenergies and what happens in dimensions beyond the physical world, this immediate three dimensional reality you perceive when you are awake, cannot be achieved by simply using our five physical senses, although it does help to sharpen them too.

But how awake are you on a daily basis, and how aware are you 24/7?

Possessing psychic ability or psychic capacity is hence being able to perceive, to ‘read’ what is beyond the physical realm. This means expanding your level of awareness and for this you need to use other tools, as you need to develop your perceptive ability or capacity.

In a nutshell: psychics are many times also called sensitives. Therefore, one of the main attributes you need to develop if you want to become one is your sensitivity.

Sharpening Your Tools

We all possess the tools and therefore those who want can sharpen them.

Through intense work with energies, any interested individual can gradually become more proficient at inducing at will certain modified states of consciousness, which will in turn allow for psychic phenomena to occur.
pencil sharpener and pencil

There are many different types of psychic abilities all related or resulting from the fact that we do not possess only a physical body or soma, but also an energetic body named by Projectiology as energosoma, plus an emotional body or psychosoma, and the ‘body’ of ideas, or mentalsoma. These four somas we call Holosoma.

At the IAC, we work with the whole Holosoma, but we prioritize the mentalsoma (to strengthen our will) and energosoma (to bring to control our energies) as we consider these the less well known and/or conveniently developed areas for most people.

We have developed and experiment with many techniques which have proved well for most researchers, but each individual is invited to find what works best in his/her case, and this is because each one of us is an individual consciousness that has been developing all along lifetimes differentiated characteristics, or consciential attributes.

For these reasons, there is no such thing as one ‘size fits all’. During our courses you will be given all the necessary information for designing your own programme and path in evolution, as well as optimizing your skills.

Making Decisions & Our Dedicated Course

There are different types of psychic abilities, and while one individual may be better at one or another, he or she may decide on further developing those skills to spend time, work and energy in developing different ones (thus enhancing her/his awareness and sensitivity to perceive beyond the five senses the other realms of reality).

During the IAC core course: the CDP or Consciential Development Programme, in the first class of module 2 we discuss all possible modified states of consciousness, the OBE and all related psychic phenomena.

Here is Our List of Psychic Abilities

**Based on the individual’s well developed physical senses:

Clairvoyant – the person who can clearly see non-physical realities or dimensions, surrounding energies, auras, physical people’s psychospheres, and also non-physical consciousnesses.

With a well developed clairvoyant capacity, one may also come to be able to use it for autoscopy and heteroscopy.

Clairaudient – the person who can hear events occurring at long distance, in the physical world, and events occurring in non-physical dimensions.

The key to develop all psychic abilities is energy, and hence how your work with energy

Clairsensitive – the person who can feel the surrounding energies and non-physical consciousnesses. You can also train to feel all that touches or could touch your skin at a distance from it, by exteriorising your sensitivity to the periphery of your energosoma, thus producing the effect or becoming a full body/full energosoma ‘radar’.

Some Sensitives are also good at smelling non-physical fragrances.

Remote-viewer – the phenomenon of remote-viewing can also be technically called of travelling clairvoyance. Therefore the remote-viewer can clearly see consciousnesses, places, and events happening at long distance, either in the physical dimension or in non-physical dimensions. The remote viewer can also describe to an audience, even with eyes open, what is being seen, what is happening in real-time.

Based on the natural or inducible looseness or misalignment of the psychosoma:

Lucid Projector – astral traveller or sky walker, the person that leaves the physical body or soma sleeping in the physical dimension and explores with the psychosoma other physical or non-physical locations, thus gathering information the soma cannot obtain during the waking state. The lucid projection amplifies one’s level of physical and non-physical awareness not just of oneself but also of the reality of all consciousnesses.

Lucid dreamer – the person that achieves control of dreams, becomes increasingly more lucid, and can use the trigger(s) of his/her lucid dreams to further increase lucidity and induce conscious lucid projections (astral travelling). During the level 2 of the IAC’s core course – the CDP – we will provide further information and techniques

Precognitor – the person that develops the capacity to gather information from a possible future. To be able to access information from the future means only that you can ‘read’ the possibilities. The future may or may not unfold according to these possibilities, because consciousnesses still have freewill and with it the capacity of choice and change the future.

Retrocognitor – the person that acquires information from past lives or from the intervals between physical lives where the consciousness lived in non-physical dimensions. This modality can bring to the projector information from what was learnt and planned during these periods spent in non-physical dimensions allowing for present increased discernment in the physical dimension.

Telepath – the person that can ‘read’ the information being transmitted mind-to-mind in physical or non-physical dimensions between the consciousnesses. The telepath is a receptor and a transmitter. We all are. In the physical dimension, telepathy occurs when the alpha rhythms of the two communicating consciousness enter synchronicity. Perhaps for this reason it is easier for two consciousnesses that have more affinity to relate and communicate with each other using telepathy.

Paragenetics

Psychometrist – the person that can ‘read’ information contained in the energy of objects. The psychometrist can learn information from the past, the present or details of the personality of the owner of an object and the epoch in which he/she lived by reading the energy that got stuck to this object.

The psychometrist reads in the energy of the object the owner’s thoughts and feelings. One of the most positive applications of psychometry is, for instance, in the finding of disappeared people, when associated with precognition. It can also be used to help retrocognition.

Intuitive – the person that can get an intimate clear knowledge of things, and grabs insights that escape the normal thought process. The immediate and instinctive represents a shortcut of the mentalsoma, a jump over reason, it adds to intelligence.

Psychographer – the person that does psychic writing or automatic writing, being at the moment it happens the instrument of the non-physical consciousness(es) that take over the process of reasoning. This means reasoning is eliminated in favour of becoming the medium of the mind of some other non-physical being who dictates.

Medium – person that mediates and brings information from the non-physical dimensions to the physical dimension. We are all mediums, much more than we can think of. We keep bringing information transmitted to us through telepathy by non-physical consciousness around us only too often, and when you don’t know it you think these thoughts you are thinking or these feelings you are having are actually just yours.

Psycophoner – this is when a non-physical consciousness uses your physical body and speaks through you. This process can happen consciously or unconsciously, hence the interest in learning more about it. In mediumship, the medium is the mouth piece of the extraphysical consciousnesses that wish to manifest or convey their messages to the physical dimension.

Physical ectoplasmic medium – the person whose levels of ectoplasmy allow for the dense, almost physical manifestation of non-physical consciousnesses and non-physical objects.

Ectoplasm is a dense semi-physical and non-physical energy that can be produced by some people (ectoplast mediums). It is a very plastic substance that contains leukocytes, epithelial cells, fat, albumin, combined with other non-physical substances and presents an unstable form, looking like tenuous vapours, spirals, threads, cords, webs, rays, and seems to be an intelligent being.

Ectoplasmy is a complex phenomenon that implies temporary dematerialization of the ectoplast medium, materialization of different forms, and posterior re-materialization of the ectoplast medium. During this process people around the medium can see the dematerialization, the materialization, and the re-materialization, so this is a phenomenon that can be witnesses, and to this day there are many people conducting séances during which these phenomena can happen.

Psychic Surgeon – Thanks to the abundance of ectoplasmic energy and well developed mediumship, some people have/can become psychic surgeons, operating intraphysically while guided by extraphysical non-physical consciousnesses. Generally, the psychic ectoplast mediums were not surgeons by profession, but the non-physical consciousness operating through them were. There are ample examples in China, Brazil, and the Philippines.

Telekinesist – the person that can move objects without touching them. Besides making objects move in your awaken state, people can when projected act like non-physical consciousnesses and produce phenomena like finding objects, making them disappear, produce: combustion, electromagnetic, electrochemical, photogenic, mechanical, nuclear chemical, and sonorous effects.

For the specifics of how all this works, we invite you to take the CDP – Consciousness Development Programme at the IAC, the International Academy of Consciousness at any of its educational centres spread a bit all over planet Earth.

 

Source

IAC, International Academy of Conciousness

 

How Can I Tune Into My Psychic Abilities? Learn the Best Techniques

Psychic abilities give you access to dimensions and perceptions well beyond those you can reach with your physical senses (smell, taste, and so on). Because those perceptions are not rooted in the physical body, people often ask “how can I tune into my psychic abilities?

Tuning into psychic abilities can be done at will. It does not require elaborate rituals, years of living on a mountain, or a particular belief. While the history of psychic development includes countless procedures and methods that are complex and sometimes sacred or mysterious, with those methods working for some, you can chose to apply techniques and a rational approach on your path to experiencing other dimensions.

How many potential psychic abilities are there that we can tune into? The short answer is: many. Perceiving energies (chi, prana) is one example, experiencing telepathy, premonition, past life recall, and seeing auras (clairvoyance) amongst others are examples of some other popular ones.

Awakening to Our Abilities

If you are trying to awaken your psychic abilities, a clear theoretical base and practical techniques can help in focusing your efforts. You will have to apply techniques and put some theory into practice. Learning how to work with your energosoma (or bioernergies, chi) can help a lot in this process.

Learning how to unblock your chakras and to reach a deep level of relaxation are also skills that you will need along the way.

How do I Develop my Psychic Abilities?

In order to tune into your psychic abilities the first thing that helps is learning how to relax. Relaxing the physical body will reduce the intensity of the stimuli you receive from it and therefore will make it easier to pick up the non-physical perceptions, which are often felt as very subtle in the beginning. While the relaxation can be learned, most of the time the main impediment is to get into a more serene and focused frame of mind. To start on the physical relaxation front, you can help yourself by taking a warm shower, going for a brisk 20-minute walk, or simply taking a 20 minute nap before you attempt a psychic development exercise.

Physical relaxation will tend to induce a slight misalignment between your physical body and your astral body (psychosoma). This condition is the one that helps to induce altered states of the consciousness that help you to get in touch with your psychic perceptions. The condition of misalignment is a pleasant one, it sometimes feels like you are almost floating, or that your astral body (psychosoma) is rocking very gently from side to side.

At that point another variable that can help you to reach into the psychic realm is learning how to control your energies. You have an energy body (energosoma) and you can learn how to work with it using your will power. Applying techniques such as the VELO, described in a previous article, will help you start to learn how to perceive non-physical things, which is the essence of psychic ability.

There’s an article relevant to this section which you might also be interested in reading: “How Long does it Take to Develop Psychic Abilities“.

What’s their Usage?

For those who have psychic abilities and are looking for ways to use them, the answer can be a bit longer. In summary, psychic perceptions can be used to understand what happens around you, for your own personal self-knowledge, and to help others.

Since psychic abilities are rooted in non-physical bodies, such as our energy body and astral body (psychosoma), we add the prefix “para”, to indicate that they are beyond physical matter or the physical brain. Due to this characteristic, you will also see this prefix in regards to other terms like parapsychism referenced in our other articles.

How Can I Make My Psychic Abilities Stronger?

Understanding and mastering your energies will give you a strong foundation for a healthy and productive development of your psychic sense. This is the reason why the IAC includes bioenergy work in practically every class that we have. It helps if you are trying to reach an OBE, develop your psychic abilities, or to develop yourself as a consciousness.

At first the sensations of bioenergies may be subtle and it is common to “second-guess” or dismiss our perceptions. With persistence, a bit of theory and techniques, you can reach a point where the sensations of energy moving within you, or being absorbed or externalised, are very clear and can be perceived and described with precision.

Since the energy body (energosoma) is one of the vehicles we use to perceive psychic realities, it can also make it easier for us to learn how to perceive also psychically if this body is “healthy and balanced”.

While a healthy energosoma is a topic for another article altogether, one thing you can do in this regard is to learn how to unblock your chakras.

Access Through OBE Training

Training for OBEs is the best way to learn how to manage deep levels of relaxation while staying lucid and in control. This kind of training also helps you to understand and master, in practice, the natural take off of the astral body. While learning how to take off, you will learn how to reach a condition where your body is partially misaligned and your psychic perception is triggered naturally.

For example, you may start to see your bedroom through clairvoyance, or have a spontaneous premonition experience just because you reached a state where you are perceiving everything with the astral body, and no longer relying on your physical brain to process your sensorial input.

Personal Growth

Parapsychism can help us a lot in putting things into perspective. It can help you to understand in practice that you are not the physical body. While this concept may be clear to some, understanding this intellectually does not bring the same benefits in comparison to learning this directly by first-hand experience via your non-physical bodies.

For example, most people believe in life after death. However, lots of them – if not most of them – are uncomfortable with discussing the subject. Death is not a subject for a cocktail party or something you would discuss in a casual chat with a friend. Sometimes it is hard to talk about this even with those that we have a deep and meaningful relationship with.

Understanding the theory that you are not your physical body and that you, the consciousness, will continue to exist after that “vehicle” ceases to exist is easy. The intellectual understanding, however, will not take off the uneasiness to discuss this topic. Of course, everyone has a natural sense of life preservation and all of us may be, at times, keen to fulfill a certain responsibility in the next few years, or to enjoy the company of certain friends and relatives for a bit longer. Psychic experiences can, however, remove the uneasiness surrounding the transition that we call death. The near-death experience, a deep type of psychic experience, often brings this result. People that experience the NDE value life and their time after the experience, many of them also lose the fear of death itself.

No one would wish for an NDE, since the forced OBE happens due to the clinical death of the physical body. The alternative we have is to learn how to have lucid out-of-body experiences. OBEs can be induced at will, in a comfortable and healthy condition. This will demonstrate in practice that you can exist outside and beyond the physical body.

Meaning and Benefits

Psychic ability does not mean the person possessing the skills is evolved or better than anyone in the general sense. It is a very, very important ability to have, but it is still one ability. It does not indicate the level of ethics, cosmoethics, coherence, discernment nor does it indicate the quality of the help that can be provided. Being aware of other dimensions can help you to improve all those things.

However the personal growth process is something that depends on the individual.

Parapsychism is particularly important if you live in a culture that values physical things above all. Having direct experiences with non-physical dimensions can help you connect with your extraphysical “home town”, and to think more as a multidimensional consciousness, as opposed to a one-dimensional human being.

Psychic Abilities and Discernment

In a way, having psychic abilities is just the beginning. Parapsychic experiences can be very interesting, life-enriching, and can produce positive shifts in our personal paradigm. Once you start having psychic perceptions, the first thing you need is to sharpen your discernment and see how you can learn more about yourself and apply those experiences for your personal growth.

Accessible to All!

While psychic development is something accessible to everyone, understanding the phenomena from a technical perspective and dedicating a few hours per month to work on practical exercises can make a world of difference. Perceiving the non-physical reality around can broaden your perspective in many aspects of life as well as help with your development as a consciousness.

Source

IAC, International Academy of Conciousness

 

 

Correspondences for Thursday, August 9th

 

Ruled by the planet Jupiter and dedicated to Thor, god of thunder and agricultural work. his parallels in various European Traditions include Zeus, Taranis, Perun, and Perkunas.

Element : Water / Fire

Planet: Jupiter

Zodiac Sign : Sagittarrius / Pisces

Angel : Sachiel

Metal : Tin

Incense / Perfumes : Cinnamon, Musk, Nutmeg and Sage

Oils : Clove, Lemon Balm, Oakmoss, Star Anise

Color : Blue, Purple, Green

Stones : Amethyst, Lapis Lazuli, Sodalite, Turquoise, Sapphire

Plants/Herbs : Agrimony, Anise, Beech, Buttercup, Cedar, Cinnamon, Cinquefoil, Coltsfoot, Dandelion, Honeysuckle, Hyssop, Linden, Mint, Nutmeg, Oak, Sage

Magick to Work: prosperity, business, buying, selling, abundance, business, fame, gambling, greed, growth, expansion, honor, leadership, money, parties, politics, power, responsibility, royalty, success, visions, wealth, political power, influencing people in high places, law, courts

The Magick of the Fourth Quarter

(From the waning half moon until the dark of the moon.)

 

This is the dark time of the moon. You may find that your psychic talents take a little vacation during the dark phases of the moon, or, on the other hand, they may come roaring to life with an all-out bombardment on your senses. Personally, I have found that abilities such as empathy and psychometry are more pronounced at this time. Why, you may wonder? Well, I have found that this type of psychic ability forces you to look within and to be still as the information comes to you— what better time than in the waning moon, when your powers are focused internally? Magickally, now is the occasion to tackle serious issues, such as extreme protection magick, bindings, or banishings, and keeping away criminals, prowlers, or stalkers. Casting your spells in the final days of the moon’s cycle (when the moon is not visible at all) will increase the force behind your banishing and protective magick. This phase of the moon is often linked to the darker aspects of the Goddess, when she is a spiritual warrior; again, Hecate is a good one to work with in this phase, but you can also call on Sekhmet, the Morrigan, or even Kali, if you are really feeling brave.

Source

–Natural Witchery: Intuitive, Personal & Practical Magick
Ellen Dugan

The Witches Almanac for Thursday, August 9th

Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony

Waning Moon

Moon phase: Fourth Quarter

Moon Sign: Cancer

Incense: Carnation

Color: Purple

The Witches Guide to Thursday

 

Today is the day for prosperity work of all kinds. It can also be used for healing work, whether that is a physical healing of an illness or an emotional healing. Also remember that you have to follow up your healing work and prosperity magick and physical action.

I can’t tell you the number of times I have met new witches who complain to me that their prosperity spell or “I need a better job” spell did not work as they expected. They’ll ramble on and on about how much time and money they spent working their magick….but, alas, they had no glorious manifestation of wealth or fabulous job that suddenly dropped out of the sky and landed in their laps.

Then, when I gently ask them, “Did you enchant your resume or application when you filled it out? Did you do a little confidence-boosting spellwork when you went to apply for the job or went to the interview?” typically they give me a blank, confused stare.

Nine times out of ten, their response is, “You mean I have to go out and actually look for the job too?” Um, yes, my dear, you certainly do. Magick follows the path of least resistance, which means it’s going to manifest along the simplest, quickest route. Get out there and hit the pavement. See what you can find. Times are tough and competition for good jobs is fierce, so you need whatever edge you can get. For folks like us, we’re going to get the edge by using our magick and our spellcraft.

Thursdays have such a rich source of magick for us to draw upon that, honestly, the sky is the limit. This is the day associated with the gods of the sky and heavens, after all. Get to know these deities and add their wisdom and magick into your days

Source

Book of Witchery: Spells, Charms & Correspondences for Every Day of the Week
Ellen Dugan

Spellcrafting for Thursday, August 9th

 

ñ Prosperity
ñ Wealth
ñ Growth
ñ Luck
ñ Male energy
ñ Debts
ñ Finances
ñ Development
ñ Legal issues

Source

A Spell Crafter’s Compendium
Terri Paajanen

Thursday’s Conjuring

Thursday – is associated with Jupiter

Candle colors – Green, Purple, Orange, or Blue

Business, Gambling, Power, Material Wealth, Luck, Road Opening

 

—-Old Style Conjure Wisdoms, Workings and Remedies
Starr Casas

On Thursday, August 9, We Honor The Goddess Ereshkigal

 

Ereshkigal

“Kakka went down the long stairway of heaven.
When he reached the gate of Ereshkigal, he said,
‘Gatekeeper, open the gate to me!’ (Sumerian Myth)

 

Ereshkigal is the Sumerian and Babylonian Death Goddess. She was the Queen of the Dead and of the Underworld long before she was joined by a male god (and then Nergal managed to become co-ruler of the Underworld only by raping her). Ereshkigal is so terrifying that the Sumerians never described Her in any detail, though the Babylonians said that when She was enraged, Her lips were black and Her face was a livid blue.
Ereshkigal has a palace in the Underworld and is due a visit by those entering. When Inanna, (Goddess of Life, Love and War) trespassed on Her domain by descending into the Underworld, Ereshkigal dealt with Her as She dealt with all newcomers to the Land of the Dead. At each of the gates of the Underworld, Inanna was ordered to remove a piece of jewelry or clothing until She stood before Ereshkigal naked. Ereshkigal then spoke a single word that slew Inanna instantly:

 

“She spoke against her the word of wrath.
She uttered against her the cry of guilt
She struck her…”
(from “Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld”)

 

And then Ereshkigal hung Inanna’s nude corpse up on a stake. The Goddess of Death had swallowed up the Goddess of Life. But having done so, Ereshkigal began to suffer the pains of childbirth. Yet the Goddess of Death could not give birth and so She lingered in misery.
At last, Enki, God of Abzu (the watery abyss and also semen) and Wisdom, grew anxious over Inanna’s failure to return and so created two special beings to go to the Underworld and rescue Her. Being made as sexless neuters, the creatures did not violate the laws of the land of Death. They found Ereshkigal in Her painful and fruitless labor. They sympathized with Her pain, echoing Her cries and complaints. Grateful for their attentions, Ereshkigal offered them any gift they wanted. They asked for no gift but Inanna’s body, still hanging from its stake. The Goddess of Death gave it to them and only then was Inanna restored to life with the Bread of Life and the Water of Life.
As a dark moon Goddess, Ereshkigal represents the devouring of life and its subsequent renewal. She rules over the magickal arts, secret knowledge, and oracles. Her animals are those that live beneath the earth – dragons, serpents and snakes – and those that love the night – owls, ravens, crows, black dogs and black horses.
© 1999, 2000, 2001 by Sarah Nunn

___

 

Ereshkigal: Goddess of the underworld, consort of Nergal. Some consider her a dark side or aspect of Ishtar. When Ishtar descended into he underworld to save Tammuz, Ereshkigal tricked her into leaving some part of her clothing at each of the underworld’s seven gates as she passed thru them. Standing naked at the seventh gate, Ishtar threw herself on Ereshkigal; but like Samson shorn of his hair, she was powerless. Ereshkigal confined Ishtar until the wily Ea contrived her release with a trick.

 

____

 

Erishkigal (Babylon) “Queen of the Underworld” Death. Viewed by some as a demon. Ereshkigal, variously considered Inanna’s sister or sister-in-law, was supreme goddess of the underworld. When angered, Ereshkigal’s face grew livid and her lips grew black. She did not know why Inanna would visit her, but she allowed her in, and then instructed Namtar, her messenger and vizier, the Fate-Cutter, the herald of death, to release his diseases upon Inanna. Ereshkigal had a palace in the underworld and was due a visit by those entering. When Inanna trespassed on her domain, Ereshkigal “…fastened on Inanna the eye of death. She spoke against her the word of wrath. She uttered against her the cry of guilt. She struck her. Inanna was turned into a corpse,…And was hung from a hook on the wall.”

 

When Nergal, the unsparing god of the underworld, arrived to give Ereshkigal a throne upon which to sit and give judgement, she offered him food, drink, a footbath, and enticed him with her body. Eventually he succumbed and they slept with each other for seven days. Enraged when he wished to leave her, she sent Namtar to heaven to request that the gods send Nergal to her to be punished as one of the few favors she had ever received. If they would not, she threatened to raise the dead who would then eat and outnumber the living. Nergal was brought back. In some versions of the myth, Nergal took control of Namtar’s attendant demons, grabbed Ereshkigal from her throne by the hair, and threatened to decapitate her. In this position she proposed marriage to him. In both versions he accepted, they were married, and he became her consort.

 

Belit-tseri, the female tablet-scribe, knelt before Ereshkigal and Sumuquan, the cattle god resided in her underworld court. Heroes and priests resided there, as well, and mighty kings served others food. So we can see that Ereshkigal had actual, not referred, power. She ruled death as an equal portion of the span from creation to destruction. She judged and commanded both men and women. She had sexual autonomy and authentic agency. She acknowledged and displayed her rage without apology. She had genuine bargaining power and was able to use it even under extreme duress.

 

Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld From the temples, Inanna prepared to descend into Kur, the Underworld. She put on the shugarra-crown, the small lapis beads around her neck, the double strand of beads at her breast, her gold bracelet. She put on her royal robe and put ointment on her eyes; she tied her breastplate to her chest and picked up the lapis measuring rod and line. Finally, she called to her servant, Ninshubur. “I am descending to Kur. ‘If I do not return, set up a lamentation for me by the ruins. Beat the drum for me in the assembly places; circle the houses of the gods. Tear at your eyes, at your mouth, at your thighs; dress yourself in a single garment, like a beggar. Go to Nippur, to the temple of Enlil. When you enter his holy shrine, cry out: ‘Oh Father Enlil, do not let your daughter be put to death in the Underworld!”” (Wolkstein & Kramer)….

____

 

Ereshkigal is the elder sister of Inanna. She represents the dark, cthonic side of the Eternal Feminine. While she is confined to Attalu, the realm of the dead, her power is felt in all realms. She is a Goddess who will have her due. Humans, men especially, ignore Ereshkigal at their peril. Those who do not know her, or pretend not to, are rootless and foolish.

 

Ereshkigal rules with her consort Nergal over Attalu and the seven Annunaki, dread judges of the Abyss.

 

Caves are especially fine places to invoke or commune with Ereshkigal, but any lonely place on a dark moon midnight is suitable.

 

___

 

Ereskigal

(Irkalla) Queen of the Underworld, a chthonic goddess whose realm was the depths below the Inner Sea of Abzu. She was recognized as Guardian and Patroness of the Dark City. Together with her consort Nergal she rules this underworld, also called ‘the big land’, from which no-one returns.

 

One day Nergal was sent to Ereskigal from the heavens, with an offering of food. They proceeded to fall in love, and when Nergal had to leave, she threatened Anu that unless Nergal was send back to her, for ever, as a husband, she would revive the dead and send them back to earth, so that they would outnumber the living. Her minister Namtar had to go to heaven as her messenger, for Ereshkigal felt that she was already pregnant. He successfully relayed the message, for at last Nergal came storming down the stairs, broke down the seven gates and burst into the goddess’ palace straight into her passionate embrace.

 

Ereshkigal is dark and violent, as befits her role as goddess of the underworld. As ruler over the shades, Ereshkigal receives the mortuary offerings made to the dead. Often praised in hymns, in the Sumerian cosmogony she was carried off to the underworld after the separation of heaven and earth.

 

FROM: Avatars of the Goddess

___

 

ERESHKIGAL: Ereshkigal is the Sumerian mistress of death and ruler of ARALU, the “Land of No Return.” An ancient poem, “Hymn to the Locust-tree,” explains that “Ereshkigal had received the underworld as her share” of creation. It is a dry, dusty place beneath Abzu, the “sweet waters of the underground.” Aralu is a dimension of eternal darkness, a huge communal grave where languishing spirits eat dust and moan in sorrow. Another description from Sumerian myth states:

The pure Ereshkigal herself upon her throne,
The Annunake, the seven judges, pronounced judges, pronounce judgment before her,
They fastened their eyes upon her, they eyes of death.
At their word, the word which tortures the spirit…
The sick woman was turned into a corpse,
The corpse was hung from a stake.

 

One of the most complex ancient myths about the underworld involves the legend of Inanna (Ishtar in some translations), Ereshkigal’s sister, who makes a disastrous trip to the place of the dead. The beautiful Inanna, determined to shame her sister, decides to travel to the underworld to mock Ereshkigal and her lowly status as ruler of the damned. She dons her most glamorous clothes and finest jewelry and sets out for Aralu. Word quickly spreads to Ereshkigal that her sister is coming, charming everyone in her path.

 

Ereshkigal becomes jealous and orders her guards to seize a garment from Inanna at each of the seven gates she must pass through on the way to the depths of hell. Inanna does so, arriving naked and enraged at her sister’s throne. A heated argument erupts over the incident, and Ereshkigal has Inanna impaled on a hook, her her body quickly turns green and decays, much to Ereshkigal’s delight. The CHTHONIC deity displays her sister’s withered corpse as a trophy in the halls of Aralu.

 

Meanwhile, in the upper world, Inanna’s handmaid, who knows of the sisters’ feud, works for Inanna’s release. After intervention from a number of Sumerian deities, Ereshkigal reluctantly agrees to give up her sister’s corpse. The gods revive Inanna with water and the grass of life, but the judges of the dead will not let her leave the underworld until she finds a substitute to take her place in hell. Inanna agrees to send a replacement back to her sister’s kingdom.

 

A ghastly demon escort sees Inanna back to the land of the living. Upon her return, she discovers that her husband, Dumuzi, rather than mourning her loss, as been celebrating her absence with wine, women, and song. She immediately selects him as her substitute and sends him to Aralu to suffer in her place. Inanna eventually pities Dumuzi’s plight and works out an arrangement with Ereshkigal so that he has to stay in hell for only six months of the year.

 

Another legend tells how Ereshkigal used her wiles to trick NERGAL, a vain and lecherous warrior god, into taking up residence in the land of the dead. When Nergal ventures to the underworld to meet this legendary queen, Ereshkigal charms him into sharing her bed, knowing that this will seal his doom. After the seduction, the gods refuse to allow him to return to the upper world, so Nergal weds Ereskigal and becomes the king of the dead. Together the couple oversees the souls of those who have departed Aralu.

“The Encyclopedia of Hell.” Miriam Van Scott. St. Martin’s Press. ©1998

____

 

Ereškigal: Ereškigal, whose name can be translated ‘Queen of the Great Below’, is also known in Akkadian as Allatu. She is the goddess who rules the underworld, mother of the goddess Nungal and, by Enlil, of the god Namtar, who serves as her messenger and minister. Ereškigal’s first husband was the god Gugal-ana, whose name probably originally meant ‘canal inspector of An’ and who may therefore have been identical with Ennugi. In the Sumerian poem ‘Inana’s Descent to the Underworld’, Inana tries to gain entry to the underworld by claiming that she has come to attend the funeral rites of Gugal-ana, the ‘husband of my elder sister Ereškigal’. The son of Ereškigal and Gugal-ana was the god Ninazu. In another tradition, Ereškigal married the god Nergal, as related in the poem ‘Nergal and Ereškigal’.
Ereškigal lived in a palace located at Ganzir, the doorway to the underworld, protected by seven gates, all of which could be bolted and each of which was guarded by a porter.

“Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. An Illustrated Dictionary.” Jeremy Black and Anthony Green. University of Texas Press, Austin. ©1992