These are the questions an Ishtarite asks. An autocratic command that leads to suffering is morally wrong, regardless of its source, because it violates the sacredness of the lived experience over which Inanna holds dominion.
An Ishtarite ethic must be grounded in the body and in the community. Is an action just? Does it honor the sacredness of the other person? Does it create joy and flourishing, or does it cause needless suffering and oppression?
DCT promotes an abstract, disembodied morality ("It is commanded, therefore it is right") that can become detached from real-world compassion and suffering.
As a goddess of love, sexuality, and the visceral realities of life and death, Inanna's domain is deeply embedded in the lived, felt experience of humanity. The ethics derived from her are embodied, they are about consent, respect, passion, and the consequences of our actions on other living beings.
To simply say "the entu's will is all that matters" is a cowardly refusal of the agency Inanna grants and demands. We are meant to be her strong right arm in the world, and a strong arm requires a thinking mind to guide it.
An Ishtarite must use their intellect, their strength, and their conscience to serve her.
An ideology that demands blind trust in an autocratic leader betrays the very nature of Ishtarite devotion. It is an insult to the Queen of Heaven to suggest she desires followers who abdicate their own judgment and responsibility.
The relationship she seeks is one of dynamic, often challenging, partnership. She wants a capable agent in the world, not a puppet.
Inanna is not a goddess of quiet, passive servants. She is a goddess of heroes, of kings, of ambitious temple-builders, and of individuals with fierce passions. She empowers her followers, she does not demand their mindless obedience.
Their command is illegitimate precisely because it departs from the cosmic order Inanna herself champions.
Therefore, the will of any leader, divine or mortal, can be judged against this independent standard. If an entu's will violates the fundamental principles of justice, compassion, and honor, it is the entu who is wrong, not the principle.
This directly refutes the core of DCT. Morality is not "good" simply because a divine figure says it is. Rather, principles like justice and honor have an existence that even the gods acknowledge and uphold. Ishtar's legitimacy as a goddess of justice comes from her alignment with the me of justice.
In the myths, Inanna does not create the me, she famously retrieves them from the god of wisdom, Enki. She is a champion and steward of these cosmic laws, not their arbitrary creator.
The Sumerian concept of the me represents the fundamental principles and powers of civilization and the cosmos, justice, kingship, wisdom, victory.
To reduce this vibrant divine reality to the will of a single entu is to deny the glorious and terrifying complexity of Inanna herself.
A consistent Ishtarite recognizes that morality is not about obeying a single voice, but about navigating the complex, often conflicting, energies of the divine and the world.
How can a single, absolute set of moral commands exist when divinity itself is multifaceted and contains contradictions? Whose command is to be followed? Inanna's command to her warriors to be ruthless, or her command to her lovers to be tender?
The cosmos is a chorus of divine wills, not a monologue. Inanna herself embodies this complexity, she is the goddess of passionate love and brutal war, of creation and destruction.
Divine command theory requires a single, unwavering, and internally consistent divine lawgiver. Our understanding of the divine is polytheistic.
A reminder to the faithful. Organizational bylaws first draft has been published in the temple discord in #bylaws-working-group and all are welcome to examine them and give feedback
Descent of Inanna into the Underworld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_of_Inanna_into_the_Underworld
You might be interested in the goddess Inanna/Ishtar.
Inanna Zami all!
YAY finally I found one, lol! Imagine if you could just pick up and casually read and understand fluently the earliest texts ever written by humans? yaytext.com/cuniform/
Two scribes depicted in an ancient Assyrian low relief, using styluses to write on clay tablets.
A cuneiform tablet with writing on it.
For me, the most incredible artefacts from the ancient world are the letters people wrote on clay tablets and sent to one another over thousands of years in Mesopotamia, going back to more than 5,000 years ago.
They contain recognisable humanity, warmth and humour. Here's a thread of my favourites.
Nemesis is wearing her fencing mask, now decorated in golden cuniform
tfw I show up to your tournament wreathed in the protection of Anu, smashing your magic like a bad pot. Ruinous on the field, don't fuck with this
Inanna zami, all! May She bless you all with a wonderful day today!
Inanna Zami all! Its friday(finally), may Inanna give you a wonderful weekend!
This is the official discord of E-Anna: The Temple of Inanna. discord.gg/inanna
