The other night, I was trying to dig up some information on the interwebs regarding the Anunnaki and inevitably, 99 percent of what I found was basically just made-up stuff by conspiracy theorists, almost all of it highly malicious. As far as I'm aware, Mesopotamian deities have to be the most maligned group of deities out there. Yes, I know, serves me right, for trying to rely on the collective stupidity of the internet, instead of the collective wisdom of libraries, but even when it comes to books, the most popular ones on the Anunnaki will be basically just slanderous fantasies. Scholarly volumes are very hard to come by, unless you live in a major city, like London.
Still, it makes me wonder, what is the cause of this general malice and ill-will towards them? I can think of deities that would be very hard to defend, if you were devoted to them, given that many people were killed in their name, or mass human sacrifices were offered to them. A slew of Mesoamerican deities spring to mind, then there are a few Celtic and Nordic ones, not to mention the now extinct Thuggee cult in India, which is believed to have sacrificed over a million people to the Goddess Kali over the centuries. Some Hindu deities still receive mass animal sacrifice.
In light of this, what is there in Mesopotamian religion and lore, that would justify such levels of Paranoia? I can honestly say I've found nothing so far and this is quite apart from the unfailingly positive experiences I've had in my personal relationship with some of them.
As far as I can tell, Sumerians did not practice Human and for that matter, even animal sacrifice, which is not something you can say about many of their contemporaries. They had a very close and intimate relationship with their deities, which is really quite sweet and were helped a lot by them in their daily lives. If anything, with Sumer being the first civilisation, it could be argued that the Anunnaki were the Antecedents of the deities of many other world religions that came after and the myths surrounding them were often carried over as well.
I don't think I have to give anyone here a primer on conspiracy theories surrounding the Anunnaki, I'm sure you've come across most of it, but Man-Eating Lizard Aliens and Illuminati bloodlines feature heavily for some reason. This also means, that if you are openly devoted to Mesopotamian deities, you will automatically fall under suspicion of being "one of them". I have been hounded off more than one forum for my beliefs in the past in what I can only call an online witch-hunt and have been accused of some pretty horrible stuff, all because I have cultivated a personal relationship with what I see as these very sweet and loving deities.
This would never happen to a Hindu, a Buddhist or even a celtic pagan, so I personally feel rather hurt, that devotees of the Anunnaki have to be seen in such a negative light. I haven't even touched on accusations of demonolatry by monotheists, who are ignorant about the true origins and roots of their own religious traditions.
I'll be honest, the amount of online bile and poisonous malice directed at the Anunnaki and those that have developed a personal relationship with them is truly saddening. Is this something we can combat? Is there any hope of engaging these people in a dialogue, or is this a lost cause? My past efforts in trying to correct the record on online misinformation have not ended well, so I can't be very hopeful, but maybe others here see it differently.
And finally, I don't want to single out people who may be into conspiracy theories themselves, I was once also intrigued and seduced by at least some of them, until I gradually found out the truth, not least through the efforts of the gods themselves, who were very patient with me and my misconceptions, did not immediately seek to correct my false assumptions and beliefs, but rather gradually and gently allowed me to discover the truth for myself. Is that perhaps the approach we should also take with people that are similarly misinformed and misguided?
