ULULIJARNAQ: THE INUIT DISEMBOWELING GODDESS

For more entries on the gods and goddesses of Inuit mythology click here: https://glitternight.com/inuit-myth/

ULULIJARNAQ – The disemboweling goddess who lived in Udlormiut, the supercelestial afterlife. Originally Ululijarnaq roamed the Earth in  the time before human beings had anuses. She would use her ulu knife to carve the waste matter out of people’s innards to get rid of it.

Eventually the moon god used his hunting knife to give all animal life anuses so that waste could be eliminated that way instead. In some traditions Ululijarnaq would also carve babies out of women until the moon god used his hunting knife to give them vaginas.

That tradition is at odds with others that state children grew from the Earth, the goddess Nunam, until after the moon god had given women vaginas. At that point the babies, formerly plucked from the ground like flowers, climbed up the legs of passing ladies and took root in their vaginas, where they emerge from to this day. Such contradictions are common in all the world’s belief systems.

When Ululijarnaq was no longer needed to carve waste matter out of people’s innards she took up her new position guarding the entrance to the supercelestial afterlife called Udlormiut. She would greet the astral forms of shaman and attempt to make them laugh (accounts vary as to how)

If she succeeded she would use her ulu to carve out their innards, but if they remained stone-faced they were free to move on. In this respect she is a bit similar to Kamaut, the sentinel of Sedna’s home who was an obstacle to shaman traveling in their astral bodies.  

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