14/09/2024
GODDESS of the MONTH: INANNA
As autumn draws near to us, nature prepares to face the dark. The story of Inanna’s descent into the dark underworld gives us a metaphor; a template to guide us in understanding our unconscious selves. It is in the darkness of the unconscious that we face and then discover things about ourselves that can help us to become whole.
🔸How might you better understand your unconscious self?
🔸How might you let go of things you think you need that may be holding you back?
🔸How might you show love to parts of yourself that are hurt or damaged, and integrate these into healing and wholeness?
Inanna, known as “Queen of Heaven,” is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess, worshipped in Sumer, the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, which is now south-central Iraq. The Sumerian civilization was the earliest known of this area, appearing in the Copper and early Bronze ages (the sixth and fifth millennium BCE). The cities of Uruk, Agade, and Nineveh were the main centers of Inanna’s worship.
Like many of us, Inanna has dual aspects, in that both love and war dwell within her. In her love aspect, she is linked to all forms of love, fertility, s*x, and beauty. In her war aspect she enacts many conquests for domain, and is linked to divine law and political power.
Inanna is associated with the planet Venus, and her symbols include the hook-shaped knot of reeds, eight-pointed star, lion, rosette, dove, and snake.
There are more stories about Inanna than any other Sumerian diety, and one of the most well known, is the story of her descent into the underworld, her death there, and her rising once again, endowed with greater wisdom.
In Sumerian mythology, the underworld is perceived as "a shadowy version of life on earth,” much like our unconscious mind is in the shadows of our conscious selves.
The ruler of this shadowy underworld is Inanna’s older sister, Ereshkigal.
What is Inanna’s true motivation for wanting to visit this realm ruled by her sister? Her *conscious* reason is to attend the funeral of Ereshkigal’s husband, and this is what she tells her sister.
But — perhaps her *unconscious* desire was a quest to extend her domains, and this may represent a need she didn’t know she had; an emptiness that needed to be filled in a better way than she had been using.
Inanna dresses in her finest garments and carries her most powerful instruments for her visit. She holds a lapis lazuli measuring rod, wears a wig and turban, mascara, a lapis lazuli necklace, beads, a special gown, a pectoral, and golden ring. Each object symbolizes a power she has — or, perhaps a burden she doesn’t know she is carrying.
Inanna approaches the underworld with a sense of entitlement, pounding on the gates and demanding to be admitted.
Ereshkigal, perhaps sensing Inanna’s true motives, orders the seven gates of her realm to be bolted, and requires Inanna to give up one of her symbols of power in order to gain admittance through each gate.
Inanna complies, and arrives at the throne of her sister Ereshkigal naked and stripped of much of her ego. Nonetheless, she makes Ereshkigal get off of her throne, and sits there in her place.
What does this mean?
Are Inanna and Ereshkigal intertwined? Is Ereshkigal the unconscious version of Inanna? Is Inanna unknowingly seeking to integrate her unconscious self into her conscious self? Does she sense that she is fragmented and needs healing and wholeness?
While on her sister’s throne, Inanna is deemed guilty for her actions by the seven judges of the realm. She suffers death and is hung on a hook for three days and three nights. Meanwhile, Ereshkigal begins to also suffer pain, as though she is about to give birth.
Enki, a friend to Inanna, and a diety of water, creation, and intelligence, creates two genderless beings whom he sends to Ereshkigal. They tell her that relief for her pain will come when she delivers Inanna’s co**se to them. Ereshkigal is finally able to do this, and Inanna’s body is sprinkled with the waters of life. She is reborn and rises into life once again, where she soon has changes of heart for the better.
It is as though Ereshkigal must re-birth Inanna, after requiring her to let go of things that keep her from her full potential. And both Inanna and Ereshkigal must work together. The unconscious self must give birth to the conscious self so that shadow aspects may be redeemed and integrated, resulting in wholeness. This is not an easy process, but it is a necessary process — not only for a goddess like Inanna, but for human beings too.
~ Rebekah Myers
copyright ©️ 9/16/23 by Rebekah Myers
Sacred Sisters Full Moon Circle
Art: Jo Jayson, “Inanna”
Jo Jayson Artist, Teacher, Author
https://www.jojayson.com/
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