I’ve used the story of Inanna’s descent to, stay in, and ascent from, the Underworld as a scaffolding for multiple group programs over the years, as well as a way to look at my personal journey in this work. It’s a story that invites us to move slowly through the healing and growth process, giving us space and time to move through one aspect of this work of unlearning and learning at time.
If you don’t know the story of Inanna, here is a very brief overview. Inanna, the Goddess of Heaven and Earth, decides to visit her grieving sister, Ereshkigal, Ruler of the Underworld, after her consort/lover/co-ruler dies. To get to sister, Inanna, must pass through seven gates and at each gate she must leave a piece of clothing so that we enters the Underworld naked. Once she makes it to the Underworld, Ereshkigal kills her and hangs her on a meat hook to rot. Inanna had some foresight that this might happen and and asked her friend/hand-maiden Ninshubur to have rescue her if she doesn’t return after a set amount of time. Ninshubur finds help, and two creatures are sent to the Underworld to comfort Ereshkigal and convince her to free Inanna. She does and Inanna ascends from the Underworld, passing through each gate and reclaiming what she had left behind.
Inanna is a Mesopotamian goddess, related to Ishtar and later related to Venus/Aphrodite. (The book by Bettany Hughes Venus and Aphrodite, details the history, evolution, and connections of these goddesses). Additionally, the planet Venus has been connected to Inanna, and the planets trajectory from morning to evening star and back to morning star (sometimes called the Rose of Venus, because the path over eight years forms a five petaled “flower” or a pentagram). Many have drawn connections between Inanna’s Underworld story and the journey of Venus across the skies, and I am one of them.
A thing about growth, healing, and change, is that it can’t be forced or rushed. We need to find ways to slow down, to give ourselves time and space to unravel the myriad of false narratives we’ve all been indoctrinated with under capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. This learning to slow down is in and of itself a process, and invites us to heal wounds from both our own childhoods and lives and the wounds of the people who came before us.
This slowing down requires us to learn how to come back into and remain in our body. To feel the sensations and emotions that can feel overwhelming and that we have dissociated from most of our lives. As we begin to feel these sensations and emotions, we can also begin to track them and notice the natural rhythms that flow under our own skin. As we notice these personal rhythms and cycles, we can begin to tie them to the rhythms and cycles of nature - how does the new or full moon affect us? What about when the moon is in a specific sign? How do the seasons affect us? Which months are harder for us year after year?
As we notice these internal and external cycles we can begin to see how interconnected we are - within ourselves, with other humans, with plants and animals, the planet, the stars. We can begin to see and feel how we are but a small part in a very intricate and complicated web, and how everything we do has an impact both within and outside of us. We are both inconsequential and extremely impactful.
As we are doing the work of dismantling the systems of oppression that cause harm, as we come back home to our own body, as we allow ourselves to see and feel and be in the flow of our interconnectedness and interdependence, we can also move back in to the ancient ways of being - being in community, being in flow with nature, listening to our own body, respecting the autonomy and interconnectedness of all beings. It is an invitation to reject dogmas that tell us how we “have” to be or are “supposed” to be, and instead to, not so simply, be. We can release our desperate grasping for perfection, our harmful need to be right or smart or seen as “more than” we are (or anyone is). It is part of the process of both breaking down and nuturing our Ego-Self, of seeing all the ways we have been harmed and that we have harmed, of rooting into our autonomy and our interdependence.
I’ve written before how traditions are meant to evolve, how ritual isn’t meant to remain stagnant, how the ways we connect are meant to shift, ebb, and flow. It is important to remember there are very few wrong ways of connecting with nature, with ourselves, with others (only ways that are actually wrong are ones that are harmful to others or ourselves). The more we are able to let go of the “rules” and “have’tos” and the more we are able to trust ourselves, to allow ourselves to do what feels good and right to us in this moment, the more in the flow we become. The more we are able to move away from rigidity and dogma, the more we can evolve into the next ways of being, which may look a lot like how our ancient ancestors existed in many ways, and will also be uniquely our own.
Some questions to explore…