THE ASCENT.
Myth of Inanna - Part III
INANNA'S ASCENT... 🐉
We’re finishing our contemplation of Inanna with her Ascent from the Underworld.
To read through Part I and II — on the Call, and the Descent, click here, and here.
Prompts at the bottom…
In the Myth of Inanna, we left off at her descent through the Seven Gates, her meeting with her "mad, deranged, wild" sister, and Inanna's eventual "death" at Ereshkigal's hands.
Meanwhile, in the "real world", Inanna's faithful and beloved servant Ninshubur is eagerly waiting her queen's return. The three days pass, she hears nothing.
She bangs the drums in the square, informing the council that the queen has made the descent into the Underworld. The elders agree to help retrieve her. They rush down, passing through each of the seven gates themselves.
Finally, they make it into Ereshkigal's hall, and, horrified, they find the corpse of Inanna hanging on the hook where Ereshkigal had left her.
The elders attempt to bring Inanna back to life, using a variety of spells and rituals, healing potions and magickal stones they brought down with them from the "real world", but nothing works (symbolic, nothing we bring with us from the "real world" will have any real impact on our Shadow)
Ereshkigal, still mad, stil all-powerful in her anguish, still Lost, watches on, unseen.
Overcome with yet more grief, now for her lost sister as well as her lost husband, she finally steps in, giving her sister the Water of Life, which has the power to resurrect the dead (symbolic as fuck, the water of life is the water of the womb, the underworld is the void between worlds, the liminal space between birth and death, and only the power of Shadow and Void can bring back that which is lost)
With bated breath, the elders watch, and wait.
Slowly, Inanna seems to return to consciousness, as Ereshkigal retreats, fading back into the darkness.
The elders celebrate! Inanna, queen of heaven and earth, has returned! However, they can see in her eyes and feel in her presence that something is different. She is no longer who she once was.
They turn to leave. The gatekeepers let the elders pass through without a word. But as Inanna begins to climb through the gates, they stop her. The gatekeepers tell Inanna that she may leave, but only if she leaves behind something of great value to her.
Inanna contemplates this. She considers sacrificing herself and staying in the underworld with her wretched sister, forever. But the elders persuade her, saying that her kingdom needs her. Eventually, Inanna decides that she will sacrifice her husband, banishing him to the underworld for all eternity (symbolic, her marriage was the final symbol for "having everything she ever wanted")
Inanna begins her ascent back through the seven gates. At each, she is offered back that which she had to give up to pass through into the underworld. She must take inventory, contemplating whether those things still "fit" her. She decides to leave everything behind in the underworld, returning to the "real world" humbled. She found that her precious royal and personal items no longer carried any weight. She felt no desire for them anymore.
Inanna, queen of heaven and earth, had finally seen what she had not yet seen, and she now knew what she did not yet know.
PROMPTS FOR JOURNALING AND CONTEMPLATION...
#1 Reflect on NINSHUBER.
Ninshuber is Inanna's most beloved friend and trusted counsel (in different versions of Inanna's myth, Ninshuber shows up as both masculine and feminine presenting. Read it how you like).
This "side character" in the myth is VITAL. Inanna says to Ninshuber, "I must go, wait for me for three days, and send for the elders if I'm not back". Ninshuber watches from above, waits, and sends help when it's called for.
She HOLDS THE CONTAINER. We CANNOT undertake any kind of journey into the underworld of ourselves without HELP. We need people to hold us, to energetically be an anchor point for our safety.
Without these people, we'd be lost in the underworld forever.
In your life, WHO IS NINSHUBER? Who are those people, for you?
#2 Reflect on the LIFE GIVING POWER of the SHADOW SELF.
In the story, it's the Water of Life as given by Ereshkigal (the archetypal Shadow Self) that finally brings Inanna back to life.
Symbolically, we can take this to mean that until the Shadow Self PENETRATES and INTEGRATES with the "real self", we cannot "rise again".
It's never the power of the "real world" (external world) that actualises us. It's always the shadow, the dark, the repressed aspects, the Void.
How is this true in your own recovery?
Reflect on times when you may have been attempting to regain your power by way of "spells from the real world" (professional accolade, external validation, proximity to "power" as defined by the colonial capitalist paradigm, etc).
Reflect on the moment when you realised that all those attempts to get your power back were futile.
How did it feel to finally let go of all those ultimately useless spells?
What did it tangibly look like? What changed in your relationship to yourself, your loved ones, your purpose, when you accepted the Water of Life from the Shadow Self?
For example, an "real world spell" we might be frantically trying to "cast" (as the elders did for Inanna) could be endlessly chasing an idea of "success".
We decide that if our life looks like x y z, we are successful.
If our art makes a b c impact, we've "made it".
If our activism is effective in this or that way, (always with our name attached to it of course, being remembered as a hero is the most important bit of all activism work, obviously 😉), then we are a "good person".
The "Water of Life" in this scenario is the willingness to fail. Getting really deeply intimate with our repressed (shadow) fear of failure will be the "spell" that actually works.
Journal on how this moves you. If you get stuck, play with some duality. Any "polarity" will work.
Ie — want to be deeply loved? Be radically willing to be hated.
Want to be hugely impactful? Be radically willing to be totally insignificant.
Want to be held and seen in community? Be radically willing to be alone and misunderstood.
Want to be the leader your people need? Be radically willing to be foolishly incompetent.
Look to the side of the duality you're chasing. This is the fruitless "spell from the 'real' world". The other side of that duality is the Water of Life from the Underworld.
What would it mean for you to "drink the Water"?
#3 Reflect on the ASCENT.
As Inanna climbs back up through the seven gates, she's given the opportunity to "take back" everything she had to "relinquish" on her way down.
She found she had a new relationship with each of the symbols of her royalty and power now that she'd been reborn in the Underworld.
Look to each of the seven "possessions" you "gave up" in the last exercise.
Visualise yourself holding each of them in your hands, now, after you have been "reborn" through your journey down into the Underworld to meet with Ereshkigal.
How has your relationship with this "possession" changed?
What does it feel like now?
If you're choosing to leave it behind, why? Who are you now, without it?
If you're choosing to take it with you, why? How will you hold this "possession" now, after your Rebirth?
What's changed from before you responded to The Call?
There aren't any wrong answers here. You're allowed to joyfully and lovingly choose to take stuff back up with you on your Ascent. Ereshkigal isn't asking us to throw away every last aspect of who we are and exist as pure nondual consciousness.
(Unless that feels true for you. In which case, go for it!)
An example from my own life:
I had a Major Crisis full on dark night of the soul type situation back in 2018. Every single aspect of my life, mind body and spirit, as well as every single bit of logistics and life admin you can imagine, was completely fucked.
Let's just say, Ereshkigal's calls were fucking LOUD.
I had to relinquish my identity as an activist on my way down into the Underworld, as my whole understanding of who I was, was obliterated.
After my time in the Underworld, I was offered the Activist identity by the gatekeeper on my way back up. I took it back. It was a very conscious decision. The way it felt to wear that identity had RADICALLY changed though.
Before, it felt like I was being bound and gagged by it. I had so many really rigid and dogmatic ideas about exactly how to be the perfect activist, the perfect martyr. I was destroying myself for it, and I had a terrible attachment to the "glory" of that suffering, and to the recognition and validation I received for all my work. I was deeply ashamed of that attachment.
On the way back up, the "activism is who I am" cloak felt lighter and softer to wear. It became an authentic expression of my aliveness. My creativity and integrity came flooding back.
It was no longer a mask I was hiding behind, or a tool I was using to desperately prove myself as worthy.
It was just how the infiniteness of consciousness wanted to play in the world of form while it was pretending to be Leila.
Take time with each of the Seven "possessions" you relinquished at each of the Seven Gates.
I’m writing this to you as the world celebrates Easter Sunday.
The day of Rebirth.
May we celebrate the Rebirth within us.
May we honour Inanna, and the path through the Underworld she paved for us.
I’m so glad and grateful you’re here. Thank you.
Thank you for walking with me.