The Descent of Inanna

I had a conversation with a friend of mine several months ago. She was talking about the tragedy of a young man's death. I stopped, and found myself compelled to honor a truth I think is seldom honored. Death is not a tragedy. It is an inherent and necessary gift in the cycle of life. It is a natural occurrence.

That doesn't discount grief or the powerful sense of loss that happens when someone you love passes from this life.

We move now to a discussion with my honey. We were both raised within a cultural framework that honors the cycles of life, including death. It is not a frightening and monstrous thing waiting to happen. There is simply an understanding for the rhythm of the Earth.

Human history is full of stories and aphorisms which honor this process of birth and death and rebirth.

I wanted to offer a story from  the oldest recorded religion. The Pantheon of Inanna from Summeria. The Summerians were great record keepers. Not only did they keep records which evolved into astrology! (Yea), but they also handed down one of my favorite stories.

The Descent of Inanna. This story has been told in many ways and through many forms. It later years, Ishtar and Persephone came to personify this story. The beautiful gift of this tale in all of the forms it has taken is that it teaches that death is essential to the cycle of life. And so it is.

It starts with the tale of two sisters. Ereshkigal was the Goddess of the Underworld. None that came to her returned to the world above.

Inanna was the queen of Earth and Heaven. And truthfully, Inanna had some growing to do. She had strength and power and it lacked purity, being held within her ego.

She decided she would visit her sister within the underworld. Inanna was certain that nothing would happen to HER as she went below. (Kind of like the folks nowadays that seem to think they are chronically unique).

Ereshkigal was informed that Inanna was about to descend to visit with her. A great burden was formed, for her greater act of compassion was to have none. She told her guard that Inanna would need to follow the way in which it had always been.

And so, Inanna was allowed entrance the portals of kurnugia. Quickly she came to the first gate and was asked to surrender her crown. Inanna asked why that would be so. She was told that it was the required to the path of descending to the great underworld. And so, she gave the jewels upon her crown.

She continued on her journey. She found herself coming to a second gate. The guard required her to remove her earrings. She demanded to know why and she was told that it was the required path of descending to the great underworld. And so, she gave the jewels upon her ears.

Inanna was invited through the second gate and held her annoyance as she marched smartly forward. Did they not understand she was the Goddess and Queen of Heaven and Earth? Ereshkigal was her sister, for goodness sakes.

Inanna found herself coming to the third gate. Her heart began to flutter and she found her voice becoming hoarse. The guard demanded the necklace that surrounded her neck. She tried to muster some of her earlier confidence and asked why. She was told that it was the required path of descending to the great underworld. And so, she gave of the jewels that surrounded her neck.

About this time, Inanna had difficulty remembering why she had decided to do this. No one told her that the descent would require sacrifice of her or leave her feeling more exposed than she'd wanted to feel.

And yet… the fourth gate abruptly appeared and her heart sank. The guard demanded the broach that was her toggle pin upon her breast. Her hands shook a little as she offered the jewel upon her breast. The guard kindly reminded her that it was the required path of descending to the great underworld.

She wandered down the path for quite a while and came to the fifth gate. She asked the guard how many portals there were to kurnugia. Seven, he replied. She told him that she did not have much left to give and he said… yet, I do require the girdle of birth stones that covers your loins. Inanna was shocked and said “Why that?” He told her that it was the required path of descending to the great underworld. And so Inanna surrendered the jewels that proudly rested on her seat of fertility.

By this time, Inanna was not entirely certain that she could offer anything else. They'd had all they would receive of her. Ereshkigal was her sister! She was a Goddess.

The fifth gate of Kurnugia loomed ahead. The guard indicated that he would need the bangles that adorned her wrist and her feet. Inanna simply looked at him and he said that it was the required path of descending to the great underworld. And so, Inanna gave of the jeweled bangles that touched her wrist and her ankles.

Dejected and utterly annoyed with herself for coming down to see her sister, Inanna found herself at the last and final gate. She had no stones, whatsoever to offer in sacrifice. The guard required her garments. What? She said. No one may ever approach the great power of the Goddess without being stripped naked to stand as he or she is. I must ask for your clothing for it is the required path of descending to the great underworld.

Inanna found herself approaching the great chamber of Ereshkigal in her naked and vulnerable state. And still, she had no humility for she believed herself to be outside the laws of nature. Ereshkigal felt her arrogance and sadly turned away her face of compassion. When she turned to her sister, her face had become the destroyer. The Goddess that would bring death and decay.

“How dare you believe yourself to be greater than the laws of nature”, Ereshkigal's mighty voice swelled in the cavernous room. Inanna was struck dumb. She began to understand her arrogance and yet, Ereshkigal was not finished. “There is no return path, Inanna” and with that she pulled the life from her sister and hung Inanna's corpse on a meat hook.

Day passed into night and into day above the Earth. Three Days had passed without Inanna and all things had ceased to grow. She had the foresight to tell her beloved servant where she was going and asked that she seek help from the gods should she not return.

And so it passed. Ereshkigal was reasoned with. Inanna held the keys to life upon the Earth and all life ceased growing and wombs became baron in the absence of her presence. Ereshkigal reminded one and all that respect for all of life's cycles included the death and decay that she offered. And so a balance was struck. Inanna's consort would sacrifice himself during portions of the year to gain Inanna release from the underworld.

Life was breathed fresh into Inanna and she was allowed to ascend. She brought the fullness of life back to the Earth. In those months that Inanna must once again return to honor her obligation, the Earth becomes dead and frozen. Waiting for the appearance of Inanna.

I love this story. It offers me the opportunity to question my own arrogance. How far from the cycles and laws of nature to I perceive myself to be? Can I honor and humble myself to allow myself to die into myself and rebirth, time and time again?

Can I surrender completely to the Source? Do I put on cloaks that keep me separate? Do I wear armor of any kind, even something as pretty as a bauble to define and keep me separate from the Divine? Am I willing to die to the will of the Divine? Or stand naked, stripped of my arrogance?