The Alchemy of Descent: Inanna’s Journey
Honoring the descent.
This is what birth calls us to, is it not? When I read the story of Inanna and her journey to the underworld I cannot resist the parallels to the alchemy of pregnancy, of labor, of postpartum — each one of them requires us to go on this journey. To put our ear to the ground and hear the suffering of the inner self, waiting to be liberated through an act of love.
The question this story invites us to is: what do you know, that you’re avoiding? Because the truth is, you already know— you can sense and feel that within you that which is aching for your attention. The hard conversation you need to have, the boundary you need to set, the relationship you need to leave. As you read this story, I invite you to listen to the whispers of your own inner-self and to be honest about what you hear. Because when we do the hard thing, we alleviate the suffering of the child within who feels shame, who does not know their worth or cannot claim sovereignty. We become a unified self instead of a split-being caught between two worlds, like Inanna. So, I ask you— what do you know?
The following excerpt is taken from astrologer Chani Nichols’ website, on a post titled "A Note on this Venus in Retrograde"
“In the myth, the Great Goddess of Heaven and Earth hears a call from the underworld. From Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer’s translation in Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth, the hymn begins:
From the Great Above she opened her ear to the Great Below.
From the Great Above the goddess opened her ear to the Great Below.
From the Great Above Inanna opened her ear to the Great Below.
The cacophony of her fearsome, wrathful, envious, ravenous sister, Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, calls Inanna. It is Erishkigal’s moaning that the Goddess opens her ear to, and she obliges this summoning.
Before she journeys to the underworld, however, Inanna sets a backup plan in motion. No one is allowed to visit the underworld and return — there is no round trip ticket here. Knowing this, Inanna tells her trusted helper, Ninshubur, to keep watch for her. If she doesn’t return, he must petition the gods to help her come back from the dead, and he must not relent until she’s found help.
Inanna sets out.
On her descent, she has to pass through seven gates (we can assume they represent the seven planetary bodies of the ancient world). Each time, she must strip an item of clothing, so that she eventually arrives before her sister naked. No charms. No amulets. No protections.
Ereshkigal wastes no time. She fixes the eye of death upon Inanna and “utters against her the cry of guilt.” She does what she knows how to do best — she kills her sister.
Inanna is turned into a corpse, hung on a meat hook, left to rot.
But this does not relieve Ereshkigal. She continues to moan in the underworld. She is not helped by her own defenses. She is not saved by her hostility. She too needs to be delivered from it.
We could think of Ereshkigal as the other half of the great Queen, Inanna. The self that has been discarded: the repository for unprocessed shame, the un-glorious self, the feral self, the scornful, lonely, unforgiving, and betrayed self. The self that is also the keeper of secrets and so much power.
Luckily, above ground, Ninshubur knows to find help. Eventually, Enki, the God of Wisdom (and Inanna’s grandfather) grants it. He sends two beings down to rescue her, with strict instruction to echo the cries of Ereshkigal, who is moaning “with the cries of a woman about to give birth.” Giving birth to herself, we can assume.
The helpers find both sisters in the underworld. They tend to Ereshkigal immediately, as she’s in the throes of great suffering.
Ereshkigal was moaning:
“Oh! Oh! My inside!”
They moaned:
“Oh! Oh! Your inside!”
She moaned:
“Ohhhh! Oh! My outside!”
They moaned:
“Ohhhh! Oh! Your outside!”
This call and response goes on to include her belly, back, heart, and liver, until she stops, stunned that her pain is being recognized. Has anyone ever even acknowledged her sorrow?
Relieved for being witnessed, and thus delivered from her pain, she asks these creatures that are echoing her woes what she can offer them as thanks. She wants to give them a gift for their kindness. They ask for Inanna’s body, of course. They sprinkle the food and water of life on her, which Enki gave them before they set off, and Inanna is restored.
The Goddess is reborn. Actually, both Goddesses are. Inanna begins her ascent.
By recognizing Ereshkigal’s pain, Inanna is released. By recognizing our own Ereshkigal, and honoring all it has suffered through, we are too.
All parts of self want to be known.
“The parts of self that have been given the worst jobs need help if they are to have their own rebirth. When we dignify them with an acknowledgment, we return them to their valuable state” as Richard Schwartz, the founder of Internal Family Systems, says.”
Inanna’s journey is one we may go on during pregnancy when the veil is thin, during the process of labor when we must venture to a place no one can take us but ourselves, or during the depths of postpartum. We may find that all three ask something of us. We are neither conditioned nor supported in our society to do the kind of inner work available to us in this context, but the invitation and whispers— the moans— will continue to rise until we choose to meet them. May you be the one to say “yes, I see you, I love you.” And may you heal generations in doing so.
https://chaninicholas.com/a-note-from-chani-on-venus-retrograde/