Most Importantly, Inanna is a symbol of healing and the heroine's journey. Her brutal but potent underworld experience, detailed in The Descent of Inanna breaks her down, then builds her up into a radiant Morning Star. Modern Jungian analysts argue that Inanna's story is a metaphor for integrating and gaining greater light from, our shadow ---- the repressed, unwanted, or darker aspects of self.

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It's worth noting that Inanna's symbolism goes far beyond her underworld myth. She's a Goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality, alongside war and political power, showcasing her abilities to embody both love and power while defying gender norms. Never married but far from virginal, Inanna usually appears as a beautiful, fertile, flirtatious woman. Her songs to her lover are hilariously explicit and make her one of the most empowering and progressive female deities you will find.

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Going back to her underworld story. It begins with lines that embody the dual nature of reality, the esoteric idea of "As Above, So Below", which is about how the inner world impacts the outer world: 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.

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Then, in a nutshell, Inanna travels to the underworld to rescue her lover Dumuzi, who is being held captive by her jealous dark sister, Erishkagel, Queen of the Underworld. In her descent, Inanna passes through seven gates (7 chakras). At each gate, she gives up something of great value --- her copper crown, her royal robe, or another element of her regalia. Stripped of every symbol of authority, she arrives in the maw of the underworld naked, and humbled, when Erishkagel kills her and hangs her body on a hook.

 

She hangs for three days and witnesses her own funeral. But calling on her loyal spiritual allies, her spirit self, Inanna magnetizes support from the God of Wisdom, Enki, who sends helpers. These helpers offer Erishkagel a compassionate ear. They listen to her story, of pain, banishment, and of jealousy. Because of their kindness, she grants their wish to free Inanna. They sprinkle water on her corpse, and she is miraculously revived, ascending through the seven gates as a more radiant, brightly shining being than before.

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Today, many consider Erishkagel to be a symbol for the dark feminine, or Inanna's shadow side. Only by coming face-to-face with her, accepting her, even loving her, is Inanna free of the destruction and imprisonment that unacknowledged, unaccepted aspects of self can create.

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Much of healing is the process of bringing those aspects of self to the light of day and working with them instead of against them. This means fully feeling so-called "negative" emotions, asking them what they are trying to communicate via journaling or reflection, examining the roots of limiting beliefs, and other subconscious and emotional work that honors and expresses the full truth of who we are. Intuitive readings, healings, and messages from Spirit are all helpful ways to work with these elements of self and bring greater awareness and balance.

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The myth of Inanna also corresponds to Venus during her eight-year cycle. The Babylonians deemed Inanna the ruler of Venus, who is Evening Star as she begins her shadowy, edgy retrograde. She disappears behind the sun (inferior Venus-Sun conjunction), at the time Inanna is a corpse, hanging on a hook. As Venus emerges --- as the Morning Star --- she grows in light and power, while Inanna ascends out of the underworld into a new and more radiant beginning.

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