The descent of Inanna: A mythical model for life transformation

The descent of Inanna is a mythical story of breakdown to breakthrough.

It is common for our lives to break down at certain times, particularly at midlife.

This often comes from the combination of a major life setback (a divorce, bereavement, injury, a redundancy or any other loss) with the spiritual emptiness we experience when we realise that getting what we thought we wanted doesn’t satisfy our needs.

Myths as access to the universal unconscious

To understand and navigate a difficult moment in life like this and allow the breakdown to become a breakthrough, we can turn to myths.

This is because myths can provide archetypes of human experiences, revealing structures of the mind, common across cultures and time.

When we read an ancient myth, repeated across cultures and millennia, we are accessing the universal unconscious. This can give us inspiration, strength and important clues on how we can turn our individual suffering into the healing act of experiencing our common humanity.

The Descent of Inanna

One of the oldest recorded myths tells the story of Inanna, a Sumerian Goddess who descended to the underworld.

The story goes something like this,

Inanna is the queen of heaven and earth and she wishes to visit her sister Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld to attend the funeral of her husband. Now, consider that her sister is her enemy. This is a dangerous journey where she might meet death. She is likely to be scared, doubtful, anxious.

Inanna lets her servant know about this plan and warns her that she may be in danger. She is instructed to ask for help after three days.

When Inanna arrives in the underworld, she is told she will need to take all her beautiful queenly garments, strip naked and bow low. She does this seven times across seven gates. Imagine how she must have felt doing this. Frightened, exposed, vulnerable.

When she finally arrives, Erishkigal kills her and puts her corpse on a stake.

After three days, Inanna’s servant asks for help. A god agrees to help, by sending two creatures to offer empathy to Erehkigal for her deceased husband.

Ereshkigal is grateful for this and grants a wish to these creatures. We can imagine that as the queen of the underworld she has likely never experienced empathy and understanding from others.

The creatures choose to bring Inanna back to life by replenishing her soul with water and food.

Inanna comes back to heaven, however needs to find someone to take her place in the underworld. For this, she brings demons back with her.

She discovers her consort had taken her throne in the heavens and gives him up to the underworld. Inanna is probably conflicted about this, weighing paradoxical feelings of betrayal and loyalty. But ultimately to live a new life, an old life has to be given up.

The interpretation of the myth

The myth can be interpreted as a journey of transformation. It symbolises the union of two aspects of ourselves: the idealised persona (Inanna) with her shadow (Ereshkigal) to complete a process of individuation.

By giving up her garments, Inanna is giving up the material gains of her success. By accepting to be killed at hands of her sister, she is letting go of her previous life as a queen of heaven and earth (as a good girl living to other’s expectations).

In seeing Erishkigal’s humanity, we accept the value of our shadow in our lives. By travelling back to heaven but giving something precious from her previous life, Inanna shows us that our more complete, integrated life must come with some sacrifice.

This myth in our lives

Maureen Murdock reimagined Campbell’s Hero’s Journey from a woman’s perspective. She explains that the Descent is a phase in which the previous life success of women gives way to rage, despair and isolation.

This happens because to some extent, the success has been enabled by a betrayal to herself. This leads to spiritual aridity which then eventually ends up in the underworld – the dark night of the soul, something today we’d call depression.

Murdock tells us that “the descent is a sacred journey” and encourages us to have patience to be in the underworld and discover the meaning of its existence. She continues “only an act of willing surrender to the process will allow transformation to occur”.

The grief of the loss – to what could have been, to what has happened, to our own self betrayal – provides the meaning and the space for new energies to flow.

Whether you are man or woman, you may resonate with the message in the Heroine’s Journey. After all, we all had to comply to some extent to what other people wanted of us to survive and achieve some earthly success.

However, we need to recognise that our blind ambition, our uncompromising dedication to our roles (as parents, employees, children) and our relentless pursuit of physical, cognitive, professional or financial goals has likely shut down the intelligence of our bodies and the intuition in our hearts.

If you are experiencing depression in mid-life, overcome grief, loss or existential despair, you may find strength and companionship in Inanna’s story.

Some reflections

Inanna could count on her servant to sound the alarm if she got in danger. How can we rely on an aspect of ourselves to watch out for our real interests?

Inanna had to give up her beautiful garments to make the sacred journey of descent. What are we holding on that may be preventing us from living a more authentic life? Social status, a high salary, a six pack?

Understanding Erishkigal facilitated her compassion and revival of her opposite. What aspect of ourselves have we pushed to the underworld and are we not willing to be with?

Inanna came back to her normal life but had to sacrifice her consort, which in the new light was seen as unconcerned about Inanna. What is there in our lives that we think matters but actually doesn’t? What is that taking the place of?