The Descent
From her throne in the Great Above, Inanna set her mind toward the Great Below. She gathered together the seven me—the sacred powers of civilization—and adorned herself with the regalia of her divine authority. The crown upon her head, the small lapis beads about her neck, the twin egg-shaped beads upon her breast.
"She placed the shugurra, the crown of the steppe, upon her head.
She took the rod and line of justice in her hand."
At each of the seven gates of the underworld, she was stripped of one item of power. Her crown, her jewels, her rod of authority—each taken by Ereshkigal's gatekeeper until she stood naked and bowed low before the throne of death. There, the seven judges of the underworld fastened their eyes upon her, and she was struck dead, hung upon a hook like a piece of rotting meat.
The Resurrection
For three days and three nights, Inanna remained in the underworld, dead. But her faithful servant Ninshubur raised the alarm, pleading with the gods for her mistress's return. Enki, god of wisdom, created two mourners from the dirt under his fingernails and sent them to the land of no return with the food and water of life.
"Upon the corpse hung on a hook they directed the pulse of life.
Upon the food of life, upon the water of life, they sprinkled it.
Inanna arose."
But the laws of the underworld are immutable. No one may return from death without sending another to take their place. Inanna emerged transformed, terrible in her power, accompanied by demons who would seize the first to refuse her proper honor. When she found her beloved Dumuzi sitting proudly on her throne, showing no grief for her absence, she fixed the eye of death upon him.
The Eternal Return
Thus began the cycle that ensures the world's renewal. Dumuzi would spend half the year in the underworld while his sister Geshtinanna took his place above. Each autumn, as Dumuzi descended, the world would mourn and grow barren. Each spring, with his return, life would burst forth anew in celebration of love's triumph over death.
"Holy Inanna did not give her power to a tree.
She did not give her power to a reed.
She gave her power to her beloved."
Inanna learned the deepest mystery: that creation requires destruction, that love demands sacrifice, that true power comes not from dominion but from the willingness to descend into darkness and emerge transformed. She who holds both love and war in her hands teaches us that the divine feminine contains all polarities, all possibilities, all paths to transcendence.