Welcome to this guided meditation on Inanna,
An ancient Mesopotamian goddess,
And her famous descent into the underworld.
We all have our own personal underworlds that we've been through,
And Inanna and her dark sister Ereshkigal might have something to teach us here.
Take a moment to prepare yourself for this meditation.
Get settled and seated or laying down.
You may want to light a candle or have a journal nearby for any reflections you might want to write down.
Take a moment to acknowledge the land that you are on and your relationship with this land.
Consider how you got here and where your ancestors are from.
Consider Inanna's land,
The northern part of the Fertile Crescent around modern-day Iraq.
You may or may not have a relationship with this land,
And Inanna's people are long gone,
Long since absorbed into more modern religions and belief systems,
But she is our goddess ancestor all the same.
Settle in,
And we're going to start with a little storytime.
Inanna was the queen of heaven and earth,
Presiding over the fertility of the land and the energy of desire.
She was a powerful queen,
But there was one reality she did not understand,
The land of the dead,
The underworld,
Where her sister Ereshkigal was queen.
So it was that one day she decided to make her journey down into the underworld and learn its secrets.
As she did so,
The gatekeeper to this mysterious world required that she hand over her crown,
Her breastplate,
Her girdle,
Anything and everything that indicated her power and status in the above world.
As she at last entered through the final gate to the underworld,
She was naked and bowed low.
Her sister judged her guilty and killed her,
Hanging her on the wall like a piece of dead meat.
Inanna was dead.
During this time,
The above world died with her.
Grapes shriveled on the vines,
Animals no longer sought eating,
And the land was no longer a place for them.
Inanna's best friend,
Ninshuber,
Hurried to the god Enki,
Who saw that the land was in danger without Inanna.
He sent two magical beings to find her corpse and sprinkle it with the water and food of life.
With that,
She became able to return to the above world.
But she must pay a price.
Her husband,
Dumuzi,
Must spend six months of the year in the underworld to pay her life debt,
And the land would now cycle from summer to winter and back again forever.
Inanna's death was not the end of Inanna's story,
But the beginning of a new one.
Inanna made a choice to know something,
To explore the dark world below the world she understood.
She had to face the consequences of her actions,
But that also made her a wiser queen.
It brought a little bit of death into the world,
But it also created the cycling of the seasons,
And made her wiser and more cautious as a queen who is known for her impetuousness.
We have all visited our own underworlds,
Whether by our own hands or no fault of our own.
We've found ourselves bowed low with grief,
Loss,
Confusion,
Or the mistakes we've made.
Take a moment to notice how you are relating to Inanna's story right now,
And where you feel like you are on that journey.
Are you seized with a desire to know,
To try something that could be risky?
Are you stepping along the path,
Losing the pieces of yourself that you thought defined you?
Are you hung from the meat hook,
Without hope or the spark of life?
Or are you now climbing to the other side,
Looking back on how things have changed,
The consequences of your choices and actions?
How are you changing,
Or how have you changed?
Take a little time to sit in the darkness behind your eyes and contemplate these thoughts,
And your own underworld journey.
Breathe into the memories,
Thoughts,
And feelings.
I am going to give you some time to do this.
Be gentle with yourself,
Simply observing what's happening.
If you haven't already,
Attend to the sensations in your body that can come up as you consider your underworld journey.
I know this can be difficult.
This journey can change us forever,
And we don't always know who we're going to be when we rise again from that lowest place in our hearts.
Trust that there are lessons here in the dark.
Stay present if you can.
Keep observing.
Now imagine Inanna standing before you.
She is a beautiful queen adorned with a giant crown,
A rainbow necklace,
The zodiac as her girdle.
Ereshkigal is here too,
A dark inversion of her sister,
With the wings of a great owl and the feet of a lion.
Let these sisters witness you,
Wherever you are in your journey.
Let them speak to you or show you some wisdom.
If you'd like to talk to them,
You can.
I'm going to give you some time to be with Consider any lessons or messages that you've gotten from these powerful goddesses.
Take them with you.
Thank these sisters,
Imagining yourself bowing deeply,
Honoring them,
Their wisdom,
Their journeys,
And their presence with you.
And gently return to yourself,
Your body,
And the land beneath you,
The air around you,
This room,
Wherever you are.
Return to what's happening in your life.
Consider the intention of honoring the darkness,
Even as you're also looking for the light.
Thank you for meditating with me,
And all the best in your underworld journey.
