Venus Retrograde, Inanna's Descent, and the Healing that Comes of Witnessing the Shadow

'Oh!Oh! My inside!' 
They moaned. 'Oh!Oh! Your inside!' 
She moaned: 'Ohhhh! Oh! My outside!' 
They moaned; 'Ohhhh! Oh! our outside!' 
She groaned: 'Oh! Oh! My belly!' 
They groaned: 'Oh! Oh! Your belly!' 
She groaned: 'Oh! Oh! My back!' 
They groaned: 'Oh! Oh! Your back!' 
She sighed: 'Ah! Ah! My heart!' 
They sighed: 'Ah! Ah! Your heart!' 
She sighed: 'Ah! Ahhhh! My liver!' 
They sighed: 'Ah! Ahhhh! Your liver!' 
Erishkigal stopped. She looked at them. 
She asked: 'Who are you, 
Moaning - groaning - sighing with me?' 
(From "Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth:  Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer")

When we witness our pain, sorrow, grief, anger, and shame, rather than dismiss it, something magical happens....

This is some of the wisdom in the Sumerian myth of Inanna's Descent, the myth that is linked to Venus retrograde.

The Burney Relief, likely a representation of Inanna/Erishkigal, Lilith/Lilitu, or Ishtar - all goddesses are related. Ishtar is the Babylonian version of Inanna - both goddesses were depicted commonly with lions/lionesses.

Inanna is the predecessor of the Roman Venus.  The Sumerians saw her retrograde journey every eighteen months, in which she began as an evening star and appeared to move backwards, then disappeared beneath the rays of the sun to reemerge as a morning star, as her journey to the underworld to meet her shadow self, her sister Erishkigal, Queen of the Underworld.  

Venus has recently completed one such retrograde journey, in Gemini, from May 13th to June 25th.  On August 7th, Venus finally entered Cancer after being in Gemini for an extra long stay. With Venus out of the retrograde shadow and also out of Gemini, we now have a chance to integrate whatever has been brought to light.  

Venus' recent retrograde in Gemini also ties in to Mercury's recent retrograde in Cancer, as Mercury is the ruler of Gemini.  

These two transits intertwined are helping us weave a new tapestry of belief around ourselves, our value of ourselves, and thus how that new version of ourselves weaves into the larger tapestry of our world and the universe.  Mercury brought the mind's attention to the subconscious and how experiences from the past create instinctive emotional reactions and then influence how we communicate and express, and Venus went deep diving into our self-value and how our belief systems gets structured around that, whatever it is.  

In the myth of Inanna's Descent, the story begins with Inanna, a great queen, putting her ear to "the Great Below."  Inanna's sister, Erishkigal, rules the underworld.  Erishkigal is Inanna's shadow.  Inanna becomes aware of her shadow and leaves all of her temples behind to go face her own shadow self.  

Before she goes, she tells Ninshubar, her servant, (her higher self), what to do if she does not return in a certain amount of time.

Inanna puts on all of her garments of status, "the Seven Me" (one for each chakra), and sets out on her journey.  There are seven gates to the underworld.  At each gate, she is asked to remove a garment to gain entry, and each time Inanna asks the gatekeeper, "What's this?," and is told, "Quiet Inanna.  The ways of the underworld cannot be questioned."  

And so Inanna enters the chambers of her sister "naked and bowed low".  

When we become aware of our shadow, when we gain that consciousness, we cannot just un-know what we now know.  We are pulled forward, pulled down into our own underworlds somehow.  Even if we have made a conscious choice to face our shadow, we somehow were never counting on that shadow, not in that way.  And we get tempted farther and farther down, while thinking we have everything under control, and suddenly, when its too late, we realize we have reached the point of no return.  ​

When Inanna meets Erishkigal, her sister, her shadow kills her with one glance, and then hangs her corpse on meat hooks, and goes back to wailing and moaning.  Erishkigal is mourning the death of her consort.  Now that she has killed her sister, she wails louder, in even more anguish.  She is consumed by it.

We know Erishkigal's overwhelming pain and suffering, the pain and suffering of the shadow that never ceases.  The pain and suffering of being locked away, unheard, labeled unacceptable.  

When Inanna does not return, her hand servant, Ninshubar, begins petitioning the gods for help, as instructed, but she is met with coldness.  The gods, one after the other, say that Inanna got what she deserved.  One after the other, the gods say to Ninshubar, "Inanna craved the Great Above. Inanna craved the Great Below. She who receives the me of the underworld does not return. She who goes to the Dark City stays there."

When we journey to meet our shadows, whether by choice or not, others often do not understand our journey.  More than that, our journey to our own underworld brings up fear and discomfort in them, as in acknowledging our plight, they must acknowledge their own.  

Finally Ninshubar petitions the god Enki (the god of wisdom).  

​"Father Enki said; 'What has happened? What has my daughter done? Inanna, Queen of All the Lands! Holy Priestess of Heaven! What has happened? I am troubled, I am grieved."

Enki then fashioned two creatures from the dirt under his fingernails, and gave to them the food and water of life (beliefs) to take to Inanna.  He gave them very specific instructions on how to enter the underworld and retrieve Inanna's corpse back from Erishkigal.  

He said, "Go to the underworld, Enter the doors like flies, Erishkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, is moaning With the cries of a woman about to give birth. No linen is spread on her body. Her breasts are uncovered. Her hair swirls about her head like leeks. When she cries,'Oh!Oh! My Inside!' Cry also, 'Oh! Oh! Your inside!' When she cries: 'Oh! Oh! My outside!' Cry also 'Oh! Oh! our outside!' The queen will be pleased. She will offer you a gift. Ask her only for the corpse that hangs from the hook on the wall. One of you will sprinkle the food of life on it The other will sprinkle the water of life. Inanna will arise."

Enki, God of Wisdom, has instructed these creatures carrying to Inanna the new beliefs for new life, to witness the shadow - to bear witness to Erishkigal's cries by repeating them back to her.  How does it feel, when our shadow is not dismissed, not locked away, but actually heard?  How fast does our overwhelming pain and suffering subside?  Even if we are not understood.  Just being heard interrupts our negative feedback loop and gives a way out. 

Witnessing is the first step to take with ourselves or another after experiencing trauma.  Trauma, when dismissed and minimized, quickly begins morphing into all sorts of dis-ease, such as depression, anxiety, and worse.  

Inanna went to meet her shadow, but she never paused to witness it.  And she ended up on meet hooks.  

Enki new the wisdom in witnessing, and the healing it would bring.  

But there is a bit more to the story.  Inanna is reborn to a new consciousness, whole unto herself, and she is free to leave the underworld except for one thing:  the underworld has rules that must be followed, and she must choose a soul to take her place in the underworld if she chooses to leave.  But Inanna does not want to, and she ascends without doing this.  Because of this, her demons give chase and harass her to choose a soul.   They try to take everyone she comes into contact with on the way home.  She is strong, she will not allow this.  But upon arriving back to her temple, she finds her consort (Dumuzi, the shepherd, the Wild Bull of the Steppe) sitting in the finery she gave him, on the throne she gave him, holding court in her absence, seemingly unworried about where she has been or that she has actually been dead for three days.  Inanna is enraged, and she reacts in her new power in her old pattern.  Inanna damns him to Hell.  And this time she has the power to truly do so.  Although Dumuzi runs, hides, lies, and cheats, he is finally carried off to the underworld, to Erishkigal, to meet his own shadow and his own demons.  

Sometimes in the turmoil of our own transformation, we end up initiating someone close to us, someone, who, like Dumuzi, seems uncaring, but in truth, is most likely in denial out of fear.  

After her demons are satisfied and Dumuzi is carried off to the underworld, Inanna, realizes her true, unconditional love for her consort.  And because she has met her shadow and because she has been reborn to a new consciousness, whole unto herself, she has become ruler of both light and dark, because her shadow is now on-side.  Inanna has the power now to work a deal with the underworld, and to ease Dumuzi's fate, as his sister also loves him greatly, and agrees to take his place in the underworld for half of each year while he is with Inanna.  

Yet another is initiated to the underworld, this time willingly, out of love for her brother.  

In the end, the myth of Inanna's Descent tells us that to be in our true, full power, and to be in true relationship with others, we will eventually have to meet our own shadows and the shadows of our loved ones, and that meeting our shadows with kindness and compassion, bearing witness to the fear and pain we all suffer is the healing that we all need to reclaim the thrones of our hearts and become rulers of both the light and dark of our realms.  

~Kasey

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