Underworld Connections

[qos]

I'm finally making doing the kind of work again in my spiritual life that I can write about coherently in an unfiltered post to my main journal. There's been a lot going on, but so much of it has involved Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG) and/or sacred sexuality -- not to mention being very much in the figuring-out-what-it-means phase -- that

Comments

[coen]

You say that in the past you have always understood The Descent of Inanna from Inanna's point of view, and that only now are you starting to see it from Ereshkigal's side too.

I must confess that it never even occured to me to look at the myth from any other point of view than Inanna's.
Inanna is an intresting Goddess, but also a confusing one. She has so many different sides to her that it is hard to get a grip on her. That is also what makes her so fascinating.
Ereshkigal always seemed more simple, more one-dimensional to me. She is the villain, and no more than that, or so it seemed to me. Every good story needs a vilain, and Ereshkigal seemed to be just that. Because of Ereshkigal, Inanna has a challenge, she has a mountain to climb. But apart from that, Ereshkigal didn't seem to mean very much.

But maybe I should learn more about her. It is hard to find information about her. I would appreciate it if you wrote more about her.

[qos]

I must confess that it never even occured to me to look at the myth from any other point of view than Inanna's.

Me too. And, like you, Ereshkigal never seemed to be anything but a villain/antagonist, the necessary obstacle to give Inanna an interesting story.

But when you look deeper, you see that Inanna's descent is a trespass of her sister's realm. She doesn't belong there, has no good reason to be there. The myth doesn't ever say why she goes, but the popular reason seems to be that she wants to gain power there as well.

When Ereshkigal kills her, most of the gods won't help because she went beyond her proper bounds and got what she deserved.

This doesn't decrease the significance of the myth, only points up how important the entire breadth of it is -- including the importance of having allies who love you and will take risks for you if you get in over your head.

I'm just starting to learn about Ereshkigal, but I'll post more as I go.