I am Inanna
The myth of my journey into the underworld to find wholeness
Source: Most photos throughout this post are from Pinterest. 1000% AI. Don’t come at me.
I am Inanna.
Queen of Heaven and Earth.
This is the tale of my journey into the underworld.
MY STORY OF THE UNDERWORLD
Putting my ear* to the Great Below, I hear The Call.
It moves through my bones… low and insistent, ancient as the earth itself.
I learn that my sister’s husband has died. She, Ereshkigal, was preparing the funeral rites for him, Gugalanna (the great Bull of Heaven).
In that moment, I chose to descend.
Looking around at all I had ever known, I saw the wealth, the power, the beauty.
I was abundant in the material realm. Revered. Established. Secure.
Yet beneath it all, there was a hollowness I could no longer ignore.
The more I considered this dangerous descent, the more it revealed itself as something else. Not a threat. An invitation.
Turning inward, I felt the edges of my old identity. My certainty. My pride. The ways I had learned to wield power. I was aware of my arrogance and shadows as queen.
The truth was, the life I had built no longer fit the woman I was becoming. What once felt expansive now felt empty. What once felt powerful now felt incomplete.
Somewhere within me, I knew the invitation to enter the underworld held wisdom that could not be found above ground.
With pride in my spine, fire in my heart and perhaps a trace of innocent ignorance, I opened myself to whatever awaited below.
Ninshubur, my beloved attendant, was distraught when I told her of my decision. She warned me of what I already knew. Those who go into the underworld do not come back.
Source: Pinterest
Holding Ninshubur’s hand, I assured her I was prepared and ready to do this.
I told her that if I didn’t come home in 3 days, please send help.
”Please do not leave me down there, Ninshubur.”
She agreed.
So, I dressed myself in the full regalia of my Queenship.
Source: Pinterest
I placed the Crown of the Steppe upon my head, feeling its familiar weight settle against my scalp, symbolizing my connection to heaven, my godhood and my divine knowing.
I adorned my ears with lapis earrings, cool stone brushing my skin, feeling my magic, my seeing of divine perspective and my ability to manifest.
I fastened the double stranded necklace at my throat, a symbol of the way I communicate and express myself.
I strapped on the breastplate across my heart, guarding it, as I always had.
I set the golden hip girdle across my waist, feeling a sense of pride and power of being in command.
I clasped on my anklets, representing my values, my sexuality, my creativity.
Finally, I wrapped my royal red robe over my body, my life force and protection.
I looked at myself in the mirror, complete with all I held dear.
Then, I bravely began my descent.
With each step, the light faded.
Sunset.
Twilight.
Darkness.
Source: Pinterest
There was just enough light to guide my path.
The air grew heavier. Colder. Hauntingly eerie.
As the darkness enveloped me, the beautiful world I had always known felt like a distant memory. A dream.
Finally, I saw the first gate.
There stood a massive guard. He told me in a raspy, burly voice that to enter, I must give up my crown.
My beloved crown.
When I questioned the guard, he said sternly, “Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned.”
I removed my crown. Not knowing if I would ever get it back. With it went away my connection to the Divine, my divinity.
Steadily, I continued to make my way down even further into the unknown.
At each gate, the same request. “Lay it down, Inanna.”
My earrings, my divine insight.
My necklace, my voice.
My breastplate, my ways of loving myself and others.
My golden hip girdle, my power.
My anklets, my innocence, my maidenhood.
Each adornment was not just a thing I wore. It was a way I had learned to be as queen. A way I had organized my life. A way I had survived, ruled, loved and led.
Then, at the last gate, I handed over my royal red robe, my life force and belonging.
Naked and shaking, I stood at the threshold of the Underworld, stripped of all that had once defined me.
I dropped to my knees completely exposed, vulnerable, with no titles and no protection.
Nothing was left.
The gate guard said to me, “Inanna, if you come through this gate, you will die.”
I found strength that I had never known as I stood up and crossed the threshold into the terror and lifeless space of the underworld.
There, before me, seated upon her great throne, was the Queen of Death.
Ereshkigal and I came face to face.
Source: Pinterest. Again, don’t come at me, I know her hands look wild.
In a flash of Ereshkigal’s eyes I witnessed the full range of her grief and the shadows of sisterhood:
rage
betrayal
jealousy
competitiveness
deceit
resentment
rivalry
abandonment
rejection
mistrust
envy
projection
blame
control
superiority
inferiority
pride
scarcity
isolation
coldness
withholding
manipulation
vengeance
possessiveness
distrust
self-righteousness
With pure hatred and disgust, she laughed in my face and struck me.
Killing me and all that I had ever known.
A devilish laughter continued to echo through the depths of the darkness.
Hung on a hook like meat, I remained suspended between worlds. Lifeless.
The woman I had always been was now gone.
Even though my sister had killed me, carrying the wounds of sisterhood in her heart, I realized she was not separate from me.
She was me and I was her.
She held the darkest shadows of my own Self.
This is the greatest initiation of all. The heroine’s descent into her own depths. To come into complete Wholeness and accept EVERY part of herself.
The radiant and the shadowed; the powerful and the wounded.
All of it welcome. All of it loved.
For 3 days, I was suspended in time.
In the upper world, I knew my assistant was seeking help. She was asking all the gods if they would help her find me. They told her that this was my own doing and that I must have suffered my own consequences.
Finally, she found help from Enki, the god of wisdom and water. He created two androgynous beings from the dirt of his fingernails. Kurgarra and Galatur.
Enki told the beings that when they found Ereshkigal to simply listen to her and mirror back to her what she would say. He told them that this action heals sadness, depression, hurt, anger. They were to simply just hold space and witness without needing to judge, fix or make things different then what they are.
Then, he gave them the food and water of life and told them to go down and find me.
They, like flies, slipped down through the gates without being seen and entered the underworld.
I listened as my sister’s grief moved through her like a storm…sorrow and rage crashing together.
And, as they were instructed, Kurgarra and Galatur, listened and held space for her. Repeating back to her everything she said.
The energy of the space shifted and my sister’s voice spoke confused, yet clear, as she felt what she had never known before: healing and compassion.
“Who are you,
Moaning-groaning-sighing with me?
If you are gods, I will bless you.
If you are mortals, I will give you a gift.
I will give you the water-gift, the river in its fullness.”
Kurgarra and Galatur told Ereshkigal they wanted me.
And, she agreed.
To bring me back from the dead, they sprinkled the water of life on me.
They gave me the bread of life.
I gasped as I took in my new found breath.
I was alive.
I glared at my sister and told her to f*ck off🖕(just kidding, I didn’t).
As I climbed from the damp and treacherous depths, life began to rise within me, step by step.
Alive.
Source: Pinterest
Because of love, I lived. Love always wins, afterall.
As I ascended up, gate by gate, my garments were given back to me. But, I was no longer the same woman who first wore them. As I reclaimed each one, I was deeper in awareness and integrity.
The first gate gave me back my royal red robe, my Garment of Ladyship, reclaiming my own life force expression and my belonging.
The second gate, I retrieve my ankle bracelets - my values, sexuality and creativity.
The third gate, I place the golden hip girdle back on my waist - my personal power.
The fourth gate, I put back on my breastplate - my healed heart and the ability to unconditionally love myself and others.
The fifth gate, my beads are placed back around my neck - my healthy, authentic communication of myself.
The sixth gate, I put my earrings back on - my magic, manifestation, intuition.
The seventh gate, I feel my Crown of the Steppe slide back onto my head - my divinity, goodgod, connection with The Divine.
Then, FINALLY, I step fully across the threshold and reclaim my place as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
As I sat on my throne, I’m not reclaiming my Queendom as it once was.
Now, I reclaim it from Wholeness and the deeper chambers of my heart and soul.
I am Inanna.
Queen of Heaven and Earth.
Source: Pinterest
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
Here’s the thing, this is not just a story.
It’s literally written in the sky — through Venus.
Our ancient ancestors watched Venus twinkle on the horizon as Morning Star. They watched her move closer and closer to the Sun until she vanished in its light. For a time, she disappeared completely. To them, she had died. And then she would rise again, radiant in the evening sky as Evening Star.
They created the myth of Inanna with the Venus cycle because it reflected how they understood the cosmos and their place within it.
To them, it was sacred. It shaped how they understood life, death and rebirth.
The sky mirrored the soul.
And, it still does.
In modern times, we walk this same rhythm.
In the identities we outgrow.
In the seasons where we feel unseen, depleted, broken.
In the moments when everything familiar falls away.
In the rising that follows and the light that ALWAYS returns.
When we consciously track Venus, we enter into an initiatory relationship with the Divine Feminine. We attune to cycles of visibility and disappearance, surrender and return. We begin to recognize that our own descents are not endings. They are passages.
And when we rise, we do not rise the same.
We rise more into our wholeness.
WHERE WE ARE NOW IN THE CYCLE
Since November 25, 2025, Venus has been in hidden behind the sun, Venus has been in the underworld, and we’ve been right alongside them.
The descent has burned away what no longer serves.
We’ve been alchemized in the darkness.
What remains is truer.
Stronger.
Aligned.
With that said, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, Inanna rises from the underworld and Venus takes her place as Evening Star.
⭐️And, we rise with her.⭐️
As Venus returns to the sky, we return more whole unto ourselves.
We’re in the final days of the Year of the Snake and the time in the underworld.
Shed, burn, release…so you may rise again and step back into your Queendom more healthy, whole and sovereign.
Blessed be. 🌹
With love,
Danielle
P.P.S. If you’d like to track the cycle of Inanna, I’ve made a Venus + Inanna Celestial Calendar that you can integrate into your iCal or Google Cal. Check it out here.
P.S. *Sharing this because I feel when Inanna put her “ear” to the Great Below, God.dess was calling her into greater alignment for HER greater good AND the greater good of all beings everywhere. I’m glad she listened to the call. I’m glad she had the fire and bravery. I’m proud of her. And, I’m proud of us, too.
