Welcome to the Goddess of a 1000 Names, This is Inanna, Queen of Heaven

I am drawn to this Goddess. When I found out one of her names was Anna I thought I might understand. My guardian angels name is Anna. The next Goddess I chose to call forth in my life was Innana who I found had yet another name Ishtar. Ishtar was the next Goddess I had done a web page on. I am always amazed at the seeming coincidences of this progression of pages. I hope this page gives you the reader a place to call forth the Goddess in your life as it has in mine.

Stop for a while and call the great Mother forth. She is needed in this time and is reasserting herself in the consciousness of the people of the earth. Innana Sumerian goddess that later became known as Ishtar. She was the queen of heaven. also the goddess of love, procreation, and war. Inanna is the archetypal Queen who has dominion over three worlds: the spirit, the body, and the soul. Inanna is regarded as a daughter of the sky-god An. But she was also seen as the daughter of the moon-goddess Ningal and her consort Nanna.

She is the sister of the underworld goddess Ereschkial and of the sungod Utu. Inanna first descends from heaven to Earth. Next, she descends into the deepest caverns of the psyche, is stripped bare, and sinks into the primal, dark vortex of the Underworld. Finally, she integrates the shadow, comes into her power, and ascends back to the Upperworld. She is at once fascinating and compelling, terrifying and repelling. Inanna demonstrates elasticity of character and has dominion over the entire scope of human experience. She is, all at once, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and Queen of the Underworld.

Inanna, Queen of Heaven, was given great gifts by Enki the Wise. Wisdom, justice, love, the sacred women, and the fruit of the vine. The gift that saved her from death Enki fashioned from the dirt beneath his fingernails. A being of light called, Asushunamir. (S)he whose face is radiant, beautiful in countenance; Asushunamir (S)he, clothed in the stars, male & female, companion to Inanna; Asushunamir The spell of Ereshkigal, Queen of the Dead, could not possess this luminescent being. Yet she was charmed by Asushunamir's beauty, moved by (he)r voice, amused by (he)r dance. Ereshkigal called for a great feast to be held in (he)r honor; the best wine, the finest meats, the most sumptuous of fruit. Ereshkigal dreamed of taking this beautiful being to her bed, and of keeping her forever with her in the Land of the Dead. But Asushunamir was careful to pour the wine upon the floor and to eat no food prepared by the servants of Ereshkigal.

When the Queen of the Dead grew careless from the wine, Asushunamir asked if (s)he might taste the water of life, kept locked in the cellar. This was the water of which Enki had spoken when Asushunamir came into the world, the water with which one must be sprinkled to pass through the seven gates of Irkalla, the water to renew one's life on earth. Ereshkigal cried out, "Namtar, bring the jug with the water of life. I shall grant the wish of this charming creature." Later, when Ereshkigal fell into a deep sleep, Asushunamir made (he)r way to the lampless cell where Inanna, captive, lay dying. (S)he sprinkled Inanna with the water of life and, as the drops fell on her inert body

Innana breathed easily as a child might breathe and then awakened. Beautiful and once more flowing with the energy of life, Innana quickly made her way through the seven gates of Irkalla, ascending to earth, causing the flowers to grow and restoring the trees to green. People returned to their planting, their weaving, their making of wine, their love making, and a great feast was held in honor of the return of Inanna. Asushunamir was not as fortunate.

Ereshkigal awoke as (s)he was approaching the seventh gate, and neither (he)r beauty, nor (he)r charm, nor (he)r dancing or songs, could extinguish the passion that had turned to hate. ``The food of the gutter shall thou eat,'' cried Ereshkigal, her every word a curse.``The water of the sewer shall be your drink. In the shadows you shall abide, despised and hated by even your own kind.'' Having pronounced the curse, Ereshkigal banished Asushunamir. When Inanna learned of the curse placed upon Asushunamir, she wept and spoke softly that no one might hear. ``The power of Ereshkigal is great. No one dares to defy her. Yet I may soften her curse upon you, as spring arrives to banish winter.

Those who are like you, my assinnu and kalum and kugarru and kalaturru, lovers of men, kin to my sacred women, shall be strangers in their own homes. Their families will keep them in the shadows and will leave them nothing. The drunken shall smite them, and the mighty shall imprison them. But if you remember me, how you were born from the light of the stars to save me, and through me the earth, from darkness and death, then I shall harbor you and your kind. You shall be my favored children, and I shall make you my priestess'. I shall grant you the gift of prophecy, the wisdom of the earth and the moon and all that they govern, and you shall banish illness from my children, even as you have stolen me from the clutches of Ereshkigal.'' ``And when you dress in my robes, I shall dance in your feet and sing in your throats. No man shall be able to resist your enchantments.'' ``When the earthen jug is brought from Irkalla, lions shall leap in the deserts, and you shall be freed from the spell of Ereshkigal. Once more you will be called Asushunamir, a being clothed in light. Your kind shall be called Those Whose Faces Are Brilliant, Those Who Have Come to Renew the Light, The Blessed of Inanna.''

Credits
1. In the Hand of the Goddess: Song of the Lioness:Book 2, Vol. 2 Tamora Pierce

2. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today Margot Adler

3. The Hebrew Goddess .. Raphael Patai,Designed by Merlin Stone

4.The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets(Barabara G. Walker) 1983 5. Crawford, Harriet, Sumer and the Sumerians, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991. (This is a briefer but more up to date archaeological look at the Sumerians than you'll find with Kramer. There isn't much mythic content in this one, but there are many wonderful figures detailing city plans, and the structure of temples and other buildings.)

6. Kramer, Samuel Noah, and Maier, John, Myths of Enki, the Crafty God, Oxford University Press, New York,1989. The most recent work that I've been able to find by Kramer. They translate and analyze all of the availible myths which include Enki. I've only seen it availible in hardcover and I haven't seen it in a bookstore yet.

7. Kramer, Samuel Noah The Sumerians The University of Chicago Press, Chicago,1963. (This is a more thorough work than Kramer's Section at the end of Inanna, but the intervening 20 or so years of additional research and translation allow Inanna's section to be perhaps more complete, regarding mythology.)

8. Wolkstein, Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth, Harper & Row, NY, 1983. (Ms. Wolkstein's verse translations of the Inanna/Dummuzi cycle of myths are excellent, and Kramer gives a 30 or so page description of Sumerian cosmology and society at the end). The New American Bible, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1970.