Inanna descended to the underworld and returned
More than 4,000 years ago, the Sumerian goddess Inanna became the heroine of one of humanity's oldest myths. She willingly passes through death and returns again, renewed.
Scholars of mythology see in this myth a reflection of the lunar and menstrual cycle: the descent into darkness, the letting go, and the rebirth as one unbroken process. The goddess did not fight the darkness. She walked into it and came back with new knowing.
The menstrual phase is not weakness, and it is not illness. It is a descent inward to gather your precious answers.
Sources
- Hallo WW, Van Dijk JJA. The Exaltation of Inanna. Yale Near Eastern Researches, 1968.
- Enheduanna (c. 2300 BCE). The Exaltation of Inanna / Nin-me-šara. Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, University of Oxford.
- Wolkstein D, Kramer SN. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. Harper & Row, 1983.
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