Astro-Mythopoetic Ritual Embodiment

ABRIDGED VERSION

As James Hillman points out, “myth has the power to seize and influence our psychic

life” (p.154). The power to transform, to heal, to grow and to expand can be supported by

specific mythologies that speak to our experiences. The myth that has influenced my own

psychic life more than any other is the 5000 year old literary masterpiece known as “The Descent

of Inanna”. Not only is the story itself both compelling and metaphorically relatable, it is also

believed to be correlated to the actual path of the planet Venus. By following the story along with

the movements of a very bright and easy to spot celestial body, we can live the myth in real time.

Using ritual, we enact the stages of Inanna’s descent and rise according to astronomical events,

connecting us to the ancient and timeless cycle of death and rebirth. Accompanying this paper is

a design for an app that will be used to inspire users to live this myth and follow it along through

the 19 month cycle of Venus. The primary purpose of the app is to notify users when the

astronomical events occur that correlate with the myth. Leaning heavily on the work of James

Hillman, this paper will outline the importance of living myth, especially The Descent of Inanna,

and outline a way that this epic poem and it’s relationship to the planet Venus can bring this

ancient practice into modern life. As Hillman states, “what happens to soul and to stars is on the

same web, so one tries to puzzle out the compelling necessities of the soul by consulting the

motions of the planets” (p.50). In my experience, consulting the motions of the planets is the

most enjoyable way to keep on track with many of the myths that I am living.

Depth Psychology and Myth

Mythology describes various archetypal forces and how they may operate in the human

experience. Becoming more attuned to those forces allows unconscious contents to become

conscious in service to the process of individuation. The ancient Sumerian myth entitled “The

Descent of Inanna” as a story, “is a codified description of the psychological ecosystem

itself” (Miller, p.102) Inanna is not just a representative of the divine feminine, she is also an

archetype of the Self which requires a cyclic experience of death and rebirth in order to grow and

mature. “Without the recognition of the cycle of life-death-rebirth there can be no

transformation, no true progression grounded in nature for the human species” (Woodman, p.

45). The metaphor of the descent gives us an opportunity to face our own inner Erishkegal, our

shadow selves. As James Hillman points out, “the pathological is inherent to the mythical” (p.

33) and pathologizing is a path to soul. Myth carries symbolic resources which can support us to

deepen our awareness of psyche as we elaborate and seek patterns both consciously and

unconsciously. When individuals are confronted with challenging experiences requiring

adaptation and transformation, deepening into myth can offer archetypal perspectives that orient

us to our place in the cosmos. The soul needs myth to make meaning in what often seems to be a

meaningless universe. It is in the imaginal realm where myth lives with all our psychic contents,

including our deepest wounds. It is in this realm where we also have the potential to find healing,

growth and opportunities for transformation.

Astro-mythology

Ancient Sumerians and Babylonians had an intricate understanding of astronomy. Unlike

many other ancient civilizations, they had discovered that what appeared to be the star (which we

now know as Venus) that appears in the morning sky in the east for seven months is the same star

that then appears in the evening sky in the west for 7 months. In between these events, Venus

disappears; and this is when she is thought to be in the metaphorical ‘underworld’. This cycle

takes 19 months in total. It is believed that the observable path of Venus through the sky is what

inspired the “Descent of Inanna”. The Goddess Inanna was worshipped as Venus, the brightest

star in the sky, also known as “The Queen of Heaven”. In the tale of her descent, she makes a

journey through 7 gates in order to visit her sister, Erishkegal who is known as “The Queen of

the Underworld”. These 7 gates are believed to be correlated to the seven conjunctions that

Venus makes with the moon, one for each month. When Venus rises in the morning sky; this

symbolizes Inanna’s path to the Underworld. The first time that the moon meets Venus in the

morning sky symbolizes the first gate she reaches where she is required to remove her crown.

The crown symbolizes her title, her worldly power. In removing it, she is, from a Jungian

perspective, beginning the process of deconstructing her persona. Once a month, when Venus is

seen in the morning sky next to the crescent moon, Inanna removes another item of jewelry or

clothing. Jungian scholar Sylvia Brinton Pererra believes that the 7 gates in the story correlate to

the 7 main entry centers or chakras of the body (p.61). With this in mind, enacting the myth

would involve performing a ritual which removing blockages to each chakra. These simple acts

can be ritualized so that we are moving through the deconstruction along with the Goddess. The

fact that this myth correlates to an observable astronomical event that occurs over 19 months

gives us a framework for enacting this timeless practice of connecting psyche and cosmos as we

go through the cycles of birth, death and rebirth.

The Descent of Inanna as Psychological Map to Power

The metaphorical descent to the underworld is a fundamental and important action of

depth psychology. “This abnormal, scared and crazy movement of the soul is not only necessary;

it is necessity itself” (Hillman, p.48). In order for the soul to be satisfied, for it to have full range

of experience and expression, she needs to be capable of constant evolution and continuous

transformation. This must be practiced and rehearsed. It's like exercising the soul.

In consensus based society, humans spend inordinate amounts of time, energy and

resources to avoid suffering. Rather than avoiding, denying or masking our suffering, this ancient

myth guides us on how to manage ourselves so that we may have more capacity to endure, to let

go, to accept and to trust that with each descent to the underworld, we can grow and develop into

more resilient humans. The “Descent of Inanna” is a cosmic allegory of individuation.

She Knows the Way to Hell and Back

After going through seven gates of shedding her persona, Inanna is thrown into the

underworld. This is the metaphorical place where shadow work demands attention or where

Hillman encourages us to seek the soul through pathologizing. This is the purpose of the myth -

to make us resilient. The beauty of Inanna is that she is not a nurturing goddess. She rules the

realms of sex, power and war. If there is a mythological dominatrix, I would suggest that Innana

expresses that archetype. In doing the difficult work of descending into our own personal

underworlds, the companion that we would want is Inanna, a representation of the fierce

feminine.

Looking at the stars is always a beneficial experience and it comes alive as mythopoesis

when we are shown a rendering of the active mythologies and stories that are playing out all over

the sky. There is an endless source of mythology in the night sky that is connected to the planets and

stars visible from earth.

REFERENCES

Dreyer, R.G. (1994). Venus:the evolution of the goddess and her planet. Aquarian.

Hillman, James. (2021). “Athene, Ananke, and the necessity of abnormal psychology” in

Uniform Edition of the Writings of James Hillman Volume 6:Mythic Figures. Spring

Publications. (First Ed. 2007).

Miller, C. (2022).” Inanna’s descent to the netherworld and analytical psychology”. In the

descent of the soul and the archaic: Katabasis and depth psychology. (Eds Bishop, P,

Dawson, T. And Gardner L.) Routledge.

Pererra, S.B. (1981). Descent to the goddess: A way of initiation for women. Inner City Books.

Vandendorpe, F. (2011). “When myth shows what the mind does not reach.” Special Issue:

Storytelling and Myth, 7(2), 91–109. https://doi.org/wayne state

Weishaus, J. (2022). “Some notes on cosmography: Reminding our place in the universe”.

weishaus.unm.edu/cosmog

Wolkstein,D. (1983). Inanna. Queen of heaven and earth. Harper and Row.

Woodman, M. and Dickson, E. (1997). Dancing in the flames: the dark goddess in the

transformation of consciousness. Shambhala.