Inanna, A Great Goddess Returns

By Annalisa Derr, PhD

The Sumerian deity Inanna is becoming one of the goddess zeitgeists of our current moment. She was buried underground in what is modern day Iraq for millennia. But now Her rediscovery and reawakening in the popular imagination foretells of Inanna’s myth becoming reality: Her descent into the Underworld and eventual rebirth mirror our current historical moment. I agree with Sylvia Bretton Perera’s assessment that the timing of Inanna’s return from the literal underground is not a coincidence; Her rebirth is part of the larger groundswell of Sacred Feminine consciousness around the world.^[i]

For many of us, encountering the living presence of the Divine Feminine for the first time feels like coming home. Though obscured from our vision, in truth, the Divine Feminine has never disappeared from this world all together—She has resisted Her full erasure.

For many of us, encountering the living presence of the Divine Feminine for the first time feels like coming home. Though obscured from our vision, in truth, the Divine Feminine has never disappeared from this world all together—She has resisted Her full erasure. Though de-potentiated, She has remained in the Western psyche in the figure of Mother Mary, and, to a certain extent, in the figure of Mary Magdalene. Still, in Indic and several other Indigenous living traditions, for example, the Divine Feminine has persisted despite vast efforts of patriarchal sublimation—with many of these goddesses and sacred beings portraying unapologetic strength, eroticism, and self-possession—what a vision to behold! And, though the totality of Her resplendence, presence, power, and potential has been hiding for thousands of years, goddesses from around the world are re-emerging from the depths of patriarchal repression, just as the ancient myths tell us.

Decent and Disappearance

Myths all across the world tell the story of the Goddess’s disappearance from this world, in one way or another, and the disastrous results. In each account, patriarchal hubris and disrespect of Her Divine Feminine Power are to blame. Such goddess stories include the Greek Demeter, West African Yoruba’s Oshun, Japanese Shinto’s Amaterasu, the Lenape Nation’s Corn Woman, the Indic-Hindu Sita and Sati, and, of course, the Sumerian Inanna and Her Akkadian counterpart, Ištar. Thankfully, many of these stories tell us that the goddesses return, though only after the male gods learn their lessons and agree to respect the place and power of the Sacred Feminine.

Plaque of Ištar, 2nd m BCE, housed at the Seattle Art Museum. Photo by Author

Inanna is part of this groundswell of the rising Divine Feminine. However, in the myth of Her descent to the Underworld, the patriarchal impetus behind Her journey is not immediately evident—after all, She chooses to descend. But why? Considering this myth in the broader context of Inanna’s other stories, as well as ideological agendas shaping the period in which these myths were first recorded, I view Her descent as a profound act of reclaiming Her pre-patriarchal wholeness as a Great Goddess. Building on Johanna Stuckey’s article, “‘Inanna and the Huluppu Tree’: One Way of Demoting a Great Goddess,” I argue in my forthcoming book that while the early historic Inanna was likely revered as a Great Goddess, the Inanna that has come down to us today was shaped, in part, by mythic propaganda that served to reinforce the patriarchal social, political, and reproductive agendas of an elite class.^[ii] For example, in contrast to Her status as a Sovereign Great Goddess, the Inanna we read in myths was transformed into a sexual fantasy for powerful men to project their hopes, dreams, and aspirations onto. In myths like “the bridal songs” (coined by Gwendolyn Leick), Inanna fulfills Her proper erotic role as a young, dutiful maiden anticipating receiving and giving sexual fulfillment in marriage.^[iii] In Gilgameš, Enkidu, and the Netherworld (also known as, The Huluppu Tree), Her sexuality is used to civilize young men. And still in other accounts, Her sexual satisfaction provides the king with all he needs to claim his divine right to rule the land and find success in battle.^[iv]

...I view Her descent as a profound act of reclaiming Her pre-patriarchal wholeness as a Great Goddess.

In other instances, Inanna’s status, agency, and desires are disrespected and dismissed by male gods who seemingly flaunt their positions and power over the goddess. For example, in The Descent of Inanna, the Patriarchs Enlil and Nanna (Inanna’s father) refuse to rescue the goddess from the Underworld because She knowingly put Herself in danger.^[v] In Enki and the New World Order, Inanna begs Enki for Her fair share of the me (divine powers and laws pertaining to civilization). He responds by condescendingly telling Her that he has already given the goddess everything She could possibly need.^[vi]

Inanna’s chosen death in the Underworld, then, can be seen as a symbolic unburdening of the patriarchal identities imposed upon Her as Mesopotamian society underwent increasing patriarchalization. Her subsequent rebirth signals a (re)emergence of Sovereign Sacred Feminine Power not only for ancient Mesopotamians, but for us today, too. Thus, Her return as a cultural zeitgeist is also important because She has reawakened as an empowering myth model for contemporary women.

Re-Imagining Decent

Inanna is my myth model. She inspired me to re-imagine The Descent of Inanna as a mythic treasure map for women seeking to discover our pre-patriarchal wholeness by reclaiming menstrual cycle reverence. When a woman undergoes the journey and envisions herself as the goddess, Inanna teaches her how to release her patriarchal conditioning, embrace the sacredness of being female embodied, and experience the vitalizing erotic aliveness coursing through her monthly cycles.

When a woman undergoes the journey and envisions herself as the goddess, Inanna teaches her how to release her patriarchal conditioning, embrace the sacredness of being female embodied, and experience the vitalizing erotic aliveness coursing through her monthly cycles.

We are now in the time of Her total return, as foretold by these myths, and this is evidenced by the ripples happening in the collective for the past century or so that are unsettling the worldwide grip of patriarchy. In fact, it’s rather synchronous that the rediscovery of Inanna’s descent myth occurred within roughly a century of several other findings that are changing humanity’s perception of history. These include the discovery of the Gnostic text, “The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene),” which revolutionized our understanding of Magdalene’s role in the early Christian movement, and important archeological discoveries such as Çatal Höyük, a likely matriarchal and goddess-centric Neolithic Anatolian community.^[vii] These findings, among countless others, reveal a history strewn with evidence of female power, authority, and reverence that was simultaneously reinforced by and equally supported the rise of the modern feminist movement in the 20^th century.

The Divine Feminine is powerfully resurfacing at the individual and collective levels, not only psychically, but socially, ecologically, and spiritually, as well. Like a wave building in strength and momentum in the middle of the ocean, She is heading for the shore with the force and unrelenting power of a tsunami wave. What will humanity choose to do with Her return and the renewal of Her power? While we may not yet know the answer, Inanna’s myth is one of a handful of sacred blueprints. Hers provides us clues as to how to move forward with reverence and respect for the feminine aspect of the divine and how to embody and enact that reverence in the world.

This is a modified excerpt from Dr. Derr's forthcoming book with Inner Traditions.

Dr. Derr will be giving the fourth, and final presentation, for ISM's Living Goddess Part One on August 10th. If you wish to attend, and receive the previous three presentation recordings, you can still sign up here.

To sign up for Living Goddesses Part 2, which begins o September 14th and ends in December, 2025, click here.

Dr. Derr will be offering a course at ISM in the fall of 2025. More details TBA.

Works Cited

^[i] Sylvia Britton Perera, Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1981), 13.

^[ii] Johanna Stuckey, “‘Inanna and the Huluppu Tree’: One Way of Demoting a Great Goddess,” MatriFocus: Cross-Quarterly for the Goddess Woman, Lammas, vol. 4, no. 4, (2005): 5.

^[iii] Gwendolyn Leick, Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature (New York: Routledge, 1994), 66.

^[iv] Tikva Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddess: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1992), 58-60.

^[v] Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld, lines 190-94; 204-08, trans. Jeremy Black et al., Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford 1998-, https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr113.htm.

^[vi] Enki and the New World Order, lines 430-36, trans. Jeremy Black et al., Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford 1998-, https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr113.htm.

^[vii] Karen L Karen, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 2003); Eren Yüncü et al. “Female Lineages and Changing Kinship Patterns in Neolithic Çatalhöyük,” Science388, eadr2915 (2025). DOI:10.1126/science.adr2915; Marija Gimbutas, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, 7000–3500 BC: Myths and Cult Images (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974); Heidi Goettner-Abendroth, Matriarchal Societies of the Past and the Rise of Patriarchy: West Asia and Europe, trans. by Hope Hague, Simone Plaza, and Tracy Byrne (New York: Peter Lang, 2021).