Fri Dec 26, 2008 12:53 AM CST : AZ Forums - 2008
Descent of Ianna
Five thousand years before christianity, Inanna heard the Great Below and abandoned heaven and earth to descend to the underworld, abandoning Her seven temples in Uruk, Babtibira, Zabalam, Adab, Nippur, Kish and Akkad.
She gathered Her seven "me", the seven gifts of the Gods, and prepared Herself. She put the crown of the Steppe on Her head and arranged Her hair across Her forehead; She tied the small lapis beads about Her neck, and placed the long double strand of lapis beads so they fell on Her breasts; She put a gold bracelet around her arm, (The Shaman places the copper or silver bracelet on his arm) wrapped the royal robe around Her body, daubed Her eyes with ointment and bound the alluring breastplate around Her chest.
She then took the lapis measuring rod and line in Her hand and set out for the underworld accompanied by Her sukkal adviser, Ninshubur, who was Her faithful servant and had fought by Her side. Inanna instructed Ninshubur in what to do if She did not return.
The earliest writings we have of the "Descent of Inanna" are nearly five thousand years old, and are copies of much older writings that are least 1,700 years before the copies. But even the 5,000 year old record shows that preparation and Descent of Inanna and the Trial of Shaman has remained virtually unchanged over five millennia.
Inanna arrived at the outer gates of the underworld, knocked and spoke to Neti, the guardian of the way from which no traveler returns. She told Neti that She had come to see her older sister, Ereshkigal, whose husband Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, had died. (In Sumerian astrology Gugalanna died 6700 years ago). When Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, heard this She "slapped Her thighs and bit Her lip with vengeance". She ordered Neti to bolt the seven gates of the underworld.
When Neti opened the First Gate he removed Inanna crown and when She asked, "What is this?"
Neti told Inanna to be quiet, "the ways of the underworld are perfect, They may not be questioned."
At each gate she asked the same question and was given the same answer, "the ways of the underworld are perfect, They may not be questioned."
At the Second Gate he removed Her lapis beads, at the Third Gate Her double strand beads, at the Fourth Gate the breastplate, at the Fifth Gate, the gold ring from her arm, at the Sixth Gate he took Her lapis measuring rod and at the Seventh Gate he removed her royal robe so she entered naked and bowed low.
In the throne room of Ereshkigal, the Annuna, the judges of the underworld, surrounded Inanna and passed judgment against Her. Ereshkigal, fastened the "eye of death" on Her, spoke in wrath against Her and pronounced Her guilty. When Ereshkigal struck Her, Inanna turned into a corpse, a piece of rotting meat and was hung from a hook on the wall.
Shaman Initiation follow a similar course in which the aspirant Shaman descends to the underworld very much as did Inanna, though the role of Ninshubur, who can go to an Enki - God of Wisdom, evolved from the Primitive to the Priesthood of the God or Goddess who helps.
The aspirant Shaman goes into an ecstatic state, delirium caused by an illness, sensory depravation, a form of madness or an induced trance. She experiences death; demons degrade her, take her worldly possessions, torture her and cut her in pieces or hang her on hooks. She may descend to the underworld or ascends to the heavens and returns to life.
This Trial enables her to see the Spirits and to communicate with them. But that is where Shaman and Priesthood part. Shaman, like Gilgamesh, Orpheus, Hercules, Sisyphus and Odysseus goes to the Underworld but not to its darkest pit.
Nor do Shaman confront the Gods and Goddesses of the Underworld as Inanna did. Instead they meet or confront the "Guardians of the Way", and though they travel the path from which "no man returns", they do return, Shaman.