Inanna

Sumerian Queen of Heaven and Earth: Goddess of Love, War, Desire & the Great Descent

Pantheon: Mesopotamian (Sumerian) | Also known as: Ishtar (Akkadian/Babylonian), Astarte (Phoenician)

She is the oldest goddess whose words we can still read.

 Her hymns were composed and inscribed on clay tablets in ancient Sumer more than five thousand years ago. They describe a goddess of staggering complexity: fierce and tender, ambitious and capricious, a lover and a warrior, a queen who voluntarily walked into the land of the dead and did not ask permission to return. The tablets that hold her words survived civilizations, empires, floods, wars, and millennia of burial. They were dug from the earth of modern Iraq and translated into English in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and what they reveal is a deity unlike anything that came after her.

 Inanna is the Queen of Heaven and Earth. She is the morning star and the evening star. She is the full force of desire, the weight of sovereignty, and the particular kind of courage that descends into darkness not because it has to but because it has decided to. She is six thousand years old, and she is extraordinarily relevant.

Lore & Mythology

Origins: The First Queen of Heaven

Inanna's worship is attested in the archaeological record from at least 4000 BCE, making her one of the earliest named deities in human history. She was the patron goddess of Uruk, one of the first great cities of the ancient world, and her temple there, the Eanna (House of Heaven), was among the largest and most important religious structures of the ancient Near East.

 Her name is most commonly translated as 'Lady of Heaven,' from the Sumerian nin (lady) and anna (heaven). An alternative translation, proposed by the scholar Thorkild Jacobsen, reads her name as 'Lady of the Date Clusters,' connecting her to the fertility of the date palm and the agricultural abundance of the Mesopotamian river valleys. Both translations are plausible, and both capture something true about her: she is celestial and earthly simultaneously, divine and deeply rooted in the physical world.

 She is identified with the planet Venus, and this identification is ancient and consistent across thousands of years of Mesopotamian religious tradition. Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the sun and moon; it appears as both the morning star (rising before the sun) and the evening star (setting after the sun), and the ancient Sumerians knew these were the same planet. Inanna's dual nature as a goddess of love and a goddess of war mirrors this duality: Venus at dawn announces the day, Venus at dusk closes it. She holds both.

The Me: Stealing the Gifts of Civilization

One of the most revealing myths about Inanna concerns her acquisition of the Me, the divine laws and fundamental principles that underpin civilization itself. The Me were held by Enki, the god of wisdom, fresh water, and magic, in his temple at the city of Eridu.

 Inanna traveled to Eridu and was received by Enki at a great feast. As the feast progressed and the beer flowed, Enki began granting the Me to Inanna one by one: lordship, godship, the descent to the underworld, the ascent from the underworld, the art of lovemaking, the kiss, prostitution, the descent of the divine, the ascent of the divine, music, power, enmity, straightforwardness, the destruction of cities, lamentation, the rejoicing of the heart. The list goes on for dozens of lines.

 In the morning, Enki sobered and realized what he had given away. He sent his minister to retrieve the Me from Inanna's boat, but she had already loaded them and set sail for Uruk. When Enki's emissaries attempted to stop her at seven different points on the river, Inanna's sukkal (divine attendant) Ninshubur repelled them each time. Inanna arrived in Uruk with the full gift of civilization and presented it to her city.

 The myth tells us something essential about Inanna: she is ambitious on behalf of her people, she pursues power intentionally, and she does not give back what she has legitimately received. She is a goddess of acquisition and expansion, and she is unapologetic about it.

The Great Descent: Through the Seven Gates

The Descent of Inanna into the Underworld is one of the oldest and most psychologically rich stories in all of human literature. It was composed in Sumer around 2100 BCE, predating Homer by more than a thousand years, and it remains devastating in its detail.

 Inanna decided to travel to the Kur, the Sumerian underworld ruled by her sister Ereshkigal. Her reasons are not entirely clear in the surviving text; the reason she gives to the gatekeeper is that she has come to attend the funeral rites of the Bull of Heaven, her sister's husband. But scholars have long suspected her true motivation was what it always was with Inanna: the expansion of her power and domain. She wanted to see what the underworld was, and perhaps to rule it too.

 Before descending, Inanna dressed herself in all of her power: her crown, her lapis earrings, her necklace, her breastplate, her gold ring, her measuring rod, and her royal robe. She instructed Ninshubur that if she did not return in three days and three nights, she was to go to Enlil, to Nanna, and finally to Enki and beg for her return.

 Then she descended.

 The ancient Sumerians conceived of the underworld as surrounded by seven walls, each with its own gate. At each gate, Ereshkigal's gatekeeper Neti required Inanna to remove one item of power before she could pass. The progression is one of the most powerful sequences in ancient literature:

By the time she reached Ereshkigal's throne room, Inanna was naked and stripped of everything. The seven judges of the underworld, the Anunnaki, turned the eye of death upon her. And Inanna died. Her corpse was hung from a hook on the wall.

 Three days and three nights passed. Ninshubur, faithful to her instructions, went first to Enlil and then to Nanna. Both refused to intervene. Finally she went to Enki, who was troubled. He created two small beings from the dirt under his fingernail and sent them to the underworld with the food and water of life. They found Ereshkigal in great grief and pain, and by mourning with her, by sitting with her suffering rather than opposing it, they earned her gratitude. She granted them Inanna's corpse. They sprinkled it with the food and water of life, and Inanna rose.

 But the underworld requires a substitute. No one leaves the Kur without sending someone in their place. Inanna emerged from the underworld followed by the galla, the demons of the dead, who would claim her substitute. She traveled through the land looking for someone who had mourned for her during her absence. Those who had, she protected. Her husband Dumuzi, however, was sitting on his throne in his finest robes, apparently unbothered. Inanna looked at him with the eye of death and gave him to the galla.

 Dumuzi's sister Geshtinanna, in an act of profound love and sacrifice, volunteered to take his place in the underworld for half the year. And so the cycle was established: Dumuzi spends half the year below (the dry, barren season) and half above (the fertile, abundant season). The seasons themselves were born from this story.

The Sacred Marriage: Inanna and Dumuzi

Before the descent, one of the most celebrated mythological traditions surrounding Inanna was the Sacred Marriage, the hieros gamos. Each year at the spring equinox as part of the Akitu (New Year) festival, the king of Sumer would enact a ritual marriage to Inanna, represented by her high priestess. This union was understood to ensure the fertility of the land, the abundance of the harvest, and the legitimacy of the king's rule. For a Sumerian king to be accepted as ruler, he needed Inanna's blessing, her desire, and her recognition. She was the source of political power, not merely its beneficiary.

 The love poetry of Inanna and Dumuzi is some of the most beautiful and explicit sacred writing in the ancient world. She calls him 'honey man,' 'sweetness of the heart.' He calls her 'the honey of the gods.' Their courtship is detailed and tender. Then the descent happens, and she gives him to the demons with the eye of death. The myth does not ask us to choose between the tenderness and the ferocity. Both are true. Both are Inanna.

Inanna and Gilgamesh: The Rejection

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Inanna (as Ishtar) approaches the great king and hero Gilgamesh with a marriage proposal. Gilgamesh rejects her in one of the most pointed speeches in ancient literature, listing all the lovers she has previously discarded: Dumuzi, the allallu-bird, the lion, the stallion, the shepherd. Each was honored and then abandoned or destroyed.

 Inanna is furious. She goes to her father Anu and demands the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh. When Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu kill the Bull of Heaven, Inanna mourns on the walls of Uruk while Enkidu throws the Bull's thigh at her feet. It is one of the most dramatic goddess appearances in ancient literature, and it reflects something honest about Inanna's mythology: she is not always the hero of the story, and the ancient Sumerians knew it. She is complex, she can be wrong, and her mythology does not ask us to pretend otherwise.

Her Legacy: From Inanna to Venus

Inanna's mythology did not stop at Sumer. As the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires absorbed Sumerian culture, Inanna became Ishtar. As Greek culture encountered the Near East, Ishtar's attributes flowed into Aphrodite. As Rome absorbed Greece, Aphrodite became Venus. The planet that bore her name in ancient Sumer still bears a version of it today. She is, in this sense, the most continuous divine feminine presence in Western religious history: six thousand years from the clay tablets of Uruk to the planet visible in our morning sky.

 Sacred Days & Festivals

The Spring Equinox and the Akitu Festival

The most important annual observance of Inanna was the Akitu, the Sumerian and later Babylonian New Year festival held at the spring equinox. The Sacred Marriage rite was the centerpiece of this festival, and it was the most important religious ceremony in the Mesopotamian calendar. The spring equinox remains her most powerful annual time for ritual, devotion, and intention-setting work.

The Summer Festival: July and August

The summer festival commemorated Inanna's descent into the underworld and the mourning for Dumuzi. This period, corresponding to the hottest and driest part of the Mesopotamian year, was the time when the land reflected his absence. Late July through August, around the time of Sirius's rising, is a particularly powerful time for working with Inanna on themes of descent, surrender, and the courage to let go.

The Autumn Equinox: Dumuzi's Return

The seasonal rites marking Dumuzi's return from the underworld were celebrated at the autumn equinox, when the rains returned and the earth became fertile again. This is Inanna's festival of reunion, restoration, and abundance after loss.

When Venus Is Visible

Inanna's daily sacred times correspond to the movements of her planet. When Venus rises as the morning star just before dawn, she is at her most luminous and her most war-like: this is the time for strength, courage, and action. When Venus appears as the evening star at dusk, she is at her most tender and erotic: this is the time for love, desire, and devotion. Checking your Venus rise and set times each week is one of the most traditional and most effective ways to align your practice with Inanna's cycles.

The New Moon

As a goddess who governs both the visible and invisible, the descent and the return, the new moon resonates with Inanna's energy of beginning again after a period of darkness. New moon workings for new desires, new ventures, and the setting of ambitious intentions are well within her domain. 

Sacred Correspondences

At a Glance

Crystals in Depth

• Lapis Lazuli: The stone of heaven itself and Inanna's most sacred stone. The second gate of the underworld took her lapis earrings; lapis is the stone of wisdom, divine connection, and the celestial power she holds as Queen of Heaven. It is the cornerstone of her altar.

• Carnelian: Her fire and her war energy. Carnelian is one of the most ancient sacred stones of Mesopotamia, used in jewelry, seals, and ritual objects across thousands of years. It carries her courage, her passion, and her willingness to act decisively.

• Rose Quartz: For her love goddess aspect. Rose quartz holds the tender, sensual, and relational dimensions of Inanna's energy, the part of her that writes love poetry and dresses herself in beauty to meet her beloved.

• Garnet: Desire and the fire of wanting. Deep red garnet resonates with Inanna as the full embodiment of desire, the goddess who invented longing and named it sacred.

• Gold Sheen Obsidian: The underworld and the descent. Gold sheen obsidian carries the particular quality of Inanna's journey into the dark: something golden and powerful moving through pure blackness.

• Citrine: Abundance and the gifts of civilization. Citrine honors Inanna's role as the goddess who brought the Me to humanity.

Herbs in Depth

• Rose: Her most accessible sacred plant in the modern world. Rose petals, rose absolute, rosewater, and rose incense all carry her energy. She is desire given fragrance.

• Jasmine: Sensuality and the night-blooming divine feminine. Jasmine honors Inanna as the evening star and as a goddess of sacred eros.

• Saffron: The most precious spice of the ancient world, used in Mesopotamian religious contexts. Saffron honors her as Queen of Heaven and as a goddess of wealth and divine luxury.

• Cinnamon: Warmth, desire, and the sacred spices of ancient temple offerings.

• Pomegranate: The fruit of the underworld and of feminine power. The pomegranate connects Inanna to her descent, to Ereshkigal, and to the cycle of seasons born from that story.

• Grain (wheat and barley): She is a goddess of civilization, and grain was civilization's foundation. Offering a small bundle of wheat or barley on her altar honors her ancient role as patron of agricultural abundance. 

Divine Family & Relationships

Inanna's genealogy in Sumerian mythology is notably variable across different texts and traditions; her parentage alone is described differently in multiple ancient sources. What remains consistent is the extraordinary power of her divine relationships.

Invocation of Inanna

This invocation is written for the spring equinox, for a new moon, for any morning when Venus rises before the sun, or for any moment when you are standing at your own descent and need the language for it. Light a gold or red candle. Place lapis lazuli before you. Pour a small cup of red wine or pomegranate juice as an offering. Speak her name clearly: IN-ah-nah. 

 Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I call to you.

Lady of the morning star and the evening star,

she who holds the Me, the gifts of civilization, in her own hands:

I have come to this altar with what I carry.

You who descended through all seven gates

and let each one take something,

who stood before your sister naked and stripped of everything

and did not beg:

teach me that same willingness to let what must fall, fall.

Teach me that the thing on the other side of the stripping

is not nothing.

Great Wild Cow of heaven,

lioness who stands on the backs of kings,

she who knows the full weight of desire

and does not call it shameful:

I bring you this flame, this wine, this rose, this wanting.

I bring you the honest shape of what I am reaching for.

Inanna, be welcome here.

Queen of Heaven and Earth, you are known.

 ~ ~ ~ 

Queen of Heaven: Inanna Ritual Oil Recipe

This oil is crafted to invoke Inanna's full presence: her desire, her sovereignty, her courage, and the golden luminosity of Venus rising. Use it to anoint candles on her altar, to wear as a devotional fragrance on Venus days (Fridays and mornings when the morning star is visible), to dress love petitions, or to anoint yourself before any work involving desire, courage, or reclaiming your power.

 This is a warm, lush, and unapologetically sensual oil. It smells like the Queen of Heaven.

What You Will Need

• 1 oz (30ml) carrier oil: jojoba is ideal for skin use; its golden color honors her solar aspect

• 4 drops rose absolute: her most sacred modern botanical; use the absolute rather than synthetic rose fragrance oil for true energetic resonance

• 3 drops jasmine absolute: desire, the night-blooming star, and Inanna's evening aspect

• 2 drops saffron oil or a pinch of dried saffron steeped in the carrier oil for 24 hours: the most precious ancient offering; warmth, luxury, and divine sovereignty

• 2 drops cinnamon bark essential oil (or sweet cinnamon leaf): fire, desire, and the warmth of the Sacred Marriage; use sparingly as it can irritate skin

• 1 drop sandalwood essential oil: sacred space, devotion, and the deep anchoring of the blend

• A small piece of lapis lazuli (tumbled and cleansed): the stone of heaven; place it in or beside the oil to charge it

• A small piece of carnelian (tumbled and cleansed): fire, courage, and the full force of wanting

• A pinch of dried rose petals

• 3 pomegranate seeds (fresh or dried): the underworld, the descent, and the return

• A small dark glass bottle for storage (gold or amber if possible)

Instructions

1. Begin on a Friday, at dawn if Venus is visible, or on the spring equinox. Light a gold candle before you start. Speak Inanna's name three times and tell her what you are making this oil to do.

2. If using saffron, steep the threads in your carrier oil in a warm place for 24 hours before beginning. The oil will turn a faint gold. Strain before use.

3. Pour your carrier oil into the dark glass bottle.

4. Add the essential oils one at a time. As you add each one, name it aloud: 'Rose for desire and the beauty of wanting. Jasmine for the night star and the sacred eros. Saffron for sovereignty and divine luxury. Cinnamon for the fire of the Sacred Marriage. Sandalwood for the sacred ground beneath all of it.'

5. Add the pinch of dried rose petals and the pomegranate seeds. The seeds carry the energy of her descent and her return; they are the cycle built into the oil itself.

6. Place the lapis lazuli and carnelian into the bottle, or beside it if they are too large.

7. Seal the bottle and hold it between both palms. Close your eyes. Visualize the morning star rising in a vast ancient sky over Uruk, brilliant and golden. See Inanna standing on the backs of two lions, fully crowned and glorious, looking down at your hands. Ask her to fill the oil with her sovereignty, her desire, and her courage. Name what you are making this for.

8. Place the sealed bottle in front of your lit candle. Leave it there until the candle burns down. On the following morning, if Venus is visible, hold the bottle up to the morning star before first use.

9. Your oil is ready. Shake gently before each use and speak her name. Store in a cool, dark place.

Uses for This Oil

• Anoint gold or red candles on Inanna's altar on Fridays and at the spring equinox

• Wear a drop on your wrists and throat before any work involving love, desire, confidence, or the claiming of your power

• Add to a ritual bath with rose petals, pomegranate seeds, and a cup of red wine for a full Inanna devotional

• Dress love petitions and written desires before placing them on her altar

• Anoint the soles of your feet before any literal or symbolic descent: a difficult conversation, a shadow work session, a major life transition

A Note on Safety

Cinnamon bark essential oil is a strong skin irritant; use only the recommended amount and perform a patch test before wearing the blend on skin. If you have sensitive skin, substitute cinnamon with an additional drop of sandalwood or a drop of clove bud oil (similarly potent, use sparingly). Rose and jasmine absolutes are rich and concentrated; a little goes a long way. The saffron thread method produces a very subtle golden tint and warmth rather than a dominant saffron fragrance, which is correct; saffron is a background presence in this blend, not the lead note. 

Working with Inanna

Inanna is a goddess who demands that you take your own desire seriously. Not apologize for it, not minimize it, not dress it in softer language than it deserves. She is the goddess who went to the underworld and let every layer of her power be stripped away at seven gates, and when she came back she was still the Queen of Heaven. What she lost in the descent, she reclaimed in the return. What she gained was the knowledge that she could survive it.

 If you are in a descent, she understands. If you are in the returning, she is the one who knows what that takes. If you are standing at the gate and someone is asking you to leave something behind before you can go forward, she has been there. She left her crown at the first gate and kept walking.

 Light the gold candle. Place lapis on your altar. Pour the wine. Write down what you actually want, the honest version, the one you have not said out loud yet. Place it before her.

 She is six thousand years old and she is still listening.

From the great heaven she set her mind on the great below. May she set her eye of blessing on you.