The Underworld Within

The Underworld Within: Inanna and the Sacred Descent of the Self

Carly Mountain (Descent and Rising)

Long before modern psychology gave us language for trauma, shadow work and transformation, ancient myths were already telling those stories in symbolic form. One of the most powerful of these is the Sumerian myth of Inanna, the Queen of Heaven and Earth and her descent into the underworld. I came across this story myself in 2023 when I did the 'Descent and Rising' course with psychotherapist Carly Mountain

At first glance, it feels like this is a dramatic tale of death and rebirth. But when we look closer, it becomes something much more intimate: a mirror of the inner journey many women undergo in times of crisis, loss, identity shifts and healing.

This is not just a myth. It is a map.

The Myth in Brief

Inanna (known as Ishtar to the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians) was the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, fertility and political power, serving as one of the most widely venerated and powerful deities in the Sumerian pantheon some 6000 years ago.

In her story she chooses to descend into the underworld, ruled by her sister Ereshkigal. To enter, she must pass through seven gates and at each gate, she is required to remove an item of clothing or adornment – all symbols of her identity, power and status.

By the time she reaches the underworld, she stands naked, stripped of everything she once used to define herself. She is judged, struck down and hangs lifeless. Only later, through intervention and sacrifice, is she allowed to rise again, this time transformed.

The Seven Gates as Psychological Stages

Each gate Inanna passes through can be understood as a stage in a deeply human process: the unravelling of identity.

The First Gate: Letting Go of External Validation

At the first gate, Inanna removes her crown. This is the beginning of descent - the moment when external roles and recognition no longer sustain us.

It might look like losing a job, a relationship, or a sense of status. This is when you begin to question who you are beyond what others see.

The Second Gate: Releasing Control

She removes her rod and measuring line - symbols of authority and order. Here, the illusion of control begins to fall apart. Life becomes unpredictable.

For us this may feel like chaos: plans fail, certainty dissolves - a place where you are forced into surrender.

The Third Gate: Losing the Persona

Her necklace is taken. The necklace represents identity - the carefully curated self.

In our own lives this may be the realisation that the version of yourself you’ve been presenting isn’t congruent - have you been masking?

The Fourth Gate: Letting Go of Defences

Her breastplate is removed. This is the armour - the emotional defences we build to protect ourselves.

This may be a time when you feel you have become more vulnerable. Old wounds may surface. The things you’ve avoided begin to demand attention.

The Fifth Gate: Confronting Powerlessness

Her ring is taken. Rings symbolise agency, commitment and influence.

You may feel helpless. This is often where people encounter grief, burnout, or deep emotional exhaustion.

The Sixth Gate: Stripping Away Identity Layers

Her garment is removed. Now, even the basic sense of 'self' begins to dissolve.

This can feel like an identity crisis. You may ask: Who am I without all of this?

The Seventh Gate: Total Surrender

She is left completely naked. There is nothing left to hide behind.

This is the deepest point - the underworld. Depression, stillness, emptiness, or a profound pause. But it is also where truth lives.

The seven gates of Inanna’s descent echo other sacred systems of transformation:

• the seven chakras - in yogic and tantric traditions, the seven chakras are symbolic energy centres aligned along the human spine, from its base to the crown of the head. Each chakra represents a point of subtle energy associated with physical, emotional and spiritual functions, forming a key framework in practices like yoga, meditation and Ayurveda

• the Seven Powers of Mary Magdalene - a concept in esoteric Christian mysticism describing inner spiritual forces or virtues symbolically attributed to Mary Magdalene. These powers represent stages of soul purification and divine union within gnostic and Magdalene-centred traditions. They often link her transformation story to archetypal feminine wisdom and spiritual awakening.

Each describing a gradual stripping away of illusion and awakening of deeper truth, where power is not accumulated, but revealed as we surrender.

The Underworld: The Sacred Pause

Inanna does not immediately rise again. She is struck down and hangs lifeless. This part is crucial.

In modern culture, we rush transformation. We want quick healing, immediate growth, fast recovery. But the myth tells us something different: There is a necessary stillness in transformation.

In therapy, this is the phase where insight hasn’t yet turned into change. It’s uncomfortable, quiet and often misunderstood. But it is where integration begins.

The Return: Rising Changed

Inanna eventually returns, but not as the same being.

Her ascent requires:

• Help from others

• A willingness to face consequences

• A rebalancing of her world

This reflects an important truth: You do not come back from deep transformation unchanged.

The Feminine Journey in Modern Life

For many of us women, this descent isn’t a single dramatic event - it’s a series of cycles:

• The breakdown of a relationship

• Becoming a mother (and losing an old identity)

• Career shifts

• Grief and loss

• Mental health struggles

• Awakening to unmet needs or suppressed truths

Each time, there is a descent:

• A shedding

• A confrontation

• A surrender

Then, if we give ourselves full permission, a rising.

Using Inanna’s Descent as a Therapeutic Map

This myth can be incredibly useful in therapy and self-reflection because it normalises something that many of us women fear:

We can also acknowledge that we may have many descent and risings in our lifetime. Using Inanna's myth as a map for these periods can give us hope and enable us to tolerate the difficult feelings that come with being stripped bare, just like Inanna.

I have created a worksheet if you would like to map your own descent and rising - as an initiation! Strip naked, metaphorically, as Inanna did some 6000 years ago and feel into how this may have changed you.

Same story, different centuries

Across cultures and centuries, the pattern of descent, death and return appears again and again, suggesting that Inanna’s journey is not an isolated myth but part of a universal human story.

In ancient Egypt, Osiris is killed, dismembered, and restored through the devotion of Isis, symbolising renewal after fragmentation.

In Greek myth, Persephone descends into the underworld each year, her return marking the rebirth of the natural world.

In Christianity, Jesus Christ undergoes death and resurrection, embodying transformation through sacrifice and surrender.

Even in Sumerian tradition alongside Inanna, Dumuzi cycles between worlds, reflecting the rhythms of loss and return. Taken together, these stories point to a shared truth: that periods of darkness, dissolution and apparent endings are often the very conditions that make renewal, rebirth and deeper wholeness possible.

Concluding

In the end, the descent of Inanna and the many other stories in our history that echo her path, offer us a profound reframe of what it means to struggle, to lose ourselves and to begin again. These stories remind us that the moments in life that feel like endings are often initiations in disguise: invitations to shed what no longer fits, to face what we have avoided and to encounter ourselves without illusion.

The stripping away, the stillness, even the sense of being 'undone', are not signs that something has gone wrong, but signs that something deeper is trying to emerge. What this exploration reveals is a quiet but powerful truth: transformation is not about becoming someone new, but about returning - layer by layer - to what is most real within us. And like Inanna, when we rise, it is not as who we once were, but as someone more congruent, more integrated and more fully alive.

Remember even on the descent:

Women Who Run With the Wolves – Clarissa Pinkola Estés

You have everything you need already within yourself - you may not always remember this in the pain of a descent, but you certainly will on your rising!

Resources:

• 'Descent & Rising: Women's Stories & the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth', Carly Mountain, Womancraft Publishing, 2023

• 'Descent to the Goddess', Sylvia Brinton Perera, Inner City Books, 1981

• 'Women Who Run With the Wolves', Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Rider, 2008

• 'The Heroine's Journey: Woman's Quest for Wholeness', Maureen Murdock, Shambhala Publications Inc, 2020