RE:IJSNC, Issue 1, Volume 2, May 2012 - Ocean Seminary College

Restoration Earth: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Nature & Civilization, 1(2)
These words speak of both nature and sexuality.
Unlike the later patriarchal demeaning of women,
sexuality and nature, these expressions do not demean
natural forces and expressions—but rather
both claim and honor their abundant expression.
Most women understand maternal qualities, and
have also experienced passion and sensuality—but
how many women have experienced the journey
into the underworlds to confront the power of
their dark sister? The hymn describing Inanna’s
journey into the depths of the underworld, where
she is killed by her dark sister Ereshkigal is a story
of both meeting and being consumed by power. It
is also a story of death and resurrection 7—a journey
leading to integration and wholeness. When
Inanna returns, she confronts the fact that her consort
Dumuzi has taken over her throne. She then
replicates Ereshkigal’s power as Inanna banishes
Dumuzi and claims her position—a throne she can
hold with or without her lover. Although there are
other renditions 8 of this Sumerian legend, I believe
this version speaks to what happened as patriarchy
robbed women of their equality in life. It also illuminates
the work that women need to accomplish
in order to reclaim their inherent royalty as we are
all expressions of divine life and as such automatically
have equality (more on thrones later in the
article).
In the beginning of this story, Inanna starts a
journey based on compassion. She has learned that
her sister, Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld, is
suffering for the loss/death of her consort. Inanna
wants to comfort her sister despite the warnings of
those around her. It is said that the journey into
the underworld is a dangerous one—and that it
could bring on her death. But Inanna is determined
to go to her dark sister. She does concede their
warnings in that she tells her devoted servant Ninshubar
to take some form of action if Inanna has
not returned in three days—for it is the law of the
underworld that one cannot leave after entering it.
Inanna descends through the seven gates into the
underworld, explaining that she is going to Ereshkigal’s
realm in order to mourn the loss of Ereshkigal’s
husband. At each gate she then relinquishes
her royal garments and jewels until, after passing
the final gate, Inanna enters the realm of Ereshkigal,
naked and stooped over. Inanna begins the
26
journey with the intent of bringing comfort to her
sister, but it is not received. Instead, Inanna is met
with her sister’s destructive power.
Although this story has strong elements of a shamanic
journey, it is also a powerful metaphor about
knowing the feminine power hidden in the underground
of our inner beings. As long as this innate
power is unconscious it can act in destructive ways.
Perhaps the recognition of it has the capacity to destroy
the limited image previously held of one’s self
as a woman—a recognition that can precipitate a
rebirth leading to wholeness. We must bring our
power out of the shadows. The balance of beauty
and power is the wholeness that is needed in order to
heal our fractured and endangered world. 9
During the late 80s, I was doing a lot of healing
breath work. I began seeing that unconscious emotions,
and also great depths of power, were hidden
within the body. When the breath is focused it can
stimulate neural networks and power centers. Cellular
memories, primal, instinctual energies, can awaken
the body–mind from its unconscious slumber
(Thurman, 1994; Washburn, 1994; Mijares, 2012).
Memory is inherent within the genes and cellular
structures of DNA. This memory contains the stories
of our genetic ancestors and those of the collective
unconscious. These memories also contain dramas
depicting human pathos. They are teeming with narratives
of destruction, power, and beauty. Repressed
feelings, memories, ego-states, sub-personalities, and
archetypal forces can be hidden in energy blocks. In
short, deep forces were awakening within me.
Because I had been raised in a very violent and
unloving family, I did not know how to speak up for
myself nor had I learned to value my feelings. Although
I had much compassion for others, coupled
with a deeply rooted sense of integrity and responsibility,
I did not know how to protect my boundaries
in difficult relational experiences. One day I was going
over to my friend’s house to pick up some papers.
She was an older woman who had taken the
time to teach me much of what she had learned as an
editor for a major publishing house, but she was also
a domineering woman—who would drain others
with lengthy conversations about her past. That day
had been a particularly difficult one, and so I told her
I would not be able to stay and chat. She immediately
began to dominate the situation, and my time. Sud-