By Karen Clark

The Sumerian tale of the descent of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, to the realm of Her sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, takes us to the deepest roots of the mysteries of darkness and light, and death and rebirth.

Long ago, Inanna turned Her mind to the Great Below and chose to travel its precarious ways in search of Her greater becoming. At each of the gates to the Underworld, She removed a piece of Her royal vestments, until She stood, naked and humbled, before the throne of the mighty Ereshkigal. Inanna surrendered Herself to Ereshkigal in the belly of the dark. Death was the price of this journey and rebirth into Her true beauty and power was its gift.

Light must give over to the dark to birth new light. Death is the gateway to rebirth. Our life story, with its trials and wounding, is the crucible of our greater becoming and the shining forth of our deepest beauty.

Inanna knew these things; only through the ways of Ereshkigal and the Great Below could She rise up into Her full Goddess powers.

The dark gives way to the light, and the old to the new. Nothing lasts forever, nor is carved in stone. In these primal truths, you can find the hope and courage to change your life and our world for the better, birthing new light and beautiful possibilities from the darkest night of your wounding and the pain and sorrow of our collective humanity.

– Excerpt & Picture from The Path of She Book of Sabbats