Reader,

The longer I spent with Inanna, the more her story revealed to me.

I’ve read it more times than I can count, and each time I find something new.

In this journey I’ve become a priestess and devotee of Inanna, but more than anything, I am a woman who has walked her journey. Many times over.

I know something about losing the life I thought I was supposed to have, losing parts of myself along the way, and discovering that something more true was waiting underneath it all.

Inanna’s story is this story of descent.

She willingly enters the Underworld, and at each gate she is stripped of the things that have defined her. She must encounter what has been hidden, exiled, and forgotten before she can return.

This story is ancient, but it doesn’t feel ancient to me. It feels incredibly current to me. Because most of us know something about descent - even if we’ve never called it that.

Sometimes it comes through loss, heartbreak, aging, a relationship ending, a career change, or simply realizing that the person we’ve been trying to be is no longer who we are.

Once I thought these moments were my undoing. I understand them differently now, as an essential journey we all must make.

Sometimes we can only reach certain parts of ourselves by going beneath the surface—into the discomfort, the darkness, the grief, the mystery, and the places we’ve pushed away.

And sometimes the very thing we’re trying hardest not to feel is connected to the very thing we most need to reclaim.

But how did we become so disconnected from this wisdom?

People often focus on her story of descent but as I began looking more closely at the world that gave birth to Inanna—I was able to understand more deeply the possibilities that she holds for us today.

Her story starts at the beginning of time.

And yet these ancient words covey desires and concerns that feel very contemporary, a story which transcends time. Her story says a lot about the continuity of the human experience and psychology over many many years.

As I discovered what happened to the wisdom she carried, and how it became buried over time, that opened another door.

More about that next time.

With love,
Marie Rose 🌹

P.S. If you’re recognizing your own life in Inanna’s story, Inanna’s Temple is a place for you to explore that journey more deeply, in community and through embodied practice. LEARN MORE HERE.

Inanna’s Temple is an immersive weekend devoted to this ancient story, Restoring the Divine Feminine for All Beings, and the journey of descent and return. This is not just for women, it is open to all.