Do you feel burdened by the “should’s” and “have to’s” of your life?
Are you performing your responsibilities, but don’t know who you truly are?
Do the expectations of others constrain you from being YOU?
If this speaks you, then you are a undergoing an ancient human experience! Really!
You are experiencing the same dilemma written about in a 4000 year-old Sumerian poem called the Descent of Inanna. Inanna was the Sumerian Queen of Heaven and Earth. She had everything – luxury, power, a great consort and lover, Dumuzi – but it wasn’t enough. Inanna wanted more! So she decided to go on a journey of discovery. The Descent of Inanna was written by the first poet in recorded history, Enheduanna, a Priestess of Inanna. Enheduanna was the daughter of the King of Sumer, Sargon, who ruled around 2300 BCE!
In this ancient poem, Inanna journeys to meet with Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, to discover the meaning behind all things, of life and death. Inanna thinks she is secure in all the roles and trappings of her power and prestige in the Earthly and Heavenly realms. She believes she is the equal of Ereshkigal. But none of Inanna’s esteem matters in the Underworld.
Inanna must pass through seven gates on her descent into the Underworld. At each gate, she must relinquish one of the symbols of her prestige. Finally, Inanna arrives in the Underworld stripped bare. Ereshkigal turns the eye of death upon her and hangs Inanna’s corpse on a meat hook. Inanna is finally rescued with the help of Enki, one of the Sumerian Gods. Through the ghastliness of her experience Inanna achieves her goal; she comes back with greater understanding of life and death.
This is a fascinating myth and makes a great telling. Yet this myth is also a metaphor for those of us who quest for more, who want to know the meaning of life and death, who want to know who we are beneath all the roles, expectations and demands of our lives.
On her descent Inanna had to shed the symbols of all her roles and prestige. Likewise, those of us who quest for greater understanding and knowledge discover that we must often shed our familiar safe roles such as: the family roles of the good daughter, mother or wife, or the workplace roles of the employee or supervisor or boss, or the social roles of the friend, student, neighbor, caretaker, or any of the other roles and responsibilities we assume. In order to find out who we truly are we must look deep within the shadow realms and excavate both our strengths and vulnerabilities.
I have been both the sacred container and guide while many of my clients journeyed within to wrestle with their shadow-side in order to discover greater self-awareness and understanding. We can only gain clarity when we are able to cut through what is superficial. As we become more aware, we begin to recognize that our belief systems are actually part of our particular cultural norms, which means they aren’t always the universal truth. Our job on this earth plane is to do the sifting and sorting to find out what is true. Sometimes that truth is universal, other times that truth is very personal.
What is your truth? And what stands in the way of you recognizing your truth?
Next week I will offer insight on how you can begin to recognize your truth. I will share with you the four archetypes that Carolyn Myss, the author of Sacred Contracts and Anatomy of the Spirit, calls the four archetypes of survival. For the unaware these archetypes can be disruptive, but for those of you who wish to grow in understanding, they can help you find your own personal truth.