The High Priestess – Thoth Deck
Associating a story (whether myth, fairy tale or personal experience) with each Tarot card is a wonderful way to both remember the meaning of the card and also to add depth to your readings. However, this Telling Tales is going to be a bit special. Usually I pick one card to illustrate the story, but this time I will be sharing the myth of Inanna’s Descent into the Underworld using two cards: The Hanged Man and The High Priestess…
Historically, Inanna was the most prominent female deity of ancient Mesopotamia, ruling over love, war and fertility 4000 years before the advent of Christianity.
Inanna
Our story begins when bright and beautiful Inanna decides that she wishes to learn about Death. To do this, she must go on a journey into the dark and dreary realm of the dead to meet with her sister, Ereshkigal, who is Queen of the Underworld. And so Inanna dresses herself in all her divine finery that symbolises her importance and power, and begins her descent.
But Ereshkigal is suspicious of her proud sister, and so contrives to make Inanna’s journey a difficult one. Inanna must pass through seven gates on her way to her sister’s palace, and each gate’s guardian forces her to relinquish something: her crown, her jewellery, her robes. As Inanna passes through the seventh gate she is naked; stripped of both clothing and power.
“After she had crouched down and had her clothes removed, they were carried away. Then she made her sister Erec-ki-gala rise from her throne, and instead she [Inanna] sat on her throne. The Anna, the seven judges, rendered their decision against her. They looked at her – it was the look of death. They spoke to her – it was the speech of anger. They shouted at her – it was the shout of heavy guilt. The afflicted woman was turned into a corpse. And the corpse was hung on a hook.”
The Hanged Man – Thoth Deck
Three days and three nights passed, and Inanna hung on the dead tree in the Underworld. Ereshkigal was pleased by this: trapped in the cold, dark underworld, Ereshkigal was infuriated by Inanna’s life and warmth and passion.
But Inanna had foreseen that something could go awry, and had arranged with her handmaiden Ninshibur to ask the other Gods to intercede if Inanna should not return home. God after God turned Ninshibur away until at last she came to Enki, who was troubled by Inanna’s absence. He took the dirt from under his fingernails and created two androgynous people to go into the Underworld after Inanna. Enki instructed them to appease Ereshkigal and ask to take Inanna’s corpse, which they would sprinkle with the waters of life in order to revive the Goddess.
The two people travelled into the Underworld and found Ereshkigal in the throes of a phantom childbirth. Agonised, she offered the two people anything they desired if they would only help her. They soothed Ereshkigal, and asked for the corpse of Inanna as their reward. Reluctantly, Ereshkigal agreed but on one condition: someone must return to the Underworld to take Inanna’s place.
Inanna was revived and journeyed with the two people back towards the land of the living, followed by two of Ereshkigal’s demons who had been sent to retrieve a soul for the Underworld.
They came across Ninshibur, Inanna’s faithful handmaiden, waiting for her mistress at the gates. The demons growled, but Inanna forbade them to act: for Ninshibur had grieved the Goddess’ loss.
Next they met with Inanna’s beautician Cara, and the demons gnashed their teeth. But no! Inanna forbade them to act, for Cara wept and mourned the death of the Goddess.
Finally, they came upon Dumuzi, Inanna’s husband, who did not mourn. He did not grieve and he did not weep. He sat resplendent on Inanna’s throne and the demons howled their hunger.
Inanna did not move, nor weep, nor mourn as the demons dragged Dumuzi into the underworld. But Dumuzi’s sister bargained with Ereshkigal, and took half his punishment. And so for half the year, Dumuzi is Inanna’s consort and the world knows summer. For half the year he is Ereshkigal’s consort, and Inanna’s fury freezes the land.
The High Priestess – The Crystal Tarot
Symbolism within the Story
The High Priestess card tells us that something is gestating in the depths of our unconscious: we may be aware that something is happened, changing, transforming within us, but we don’t find out what until the ‘birth.’ This is represented in the myth by Ereshkigal’s phantom pregnancy: taken out of her natural rhythms and confronted with her sister’s power – a power which contrasts against her own – Ereshkigal is forced to go through an initiation of her own. Inanna, Goddess of Life, must learn about death by dying; and so Ereshkigal, Goddess of Death, must learn about life by giving birth. The High Priestess also teaches us about mysteries solved and secrets revealed: we can see this in the myth when Inanna is forced to strip away all the symbols of her power; in fact, what she is being stripped of is her ego. She learns that all she can trust in and rely on is herself. The High Priestess counsels us to trust ourselves and trust our intuition.
The Hanged Man – Crystal Tarot
The Hanged Man is a card of sacrifice in order to gain spiritual insights: this is very vividly embodied in the myth when the corpse of Inanna is hung from a hook. In order to achieve the wisdom she is seeking, she must make sacrifices: her ego is first to be surrendered (those terrible gates), followed by the ultimate sacrifice of her life. The Hanged Man urges us to let go of obsolete ideas in order to make room for new growth, armed only with the hope that something better will take its place.
Both cards teach the tarot reader that a descent into the unconscious (the underworld) is necessary in order to discover what is truly important. Dream work, journalling and divination can all be especially beneficial when these cards appear in a reading.
Seven Sacrifices Spread
Seven Sacrifices Spread
Use of Septagram inspired by Seven Card Spread
- The reason for your descent
- A spiritual sacrifice you must make
- An emotional sacrifice you must make
- A material sacrifice you must make
- A dream or fear that no longer serves you
- The outcome of your descent
Woman Clothed with the Sun by Rachael Olek
We all of us must follow in Inanna’s footsteps at some point in our lives – more than once, if we’re lucky! To live only on the surface of our awareness is to live a shallow life; but to be aware of all our shadows gives us great depth and self-awareness. Ultimately, tarot is a wonderful and precious tool for exploring those depths and navigating our underworld safely.
If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read Telling Tales: Persephone as the High Priestess or Telling Tales: Odin as the Hanged Man next!
