Inanna
Intention: Ask for love, power and the courage to descend and return
Offerings & Symbols
- A lapis lazuli or blue stone
- An eight-pointed star image
- Something you reclaimed after loss
Culture: Sumerian (also called Ishtar in Akkadian/Babylonian) Domain: Love, war, the planet Venus, sovereignty
Inanna is one of the oldest deities with substantial surviving literature, goddess of love and war together, whose descent into the underworld to confront her sister Ereshkigal, stripped of power at each of seven gates and eventually killed, then restored, is one of the earliest known myths of death and rebirth in world literature.
Associations
Love and desire, war, the planet Venus, sovereignty, transformation through descent.
Ways people honor her (modern)
- Read the Descent of Inanna, among the oldest substantial myths in written history
- Reflect on a period of genuine loss that ultimately led to restoration
- Keep an eight-pointed star or Venus-linked token on the altar
- Approach both love and power as forces worth respecting equally, as she embodies both
Approach any deity with respect and do your own research. Practices vary widely between traditions, and modern devotional practice often goes beyond what survives in ancient sources.
