Touring Far North Queensland

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Hello, friends, and welcome to episode 15 of Darkness and Light. I'm your host, Wendy Rule, and this is a podcast about myth, Magic, and nature. This is a bit of a special episode because I'm recording this on the road. I'm on tour in Australia and I'm recording this a week before it will be released to give me time to edit and get it all ready and for my husband Tim to work his Magic with all the mixing and mastering. So yeah, I arrived in Far North Queensland in Cairnes yesterday, and I'm recording from a little Airbnb here. It's very beautiful, the tropics, and it's also noisy. I had this idea that I'd record during the day today. It's just after sunset now. But uh there were workmen working across the road and grinding metal and then lots of cars and planes. And just when I sat down to record this before, a kid was bouncing a basketball next door. So I'm working with all of that. And there's lots of birds though, so that's really nice. Maybe you'll hear some of those. A lot of them are unfamiliar to me. This land is actually pretty unfamiliar to me because I grew up way down the other end of Australia in Melbourne. So things like being aware of not swimming in the ocean or even walking along the ocean edge because of crocodiles is as outrageous to me as it is to anyone else who didn't grow up somewhere like this in the tropics. So yeah, a whole new environment. But that brings some Magic, I think. And I've been on the road for four weeks already. Wow, it's been a really big tour. But wonderful in so many ways, challenging in lots of other ways. It requires a lot of stamina touring like this, a lot of physical stamina and emotional stamina, and a lot of flexibility. So yeah, and I'm even using my traveling mic today, so it might not sound as nice. It's my little Shure MV88 Plus, for those of you into these kind of things, plugs straight into my iPad. So it's very handy, but it's definitely not my studio at home, that's for sure. So yeah, that's the little bit of background story to what's happening now.

Libra Season And Waning Moon

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In a broader sense, what's happening now is that we have had our Aries Full Moon and the Sun is in Libra. We've had our Equinox, and now the Moon is waning toward the Libra Dark on October 10th or 11th, depending where you are in the world. So we are in the Waning Moon phase. So it feels very appropriate that things are slowing down a little for me on this tour. I actually have a holiday in a couple of days. A holiday? It's hard to believe. My son's flying up from Melbourne and going to have an adventure up here in the tropics. Go out to the Great Barrier Reef. How exciting. Anyway, our Lady Moon waning toward the Libra Dark Moon. So I thought it might be appropriate for this episode to focus on that energy, of how does Libra connect with the energy of darkness? And I thought about all the myths associated with the descent of the Goddess. Back in, wow, it was episode four of this podcast, I recorded an episode dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. And I explored the connection of Aphrodite with the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna, because both these goddesses, along with Ishtar and Astarte, are associated with the planet that we call Venus. That planet is Venus to the Romans and to us here in modern times, Aphrodite to the ancient Greeks, Inanna to the ancient Sumerians, and Ishtar to the Babylonians. And I'm sure that gorgeous planet that appears in the evening sky at times and the morning sky at times, our beautiful jewel of those twilight times, is known by a gazillion other names by different cultures around the world. But with this Libra Dark Moon energy or moving toward that Dark Moon, this Waning Moon energy, I think Inanna , exploring the energy of Inanna - and specifically her story of descent into the Underworld - is very appropriate at this time. So that is going to be our focus for this magical ‘on the road’ tour episode that may have a whole heap of interesting background noises. We shall find out, hey.

Venus As The Twilight Threshold

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And because of her position in relation to Earth and the Sun, from our perspective here on Earth, Venus can never be more than 48 degrees away from the sun. So we're never going to see her at midday or midnight. She's always going to be hanging around the Sun, but at some point she's going to start getting closer and closer and closer to the Sun until she is absorbed by the Sun's rays and disappears into that Sun's brightness. And then we just won't see her for a while. She'll be gone. And miraculously, she'll appear again on the other side of the sky. She'll appear before the Sun at dawn. She will have broken free from the Sun's rays and will appear as the Morning Star. So she's always going to have a sense of being a guide into either the night or the day. She's there at the threshold in the liminal space of twilight or pre-dawn. So always just such a gorgeous time to witness the sky. So Venus is connected with this energy of appearance and disappearance. And there is a myth, the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent, that I believe is very strongly connected to the actual disappearance of Venus, seemingly into the Underworld, and then her reappearance once again, the jewel of the dawn and the jewel of the evening. So my intention for this episode is simply to tell Inanna's story of descent, bearing in mind how ancient this story is thousands and thousands and thousands of years old, one of the oldest known written accounts of a goddess, this descent of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, into the Uderworld, into the realm of death, and then her reappearance. So sit back and relax, and I shall read you a story.

The Story of the Descent of Inanna

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From the Great Above, Inanna set her mind to the Great Below.

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She set her ear to the ground and heard the Great Below calling her, and she knew that it was time to descend. She abandoned Heaven. She abandoned Earth. She abandoned her temples and cities and sacred offices, and prepared herself to descend into the realm of her sister, Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld. Glorious Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, prepared for her descent. She gathered her seven divine powers. She placed the sacred crown upon her head, and carefully arranged her dark locks across her forehead. She placed a necklace of lapis lazuli beads around her neck, and a double strand of beads upon her breast. She dressed in her royal robe, the garment of her ladyship. She darkened her eyes with kohl and put on the breastplate called, Come Man, Come. She placed a gold ring upon her hand and took up her lapis measuring rod and line, symbols of her queenly self. And then Inanna took her faithful friend and companion, Ninshuba, with her as far as the entrance to the underworld. And she said to Ninshuba, If I do not return within three days and three nights, then something has gone wrong. If I do not return, mourn for me, lament for me. Then go to the gods and ask for their help. Ask them to retrieve me from the underworld. And so Inanna arrives at the entrance to the Underworld, and she pounds upon the gate, and the gatekeeper, whose name is Neti, appears, and Inanna in all her grandeur tells him, It is I, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth. And I have come to visit my sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld. Her husband has died, and I have come to participate in his funeral rites. Tell her that I have come, tell her that her sister, Inanna has come. And so Neti goes down, down, down deep into the Underworld, and there sits Ereshkigal upon her throne, powerful, like a spider within its web, and Neti tells her, Ereshkigal, a woman has come beautiful to behold, and she claims she is your sister Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth. Shall I let her enter? Yes, she may enter, but not as my sister will she find me. She will find me as death. At the first gate, Inanna steps across the threshold, and her beautiful crown, symbol of her stature, is removed from her head. And Inana says, What is this? Quiet Inanna. The ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned.

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Inanna makes her way down, down, down, and enters the second gate, and the lapis lazuli beads are removed from her neck. What is this? Quiet, Inanna. The ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned. Inanna continues her descent deep into the dark earth.

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Her hands guide her along the cold stone passage. Her feet find their way down, down until she reaches the third gate and steps across the threshold. The twin bands of bead are removed from her breast.

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What is this? Quiet, Inanna. The ways of the Underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned. And Inanna no longer recalls. Is she beautiful? Is she plain? Inanna continues her descent down into the deep Earth, honoring the call of the Below.

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As she enters the fourth gate, her beautiful breastplate called Come Man. Come is removed. What is this? Quiet, Inanna. The ways of the Underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned. And Inanna, the most beautiful woman in all of Sumer no longer knows. Is she man? Is she woman?

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Deeper and deeper she descends until she reaches the fifth gate and the golden ring from her hand is removed. What is this? Quiet Inanna. The ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned. And Inanna no longer recalls. Is she rich? Is she poor? Onward. The deeper, the darker she descends.

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At the sixth gate, the lapis lazuli measuring rod and line symbols of her regal self are removed, and Inanna calls out, What is this? Quiet Inanna. The ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned. And Inanna no longer knows what is up, what is down, what is before, what is after. She enters the seventh gate and her beautiful gown is removed, and she stands there naked, scared, and alone. What is this? Quiet Inanna. The ways of the Underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned.

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And so Inanna comes before Ereshkigal. Naked and alone. She comes before her sister, Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld. Naked and alone. And Ereshkigal points the finger of death. Inanna's body slumps to the ground.

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Ereshkigal's servants take Inanna's body and hang it upon a meat hook for three days and three nights her body hangs upon the hook. Like the Dark Moon disappeared from sight for three days and three nights Inanna remains in the Underworld.

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Back on the surface of the Earth, Inanna's faithful friend and companion, Ninshuba, begins her mourning. She dresses in mourning attire. She laments. She beats the drum. And then she visits the houses of the gods and appeals to them for help. First she goes to Enlil, god of wind and air, and of divine authority. But Enlil is unmoved by Ninshuba's pleas. Inanna knew what she was doing. She saw the Great Above, and she also saw the Great Below. The laws of the Underworld cannot be ignored. The one who enters the Underworld cannot simply leave. And so Ninshuba goes to Nanna, god of the Moon, Inanna's father. But Nanna, too, is unmoved. She made her choice. The laws of the Uderworld must stand. And finally Ninshuba goes to Enki, the god of wisdom, Magic, and the life-giving fresh waters. Oh Enki, says Ninshuba, Inanna has gone into the Underworld. My beautiful queen has gone into the Underworld, and I am so worried for her. It has been three days and it's been three nights, and she has not returned. Please help me. Please help me to bring Inanna back.

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And Enki begins to mourn. He cries and he paces up and down and he thinks as he cries. Oh Inanna, what have you done? Oh Inanna, what have you done? What have you done? And he paces and he cries. Then he has an idea.

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And Enki takes the dirt from beneath his fingernails, the soil of earth, he spits upon it, and from this clay he creates two tiny strange beings, the Kurgara and the Galatur. And he gives one the life-giving plant, and he gives the other the life-giving water. And he instructs them to enter the underworld. You will find a woman there groaning in pain and yet alone. She is Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld. Hear her pain. Witness her pain. She will offer you a boon. Accept nothing but the body of Inanna. Then place a droplet of the life-giving water upon her lips. Place a grain of the life-giving plant upon her lips. Go now, go to the Underworld, fly to the Underworld.

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And so the Kugara and the Galator slip through the gates of the underworld. Down, down, down they go, and there they find Ureshkigal, groaning with pain, and yet alone, groaning with pain like a woman in labor, suffering, her hair disheveled, her shoulders bare. Oh my insides she groans and they repeat back to her. Oh your insides. Oh my outsides she groans in pain. Oh your outsides. Oh my pain is truly unbearable. Yes, great queen, your pain is truly unbearable. And on it goes until finally Ereshkigal says, You little creatures who were here for me when no one else was, I shall offer you a boon. I offer you a river full of water. But they refuse. I offer you a field full of grain. Again, but they refuse. And what is it that you want? Only that corpse there hanging upon the meat hook.

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And so Inana's corpse is taken down, and the Kurgara and the Galater place a drop of the life-giving water upon her lips, and a grain of the life-giving plant. And Inanna’s flesh becomes whole. Her lungs fill with air. Her breast begins to rise and fall. And finally she opens her eyes alive, alive.

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But the laws of the Underworld cannot simply be overturned. If Inanna is to return to the Great Above, then someone must take her place. And so spirits of the Underworld are sent to accompany Inanna as she begins her ascent back to surface to ensure that someone is found to take her place.

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Up she climbs. And when she reaches the surface and the light, Ninshuba, her faithful friend and companion, is waiting for her, still dressed in mourning attire, still grieving the loss of her beloved goddess. The spirits of the underworld try to take Ninshuba in Inanna's place, but Inanna cries, No, not Ninshuba. This is the friend who mourned for me. This is the friend who never abandoned me. This is the friend who went from god to god pleading for my life. I will not allow you, spirits of the underworld, to take her.

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And so Inanna continues on, accompanied by the spirits of the underworld, searching for the one who will take her place. Eventually she finds her husband, Dumuzi. And Dumuzi is dressed in magnificent attire, sitting proudly upon his throne. He's not dressed in mourning clothes. He's not lamenting. He's not grieving for Inanna at all. And Inanna is furious. Heartbroken by his lack of grief for her disappearance, she turns upon Dumuzi. And it is Dumuzi whom she gives to the spirits of the underworld. But Dumuzi struggles against his fate. He tries to escape. And his sister, Geshtinanna, mourns for him deeply. Eventually a balance is found. For half the year, Dumuzi will dwell in the Underworld. And for the other half, his sister, Geshtinana, will take his place. And so the brother and sister descend and ascend in turn.

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Above and below. Descent and Ascent. Death and life. The eternal turning of the circle. And through it all, Ereshkigal remains in the Great Below. The Queen of the Underworld, the keeper of its mysteries.

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Holy Ereshkigal. Sweet is your praise.

What I’ve Learnt From This Story

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What a story, hey! This story has been deeply helpful to me throughout my life. One of the things that I've found so helpful about it, and I actually wrote a song called Inanna that came out on my album called World Between Worlds that came out in 2000. And at that time, I was going through epic cycles of depression. And this myth of Inanna, I found just so soothing. I actually wrote uh, I presented a, I guess, a kind of theatrical presentation, maybe it was 1999, called An Underworld Journey. And somewhere I have the VHS recording of that. I'll find it and make it digital one of these days. But anyway, it was a theatrical presentation of that process of descent. And I went through, I took myself through that process of stripping back, just like Inanna does throughout this story. So, yeah, for a while there I was very deeply immersed in this myth. And of course, I could see those parallels with the Persephone myth. But the big difference, I think, I mean, there's many, between the Inanna story and Persephone's story of descent, and Persephone's is a is a later myth. Inanna's predates that, is that Inanna goes down willingly. She hears the call of the underworld and she descends willingly rather than being abducted and forced into the underworld. So there's kind of like a sense of greater integration and definitely autonomy in the Inanna myth. But one of the things that I found, as I mentioned, so deeply, deeply helpful is that as Inanna descends, she starts off so regal with her crown and dressed in all her finery. But each stage, as she strips back, all the certainty that was there at the surface disappears. She loses her status as queen. She no longer knows is she woman, is she man. She's stripped right back to her core essence. And I believe that every underworld journey that we take ourselves does strip us back. It can be very disorienting to not know, to no longer know where we might fit in the world. We can find ourselves in these times of descent when we go through a big change in our lives. Maybe it's grief, maybe it's an illness, maybe it's a loss. But those times when we find ourselves stepping through those gates of the underworld, it can be it can be scary.

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And I love in this myth that Inanna gets scared. This is the goddess who is freaking out, you know, by the end. What is this? She doesn't know. That feeling of being stripped to the bone, of not knowing what's happening, not knowing what we can do, and also having to accept that the ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned. Just like the seed going into the ground, and that it goes through a transformation, it begins to swell, and out of it comes this whole being, this shoot, this new energy. We go through that too at our times of descent. And Inana is there to not necessarily guide us. I think the myth acts as a guide, but Inanna's there to precede us, really. She says, I've done this, or the myth says, I've done this. Yes, it's very painful. It feels like a death. It feels like you're hung on a meat hook, but you will rise again. You will find a way to surface again. And one of the other things that I find very important in this myth is she doesn't expect to do that alone. She actually sets up a support team before she descends and says, Hey, I'm going into the underworld. Please look out for me. There's a certain amount of time that this is appropriate, and beyond that, it's not appropriate. Like I absolutely accept that we go through times of grief and sadness, and for some of us, depression. But the underworld is a place to visit and not to stay. Sometimes we can't find our way back from that darkness. Sometimes it can feel like months, maybe sometimes it is months or years where we feel like we're hanging on the meat hook down there in Ereshkigal's realm. And that's when our support network needs to step in. Ninshuba, because Inanna has said, this is what you need to do, keep an eye out for me. So then Ninshuba goes and gets help, and Enki helps out. So I really love this, that Inanna knows how dangerous these journeys can be and how lost we can feel. And she accepts the help of her friend. So sometimes we have to do that too. Sometimes rather than being brave and saying, no, I'm okay, to say, actually, I'm not okay. I really need some help here. I'm worried.

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So there's some of the things that I get out of this Goddess in the Underworld. And I continue to learn from this myth, just like I do from the myth of Persephone, these cycles of death and life and death and life over and over and over. And a really powerful reminder in our own lives that there is an opportunity for return even from the darkest place. And the goddess teaches us that. The Moon teaches us that. The planet Venus teaches us that, that we can return. And sometimes, if we need it with some help, we can surface again.

What We Leave Behind As Offering

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And I also think it's interesting that there needs to be something left behind in the underworld when we come back out, an offering of some sort. For me, what I, you know, leave behind in my place is my music. You know, I go down and find myself in these realms. And then my t something out of that experience. All of us are different. That's not necessarily the right way. It's just my way. And it has helped me to resurface after really hard times. You know, the last time I did that was making my Darkness and Light album that I use in this podcast after a really difficult time or during a really difficult time, in fact. And just expressing and being honest rather than trying to make it go away, just being present with it and feeling it. Oh, it's a very, very big, big, big thing, the descent, isn't it? That we get an opportunity to engage with that darkness every single month at the dark moon. And sometimes the descent is the process that we need to go through to shed ourselves of the things that are holding us back, of the trappings of identity that can limit us as Inanna lets go of her crown, of her jewelry, of her wealth, of that gold ring, of her sexuality, even. That I love how that breastplate, that decorative plate is, you know, the translation is come, man, come. I think it's so beautiful. But she lets that go. She's forced to let it go. And it's disconcerting when our identity is so often built around our role in life, how we're perceived by others, the role that we play for others. So, yeah, sometimes we've got to be conscious of the thing that we're letting go. Sometimes it gets taken from us, like it did for Inanna, but sometimes we can willingly say, I'm letting this go so that I can go deeper, so that I can move through the next gateway. I'm gonna give up this particular thing, aspect, habit, person, quality, experience. I'm gonna release it so that I can be stripped to the bone, so that I can start new.

Tarot Pull The Devil Card

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All right, I'm gonna do some tarot now. Let's take a moment's break and take a little breath and listen to some music, and then I'll pull a tarot card, okay? So let's pull a card and uh think what we might like to contemplate further regarding these themes. Shuffle away from the mic, hang on a sec. All right. As this moon is waning toward the Libra dark, what are we to bear in mind? Oh, this is interesting. We've never pulled this one before. I Pulled the devil. It's really is just what we've been talking about. In this image, the um Pamela Coleman-Smith rider weight deck, the standard tarot deck that's a lot of other tarot decks are based on this imagery. And uh you have this image of a of a pretty classic style devil with horns and wings and clawed feet, and he's kind of mimicking the position of the magician with one hand up and one hand pointing down, and then the pointing down hand is holding a kind of flaming torch, and then he's perched on a pedestal, and anchored to that pedestal is a chain, a ring, and attached to that ring are two chains. One is attached, uh is hanging around the neck of a naked woman, and the other is around the neck of a naked man, and they're standing there. This card speaks of um, it does talk of like addictions and and that can be way more than the obvious ones. It's about anything that chains us to a limiting sense of self, the things that anchor our attachments, being overly attached. I mean, it's very literal, really. So anything that is chaining us, and to in this sense, it's to the very corporeal aspects of life, chaining us to greed and over-attachment to sensory experience and that kind of thing. But interestingly, this card can also be read as raw energy, as passion and as vitality in a way as well. It's a really interesting one. The first look, it looks kind of scary to start with. And of course, it's called the Devil, which is connecting in with a Christian myth that has definitely nothing to do with my spirituality in the slightest. But it does kind of talk of these negative forces in our lives that we chain ourselves to. And we've just talked about that whole process of shedding as we go through the layers of the underworld. So honestly, I'm seeing this kind of a tricky card to talk about. Um, would have been nice if we just got a nice, easy, straightforward one. I'm gonna have to contemplate it and think a little more deeply around this one. But yeah, definitely talks to attachment, but there is also that raw vitality of desire that can have a really positive implication as well. But I think in our context, it really is about what are we overly attached to? In the same way that Inana had to, you know, release her crown, you know, release her attachment to status or to beauty, and finally even to life. What are we overly attached to? I'm gonna speak more about that tarot card in the Magic Monday episode that follows the release of this podcast episode.

Patreon, Magic Monday, And Thanks

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Magic Monday is a video that I do on Patreon every week. My Patreon page is what allows this podcast to remain ad-free. This is my offering to the world, and it takes a lot of time and energy, even here on my nearly my holiday at least. I'm uh setting aside a day to uh to share this because I think it's important stuff, and I love doing it, of course. But it's also very helpful when uh folks express their gratitude for that through joining up to my Patreon page. But yeah, my Patreon is a way of uh creating community together, but also of keeping this podcast afloat, in all honesty. And I would really appreciate it if you went and checked it out. It's just patreon.com forward slash Wendy Rule. And yeah, I do a video every week called Magic Monday, and I'm very dedicated to that. It's a lovely thing for me. It keeps me grounded to do that video each week. And we pull a tarot card, and yeah, the episode following a podcast release, we go deeper into the card, so that's nice. So yeah, jump on board. It costs five bucks, five USD a month is the bottom tier, and then there's higher tiers above that. So that's about the cost of a cup of coffee or glass of wine - at a cheap bar. Dog barking now. All right, I'm gonna wind up there. And I'm gonna wish you a very, very wonderful Libra Dark Moon. And I'm gonna actually play at the end. I'll play some of my Inanna song so that you can have a little listen to that one. Okay, until next time, blessed be.