Blogging for Inanna

Blogging for ‘Inanna’

The Story of Inanna has been helpful to me, as I begin my new blog. Here’s my version of the ancient Sumerian myth.

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, was losing sleep, hearing the cries of her sister. Her sister, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, was mourning the death of her beloved husband. So, Inanna decided to go visit her. To the underworld,~~where no one gets out alive!

Inanna knew the danger, but was determined. She asked the most powerful god, Enki, for help. He gave her seven magical layers of armour: breast-plate, helmet, amulet, and more.

Inanna’s great friend Nincurba traveled part way with her. Inanna left her, saying: “If I don’t come back in three days, send for help.”

When Inanna reached the first gate, the gatekeeper would only let her pass if she gave up her lapis lazuli rod. At the next gate she had to remove her breast-plate. At each of seven gates, another protection was removed. Finally, she stood naked before the last entry gate. And was allowed in.

Far from being glad to see her, nasty old Ereshkigal immediately had Inanna killed and hung up on a meat-hook! Lucky for Inanna, she and her friend Nincurba had their secret plan. Nincurba went back to Enki. He sent down his special flies, on a mission. Of course, being flies, they breezed right in.

When they found Ereshigal, she was crying and grieving. “Ohh, poor me!” The flies said: ‘Oh, poor you! We feel your pain. Ohh.’. The queen had never experienced kindness nor compassion before. She was charmed, and offered them anything they wanted. They only wanted to visit that corpse on the meat-hook over there. The flies gave Inanna’s corpse a magic elixir, and voila! Back to life, and outta there! Among the few who can say they got out of the underworld alive.

I’ve always admired Inanna, for her courage in confronting fearful things, her willingness to go deep, and to expose herself in order to find her real strength. I love that metaphor, so I named our company Inanna.

Inanna is a bit like a blogger, don’t you think? We know there’s a good chance we won’t get out alive. We know we’re gonna have to get naked! But we do it anyway!

As much as we like to go in with a clever plan, and work from a position of strength, still, we better have a darn good backup. And that backup oughta be based on friendship and the loyal support of our peops.

Here we go a-blogging! Have mercy!