Inanna's descent into the underworld

In the story, when Inanna reaches the gatekeeper of the underworld, she is told at each of the 7 gates [chakras] to remove an article of clothing and that this serves to "strip her of her power" until she finally arrives at the end totally naked.

I imagine this has more to do with "purification" of the chakras, but she seems somehow humiliated/weakened by the whole ordeal. And is trapped, waiting to be saved by Enki.

Is this just for the sake of storytelling, or why does there seem to be a negative connotation here?

This reminds me of the myth of Persephone, who was abducted by Hades into the underworld. The sumerian equivalent is Erishkigal and there is a relation to the story you mentioned.

Be warned that wikipedia is controlled by the enemy and not everything you read is accurate. It's best to go to primary or secondary sources if available.

Inanna's Descent into the underworld
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In this poem, the goddess Inanna descends into the underworld, apparently seeking to extend her powers there. Ereshkigal is described as being Inanna's older sister. When Neti, the gatekeeper of the underworld, informs Ereshkigal that Inanna is at the gates and demanding to be let in, Ereshkigal responds by ordering Neti to bolt the seven gates of the underworld and to open each separately, but only after Inanna has removed one article of clothing.

Inanna proceeds through each gate, removing one article of clothing at each gate, and also loses her magic items to a nymph over the course of the journey. Finally, once she has gone through all seven gates, she finds herself naked and powerless, standing before the throne of Ereshkigal. The seven judges of the underworld judge Inanna and declare her to be guilty. Inanna is struck dead and her corpse is hung on a hook in the underworld for everyone to see.

Inanna's minister, Ninshubur, however, pleads with various gods and finally Enki agrees to rescue Inanna from the underworld. Enki sends two sexless beings down to the underworld to revive Inanna with the food and water of life. These beings escort Inanna up from the underworld, but a horde of angry demons follow Inanna, demanding to take someone else down to the underworld as Inanna's replacement. They initially want it to be Ninshubur, but Inanna rebukes this order, stating that she would not hand over a loyal subordinate to them. However, when she discovers that her husband, Dumuzid, has not mourned her death, she becomes ireful towards him and orders the demons to take him as her replacement.[11]

This story seems to be describing the necessity of cleaning the soul and chakras, as well as balancing them. Inanna here could be seen as the yin or feminine principle of the soul. Dumuzid, her husband, could be the yang/masculine principle. If these two are not united and in harmony then disaster results. One must not be above or below the other.

The quote here describes "sexless beings" and another describes them as "transgender". They are neither. They are the Gala, the priests of Sumeria. "Sexless" is likely a corruption, because remember that people who write about these things and translate them are not spiritual people, and these things are overseen by the enemy, so spiritual connotations are thrown out or missing. Sexless should be interpreted as neither masculine nor feminine, but both, since they are in balance, unified, perfected, as one would expect from the priestly class.

This seems to be a better site than wikipedia:
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/215/inannas-descent-a-sumerian-tale-of-injustice/

When Inanna comes upon her lover Dumuzi, however, and finds him “dressed in his shining…garments…on his magnificent throne” she becomes enraged that he, unlike the others, is not mourning her and orders the demons to seize him. Dumuzi appeals to the sun god Utu for help and is transformed into a snake in order to escape but, eventually, is caught and carried away to the underworld.

Dumuzi's sister, Geshtinanna, volunteers herself to go in his place and so it is decreed that Dumuzi will spend half the year in the underworld and Geshtinanna the other half. In this way, as, again with the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the seasons were explained.

There are themes of jealousy and betrayal here, which I believe reinforces the themes of imbalance between yin and yang within the soul.

Attempting to raise the kundalini with a dirty, imbalanced soul cannot succeed and can be damning. Inanna in this story tried this and needed to be revived by spiritual masters, the priests, and Enki. The seasons are allegories for polarity of the soul. The sushumna has been described as drifting from ida and pingala throughout the day, which is reflected in the periodic, rhythmic, closing of one nostril and opening of another.

The winter season is when it is in the ida, the summer is when it is in the pingala. The realm of the gods, "heaven" or olympus or etc, is always described as a lush and temperate paradise all year round, which alludes to fixation of the sushumna in a balanced and unified soul. There are layers of spiritual meaning in the myths.

This reminds me of the myth of Persephone, who was abducted by Hades into the underworld. The sumerian equivalent is Erishkigal and there is a relation to the story you mentioned.

Be warned that wikipedia is controlled by the enemy and not everything you read is accurate. It's best to go to primary or secondary sources if available.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ereshkigalen.m.wikipedia.org

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These things are not to be taken literally. Inanna here is not literally Inanna. It's allegorical. I would like to write a better post about this at some point.

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Thanks, your points here make a lot of sense.

Would be very curious to read a more in-depth post from you.

Do you know how Inanna's husband and the need for a "replacement" plays into the myth?

Also, is ida and pingala same as yin and yang? What is sushuma? Do you have any accurate resources I could read up on this more in depth?

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Very insightful, thank you.

Yeah, fuck you, too.

Apologies, I didn't have time to read this until now.

Your analysis sounds pretty spot-on, and it's interesting how you relate it to the "nigredo part of the soul" which I assume represents the unknown/unchartered territory... I imagine some God's being depicted as black/dark skinned is symbolic of this as well.

How do you 'connect' the Ida and Pingala? Is it a specific meditation or a natural result of spiritual advancement?

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This can help you in understanding. Read here: The Goddess Astarte & Happy Ostara