18/01/2024
EANNA PRESS NEWS - INANNANTHOLOGY II BEGINS ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS!
Due to demand, Eanna Press will now begin accepting submissions for our second 'INANNANTHOLOGY', this time entitled: 'THE DESCENT OF THE GODDESS'.
This will be an Anthology of literature, artwork, devotional work, prayers, hymns, songs, rituals (both solitary and full Temple rituals), path-workings, and personal reflections, dedicated entirely to ‘Reclaiming’ the Descent of the Goddess Inanna by her contemporary devotees.
Work will still continue on in the background as we finalise our first Inannanthology, which is now in the final stages before publication. All authors have now been notified, and final sign off of all submitted works in progress.
For more information, or to submit an offering, please contact us though our Official Page, or email us at: [email protected]
Submission Guidelines:
1. All writers and artists submitting material for the publication will be acknowledged in the publication itself by name (or pseudonym if reque histed).
2. Contributions should be original work only and not previously published within a copyrighted publication (unless with rights or permission to do so).
3. Contributors will not be paid for their submitted content, but will receive full recognition for their work(s).
4. Inclusion of submitted content is up to the discretion of the editors who will be reviewing the content prior to publication.
5. Plagiarized content will not be accepted for publication.
6. No AI Generated artwork will be accepted for publication.
RECLAIMING THE DESCENT OF INANNA
During the late 1970’s and early 80’s the Myth of ‘Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld’ captured the hearts, minds and imagination of a series of second wave feminism, neo-paganism, and the Goddess spirituality movement.
At this point the Descent myth was re-appropriated and re-packaged, and, using Jungian psychology, turned into a series of path-workings as a way of empowering women. In this process the Goddesses in the text were reduced to archetypes by which the women undergoing this process went through what could be described as a rite-of-passage to ‘re-connect with their feminine-principle’.
From this point on feminist theologians would try to re-imagine the Goddess Inanna using gender re-appropriation to repackage her into a ‘mother Goddess archetype’. This led to many advocates of the movement rejecting the war-like aspects of the Goddess Inanna, as they believed these traits were the result of ‘the Patriarchy’. As a result of this the Goddess was re-imagined as a “loving, protecting, nurturing, fertile Inanna” and one who “embodies fertility, the wheel of birth, growth, death and regeneration” which they believed was a “more genuine understanding of the Goddess”. Many Publications followed, all focused on rewriting the Descent of Inanna to suit their own ideology.
These are all elements of gender stereotyping which one would expect to see in the Abrahamic religions, yet we find it also alive and well, and deeply rooted in the modern Goddess spirituality. We see this served up as an ideal image of a meek subservient mother Goddess, as a peacekeeper and a good little wife, reduced to a chalice to be the vessel for the male seed, which is inserted in the form of a ceremonial dagger.
We like to look back on the fantasy of a once Matriarchal society, one where the Mother Goddess took centre stage, yet many in today's Pagan world cast the Mother Goddess in a role that perpetuates the idea that women can be only kindly mothers, and little else. It in turn reduces women to baby-making machines by its own actions.
Yet what is a mother? When you think of mother, rather than thinking of a caring loving nursemaid archetype, who picks you up off the ground when you fall, puts a bandage on your wounded knee, and pulls you into a warm loving hug, instead, think of a mother lion. Think of a mother lion, fiercely protective of her cubs. Think of her teeth bared, snarling ferociously, claws razor sharp and ready to attack. Picture another predator wandering unknowingly into her vicinity, posing a threat to her children. Picture her flying wildly into attack, ripping the intruder limb from limp, its blood dripping from her gaping maw. There are many aspects to a mother, and not all exude pacifism.
Inanna is the same mother lion in many ways, and it is such a shame the Goddess spirituality movement of this Era did not embrace this at the time. For a good mother can go to war to protect her own children, as well as defend herself. One of Inanna’s most powerful myths is ‘Inanna and Shukalletuda’.
In this myth we see the Goddess Inanna stopping in a city to rest, and falls asleep. While she is asleep, she is r***d by one of the town’s inhabitants: a gardener named Shukalletuda. Rather than acting like the defanged and declawed Mother Goddess that the 70‘s Goddess Movement made her into, Inanna goes to war. She seeks divine retribution against her ra**st on a yet untold Biblical scale.
Seeing the storm that is coming his way, the gardener asks the town’s people to hide him. This infuriates the Goddess more, and we see her in the myth turning the rivers of the city to blood, tearing up plants by their roots, poisoning the city’s food supply, unleashing a series of powerful storms, and sending great plagues upon the inhabitants of the city.
This is perhaps the most powerful feminist myths we have today: one where a woman seeks justice against a man who has violated her, and it is truly sad that the Goddess spirituality movement would choose to ignore such a myth, and instead try to turn Inanna into the very thing that she opposes.
We at Eanna Press, therefore, would like to redress this balance. With this endeavour we aim to produce a publication focused more on Inanna’s Descent in respect to the historical aspects of the Goddess herself, and more respectful of her mythology, detached from misappropriation or Jungian stereotyping.
Yes, some of these submissions still can include Pathworkings, though we would ask for these to be more deeply rooted in all of the mythological aspects of the Goddess, and celebrating and rejoicing in them, rather than attempting to repackage them into something they are not. For through this work, we aim to produce a Publication far greater in tune with the Goddess herself, more respectful, and, uncoupled from Jungian psychology, far more authentic in their praxis.
Ave Inanna!
