Episode Details

Venus in the sky is currently at her highest glory (elongation (distance from the sun)). That's the moment that, like Inanna, she hears the call from the Great Above to the Great Below and decides to descend. She moves through the seven gates, each gate demanding that she remove one of her signals of power in the upper realms. 

Melanie Reinhart joins me to talk about her own observations of this myth. It has particularly come alive for her since she started tracking the resonance of her inner world with the movements of Venus through its five-pointed star pattern since 1983.

We discuss Melanie's connection to folklorist, Diane Wolkstein. Diane was a storyteller who held court in Central Park, NY, in an official capacity as resident storyteller for many years. Following her curiosity about ancient tales, Diane tracked down Samuel Noah Kramer, a leading Sumerologist in his field whose job it was to translate cuneiform texts. 

Together they wrote the book Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth (see link below). Kramer translated Cuneiform into English, Wolkstein translated English into Story. From their tireless and persistent work togehter the ancient myth made its way into the modern world. 

It's more than just a story of descent. It's a story of ecstacy, longing, commitment, obligation, love, loss, rage and redemption... amongst other things. 

In this Special Edition episode, aligned with the Times, Melanie shares with us a generous offering of her life experience, client observations and participation in the coming to life of this epic tale into the modern era. 

Timeless wisdom for a world in thirst of soul. 

Podcast Image: Ancient Akkadian cylinder seal depicting the goddess Inanna resting her foot on the back of a lion while Ninshubur stands in front of her paying obeisance, c. 2350–2150 BCE

Resources

• Sylvia Brinton Perera — Descent to the Goddess (1981)
• Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer — Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth (1983)
• Diane Wolkstein — The First Love Stories: From Isis and Osiris to Tristan and Iseult
• Samuel Noah Kramer — Sumerologist / translations of the Inanna cuneiform texts 
• Ariel Guttman — Venus Star Point / Venus cycle 
• Dane Rudhyar — birth as the moment of separation / cutting of the cord 
• Alice Bailey — Venus as esoteric ruler of Gemini 
• Irving Finkel — British Museum / Sumerian material and the Queen's Lyre 
• Rumi — poem concerning love and removing the obstacles to love 
• Adonis / Aphrodite — later mythic development of the dying-and-returning lover and lamentation tradition 
• Rogerian therapy / Carl Rogers — mirroring/