On Restoring Balance
“… when Inanna was in the underworld, nothing grew or copulated. The earth was barren. The goddess had withdrawn in sacrifice to herself …
Musings / Part Three
In the first part of this series, I reflected on the meaning of Inanna’s journey in light of Perera’s work. In the second part, I explored how Inanna’s experience in the underworld initiates her into a new way of seeing, transforming her understanding of self and the world. In this final part, I want to explore how, according to Perera, Inanna’s journey ultimately led her to reclaim an authentic source of balance.
So let’s begin.
In the underworld, stripped of her power, beauty, and authority, Inanna comes face to face with her shadow self—Ereshkigal, who embodies everything she has repressed, denied, or left unacknowledged. This reckoning initiates her into a new way of seeing, revealing a truth that only she can discover by making the journey.
I call this truth Ereshkigal’s secret — a piece of wisdom that rekindles Inanna’s resilience, allowing her to rise through the gates and reclaim the symbols of her identity with newfound vision and knowing.
These symbols of her identity no longer define her. She now understands who she is once this symbols disappear. With this wisdom, she replenishes her sense of balance from an inner source, no longer dependent on the outer world for validation.
How a woman restores balance after a descent depends on her conscious personality when she undertakes the journey.
Ereshkigal does not offer a singular path for everyone. Some must endure her suffering, some must outwit her, and some must find ways to integrate what she represents. The way one engages with Ereshkigal reflects what is lacking or repressed in their conscious self.
For Inanna, who begins as a powerful, autonomous goddess full of agency, the underworld strips her of everything. Her descent is not about conquering but about submission, sacrifice, and learning a new form of power—one that is receptive rather than assertive.
The passive mirroring she undergoes in the presence of Ereshkigal is a stark contrast to her former self, revealing the necessity of embracing the other side of her nature. For her, the shadow work that she undertakes in the underworld allows her to emerge with a deeper understanding of life and death, power and surrender.
What must be confronted, endured, or learned varies depending on what has been neglected or denied in one’s own psyche. The myth doesn’t offer a single answer but instead serves as a framework for understanding personal transformation through descent, loss, and eventual renewal. It doesn’t tell us exactly what to do, but it provides a pattern or roadmap that we can adapt to better navigate the complexity of our individual descent journeys.
When we avoid our own depths—when we suppress our grief, our anger, our truth—we disconnect from a vital part of ourselves and thrown off balance. Inanna’s journey reminds us that descent is not failure but a necessary step to restoring genuine balance that no one or no thing can take away.
It is a return to something ancient, something powerful—a deeper equilibrium. This is not just an initiation into a new way of seeing ourselves and the world, but into a true, unshakable balance that arises from a rediscovery of wholeness.
