Today, on 11th January, shortly before the first New Moon in this year, Inanna passes through the seventh gate on her way into the underworld. here she hands over her robe. We can see the thin waning crescent Moon next to the bright Venus one hour before sunrise in the East.
With this step Inanna releases all material things, all connection to her role in the upper world. She is naked and there is nothing anymore which could distinguish her from anyone else.
At this place of vulnerability we can let go of all attachments to life and can remember what we are in our essence.
This gate is an excellent preparation for the New Moon and the ongoing crisis, the further breaking away of known familiar structures and what we thought was important and true – yet which was an illusion of the ego, with devastating consequences of destruction and getting further away from one’s own true nature.
Engaging with these energies is a painful but liberating process. We are becoming more pure and more truthful. Working with the Venus-cycle is helpful for this dissolution of our old identity. Especially during the next month while Inanna dwells in the underworld.
We can better navigate through the chaos when we remember that we live in a continuous dissolving and in radical transformative times, and that we are not crazy, even of many things appear to be crazy. We are stuck in the alchemical flask to turn into our golden state.
Like Inanna, who is naked, we have nothing left to identify with when we descent into the underworld. We are asked to give up all attachment to our life. Behind the seventh gate we are raw and vulnerable, we surrender fully to the process of death and rebirth. The New Moon in 13th January is conjunct Pluto and demands that we carry on to die, that we carry on to let go, that we become clearer and clearer about our wrong-doings, where we have been dishonest to ourselves and others.
In February Venus will pass through the eighth gate (which some Venus cycles have). It is the gate of intentional death. Therefore not only this gate but the whole time from now on till then is a preparation to embrace death and to dissolve all definitions we have from ourself, so that we can be reborn into who we truly are. Dedicated commitment is the key for this intention to free and empower.
The seventh gate represents our root chakra, Muladhara. It is the seat of our life energy, our driving force, our fundamental survival needs, our deep primal trust, our connection with the Earth. Passing through this gate demands to hand over all ostensive securities (in this Venus-cycle mainly regarding our perception of the world, our stories and views, our communication) and to find trust in our own chthonic roots and to connect with the chthonic forces in the earth.
Helpful for this are:
* working with the element earth
* spending time with our own body, especially taking care of our skeleton (Venus and Moon are in Capricorn)
* colour red – pictures, clothing, flowers, food, jewellery, …
* drumming, rattling, clapping hands – or listening to it – and dancing
* rosemary, clover, ginger, cypress, ceder
* asanas, meditation Undank other exercises that energise the root chakra
* the four petalled lotus flower
* the mantra LAM
* the solfege DO
* the archangel Uriel
Mond-Venus (3°59′ Capricorn) are in trine to Mars (2°17′ Taurus), Uranus (6°43 rx Taurus) and Lilith (9°11′ Taurus), square Chiron (5°16′ Aries) and conjunct the fixed stars Polis and Kaus Medius in the constellation of Sagittarius.
It is an excellent time to find with enthusiasm new and until now unknown creative expressions for our own emotions and needs, and to stop suppressing our true Self. This will very likely also bring up deep old painful beliefs that have prevented and limited us to do so.
Relationships are int he spot light and every relationship which restricts and has a hierarchy will break. The energies don’t allow routine and suppression. The demand freedom, uniqueness, and equality. Important is that we accept the personal truth – in ourselves and in the other.
It is not about war and rebellion but to see and accept how and with whom we can spend our life, and how and with whom not. So that we clearly hear the beat of our own life, follow it and develop new dance steps. Steps that lead us behind the boundaries of the familiar – for what there are no words yet, but a sense, a bodily understanding.
image credit: Gerd Altmann / pixabay
One thought on “Inanna at the seventh gate”
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Brilliant. Thank you. Very useful and uplifting.