Inanna: "Queen of Heaven", Goddess of Many Faces

I have to tell you about a woman— a goddess—who has been on my mind lately. Her name is Inanna, and she is everything.

Known to the Sumerians over 4,000 years ago as the Queen of Heaven, Inanna is the kind of goddess who refuses to be just one thing. She rules over love and beauty, but also war and power. She brings fertility to the fields and strategy to the battlefield. She’s the morning star and the evening star—Venus herself—bright, untouchable, impossible to ignore.

When the Sumerians became part of the Akkadian empire, she carried on under the name Ishtar. Names change, empires rise and fall, but Inanna? She doesn’t go anywhere. She’s carved into clay tablets, built into temples, and whispered about in stories that have outlived whole civilizations.

The Descent

One of her most famous tales is Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld. Inanna’s descent to the underworld is the earliest known goddess descent myth, predating and inspiring later tales like the more familiar Persephone.

It starts with a crown on her head and power in her hands. She decides to visit her sister, Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld. But to enter, she must pass through seven gates, and at each one she’s made to remove something—her crown, her jewels, her robes—until she stands there, bare, stripped of every earthly and divine symbol.

Ereshkigal strikes her down. Inanna hangs lifeless on a hook for three days and three nights.

But goddesses like Inanna don’t stay dead. With the help of her loyal servants, she rises again, returning to the land of the living—forever changed, but even more powerful.

It’s a story of power, surrender, death, and rebirth. And maybe you’ve lived your own version of it.

Preserved in History

We know Inanna was real to her people because they left her everywhere—in clay tablets written in cuneiform (the first writing system in the world), in carved stone reliefs, in the ruins of her temples at Uruk. Archaeologists have uncovered her name, her hymns, and her symbols from layer after layer of ancient Mesopotamian cities.

The Sumerians were the first urban civilization we know of, and Inanna’s temple, the Eanna, was one of the jewels of Uruk. She wasn’t a small household goddess; she was the goddess.

{Mask of Warka (Lady of Uruk) — Uruk (c. 3100 BCE)
One of the earliest and most accurate depictions of a human face, carved in marble and thought to represent Inanna.}

The Inanna Ring

I’ve been reading about her and been channeling her into my work lately. She’s captured me. The first round of the Inanna Rings were made in the Spring. Now I’m working on a new collection of them—each with a different stone, each catching a different facet of her magic.

• Orange Carnelian for vitality and fire
• Pyrite for protection and boldness
• Amazonite for truth and flowing communication
• Dioptase for heart-deep transformation
• …and more to come as the collection grows.

The shape stays true—mirrored points like a crown for your finger—but the stones shift, so you can choose the one that feels like your Inanna.

Why She Still Matters

Inanna reminds us that we can be soft and strong, romantic and ambitious, open-hearted and fiercely self-protective. That we can descend into our own darkness and come back with new light. That we don’t have to choose just one version of ourselves to be.

So if you’re in a season of claiming your power—whether that’s at work, in the garden, or during meditation—let her story walk with you.

And maybe, wear a little silver crown on your hand to remind you of your inner Inanna.

If you want to see the Inanna Rings as they’re born, you can see the begining of the Inanna Ring Collection—stay tuned for more very soon!