ð’€Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth
Inanna’s true name is “Inanna NinAnKi”, which in the ancient language of Sumerian means “Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth”. Inanna first came to be known to humankind some time between 5500BCE and 10,000BCE in or near the region which is now known as Iraq. We don’t know exactly when she first became known to us mortals because we have no explicit evidence from before about 3450BCE, even so, we have an array of implicit evidence going all the way back to 10,000BCE which identifies her thematically through iconography. In old texts you’ll often find her name spelled “Inana”. Later on, beginning around 2335BCE, Inanna became recognized through another name, “Ishtar”, which is also spelled “IÅ¡tar”, this is her Akkadian name, which means “Goddess”. During this period of time the Akkadians conquered the Sumerians which caused their societies to merge, resulting in the Akkadian language overwriting the Sumerian language in daily use in the region, and so all of the Anunna, the members of her family, the members of her pantheon, became recognized and referenced through their semitic syncretic names from then on. Today we favor the Sumerian names over the Akkadian names, but both are correct, and both are commonly used.
Inanna NinAnKi is the Supreme Goddess of Heaven and Earth. She is the the source of a great many Divine Domains, which are the aspects of reality which derive entirely from her existence, and as such these are the things she has ultimate influence over. Inanna’s Primary Domains are Gender, Love, Sex, Sexuality, Beauty, Pleasure, Justice, Compassion, Authenticity, Abundance, the Threshold, the Storehouse, Growth, Bloom, Harvest, Fertility, Fecundity, Battle, War, Triumph, Peace, Leadership, Enthronement, Sovereignty, Transformation, and Rebirth. She is also the source of all Femininity, a position handed down from Mother to Daughter along the matrilineal line of her ancestors; from Creatrix Nammu to Primordial Mother Ki-Ninmaḫ-NinḫursaÅ‹ to Supreme Goddess Inanna.
Inanna is special for a great many reasons compared to other Goddesses from other pantheons, but one of the most telling and prominent aspects which makes her special is her overt and explicit acceptance of, support of, and favoring of Transgender, Intersex, Non-Binary, Gender-Non-Conforming, and Queer people since the very beginning. She was well known to hold the “fearsome” power “to change men into women, and women into men”, and she was known to wield this power not just to alleviate the scourge of gender dysphoria from Transgender people, but to punish cisgender people who did not abide her Decrees for how her favored LGBT+ peoples were to be treated, as well as to punish people who committed crimes against their gender or gender itself. Inanna was well known to take both male and female forms at will, performing both male and female sexual roles with partners, with “Princely Inanna” being her earliest epithet, and later on once claiming womanhood forevermore even though she continued to take a male form when she so desired, she always asserted a female gender identity even when declaring herself male at the same time. We have textual evidence of one such instance in the form of a very famous Å¡ir-namÅ¡ub prayer tablet called “Inanna I”, which goes on to reveal: “When I sit in the alehouse, I am a joyful woman, and I am an exuberant young man.”. Indeed, we have textual evidence for Inanna acquiring womanhood after eating a special Divine fruit which revealed her true gender and gave her power over gender and sex, and yet more textual evidence of her later being instructed in the ways of women so as to make them her own. It is very clear and well established that Inanna was not just a run of the mill Goddess who was born into womanhood. No, she is the one who truly understands the true natures of gender and sex, who understands the plights and truths of the Transgender and Intersex peoples, and the Gender-Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, and Queer peoples. She is the Goddess who ensures that these beloved peoples of hers always have holy places within humankind, this world, and all others.
But Inanna does not exist only in ancient tablets, far from it! Inanna is alive and well, powerful and present, here and now! We have present day received mythos and ethos from Inanna, delivered unto us in the same ways that she delivered them unto our ancient predecessors in ancient Sumer. Our religion is not one of reconstructing what was from the guesswork of sand-scoured tablets and dusty bones. Ours is a religion of what is and will always be, from the Supreme Feminine Divinity that is Eternal and Resplendent! Our religion is from She Who Guides Us And Decrees Our Fates Herself! Our religion is Goddess-Sent and mortal-woman-received, as it was in Sumer, as it is Forever!
If any of what you have learned here resonates with you or intrigues you,
I implore you to secure yourself a copy of my book, “The Way of the Ishtarite”; Second Edition,
and consider making your way into our temple, “The Temple of Inanna’s Light”.
These resources are sure to expand your mind, lift your heart,
and help you find your own path to our beloved Goddess, Inanna NinAnKi!