The Heroine’s Journey: Lessons from Inanna’s Descent

You’ve no doubt heard the familiar narrative: the brave knight ventures forth, conquering obstacles and slaying dragons to achieve glory and success! While empowering, this narrative resonates with a decidedly masculine energy emphasising conquest, external challenges, and individual triumph.

But what about the feminine path to power and fulfilment?

The legend of Inanna, the ancient Sumerian goddess, offers a rich alternative, and I’d love to share it with you today to inspire your own growth as an ambitious woman. 

Inanna’s story isn’t about conquering the external world but rather about a descent into the depths of her own underworld—the realm of shadows, trials, and rebirth.

Her journey speaks to the very heart of the feminine awakening path, which in contrast to the conquering ‘push’ energy demonstrated in the Hero’s Journey, is actually profoundly healing for your feminine system as a female bodied human.

So many of the ambitious women and female leaders I work with today are burnt out and exhausted from conquesting, pushing, overcoming, slaying just one more dragon ‘out there’ in the world, but neglecting the descent into their own inner realms.

I share Inanna’s story with you this week to offer a route to awakening your feminine essence and power, and finding nourishment, relaxation and peace amidst the demands of your busy life.

The Descent of Inanna: A Different Kind of Courage

Inanna, the goddess of both creation and destruction, embarks on a journey not outward into the world but inward into herself. Her legend tells that she descends to the underworld, a realm ruled by her sister Ereshkigal. This journey is not about fighting external enemies – or creating results in the world – but about confronting her own inner darkness and vulnerability. 

Inanna must strip away her symbols of power and worldly beauty, and face death itself to be reborn. 

Her story arc mirrors what I like to call the “Heroine’s Journey” – a path not of conquest but of personal transformation and blossoming into your fullness.

The Power of Descent

When I first connect with many of my clients, coming from our culture that values “doing” over “being,” the idea of descent—of going inward—can seem counterintuitive and even quite threatening to the parts of them determined to stay productive. 

You’ve likely been taught to push, achieve, and perpetually strive.

But Inanna’s myth shows you the power of turning inward. Her descent is a metaphor for embracing your mess, darkness, and, even your ugliness. It’s in these shadowy places that you find the keys to your true liberation and authentic feminine power.

Letting Yourself Off the Hook

In perhaps the darkest moment in Inanna’s story, she is killed by her sister in the underworld, and her corpse I hung from a meathook on the wall.

For days she hangs on the hook, rotting, until she is rescued and revived, then able to return to the topside world.

Many women hold themselves to punishing standards, striving to juggle careers, family and being ‘all the things’, frequently feeling like they fall short and are commonly their own harshest critiques.

I often find myself working with driven women, helping them find forgiveness for themselves for the parts of them they find ‘not enough’. So I’ll offer you the same invitation I give them – to see if you can contemplate letting yourself off the hook.

Those places where you berate and criticise yourself. What if you chose instead to find softness, compassion and empathy for yourself within your challenges?

Embracing Your Darkness Leads to Liberation

The journey inward is not about collapsing into helplessness and wallowing in darkness but about understanding and integrating the full spectrum of yourself. It’s about recognising that your power lies not only in your light but also in your darkness.

For the hardworking woman, this means acknowledging that you don’t have to be perfect. It means understanding that sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do is to admit you need a break, to acknowledge your limits, and to honour your deeper needs. This is not a defeat but a declaration of strength and self-respect.

The Rewards of the Descent

When Inanna rises from the underworld, she is transformed. She has faced her darkest self and survived. She returns to the world above not diminished but enhanced, more potent and more compassionate. Her journey teaches that by descending into your depths and facing what you find there, you can experience profound growth and expanded capacity to love and lead.

The rewards of such a journey are immense. By embracing your own Heroine’s Journey, you can find a greater sense of peace, a stronger connection to yourself, and a new kind of fulfilment—one not dependent on external achievements but rooted in the deep authenticity of knowing, and being yourself.