The tree in the garden of the young goddess - occupied by dark creatures

The young goddess had to realize that the tree, which she herself had fetched from the river and planted in her garden, had been occupied by dark beings of power. In the roots nested the snake, which cannot be tamed, in the trunk Lilith, the dark maiden, had taken up her abode. And in the crown of the tree the lion eagle had built its nest and had already hatched young.

[Back to: Inanna, Lilith and the Tree (Episode 2).]

A new awareness: self-efficacy

• The birds are singing: Joy and spring feelings
• Daybreak - a new day, new awareness after the night, the depression: the young goddess becomes active and acts. She seeks help from her peers, first from her brother Utu.
• Utu, Inanna's brother, the sun god - a positive animus figure. As Inanna's brother, he embodies her family on the one hand, and her masculine parts on the other, and lastly, as the sun god, he also represents a Christ figure ("dying and rising" of the sun).
• Utu says no. - "It's not time yet." Probably also as a responsible person on behalf of the parents.
• Second dawn - another step of awareness ("then I have to do it myself ..."): "I am an adult, I take matters into my own hands ..." - Will this come out well?
• Gilgamesh, also called Inanna's brother, is genealogically her cousin. See immediately following in the text to "Who is Gilgamesh?
• Uruk - city in Sumer: Inanna was its city deity. She was supposed to reach new greatness around 2300 and was probably moved into the center of mythology not least because of this (see also at the end of Part I).

Gilgamesh and Inanna: the felling of the tree

• Armor of 50 minas - 50 for overcoming the dynamics of power: The number 50 Symbolizes the overcoming of the complete negative dynamic of power (the The Double Negative Dynamic). To overcome this, Inanna and her Gilgamesh will have a long way to go. Because for the time being Gilgamesh's chest (his heart) is behind a thick armor ...
• Bronze axe of seven talents and seven minas - twice the seven: Seven as the number of creation doubled - male and female: each blow of the axe shapes the new creation, the initiation of daughter and son into woman and man.
• Gilgamesh entered Inanna's garden and cut down the tree: first sexual intercourse (see in detail in the text).
• He slew the serpent: He finishes off the "old inhabitants" of the tree. Gilgamesh makes short process and replaces thereby the old power (the family) by the new power (the pair relationship).
• Lilith smashed her house: Inanna's dark side caused her tree to be cut down. It is her own fault, she should have been careful to whom she surrenders (s. The woman 3-in-1). But now the thing and with it also the mythology will take its course.
• Gilgamesh loosened the roots of the tree - and with it Inanna's anchorage in her body.

The Goddess and Her Hero King: Inanna and Gilgamesh

• Sons of the city who accompanied him cut branches: The young men do it after their king.
• From the trunk: The trunk for the realm of the soul (s. The tree of life/world tree)
• ... Inanna gets her throne - self-determination in her own life (more on this below).
• ... and her bed: sexual self-determination: she has chosen her king (more on this below).
• His "holy sister" - perhaps an initiated priestess of the goddess of love: as such, possibly the highest virgin in the land, daughter of the king; cf. the Gilgamesh epub (Ascent to the king). But "holy" she is for Gilgamesh also because the two together represent wholeness (unity of male and female) (cf. God, wholeness, 3-in-1, male and female).
• Pukku from the roots - the staff, "scepter", phallic symbol: The roots belong to the realm of the body. The staff is a sign of dominion over the female body (for good or evil; see below).
• Mikku from the crown of the tree: the ring or hoop for the female womb: the ring can be penetrated with the staff, which represents the other side of the spiritual power over the feminine (see below and Ring, staff and crown of horns and also The insignia of power).
• Earth opened so that Pukku and Mikku were lost to the underworld: Unconsciousness. An abyss of libidinousness opens up when sexuality does not take place in a protected and legitimate framework.

1. inanna's cousin

In the Sumerian tradition Gilgamesh is Inanna's cousin (according to the god family tree in Kramer/Wolkenstein [1]).

2. EnKiDu(m) - EnKi's Son - Son of the God of Earth

Also in the mentioned family tree Giglamesh is listed as Enki's son. Symbolically, however, this can also mean that he is a savage as a "child of the earth" (of the god of the earth) (because EnKi, the god of the earth, can also be regarded as a shamanic nature god). In the Gilgamesh epic is told about the legendary friendship between king Gilgamesh and a savage named EnKiDu (=son of EnKi). From the more than 1000 years older Sumerian tradition, however, it is already clear that Gilgamesh himself is son or creature of EnKi, i.e. EnKi-Dum.

3. Inanna's initiator by cutting down her tree.

Gilgamesh deflowered Inanna, the goddess of love and city deity of Uruk, and she therefore made him her king. This statement is based on interpretations of the symbols in this section, especially the felling of Inanna's tree, as discussed later.

4. bull and king of Uruk (name from the Gilgamesh epic)

Inanna made Gilgamesh her chosen hero and lover and thus king of the city of Uruk.

5. the legendary king of the first written heroic saga of mankind

The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic, which originated at least 1000 years after the Sumerian tradition, tells the heroic saga of a king in search of eternal life.

6. a tribute to Sargon, the first world ruler with divine status?

The Gilgamesh epic probably has in mind the first world ruler Sargon of Akkad (c. 2300 BC), who had already attained divine status in Babylon. Since the Sumerian lore was first written down in Babylon (ca. 1800 BC), it can be assumed that the name Gilgamesh at this point is a later, Babylonian addition. In the Sumerian mythology the spouse of the goddess is otherwise called Dum(u)Zi (= son of life).

7. the name "Gilgamesh" from Ki-Gal-Mesh = "From the earth to the underworld to learn service"?

The symbolism of the Gilgamesh epic tells the way of conversion from the evil to the good king. Possibly the name Gilgamesh contains the syllables Ki/Gi=Earth; Ga(l)=Underworld and Mesh/Mash from the god Shamash. This name contains the syllable Shah (= ruler?) and the inversion (M)-ASH (servant?). The interpretation "from ruler to servant" fits to the context of the content, because Shamash is in the Gilgamesh epic as god an animus figure, which changes from the strong thunderous drive as heaven bull to the redeemer figure. (In the Gilgamesh epic many names can be deciphered on the basis of the syllables, so that from it exceedingly illuminating statements arise again and again).

The tree with roots, trunk and crown for body, soul and spirit

The young, slender tree that has grown out of and on the "mother earth" symbolizes on the one hand the life between heaven and earth, spirit and matter, father and mother, and on the other hand, this is now specifically about Inanna's life.

[S. The World Tree or Tree of Life.]

The Woman 3-in-1

The soul,/life of the woman is in her womb, for it is here that new life/soul can grow. By letting her lover into her womb, into her sanctuary, she gives him, in addition to her body (her outer shell), also her soul (her abdomen) as well as her spirit, her love (s. The woman, 3-in-1 and Sexual magnetism). In other words, she gives herself away with everything she is and has.

She is now attached to him. That means, even if he is only a "frog" (s. The Frog Prince), he is still her prince (because she has given herself completely to him). This is a secret that can be exploited and has been exploited over the millennia by women becoming dependent, oppressed and exploited. This is black magic (see Aladdin and the magic lamp).

Two opposing creative forces

The woman as the source of life force is a classical model rooted in the archetypal differentiation of energies. Male and female as the two primordial forces of creation. rooted. Both man and woman, however, have both male and female parts.

[S. Male and Female and the Creation of New Reality. ]

The masculine parts of the woman

A woman can also love herself and realize her own desires. But then she has integrated her masculine parts (strategy, creativity) (already attained wholeness (s. The integration of the animus).
The story of Inanna is about just this way of the woman and also the love to wholeness.

[S. God, wholeness, 3-in-1, male and female; Female wholeness 3-in-1: potential, reality and destiny and The Feminine Path from Heaven to Matter.]

The wedding throne for the reception of the beloved

Gilgamesh makes a throne and a bed for Inanna from the trunk of the tree, which stands for life and the soul. They stand for self-determination in life (throne) and in sexuality (bed), i.e. for conscious, self-responsible and thus "divine" action.
The throne could also be more specifically a wedding throne, on which the young goddess receives her lover and chosen hero king.

Penetration power of attorney

Gilgamesh receives PUKKU and MIKKU, which means ring and staff, as a sign of "kingship". They symbolize the phallus (staff) that enters the female womb (ring) and thus initiates new reality (through the outpouring of the seed, the word, the in-formation).

[S. Ring, staff and crown of horns.]

Pukku from the roots: staff or "scepter" as phallic symbol

The roots belong to the realm of the body. The staff is a sign of dominion over the female body (for good or evil). About Gilgamesh the tradition says that he brought much suffering over the women of Uruk with "Pukku". (By the "right of the first night; about it in detail in the Gilgamesh epic, prologue).

Mikku from the crown of the tree: the ring or hoop for the female womb

A ring can be symbolically penetrated with a staff. The ring or hoop represents the other side of the spiritual power over the feminine (s. Ring, staff and crown of horns and also The insignia of power).

Pukku and Mukku lost in the underworld

The tradition says that the earth opened and Pukku and Mikku were lost to the underworld. This is an image of sexuality having entered the realm of the unconscious, that is, the shadows and the urges.

Later, a ring or hoop on the head of the chosen ruler served as a sign of his election and Power of attorney.

Pukku and Mikku for entering the female sanctuary

Pukku from the roots ("mother") and Mikku from the crown ("father") of the tree stand for the authority to enter into the female, the matter. Thereby the unity of male and female, the union in the womb of the woman, is the common sanctuary. It must not be dishonored, because it is the source of life and new living reality (see e.g. in the fairy tale The iron man and the gold well.)

[S. The anointing - authority over matter and The Shrine and the Path to Wholeness.]

The ruler himself as the anointed limb

Later, the ring or hoop was placed on the head of the chosen ruler, who in this case represents himself the "anointed limb" (the staff) from which the seed (of the Word) emanates.
Thus, the spiritual authority of the king to rule the people, and thus the great feminine , was always accompanied by symbolic signs of his authority .

[ S. Ring, staff and crown of horns and orb, scepter and crown as insignia of power].]

The Anointing and the Anti-Anointed One, the Oppressor

Time and again, however, rulers have usurped the love of women or of the whole people by imposing their will by force, without paying attention to the "anointing". By seizing the feminine in this way, they acted as rapists and in the spirit of the anti-anointed, the "Antichrist.

[ S. Christ / Messiah, the Anointed One and the Anti-Christ. ]

All the devotion of the woman - and the man?

Because the woman gives herself away completely during sexual intercourse, with body, soul and spirit (love; see above and The woman 3-in-1), it is important that this happens in a protected setting, so that the man cannot simply take, consume and sneak away again.

Thus, the question:

Was this "land" (Inanna as a wonderful woman with her body) really promised to Gilgamesh as her future king? Did the union of the two also happen with the consent of the family and within the framework of higher orders?

Utu, the Sun God

That the union was not legitimate and approved is expressed in the "no" of the big brother, Utu, who also represents the family.
Utu is besides in the Sumerian mythology the sun god and represents with it a Christ figure (the sun which "dies" in the evening and "rises" again in the morning). Therefore it is to be assumed that he has also higher orders and the well-being of the little sister in view with the commandment.

Subjugation of the great feminine, the living matter

Accordingly, the later Gilgamesh epic also expands the king's "exploits" in a collective sense. The new message is this: The man who stops at nothing, who rebels against higher orders, father and mother (for love and destiny), conquers even heaven. (But this is only the superficial side of the truth. The deeper layers testify that fate is stronger and justice has the last word. However, love includes mercy and grants a new chance).

[S. Introduction to the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh.]

Fate repeats itself

Thus, the undesirable fate has now repeated itself in her life. According to the motto: "The apple does not fall far from the tree" the same happens to her as to her ancestors, her mother or grandmother and the women: She gets entangled in a dynamic of power, so that frustration will not be absent.

[S. Women as trees and their felling; I am Lilith, the dark virgin and The poisoned apple - abuse as a collective reality.]

Inanna's tree in the grip of power

In the trunk Lilith, the dark virgin, had taken her dwelling (power through eroticism). And in the roots the serpent, which cannot be tamed, had taken up residence (the drive). Above all, in the crown of the tree, the lion eagle had built its nest (s. Inanna, Lilith, the Tree and the Power, Episode 2).

These beings symbolize all power through robbery and violence and thus figuratively represent burdens in the form of imprints and hereditary traits that have been passed on to the daughter through her parents (see The Great Original Sin and the Curse).

Dispositions and the integration of the shadow

The beings of power belong to the unconscious (s. The conscious and the unconscious and The drive). This means that as long as they are not recognized and integrated, they act with destructive energy to the Shadow work.

The integration of the shadow is a mature achievement, which actually comes only in the middle of life (s. How do I concretely integrate my shadow?). Inanna will then also start this way only in the middle years, when her children are grown up (see Inanna's way through the underworld). First she has to see if a relationship with Gilgamesh will develop at all.

By allowing herself to be persuaded by the young man to have sexual intercourse without a protective framework for the relationship, Inanna is also the spiritual model for the later biblical Eve. Interestingly, according to Jewish tradition, Lilith was Adam's first wife. She also symbolizes his anima (the inner image of woman as seductress). The consequence is fatal: reduced to this role, love is in danger of dying. This is the curse of power.

 [S. Podcast by Nadine Kulis with Anne on Lilith and these posts:
I am Lilith, the dark virgin (free text); The Bible's account of the Fall and the mystery of the serpent; The two trees in paradise and the forbidden fruit and The great original sin and the curse.]