The Original Goddesses of the Original Story
Inanna. Lilith. Ishtar. Venus.
Four Goddesses. Four Muses. One deep descent into Herstory.
Before Venus shimmered in the Roman imagination…
Before Aphrodite rose from the foam…
There was Inanna, the first goddess ever written into being. Her story etched into clay over 5000 years ago is the earliest known myth of descent, death, resurrection and feminine sovereignty.
Inanna was not granted her wings. She wore them. She flew.
And when Inanna descended into the underworld, those wings were stripped, along with her crown, her robes, her jewels.
Still, Inanna rose.
Inanna is not a cautionary tale. She is a map.
And she was not alone.
Across millennia, her myth split, echoed, evolved becoming Lilith, Ishtar, Venus.
Becoming us.
These are not passive goddesses of love and light.
These are muses of descent, refusal, rage, longing, reclamation and wild rebirth.
They live in myth and moon, body and chart.
They move through your love affairs and creative cycles, your grief, your boundaries, your urge to burn it all down and begin again.
Let us re-introduce you:
Inanna: The Original Muse of Descent & Power
The first to descend. The first to rise.
Adorned in seven sacred symbols, Inanna enters the underworld and is stripped of each.
Naked, she faces death. But she does not remain there.
She is hung on a hook, suspended between worlds.
And still, she returns.
Inanna shows us:
Descent is not defeat.
Power is not given, it is remembered.
Inanna is the mirror for every woman who has dared to dismantle herself to be reborn whole.
Lilith, the Muse of Refusal and Reclamation
Before patriarchy cast her as a demon, Lilith was sovereign.
She stood beside Inanna in the earliest Sumerian texts, a wild-winged spirit at the sacred tree.
Later, they said she was Adam’s first wife, who refused to lie beneath him.
So Lilith flew away.
For choosing exile over erasure, she was clipped, shamed, rewritten.
But Lilith never vanished.
She rises in every act of refusal.
In every woman punished for saying no.
In every boundary set in fire.
Lilith is distortion reclaimed as divinity.
She is rage that births freedom.
She is the storm and the silence after.
Ishtar, the Muse of Love and Battle
Ishtar carries Inanna’s legacy forward, fierce and full.
Worshipped in Babylon, Ishtar ruled sex and war, tenderness and terror.
They could not confine her to one box, so they called her too much.
But Ishtar is everything: the lover and the warrior.
The womb and the weapon.
She teaches us that feminine power is not palatable, it is paradox.
She’s the yes and the fight.
Venus: The Muse of Beauty, Longing & Creation
By the time the Roman Empire rose in 27 BCE, Inanna had become Venus, goddess of love, desire and shimmering allure.
But make no mistake: her wings were clipped.
What once was myth of resurrection became softened into seduction.
But even in this form, her magic remains.
Venus is the only planet named after a woman.
That’s not decoration.
It’s declaration.
Venus reminds us:
Longing is holy.
Pleasure is protest.
Creation is power.
Four Goddesses. Four Muses.
Each a waypoint in your own mythic journey.
Descent.
Refusal.
Rage.
Rebirth.
Pleasure.
Power.
These aren’t just ancient stories.
They’re soul memory.
They live in your bones, your chart, your creative life.
This is what we do at GlobalWoman.
We circle the calendar year.
We speak in moonlight and metaphor.
We remember the old stories—not as relics, but as tools.
We are the keepers of the clipped wings.
We are the ones who rise anyway.
Welcome to your descent.
Welcome to your reclamation.
Welcome to the Original Muses.
Find your way in the world, through their voices.
