Inanna and Dumuzi: Her Honey Man (part 2 of 4)

In this episode I tell the second part of Inanna's story, the courtship and marriage between Inanna and her honey man, the shepherd Dumuzi. I've always delighted in the description of their courtship and the way it captures the excitement and hesitation that is part of falling in love and discovering the power of your sexuality. 

At the same time, I bridled at the need for such a powerful goddess to marry and make her husband king. But is this merely a patriarchal degradation of a figure who rules heaven and earth? Or is their union, expressed in the language of a fertile and creative earth, a metaphor for the immanent divine? For the eternal spark in every life and material form that supports our own existence?

If so, is there a way for their coupling to translate into a lived experience for us today, distant as we are from the image of a holy couple who seed each other to sustain the earth? I turn to the opening pages of Lab Girl by geobiologist Hope Jahren to aid in this reflection.

Until next time, please take all precautions to protect your health and that of others. Every life is too valuable to lose.