Descent & Rising: Women's Stories & the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth

by Carly Mountain

When our lives fall apart, we often feel broken, ashamed and deeply alone. What if you knew that, despite the uniqueness of your own experiences, each stage of the process was universal, that it was mapped out in a myth thousands of years old?

"The heroine is one who has remembered, reclaimed and reconnected with her unfettered red thread. She has been initiated into the spirit of the depths by her dark sister, and walks with newfound, embodied authority into the upperworld."

What if, despite the uniqueness of your own life and experiences, each stage of the process of descent was universal? The journey of Descent & Rising is the core initiation of the feminine – the heroine's journey – one travelled by billions of women before you.

Descent & Rising explores real stories of women's descents into the underworld of the psyche – journeys of dissolution, grief and breakdown precipitated by trauma, fertility issues, loss of loved ones, mental health struggles, FGM, sexual abuse, birthing experiences, illness, war, burnout...

This is territory that Carly Mountain, psychotherapist and women's initiatory guide, knows intimately, and guides us through with exquisite care and insight, using the ancient Sumerian myth of the goddess Inanna as a blueprint. She maps not only the descent but the rising and familiarises us with a process of female psycho-spiritual growth overlooked in patriarchal culture.

"The heroine's journey is an erotic, mystical initiation that revivifies our place in the shape of things...The fodder of our descents provides the compost from which the richest fruits of our lives can grow. If only we can turn towards our pain and let it work in us."

In this beautifully articulated offering, Carly Mountain takes her place in the lineage of writers honoring the profound significance of the journey of descent as a path of initiation for women. Skillfully and fluidly linking the ancient myth of Inanna with current social, political, ecological and health crises, she includes contemporary women’s stories that illustrate an embodied feminine path of healing and awakening to deeper truth and authentic life. Empowerment through encounter with our deepest wounds and connection to the deep feminine within is an essential task for our troubled times, as we transition towards a re-balancing of feminine and masculine energies in the world. This book serves as an inspiring and timely reminder and a support for all those who find themselves on this path.
– Linda Hartley, author of Servants of the Sacred Dream , founder of the Institute for Integrative Bodywork & Movement Therapy

Carly Mountain skillfully guides us on a descent into the wild territory of a woman’s psyche and soul. Weaving together the story of the Sumerian goddess Inanna with the author’s personal story and those of other women, she maps a distinctly feminine heroic journey – one that honors our depths and brings us to wholeness.
– Mary Reynolds Thompson, author of Reclaiming the Wild Soul and A Wild Soul Woman Reading

Descent & Rising is to be invited into an ancient lineage of feminine wisdom, which for many of us perhaps was forgotten, but as we discover through this rich and insightful book, was never lost. Carly weaves magic as she illuminates the timeless intelligence of one of our oldest goddess myths through the lens of real-life underworld experiences.
– Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, authors of Wise Power

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Feminism, Psychology

266 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2023

About the author

Carly Mountain is a psychotherapist, a psychosexual somatic therapist, breathworker and writer. For the last twenty years she has worked with sacred embodied practices. Her writing and work seeks to uncover what has been exiled or hidden within, that is longing to be remembered and reconnected with. Carly stumbled across the Inanna story during her own descent to the underworld and was astonished by the symmetry it held with her own lived experience. Since then she has devoted to working with the myth and specialises in beholding others as they traverse the depths of initiation; both in therapy, breathwork and within courses that support women’s awakening and unfolding. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Sheffield, England.

Reviews

[daemyra, the realm's delight · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. RTC!

I enjoyed this. The writing style was not always for me: I found this to be written in the digestible format of a blog post or social media caption, which is not to knock the writing, but I was hoping for something to fall into. Again, maybe it's a me thing or a mood thing. I appreciate the many examples, although it did not have a strong intersectional lens or focus. There was a lot of identification of womanhood with being able to give birth at times that, to be honest, I don't relate to, even as a cis woman.

Goddess reclamation is personally empowering for me because I love seeing the spectrum of positive role models for women in the mythic context. Positive in the sense that there are so many varied depictions of what it means to be a woman, not just the "good girls", the handmaidens of patriarchy.

Overall, I enjoyed this dive into the Inanna myth, and the quotes sprinkled throughout the book were wonderful.

[Bridget Supple · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Inanna myth has never really spoken to me, it’s too brutal, too challenging. Descent and Rising has blown that away and helped me understand the power of the myth. With stories, real life experiences and wisdom Carly walks us through the story, the meaning behind the stripping of the layers and the importance of the descent as an empowerment. I will read this book again and again for its insight and wisdom. You hear so much about shadow work but no one ever tells you how to actually do the work. In Descent and Rising, Carly has written an accessible, powerful guide to the process, told with such kindness and wisdom in her remarkable flair for writing. A wonderful contribution to the world and to the power of women rising.

[Laura Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I have ever resonated so strongly with a book. I have experienced the descent. I am still in the underworld, preparing for my ascent. It is coming.

[Monika_M · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are teachings that see you holistically and those that don’t—those that go beyond mental comprehension and those that are too domesticated to touch the liminal spaces.

If you’ve gone through a disorienting life experience where the further unfoldment essentially felt out of your hands, this will help you with deeper digestion of the experience’s initiatory dynamic as it will guide you through placing it into a „universal web“ - possibly a land-map of soul’s maturation. It’s bridging psychotherapeutic knowledge with spiritual wisdom in a very potent way. And I value reading it a lot precisely for its psychological rooting.

It very much reminded me of the book Women Who Run With the Wolves (The Handless Maiden Tale) by Clarrisa Pinkola Estés. So, if you’ve enjoyed reading Clarissa’s work, you’ll certainly find new insights in this interpretation of the Inanna Myth.

[Caitlin Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every woman should read this.

[Alysha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t really express what a profound impact this book has had on me. I have long been working with the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna’s Descent - to me it was not only the heroine’s journey, but the only allegory that has come close to describing what the journey of doing your inner work and facing your demons really entails. For anyone who is on any aspect of this path - a path that also involves grief and loss (either of old beliefs, old self, old relationships, or a more literal loss) I urge you to read this book. Thank you Carly Mountain for making sense of it all.

[Darren Faber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an incredible read, and one that I'll likely keep in my regular rotation for at least four or five more go-arounds. While the stories and discussions are focused on the woman's experience and struggles, it was a profound experience for me as a man to better understand my own feminine heroine's journey, and to gain insights into ways I can be a better support to women and others who are going through their own journeys as well. Highly suggest this one.

[Catherine Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turned my grief and heartache into a heroines journey

This book landed for me at just the right time. And has changed so very much It was as if I was blind in the darkness before this and now I have a whole new sense to guide me. An invaluable guide which all women who are waking up & find ourselves in this heartbreakingly broken world need. Thank you Carly 🙏

[Seinka · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Inanna myth is life changing. This book gives additional explanation to that fantastic myth. I’m so grateful that this book accompanied me during my descent. I will read and re-read it for many times to come.

[Carley O'Hara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing

[Bekah Neelin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complex but compelling exploration of the heroine's journey - using stories and characters from ancient mythology to help us to understand our own experiences and needs better.

[Gembee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant deep dive of a book. listened as an audiobook but going to get a hard copy so I can refer back to it more easily.

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5