Descent & Rising

Women's Stories & the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth

By: Carly Mountain

Narrated by: Carly Mountain

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

“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.”

When our lives fall apart, we often feel broken, ashamed, and deeply alone. But what if you knew, as you experienced this descent, that it was mapped out in a myth thousands of years old? What if, despite the uniqueness of your own life and experiences, each stage of the process was universal? The journey of descent and rising is the core initiation of the feminine—the heroine’s journey—one traveled 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 and more.

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 familiarizes 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.”

©2023 Carly Mountain (P)2023 Carly Mountain

Love MOST of the book.

This is a brilliant book! The story on Inanna is precious to those of us doing shadow work. Carly has been so spot on with helping me relate different parts of the myth to my real life events and inner experiences. It’s written and narrated so beautifully. I am having a hard time with so much negative narrative about the patriarchy. Doing enough shadow work I understand that my feelings towards the portrayal of this narrative are a huge mirror for my own Anima and Animus and how they are related inside. However, it’s hard to continue to listen to how negative everything has been and is… It’s almost like I need to hear about the power of the Feminine more than about Her oppression on my way down into the wilderness of my Underworld. The reason I’m bringing this up is of course our suffering needs to be acknowledged and held, but we come to this realm TO DO the work and to experience hardship, that’s the entire purpose of this place, to give us the curriculum. So when we talk about how absolutely devastating it has been to be a woman and a human for Millenias, I keep needing to hear more about Her power at the same time to feel balanced. But overall this read IS A MUST if you are doing shadow work!!!