Last year one of my best sisters came back from Brazil and decided to stay in Lisbon. We found a beautiful place in the Alfama with a medieval rose garden. We started our studio ‘Pillars of Light.’ In the past we created many Butoh dance performances together and the time seems right to make one again. I was walking on the street and heard suddenly the name Ishtar in my mind. Ishtar, Ishtar, a new project was born! (Dancer; Sandra Maria Brook, Ornaments and clothes; João Martins, Photgraphy; Julia Lari; Concept and writing; Dick Metzeka).
The seven gates of Ishtar
Tammut the bear is not here,
The world is full of darkness
and her heir of priestesses
Her grieve, mourning and anger
get to furious proportions
when she knocks on her sisters gate.
Ishtar the Goddess of Love, war, fertility and sex.
To reach the Underworld, Inanna/Ishtar had to pass through the Seven Gates of the Underworld, symbolic of the seven major chakras of the human body. At each of these gates, the gatekeeper stops her and demands an item worn by her because she could only enter the Underworld naked and unadorned. Each one of these items is an element of the “me”; the representations of civilizations and cultural identity. This is also symbolic of the Moon as Inanna/Ishtar was the Queen of the moon and the Light of the World. As the moon darkens or wanes, so the Goddess was stripped of her of her possessions. It was not easy for Inanna/Ishtar to give these items up as they were courting gifts for her lover Dumuzi/Tammuz.
In another version of the story, Inanna/Ishtar is adorned with seven veils, likely each one a color of the rainbow and the Chakras. AT each gate, she relinquishes a veil to the Gatekeeper, eventually to be naked.
The sounds (prominent frame drum and other sounds) and the movements of mourning until she goes to the gates than it becomes loud war sounds and movement. The words of the text will be projected on the projection screen. It will be like an old black and white silence movie out of the beginning from the last century. The pictures shown of the gates and the main characters in the myth will be in black and white, the colors (lights following the movements) of the gates (chakras) will change the ambiance. Incense of Ishtar will do the rest. The drums will be less loud with every gate she pasts and will be silence when she 'dies'.
Tammut the bear is not here,
The world is full of darkness
and her heir of priestesses
Her grieve, mourning and anger
get to furious proportions
when she knocks on her sisters gate.
Ishtar approaches the gates of the underworld and demands that the gatekeeper open them:
If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors.
I will bring up the dead to eat the living.
And the dead will outnumber the living
When the first gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away her sandals.´
"Why, o gatekeeper, didst thou take the sandals?
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
The Chakra color that corresponds to this gate is Violet.
The Guardian/Gatekeeper/Custodian/Demon of this gate forces the Goddess to surrender her belt or sandals. By doing this, she relinquishes her Will.
When the second gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the jeweled anklets.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the jeweled anklets?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
The Chakra color that corresponds to this gate is Indigo.
The Guardian/Gatekeeper/ Custodian/Demon of this gate forces the Goddess to surrender her bracelets or jeweled anklets. By doing this, she relinquishes her Ego.
When the third gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the robe.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the robe?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
The Chakra color that corresponds to this gate is Blue.
The Guardian/Gatekeeper/ Custodian/Demon of this gate forces the Goddess to surrender her robe. By doing this, she relinquishes her Mind.
When the fourth gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the ornaments on her breast.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the ornaments on my breast?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
The Chakra color that corresponds to this gate is Green.
The Guardian/Gatekeeper/ Custodian/Demon of this gate forces the Goddess to surrender her Breastplate/Breast Cups. By doing this, she relinquishes her Sex Role.
When the fifth gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the starred-rainbow necklace .
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the starred-rainbow necklace?
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
The Chakra color that corresponds to this gate is Yellow.
The Guardian/Gatekeeper/ Custodian/Demon of this gate forces the Goddess to surrender her starred-rainbow necklace. By doing this, she relinquishes her Illumination.
When the sixth gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the pendants on her ears.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the pendants on my ears?
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
The Chakra color that corresponds to this gate is Orange.
The Guardian/Gatekeeper/ Custodian/Demon of this gate forces the Goddess to surrender her earrings. By doing this, she relinquishes her Magick.
When the seventh gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the thousand-petaled crown called a diadem.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the thousand-petaled crown called a diadem?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
The Chakra color that corresponds to this gate is Red.
The Guardian/Gatekeeper/ Custodian/Demon of this gate forces the Goddess to surrender her thousand-petaled crown called a diadem. By doing this, she relinquishes her Godhood.
It was only when the Goddess was completely naked, stripped of her magical powers, defenseless and extremely vulnerable that she could enter the eternal cave-like realm of the Underworld.
As soon as Ishtar had descended to the Land of No Return,
Ereshkigal saw her and burst out at her presence.
Ishtar, unreflecting, flew at her.
Ereshkigal opened her mouth to speak,
"Go, Namtar, lock her up in my palace!
Release against her the sixty miseries:
Misery of the eyes against her eyes,
Misery of the sides against her sides,
Misery of the heart against her heart,
Misery of the feet against her feet,
Misery of the head against her head -
Against every part of her, against her whole body!"
She gets tortured and dies. The world morns and woes and will know no fertility anymore. After that there is sent help (I will explain later), spells are made, the water of life will be put over her and she will go back through the seven gates to get her powers back. After that she will be more strong and light appears on earth again. Tammut is allowed to visit her 6 months a year.
