Descent Of Ishtar - Blog Posts

~Spiritual Implications As Shown By Television~

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This is sort of random thoughts but I thought this to be interesting so I'm sharing. As many may know by now, television and various shows and movies we view tell us certain spiritual truths yet their hidden in plain sight.

I could be wrong about this but for a while, I've been a fan of an anime called Seven Deadly Sins or Nanatsu No Taizai. One of the main reasons I enjoy it so much is because of the influences the author/writer, Nakaba Suzuki used in the making of it.

Various symbolisms within the show and the manga are very intriguing to me and I believe I happened to find one that could correlate to shadow work. If you don't know what that is, it's not a "New Age" practice but rather taking some time to be still, quiet, and think on the darker aspect of ourselves, the shadow, the part we suppress. Hence, "shadow work."

Anyway, there was a moment in the second season of the anime in which a central character, Meliodas, had to undergo certain training so he could receive the dark power he once had again.

If you're familiar with the franchise then you know that Meliodas is the leader of a group of powerful "warriors" or idk what to call them that each has one of the seven deadly sins (wrath, lust, greed, gluttony, slothfulness, pride, envy) assigned to them.

Meliodas is the sin of wrath and he was assigned this sin essentially because- well it's a long story, but, he completely decimated a kingdom with a great sum of his dark power that was taken from him as well as his wrath because he witnessed his reincarnated lover die once more in front of him (if you know, you know).

Nevertheless, once a new menace, the Ten Commandments appeared, he needed that power back. Yet, to make sure he would not go berserk again, he had to undergo training to control and face his emotions/wrath (that could stem from trauma).

Anyway, upon being taken through the trial, in which he had to revisit memories and strong negative emotions that could cause him to beserk, he eventually came to the point where he truly confronted the pain and in a way accepted it.

Not necessarily saying he (Meliodas) healed from anything but stepping away from the anime and into reality, we all have to face experiences in our lives that have caused us hurt, trauma, loss, and all kinds of negative emotions and things within ourselves in order to truly grow and flourish into the fullness of what you as a human and soul on this planet are supposed to become and learn/gain while here. (Also, notice how the place in which he was tested in is completely dark, possibly related to the whole shadow concept).

Not to mention, the place Meliodas and his crew at that point in the story visited was a place called "Istar." In the anime, it was the holy land of the druids but what I found interesting was how "Istar" is strikingly similar to "Ishtar" who is or was quite a significant goddess in various cultures around the world.

There is an ancient Sumerian story or legend called "The Descent of Ishtar" or Inanna in which the goddess descends into the seven gates of the underworld and by the time she reaches her sister who was the queen of the underworld, she is stripped naked and pretty much has lost her sense of self. Yet after having faced some adversity, she “resurrected” or rose out of the underworld a superior version of herself.

This analogy I believe is symbolic of coming into this world and the experiences we endure for our own separate personal purposes related to our own growth (which involves shadow work) but I don't know if that was on purpose by Nakaba or just me.

Lastly, once Meliodas is finished, he goes to receive his power from Zaneri’s (the one that gave Meliodas the test) older twin sister, Jenna. The name Jenna could be various things such as “white shadow/phantom,” “paradise,” “heaven,” “fair,” and so on. Which seems to be the opposite of what Meliodas just had to tackle within himself. 🤔

I apologize if this may seem random or if I’m reaching but it’s not written in stone, just random thoughts. Thanks for reading✨

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