Which Gate Are You At?
Seven gates. Each one released and received at once.
Answer from the body, not the mind.
You are already standing at one of them, whether you've named it or not. This isn't a test to pass. It's a mirror held up to where you already are.
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The Seven Gates of Inanna
Where this quiz comes from, and what it's actually measuring.
The first person in recorded history to sign their name to a piece of writing was a woman. Enheduanna, high priestess of Ur, daughter of Sargon of Akkad, writing around 2300 BCE. She wrote hymns, and she wrote them to Inanna. Before her, literature comes to us anonymous. With her, authorship enters the world, and it enters it in a woman's voice, addressed to a goddess.
Four centuries after Enheduanna, scribes set down the story itself on tablets that carry no name at all. Inanna, queen of heaven and earth, sets her ear toward the Great Below and descends toward her sister Ereshkigal, who rules the place from which no traveler returns.
She's told there are seven gates. At each one, something is taken from her. Her crown, the beads at her throat, the strands across her breast, her breastplate, the ring at her wrist, the measuring rod in her hand, and finally her royal robe. She arrives with nothing, is struck down, and is left there three days.
Then she's brought back, and here is the part most retellings skip: she returns through the same seven gates, and everything she surrendered is given back to her at the gate where she left it. Every gate is walked twice. Once going down, once coming up.
So the oldest surviving account of a soul descending and returning reaches us out of a literary tradition whose first named voice was a woman. That isn't decoration on the story. It's part of why the map still works.
What this shadow work quiz measures is not only which gate you're standing at, but which direction you're moving through it. You might still be in the release, already in the reception, or in the crossing where both are happening at once. None of the three is further along than the others.
The Seven Gates
What is surrendered, and what is returned.
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Gate One: Safety
Felt in the Root
Inanna surrenders the shugurra, the crown of the steppe.
Release: survival vigilance, and the belief that safety has to be earned. The bracing shows up as a tight belly, a clenched jaw, a body that never fully stands down.
Receive: earth-rooted safety. The ground holding you before you've done anything to deserve it.
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Gate Two: Worth
Felt in the Sacral
The small lapis beads are taken from her neck.
Release: worth measured by output and by pleasing. A body monitoring for approval can't generate real creative flow.
Receive: worth that doesn't need to be produced to be real, and creative energy that moves because it's alive.
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Gate Three: Shedding False Identity
Felt in the Solar Plexus
The double strand of beads is removed from her breast.
Release: an identity built to be seen, approved of, and performed rather than simply inhabited.
Receive: a self that exists whether or not anyone is watching.
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Gate Four: Releasing the Need for Protection
Felt in the Heart
The breastplate is taken from her chest.
Release: the armor built so no one can get close enough to hurt you. The same wall keeps love from reaching you.
Receive: a heart that can stay open, and the experience of being held without bracing.
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Gate Five: Surrendering Attachment to Outcomes
Felt in the Throat
The gold ring leaves her wrist.
Release: the grip that only lets you speak or want something once you already know how it will land.
Receive: words that can leave your mouth before you know what they'll cause.
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Gate Six: Releasing Scarcity
Felt in the Third Eye
The lapis measuring rod and line are taken from her hand.
Release: scanning for what's lacking before you can trust what's already here. Counting the gap instead of the ground.
Receive: seeing what's actually present, and trusting that there was always enough.
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Gate Seven: Embracing Authenticity
Felt in the Crown
The royal robe comes off her body. The last covering.
Release: the final performance of who you have to be in order to be received.
Receive: divine embodiment. The crown isn't an antenna reaching upward, it's where the divine within finally meets itself.
Common Questions
What is shadow work?
Shadow work is the practice of turning toward the parts of yourself you've hidden, disowned, or armored over, rather than trying to fix or transcend them. It isn't about eliminating anything. It's about reclaiming what got set down along the way.
Who was Enheduanna?
Enheduanna was high priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur, and the daughter of Sargon of Akkad. Writing around 2300 BCE, she is the first author in recorded history known by name, and she signed her name inside her own poems. Much of her surviving work is addressed to Inanna.
Do I need to know the myth of Inanna to take this quiz?
No. The quiz asks eight plain questions about how you're living right now. The myth is the structure underneath, not something you need to study first.
What's the difference between descent and ascent?
Descent is the release, when something is still being let go of. Ascent is the reception, when what you surrendered is returning in a changed form. The crossing is when both are happening at once. Most people spend more time in the crossing than they expect.
Is this a personality test?
No. It doesn't sort you into a fixed type. It reflects where you are at this moment, which will change. You can return to it whenever something shifts.
What happens after I get my result?
You'll receive your gate, its direction, and one small practice it's asking of you. If you want to walk the gates rather than read about them, that work lives inside the Temple of Mysteries.
Walking the Gates
The quiz names where you are. The Temple of Mysteries is where you walk it, each gate in both directions, at your own pace, in company rather than alone.
Enter the TempleReiki and mythic work are practices of energetic support and are not a substitute for medical or psychological care. No specific outcomes are promised or guaranteed.