click image above to see candle set

~ ISHTAR ~

The Babylonian Great Goddess, known as the Queen of Heaven

Goddess of love, fertility, and war. She assumed many aspects under different names and was worshiped for many centuries by many civilizations. In the Bible, She is referred to as Ashtoreth, Anath, Asherah, or Esther. In Revelation 17:5, She was the Great Whore, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots. Another of Her titles was the Goddess Har, who called herself the compassionate prostitute. Men divinely communed with Her through the sexual rites of Her priestesses.

She was the personification of the feminine reproductive and creative forces of nature. Ishtar eventually overshadowed and absorbed all the other goddesses of Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, particularly Inanna, the most complex goddess in the Sumerian pantheon.

Babylon scriptures called Ishtar the Light of the World, Leader of Host, Opener of the Womb, Righteous Judge, Lawgiver, Goddess of Goddesses, Bestower of Strength, Framer of All Decrees, Lady of Victory, Forgiver of Sins, etc., etc. Pretty powerful stuff and later plagiarized in the Old Testament and by Jewish priests.

Akkadian sources reveal that Ishtar was the same Great Goddess that was revered all over the Near East under such names as Dea Syria, Cybele, Kore, Mari, etc., etc.

The powers of the Underworld paid respect to Her by bowing down before Her when She went underground to retrieve Her son-lover Tammuz, as Her Sumerian forerunner Inanna rescued the same son-lover, Dumuzi. She could not accept his death. The temporary absence of Ishtar caused sterility and abstinence of sexual activity all over Earth. The Epic of Gilgamesh recounts this adventure . . .

A porter greeted Her and the first gate was thrown wide open. She stepped through as the crown from Her head was removed. At each of the seven gates through which She passed She shed an article of clothing or jewelry, until She arrived before Her elder sister naked. Her laments and tears softened the hearts of the seven great judges, who freed Tammuz. Upon Her return to Earth, plants grew again and all species once again mated and breed.

The cult of Ishtar symbolically re-enacted this special event. The high priestess retired for seven days within Her temple while the young handmaidens of Ishtar surrendered themselves to sacred prostitution obliged to lose their virginity, just as Ishtar had shed her clothes at the gates of hell. After having offered their maidenhead to service of their Goddess, they became forever free, never becoming attached to any one man in particular. If they conceived, the children were given up for adoption. This rite was a form of collective liberation.

She was Astarte to the Phoenicians, Mytilla to the Chaldeans, and sometimes Dilbat or Belit to the Babylonians. The Greeks associated her with Aphrodite, the Arabs called her Alat, and in Carthage, She merged with the Berber Mother Goddess and became Tanit. This great Goddess shone like a star throughout the Mediterranean basin, illuminating many cultures with her love and wisdom.