The Story of Ishtar interpreted

By Erika Hahn

Source: http://www.occult-mysteries.org/descent-of-ishtar.html 

On reaching the First Gate, Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven, handed the keeper her crown. He thanked her and asked: "What is the greatest sin?" Without hesitation the smiling goddess answered: "Ignorance!" adding, "For it is a heavy burden indeed, blacker than the blackest night."

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Immediately the gate swung wide, to reveal a narrow path that descended straight as an arrow below her. Quickly Ishtar continued on her way, eager to find her lover and soon arrived at the Second Gate. After receiving her earrings in payment, the Keeper asked her the nature of her errand. "Take your time," he counselled, as she was about to speak. She smiled at the Keeper; such a grateful, gentle smile. "I have thought of little else; without my lover, I am not. Wisdom of Love is the nature of my errand."

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The Keeper bowed low to Ishtar, and the Second Gate opened before her. The road ahead beckoned, as clear and shining as her eyes and joyfully she hurried on. But as she drew nearer to the Third Gate, the sky began to darken and Night suddenly fell, mantling all in its ebon folds; road and gate alike. Ishtar's steps faltered, she stood still and despair gripped her trembling heart. Anon the need to find her lover and a great longing to free him and rejoin him arose within her.

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Despair and hesitation fled, and resolutely, but with great care, she resumed her journey. She had not taken many steps when, to her joy and amazement, a star appeared in the darkness that enshrouded her, then another and another, until she was surrounded on all sides by countless orbs of light, marvelling at their radiance and beauty. She could see the way clearly now, and there, so close, stood the Third Gate. Ishtar joyfully gave up her necklace to the Keeper, who asked: "What is Night?" Without hesitation she replied: "The garment of Light." Bowing low before her, he waved her through the open doorway.

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The road to the 4th Gate was short and steep and very soon she stood before its keeper. Eagerly she took off the ornaments of her breast and handed them to him. He smiled, and asked: "What is Light?" She stood very still and the Keeper, watching her intently, thought he saw a golden cloud gather around the Goddess' head, filled with many sparkling motes in every color of the rainbow. "Light is the thought of God," she answered and went on her way. The Keeper stared at the spot where Ishtar had stood, lost in contemplation.

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The road now steeply descended, twisting and turning like the sinuous body of a serpent; slippery and uneven. Ishtar sighed, for she thought the way would be easier now, but though weary at times, she walked steadily onwards with a trusting heart and undoubting mind. At last she sighted the 5th Gate, but to reach it she had to cross a rocky escarpment, sharp-toothed and precipitous and cut by many a yawning chasm.

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Often she lost her foothold and slipped back, yet never once did her resolution falter, nor her courage desert her. Finally she reached the Gate, her jewelled dress tattered and torn, her body bruised and weary, yet a great peace reigned in her heart. She knocked at the Gate and taking off her girdle, studded with gems, she gave it to the Keeper. Immediately her weariness vanished and she waited expectantly for his question. "Who art Thou?" he asked with a ringing voice. "I am an Image of the Thought of God," Ishtar replied. "I am Night seeking light, and I am light seeking greater Light."

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No sooner had she spoken these words than the gate opened wide. The road beyond was smooth, and wide and straight and in no time at all she arrived at the 6th Gate. There she handed the rest of her jewels, even the bracelets of her hands and feet, to the waiting Keeper, retaining only her plain loin cloth. The Keeper regarded Ishtar reverently. "What is Life?" he asked. Her reply was no more than a whisper: "The Breath of God." As she spoke, her words seemed to take shape, circulating in a Holy rhythm; a heavenly dance of harmony and joy, and strange sounds and scents filled the air; utterly ravishing, impossible to describe.

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And so Ishtar passed on to the 7th and final Gate. As she drew nigh, she began to tremble, recalling the long ago, thinking of the now and dwelling upon the yet-to-be . . . Silently she slipped off her loin cloth and where it fell, there stood her Lover, radiant, bright as the morning Sun. And between them stretched a bridge of Light; pure essence of Divine Abstraction, resembling a fiery, formless breath, a holy emblem of the God Within. Upon the centre of that golden bridge the Lovers met in close embrace. The bridge became a circle and deep within its limitless circumference, within its very heart, the Lovers merge—are once more one—and Ishtar's Quest is done.

Pictures Videos Music and Additional Reading

Goddess Ishtar on an Akkadian Empire seal, 2350–2150 BCE. She is equipped with weapons on her back, has a horned helmet, is trampling a lion held on a leash and is accompanied by the star of Shamash.

Major cult center: Uruk, Agade, Nineveh

Cults and Worship

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna

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Her main cult center was the Eanna temple in Uruk, whose name means "House of Heaven" (Sumerian: e2-anna; cuneiform: 𒂍𒀭 E2.AN). Some researches assume that the original patron deity of this fourth-millennium BCE city was An. After its dedication to Inanna, the temple seems to have housed priestesses of the goddess.

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Next to Uruk, Zabalam was the most important early site of Inanna worship, as the name of the city was commonly written with the signs MUŠ3 and UNUG, meaning respectively "Inanna" and "sanctuary". It is possible that the city goddess of Zabalam was originally a distinct deity, though one whose cult was absorbed by that of the Urukean goddess very early on.

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Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, it was widely believed that the cult of Inanna involved a "sacred marriage" ritual, in which a king would establish his legitimacy by taking on the role of Dumuzid and engaging in ritual sexual intercourse with the high priestess of Inanna, who took on the role of the goddess.

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This view, however, has been challenged and scholars continue to debate whether the sacred marriage described in literary texts involved any kind of physical ritual enactment at all and, if so, whether this ritual enactment involved actual intercourse or merely the symbolic representation of intercourse. The scholar of the ancient Near East Louise M. Pryke states that most scholars now maintain, if the sacred marriage was a ritual that was actually acted out, then it involved only symbolic intercourse.

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The cult of Ishtar was long thought to have involved sacred prostitution, but this is now rejected among many scholars. Hierodules known as ishtaritum are reported to have worked in Ishtar's temples, but it is unclear if such priestesses actually performed any sex acts and several modern scholars have argued that they did not.

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Women across the ancient Near East worshipped Ishtar by dedicating to her cakes baked in ashes (known as kamān tumri). A dedication of this type is described in an Akkadian hymn. Several clay cake molds discovered at Mari are shaped like naked women with large hips clutching their breasts.

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Planet Venus

Inanna was associated with the planet Venus, which is named after her Roman equivalent Venus. Several hymns praise Inanna in her role as the goddess or personification of the planet Venus. Theology professor Jeffrey Cooley has argued that, in many myths, Inanna's movements may correspond with the movements of the planet Venus in the sky.

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In Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, unlike any other deity, Inanna is able to descend into the netherworld and return to the heavens. The planet Venus appears to make a similar descent, setting in the West and then rising again in the East. An introductory hymn describes Inanna leaving the heavens and heading for Kur, what could be presumed to be the mountains, replicating the rising and setting of Inanna to the West.

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In Inanna and Shukaletuda, Shukaletuda is described as scanning the heavens in search of Inanna, possibly searching the Eastern and Western horizons. In the same myth, while searching for her attacker, Inanna herself makes several movements that correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky.

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Because the movements of Venus appear to be discontinuous (it disappears due to its proximity to the Sun, for many days at a time, and then reappears on the other horizon), some cultures did not recognize Venus as a single entity; instead, they assumed it to be two separate stars on each horizon: the morning and evening star.

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Nonetheless, a cylinder seal from the Jemdet Nasr period indicates that the ancient Sumerians knew that the morning and evening stars were the same celestial object. The discontinuous movements of Venus relate to both mythology as well as Inanna's dual nature.

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Modern astrologers recognize the story of Inanna's descent into the underworld as a reference to an astronomical phenomenon associated with retrograde Venus. Seven days before retrograde Venus makes its inferior conjunction with the sun, it disappears from the evening sky.

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The seven day period between this disappearance and the conjunction itself is seen as the astronomical phenomenon on which the myth of descent was based. After the conjunction, seven more days elapse before Venus appears as the morning star, corresponding to the ascent from the underworld.

The woman depicted in the relief is acknowledged to be a goddess as she wears the horned headdress of a deity and holds the sacred rod-and-ring symbol in her raised hands. Not only is the woman winged but her legs taper to bird talons (which seem to grip the lion's backs) and she is shown with a dew claw on her calves.

Along the base of the plaque runs a motif which represents mountains, indicating high ground. Who the winged woman is, however, has not been agreed upon though scholars generally believe her to be either Inanna (Ishtar), Lilith, or Ereshkigal. The piece is presently part of the collection of the British Museum, Room 56, in London.

Read More Lilith Mother of All Demons Queen of The Night click

Read More Ereshkigal Queen of The Underworld Irkalla click

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/658/the-queen-of-the-night/#google_vignette

GODDESS-INANNA-LION-fine art print-mythology-Mesopotamian

Art of Mary Ancilla

Source: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1339253316/goddess-inanna-lion-fine-art-print