Ishtar is the Babylonian goddess of Love and War, embodied in the two aspects of the planet Venus--as Evening Star, She brings lovers to celebration and bed; and as the Morning Star, She brings the fiery sword of War. She represents one of the many faces of the ancient Near Eastern Great Goddess, among them the PhoeniciansAsherat or Ashtoreth (in Greek Astarte) and Anat, Sumerian Inanna, Phrygian Cybele, and Greek Aphrodite, most of whom share legends of dying and resurrected lovers.

As goddess of love and sex, Ishtar is the force that draws mates together and brings fertility, both for humans and animals. She is goddess of courtesans, and sacred prostitution was part of Her cult. She is Herself a harlot who took many lovers.

As goddess of war, Ishtar takes part in battle and is shown standing on the back of a lion bearing bow and arrows. She was known for a fiery and fickle temper which usually spelled doom for Her lovers.

One of Ishtar's lovers was the grain-god Tammuz (who still has a Jewish month named after Him). He died young (as the grain is cut just as it reaches the perfection of ripeness), and some legends imply that Ishtar had a hand in His death. But Ishtar was inconsolable and determined to fetch him back from the Underworld. At each of the seven gates of the Land of the Dead Ishtar, like Inanna, was required to give over an article of clothing or jewelry until finally She came naked and humbled before Her sister Queen Ereshkigal, who then imprisoned Ishtar.

The world mourned for the lost goddess of love, and Her father Sin the Moon God sent an envoy armed with powerful magic who successfully rescued Her. Tammuz was eventually also brought back to live in the land of the gods. The descent of Ishtar was celebrated annually in Babylonian lands.

Ishtar in a reading indicates courage and commitment, of rebirth and the death that must precede it. In this dark journey, remember, you will always carry your own light.

Epithets: The Star of Lamentation, Lady of Battles, Courtesan of the Gods

I am the starry Lady of Heaven; my power enlightens dusk and dawn, mountain and sky, furrow and seed, animal and human, woman and man, love and division, and war, always war. But not to the darkness; nor the clay and dust, not to Death; not to the great land below, where my sister reigns. That land I did not know.

So I abandoned the known lands and traveled to the threshold and found that entrance and beat on that cold door, I banged on it until I was let in. Into that Great Place I descended, down through the gates one by one.

Down I went through the seven gates, down to the realm of my sister.

At the first gate my Queenship was stolen.

At the second gate my Knowledge was taken.

At the third gate I lost my Voice.

At the fourth gate I ceded my Beauty.

At the fifth gate I gave my Divinity.

At the sixth gate I offered my Self.

At the last gate I left my Life, and it all falls away and death is come.

The Dark Queen sits upon her throne and sees the corpse of her sister.

Time passes and does not, and two strangers come to the Queen, bearing water. What did they tell the Queen? What did they give the Queen, that she turned her ear to them? Listen close and you might guess, or you might not; but they ask of her one thing, and that one thing is granted. So then the loosed spirit is breathed back and bound into that which remains, and I am borne to Life once more. I am freed from that land, and then back up through all the gates I ascend, one following the other, all my self restored to me, up into the good air; and one more thing comes besides, a little of the dark returns with me.

This darkness knows the Law, the Law which says that for one released there is one ransomed. There was no question, really, who it should be, and down I send my husband in my stead. His sister mourns and would follow him; again the scales of the Law swing and then settle, and the dark and light, sorrow and joy, decay and growth, summer and winter are between them balanced. And this truth is what has come back with me, this shadow to my Star, this equilibrium, this poise; this balance above and below, without which we are not whole.