HSAPM



Summary of Bible Class Session of April 8, 2012.

Easter Sunday or Ishtar Pagan Day

-THE GREATER ABOMINATION-

ARE WE REALLY CELEBRATING THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

OR OF EASTER, THE FERTILITY GODDESS OF BABYLON?

After viewing the video documentary on Easter in the Bible Class of April 8, 2012, one could not help poping the question whether the church has really been celebrating the resurrection of Christ or of Easter, the fertility goddess of Babylon? Did the goddess Easter resurrect from the underground on the Spring Equinox? The pagan worshippers believed she did and worship her every year in the spring with orgies, rabbits and eggs. Constantine was so anti-Semitic that he forced the Christians to change the name of the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ from "The Feast of First Fruits" Leviticus 23, to Easter. He changed the name to the pagan God Ishtar or Easter. The true Christians never allowed it to change. Even our "puritans" who came to America would not celebrate Easter or Christmas.

The story goes that Easter's son goes to the under world and cannot get back up so she has to go down there to get Him. Easter resurrects back up in the spring. Supposedly Tammuz, her son, is born at Christmas, and dies at Halloween. All the witchcraft books tell the story and give all the pagan holidays which look just like the so called Christian holidays.

We must tell all those people that still believe in this mess of idol worship practice to Repent for their ignornance, like we all had to, and help stop this abomination. In Ezekiel 8:14 the woman that is being comforted by the weeping daughters of zion, crying for Tammuz is Easter. If you ever visit London, go into the museum and you’ll see there the Easter obelisks from Nineveh. The actual ones and her lions from her temple. You will be shocked, but not as shocked as you would be if you are realizing for the first time that the church today calls the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ after Easter, who is the Queen of Heaven and the woman who rides the beast of Revelation.

Great Sources of Information:

Website "Temple" for Ishtar -

Entrance to the shrine of Ishtar- Babylonian Goddess

Ishtar

Ishtar Followers

The history of the Temple of Ishtar

The Temple of Ishtar is a group dedicated to education, raising awareness and supporting the healing our society of over 5,000 years of negative sex and body messages.

Added info from their site ...... Mesopotamian Holy Harlot -

Excerpt from the book "Sacred Sexuality"

Easter Information :

Excerpts from the book, "Too Long in the Sun"

Documenting from a Historical and Biblical standpoint the influence of pagan sun worship upon modern day Christianity

Easter or Ishtar by Al Perez

.....Out of this practice came many other variations of these pagan festivals until the Roman Catholic Church adopted the Asherah worship and named it EASTER around 155 A.D. According to the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, Easter was named after a pagan goddess of the Anglo-Saxons named Eostre, the goddess of the dawn . .............

***** A Must See Site *****

Pagan Sun Worship and Catholicism

The Pagan Sun Wheel, Te Obelisk and Baal

Photos of pagan symbols used by the Pope at the

Roman Catholic Church - Vatican City !

Website "Temple" for Ishtar - with a website Altar - Temple of Astarte - Astarte is also known as Astarat and Astoreth. She is an incarnation of Ishtar and Inanna. This Semitic Goddess was worshipped by the Syrians, Palestinians, Phoenicians, Egyptians and other Semitic Tribes. King Solomon built a Temple to Her as Astoreth, near Jerusalem.

......The Egg is a sacred symbol of Astarte......

......The Knot of Inanna often appears as the top of a tall pole. This symbol of the Goddess's authority was probably the original archetype of the much later crosier, which is carried by christian bishops and abbots.

Ishtar Movie

Battlefield Earth - Ishtar of the Apes ?

Starring - John Travolta (Church of Scientology)

PAGAN SUN WORSHIP AND CATHOLICISM

THE PAGAN SUN WHEEL, THE OBELISK AND BAAL

[pic]

[pic]

|Above is a Roman coin from the 3rd century A.D. (Probus, A.D. 276-282) which on the reverse depicts the |[pic] |

|pagan sun god driving a chariot drawn by four horses (Sol in Quadriga). The inscription reads SOLI INVICTO -| |

|The Invincible Sun.] | |

|At right is a similar mosaic found in the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica, on the vaulted | |

|ceiling of the tomb of the Julii (also known as "Mausoleum M"). It depicts Christ as the sun-god Helios / | |

|Sol riding in his chariot, and is dated to the 3rd century A.D. The two left horses were destroyed when the | |

|hole was made to enter the tomb. Other mosaics in this Christian tomb depicted Jonah and the whale, the good| |

|shepherd carrying a lamb, and fishermen. This blending of paganism with Christianity is syncretism, and | |

|apostasy. | |

|[pic] |At left is a pagan sun wheel in the temple at Kararak India, which is associated with |

| |occultism and astrology. It resembles a chariot wheel doesn't it? |

| |Note the following verse- |

| |2 Ki 23:11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the |

| |entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which |

| |was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. |

|From the book | |

|"The New Illustrated Great Controversy" | |

|Copyright © LLT Productions | |

|Used by Permission | |

When Israel apostatized, they made chariots dedicated to the sun god, who it was thought, traveled across the sky in a great chariot. Hence the origin of the sun wheel.

The Symbols of Baal, Ishtar and Shamash

Below is an artifact unearthed in the holy of holies of the pagan temple in the Canaanite city of Hatzor / Hazor, in northern Israel. It is described as follows:

|"Of special interest is a square basalt altar for burning incense. On one of its sides,|[pic] |

|a circle with a cross in the center – the divine symbol of the Canaanite storm god – is| |

|carved in low relief." | |

|"... a basalt offering table, pillar-shaped, with a carved symbol of the storm god Baal| |

|on its side. That symbol was a circle with a cross in the center" | |

|Sources: |

|[pic]Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hatzor: "The Head of all those Kingdoms" |

|[pic]University of Illinois, Religious Studies, Hazor |

[pic]

... The Akkadian Ishtar is also, to a greater extent, an astral deity, associated with the planet Venus: with Shamash, sun god, and Sin, moon god, she forms a secondary astral triad. In this manifestation her symbol is a star with 6, 8, or 16 rays within a circle. ...

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online, article on Ishtar.

[pic]

The Star of Ishtar

Because some astronomical objects move through the sky in repeated and known intervals of time, the behavior of the celestial gods associated with them can be symbolized numerically. Ishtar, as the planet Venus, perhaps was handled this way in the eight-pointed star that usually stands for her on Babylonian boundary stones.

References to Venus as early as 3000 BC are known from evidence at Uruk, an important early Sumerian city in southern Iraq. One clay tablet found at the site says "star Inanna," and another contains symbols for the words "star, setting sun, Inanna." Inanna is Venus, known later as Ishtar, and the Uruk tablets specify her celestial identity with the symbol for "star": an eight-pointed star.

Source: [pic]The Star of Ishtar, Iraq Resource Information Site.

[pic]

So can the star within a circle, or sun wheel, be found in the Vatican in Rome? Indeed it can!

|[pic] |Here is a photo of the papal palace with the pope at |

| |the window of his apartment. Note the many |

| |eight-pointed stars of Ishtar in the decorative work |

| |above the windows. Some are within a darker circle. |

|Detail from a photo by Adam J. Polczyk-Przybyla | |

|DHD Photo Gallery | |

|[pic] |Here you see a view of the piazza or plaza at the Vatican, also known as |

| |St. Peter's square. The papal palace is on the right edge of the photo. The|

| |large eight-rayed sun wheel design, symbolic of Ishtar, is immediately |

| |noticeable. Look closely in the center of the wheel. What you see there is |

| |an obelisk, a genuine Egyptian obelisk shipped from Heliopolis to Rome by |

| |the Roman emperor Caligula. The obelisk is, of course, a phallic symbol,* |

| |but it also was used in sun worship. Click on the image to view a larger |

| |version of the same image. |

| |* It is claimed that the word 'obelisk' literally means 'Baal's shaft' or |

| |'Baal's organ of reproduction'. Source: Masonic and Occult Symbols |

| |Illustrated, by Dr. Cathy Burns, pg. 341. |

|[pic] |Here is an old photo of the center of St. Peter's square, and note that |

| |around the obelisk, at the center of the huge eight-point sun wheel, is a |

| |smaller four-pointed sun wheel, the same symbol as found on the altar stone|

| |in the temple of Baal in Hatzor! |

|Here you see the reverse side of a coin celebrating the pontificate of John Paul II, and on it is the|[pic] |

|obelisk and sun wheel of St. Peter's piazza, and a very distinct sunburst emanating from the Basilica| |

|itself. The correlation of the symbology is striking. | |

|[pic] |[pic] |

|Pope John Paul II, at World Youth Day 2000, was |Pope Pius XII wearing the same stole. |

|wearing a crimson and gold stole, which bears the | |

|symbols of Baal / Shamash within an eight-pointed | |

|star of Ishtar. An enlargement is shown below. | |

| | |

|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |

| | | |

|Symbol of Baal | |Symbol of the |

|found in Hazor, Israel | |pagan sun-god Shamash |

|Source: University of Illinois, |Detail of the symbol on the papal stole. |Detail from the Stela of |

|Religious Studies, Hazor | |Shamshi-Adad V |

| | |The British Museum |

[pic]

The Obelisk

|[pic] |The Egyptian obelisk that stands in the square of St. John Lateran (shown at left) is the largest |

| |in existence. Originally carved during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmoses III, it stood in the Temple |

| |of Amon in Thebes (Karnak), but was removed to Rome by emperor Constantius (A.D. 317-361), and |

| |placed in the Circus Maximus. In 1587 Pope Sixtus V unearthed the fallen, broken and long |

| |forgotten obelisk and had it repaired and placed in the Piazza S. Giovanni in Laterano. |

| |Interestingly enough, it is possible that Moses saw this very obelisk when he was in Egypt. Now |

| |this obelisk, meant to honor the sun god, stands beside what Catholics call the supreme "Mother of|

| |all Churches", the official cathedra of the bishop of Rome, the Pope, which brings to mind |

| |Revelation 17: 5 and the apostate Mother Church, Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots, who |

| |stands accused of fornication, a mixing of the sacred with the profane, truth with error. |

| |[pic]Mysteries of the Nile (NOVA) |

| |[pic]Egypt - Amazing Discoveries |

[pic]

OBELISK. Of the several functions of the PILLAR among early peoples, the Egyptian obelisk was worshipped as the dwelling place of the sun-god.

Source: Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art by James Hall, published by HarperCollins, 1994, page 75.

[pic]

The pagan association of the obelisk was something well understood by the church. The Jesuit scholar, Athanasius Kircher in his book Obeliscus Pamphilius, published in 1650, gives an account of the ancient views of the obelisk as the digitus solis, or "finger of the sun".

Pope Sixtus V (1585 - 1590) had the Egyptian obelisks erected all over Rome, as Counter-Reformation monuments.

[pic]

The word matstsebah in Hebrew means standing images or obelisk and it can be found in many places of the Bible. Here is Strong's definition of the Hebrew word matstsebah-

H4676. matstsebah, mats-tsay-baw'; fem. (causat.) part. of H5324; something stationed, i.e. a column or (memorial stone); by anal. an idol:--garrison, (standing) image, pillar.

In the following verses matstsebah has been translated as image(s)-

Exo 23:24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

Exo 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

Lev 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

Deu 7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

Deu 12:3 And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

1 Kings 14:23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

2 Kings 3:2 And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made.

2 Kings 10:26 And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them.

2 Kings 10:27 And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day.

2 Chr 14:3 For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves:

2 Chr 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.

Jer 43:13 He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.

Micah 5:13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

Another Hebrew word is also used for "sun images" or obelisks, the word chamman. Again, here is the Strong's definition-

H2553. chamman, kham-mawn'; from H2535; a sun-pillar:--idol, image.

Chamman is also translated as simply image(s) in the King James:

Isa 17:8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.

Isa 27:9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

2 Chr 34:4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.

|[pic] |Here is a close-up of the obelisk in front of St. Peter's. Have you|

| |ever given any thought to the origin of the church steeple? Could |

| |it be a modern representation of the pagan obelisk? Indeed! |

|From the book | |

|"The New Illustrated Great Controversy" | |

|Copyright © LLT Productions | |

|Used by Permission | |

|So in St. Peter's square, the symbol of Baal is |[pic] |

|within the symbol of Ishtar, and at the center | |

|is an Egyptian obelisk, all representing pagan | |

|sun worship. | |

Pope Celebrates Palm Sunday at Pagan Sun Pillar

|[pic] |[pic] |

|[pic] |[pic] |

|Images © 2000 by CTV |

Above are pictures of John Paul II, dressed in scarlet, celebrating Palm Sunday in St. Peter's square on April 16th, 2000, with a "grove" of potted palms and hundred-year-old olive trees placed around the standing solar pillar (matstsebah) or obelisk, in the center of the Vatican's large pagan solar wheel symbolizing Baal and Ishtar.

Deu 16:21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove (asherah) of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.

Deu 16:22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image (matstsebah / pillar); which the LORD thy God hateth.

[pic]

Now below are two photos of a statue in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.

|[pic] |[pic] |

|© SCALA Florence | |

It is supposedly a statue of Peter enthroned. Notice the sun wheel above his head? This statue is thought by some to actually be a pagan statue of Jupiter, removed from the Pantheon in Rome (a pagan temple), moved into St. Peter's and renamed Peter. The extended right foot has been nearly worn away from the many pilgrims who kiss it in homage. Note also that the pattern on the wall behind the statue utilizes the symbol of Baal / Shamash!

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia online article Portraits of the Apostles:

The famous bronze statue of St. Peter in the basilica of this Apostle in Rome is by some regarded as a work of the fifth or sixth century, by others as pertaining to the thirteenth. The latter date is adopted by Kraus and Kaufmann among others; Lowrie, however, maintains that "no statue of the Renaissance can be compared with this for genuine understanding of the classic dress", and, therefore, this writer holds for the more ancient date. The marble statue of St. Peter taken from the old basilica, now in the crypt of the Vatican, was originally, in all probability, an ancient consular statue which was transformed into a representation of the Prince of Apostles.

|[pic] |Here you see a photo looking up into the dome of St. Peter's. Notice the|

| |very obvious 16 ray sun wheel. Indeed the light from the sun streams |

| |into the center hub of the dome making a genuine sun-lit sunburst image |

| |at the center of the wheel. |

| |As you can see from the Bible verses quoted above, these symbols were |

| |associated with sun worship, which is strongly condemned in scripture. |

| |So why are they so prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church, if they are |

| |associated with paganism and apostasy? |

|From the book Art Treasures of the Vatican | |

|© 1974 by Smeets Offset B.V. | |

|Prentice-Hall, Inc. | |

Ezek 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

Ezek 8:17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?

Test your perception:

What is the Vatican city designed to look like?

[pic]

Easter/ ISHTAR:The Mesopotamian Holy Harlot

|I TURN THE MALE TO THE |

|FEMALE. I AM SHE WHO |

|ADORNETH THE MALE FOR THE |

|FEMALE; AM AM SHE WHO |

|ADORNETH THE FEMALE |

|FOR THE MALE. |

|The words of the goddess Ishtar. |

A great and powerful civilization once flourished in Mesopotamia (Greek for 'between the rivers'). This area, now in modern Iraq, included the kingdoms of Sumeria, Akkadia, Assyria and Babylonia, although its culture and influence spread over a much wider area of the Middle East.

The earliest evidence from Sumeria reveals a culture which accorded women equal status with men, and which principally venerated the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, lunar goddess of life and love, named as the Whore of Babylon in the Bible. [pic]The Mesopotamians held daily religious rituals, offering food and drink to their deities in the temples - which were also centers for trade and acted as banks, extending loans. Monthly rites were held to honor the moon's phases: 'on the day of the disappearance of the moon, on the day of the sleeping of the moon'. The exact observance of the moon's phases was very important for it formed the calendar from which they calculated the precise dates and times of all their religious observances. The focus and centerpiece of their year was a sacred sexual rite of the utmost significance. Every New Year, the ruling king 'married' the goddess Inanna/Ishtar amidst great feasting and celebration. This rite took place annually for thousands of years, profoundly influencing later civilizations, both symbolically and through actual ritual.

|IN PRAISE OF ISHTAR |

|Praise Ishtar, the most |

|awesome of the Goddesses, |

|revere the queen of women, |

|the greatest of the deities. |

|She is clothed with pleasure and love. |

|She is laden with vitality, |

|charm, and voluptuousness. |

|In lips she is sweet; |

|life is in her mouth. |

|At her appearance rejoicing |

|becomes full.[pic] |

[pic]

The Dance of the Seven Veils by Armand Point. The dance originated with the myth of Ishtar's descent into the underworld in search of her lover.

Ishtar's tides and names - like those of all ancient deities - were many and various. In Babylon, her name meant 'Star', the Light of the World. Semitic people gradually conquered the lands of Sumer, introducing changes to the earliest myths and adding further names for the goddess. She was known as Ashtoreth, to whom King Solomon returns at the end of his days; she was also named -Har, or Hora - from which the words harlot and whore sprang. Inanna/Ishtar was served by powerful prostitute-priestesses who were 'the vehicles of her creative life in their sexual union with the men who came there to perform a sacred ritual'. [pic]24 This goddess exhibited a rich diversity of powers, for she also had a terrifying aspect as goddess of war and storms. Her primordial origins are suggested by images depicting her with the magical Tree of Life, the sacred serpent, and numerous birds - linking her with the earliest snake-bird goddesses known to us in many cultures.

[pic]

A Phoenician ivory plaque showing the goddess Ishtar

Inanna/Ishtar enjoyed many lovers. Her title 'virgin' indicated her autonomous, unmarried state. Her chief consort was the son/brother/lover Dumuzi, or Tammuz, meaning 'faithful son'. This, and the corresponding goddess roles of mother/sister/lover, reflect the phases of the moon, underlining the importance of its monthly cycle to all ancient peoples. Dumuzi/Tammuz is referred to in poems and hymns as 'Lord of Life', 'the Green One', and 'Shepherd of the People' - often sacrificed in the form of a lamb. The other totemic crea- tures linked to the son/lover are the ram and the magnificent 'Bull of Heaven'.

But, like all early consorts, the grain god Dumuzi/Tammuz was fated to meet an untimely sacrificial end. His ritual death, accompanied by a month of mourning, took place in high summer, after the harvests. This coincided with the reappearance of the dog star, Sirius, rising with the sun in mid-July. At this time, the goddess's lover descended to the 'Land of No Return', the underworld, and life on earth became sterile, scorched and parched by the unforgiving rays of the high summer sun.

The goddess annually mourned the loss of her beloved with piteous laments, intoned by the people in the temples. Naturally, she would eventually retrieve him so that the eternal annual round could be acted out - life affirmed, and life restored. Some scholars suggest that, long ago, an actual human sacrifice took place every Great Year - that is, every eighth year. However, written records did not begin until much later, by which time the death and resurrection of the beloved was acted out symbolically. The god was ever a cyclical deity, while the goddess, like the earth itself, endured. But by the third millennium BC the Epic of Gilgamesh [pic]had challenged this received wisdom. In this poem Ishtar desires the hero: 'Glorious Ishtar raised an eye at the beauty of Gilgamesh: "Come, Gilgamesh, be thou my lover! Do but grant me of thy fruit."'

Gilgamesh, however, responds by reciting a long list of Ishtar's previous amours and the sad fate which befell them. He says, 'Which lover didst thou love forever? Which of thy shepherds pleased thee for all time?... For Tammuz, the lover of thy youth, Thou hast ordained wailing year after year... The hero ultimately rejects the goddess's sexual invitation, slays her divine bull and celebrates his bravura with his friend Enkidu, a savage enemy in another tale. This epic poem clearly reflects gradual changes which were taking place in society at that time, for a male figure not only rejects the great goddess, but triumphs over her furious attempts at revenge.

[pic]Ishtar is depicted as a voluptuous woman, symbolizing her abundant fertility.

In other poems, however, the relationship between the goddess anc her lover is rapturous, erotic, and bursting with images of fertility. Here is the Sumerian Inanna, praising her 'honey-man':

He has sprouted; he has burgeoned;

He is lettuce planted by the water.

He is the one my womb loves best.

My well-stocked garden of the plain,

My barley growing high in its furrow,

My apple tree which bears fruit up to its crown,

He is lettuce planted by the water.

My honey-man, my honey-man sweetens me always.

My lord, the honey-man of the gods,

He is the one my womb loves best.

His hand is honey, his foot is honey,

He sweetens me always.

My eager impetuous caresser of the navel,

My caresser of the soft thighs,

He is the one my womb loves best

He is lettuce planted by the water.26[pic]

[pic]A Babylonian alabaster figure of Ishtar

THE WHORES OF BABYLON

Ishtar's sacred harlots belonged to an organized hierarchy, painstakingly recorded by the Babylonians. Her top-ranking priestesses were called entu, and wore special clothing to distinguish them from the others. Their caps, jewellery and ceremonial staff were the same as those of the ruler, and their status equal to those of the male priests.

The Babylonian naditu, ranking next in importance to the entu, were drawn from the highest families in the land. In dedicating their lives to the goddess they were supposed to remain single and childless. However, the naditu cheerfully ignored this stricture, and led full and active lives. They were bright and canny, with considerable business acumen: 'They bought, sold and hired out; lent money and grain; invested, imported, exported, dealt in slaves, managed land and people, played fom the cloisters an essential part in the economy of the country.'27[pic] Beneath these women came the qadishtu (sacred women) and the ishtaritu, many of whom specialized in the arts of dancing, music and singing.

From snippets of information in classical literature, and certain artefacts, it is possible to surmise that these women demonstrated their sexuality by dancing a version of the sensuous, undulating belly dance which is still extremely popular all over the Middle East today. As Wendy Buonaventura writes of the dance: '... everything indicates a connection between birth mime, early creation dance and that which was part of goddess rites in the prehistoric world'. The dance is characterized by 'snake-like and vigorous hip and pelvic movements, the manipulation of veils, a descent to the floor and the ritual wearing of a hip- belt or sash, which we can link with the girdle, Ishtar's symbolic emblem'.28 In the Middle East this alluring dance is still performed by women, at all-female gatherings from which men are banned.

[pic]The snake's sensuous coils may have inspired the undulations of Middle Eastern dance.

In addition to the activities of the sacred temple whores, there were sacramental sexual initiations of a slightly different character. The Greek historian Herodotus (3 BC) tells us: 'Babylonian custom... compels every woman of the land once in her life to sit in the temple of love and have intercourse with some stranger... the men pass and make their choice. It matters not what be the sum of money; the woman will never refuse, for that were a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. After their intercourse she has made herself holy in the sight of the goddess and goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are tall and fair are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfil the law; for some of them remain for three years or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus.'[pic]29

Many of these women returned home to marry and have children. Later Sumerian texts, however, advised against marrying a fully-fledged temple prostitute since she would be too independent, 'besides being accustomed to sccepting other men, she would make sn unsympathetic and intractable wife'.

Overall, the sacred whores were credited with transformative powers, as the myth of the wild, hairy Enkidu makes plain. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells how the semi-divine hero became so overweeningly arrogant that the other gods created Enkidu to steal some of his power. A hunter discovered this primitive being at a watering hole, drinking with the animals, and informed Gilgamesh of the trap. On hearing the news, Gilgamesh sent a 'child of pleasure' from the temple of love to lure Enkidu away. The woman disrobed 'laying bare her ripeness'. This had the desired effect and the animal man was ensnared:

. . . and [Enkidu] possessed her ripeness.

She was not bashful as she welcomed his ardour.

She laid aside her cloth and he rested upon her.

She treated him, the savage, to a woman's task,

And his love was drawn into her.

After six days and seven nights instructive lovemaking, Enkidu became an initiate - possessed of both 'wisdom' and 'broader understanding'. The harlot then led him to the gates of the city, where he took up a new, more civilized, existence - his animal nature having been transformed by his intensely passionate encounter and his new-found knowledge of the arts of love.

[pic]

The semi-divine hero Gilgamesh with a lion from an Assyrian stone relief (8th century BC)

THE SACRED MARRIAGE

The goddess Inanna speaks to her lover:

Bridegroom, dear to my heart,

Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.

Lion, dear to my heart,

Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.

You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you,

Bridegroom, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber.

You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you,

Lion, I would be taken by you to the Bedchamber.

My precious caress is more savory than honey,

In the bedchamber, honey filled,

Let us enjoy your goodly beauty,

Lion, let me caress you.

My precious caress is more savory than honey.30 [pic]

[pic]

Ishtar sits at the window - an image of the goddess as the sacred prostitute.

The sacred marriage between priestess and king was the most solemn and numinous of all Mesopotamian religious rituals. Through this act, the fecundity and sheer life-force of the goddess was honored, released, and drawn down to vivify the land and its people. Her blessing was conferred on the earth itself and on the position of the ruling king. Without his wedding to the goddess, in the living form of her priestess, the king was not considered fit or able to rule the people. His temporal potency was inextricably linked with his physical prowess and attuned to his own instinctual sexual energies.

New Year, the 'day of rites', was the time set aside for these ecstatic, hedonistic celebrations. In Mesopotamia, New Year fell at the time of the spring equinox, when the earth was pulsing with fresh, new life. In a feast of collective pleasure lasting many days, the people venerated the divine nature of sexual joy. Everything was designed to stir the senses, and men and women bathed and anointed their oiled skin with herbs and essences. They darkened their eyelids, painted their faces and decorated themselves with jewellery. Scented lotions were used to set curls in their dark hair. Arrayed in all their finery they toasted the goddess and her bridegroom with wine, and performed serpentine, circling dances to the haunting music of lyres, flutes and drums. Sacrifices and libations were made and the perfumed air was thick with the heady scents of cinnamon, aloes and myrrh. In Babylon, a great pyre of incense smouldered atop the legendary, pyramid-like Tower of Babel. At the peak of this lavish carnival the king approached the temple, bearing offerings of oil, precious spices and tempting foods to lay before Inanna/ Ishtar. The crowds thronging the temple precincts chanted sacred erotic poems, creating a highly-charged atmosphere of sensual anticipation and mystical participation. In these poems the goddess, and by extension the priestess who embodied her, prepared for her nuptials with great care: When for the uwild bull, for the lord, I shall have bathed, When for the shepherd Dumuzi, I shall have bathed, . . . When with amber my mouth I shall have coated, When with kohl my eyes I shall have painted. [pic]31

The sacred marriage took place in the heart of the temple, where the king waited for the goddess/priestess to approach and receive him. One poem describes how the profound religious significance of their union made 'the throne in the great sanctuary' as glorious as the daylight, and transformed the king, who became 'like the Sun-god', literally and symbolically enlightened. Inanna's passion is described in rapturous poetry. The hymns and sacred erotic poems of Mesopotamia celebrate sexuality in a way which reveres its power, inspirational energies and transformative qualities. It is this indivisible fusion of the sexual and the spiritual that formed the core of their religion.

The following sensuous text describes the divine love-making of Inanna and Dumuzi - the consummation of the sacred marriage. It is a continuation of the lines quoted above, and was trans- lated from the Gudea Cylinders (C 3000 BC) from ancient Sumer:

When the lord, lying by holy Inanna,

the shepherd Dumuzi,

With milk and cream the lap shall have smoothed...

When on my vulva his hands he shall have laid,

When like his black boat, he shall have... it,

When like his narrow boat, he shall have brought life to it,

When on the bed he shall have caressed me,

Then I shall caress my lord, a sweet fate I shall decree for him,

I shall caress Shulgi, the faithful shepherd,

A sweet fate I shall decree for him,

I shall caress his loins,

The shepherdship of all the lands, I shall decree as his fate.

[pic]

The biblical tower of Babel was based on the Babylonian temple of Ishtar

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download