The Following is taken from the
Witches' Goddess by Janet & Stewart Farrar:
p. 39
"The Hebrew Jarah, after whom Jericho, was named was goddess of the new moon and bride of the sun; Levanah, the moon of the Song of Solomon, was also Chaldean; and another Chaldean moon goddess Sirdu, wife of teh sun god Shamash-Bubbar, may also have been the bride of the Hebrew IAO(Yahweh). "
p. 47
"More than this: the Canaanite Anat was worshipped alongside Yahweh by many Jewish apostates, including the Jewish soldiers at Elephantine. Anat was (like the Egyptian Neith) Virgin mother of all things, including the male god, conceiving all of her own volition and without outside impregnation. She became (in a mystery typical of many primordial godesses) at the same time mother, consort, sister and daughter of the male god. Likr Neith, 'she was the first to give birth to anything, and she had done so when nothing else had been born, and she herself had never been born.' Something of this concept (however unofficially) undoubtedly influenced thinking about Mary. As Geoffry Ashe puts it (the virgin, p.61): 'If any hint from the constellation of senior deities crept into Christian minds, it was probably subconscious and its nature is quite uncertain. But they are relevant to Mary as the divinely fertilized women are not, even though their own motherhood is outside history and humanity.'
p 106
"The Hebrews, and their Christian and Moslem heirs, owe many unacknowledged debts to Ishtar --- including their Sabbaths, as mentioned in p.25. The Babylonian word was sabbatu, derived from sa-bat--'heart-rest', and was the day of the full moon, when the goddess was held to be menstruating, and it was believed unlucky to do any work, eat cooked food or travel. All of these have been taboo to menstruating women in many cultures, but when Ishtar was menstruating the ban covered men as well as women. Later the sabbatu was extended to the four lunar quarters -- ie, every seven days, which is how Hebrews inherited it.
"The Hebrews also owe the biblical book of Esther, and the Purim festival, to Ishtar. During the Babylonian captivity in the 5th century BC, the ordinay jewish captives turned naturally to the to the worship of ishtar. A vita part of the worship was the hieros gamos or sacred marriage between the king and the human representative of the goddess (chosen from the fairest of the human priestesses), a union which bought blessings on the people; and the story of Esther and King Ahasuerus reflects this exactly. Even her name does so; before her marriage she wa Hadassah ('myrtle'), but from then on she was called Esther, a form of ishta. Significantly, the Purim festival is on the 14th and 15th days (ie, the full moon, sacred to Ishtrar) of the month Adar; and the word Purim is non-Hebrew, from the Assyrian 'Puhru', the annual assembly of the gods.
"The present book of Esther was written a generation or two BC, doubtless to make respectable a festival of ineradicable popularity. Scholars agree that it is full of interpolations; but its original meaning cannot be hidden. not once does it mention the Jewish God --- the only book in the bible, apart from the splendidly erotic Song of Solomon which does not."
p.130
on the subject of the garden of eden and creating man. . .
"Yahweh (or was it more Elohim, that curious God-name which is feminine with a masculine plural ending?) created them both at the same time"
p 192
Aholibah: ('Tent in her') Hebrew, female personification of Jerusalem. Earlier apparently a wife of jehovah. Condemned by the Hebrew scriptures as a voluptuous whore, sometimes a menstruating one.
p. 195
Anatha Baetyl also Ashima Baetyl: Hebrew. A form of the Canaanite ANAT. One of the 2 wives of Jehovah in his fifth century BC cult at Elephantine in Egypt, the ohter being Ashima Baetyl. Solomon built two godes temples beside Jehovah's one in Jerusalem.
p. 199
Ashtart: Phoenician, sister and wife of cronus, to whom she bore Eros. Cronus made her one of the rulers of Phonecia, and she chose a bull's head as her royal insignia. Referred to in the Old Testament as Ashtatroth. Reputation for lasciviousness. Ashtart-of-the-Sky-of-Baal was the planet Venus. Tends to merge Ashera and Astarte.
Astarte, Athtarat: Canaanite version of Ishtar, fertility goddess. Chief goddess of Tyre and Sidon. Astarte was also the Greek form of the name Ashtart. tends to merge with Asherat and Anat, and with the Egyptian Hathor. She came to Egypt; Ramses II had a temple to her, and she and Isis were said to be firm friends. Like Anat and Hathor, she was a suckler of kings. Associated with the planet Venus. The Greeks transfered her role in the Adonis story to Aphrodite. A cult of Astarte and Tyrian herakles, served by priestess, existed in London, Carlisle and Corbridge, Northumberland, in Roman Times, probably connected with the presence of Eastern traders.
p. 228
Hepzibah: ('My delight is in her') Hebrew, personification of Jerusalem; possibly originally a wife of Jehovah.
p. 273
Sirdu, Sirrida: A chaldean moon goddess, also called simply A, Aa or Ai. Wife of Sun god Shamash-Bubbar, or possibly of the Hebrew IAO(Yahweh)
hope the following helps you out pharaoh. . . .
"New Way, What's this about a new way???"---Alex, Clockwork Orange
