Ishtar is the ancient Babylonian Goddess of sexuality, love, healing, courage and warriors, and also rules the sexual dynamic between men and women. When you fancy someone, it's Ishtar at work! Shes often depicted as an angel with eyes that burn with passionate energy. Althogh she's very compassionate, when crossed she can become wrathful and destructive so beaware of these times.
On some monuments Ishtar is depicted holding a bow and arrow - like a female cupid.
Harness her strengths and beauty
You're brave, strong, dynamic, passionate and sexually alluring. A bit of a diva, you like to indulge and pamper yourself with sensual pleasures such as delicious food, ornate clothes and uninhibeted sex. You're one of life's great survivors and you triumph over adversity, emerging like a phoenix as a transformed and stronger person.
Yore compassionate, non-judgmental nature means you feel just as at home with the down-and-outs as you are with the celebrated and wildly successful. You're also fiercely loyal to your loved ones. You'll risk everything to help them but should they be disloyal to you at any time, you'll find it hard to contain your outrage. You also have a tendancy to harbour grudges.
Call on the Goddess Ishtar to give you courage during periods of hardship, to help release grudges or to increase your sexual attractiveness
In the myths of the goddesses Ishtar and Inanna, the goddess descended into the land of the dead which was ruled by her sister, Ereskeigal, the goddess of death and infertility. She went there to rescue her lover, a vegetation god named Tammuz, who was being held hostage. She was refused admission to the Underworld.
All acts of procreation ceased while Ishtar was away and the earth remained barren, just as it did in the myths of the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone centuries later. Ishtar ranted and raved at that she would break down the gates, releasing all the dead to compete with the living for what little food remained unless she was allowed to enter and plead her cause.
She won. But the guard, following standard operating, refused to let her pass through the first gate unless she removed her crown. At the next gate, she had to remove her earrings, then her necklace at the next, removing her garments and proud finery until she stood humbled and naked after passing through the seventh (and last) gate.
goddess Bast
In one version of the myth, Ishtar (Innana) herself was then held captive and died but was brought back to life when her servant sprinkled her with the "water of life", but in the more widely known version of the myth, Ishtar's request was granted and she regained all of her attire and possessions as she slowly re-emerged through the gates of darkness.
Upon her return, Tammuz and the earth returned to life. Annual celebrations of this "Day of Joy" were held each year around the time of the vernal equinox. These celebrations became the forerunners of the Ostara festivals that welcomed the goddess and the arrival of spring as well as the Christian celebration of Easter.
