March 04, 2004
Temple of Ishtar
One search term leads to another -
I've been researching Sacred Sexuality, and I've come across The Ishtar Temple. I'd heard about temple prostitutes and sacred sexuality in pre-Christian times; according to this site these were Temples of Ishtar, Ishtar the fertility Goddess. The site is content rich, so there's more to learn still. Nice to find sites bent on education more than sales and promotion. And they have nice links too, and bibliographies. Smart folks studying sacred sexuality! How fortunate I am that they seem to be based in Northern California. Perhaps that's not by accident?
Posted by Justin at March 4, 2004 09:07 AM | TrackBackIshtar is also a war goddess. She wears more than one hat. A number of the new revisionary temples that have selected Ishtar have dropped the war aspect and focused on the sexuality. She is the Babylonian aspect of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and war - whose twin aspects were eventually split into Aphrodite and Athena (see Belit and Mylitta). Take a peek at the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Judeo-Christian Bible refers to temple prostitution on a number of occassions as it was widely practiced in the area for thousands of years.
Posted by: Brian David Phillips at April 16, 2004 07:47 PM
