Astrology in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Science of Omens and the Knowledge of the Heavens by Baigent Michael

Author:Baigent, Michael [Baigent, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Spirituality/Ancient Mystery
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2015-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

Who is this arising like the dawn

fair as the Moon,

resplendent as the Sun,

terrible as an army with banners?2

It was for worshipping the goddess that Solomon was condemned in the Old Testament.

There were many ways of symbolizing Ishtar, but the most common symbol in Assyria was the eight-pointed star and thus, perhaps, for her the number eight was sacred. There is a curiosity, however: her name, in cuneiform, is also the symbol for the number thirty. In some esoteric manner, known only to the ancient priests, this number and Ishtar were connected. Unfortunately, no vestige of any ancient gematria has been found that could illuminate this point or indicate the numbers associated with other deities.

It is certainly possible that the later medieval eight-sided churches, such as the Knights Templar built, dedicated to the European mother goddess, Mary, are a continuation, through Middle Eastern contacts, of this Ishtar symbolism. Certainly the Knights Templar were famous for their prowess as warriors, and it would not be out of character for their cult to have viewed Mary as a species of war goddess.

The Templars’ patroness was Mary in the form of the Black Virgin. It was under her auspices that their spiritual mentor, Saint Bernard, had received his primary spiritual vision. It is most likely that the medieval Black Virgin was an ancient Middle Eastern goddess who had been given a Christian overlay. Many of the early Christian sites of the Virgin cult had grown up about an ancient black statue of a goddess with whom legend often associated a tale of a miraculous discovery.*24

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