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Ishtar is the ancient goddess of love, war, and fertility worshipped in the Akkadian Empire, by the Babylonians, and Assyrians. She was originally worshipped in Sumer as Inanna. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine law, and political power. Her primary title was "the Queen of Heaven."

As early as the Uruk period (c. 4000–3100 bce), Inanna was already associated with the city of Uruk. During this period, the symbol of a ring-headed doorpost was closely associated with Inanna. The famous Uruk Vase (found in a deposit of cult objects of the Uruk III period) depicts a row of naked men carrying various objects, including bowls, vessels, and baskets of farm products, and bringing sheep and goats to a female figure facing the ruler. The female stands in front of Inanna's symbol of the two twisted reeds of the doorpost, while the male figure holds a box and stack of bowls, the later cuneiform sign signifying the En, or high priest of the temple.

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Hélène Smith

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This month in history Angeline Tubbs 1 August - Occultist Edward Kelley is born. (1555) 1 August - Witchfinder Margaret Aitken is exposed as a fraud. (1597) 4 August - Scottish nobleman William II de Soules is brought before the Black Parliament on charges of treason. (1320) 10 August - Astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel determines Sirius has an unseen companion. (1844) 12 August - Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins dies of tuberculosis. (1647) 16 August - Angeline Tubbs, the Witch of Saratoga, dies. (1856) 18 August - French priest Urbain Grandier is convicted of "magic, maleficence, and possession." (1634) 19 August - Five people are executed in the Salem Witch Trials. (1692) 19 August - Occultist and author Damien Echols is freed from prison after making an Alford Plea. (2011) 21 August - A Voodoo ceremony turns into a violent rebellion sparking the Haitian Revolution. (1791) 25 August - Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible is born. (1530) 25 August - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his telescope to Venetian lawmakers. (1609) 25 August - The occult horror film The Ninth Gate premiers in Spain. (1999) 29 August - Lilias Adie dies in prison, accused of witchcraft. (1704) 29 August - Austrian painter Christoph Haizmann visits a church in Pottenbrunn seeking an exorcism. (1677) 31 August - Mary Ann Nicholas is murdered, the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims. (1888)

Featured image The Oracle of Amun was a solitary oracle temple located at the Siwa Oasis in Western Egypt near Libya devoted to the Egyptian god Amun-Ra. Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, the earliest evidence of any connection with Ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established and temple were built sometime between 663 - 535 BC. Prior to arrival of the Greeks with Alexander the Great, Herodotus knew of a "fountain of the Sun" at Siwa that ran coldest in the noontime heat. Photo credit: Travis McHenry (More Images)

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