Professor James comments on the relationship of Ishtar and Tammuz, writing, “In this alliance she was the dominant partner, as has been demonstrated, for when he was brought into close connection with Ishtar, in the Tammuz myth, he was her son as well as her husband and brother, and always subordinate to her as the Young-god.”

In some areas of Anatolia of classical times, eunuch priests appear to have totally gained control of the Goddess religion.

As the victim of rape, a woman automatically lost the right to continue her life as a single woman or to become a wife in a more carefully arranged and probably more desirable marriage. The law reads, “If a man find a damsel that is a virgin which is not betrothed and lay hold on her and they be found, then the man that lay with her shall give unto

when the Bible tells us that Eve defied the male deity and instead accepted the word and advice of the serpent. We may indeed find that the seemingly innocent myth of Paradise and how the world began was actually carefully constructed and propagated to “keep women in their place,” the place assigned to them by the Levite tribe of biblical Canaan.

In 1933 Professor T. H. Robinson wrote of the ceremonial death of Tammuz occurring in Israel, claiming, “This subject has been closely studied in recent years, and it is generally (although not universally) agreed that a ritual involving a dying god, a divine marriage and a ceremonial procession, was found in Israel.”

And despite the fact that the title of the Goddess in most historical documents of the Near East was the Queen of Heaven, some writers were willing to know Her only as the eternal “Earth Mother.”

After the marriage rejection a fight then ensues between Ishtar, Enkidu and Gilgamish, in which the two men insult the Goddess, kill Her heavenly bull and throw its thigh bone or genitals (depending upon the translation) in Her face.

Priestesses of the Goddess, who provided the counsel and advice at Her shrines of prophetic wisdom, were described as being fit for this position since as women they were more “intuitive” or “emotional,” thus ideal mediums for divine revelation.

Archaeological, mythological and historical evidence all reveal that the female religion, far from naturally fading away, was the victim of centuries of continual persecution and suppression by the advocates of the newer religions which held male deities as supreme. And