kaos

Cyrus, king of the Persians, gave birth to much of what we know of as “Judaism” today.
The return from the 70 years of exile was led by Ezra, the scribe, and it was he, or others
working under his guidance, who composed the Torah, or five books of Moses. There is
no reason to believe that these ever existed in their accepted form prior to this date. To
the best of my knowledge of the sources before me, Isaiah is the first to use the name
“Babylon” in relation to a woman. To search for antecedents in Mesopotamian mythology,
we must look to the etymology of the name itself, and attempt to map its symbolism
onto the female deities worshipped since the time of the Sumerians in the land between
the rivers.
The Babylon of the Old Testament is bbl, in Hebrew, and most likely means, according
to Gesenius, and others, “the gate (or hall) of Ba’al”, representing a contraction of the
two words bbh, “cavity”, “aperture”, “gate”, and bol, “to have dominion over”, “to take a
wife”, or, “lord, master, possessor, owner”. hbol, with the inclusion of the definite article,
means “Ba’al”, “Lord”. According to Gesenius (Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old
Testament Scriptures, p 131), it is “the name of an idol of the Phoenicians, especially of
the Tyrians: it was their domestic and principal deity, also worshipped with great devotion
together with Astarte, by the Hebrews, especially in Samaria… Amongst the Babylonians
the same deity was called in the Aramæan manner bl Belus for bol…”
From this it seems apparent that Babylon may be interpreted as the “wife”, or “gate”
possessed by the “Lord”. Crowley interpreted babalon to mean “the Gate of the God
On” (taking “On” in its Egyptian meaning of “the Sun”), and this seems in agreement,
more or less, with our investigation so far. The famous “Ishtar Gate” of ancient Babylon
immediately springs to mind, and leads us to ask if Ishtar is perhaps the original name
of the Lady in question. I believe that indeed she is, that it is possible to trace Babylon
back to Inanna, the young whore receiving the fruit of the harvest, through Ishtar
(often called “Queen of Babylon”) and Beltis, with their cults of prostitution, down
through derivative practices which prevailed among the Hebrews, after the captivity,
until the sack of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 ce. There seems little doubt that if
indeed our Babylon is to be found among the goddesses of the land between the rivers,
Inanna, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, by whatever name She was known, is most assuredly that
Lady.
SATYR
[Ed’s note—Astaroth/Ashtoreth was the goddess Astarte/Ashtart before the rabbis
inserted the vowels from the word “boshet” into the names of the foreign gods: bOshEt
= shame/abomination, so the goddess Ashtart becomes AshtOrEth. I have often thought
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