𒂍𒃶𒌌𒀭𒈾𒋛 𒁲

Welcome to the House of the Adornment of Heaven, an online temple dedicated to the devotion, worship and adoration of the Sumerian goddess Inana in all her forms.

 

Inana, also bearing the names Ishtar and Astarte among others, is a goddess older than written history. The first verifiable records of her veneration are found at the place writing begins, the place where 'history' touches 'prehistory', the city of Uruk in Sumerian Mesopotamia circa 3500 BCE, but she has almost certainly been revered far longer. She stands for entropy and motion, creation and destruction, building up and tearing down, the cycles of life and heaven and civilization, and all the things required to establish them.

 

This she establishes in two principal ways: she is Inana of the Evening, queen of the night, beautiful and liberated, lustful, charming, sensual and irresistible, the impulsive force implicit and imperative in the creation of new life. She is also Inana of the Morning, the rush of battle as day breaks, the storm of war, all of the furies that the natural and civilized worlds can bring against one another all brought to bear, the impulse of fury that is necessary to the act of destruction.

 

She is many things, but she is never still, and has always sought to win new domains and establish a presence in new lands. Her call echoes a human journey that has its first stake when Homo sapiens first set foot upon the Earth. She is found in Uruk and all the Sumerian cities, in Babylon and Assyria, in Phoenicia and the Levant, biblical Israel and Egypt, Greece and Rome and maybe even as far as Britain.

 

Wherever she goes, she stirs the passions of common folk and kings alike with her beauty, inspiration, sensuality and fury. This page stands as a testament to her greatness, a place of contemplation and honour, in the hope that it may inspire those who come by this way.

The House of the Adornment of Heaven is operated by The Ishtar Gate. All rights reserved.