My name is Ishtar! I am the Goddess of both love and war. I am a complete Goddess; I embrace both the dark side and the light side. I do not demand that you worship me and me alone for I know that there are other deities that may appeal to you more. But you should respect me, for I am the start of it all. Hear me and learn well, for mine is your oldest story. You have known of me for almost 8000 years. My stories form the basis of all the religions of western civilization. Those stories most precious to your modern Christianity, the Resurrection, the Flood, those are MY stories; they were first told some 6000 years before your Christ walked on this earth. You have taken much from me without acknowledgement. Let us start with my name; you have not been pronouncing it properly since the time of Christ. This annoys me. You call me Ish–Tar. That is not correct - my name is EASTER! This was one of the first thefts of Christianity and it was the most grievous. You took my name and my most sacred ritual that was held each year at the planting of the harvest. This ritual celebrated the resurrection of my lover Tammuz, the trouble I went through to get him out of the Darklands and my devotion to mankind by allowing them an annual harvest of grain. You took this ritual from me while spitting on my name, calling me the Whore of Babylon, and giving it over to a Jewish rabbi who got himself into a bit of a mess with the Romans! You took this ritual celebration of women's power, but one that men celebrated, and gave it to your demanding male God. This ritual has served you well has it not? It gives you hope for a better life in the hereafter, it gives faith to those who believe in rebirth, it gives hope that when your struggles on earth come to an end you will be embraced by "God." It is perhaps my greatest gift to all mankind. Had you but given me due recognition, that your stories did not come solely from the mouth of "God," but rather have been spoken by many Gods and many diverse peoples for many millennia I would not feel so offended. Had you recognized my rites and not ruthlessly persecuted my followers I would have embraced you, for all peoples and all the beasts and flowers, rocks and rivers, these are all my children! But I love you all regardless of your beliefs. So I am glad that you are now reading this. It gives me great pleasure that there are many of you from around the world who still enjoy the stories of Ishtar and see that they still speak to the human condition after some 8,000 years of civilization. What is it in my story that might still speak to you? You still struggle with the balance between compassion and justice as you saw in the conflict between myself and my strictly law abiding sister Ereshkigal. After all this time you still have the conflict between men and women; this will never go away. Even the Gods have such problems, so why should we spare you mere mortals? But you also still have people who have the courage to rescue their loved ones. And I am not just speaking of my rescue of Tammuz, or Ninshubar of me, but the devotion of his sister Belili, who sacrificed her freedom so that her brother could have his. Pity that you have all but forgotten her name. And there are still people who can provide sound council in times of hostility and conflict. Who can keep a level head and not make rash decisions. Think of my beloved cousin Ninshubar. Funny that in western scholarship you call her a man despite her name ending in -ar, which, like mine, is clearly female. Oh well, you have made worse mistakes! She does find it funny though that men find it necessary to steal the name of a wise woman for themselves! And so I say to you in closing: Do not forget my name, for mine is the beginning of all that you know. You need not worship me, just respect me. But mostly I ask that each of you respect yourselves for who you truly are. For all of your diversity, for all of who you are, each and every one of you…. You are all a reflection of the Goddess! Blessed be.