Correspondences:
Dates: 31 Dec – 9 Jan
Direction: South
Tarot: Three of Pentacles
Planet: Venus
Metal: Copper
Element: Earth
Color: green
Plant: laurel
Incense:  sandalwood
Zodiac: 10-20 Capricorn

ENN: Tasa alora foren Astaroth

From the Goetia:
“…appeareth in the form of an hurtful Angel riding on an Infernal Beast like a Dragon, and carrying in his right hand a Viper. Thou must in no wise let him approach too near unto thee, lest he do thee damage by his Noisome Breath. Wherefore the Magician must hold the Magical Ring near his face, and that will defend him. He giveth true answers of things Past, Present, and to Come, and can discover all Secrets. He will declare wittingly how the Spirits fell, if desired, and the reason of his own fall. He can make men wonderfully knowing in all Liberal Sciences.”

When it comes to many of these Goetia spirits, and Astaroth is probably the best example, we find associations with ancient gods & goddesses. Astaroth is associated or cognate to Astarte, who is also associated with Ishtar & Inanna.

When we have a look at these goddesses (Astarte, Ishtar and Inanna), they all have the same attributes. They are associated with war, sexuality, healing, hunting, royal power and are fertility goddesses.

More specifically, Inanna is the Goddess of love, war, fertility, beauty, sex, divine justice and political power. Ishtar is Goddess of war and sexual love. Astarte, Inanna and Ishtar are very similar if not possibly the same. If we look at the areas of influence. Astarte was worshipped by the Sidonians and later the Egyptian Hittites and Canaanites. Inanna was worshipped by the Sumerians and later the Acadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Ishtar by the Acadian. They are therefore all in the general area of the Ancient Middle East and so there would be overlaps between each Goddess. As I mentioned before, it is possible that travellers into one country picked up on a particular deity, they then brought that knowledge back to their own area and that became a part of their own pantheon and formed their own worship. The name may just have changed here and there to suit that particular area.

I can’t say for certain that’s what happened, but that kind of makes sense. However, all of those attributes are focused around being a war goddess as well as sexuality, love, fertility and such things.

If we look at Astaroth in the Goetia, we find those attributes to be divination, telling you how the spirits fell & liberal sciences. This creates a very large gap and can’t really marry the two and this is why it’s possible, I think, depending on how we view the djinn, that this was a spirit that was named after the Goddess Astarte.

If we consider the djinn to be a race of their own, like humans, we often give babies names of gods & goddesses, or a lot of people use biblical names in order to bring them strength and power in their coming life. It’s quite possible that it’s the same case here, just in reference to the djinn and their offspring. Crazy theory hey.

On the other hand there is the possibility that this is simply an aspect or an egregore of that deity. So, Astaroth that is mentioned in the Goetia is different from the goddess Astaroth or Astarte or Inanna or Ishtar or even Isis etc. It became its own egregore but is connected to that deity, that Goddess.

There are a few possibilities we can look at in that regard. Even the description is quite interesting for this one, because it does tie in with the goddess Astaroth or Astarte.

What is also interesting is that Astaroth or Astarte, is said to be the goddess that brought the downfall of King Solomon. King Solomon had many wives & it says in 1 Kings that Solomon followed Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians.  It was suspected, although he was King Solomon and supposed to follow the Jewish deity, there was a lot of influence from Astarte and his foreign wives. The queen of Sheba came to visit him in order to witness his wonders. I did read somewhere, and I believe it is suspected, that he fell in love with the queen of Sheba and it’s possible the Astarte influence came from there as well. So, Astaroth brought about the fall of Solomon.

Interesting fact: Astaroth is the plural form of the goddess’s name in Hebrew. This became a general term denoting goddesses & paganism. In that regard the name Astaroth is Asther Roth. There’s various spellings of the name, meaning slightly different things, but they all have a relationship.

Astaroth is quite interesting, because that kind of suggests an envelopment of all the goddesses, not just one particular goddess. We could possibly look at this as being an embodiment of all the divine feminine aspects.

Some good sources if you do want to have a look into Astaroth a bit more. One of the best sources if you do want to have a look into Astaroth a bit more, is Carroll ‘Poke’ Runyon, specifically in regard to Astarte evocation work. Carroll ‘Poke’ Runyon started OTA, Ordo Templi Astarte (Order of Templars of Astarte, OTA) in 1970 and he wrote a book called The Book of Solomon’s Magick and there was also an accompanying video The Magick of Solomon which are both excellent.

Runyon is said to have rediscovered the art of scrying in the dark mirror in regard to the evocation work of the Goetia spirits.  This is a face reflection distortion method. What he discovered is that it’s mentioned in the Goetia that the triangle with the dark mirror in the middle is meant to be X amount of feet away from a circle and elevated X amount of feet (you would need to go and recheck the specifics in the Goetia or in Runyon’s book).

A lot of people put the triangle with the scrying mirror flat on the floor and simply stand in the circle, and there’s no reflection of the face in the mirror. What Runyon did was elevated the triangle with the dark mirror and put it at an angle so that when you are standing in the centre of the circle, your face is reflected in the mirror. The skryer then holds two candles, so that there is an illumination of the face and then gazes into the dark mirror where they see a reflection of their own face and over time the mirror goes blank and another face appears. This is the face of the spirit you want to communicate with.

Another interesting source is The Magick of Astaroth by David Thompson. He has the approach where he separates the Daemoness aspect and the Goddess aspect. I’m not sure I completely agree with that, but I understand why he does it. They do seem to have a different attitude, a different energy to them. I do like his writing, I like his approach, I like the way he handles the topics of working with Daemons and such.

There is also mention of Astaroth in the Grimorium Verum which has three main Daemons that rule over their inferiors. These are Lucifer, Beelzebub and Astaroth.

Lucifer is said to inhabit Europe and Asia, Beelzebub Africa and Astaroth the Americas. I don’t really enjoy that approach myself. It kind of gives you the idea that if you are living in America, you have to work with Astaroth, and if you are living outside of America, you can’t work with Astaroth.

There is also The Book of Abramelin or The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. This is the interesting thing when you start going in between grimoires. Goetia just mentions Astaroth as one of the spirits of the book. You’ve then got Grimorium Verum, which considers Astaroth one of the three major powers and then The Book of Abramelin as one of the eight Mighty Dukes of the Catholic Underworld, under the rulership of the four demons Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan & Belial. You find this difference in ranking, in hierarchy, in power & everything else between them.

It does almost suggest that each magician connected with a different egregore, possibly even creating their own egregores.

Connolly mentions Astaroth being a Daemon of divination. Invoke for skrying. She is also a Daemoness of friendship and love and can help you find these things. Very short notes but does kind of bring the two together. The Astaroth of the Goetia and Astarte of the Sidonians, Sumerians & Arcadians with the aspect of friendship and love.

Apart from everything else that has already been mentioned, Jehannum says that Astaroth is the aspect or an aspect of the actual goddess and one cultural depiction is “she who walks on a dragon” and created certain species of serpent, also connected with the planet Venus and all knowing.

This seems to come back to the description in the Goetia – Angel riding on an infernal beast like a dragon, which is she who walks on the dragon and carrying in his right hand a viper. This is the depiction of her creating a certain species of serpent.

This also brings to mind Babylon riding the Beast. I do think there is an association with Babylon in this particular Daemon, or maybe more specifically the Thelemic Babalon, the Scarlet Woman.

Jehannum also goes on to say, can impart the approval and good graces of powerful people to the witch. Can teach the magician to empower thought forms for healing purposes and the pursuit of monetary wealth. Can create a powerful thought form that acts as the guardian of the homestead. Those are very useful things if you want to have a look into that.

He also mentions in The Book of Sitra Achra, “Master of the liminal points of Crossing” and the “Lord of the Dark Gate”. Guides the sorcerer to and through the Abyss.

This also extends into the Queen of Hell, which was written by Mark Allen Smith. In reference to this Jehannum notes that once Astaroth opens the gate and the witch crosses, the witch is stripped of ego and will experience visions and manifestations.

I did go have a look at this and there is a bit more than just that. It specifically says in the book, “All those who would undertake the soul crossing of the dark abyss in their quest for the throne of Hecate, are stripped of all ego and all that support it. Loss becomes gain and, as only the bare soul itself remains before entering the dark abyss, death becomes life in the form of rebirth.”

Later on it goes on to say, “The gates of Astaroth will strip bare all those who undertake this crossing. Here the ego is destroyed and Moires step forward from the shadows to cut the last cords which hold the soul to any pre-ordained path. Once the gates of Astaroth have been opened and the darkness entered, visions and manifestation of the lurker can be seen in abundance as the soul forges its path beyond the domain of that which devours all who do not make the crossing.”

In The Goetia Ritual it mentions that Dr Rudd said that Astaroth is “the Greek Diabolus that is an accuser or a calumniator, who in the Book of Revelations is called the accuser of the brethren. Accusing them night and day before the face of God.” It also mentions an interesting fact that Astarte’s beast was a lion and symbol the eight-pointed star and her consort is Baal, who is represented by the bull, who she rides when lunar.