Asteroth has his source in Astarte. Astarte was Asheras more aggressive twin, a goddess of fertility and war.

Female? Yes. Astarte was seen as the protective sister of the earth mother as well as a mother figure herself to a lesser degree, and the two were seen to rule the divine kingdom with Astarte as the head, so to speak, and Ashera as support and advisor.

In what mythos? Utgard and it has Phoenician parallels I believe also. It’s hard to keep all this information straight, I have to admit.

Where is Utgard from? Ah, is generally Semitic. Middle Eastern.

Ashera and Astarte ruled with the consent of their husband who was also their brother, and largely passive in his disposition, more elemental than the goddesses themselves. Notice the strange pattern of relationship there?

Yes. I was thinking these relationships must be arbitrary to them as they are so mutable? Actually, they’re not really arbitrary. Remember that model of the cosmic emergence I described earlier? All the beings in question are innately “siblings”, but they create through reaction to each other, and there are a wide range of possible reactions between these beings.

Sort of like how the elements combine in many ways to make various substances. Exactly.

So what is the emotion behind pair bonding or becoming married to someone?

Devotion? Yes, and devotion brings order. Order has two sides, quiet maintenance, and territorial assertion, these would be Astarte, and the other side would be empathy and affectionate sensitivity, or loyalty.

So Asteroth is jealous? No. What is devotion when it’s taken too far? To the extreme? Lust? Obsession? Remember the description of Asteroth? Ah, detail oriented. And ambivalent. Ambi-valent. Not just two faced, multi faced. Say anything to get what is desired.

Reminds me of logic. Indeed, and Asteroth is a patron of logic. Asteroth is the mirror image and shadow of Astarte, Astarte taken to extremes. Where Astarte might kill to preserve safety and wellbeing, Asteroth will manipulate things so the chance to endanger those things never has a chance to occur, as well as the positive things that might emerge from that strife.

Demons are definitely consumers as are we. Devourers. The oldest Semitic words for demon translates as devourer, but they weren’t originally viewed by humans as sources of corruption. Anubis was the hunter for a devourer. Cerberus was a devourer himself. They were originally the cosmic “sin eater” not even necessarily consigning the devoured soul to absolute oblivion. Another word might be shriver.

I have always wondered what “original sin” was. I have come to believe it’s that we have to eat to survive. And demons eat on the cosmic level. They are the source of eating, of appetites, passions. Another daemon, would be of course Eros, the embodiment of desire.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~