With outspread wings, Ishtar, the daughter of Sin (the Moon), sweeps downward to the gates of death. The house of darkness--the dwelling of the god Irkalla--is described as "the place of no return." It is without light; the nourishment of those who dwell therein is dust and their food is mud. Over the bolts on the door of the house of Irkalla is scattered dust, and the keepers of the house are covered with feathers like birds. Ishtar demands that the keepers open the gates, declaring that if they do not she will shatter the doorposts and strike the hinges and raise up dead devourers of the living. The guardians of the gates beg her to be patient while they go to the queen of Hades from whom they secure permission to admit Ishtar, but only in the same manner as all others came to this dreary house. Ishtar thereupon descends through the seven gates which lead downward into the depths of the underworld. At the first gate the great crown is removed from her head, at the second gate the earrings from her ears, at the third gate the necklace from her neck, at the fourth gate the ornaments from her breast, at the fifth gate the girdle from her waist, at the sixth gate the bracelets from her hands and feet, and at the seventh gate the covering cloak of her body. Ishtar remonstrates as each successive article of apparel is taken from her, bur the guardian tells her that this is the experience of all who enter the somber domain of death. Enraged upon beholding Ishtar, the Mistress of Hades inflicts upon her all manner of disease and imprisons her in the underworld.

The whole deep, from the moon to the earth, stands with its whole working in the wrathful and comprehensible or palpable birth or geniture; for the...

For the Chamber of the Building (or Fabrick] stands in very great Anguish, and [here] we must consider the Original of the Essence of all Essences, th...

She is the Gate of the i Senses, and yet she leaves the Counsel of the Stars, because the Soul lives in the Source [or Quality] of the Stars, and is t...

Seizing me, he led me down to the House of Darkness, the dwelling of Irkalla, to the house where those who enter do not come out, along the road of...

There is an eye of justice, which sees all. For two ways, as we deem, to Hades lead- One for the good, the other for the bad. But if the earth hides...

Besides, the Kingdom of Hell, and of [fierce] Wrath, always gape after the Soul, and set their Jaws wide open to devour the captive Soul; which is...

I put on another garment of fire, which has no form, which is from the mind of the power, which was separated, and which was prepared for me, accordin...

But the body of this great house, which lies hid under the shell or rind of darkness, incomprehensibly to the darkness, that body is the house of life...

He wished to reveal himself to the spirit. And the likeness of the exalted light appeared to the unconceived spirit. I appeared. I am the son of the i...

Isis has arrived; she hovers over the dwellings, and she searches all the hidden abodes of Horus when he comes out of the Northern marshes, knocking...

On the coffins the invocation is addressed not to “Osiris, Lord of Light” or “Radiant One” , but to the , “one whose head is clothed with radiant...

From whence the earth and stones then came to be, and were very rightly the house of death, or the enclosing or shutting up of the life, wherein king...

But the seed which so qualifieth is that seed alone in which the light is kindled: in that in which the wrath-fire burneth, there this third mother re...

Secured by reason of the writing with gum mixed with colours upon a strip of royal papyrus, put at the throat of the deceased on the day of burial....

In this driving together or compaction of the corrupted Wrath-Salitter, was king Lucifer also, as an impotent prince, together with his angels,...

Stoop not down unto the Darkly-Splendid World; wherein continually lieth a faithless Depth, and Hades wrapped in clouds, delighting in unintellible...

‘Lest the mansions grim and squalid which the gods abhor should be seen both of mortals and immortals 2 .’ And again:— ‘O heavens! verily in the...

It is me you love, and you will ordain for me as for them! When Ishtar heard this, in a fury she went up to the heavens, going to Anu, her father, and...

Ben Ali Tuci, one of the great sages of his time, walked in the valley of awareness and attention. I do not know of anyone who possessed such grace...

When he saw it he was astonished. He did not know that another power was above him. And when he saw that his likeness was dark compared with the spiri...