The demoness Ashtoreth (also called Ashtaroth) is well documented in the Bible as one of Yahweh's peoples' chief adversaries in the Middle East. Anciently she was a pagan mother goddess with aspects as goddess of ferility, love and war, and was known to the Isarelites through the Canaanites (1 Ki.11:5). The name was common in one form or another among many of the Semitic-speaking peoples of antiquity. In Mesopotamia Ishtar was identified with the Sumerian mother goddess Inanna and was known in the Greek language as Astarté.

The cult of Ashtoreth was depraved in the extreme. The Israelites turned to her worship soon after arriving in the land (Judg.2:13; 10:6) and her cult was rife at the time of Samuel (1 Sam.7:3-4; 12:10). After Saul had been killed by the Philistines, his armour was placed in the Temple of Ashtoreth at Beth-shan (1 Sam.31:10). Solomon was foolish enough to initiate Asthoreth-worship during his reign (1 Ki.11:33) and Jezebel's 400 priests of Ba'al were almost certainly connected with her too (1 Ki.18:19). Numerous clay plaques depicting naked female images have been discovered in Palestinian sites of the Bronze and Iron Ages, and it is probably that some of these are representations of the goddess Ashtoreth-Astarté.

Ashtoreth was the moon goddess of the Phoenicians who represented the passive principle in nature. To the Egyptians, she represented fierceness in war and tenacity. Many believe she is the equivalent of the Roman Venus.

In a number of ancient writings Ashtoreth is portrayed as having "sweet lips" and a "beautiful figure" and it is clear that she takes much pleasure in sexuality. When she descended to the underworld, the pagans believed, all sexual activity ceased everywhere on the earth. She was represented symbolically as a dove, showing that she is a counterfeit Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) too, like all female demons posing as mother-goddesses.

Ashtoreth (Ishtar, Astarté) is clearly closely linked to Lilith, Hecate, and Jezebel with whom she is often confused because of their overlapping functions and cooperative action. Only in recent times have we, in this ministry, been able to untangle these demonesses which play such an important rôle in corrupting the end-time world we live in.

The consort of Asthtoreth is Tammuz, a male demon who was also worshipped by the Israelites in times of apostacy. Ezekiel saw a vision of women sitting at the north gate of the Jerusalem Temple weeping for "the Tammuz" (Ezek.8:14). This 'official mourning' for Tammuz took place in the fourth month (June-July) which the apostate Jews called Tammuz in his honour, a designation still used by Talmudic Jews and others in spite of its pagan origins (no worse that the Latin demons that form the Western calendar, e.g. March = Mars). This pagan festival commemorated the mythical death of the Sumerian deity Dumu.zi ('true son'), the prediluvian shepherd and husband of Ishtar. On his death, Ishtar mourned and called on all to do so. When she entered the underworld, all birth, life, joy and sex ceased, something which should be remembered as it is a classical symptom of Asthtoreth demonisation in humans who go through periods of 'celibacy' and 'heart-death'. Tammuz did not, however, rise (unlike Yah'shua/Jesus of whom he is a counterfeit) but remained as a god in the underworld (hell). The parallel between Adonis and Aphrodite is obvious as the Temple of Aphrodite in Gebal, Syria, was a principal centre of this cult. In Egypt Adonis was identidied with Osiris. Her sacred symbols were the lion, sphinx, dove, horse, and an 8-pointed star (see above) within a circle, though her number is 15. This manifests not only as a counterfeit Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) but also as the Shekinah, the presence of Yahweh, the counterfeit Hebrew goddess of the Kaballah, and the Roman Catholic Virgin Mary. Her greatest cult centre was on the island of Cyprus, being known also as Cypris.

As you can see, all these goddesses and demoness are interconnected and interrelated. As Astarté, Ashtoreth was known as the horned goddess and was represented in the same way as Hathor, the cow goddess of Egypt, whom the Israelites worshipped as the golden calf in Sinai. This is the representation of Ishtar with the Moon god Sin whose upturned horns are identified in the crescent moon on the horizon with Venus, the love goddess, as the evening star. This ancient symbolism was central to the religious systems of Egypt and Asia Minor generally, but centred on the Assyro-Babylonian system. The connections to Islam should be obvious. Our word Easter is derived from Ishtar (Ashtoreth), a vile pagan festival that was incorporated into Roman 'Christianity'.

In Canaanite religion pillars were associated with their demon-gods, and in particular male ones, and was a phallic object of veneration. The children of Israel were ordered to destroy all these wherever they found them (Ex.23:24; Dt.16:22). They were known as 'pillars of Asherah', a Canaanite mother-goddess mentioned in the Ras Shamra texts as a goddess of the sea and consort of El (Ba'al) (Judg.3:7). They were usually made of wood in which case they were to be burned. It was this that gave me the first and most vital clue to the identity of this demoness.

On the morning of Thursday 28 July 2005 I awoke to see a vision. At the exact same time, my wife was having a vivid dream which I shall relate presently. In the vision I saw a large pillar, and in the pillar a door opened. I saw myself go into it as the door closed behind me. I was then aware that the pillar was hollow, and that the shaft contained an elevator which took me down into an 'underworld'. I heard the voice of Yahweh tell me that I would be shown my wife's family.

In this 'underworld' I was taken to a golden statue of a woman in a tall, glass case. It was of fine workmanship and clearly very ancient. What forciblely struck me was the pair of small outstretched wings in place of arms. Above and ontop of the glass case was a smaller box-shaped one containing a square alarm clock, also with a glass face. I knew looking at it that as soon as the alarm clock went off, my wife's family, who have been worshipping this demoness unknowingly for generations, will be shown who their actual god is and be shown to be her disciples and not (as at least two of them believe) Yahweh's. The vision then closed.

At the same time my wife was having a dream, and in the dream she was with her entire family. She felt the way she often felt when she was 'connect to' or 'a part' of them ... trying to please and satisfy them. As usual they mocked her teasingly. In the dream she had previously crashed her car into their entrance gate and her eldest brother was reminding her of it in order to get the upper hand. Next in the dream, she found herself going with her family to a party in order to socialise. At this point her father and a brother-in-law did not want to be a part of this partying and said they would not come until their 'tattoos and piercings' were in place so that they would be dressed for the occasion. For this they were mocked by the women and were riddiculed as being 'pathetic' for withdrawing without a good excuse. In the building there was a staircase with an intricate lifting system. The children struggled to place their feet correctly in order to get levitated up the stairs. On the levek to which the staircase led my wife found herself together with me and it turned out that the entire place was a whore-house and was completely lawless. Going around the rooms we discovered one single lady who seemed to be a virgin and she impressed us at first. Then she realised that her spiritual front was just a mask and warned me against her. As we left she started mocking us and my wife realised that she was, in fact, a demonic entity and got very angry with her. On the way out, we discovered one more room next to the entrance and went it to investigate a little. Once in there, the floor was sloping but not discernable to us until we turned and saw that the door we had come through was far behind and above us as we had been gently slipping down the inclined floor, so we left imediately. Outside that door in the hall again we saw a boy. He seemed helpless and my wife wondered if we should take care of him. It became apparent to her that he would grow up in iniquity and then realised that he had been helping himself to our clothes. Then she woke up just as we were leaving the building.

Moments later I was telling my wife my vision of the pillar and we understood that both experiences were about the same thing - Ashtoreth worship in my wife's family.

My wife's family is plagued by fornication, adultery, and divorce (a veritable whore-house), and in the several households, the women rule Jezebel-fashion. These women are completely dedicated to their false ideals, and dispose of their men when they do not feel satisfied with them any longer. As I discovered a few years ago, the women in my wife's family are, matriarhal-like, descended from a line of High Priestesses from a pagan cult from antiquity where all the priests were women. I had seen many visions of this, confirmed by another prophetess independently in parallel visions, and watched as several thousand years ago my wife's ancestors were gathered all hooded up for a child sacrifice in a Stonehenge-like outdoor structure at night. I was able to minister deliverance to her over several weeks in order to break the hold of that cult. We were shown how she was in the thrall of several demonesses, and at that time we were shown the Hecate connection, previously mentioned, wherein three women form a triangle represented by the Crone (old woman - her elder sister), the Mother-figure (represented by her mother - both these women are heavily demonised), and my wife herself as the Young Maiden. When my wife got out of that ancestral curse, breaking the links, the triangle was broken, and her grandmother (who is a Christian like herself) was 'inducted' (subconsciously) into the triangle. At this moment they are trying (unconsciously ... for they are not aware of what they are doing) to get their mother and grandmother to come under Hecate control as the Young Maiden.

This is a long story and I only make brief mention of it to illustrate how the demonic works. The Ashtoreth (Ishtar) side is, of course, ungodly sex in particular. Though both my wife and her grandmother are faithful to their husbands, the pressure was brought to bear on my wife to leave me (which she briefly did for a few months before seeing the truth) and convert to occultism and to her pagan 'inheritance'.

You will recall in my wife's dream the little boy at the end. This is the kind of man these Hecate-controlled women prefer to marry, immature men whom they can control and (when they get tired of them) discard them. They are attracted to 'helpless men' who are lost and lack patriarchal authority whom they 'mother' ('smother'). And yet part of them wants to be owned and ruled in righteousness, so there is a drive to get their men to conform to their God-image as heads and leaders. But the demoness part of them crushes them mercilessly, because the demonesses want female headship. So the women victims are caught in a vicious cycle - on the one hand they dispise their husbands for being weaklings and on the other know that this is the only way that they can control them under the Hecate-Jezebel-Lilith trio of demonesses. The men, for their parts, never grow up, because the women stunt them instead of revealing the sons of God in them as they are supposed to do. The men prefer not to be responsible and are happy for their wives to assume that rôle, and yet they are not satisfied with this because it is not human behaviour, but demonic. It's a vicious circle for both sexes. Breaking this cycle provokes major fear in both the men and women because the men get accused of being tyrants and the women of being brainless and gullible. As a result, everything inside revolts and the entire carnal nature balks.

The ones who suffer the most from this are the children - the next generation - who don't receive any fathering and are left to rule their own hearts unassisted. The daughters becomes Jezebels and the sons Ahabs. Thus the children are the sacrificial victims of the demons, each generation cursing the next until someone dares to break the cycle and engage in spiritual warfare, as my wife has done. The cost is great but the results worth it, in order to set the captives free and stop the wastage in lives.

If all the fear and doubt produced in children who have not been parented gets replaced with love and trust, heaven will manifest on earth and the evil reign of of Ashtoreth and her ilk brought to an end.

If you find yourself in an Ashtoreth-type situation, be courageous, and risk eveything to gain everything that Yahweh has in store for you. In short, out the Kingdom of Heaven first, before everything else, and be prepared to lose everything in order to regain it restored to its properly ordained place. Do not compromise in this or the slavery will just go on and on in a futile cycle of pain and misery.

Men, assume your responsibilities as heads of your families and bring your wives to Yahweh in all holiness and love. Do not listen to the threats of Ashtoreth, stand your ground, yet love your wives the way Yah'shua (Jesus) does. She will probably breathe threats against you, probably even take your children away for a while, but trust Him to see you right. It happened to me, I stood my ground, lost all, and got all back again, new and consecrated to the Kingdom.

Women, do not be afraid to let your husbands rule. Trust Yahweh to equip them and see you right. Do not usurp the position even if he has vacated it because of weakness or other reason. Trust in Yahweh and do not jump ships. Bless him in front of your children and teach them to obey him in righteousness. Hand the crown of Ashtoreth to Yah'shua (Jesus) and let him destroy it. Yahweh will see to it that your needs are met. Avoid disagreement with your husband in front of your children no matter how wrong he may be but uphold his positioning by Yahweh because you love your Father in Heaven and for the love of your children whose faith needs to be upheld in the right patterning. This is not naïvité but pure wisdom. Above all, do not discard your spouses, no matter which gender, otherwise your children will discard you in their turn. Do not play the whore of Ashtoreth, remove her warfare from your home, and discover how Yahweh prospers your faithfulness in these things.