Astarte Painting

"Astarte", known usually as Venus was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. She was especially associated in the ancient Levant among the Canaanite and Phoenician cults, Egyptian and Babylonian deities. She is an important figure for followers of Wicca and around 1950 was revived by Velikovsky in his book, "Worlds in Collision" where he postulated that our planet Venus was a comet ejected from Jupiter and after creating chaos in our solar system, settled into an orbit around our sun. It is interesting to note that most of these ancient myths are depicted with 2 "horns of light" streaming from her head. Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality and war, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. I emphasised the horns, leaving them white to depict 2 comet tails, and added blood to represent birth, loss of virginity and wounded and dying soldiers. This is the first painting I've done using acrylic only, following no style in particular except the use of my fingers at times which I find easier than a brush. Once again, I added bloody imprints of my fingers to symbolise ILD. I hope viewers will find further symbolism and meaning for themselves :-)