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Ishtar Rising: Why the Goddess Went to Hell and What to Expect Now That She's Returning
Ishtar Rising takes you on a journey through esoterica, explaining why Eve in the Bible and Eris in Greek myth were both involved with nefarious apples...Why attitudes toward the female breast correlate with war and peace...Why the Great Goddess of the ancients went to Hell and why most of us go to Hell in our dreams occasionally...Why female pacifists baring their breasts in front of the Pentagon were unconsciously repeating an ancient ritual...Why celibates have burned so many "witches" ... and much, much more!!
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Robert Anton Wilson
122 books1,718 followersRobert Anton Wilson was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson helped publicize Discordianism through his writings and interviews. In 1999 he described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". Wilson's goal was "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."
In addition to writing several science-fiction novels, Wilson also wrote non-fiction books on extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs, and what Wilson called "quantum psychology".
Following a career in journalism and as an editor, notably for Playboy, Wilson emerged as a major countercultural figure in the mid-1970s, comparable to one of his coauthors, Timothy Leary, as well as Terence McKenna.
In addition to writing several science-fiction novels, Wilson also wrote non-fiction books on extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs, and what Wilson called "quantum psychology".
Following a career in journalism and as an editor, notably for Playboy, Wilson emerged as a major countercultural figure in the mid-1970s, comparable to one of his coauthors, Timothy Leary, as well as Terence McKenna.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 26, 2018
I swear to God, this is one of the most surreal books I have ever read. RAW goes wild here, he is almost entirely speculative.
I'll break it down for you: it's a book about the female breast. It's amazing. He had already touched some of those concepts in Prometheus Rising, like our aesthetical affection for curves coming from the female breast, our first source of food, care and even music.
Here he allows that idea to run freely. He works mainly with anthropological concepts mixed with a stronger freudian approach rather than his usual jungian view. Not much of the sci-fi jargons nor the quantum yada-yada.
Although this is one of his most polemic books and ideas, it's still one of his most down to Earth pieces of work. It has that delicious, revealing prose, as if he was telling you some secrets, only that this time it's not about the Universe or our consciousness, it's about Women.
Of course, he was attacked as a misogynist by the feminist movement and as a feminist by the Men's Right movement. Classic RAW.
I'll break it down for you: it's a book about the female breast. It's amazing. He had already touched some of those concepts in Prometheus Rising, like our aesthetical affection for curves coming from the female breast, our first source of food, care and even music.
Here he allows that idea to run freely. He works mainly with anthropological concepts mixed with a stronger freudian approach rather than his usual jungian view. Not much of the sci-fi jargons nor the quantum yada-yada.
Although this is one of his most polemic books and ideas, it's still one of his most down to Earth pieces of work. It has that delicious, revealing prose, as if he was telling you some secrets, only that this time it's not about the Universe or our consciousness, it's about Women.
Of course, he was attacked as a misogynist by the feminist movement and as a feminist by the Men's Right movement. Classic RAW.
January 11, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. His arguments for the chain of "anal" reactions due to the suppression of the "oral" or of female sexuality are really intriguing, convincing, and brilliantly put. However, he does, in my opinion, take metaphors too far here and there, in his efforts to explain how far-reaching these effects are. He also totally lost me in his assertion that beautiful people are usually smart because of a connection between "the spark of life" or "bioenergy" and it's physical expression. His statement "contrary to one of Hollywood's best-loved myths, the prettiest girls are usually the brightest ones, and the dullones are usually dull all the way through, mentally and physically" really irked me. He made a similar (IMO) overstatement between personality and physicality in Prometheus Rising, which I also dismissed. I do believe in a connection between energy state, mind state and physical body expression, but I don't think it necessarily extends that far. There are too many other factors- genetic, environmental, etc circumstances- to account for why some pretty people aren't smart, and why some less-pretty people are. Not to mention the total subjectivity of "prettiness".
Although I can mostly agree with his arguments against Women's Lib at the time- a recurring pet peeve of his in the book- primarily in that being a sex object isn't necessarily bad and is actually totally natural, I do wish he would have also discussed how it is mostly a problem when womens' intelligence is not highlighted along with their sexual appeal. Most of us love boobs, and the female body, and want it to be liberated. But simply allowing for it to be viewed more reasonably doesn't necessarily mean that women are being appreciated as a whole. I felt that addressing this would have made his arguments more well-rounded.
As a last note, his understanding of homosexuality, as mentioned briefly in the beginning, was pretty old fashioned-- but I'll grant that this book is old, and he couldn't always be cutting-edge for all his genius. He probably learned more along with the rest of us as awareness continued.
Anyway, regardless, Ishtar Rising is a brilliantly cross-referenced narrative/philosophy of the kind of neurotic positions we humans have put ourselves in, particularly by problematizing our bodies. I would highly recommend it, with these aforementioned precautions considered.
Although I can mostly agree with his arguments against Women's Lib at the time- a recurring pet peeve of his in the book- primarily in that being a sex object isn't necessarily bad and is actually totally natural, I do wish he would have also discussed how it is mostly a problem when womens' intelligence is not highlighted along with their sexual appeal. Most of us love boobs, and the female body, and want it to be liberated. But simply allowing for it to be viewed more reasonably doesn't necessarily mean that women are being appreciated as a whole. I felt that addressing this would have made his arguments more well-rounded.
As a last note, his understanding of homosexuality, as mentioned briefly in the beginning, was pretty old fashioned-- but I'll grant that this book is old, and he couldn't always be cutting-edge for all his genius. He probably learned more along with the rest of us as awareness continued.
Anyway, regardless, Ishtar Rising is a brilliantly cross-referenced narrative/philosophy of the kind of neurotic positions we humans have put ourselves in, particularly by problematizing our bodies. I would highly recommend it, with these aforementioned precautions considered.
August 3, 2007
I love RAW. He can put together sentences that you chew up and choke on and then go back for more.
Then you take a concept I can really get around -- that world peace is in some way connected to the mammaries and openness about sensuality and breasts. WHAT? REALLY? THAT?
Yes. and not a terrible argument, and not a horrible set of stories to back it up, and really, an enjoyable philisophical rant of RAWs.
A few typos in the book, as if sent to publishing too quickly, or reading a very long email from an old friend. Well worth the time to laugh through and then be changed.
Then you take a concept I can really get around -- that world peace is in some way connected to the mammaries and openness about sensuality and breasts. WHAT? REALLY? THAT?
Yes. and not a terrible argument, and not a horrible set of stories to back it up, and really, an enjoyable philisophical rant of RAWs.
A few typos in the book, as if sent to publishing too quickly, or reading a very long email from an old friend. Well worth the time to laugh through and then be changed.
Read
September 9, 2013Ishtar Rising was beautiful. For one its mostly about breasts; those of the female order. Beautiful. Robert Anton Wilson had a strange way of making sense of things. Masculinity and Femininity and how these roles effected on men and women shape society and the human condition. This book is not simply a "hurrah" for breasts, and I am very glad for the fact that Robert Anton Wilson took himself seriously or at least half seriously (for all i know) while writing this book. His initials are RAW for a reason.
February 7, 2016
Funny little book about feminist spirituality, written by a male columnist for a porn magazine. It's not as insightful as I would have liked but covers more ground than you would expect, considering the source.
Read
December 20, 2012Great book. First printed under the name The book of the breast....that should give you enough motivation to have a go for it.
July 13, 2024
Definitely more explicit than I expected and a bit dated but a lot of interesting insights and philosophy here.
December 7, 2025
The ultimate fetish book
I encountered this book at a very strange time in my life.
A few weeks ago, I was having a bad time. You could call it a kind of Chapel Perilous journey that I have been in for a long time. Although I can’t share exactly how strange it was, the way I found this book felt like I was discovering a surreal blueprint of my own mind. I had been thinking about Ishtar before, and about the hero’s journey, when I started reading it. I have been wanting to read Cosmic Trigger next if possible. I loved Wilson’s Prometheus Rising and I can clearly see how these ideas were advanced in that book. However, both books differ in their approaches, references, and psychological frameworks, but they share a similar DNA especially in the way Wilson designs his ideas.
"To the little boy in me, I am the god and you are the goddess. To the little girl in you, you are the goddess and I am the god. To the god in me, I am the little boy to the goddess in you. To the goddess in you, you are the little girl to the god in me"
By john Lilly
I was instantly stuck on the introduction by his words and by the frameworks. It was very surprising to me all that underworld journey motif in fiction and media, as well as various alphabets of desire and chaos magick paradigms. This book is full of Freudian and Timothy Leary principles of counter-conditioning. The first chapter is literally titled “It All Began with an Erection.” I know for some people this book might feel sexist, but it actually is not and it even explains what real sexism is. When I was reading it and narrated a few lines to a friend of mine, he instantly thought the book was taking a misogynistic stance on women’s liberation and feminism. Fiction is used like a toy like movies such as The Outlaw and the symbolism of the breast. Probably half of the book is literally Wilson talking about breasts, almost in a fetish-like way (and I liked how he did it how he almost puts his readers into an intellectual trance through those words). Oral and anal personalities are discussed. I was surprised how, in a clinical standard test, Wilson was labeled an anal personality, yet he seems to understand oral ones more. Some ideas do feel old, but let’s face it it is an old book, and still a very wonderful one. What strikes me as most beautiful about Robert Anton Wilson is how seamlessly his writing blends various occult and fictional symbols in such a way that your interpretation can completely change through his own reality tunnel and can also change yours. For instance, there’s his explanation of the Song of Solomon, which he takes to a totally different level.
A similar explanation around F for Fake by Orson (which again is one of my favourite movies and very meta)
Then there’s the moon symbolism, which is almost universal: in Hinduism it’s linked with yoginis, the moon phases with menstruation, with Hekate, witchcraft, and so on. But Wilson tries to show his readers the many different paradigms of that symbolism linked with the Great Mother Goddess and even the sex goddess. I would like to reread this book again alongside Prometheus Rising. At times, this book really tells us how everything around us is just a metaphor, full of depth for Freudians and the hidden unconscious. And how this all goes back to those divine, magical-realist moments of our lives where we believe, as if an angel came to us and gave us knowledge like Kalidasa becoming a great Indian saint and writer after his encounter with Goddess Kali, or Philip K. Dick wrote 8,000 pages of his Exegesis and VALIS after his encounter with the pink beam and Sophia. And again, it all goes back to oral and anal personalities where the authoritarian ones don’t give a fuck about consistency themselves and can’t be explained easily even by Freudians, while the oral ones can also be explained as repressed homosexuals by other communities. We are all sexually ambiguous at the end of the day. Our basic reality tunnels are constantly being conditioned, while counter-conditioning remains a possibility. We can’t ignore our imprintings.
About homosexuality I think Wilson was already, in a strange way, aware of things like cryptocurrency, the dark web, and the effects of pornography on human psychosexuality, which in some ways are making us more ignorant. That doesn’t mean it’s totally wrong anyway I’m not against these things. But Wilson would be fascinated by our current digital age, where the anal ones are called “daddy” by submissive girls, and some oral ones are called “cuck” or “loser” by dominant anal girls. A very bad way to put it, anyway.
Still, it’s a great mix of psychology and even a few chunks of blasphemy that make this book fun to read and a hell of a treasure for weirdos if the word weirdo, semantically, is correct for our reality tunnels. I could talk about many more things in this book, but that would turn this review into a damn essay so yeah, we probably already know what to expect. When the goddess will descend into the underworld and hell for her mortal lover. When the mortal lover will descend into hell for her divine goddess. At times the goddess becomes a void in that descent, and the hero becomes a vessel.
Whether it’s the mistake made by Orpheus while saving Eurydice, whether it’s Agent Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer or judy in cinema, or whether it's Sophia and Philip K dick, whether it’s just you and your anima you should love the breasts. You should love the sex goddess, whether it’s Marilyn Monroe, your repressed sexual anima, Ishtar, or Babalon. And the goddess of chaos Eris or Kali.
I encountered this book at a very strange time in my life.
A few weeks ago, I was having a bad time. You could call it a kind of Chapel Perilous journey that I have been in for a long time. Although I can’t share exactly how strange it was, the way I found this book felt like I was discovering a surreal blueprint of my own mind. I had been thinking about Ishtar before, and about the hero’s journey, when I started reading it. I have been wanting to read Cosmic Trigger next if possible. I loved Wilson’s Prometheus Rising and I can clearly see how these ideas were advanced in that book. However, both books differ in their approaches, references, and psychological frameworks, but they share a similar DNA especially in the way Wilson designs his ideas.
"To the little boy in me, I am the god and you are the goddess. To the little girl in you, you are the goddess and I am the god. To the god in me, I am the little boy to the goddess in you. To the goddess in you, you are the little girl to the god in me"
By john Lilly
I was instantly stuck on the introduction by his words and by the frameworks. It was very surprising to me all that underworld journey motif in fiction and media, as well as various alphabets of desire and chaos magick paradigms. This book is full of Freudian and Timothy Leary principles of counter-conditioning. The first chapter is literally titled “It All Began with an Erection.” I know for some people this book might feel sexist, but it actually is not and it even explains what real sexism is. When I was reading it and narrated a few lines to a friend of mine, he instantly thought the book was taking a misogynistic stance on women’s liberation and feminism. Fiction is used like a toy like movies such as The Outlaw and the symbolism of the breast. Probably half of the book is literally Wilson talking about breasts, almost in a fetish-like way (and I liked how he did it how he almost puts his readers into an intellectual trance through those words). Oral and anal personalities are discussed. I was surprised how, in a clinical standard test, Wilson was labeled an anal personality, yet he seems to understand oral ones more. Some ideas do feel old, but let’s face it it is an old book, and still a very wonderful one. What strikes me as most beautiful about Robert Anton Wilson is how seamlessly his writing blends various occult and fictional symbols in such a way that your interpretation can completely change through his own reality tunnel and can also change yours. For instance, there’s his explanation of the Song of Solomon, which he takes to a totally different level.
A similar explanation around F for Fake by Orson (which again is one of my favourite movies and very meta)
Then there’s the moon symbolism, which is almost universal: in Hinduism it’s linked with yoginis, the moon phases with menstruation, with Hekate, witchcraft, and so on. But Wilson tries to show his readers the many different paradigms of that symbolism linked with the Great Mother Goddess and even the sex goddess. I would like to reread this book again alongside Prometheus Rising. At times, this book really tells us how everything around us is just a metaphor, full of depth for Freudians and the hidden unconscious. And how this all goes back to those divine, magical-realist moments of our lives where we believe, as if an angel came to us and gave us knowledge like Kalidasa becoming a great Indian saint and writer after his encounter with Goddess Kali, or Philip K. Dick wrote 8,000 pages of his Exegesis and VALIS after his encounter with the pink beam and Sophia. And again, it all goes back to oral and anal personalities where the authoritarian ones don’t give a fuck about consistency themselves and can’t be explained easily even by Freudians, while the oral ones can also be explained as repressed homosexuals by other communities. We are all sexually ambiguous at the end of the day. Our basic reality tunnels are constantly being conditioned, while counter-conditioning remains a possibility. We can’t ignore our imprintings.
About homosexuality I think Wilson was already, in a strange way, aware of things like cryptocurrency, the dark web, and the effects of pornography on human psychosexuality, which in some ways are making us more ignorant. That doesn’t mean it’s totally wrong anyway I’m not against these things. But Wilson would be fascinated by our current digital age, where the anal ones are called “daddy” by submissive girls, and some oral ones are called “cuck” or “loser” by dominant anal girls. A very bad way to put it, anyway.
Still, it’s a great mix of psychology and even a few chunks of blasphemy that make this book fun to read and a hell of a treasure for weirdos if the word weirdo, semantically, is correct for our reality tunnels. I could talk about many more things in this book, but that would turn this review into a damn essay so yeah, we probably already know what to expect. When the goddess will descend into the underworld and hell for her mortal lover. When the mortal lover will descend into hell for her divine goddess. At times the goddess becomes a void in that descent, and the hero becomes a vessel.
Whether it’s the mistake made by Orpheus while saving Eurydice, whether it’s Agent Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer or judy in cinema, or whether it's Sophia and Philip K dick, whether it’s just you and your anima you should love the breasts. You should love the sex goddess, whether it’s Marilyn Monroe, your repressed sexual anima, Ishtar, or Babalon. And the goddess of chaos Eris or Kali.
February 1, 2025
Playboy once commissioned Robert Anton Wilson to write a book about boobs, and being Robert Anton Wilson he massively overstepped the assignment and explains sociology, evolution, narratology, Western and Eastern religions and the entirety of human history from the perspective of the suppression of the mother goddess.
Perhaps more interesting than Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati, but Cosmic Trigger can be more safely read in public since even though the title and content has been updated from its original incarnation as "The Book of the Breast", it's still very much designed to be hidden comfortably underneath a teenage boy's mattress.
Perhaps more interesting than Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati, but Cosmic Trigger can be more safely read in public since even though the title and content has been updated from its original incarnation as "The Book of the Breast", it's still very much designed to be hidden comfortably underneath a teenage boy's mattress.
February 2, 2021
I'm a fan of the author. I liked this book but not as much as some of his other books. This one is recycled from an earlier one called The Book of the Breast, written while he was still employed at Playboy. It's good, but not his best.
July 17, 2024
A philosophical, psychological and mythological study of boobs and how they are reflective of culture of freedom vs oppression. I'll have to look into if RAW wrote anything about what being into asses means politically.
June 1, 2023
As always with late-era RAW, lots to love but some grumpy whining to bring it all down a notch.
May 20, 2025
A slight tad dated and a little complain-y at times. It hits on great topics though and I think it does a good job of putting some perspective on your own feelings around love. It’s not a general recommendation, but if a nearly 200-page discussion on the topic of breasts (and the concept of repressions/prudishness) interests you it’s definitely worth a read.
May 10, 2016
A revision of "The Book of the Breast," Robert Anton Wilson took out some of the psychological and historical elements of his earlier book to replace them with the spiritual and conspiracy-oriented philosophy that defined his later and more famous career. Certainly worth reading if you're on a Wilson kick, but if you're more interested in an analysis of psychology and sexuality than mysticism and spirituality, pick up the earlier edition instead.
July 1, 2020
False advertising
It’s actually a pretty good book. Intelligent. Erudite. ( politics, history, religion ). But it’s a slightly edited book on breasts commissioned by Playboy and written in the 70s by Wilson before he got onto the Illuminati gravy train. Some 80s updates.
As such the packaging (cover picture, title, blurb) is grossly dishonest and deliberately misleading.
RAW is no more. Whoever owns his stuff now is clearly flogging it for all its worth.
It’s actually a pretty good book. Intelligent. Erudite. ( politics, history, religion ). But it’s a slightly edited book on breasts commissioned by Playboy and written in the 70s by Wilson before he got onto the Illuminati gravy train. Some 80s updates.
As such the packaging (cover picture, title, blurb) is grossly dishonest and deliberately misleading.
RAW is no more. Whoever owns his stuff now is clearly flogging it for all its worth.
Read
January 23, 2008Robert Anton Wilson was doing some good drugs when he wrote his books. This is the only one of his that I've kept, because while it is cracktastic and often really offensive, it's also kind of bizarrely fascinating. I think. I mean, that's why I kept it, but it's been at least ten years since I actually read it...
July 8, 2022
Originally called The Book of the Breast, and published by Playboy, this is Wilson’s book about the power of the female in culture. Wilson’s analysis is interdisciplinary, employing anthropology, physiology, myth, literature and popular culture.
Acquired Sept 21, 2002
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario
Acquired Sept 21, 2002
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario
Read
January 3, 2010Sexuality,Sociology
Read
January 23, 2009HILLARIOUS AND WONDERFULL
September 20, 2012
The world would be a much better place if every man read this book.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews