View source for Jeremiah 44:15-18

In the time of Jeremiah the queen of heaven was the
Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar. Inasmuch as there were immoral ceremonies connected
with this worship, it aroused Jeremiah’s hot indignation, particularly since it
appears to have been a prominent part of the idolatry then practiced. The
Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar, the mother goddess, was the equivalent of the
divinity known to the Hebrews as Ashtoreth and to the Canaanites as Astarte,
whose figurines are found in Palestine. This goddess of fertility, of
maternity, of sexual love, and of war was worshiped in rites of a grossly
immoral and debasing character. She was essentially the same goddess though
worshipped under many names and in many aspects, such as the earth-mother, the
virgin-mother, and is identified in a general sense with Atargatis, the “Great
Mother” of Asia Minor, Artemis (Diana) of Ephesus, Venus, and others.


Roman Catholics today call Mary the Queen of Heaven, but
this has nothing to do with the queen of heaven in Jeremiah’s time.


-- Gerhard Pfandl, correspondence