Ashurism was the first religion of the Ashurite people. The religion differed quite differently from other religions of the region as it was one of the first Mono-polytheistic religions. The religion had a myriad of Gods and Goddesses, which can be found in any of the old religions, as each God and Goddess was of course a symbol of a certain principle. In Ashurism it was the God Ashur that was the ultimate worship. All the other Gods were seen as aspects of the Chief God Ashur who was the totality of the Gods. The God Ashur derived from the Sumerian God AN.SHAR, AN meaning Heaven and SHAR literally meaning whole. Ashur is symbolized as a deity in a winged and emanating sun disk. Ashur thus represents, from the derivative AN.SHAR, whole heaven or spirit. Many of the earlier depictions didn't include the deity, but only the winged and emanating sun disk, although to the Ashurites it was the archer that symbolized protection that was equated with the deity of the whole of the heavens. The consort of Ashur was Ishtar or Inanna, which since Ashur derived from AN.SHAR, thus Ishtar would be derived from KI.SHAR which means "Whole Earth" or matter. To the Ashurites Ishtar/Inanna represented the Goddess of Love, the divine feminine, as the consort of Ashur the two represented the union of Heaven and Earth.