Author: Eldyohr
Posted: February 24th. 2008
Asherah: The Lost Goddess Reclaimed
Exactly seven years ago I stood naked, in body and soul, deep within the mountains of Utah in the dark hours of the night. I was searching for something and I felt it calling back to me – echoing throughout the canyon walls.
I had reached the end of a frustrating five-year sojourn through the world’s religions and philosophies, searching for truth and divinity. Now, alone and naked in the mountains, I bellowed my challenge into the black night and waited for an answer.
Much to my surprise – someone answered. The name Ashtaroth sang within my head; there was no mistaking the name as I felt power wash over me with every repetition of it.
I had never heard the name before that night and I was pleasantly surprised to discover the name belonged to one of the most ancient Goddess figures in all history.
Asherah, the Queen of Heaven, the Consort of El and Yahweh, the Holy Qadesh is the Canaanite/Babylonian Mother Goddess who predates Inanna, Isis, and almost every other known Goddess in recorded history.
She had called me from the depths of her abode and I have answered. I am Eldyohr, first witch and priest of Asherah and this is her tale.
Asherah was the great Mother Goddess of the Canaanite people who lived in the ancient near east, around what is present-day Iraq.
Her worship was widespread throughout the region and archeology continues to discover votive offerings to her in the shape of a clay figure cupping her breasts. Sadly, very little information exists that chronicles Asherah.
Most of the information to be found on her exists in the form of scholarly and biblical criticism. In addition, later deities made references to Asherah and they were seen to be manifestation or aspects of an earlier Goddess - Asherah.
It is from these two sources that all of our current knowledge of the Goddess exists.
She can be seen as the Great Earth Mother, the Queen of Heaven, Mother of Creation, Goddess of Fertility and War. In Sumeria, she was known as the consort of El, Chief God of the Mesopotamian pantheon and among the Hebrews, she was commonly seen as the consort of Yahweh.
She is not to be seen as a subordinate consort, but rather the female half of the ultimate deity, a cooperative partnership balancing the female and male powers of creation. She was a Goddess of both the sacred groves and of the sea, and since she was also known as the Queen of Heaven, we can see that there is no aspect of the earth, which she did not rule, save that of the underworld.
She is also chiefly associated with the Holy Qadashu, the fertility Goddess of sacred sexuality. In this guise, she represents fertility, the feminine powers, and emphasizes the holy and sacred aspects of sexuality.
In addition, she is the prototype for the archetypal union of the warrior and the lover. She is seen as a fertility Goddess and the Goddess of war. The archetype of warrior meets lover finds later champions in Inanna, the Morrigan, Artemis, etc.
The biblical writers went to great pains to suppress all mention of Asherah or her worship, though archeological evidence supports its long-standing presence. The addition of “boseth” to Ashtart became Ashtaroth or Ashtoreth, a title meaning shame.
I mentioned that the Goddess under the name of Ashtaroth initially called me. I have come to conclude that this was the Goddess, saying, “Do you see what they have done to my holy name? Do you see how they think to twist my beauty into something ugly? Do you see how they think to usher me out of existence?”
One of my responsibilities as a priest of Asherah is to reclaim her name and bring her back her former glory in a time when the Goddess is again reclaiming her rightful place.
Asherah was known by many names or guises and I have attempted to elucidate the epithets, meanings, and associations of each of these titles. While current view of the Goddess centers on her aspects as maiden, mother, and crone, ancient peoples did not separate them thus. They were viewed as inherent in each Goddess without emphasizing the individual aspects as later Celts did.
Thus Asherah can be seen as the Virgin or Maiden in her guise as Anat and as the Heavenly Mother and Goddess of Sexuality as Asherah. Not until Sumerian mythology in Inanna did the Goddess confront her dark aspect (Erishkigal) and have her crone aspect so distinguished.
Asherah is one of the original Goddesses, whose main archetype is that of the Great Mother.
In exploring the various titles and epithets by which she is known, it is helpful to summarize our account of divinity. Christopher Penczak had a beautiful analogy in which he compared to divinity to a diamond. The diamond is the ultimate deity, the one creative power in the universe. Like the diamond, divinity has many facets, and their particular appearance depends on the angle of observance and the prejudices of the beholder.
Mythology is the means by which a culture seeks to make the transcendent immanent. It is the means by which one relates to divinity and each deity is a product of the time in which it was conceived. The archetypes of deity are these facets of the diamond and there are many, such as lover, warrior, dying/reviving god, fertility, etc.
Inasmuch as the facets of the diamond describe ultimate divinity, so the Asherah may be viewed as a diamond and the various titles described below are the many faces of that diamond.
Below are listed the names and titles by which Asherah was known and the various aspects, symbology, and associations of each. Come and explore the vastness of Asherah, she who was worshipped of old and suppressed by patriarchal monotheism.
Let us reclaim the Goddess from the lost pages of history and return her to her rightful place as the Queen of Heaven.
Epithets of Asherah:
1.Athirat (Ugaritic) / Asherah (Hebrew)
a. The Canaanite Mother of All, Creator and Progenitor of the Gods, Consort of El.
b. One of Her sacred animals is the lion, upon which she is frequently seen standing.
c. She has been mentioned as the Turquoise Lady, which is also an epithet of Hathor, with whom she was later identified,
d. Her most common votives are of a clay figure with short curly hair cupping her breast in each hand.
e. As the companion to El in Canaan and Yahweh in Israel, her memory is disguised as the Shekinah. The Shekinah is the feminine side of the Christian God in Hebrew mythology, comparable to the Shakti of Indian tradition. While biblical writers succeeded in removing most of the records of Asherah, her memory was retained as the Shekinah, especially by the later Qabalists.
f. She is called the Great Lady She Who Treads on The Sea and is often depicted with dolphins or fish. She is a Goddess of the Sea, especially the shoreline. Dolphins and fish were sacred to her.
g. She is called the Labiatu, or the Lion Lady and was sometimes represented as a lion with a human female head. In her aspect as the Qadasha, she is seen as a human female figure standing atop a lion. Her sons are referred to as her lions.
h. She is called Lady of the Serpent and can be considered a serpent Goddess. Bronze serpent forms represented her. In fact, the bronze serpent that is associated with Moses in biblical myth is most likely an emblem of Asherah.
i. She was known as Tanith in Phoenicia and North Africa, a name that means Serpent Lady. One of the symbols of Tanith is a caduceus, which is actually two serpents wound about an asherah pole. At the top is an up-tuned crescent, representing the heavens and a wreath of snakes. Below this caduceus stands Tanith in a triangular garment from shoulders to feet with Her arms bent upward and outward, holding a cornucopia in each hand, out of which comes a pomegranate on Her left and a bunch of grapes in Her right. On each side of Her, below Her waist and arms is a dove. The asherah pole is mentioned frequently throughout Canaanite history and in biblical text as the sacred tree or staff of the Goddess Asherah.
j. Asherah is the original tree of life, a life Goddess of well-being. She was honored as a sacred tree and worshipped in sacred groves, sometimes depicted in a tree of life stance between two animals. Some scholars have suggested that the palm tree, or female date palm tree, is her sacred tree. The date as a fruit is often mentioned in conjunction with her and seeing her sacred tree as a date palm is not difficult to believe. Others associate Her sacred tree with the Acacia or Cypress.
k. She is the Lady of the Stars of Heaven or the Queen of Heaven. Associated symbols include the solar disk and the crescent, which can appear with points up or down. Upward represents the moon and downward represents the canopy of the heavens.
l. She is also shown curly haired and riding a lion, holding lilies and serpents in upraised hands as the Qadashu.
2. Athtart, Athartu (Ugaritic), Ashtart (Phoenician), Astarte (Greek), Ashtaroth/Ashtoreth (Hebrew – false vowels added to associate the name with “boseth” or shame.
a. Known as She of the Womb and seen as a benevolent Goddess of sexuality, passion, creativity, and of the fertility of women and nature. Her name is cognate with Ishtar, the incarnation of the planet Venus, who as the morning star is a war goddess, robed in flames and armed with a sickle sword and two quivers of arrows; and as the evening star is the Goddess of desire. Thus Asherah is the original archetype of the Goddess as both lover and warrior – a tradition to be continued in mythology immemorial. In fact, Her martial powers are well known and one of her epithets is Athtart of the Battle.
b. Ashtartu was eventually worshipped through the Mediterranean world; identified with Aphrodite in Greece, Venus in Rome, Hathor and/or Tanith in Egypt. She is sometimes depicted as the Qadashu and frequently invoked for magickal aid.
c. The Hebrew writers of the bible later added the “boseth” to the name of Asherah, probably known then as Ashtart who would be become Ashtaroth or Ashtoreth, titles meaning shame. Asherah worship was widespread and this was one of many attempts to deface the Goddess and suppress her worship.
3. Qadashu, Qadash, Qodesh, Qadesha, Qudeshet, Quadosh, Kedesh
a. Qadash means Holiness or The Holy One and she is generally portrayed in a somewhat Egyptian style with a Hathor-like hair-do (hair about shoulder length with the ends curled up) standing on a lion. Her arms are bent at the elbow and in each hand she holds either a flower, variously either a lily or a lotus, or a snake.
b. Qadesh is an epithet, not an actual Goddess. The epithet has been assigned to Anat and various manifestations of Asherah. It is clear that in the beginning there was one great Goddess who bore all of these qualities and was also known as the Qadesh – that Goddess is Asherah and she was later splintered into various deities known as Anat, Ashtart, Astarte, etc.
c. She can be identified as a Goddess of life and health. She was considered the patroness of sexual activity and fertility. The qadashat were temple prostitutes, but not in the manner we think of them today. Sexuality was sacred and to copulate with them was to reunite with the divine source – it was a very holy act that celebrated life!
4. Anat, Anath, Anatu, Anata (Ugaritic), Anta, Antu (Akkadian), Anit, Anti, Antit, Anant (Egyptian)
a. Anat is commonly viewed as a separate Goddess from Asherah and the reasons I am including her is that she was later merged with Asherah by the Phoenicians and many of epithets, such as the Qadashu, and her titles are synonymous with those of Asherah, to the point that we may consider Anat an aspect of Asherah that later achieved pre-eminence.
b. She is a complex Ugaritic Goddess, maidenly, sexual, war-like, whose abode is the Holy Mountain.
c. She is known as the Maiden or Virgin and is the spouse of no one; however, she is also seen as the sister and sometime lover of the great Ba’al. Ba’al appears as a bull and she as a heifer, stressing their fertility aspects.
d. The etiology of her name has the meanings of “a turn of the plow”, “to she make love”, and “spring.”
e. She is a Goddess of dew and fertility and her grace and beauty were considered the acme of perfection. She is also a warrior armed with spear and shield, a Goddess of the hunt and war.
f. In her aspect of the Qadasha, she is called wanton and freely enjoys the pleasures of sex as sacred; she is the Goddess of love and desire. She personifies a high level of energy that finds its outlet in either sex or combat.
g. She is identified with spring and gently early summer rain, when the vegetative world if dependent on dew.
h. She is identified with both Sekhmet (her warring aspect) and Bast (fertility aspect) in Egyptian mythology. Even so, the Egyptians mainly identified her with Antit, the Queen of Heaven and Mistress of all the Gods. She wears on her head a plumed crown and holds in her left hand the scepter while in her right hand she holds the ankh.
5.Asherah was the consort of El, the chief God in the Canaanite/Babylonian pantheon, though sometimes mistakenly seen as consort to El’s son Ba’al. There is ample evidence that she was considered the consort of Yahweh among the Hebrews, though biblical writers later trampled this idea.
6.Symbols of Asherah
a. The sacred grove
b. The asherah tree – acacia, cypress, and the date palm tree
c. The sea, especially dolphins and fish
d. The lion, upon which she stands
e. The serpent, which she is seen frequently holding
f. The planet Venus
g. The dove
h. The pentagram and the eight-pointed star
