Let's talk Asherah, Daniel

[_Dr. Shades]

Thank you, Daniel. I'd like to know if you think the Old Testament supports or condemns Asherah as goddess. Feel free to use scripture ref's as you see fit.

I think the Hebrew Bible as we have it tries to hide Asherah, and is mostly negative.

Daniel, are you asserting that Asherah isn't mentioned in the cannon?

I believe that her presence in the canon has been obscured, but not altogether eliminated.

So, in your opinion, is this another case of the Ancient Israelites suppressing the worship of any god or goddess other than YWH?

[_EnemyAce]

If you look up "Grove" in th etopical guide there are numerous references to having to tear down groves that were aprt of religious rites. People in ancient Israel began to worship the heavenly mother, the festivities included little cakes and wine if I'm not mistaken. I believe that is where the imagery of the tree of life as a connection to Asherah comes from.

Dan, is there some connection to the "Nut' goddess in egyptian culture to the groves of Asherah?

Also, is it just me, or do they mention Asherah in this song from "The Prince of Egypt" ? Comes in about the 2:21 mark when the kids start speaking in Hebrew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpK8WdCsYzk

Which Asherah are you thinking of here, Gaz?

There were two forms of Asherah. One was worshipped in the form of female goddess which borrows quite a bit from existing deities in the Levantine pantheon which borrows more from the worship of Inanna in Sumeria. The second was as cultic stand of wood or woods near the temple entrance.

[_Gaia]

Hello Everyone --

Here's some mre information on Asherah:

Dr. Daniel Ludlow, former Dean of Religion at BYU, writes:
"The Hebrew word Asherah translated as "grove," has reference to a fertility goddess who was supposedly the wife of Baal. Some English translations use the word shrine for this Hebrew word, since shrines and pillars were usually erected in the groves where fertility rites were practiced."
(Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Old Testament [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1981], 242.)

The same author elaborates elsewhere:

"The Asherah poles of verse 8 are the idols, images, or symbols of the pagan fertility goddess,
Asherah. The female counterpart to Baal, she was notorious for the prostitution cults associated
with her temples."

(Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982], 200.)

With all due respect to Dr. Ludlow (whose work i appreciate and respect) - I think it's important to note that what were sacred sexual practices are unfortunately MISrepresented here as "prostitution" --

WE may not view them as sacred or appropriate ways to worship -- but THOSE people did; and i think we do them an injustice when we use terms that tend to be pejorative and judgemental, by our standards.

"These customs go back to a time before Christianity was introduced ... before the Christian Church
took its anti-sexual pleasure stand. For we know that these persistent "pagan" customs were "abominations"
to the "men of God" who believed salvation comes through bodily pain rather than bodily pleasure, and who
sometimes slept on beds of nails, and flagellated themselves in efforts to come closer to their flagellated and
crucified God.

However, to our ...ancestors, for whom sex was integral to the cosmic order -- and for whom the body of
woman was NOT -- as the medieval Church proclaimed -- a source of carnal evil, but an attribute of the
Great Goddess Herself;

--Erotic rites would have had a very different meaning. For them, erotic rites would have been rituals of
alignment with the life-giving female and male powers of the Cosmos, ...For them, partaking in the
pleasures of sex would not have been sinful, but on the contrary, a way of coming closer to [the realms
of the HOLY and] their Goddess.
Riane Eisler, "Sex As Sacrament" in _Sacred Plasure_, 56-57.


This misrepresentation is everywhere in Christian discussions of [what was understood by those who practiced them as] sacred, HOLY sexual practices of Pagan religions --

NOTE too, that these Pagan religions are often trivialized as "cults" rather than referred to as ""Religions" -- perhaps reflecting and pepetuating an unfortunate bias.

The word "prostitution" is totally inappropriate to these practices. The PRIESTESSES, *not* prostitutes -- received NO "remuneration", in fact what they did was considered a sacred, life-affirming practice that celebrated the joy, beauty, delight and wonder of life, especially manifest through psycho-spiritual sexual practices. It i beleived by many that they were especially seen by warriors as a way to purify themselves and re-connect with the powers of life, after engaging in battle and taking the lives of others.

Please understand: I am NOT suggesting that LDS should adopt those practices; i am saying that we need to learn to understand, respect and accurately represent another culture in terms of ITS values, not our own, or we will never be able to appreciate or comprehend, let alone explain them.


"...To sum up, we find that the worship of Asherah, which had been popular among the Hebrew tribes
for three centuries, was introduced into the Jerusalem Temple by King Rehoboam, son of Solomon, in
or about 928 BCE...for almost two-thirds of its existence, the statue of Asherah was present in the
Temple, and her worship was a part of the legitimate religion approved and led by the King, the court,
and the Priesthood, and opposed by only a few prophetic voices crying out against it at relatively long
intervals."

...There can be no doubt about the psychological importance that the belief in, and service of, Asherah
had for the Hebrews. One cannot belittle the emotional gratification with which She must have rewarded
her servants, who saw in her the loving motherly consort of Yahweh-Baal and for whom she was the Great
Mother Goddess -- giver of fertility, that greatest of all blessings.

The Hebrew people, by and large, clung to her for six centuries in spite of increasing vigor of Yahwist
monotheism. From the vantage point of our own troubled age, ....we can permit ourselves to look
back no longer with scorn but with sympathy, at the Goddess who had her hour and whose motherly
touch softened the human heart, just about to open to greater things."

Raphael Patai, _The Hebrew Goddess_ p 50-52.

It is interesting to note also, that one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel was named "Asher" --


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

However, Asherah was not the only name by which the Hebrews knew and worshipped the Divine Feminine -- there were several.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. SHEKHINAH:

Defined as the "Glory" of "Presence" of God, Shekhina is the Talmudic term denoting the visible and audible manifestation of God's presence on Earth.


"... In its ultimate development in the late Midrash literature, the Shekhina stood for "an independent,
feminine Divine entity prompted by her compassionate nature to argue with God in defense of man...."

"The belief in the Shekhina -- the matronly, divine figure who, in a way, functioned as an intermediary
between the People of Israel and God, was a simple, easily comprehended idea. Since it "responded
to a deep seated religious need," it won ready acceptance among wide circles in the Jewish comunities
everywhere. Much more difficult to understand was the complementary doctrine which maintained that
God and the Shekhina were one. Lip-service, to be sure, was paid by all to the time-honored orthodox
Jewish concept of the Oneness of God. On the logical level, many were even able to assert that the
Shekhina and the other elements discerned in God were merely symbols which helped in comprephending
the mystery of His nature, or emanations issuing forth from Him, but in no way affecting His fundamental
Oneness.

Yet on the deeper level of emotion and imagination, the image of the wifely and motherly, passionate and
compassionate female divinity met with immediate, spontaneous and positive response. Especially to
popular imagination, the Shekhina was NO mere symbol or emanation, but a great heavenly reality whose
shining countenance shoved the theoretical doctrine of the Oneness of God into the background.

The Deep emotional attachment of the simple, unsophisticated followers to the Shekhina was comparable to
the relationship of the Italian or Spanish villagers to their Madonna. In both cases it cannot be denied that
one is faced with the veneration of a Goddess , and it is impossible to dispute that She meant more for the
satisfaction of deep-seated religious emotional needs than God Himself."
Patai, 115-116

Regarding the relationship between God and the Shekhina, please see part 2.

The Shekhinah is still part of Jewish worship (though perhaps not always outwardly acknowledged), for she is present on the Sabbath as the Bride of the Sabbath. A prayer is recited in all traditional Jewish household at the commencement of the Sabbath, which welcomes Her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

[_Gaia]

Hebrew Goddesses - Continued --


3. HOKHMA - WISDOM:

Hokhma ("Wisdom", known to early Christians as "Sophia" or "Hagia Sophia" - "Holy Wisdom")

Wisdom was understood as a personage :

"Whose way is understood and place known only by God Himself, while the Book of proverbs asserts that Wisdom ws the earliest creation of God, and that ever since those primeval days She (Wisdom) has been God's Playmate.

In the Apocrypha, this role of Wisdom is even more emphasized --

"She [Wisdom] proclaims her noble birth in that it is given to Her to live with God, and the Soveriegn
Lord of all loved Her..."

It as observed by Gershom Scholem that the term "symbiosis" used in this passage appears again in
the same chapter in the sense of marital connubium, and that it is therefore clear that Wisdom here
was regarded as God's wife. Philo states quite unequivocally that God is the husband of Wisdom."
Patai, 97-98

What has long been called the "Wisdom Literature" can be found throughout the Old Testament books of Psalms and Proverbs;

Experience the difference of reading it now with the (perhaps new) understanding that this is a Feminine Divinity or aspect of God, speaking:

Proverbs 1:20-23:
"Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the
gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
'How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the
scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you, I will make known my words unto you."

See also Proverbs 8:23-36 -- here's just the tail end of her speech:

"Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed
are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and
refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily
at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth
me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that
sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me
love death."
* * *

4. THE CHERUBIM:--

-- Winged figures which were an integral part, and according to at least one Rabbinic opinion, the most important part -- of all the Hebrew and Jewish sanctuaries and temples.

"The Cherubim were, by any criteria, "Graven images" and yet they continued to figure prominently in the Temple ritual down to the very end of the Second Jewish Commonwealth (70 CE).
"... the Cherubim depicted a man and a woman in sexual embrace -- an *erotic* representation so
vivid, it was considered obscene by Pagans when they at last glimpsed it! ...
Patai, 67

The presence of the Cherubim in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary of the Temple, and the ritual significance attributed to them, are invariably referred to as a most sacred mystery.....(See below and Part 2, on God and His Shekhina)

* * *

5. YHWH:

The tetragrammaton, the Holy name of God, so sacred it was never spoken aloud, and was always replaced in written material by "Adonai" - Lord), or "Elohim" (judges, leaders, Gods" -- plural!) -- from which Yahweh (and later, Jehovah) developed --

According to the Kabbalah (the Jewish mystical system) it is said to be an anagram composed of the first letter of FOUR of the sacred names of God -- TWO of which (the "H's") are FEMININE.
"The "Y" refers to "the Supernal Father" and stands for Wisdom. The first "H" is the Supernal Mother, called "Understanding", who gave birth to and crowned the Son (the "W") and the Daughter (second H)...."
Patai, 116-117


For more on the symbolism of YHWH, please see Part 2 on the Relationship of God with His Shekhinah --

* * *

These are just a few of the Hebrew/ Jewish Goddesses -- for more information, please see:

RESOURCES:

Non-LDS Books:

- "The Hebrew Goddess" by Raphael Patai
- "When God Was A Woman" by Merlin Stone
- "The ONce and Future Goddess" by Elinor Gadon
- "The Hebrew Goddess" by Raphael Patai
- "The Goddess in the Gospels" by Margaret Starbird
- "The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels;
- "Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, Bride of God" by Caitlin Matthews;
- "In Her Name" by Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza.
- "the Politics of Women's Spirituality", Charlene Spretnak, ed.
- "Beyond God the Father", and several others, by Mary Daly.
- "Religion and Sexism," and others, by Rosemary Radford Ruether
- "changing of the Gods" by Naomi Goldenberg
- Demetra George, "Mysteries of the Dark Moon"


LDS Books:
- "Women and Authority" edited by Maxine Hanks.
- "Strangers in Paradox" by by Paul and Margaret Toscano
- "God the Mother and Other Theological Essays" by Janice Allred
- "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View" by D. Michael Quinn


ONLINE LDS RESOURCES: - Websites:
http://www.greaterthings.com/MormonGoddess/
- " God the Mother in Mormonism" by Amber Satterwhite
- "Shekinah the Presence of Diety" - discusses the Mormon Heavenly
Mother
- "The Common Origin of the Ancient Hebrew/Pagan Religion and the
Demise of the Hebrew Goddess" by Fred C. Collier
-


* * * *


PART II: The Relationshp between God and His Shekhina

(from Patai's "The Hebrew Goddess") --

"The Central Creation myth of the Kabbalah (the Jewish mystical-magical system) said that "no sooner did Adam become a sentient being than he began to contemplate the physical and spiritual worlds into which he was placed, and committed a grave sin that ever since has dogged the steps of man:

God's spiritual being is understood as comprised of ten "Sefirot" (emanations or aspects) but in contemplating God, Adam MISTOOK the tenth and lowest Sefira which was the Shekhina, the female manifestation of God, for the totality of Godhead.
Since the Creator endowed Adam with the power of influencing the condition of the Godhead On High, by doing so, Adam caused a fissure to occur between God and the Shekhina. Ever since this first orignial spiritual sin, man has erred repeatedly -- a mythical event that is bound to be repeated, re-enacted, continually, and thus reintroduced, and made even more painful, the separation between God and His Spouse, the Shekhina.

When, in the course of history, the People of Israel came into being, the Shekhina became in a mystical way the Mother of Israel as well as the personification On High of the Community of Israel. As long as the Temple of Jerusalem stood, it served as the sacred bedchamber in which, every midnight, God the King and His Spouse, the Shekhina, celebrated their joyous, sacred marital union. ...The loving embrace of the King and His Queen the Shekhina secured the wellbeing not only of Israel but also of the whole world.

[GAIA's NOTE:
This is very similar to the idea of the "HIEROS GAMOS" or "SACRED MARRIAGE", which symbolizes not just the Union of God and Goddess, but of ALL Dualities:

light-dark, spirit-matter, mind-body, heaven-earth, logic-emotion, order-chaos, linear-wholistic, male-female, etc etc -- in one great, beautiful Whole, which helps bring about the fulfillment of Creation....]

"The divine coupling was, and is, profoundly influenced by human behavior, or to be more exact, by the comportment of Israel. When Israel sins, these sins force the divine couple to turn away from each other; when the people repent, God and the Shekhina turn back to each other and unite in love. When a pious earthly, human husband and wife perform the great "mitzva" of marital union, the mystical power contained in and issuing from this act enables, and more than that, induces, the King and Queen on high to do the same, and thus to become restored to their pristine unity.

When Israel departs from God, the Matronit-Shekhina is said to depart from Her beloved, God, and go "into exile" -- when this happens, HaShem - the Name (ie the Godhead) is not complete, but consists only of 'YHW'...and the whole world, but expecially Israel, suffers. Only when reunited with the Shekhina will God again be YHWH (Yahweh).

Lest anyone erroneously imagine that this myth is irrelevant to modern Jewish practices --

The "Yihud" (unification) are special rituals -- one of which is a simple declarative sentence, prior to reciting a prayer or performing any mitzva (commandment), to the effect that the intention of the person doing so is to bring about the unification of God and the Shekhina.
Thus, a pious Jew might say, "I do this in the service of uniting God and His Shekhina".

(See Patai, 117-165)


Blessings --
~Gaia

[_harmony]

WE may not view them as sacred or appropriate ways to worship -- but THOSE people did; and I think we do them an injustice when we use terms that tend to be pejorative and judgemental, by our standards.

Hmmm. So you're saying LDS don't cut the ancients any slack for their sacred worship, yet we expect others to cut us all kinds of slack for our own? Is this not a trifle ironic?

[_Gaia]

Hi Harmony --

I don't think said anything about cutting anyone "slack" either way --

I think i said those customs are misrepresented as "prostitution"; that we may not view them as sacred or appropriate worship, but they did, and to understand them we must understand how they viewed their practices.

I would add that viewing such practices as "prostitution" -- even "sacred prostitution" -- would be displaying an ethnocentric bias.


Blessings --
~Gaia

[_harmony]

Hi Harmony --

I don't think said anything about cutting anyone "slack" either way --

I think I said those customs are misrepresented as "prostitution"; that we may not view them as sacred or appropriate worship, but they did, and to understand them we must understand how they viewed their practices.

I would add that viewing such practices as "prostitution" -- even "sacred prostitution" -- would be displaying an ethnocentric bias.


Blessings --
~Gaia

LDS demand respect for LDS-style polygamy, including a prophet marrying other, equally worthy men's wives. Yet it seems we are not willing to concede the same respect for this worship. Makes me ponder the possibilities, had Joseph known about this. If he had, maybe the temple wouldn't be so boring!

[_moksha]

Gaia is so knowledgeable. She is our scriptorian at Beliefnet.

[_Gaia]

LDS demand respect for LDS-style polygamy, including a prophet marrying other, equally worthy men's wives. Yet it seems we are not willing to concede the same respect for this worship. Makes me ponder the possibilities, had Joseph known about this. If he had, maybe the temple wouldn't be so boring!

GAIA:
Oh, ok, now i understand your meaning - and i would tend to agree with you.