Topics Discussed in History’s Vanquished Goddess: ASHERAH
I – Pre-Late Bronze Age pre-1550 BCE
-6,000-year-old figurine of
Asherah/Ashtoreth as “Goddess of Flocks and Milk”
-Asherah/tree image
discovered in Early Bronze Age shrine
-Asherah/Asratum’s name on 4,000-year-old Nippur god-list
-Babylonian First Dynasty
name translated as “Asherah/Asratum is my mother”
-Asherah/Asratum/Ashratum’s
ancient titles of “Bride of the King of Heaven,” “Lady of the
Desert
Plateau,” “Lady of the Steppe/Grassy Meadowland” and “Goddess of Animals”
-King Hammurabi dedication to Asherah/Ashratum
-Palestinian crowned “Serpent God” (actually “Serpent Goddess”)
-Rabbinic tradition
attributing menstruation to Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden
-Cylinder seal depicting Asherah as a
winged “Lion Goddess”
II – Late Bronze Age I
& II ~1550-1200 BCE
-Palestinian Creatress
Goddess figurine personifying “Mother Goddess” Asherah
-Asherah/Astarte/Salmanitu
and El/Shalem, the original deities worshipped at Urusalem/
modern
Jerusalem
-Ugarit tablets identify Asherah/Athirat as the “Nursing Mother of the Gods,” “Lady who
Treads on the Sea,” “Goddess” and “Qudsu” (meaning “Holiness”)
-Asherah’s Proto-Sinaitic
epithet, “the One of the Serpent”
-a “Wizard of Asherah” tells fortunes at Taanach oracle
-Asherah is Yahweh’s mother
-lunar,
calendar date of “Finger of Asherah/Ashirat”
-Jewish worship of
Asherah/Astarte personified as the Moon
-Asherah defined as Aegean “Great Mother Goddess” and “Vital Force of Nature”
-Amorite king identifes
himself at the “Servant of Asherah/Asirta”
-Asherah as a Sacred Tree, the symbol of earth’s procreative and nurturing power
III – Qdš Configurations ~1550-1200 BCE
-Asherah/Qdš identified as “Queen of Heaven”
-biblical “Queen of Heaven” personifies moon as epiphany of goddess
-Palestinian seal
depicting the “Savior and Healing Goddess” Asherah/Astarte/Ishtar
-Egyptian stela
identifying Asherah within a Holy Trinity
-Asherah coalesces with Egyptian goddess Qdš
-Palestinian plaques depict
Asherah as “Vine and Vegetative Prosperity Goddess”
-Palestinian Nature
Goddess is identified as a “Sacred Harlot”
-antiquity’s “sacred
prostitutes” included males
-gold pendant of Asherah
depicted as the “Queen of Heaven” and “Goddess of Animals”
-Asherah/Qdš/Ashtoreth
portrayed as gold-foiled “Lady Godiva”
-Syrian-Palestinian goddess as “Creator of Vegetation & Life Itself”
IV – Iron Ages I, IIA &
IIB ~1200-800 BCE
-ceremonial, religious shrines
reference Asherah
-“intentionally buried asherah” discovered at the earliest Israelite worship site
-Asherah is Eve
-Asherah is depicted twice
on a 4-tiered, religious Taanach temple stand
-Hebraic Wisdom is
metaphorically identified as a “Sacred Tree of Life,” i.e.
Asherah
-Palestinian temple model
shrines are dedicated to, and depict, Asherah
-double-throned,
Palestinian temple model shrine worships Asherah with a companion
god or goddess
-Palestinian family’s Asherah figurine as “Protective Goddess”
-Judean pillar figurines
personify Asherah as “Protective Mother Goddess of Life and
Sustenance”
V – Kuntillet Ajrud ~830-760 BCE
-Asherah is paired with
Yahweh, four times, on three different Hebrew blessing inscriptions
at Kuntillet Ajrud
-if there was no wife, who was Yahweh divorcing in biblical text?
-prayer dedicated to
Asherah/Asherata
-Asherah’s sacred tree is precursor to maypole
-Asherah is depicted as a
sacred tree, flanked by ibexes, above her signature lion on
Kuntillet Ajrud pithos (storage jar)
-Asherah and Yahweh are
portrayed as a divine bovine couple
VI – Iron Age IIC ~800-586 BCE
-Old Testament pillar
figurines personify the generative life-force of the “Mother Goddess,
Asherah”
-Jerusalem burial tomb
headrests bestow goddess blessing upon the deceased
-a pomegranate scepter head from the temple of Asherah, Baalath or Yahweh?
-Asherah is paired with
Yahweh, three times, on a Khirbet el Qom, Israelite blessing
inscription
-the menorah is a
personification of Asherah
-Yahweh is his “Anat and
Asherah”
-Asherah is depicted as a
Palestinian, Hebrew “Queen of Heaven”
-Hebrew seal portrays Asherah with Yahweh
-Ekron dedicatory temple
inscriptions to Asherah
-220-pound stone temple
inscription seeking Asherah’s blessing and protection
-childbirth prayer to
Asherah as the “Goddess of Fertility”
-Asherah deleted from
biblical Genesis childbirth
VII – Babylonian Period
& Beyond ~586 BCE +
-Gaza coin depicting
Asherah/Astarte/Anat and Yahweh
-Sharon Plain shrine statue and Asherah dedication
-religious stone throne with Asherah dedication
-votive temple offerings to Asherah at Akko/Acco
-Yahwistic king presenting
offerings to “His” goddess
-libation vessels ordered for Asherah and her sanctuary
-dedicatory Asherah and
Astarte temple inscription
-asherah pillars and sacred
trees as “source of life” personifications
-Asherah’s signature as
evidence in a priest’s witchcraft trial
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