Hi, friends! Welcome back to another week on learning symbols of the Mother. Last week, we discussed the concept of Seeking Wisdom - an epithet or archetype for the Mother. This week, we will be discussing a scholarly take on why Wisdom was removed from worship.
First, I will provide a brief background. We will discuss the significance of groves in Asherah worship. Then, we will discuss the meaning behind the figurines used within temple walls. Then we will address the destruction of such by means of the Deuteronomic Reforms - what all that entails, including the conflation of the Divine Pair. In closing, we will tie in the significance of these findings. This is a bit of a heavy topic, and this will be extensive, so hold onto your seats!
BACKGROUND
Here is some background for you. Asherah or Lady Wisdom, was worshipped by the Canaanites and Israelites. She was considered to be the representation and figure of the Divine Feminine Presence, or the Mother God of All Gods. She was worshipped in surrounding and encompassing areas from about 2300 B.C. to around 700 B.C.
Scholars such as Dan McClellan, suggest - according to current knowledge on the subject - that Asherah was assumedly never vilified in Israel prior to 640 B.C. This was the time of the Deuteronomic Reforms under the hand of King Josiah. Prior to that point, Asherah was recognized and worshipped as the Queen of Heaven. This Queen of Heaven was recognized in several forms of worship, believed to be within and outside temple walls.
THE GROVES
Asherah had a strong link to trees and groves. In fact, the name 'Asherah' (əˈʃɪərə , אֲשֵׁרָה) actually appears to mean 'groves for worship' in Hebrew. In fact, she used to be mentioned 40 times in the original biblical text in Hebrew, but the occurrences have been reduced to 'groves' at various points within in our texts (particularly the KJV). Groves show up in many significant biblical events, (such as the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life - something we will touch on next week).
The groves were a space where "Wisdom and Her daughters" wove tapestries and the veils of the temple, as well as the priestly garments. It's where the 'daughter wisdoms' - or the women of the religion - would sing and dance, and celebrate the Queen of Heaven. Interesting to note, that the Hebrew term for ' I sing' happens to be "ashirah", with an 'i' in place of an 'e'. There may be a correlation there; the verbiage for the ritual may have been quite fitting for this form of worship.
THE IMAGES
The Canaanites and the Israelites both had figurines of Asherah, to which they coincidentally described as "the asherah" (lowercased). The asherah was described as a "stylized tree", with the figure of a woman's body combined with the trunk of a tree. These half-woman, half-tree goddess figures had prominent breasts to suckle their nursing young, providing physical and spiritual nourishment. It appears the life force of trees were used to symbolize the nourishing and expansive power of the Divine Lady. This could very well be linked to Proverbs 3:18, where Wisdom is likened unto the Tree of Life. (More on this next week).
Thousands of these ancient figurines have been excavated from Ras Shamra within abandoned temple walls. We have documentation and images providing evidence of this, thanks to world-class historians and scholars. These figurines are shaped as the asherah is described to have been, with the trunk of a tree and with prominent breasts. These are also described to have contained vines, pomegranates and various fruits. (Something else we will dive into next week). Scholars suggest that the daughter wisdoms would also weave clothing to dress the image in sacred robes. This was likely to provide an outward expression of the Divine Feminine in her own robe wearing and weaving to clothe Her children.
While the these figurines were a prominent part of the Canaanite and Israelite worship, certain individuals did not tend to refer to them as holy objects. Rather, the Deuteronomists appeared to refer to these asherah poles conversely. These were labeled simply as graven images, molten and wooden images. But, of course, there was the classic adjective to which many of us are familiar with: the term "false idols" was attributed to them. Many scholars suggest that in several instances within biblical text referring to false idols may very well be linked toward the asherah itself.
Fascinating enough, symbol of the menorah was considered to be a stylized tree, and has been referred to as a type of "asherah pole". Similarly to the asherah pole, the menorah was displayed within the walls of the temple. It was located just outside the Holy of Holies. The original, holy Menorah stayed in that space for temple worship, until the timing of the Deuteronomic reforms, in which it disappeared from view. Let's discuss these reforms, shall we?
THE DEUTERONOMIC REFORMS
The Deuteronomic reforms were an effort, under the direction of King Josiah - or rather his superiors - to consolidate all temple worship to a singular, abandoned temple in Jerusalem. They did this by destroying all of the dozens of surrounding temples and practices. This brought a lot of political and economic gain to Jerusalem. At least it did for a few years, until the Babylonian's took over. (This happens to be within the same time frame of Lehi's departure from the fallen world within Jerusalem, just prior to the Babylonian destruction). Many have theorized the concept that the Deuteronomists actions to destroy all other sacred sites, and driving them to Jerusalem, may have been the very thing that brought the Babylonian's to conquer the 'holy city.'
But how did they get away with it?
The Deuteronomists claimed to have found a book of scripture, a new law in which the Israelites must abide by. This law book was supposedly scripture from God. It provided detailed instruction on how they - the Deuteronomists and Israel in general - should overtake the other existing areas of temple worship within their sphere. The most striking tactical factor is that the law conflated all of the gods of worship into one, and said that worship of any deity other than Yahweh (Christ) was forbidden. And this included El (the Father) and Asherah (the Mother).
CONFLATING GODS
The Israelites and Canaanites had, up to this point in history, recognized the higher gods to be El and Asherah, the ultimate Father God and Mother God. Then the secondary gods included Yahweh and Baal - Yahweh being our representation of Christ. Baal was another son, of the same type and stature as Yahweh - both being storm gods and sons of the Divine Parents. There were other lesser gods that were also worshipped within the area. And so, there were dozens upon dozens of temples devoted to the higher gods and then these lesser gods. Uniformly, El and Asherah - together as the Divine Pair - were the head of all forms of worship.
So what the Deuteronomists did (according to 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles) was conflate first the Father and the Son, El and Yahweh into one. This is one reason why we see many Christian denominations believe that the Father and the Son are literally the same person. The concept of the Trinity is mainly due to this conflation of El into Yahweh, where as before, they recognized them as separate beings. But, now they were conjoined, as they conflated the Father and the Son into one. So from that point forward, Christ was the only God worth worshipping of the two, even though originally he was considered a 'son god' and a lesser god.
Second, they erased the names of all of the other existing gods- including Asherah, the Mother God. Suddenly, there was no female representation of God within their worship - or very little remains. Many scholars believe this was a tactical move. The Divine Feminine presence no longer had a place in regular temple worship in Israel, and the "ancient ways" of worship were lost, to a large extent. So we can see that we went from a state of polytheism - the worship of many gods, involving feminine gods - to monotheism, worshipping one God, which so happened to be strictly male.
REMOVAL OF THE MOTHER
But how did they go from believing and worshipping in a Divine Feminine being to... simply not, at least not mainstream worship?
Well, they didn't just preach it verbally. In the process of conflating the gods, they would perform mass destruction in order to yield results. And all of this was written in the "book of the law" that they claimed to have 'discovered' within the temple walls, supposedly from God, instructing them to act in egregious and devastating ways. The reforms did a number of damages. This list gets lengthy, but I recommend you look it all over and let it sink in. All of this can be found in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.
Josiah, under the direction of the Deuteronomists, would destroy several dozen temples within the surrounding areas, including the 'high places' which Solomon made for 'Ashtoreth' - another name or form of Asherah. They would destroy and burn sacred altars from their upper chambers - their holiest of rooms within the temple. They would burn the existing high priests upon the altars. This was followed by violently disrupting of the graves of past priests; breaking their bones, then burning them upon altars.
They burned the chariots made for Asherah, as well as removing the horses set for Asherah, both which sat within the temple walls. Vessels representing 'the groves', Baal, and all the hosts of heaven - whom all they had burned incense to - were destroyed and burned.
Josiah destroyed the homes by "the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove." In consequence, he drove the daughter wisdoms out from their homes.
Then they filled the groves "with the bones of men", and threw the ashes of the children into the groves. The burnt remains of the altars would be stamped to powder, then thrown into the groves. 'Do away' with the wizards, or workers of familiar spirits - who we would likely recognize today energy workers and witches.
But that is not all. In very cryptic details, these books describe the pain staking process of the dragging of the asherah from the temple, then burning it within the groves, until the asherah and the groves were nothing but ash. Then he stamped the remains of the groves into powder. He thrust it into the river of Kidron, which had flowed alongside the groves, as well as onto the graves of the people.
Pretty darn descriptive destruction that took place, right?
Many scholars suggest that amidst all the chaos, the main focus of destruction in each of these temples seems to have been the asherah, or asherah pole, itself. It is interesting to note that the menorah is told to have experienced a similar fate. This, the menorah having been removed from the temple at the time of the reforms. Same with the ark of the covenant and the budded rod of Aaron (which may very well have been another asherah pole). As scripture has it, none of these were ever returned to the holy spaces within temple walls. These were perpetually lost from Israel. Perhaps they were destroyed among the ruins, taken back into heaven, or even hidden or stolen. Needless to say, it seems as though drastic measures were made in an effort to never disclose this side to temple worship again, particularly this feminine aspect to deity.
CONCLUSION
In closing, we can see from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, that the symbol of the Mother from this time period, was eradicated from temple worship. The asherah was removed from the temple, dragged out to the groves, and burned to ashes. This would lead to extensive revision of biblical text by the Deuteronomists, removing many references to the Mother from their sacred texts. The evidences go to show that all this was done in an effort to conflate the gods, erase the Mother God from religion by devastating measures, and to bring economic and political gain to Jerusalem.
For further research on this matter, I have provided links to several references below, with an abundance of research on this subject. (And I mean abundance! Go check out "The Mother of the Lord" by Margaret Barker.) These will clarify any and all claims that have been made in this summary.
Stay tuned for next week's discussion on Wisdom, groves, and sacred trees, within scriptural text! Have a marvelous week.
Resources:
"Nephi and His Asherah" by Daniel C. Peterson, Church Scholar (byu.edu)
"Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature" by John Day, Church Scholar (andrews.edu)
"How Did Josiah change the religion of the Jewish nation?" by Mike Day, Church Scholar, and cohost of the Talking Scriptures Podcast, posted through LDS Scripture Teachings
"Excavation for the Mother with Scholar Dan McClellan", Scripture Translation Supervisor for the church, episode on the In Her Image Podcast.
"Episode 74: What was on the Lost 116 Pages?" with Don Bradley – Latter-day Saint Perspectives (ldsperspectives.com)
"What Did King Josiah Reform?" BYU address with Margaret Barker, Methodist Scholar. (This one will automatically download the document for you; just select the link with the box that appears, or check your downloads folder).
"Where Can Wisdom Be Found?" by Margaret Barker, BYU Spokesperson, Methodist Scholar
The Mother of the Lord: Volume 1: The Lady in the Temple: Barker, Margaret
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