I spoke with the renowned theologian and prolific author Dr. Robert Price on the LostGoddessIO podcast about Asherah the Mother Goddess of the Bible. I was hoping Dr. Price could confirm some of my theories.
LGIO #11 Dr. Robert Price confronts Asherah the Biblical Mother Goddess
My argument is that we can see the divine Mother all over the Old Testament of the Bible in the stories of Asherah, whom scholars now know was the Israelite/Canaanite mother goddess and the wife of God.
It is important to recognize that the historical Israelites were pagans when the nations of Israel and Judah existed and Jewish monotheism only emerged after the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon. There is a lost narrative in the Old Testament that shows Asherah being divorced, defamed, and purged from the Israelite traditions in the transition from paganism to monotheism.
The divine Mother has a specific set of beliefs, traditions, and cultural expressions that were common across the entire Ancient Near East. These Goddess traditions were in many nations, under the names of many goddesses, and were commonly known as Mystery religions. These traditions typically featured mythologies of a dying and rising god and stories that represent nature and the turning of the seasons. The Goddess traditions are rooted in agriculture and are known in scholarly literature as fertility cults. They embraced music, dance, sex, and intoxication in ecstatic rituals that were intended to make the plants grow and ensure a successful harvest.
The Goddess traditions have been condemned by the monotheistic authorities (Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike) over the centuries, but these beliefs and expressions never went away as they are core to the human experience. A straight line can be drawn from the religious reforms of the Old Testament to today’s progressive social values and culture wars.
These expressions of the divine Mother include nature worship, female leadership, sexual expression for women and gays, transgenderism, sacred use of cannabis and psychedelic plants, egalitarianism, and even abortion. The controversial aspects of Goddess worship can be likened to sex, drugs, and rock and roll, with nature worship, transgender high-priests, and ritual prostitution.
Yahweh represented a reform tradition in the community, driven by patriarchal men, that sought to end old cultural traditions they did not approve of such as temple prostitution, infant sacrifice, and idolatry. The Yahwists also tried to centralize and control religion by closing down community altars and forcing people to worship at the central temple in Jerusalem.
In the Old Testament, we see a protracted dispute between the followers of Yahweh (who wrote the Bible) and their opponents who followed the old, pagan Canaanite traditions. The Canaanite pantheon of gods featured Asherah as the Mother Goddess and wife of El, the Heavenly Father and creator of the universe. Asherah was often presented as an Asherah pole, a type of carved wooden totem pole that stood next to the altars of the prominent gods.
Astarte was the important goddess of love and war, the Queen of Heaven, she was arguably the most popular deity in the entire Ancient Near East and she appears in virtually every culture with varying names; Ishtar, Inanna, Aphrodite Urania, Venus, and others. King Solomon worshipped Astarte and is heavily criticized for it in the scripture by the Biblical authors.
We see the goddesses and the coup against them in a few areas of the Bible.
Genesis 1:1 and the spirit of God hovered over the waters.
The waters are the divine Mother, but her name and purpose have been removed. This is an intentional theological act to take away her power by removing her identity. In Mesopotamian mythology, the original source of creation was a primordial mother, identified as the salt waters, who gave birth to her own mate, and from there begat all of creation. (See Tiamat in the Enuma Elish and Nammu in the Sumerian creation myths for earlier iterations.)
The stories of Asherah and associated characters such as the qedesha priestesses (temple prostitutes), and the transgender qadesh (temple sodomites). The followers of Yahweh repeatedly chop down the Asherah poles, only to have them replaced as soon as the people were able. The Yahwists also disapprove of the qedesha and qadesh and succeed in chasing away the trans, but not the women who remained all the way until the exile. These stories appear primarily in I-II Kings, and in the story of Gideon in Judges.
Prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer. In the Book of Hosea, Gomer is said to be “a woman of adultery” and she is almost certainly a qedesha. Hosea is upset with his wife’s promiscuous ways and he forces her to submit to him, and along the way make references to closing down her temples and ending her festivals. Hosea and Gomer are symbolic stand-ins for Yahweh and Asherah.
The wisdom/Sophia traditions of King Solomon. As mentioned, King Solomon, the wisest, wealthiest, and most successful of all the Hebrew kings, was heavily criticized for his worship of Astarte. Yet his writings in Proverbs present wisdom as a female character (goddess) who assists Yahweh in laying the foundations of the Earth. His Song of Solomon is sacred love poetry and a legacy of the liturgies of Astarte, particularly the Hieros Gamos, the sacred marriage.
The Garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3 is, in my opinion, a direct shot at the traditions of Asherah and the qedesha. All the critical symbols in the Garden of Eden, particularly the serpent and the Tree of Knowledge, were symbols of the Goddess traditions that were once revered but in the story are reconstituted as symbols of sin and iniquity. Eve represents Asherah when she is called “the Mother of All Living” and being forced to submit to Adam monogamously directly contradicts the older Goddess traditions that rejected monogamy and maintained maternal bloodlines. Controlling women’s sex lives is critical to maintaining paternity and patriarchal bloodlines.
Dr. Price accepted my arguments 1,2,3, and 5, but he objected to number 4. Dr. Price argues that King Solomon is purely mythical and is based on an Assyrian king Shalmaneser. Mythical or not, King Solomon does represent the beginning of the Wisdom/Sophia traditions, and in my opinion Solomon represents the bridge between the visceral images of the pagan goddesses and the more philosphical notions of the divine Feminine that are acceptable in the monotheistic traditions.
I wrote “A History of the Goddess” as an amateur historian and scholar. I am not a professional scholar, I don’t read ancient texts in their original languages and I am not presenting myself as an academic.
My goal with the book was to present a new narrative of history and spirituality. I was not wedded to academic standards but it is important to me that my scholarship is sound, and while I know there are details in my book that could use revision I stand by the big picture argument.
I am gratified that Dr. Price seemed to think my positions were pretty good and that my scholarship is sound. I don’t feel the need to prove my historical scholarship any longer.
Lately I have been wrestling with how to present my work. I got into this whole project because I saw connections between the ancient Goddess traditions and today’s culture wars. I see that these old traditions can help guide us towards solutions for today’s biggest problems, like climate change.
Going forward I want to be focusing on these connections and political solutions. We will reference the old stories and characters to help make constructive points about today’s political and social problems.
Hopefully we can be of service and make a contribution to society.