Asherah

Please post your comments and suggestions for this article.

Comment by Susan MacRow-Hill on April 5th, 2009 at 11:35 am

As the Israelite prophets and religious leaders “rightly” struggled to purge Israel of the licentious rites of Canaanite paganism—in which Asherah played a central role—her healthier function as a carrier of the divine feminine became a casualty.

I take offense to the insertion of the word rightly in this description – mass murder is never right – and casulty is a facetious dismissal of the outcome of that behaviour.

If you want to be taken seriously as a organiser of knowledge you need to tackle predjudice at it’s most basic, and that starts with equality between the sexes.

regards
Susan MacRow-Hill

Comment by Linda Shiffler on March 18th, 2011 at 8:22 am

As the Israelite prophets and religious leaders “rightly” struggled to purge Israel of the licentious rites of Canaanite paganism—in which Asherah played a central role—her healthier function as a carrier of the divine feminine became a casualty.
licentious means…
–adjective
1. sexually unrestrained; lascivious; libertine; lewd.
2. unrestrained by law or general morality; lawless; immoral.
3. going beyond customary or proper bounds or limits; disregarding rules.

The statement really means that the good role Asherah played (i.e. carrier of the divine feminine) was a casualty as her “less good/bad” role of unrestrained morality and sexuality was purged. The statement “rightly purged” relates to the licentious rites or the rites that included unrestrained sexuality, lawlessness and immoral behavior.

Perhaps “rightly” is a poor choice without a qualifier indicating rightly by the standards of the time and the Israelite leaders.

Leave a Reply

return to top