Asherah

Asherah or Athirat is the consort of the supreme Canaanite god El in the Ugaritic texts of the second millennium BCE from the fourteenth century BCE. Mother goddess lady of the sea and mother of the seventy gods of the Canaanite pantheon represented with a stylized tree known as asherah-pole worshiped in sacred high places throughout the ancient Levant. In the first millennium BCE her cult progressively mixes with that of Astarte forming the syncretism Ashtoreth according to mentions in 1 Kings 11:5 and 11:33. The Josianic reform of the seventh century BCE described in 2 Kings 23:4-7 destroys her sacred poles in the Temple of Jerusalem and the subsequent rabbinic tradition demonizes Ashtoreth as Astaroth a male demon that inverts her attributes turning the sacred tree into an infernal emblem and fertility into lust.

The powers of Asherah include the invocation of rain and dew agricultural and human fertility guardianship of the sacred high places dominion over the seventy subordinate gods of the Canaanite pantheon and transformation between a greater human form of regal matriarch and sacred tree form. Her appearance is that of a Canaanite woman of indefinable mature age between forty and sixty apparent years depending on the light with a tunic of raw linen embroidered with gold threads vegetal motifs high Ugaritic hairstyle with copper diadem silver bracelets leather sandals and holding a living tamarisk branch. Her deep olive green irises show a slightly elongated pupil visible only in twilight with an unbreakable aspect and ancestral serenity.

The symbology of Asherah comprises the sacred pole asherah-pole the stylized tree of palm or tamarisk type the lion associated animal in Syro-Palestinian iconography the copper diadem vegetal gold threads in the fabric and two intertwined serpents recurrent motif in archaeological asherah figurines. She relates to Astaroth as transformation target with Astarte as companion of both female Canaanite goddesses who syncretize in late traditions and converge in Astaroth and with Baal-Hadad as variant of both supreme figures of the Canaanite pantheon. As protective matriarch of the Levant prior to Josianic monotheism her cult lasted approximately fourteen centuries from Ugarit to the post-exilic diaspora associated with midwives agricultural fertility and home protection in Ugarit Tyre Sidon sacred high places of Israel Judah and Egypt syncretized as Qudshu.