Thought this might be of interest....The Christian community tends to put down Goddess bassed religions a "evil"

Here is an exerpt from, The Hebrew Goddess:
northernway.org/hgoddess.html
Asherah, the Shekinah, consort and beloved of Yahweh. God-the-Mother. Her sacred pillars or poles once stood right beside Yahweh's altar, embracing it. Moses and Aaron both carried one of these Asherah "poles" as a sacred staff of power. The Children of Israel were once dramatically healed simply by gazing at the staff with serpents suspended from it. This symbol, the snakes and the staff, has become the modern universal symbol for doctors and healers.* Asherah was also widely known in the Middle Eastern ancient world as a Goddess of Healing. Then She was removed forcibly from the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures around 400 or 500 B.C. Her priestesses & priests, known by the headbands they wore, worshiped on hill-tops, such as Zion, Mount of Olives, Har Megiddo and countless others. Daughter of Zion, a term found numerous times in the Old Testament, was perhaps a term for a priestess of Asherah. As the "official" state worship became increasingly male oriented, and the establishment became hostile toward all forms of Asherah worship, a time of conflict and bloodshed lasting over a hundred years began. Those that still clung to Her worship paid the price with their lives at the hands of King Josiah and other rabid Yahwists. (Story in the Old Testament). But She could not be torn from the hearts and souls of Her people. (Go to the site to read more...)

Also, I found this reference to the Goddess online: Asherah was a goddess popular with the ancient Israelites, despite their priests' call to remain loyal to Yahweh. Biblical prophets condemn her repeatedly under the name Ashtoreth; it is the use of this name, a seeming combination of Asherah and Astarte, which has caused so much confusion for modern scholars. Click for Source.www.pantheon.org/articles/a/asherah.html

Asherah and Ashtoreth:
www.oldtestamentstudies.net/languages/asherahandashtoreth.html
The two names Asherah and Ashtoreth appear very similar in English translations, but differ rather more in the Hebrew. This page discusses some of the issues surrounding these names.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.:
www.bartleby.com/65/as/Asherah.html
Asherah or Asheroth, Canaanite fertility goddess and the wooden cult symbol that represented her. She is the consort of El in the Ugaritic texts. Several passages in the Bible may refer to the planting of a tree as a symbol of Asherah, or the setting up of a wooden object as an asherah--the Hebrew words for "tree" and "wood" are the same.

Another site on ´Athirat (Ugarit), ´Asherah (Hebrew).www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2938/majdei.html#Asherah

You are right LadyV. most ancient religion in the world used to worship the godesses but with christianity religion became male gender. Even the American Native worshiped the godess.

Judaism was never a true monothestic religion.

They believed in high God in Yahweh but they agreed that other gods existed. There's a word for this kind of practice but I can't think of it now.

King Solomon lost favor with God because he started to erect Asherah polls and oblesisks all over Israel.

Originally posted by Illmatic67
Judaism was never a true monothestic religion.

They believed in high God in Yahweh but they agreed that other gods existed. There's a word for this kind of practice but I can't think of it now.

King Solomon lost favor with God because he started to erect Asherah polls and oblesisks all over Israel.

The term is henotheism. Specifically it would be defined as "the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods".

I don't think this was entirely the case though with judaism. I see it more of an acceptance of the fact that people worship "objects" which are not "the one God". Which is not to say there are other gods, but rather there are other objects of worship.

.

[edit on 22-7-2004 by Raphael_UO]

Reguarding the God/Goddess theory...

Look at the painting by Michaelangelo of the "Creation"...you will notice that God has his arm around a very noticable woman...

Christianity has the triune God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...in some circles the "Holy Spirit" was the name given to the female partner of God...

The role women played was downplayed by the Christian Church as women were thought of as nothing more than a possession...yet, this is not, in my opinion, what was taught by God, or Jesus...woman was made to walk next to man...not before or behind...but beside as their equal and helpmate....they complete the other half of the male persona...and are therefore just as valuable in the overall scheme of things.

I am woman...hear me roar....

~oracle

There is also the technical term "Monolatry" i.e. devotion to a god but not denying other gods---which is DIFFERENT from MONOTHESIM (belief in the existence of ONLY one god exclusively).

In the Hebrew book of Judges, chapter 11:23/24 the Moabite clan-god Chemosh is specifically mentioned as "the god of Moab", and the Moabites belong to him:

QUOTE : Judges 11:23 "If now YHWH the clan god of Israel, has cleared the Amorites out of the way of his own people, are you to dislodge Israel?

Should you not possess that which your god Chemosh gave you to possess, and should we not possess all that our clan god Yahweh, has cleared out for us? " UNQUOTE

Which shows that in PRE EXILIC ISRAEL, many gods were worshipped and acknowledged to have their own "chosen" people.

However AFTER THE BABYLONIAN EXILE (BC 587 to 521), when the 4 hardliner Yahwistic priestly families returned to Persian Controlled Palestine, they came up with a "monotheistic" clan god formula :

"Yahweh is our Clan God: Yahweh alone. "

(the socalled Shema' which some people in English read as: "the Lord our god the Lord is one" for some strange reason) and placed into the Mouth of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 6 (the fifth book of the Torah was written in the same style as the Hebew book of Jeremiah and Baruch the Scribe, e.g. c. BC 550).

So the ancient "Israelites/Judaeans" were NOT in any way shape or form monotheists until AFTER the Exile (i.e. AFTER BC 521) and when they did decide to become monotheistic, it was the Yahwistic priests who won the day, to the exclusion of all other cults which had been visciously supressed (cf: allong the same lines as the brutal killing off of Yahweh's rival cult of Baal that Elijah dealt with, in I Kings 18).

Prior to the Exile we could possibly argue for Monolatry, but certainly not Monotheism.

At Elephantine in Egypt there is a temple to YHWH dated during the time of Mannasseh (around 850 BC) which was dedicated to Yahweh, Baal and Asherah, with the same dimensions as Solomon's Temple.....

This suggests that the Israelite Priests who fled there during the Mannassan persecution continued to worship the same way they did on the "mainland at home in Palestine...but notice: THREE GODS not just one! That's because it was a PRE EXILIC cult centre.

And there have been a number of Israelite inscriptions found to be dated around 780 BC which use the phrase "we swear by Baal, El, Yahweh and his Asherah" (the socalled Pithos A fragment)which seems to mean "Asherah" the Syrian Love Goddess was regarded in some way as Yahweh's "consort".

Just a little FYI

the Trinity can be traced back at least as far as the Osirian,Isinian, Horus
schools and probably further.
if i recall correctly Jewish linage IE; that which determines who is a Jew, is
traced through the Mother. if your Mother is a Jew you are a Jew.

there were and still are traditions in which the Feminine was revered and held
sacred, to a great extent because the feminine is unique in that it is the female
that new life issues from. only the female gives birth.

there are also traditions, although mostly symbolic today, that believe the
only time a man can truely achieve oneness with The Creator is at the point
of sexual climax when the mind is completely clear and free.