Asherah's Pole - Pistacia Palaestina

Okay... I'm totally making stuff up again so please excuse me if I'm barking up the wrong tree (pun intended).

Pistacia Palaestina - that, there... is what it's all about.

This is Hebrew for Goddess... אלת
It also appears to mean Terebinth.

Now here's the thing about those letters in the alphabet...

א - Aleph - first letter
ל - Lamed - middle letter
ת - Taw - final letter

When I think of the first and final letters (את), I think of “I am the Alpha and the Omega”. In this case we have the middle letter in there as well, just to make things interesting. Then there's this...

אל - He
את - You
תל - Me

Therefore... אלת means “we”? As it happens...

חנן - this specifically means we. Also translates to Anna, who was apparently a member of the “Tribe of Asher”. This name has also been attributed to the mother of Mary.

So how is אלת pronounced? Dunno, but “Allat” might be a reasonable guess. Oh wait, that's Allah's daughter.

Okay, so what's this about the Asherah Pole? Did I once hear that it might actually be a tree? I also once heard that Jesus was nailed to a tree, not a cross. Or maybe it was an “ankh” made from this particular tree?

Further... this tree is very particular to Syria. Or is it Assyria? Now look at this...

אשר - Asher
אשור - Assyria

So yeah... hello, Isis!

originally posted by: VigiliaProcuratio
Okay... I'm totally making stuff up again so please excuse me if I'm barking up the wrong tree (pun intended).

Pistacia Palaestina - that, there... is what it's all about.

This is Hebrew for Goddess... אלת
It also appears to mean Terebinth.

Now here's the thing about those letters in the alphabet...

א - Aleph - first letter
ל - Lamed - middle letter
ת - Taw - final letter

When I think of the first and final letters (את), I think of “I am the Alpha and the Omega”. In this case we have the middle letter in there as well, just to make things interesting. Then there's this...

אל - He
את - You
תל - Me

Therefore... אלת means “we”? As it happens...

חנן - this specifically means we. Also translates to Anna, who was apparently a member of the “Tribe of Asher”. This name has also been attributed to the mother of Mary.

So how is אלת pronounced? Dunno, but “Allat” might be a reasonable guess. Oh wait, that's Allah's daughter.

Okay, so what's this about the Asherah Pole? Did I once hear that it might actually be a tree? I also once heard that Jesus was nailed to a tree, not a cross. Or maybe it was an “ankh” made from this particular tree?

Further... this tree is very particular to Syria. Or is it Assyria? Now look at this...

אשר - Asher
אשור - Assyria

So yeah... hello, Isis!

Asherah poles were from Canaanite Ba'alism. The reason you see it in the Bible is because there were sometimes in history that some of the Israelites chose to worship Ba'al and the associated deities, even though it was forbidden.

It has been found that in Japan, there is in a particular city where the men perform every year the same ritual and song in Hebrew of Asherah.

But if you like Canaanite goddesses, you would love Nikkal. She's the lady of the forest, she was married to Yahrick, the moon. And every night Yahrick visited Nikkal and covered over her. That is the dew.

Because the Canaanite language and Hebrew are both Semitic languages, you will see many words that are similar, but applied differently.

Nikkal was the lady of the forest, but in the Bible, Nikkal is "blossom". You can see that the two words are similar in meaning but applied differently.

Asher means fortune.

a reply to: VigiliaProcuratio

Now look at this...
אשר - Asher
אשור - Assyria

So yeah... hello, Isis!

coffee came out of my nose.

But seriously: I love trees. I grew up climbing trees. The first fantasy novel I ever read was while 15 feet(5 meters?), off the ground, in a live oak tree.

where the Hebrew word elah (plural elot) is used, although the word is sometimes translated as "oak". (The Hebrew word alon means "oak," and the words may be related.

Here's the deal: I am deadly allergic to poison oak. Poison oak bushes occurs in close proximity to Gerry Oak trees, all the way up the West coast of the U.S. until you reach the Oregon/Washington border.

I lived my first 18 years way south of that border. Life was a dangerous, precarious challenge for an active oak tree climber.

I now live north of the border, so neenerneenerneener to poison oak.

Check this out: people allergic to poison oak are frequently allergic to cashews. But I'm not, because it's the pollen that I'm allergic to, not the sap.

Pistacia palaestina is of the genus: Pistacia

Pistacia is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family.

So if I were to worship a flowering Pistacia Palaestina or even close to a flowering Pistacia Palaestina would I swell up and die?

Alpha and Omega indeed!

a reply to: VigiliaProcuratio

Have you thought about the Huluppu tree? I don't want to be a spoiler so I'll let you toss it around a bit. Look at Asherah and then Inanna. Then think about all those serpents, Genesis, and then Hermes.

I wouldn't connect ISIS with Isis, though. They'd kill followers of Isis just as quickly as they would Christians.

originally posted by: Cuervo
a reply to: VigiliaProcuratio

Have you thought about the Huluppu tree? I don't want to be a spoiler so I'll let you toss it around a bit. Look at Asherah and then Inanna. Then think about all those serpents, Genesis, and then Hermes.

I wouldn't connect ISIS with Isis, though. They'd kill followers of Isis just as quickly as they would Christians.

I looked that up.

I always wondered, why would Asherah be associated with a pole? I thought poles were phallic symbols. Would Asherah then be a pole dancer?

I doesn't make sense that a female would be associated with a phallic symbol, even the ancients knew biology. So the only thing I can think she was, ancient pole dancer.

a reply to: pthena

If I were you, I wouldn't be taking any chances!

a reply to: Cuervo
[align=justify]Interesting... Inanna appears to relate to Isis as well. I can't seem to figure out what kind of tree the Huluppu was, but it may have been indigenous to the Euphrates as it happens... and therefore may be the same thing.

As for the so-called Caliphate, that's got sod-all to do with the real Isis... actually, they're just deliberately muddying ancient history and language.

a reply to: WarminIndy

I can imagine people dancing around an Asherah Pole naked, but not in the sense of relating it to modern pole-dancing. Maybe there's a link though, who knows?

Now I'm wondering what exactly the Christmas Tree is all about.

Okay, here's another thing... תות seems to be Mulberry or Strawberry. Strangely enough, the latter is associated with sexuality. It could also mean “Tut”, which might be “a condition of health and vigour” (as in verdure or the state of being fruitful). So let's whack a yod at the end of it, giving תותי... which might translate to “tuti”. Tutti-Frutti? Also... הוהי looks very similar and might translate to “Indian”, and the Native Americans loved their pipes. “Tut” does so happen appear to be a (Swedish?) word for “pipe”, hence having a “toot”. A “toot” might also be the blowing of a horn, so a “tut” could also be a horn (maybe from a ram). And... it could also mean “King Tut”, or rather Tutankhamun. As it happens, Tate relates to a “God of Wind”.

I'm also interested in the word “oak” now. It looks as though it may be interchangeable with “owl”, which makes perfect sense. In Hebrew, this is אוח. “Elah” is also Persian for “eagle” and the Hebrew for that is נשר... which also means “windfall” and itself means “a fruit that has fallen from a tree” (or “a bounty”). Then there is such a thing as the “Eagle Owl”. הו is Aramaic for “he”, which might be pronounced as “hu” and itself could relate to “wind”. “Hu” has some interesting translations, such as “pole”, “stake”, “fencepost” and... “penis”. It also translates to “how”, which made me think of the old Sioux greeting. And... the genus “bubo” translates to “boom”, which is a word for a bird's call and also means “pole” or “tree” in Dutch.

As for “elot”, the Hebrew for this is אלות which looks to be related to אלת (as in the first post). Now, I'm wondering if it is also related to “elite”. אלית seems more appropriate for “ilit”. Let's knock the taw off that, to give אלי... while “My God” might be a more appropriate translation, it can also mean “wail”. Does that mean to say that an owl's howl is a call to God?

Totally unrelated, but... “Adam” translates to אדם, which also means “red”. “Sanguine” means red and also “warm, ardent”, as well as exhibiting “irresponsible mirth” (like taking the fruit from the tree). “Anguine” means “snake-like” and snakes are also very warm to the touch. See the link?

Okay, enough of that... none of it makes sense anyway.[/align]

a reply to: WarminIndy

I always wondered, why would Asherah be associated with a pole? I thought poles were phallic symbols. Would Asherah then be a pole dancer?

I doesn't make sense that a female would be associated with a phallic symbol, even the ancients knew biology. So the only thing I can think she was, ancient pole dancer.

wikipedia
She is also called Elat (Ugaritic: 𐎛𐎍𐎚 : ilt) ("Goddess", the feminine form of El; compare Allat) and Qodesh, 'holiness' (Ugaritic: 𐎖𐎄𐎌 : qdš). Athirat in Akkadian texts appears as Ashratum (Antu), the wife of Anu, the God of Heaven. In contrast, Ashtart is believed to be linked to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar who is sometimes portrayed as the daughter of Anu while in Ugaritic myth, Ashtart is one of the daughters of El, the West Semitic counterpart of Anu.
. . .
Between the 10th century BC and the beginning of their exile in 586 BC, polytheism was normal throughout Israel;[9] it was only after the exile that worship of Yahweh alone became established, and possibly only as late as the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BC) that monotheism became universal among Jews.[10][11] Some biblical scholars believe that Asherah at one time was worshiped as the consort of Yahweh, the national God of Israel.

I took this thread to be faux scholarship, kind of a parody.

Faux /ˈfoʊ/ is a French word for "false". The adjective has been adopted into the English language to describe an imitation or ersatz good.[1]

When manufacturing faux objects or materials, an attempt is often made to create products which will resemble the imitated items as closely as possible. However, some products are intentionally made to look "faux",
- Wikipedia -

Trees are quite interesting as symbols.

look up Dioecy. That's biology. then consider the term crotch of the tree

trees also, when looked at from a certain perspective, can be seen as holding up the heavens. The foliage may be even seen as a symbol for the heavens.

Imagine two trees, one female, one male, holding up the heavens.

Consider this: Once upon a time some people rebuilt, or a least built anew, a temple in Jerusalem ( founded upon the god of evening ). In this temple, as a canopy, within the holy of holies, was a golden net, perhaps symbolic of the heavens, perhaps it even seemed to have a stylized vine motif.

This same net was later given to Pompeii as tribute and taken to Rome where it was put in the Jupiter Capitoline temple. The same temple where the Romans anointed Herod as king of the Jews.

In one of the Christian gospels, John, I believe, Jesus is depicted as saying "I am the vine, and you are the branches."

Vines, without support, creep along the ground. When in the foliage of a tree, they can be high and lifted up.

There may be a logical conclusion here that escapes me at the moment.

a reply to: VigiliaProcuratio

Is strip tease dancing a modern invention? I don't think it is.

Pole dancing, that is what makes sense. Did the ancient Celts dance nude around the May Pole?

a reply to: WarminIndy

That is a fair point, Wikipedia even mentions a phallic reference.¹ What's ironic is how one might “erect” a maypole. Oh'er. With this in mind, it makes sense as to how modern pole-dancing might be linked.

I can't be bothered right now to look at these articles in detail, but they appear to be highly relevant...

• Axis Mundi
  
• World Tree

originally posted by: VigiliaProcuratio
a reply to: WarminIndy

That is a fair point, Wikipedia even mentions a phallic reference.¹ What's ironic is how one might “erect” a maypole. Oh'er. With this in mind, it makes sense as to how modern pole-dancing might be linked.

I can't be bothered right now to look at these articles in detail, but they appear to be highly relevant...

• Axis Mundi
  
• World Tree

Which then, if Asherah is the feminine for Asher, which means fortune...hence, that's where the term "getting lucky" comes from.

I'll bet you anything.