Heavenly Mother and Her Sacred Roles

by David Werden

Many religions today are very different from their root beginnings. Judaism for example, along

with Christianity, over the years diminished the feminine aspect that God originally had 1. Some

early Christians and Israelites originally believed in not only a Father in Heaven but a Mother in

Heaven as well.2 Casting her in the role of a comforter with Rabbinical Judaism giving her the

name Shekhinah (spiritual presence of God), similar to the Holy Ghost in the New Testament.3 In

the Old Testament among the Israelites, She was first known as “Asherah”4 a name that was

rarely translated as such in the Bible.4.Most of the early evidence of Asherah comes from

archeological discoveries from Israel and her neighbors.5

1
Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd edition; Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, ch3 and Pagels, “What
Became of God the Mother”, Signs Vol. 2 no.2 ; On other religions E.O. James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess,
(Barnes and Noble); Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses, (FreePress, 1992) (see end of paper for links to
some of the articles in this paper)
2
David Werden, “Eternal Marriage”, p.9 https://www.academia.edu/8286632/
3
George W. MacRae, “The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth”, Novum Testamentum. Vol.12, fasc.2
(Apr.1970) p.90; Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels,pp.51-53 and Pagels,“What Became of God the Mother”, Signs
Vol. 2 no.2 (1976) pp.295-297; April DeConick, Holy Misogyny: Why the Sex and Gender Conflicts in the Early
Church Still Matter, (Continuum 2011) pp.1-6; Gilles Quispel; “Gnosticism and New Testament”, Vigiliae
Christianae Vol.19, No.2 (Jun.,1965) p.70; Roberts & Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 9:329-330; Jorunn
Jacobsen Buckley, “Female Fault and Fulfillment in Gnosticism” (Univ. of North Carolina Press) pp. 105-7;
Johannes van Oort, “The Holy Spirit as Feminine: Early Christian Testimonies and Their Interpretation”, HTS
Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies; Vol 72, No1 (2016) https://www.academia.edu/16869051/

4
Steve A. Wiggins, A Reassessment of Asherah, Gorgias Press (2007) pp.105-149
https://www.academia.edu/1307031 Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd edition pp. 38-53 ; John
Day,“Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature”, Journal of Biblical Literature Vol.105, No.3
(Sept.,1986) Saul M. Olyan, Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel, SBL Monograph Series pp. 1-22

5
William Dever, “Asherah, Consort of Yahweh? New Evidence from Kuntillet Ajrud”, Bulletin of the American
Schools of Oriental research, No.255(Summer,1984) 21-37; Dever, Did God Have a Wife, (Eerdmans 2005); David
Noel Freedman, “Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah,” Biblical Archaeologist 50/4 (Dec.1987); David Werden,
“Eternal Marriage or Marriage in the Resurrection”, p.9 https://www.academia.edu/8286632/

1
Later in Israel’s history, to avoid her worship and to maintain monotheism, she was referred to

as simply Wisdom6 and her divine presence as Shekhinah. 7 Unlike Israel’s neighbors, who

openly acknowledged a Heavenly Mother, Israel had different depictions of her including name

(Asherah), title (Wisdom), and also a reference to her spiritual presence (Shekhinah). This

separation of three different aspects of one Goddess is not entirely clear.

She became symbolized by a grove of trees, a single tree, or sometimes just a pole, so when

translators of the Bible would come across the name “Asherah” they would translate it as pole or

grove. Many of her references in the Old Testament reflect this,8 which strongly suggests a

connection to the tree of life.9 Among the Gnostic Christians, Her name was “Sophia” (Meaning

Wisdom); carrying on Her Jewish title.10 Wisdom is also what Eve acquired and brought into the

world by partaking of the tree of knowledge. Those same Gnostic Christians acknowledged her at

6
Wisdom a term sometimes used to indicate the feminine aspect of God; see, Margaret Barker: The Great Angel: A
Study of Israel’s Second God,(W/JKP) ch.4 ; Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd edition, pp.97-98 ; Peter
Schafer, Mirror Of His Beauty, pp.36-41; James Richard, The Mother Goddess Wisdom, Eden’s Apple; Ronald
Murphy, Tree of Life, (Doubleday, 1090) ch.9; (Wisdom of Solomon 7:26; Sirach ch. 1:10, 24:1-34, 40:1: Proverbs
ch.8)
7
Taken from its core meaning of dwelling, Greek skene “tent” or Mandaean skenas dwelling place. The Jews used
the term “Shekinah” to mean the dwelling or presence of God’s Spirit.. See. Nibley, “Unrolling the Scrolls”, in Old
Testament and Related Studies,.p.137: Kabbalistic Jews it was the feminine aspect of God: see Gershom Scholem,
On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, Schocken Books (1978) pp.104-105; Patai: The Hebrew Goddess. pp.99-111

8
Judg.6:25, 2 Kings 21:7; Steve A. Wiggins. A Reassessment of Asherah, Gorgias Press (2007) pp.243-244; John
Day, “Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature”, Journal of Biblical Literature (hereafter JBL)
Vol.105, No.3 (Sept.,1986) p.397-398, 402
9
; Moshe Weinfeld , “Feminine Features in the Imagery of God in Israel: The Sacred Marriage and the Sacred Tree”,
Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 46 Fasc. 4 (Oct. 1996), pp.515-516; Joan Taylor, “The Asherah, The Menorah and The
Sacred Tree” https://www.academia.edu/243240/ ; Nils Billing, “Writing and Image-The Formulation of the Tree
Goddess Motif in the Book of the Dead", Studien zur Altagyptischen Kultur, Bd.32 (2004) p.47; Daniel Peterson,
“Nephi and His Asherah”, in Mormon Scripture and the Ancient World, Edited by David Bitton. pp. 191-243
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=jbms

10
George W. MacRae, “The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth”, Novum Testamentum. Vol.12, fasc.2
(Apr.1970) p.90

2
the start of some of their prayers: “From thee father and through thee mother, two names immortal,

progenitors of Aeons.”11 In the Manichaean Psalm Book 12 (writings of a quasi Christian group):

Adam dies and is greeted by an angel called a news bearer who has come to return him to his

heavenly home. One of the first questions The First Man asked the angel is: “How are my heavenly

parents, the father of the lights… and the mother of the living?”12 The same Christians in their

Kephalaia (teaching of Mani) has our heavenly mother embracing the first man with a kiss before

he comes into this world of mortality13. We also find her mentioned in “The Hymn of the Pearl”

from the Acts of Thomas. There she is listed as “Thy mother, the mistress of the East”, 14 similar

to the parable of the Prodigal Son, the hymn tells of a child of god leaving their preexistent home

and comes to earth to prove himself. After going astray, his heavily family (host of heaven) become

concerned about one of their own and write a letter to remind him of his former state and glory,

writing: “From thy father, the king of kings, And thy mother the mistress of the East”15

According to Kabbalistic Jewish writings in The Bahir, 16 God has a female counterpart, referred

to as “Wisdom”, that helped create this world (Proverbs 8:24-27). We find her again as part of

11
Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Hereafter ANF), Vol.5: 48; Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels,
ch3 p.49
12
C.R.C. Allberry, ed., Manichaean Psalm-Book II, p.198 line 23 and p.199 line 5; Mani who declared himself an
apostle of Jesus Christ (216-276 CE) see Ramsey, The Manichean Debate (Vol 1/19) pp.12, 272-3, and founded
Manichaeism a Gnostic Christian sect that survived into the 13th century.
13
Iain Gardner, The Kephalaia of the Teacher, (Leiden Bill 1995) p.43: It goes on to describe her giving: “The first
right hand is the one the Mother of life gave to the first man when he comes out of the contest.”; In James H.
Charlesworth, “The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol. 2: 562: A Mother seen in 4 Maccabees 17:2-6, is lighting
the way for her martyred children back to God.; Sirach 40:1 “from the day they go out of their mother’s womb, till
the day that thy return to the mother of all thing.”
14
Hennecke-Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha Vol 2, p.500
15
Hennecke-Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha Vol 2, p.500; Berry Brickmore, Restoring the Ancient
Church, (1999) pp.341 (339-341); for comparison see David Werden “The Prodigal Son and the Allegory of the
Pearl” https://www.academia.edu/11497017/

3
the creation story in Irenaeus’ condemnation of Valentinus, a second century Gnostic Christian

that believed Gen.1:1 ‘“In the beginning”, was referring to the “mother of all things”.17 In

Gen.1:2, it talks about the spirit or wind of God moving upon the face of the water. The word for

spirit “ruach” is in the feminine form18 where the spirit hovered (fluttered) over the water (much

like how the Holy Ghost 19 descended upon Jesus at his baptism) and according to these early

writings it was Wisdom who helped to create the earth. In the Aramaic version of Genesis, The

Targum Neofiti Gen.1:1 “From the beginning with wisdom, the Lord created and perfected the

heavens and the earth.”20 Along with Proverbs 8:25-27, in the Targum Neofiti Gen 2:1 it refers

to her again when it says "they completed the creation of the heavens...and all their hosts", this

having to do with the mother of the hosts of heaven, emphasizing Gen.1:27, (both male and

female were created in Gods image).

In 1928 archaeologists at the site Ras-Shamra, that was anciently the city of Ugarit, discovered

a fourteenth century B.C. priestly library having Canaanite and Hebrew traditions. The

importance of this find were the similarities it had with its neighbor Israel, having a heavenly

16
Aryeh Kaplan, The Bahir, (Weiser 1989) p.2; In The Bahir “Beginning” (BeReshit) meaning Wisdom;
Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Sirach) 24:3; Pagels, “What Became of God the Mother” p.295; Philo, On Flight and
Finding XX:109, in C.D. Yonge tr., The Works of Philo, (Hendrickson 1995) p.331; MacRae, “The Jewish
Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth, p.88, 90; Proverbs 8:24
17
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I.18.1, in ANF. 1:343
18
All Hebrew nouns are either masculine or feminine and does not necessarily mean the topic or noun is one gender
or another. (See footnote 19, below for arguments on its feminine use in those verses.)
19
Elaine Pagels, “What Became of God the Mother”, Signs Vol. 2 no.2 pp.295-297; Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic
Gospels, pp.51-53; April DeConick, Holy Misogyny: Why the Sex and Gender Conflicts in the Early Church Still
Matter, (Continuum 2011) pp.1-6; MacRae, “The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth”, Novum
Testamentum. Vol.12, fasc.2 (Apr.1970) p.90; In Ugarit she was called “Lady Asherah (Athirat) of the Sea” , or “she
who treads upon the sea”, in John Day, “Asherah in the Hebrew Bible” JBL p.387-388; Judith Hadley, The Cult of
Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah, (Cambridge 2000) p.40; Richard Petty, Asherah Goddess of Israel (Peter Lang
1990) p.11

20
Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis, Translated with Apparatus and Notes. [SERIES]: The Aramaic Bible, volume 1
A.(Liturgical Press 1992) tras.by Martin McNamara, p.52; Prv.3:19 8:27-39

4
Pantheon21 consisting of a Heavenly Father “El” and his wife Asherah (Athirat), the mother

goddess of the seventy sons that made up the host of heaven.22 Interest grew as the apparent

similarities of Israel and her neighbor’s priestly library at Ugarit solidified. Bible verses also

showed her name closely associated with God’s. Although the name Asherah could be found in

the Hebrew text of the Bible it was always referred to in a negative light and translated as a

grove of trees or pole. Prophets condemned her worship, so she was perceived as a corruption

from their Canaanite neighbors.23

More recent discoveries from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, has had scholars reevaluating how important

Asherah was to the Israelites.24 It is there we find an important inscription that reads: “YHWH and

his Asherah”. William Dever, a biblical archaeologist has written several articles and books on

21
Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, Oxford Univ. Press (2001) p.55; Lowell Handy, Among the
Host of Heaven, (Eisenbrauns1994); E. Theodore Mullens, Jr. The Assembly of the Gods, The Divine Council in
Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature, (Scholar Press, 1980) p.17-18; Conrad L’Heureux, Rank Among the
Canaanite Gods, (Harvard Semitic Monographs 21) p.12-13; Thorkild Jacobsen, “Primitive Democracy in Ancient
Mesopotamia” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 2/3 (July 1943) pp.163 fn.22, 167-169;
22
See also fn.30; James Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East Volume 1:An Anthology of Text and Pictures,
(Princeton Univ. Press1958) p.105, Loleta B. Collins, “Asherah as Tree Worship in Ancient Israel”
https://www.academia.edu/9881497/ p.3; Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, Oxford Univ. Press
(2001) p.55; ; John Day, “Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature”, JBL. Vol.105, No.3
(Sept.,1986) pp.387-388, 399-400; Ule Oldenburg, The Conflict Between El and Baal in Canaanite Religion, (Brill
1969) p.19
23
Saul M. Olyan, Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel, SBL Monograph Series p.4; John Day,“Asherah in the
Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature”, Journal of Biblical Literature Vol.105, No.3 (Sept.,1986) pp. 389-
391, 400-401

24
John Day,“Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature”, Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL)
Vol.105, No.3 (Sept.,1986) pp.391-392; William Dever, “Asherah, Consort of Yahweh? New Evidence from Kuntillet
Ajrud”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental research, No.255(Summer,1984) 21-37; Keel and Uehlinger,
Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God;p.244 ; David Noel Freedman, “Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah,” Biblical
Archaeologist 50/4 (Dec.1987)

5
this topic showing her place of importance in Israelite culture,25 that now depicts her as a figure

among the Israelites to be acknowledged but not worshiped. 26 An example, in 1 Kings 18:40, the

450 prophets of Baal were killed with no mention of the 400 prophets of Asherah27suffering the

same fate. She is even allowed to continue her role in temple worship (2Kings 13:6) until her focus

becomes too much a distraction and ultimately eliminated by King Josiah in (2Kings 23:6-7).

Margaret Barker has made a strong argument that the book of Kings has misrepresented the part

she played in Israel’s understanding of her sacred position as a supportive loving figure.28

With this new archaeological evidence, it is believed now that Asherah was characterized in Israel

much like her neighbor in Ugarit, having its own pantheon in heaven. Elohim being cast as a loving

heavenly father figure with Asherah his wife being a mother of the heavenly host that were their

children 29 (also their 70 sons that govern the nations of the earth)30 this host of heaven were also

removed during Josiah’s purge of the temple. 28

25
William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife; Recent Archaeological Discoveries and Biblical Research ; Dever,
“Folk Religious in Early Israel: Did Yahweh Have a Consort”, in Aspects of Monotheism” Edit by Shanks and
Meinhardt

26
Saul Olyan,.Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel, SBL Monograph Series pp.6-9.; David Noel Freedman,
“Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah,” Biblical Archaeologist 50/4 (Dec.1987)
27
David Noel Freedman, “Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah,” Biblical Archaeologist 50/4 (Dec.1987) pp.247-
248; also 2 Kings 10:18-28
28
Margaret Barker, “What did King Josiah Reform”, in Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed., Welch and Seely.;
Barker, Temple Theology An Introduction (SPCK) pp.76-84; Barker, Mother of the Lord Volume 1: The Lady in the
Temple, (Bloomsbury) pp.5-25
29
Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, Oxford Univ. Press (2001) p.55; Lowell Handy, “The
Appearance of Pantheon in Judah” in The Triumph of Elohim, ed. Diana Edelman; Lowell Handy, Among the Host
of Heaven, (Eisenbrauns1994) pp. 77-82; Conrad L’Heureux, Rank Among the Canaanite Gods, (Harvard Semitic
Monographs 21) pp.12-13; Patai, “The Goddess Asherah” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol.24, No.1/2 (Jan.-
Apr.,1965) p.38;; John Day, “Asherah in the Hebrew Bible” JBL. Vol. 105/3, p.400

30
Daniel Peterson, “Ye are Gods”: Psalms 82 and John 10 as Witnesses of the Divine Nature of Humankind”,in The
Disciple as Scholar Essays on Scripture and Ancient World in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson: ed.

6
 In the first temples of Israel a reenactment was performed showing the importance of the host of

heaven (Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:4-7) and its significance in mankind’s relationship with God. Most of it was

played out in a scene portraying the creation, along with the sacred marriage ritual that dramatized two

heavenly counterparts, a god and goddess being married coming down to us in the form of poems

and hymns. 31 Israel in their early temple rituals kept Mother in Heaven’s role there a secret

(sacred) until exposed: “Resh Lakish said: When the heathens entered the Temple and saw the

Cherubim (male and female figures) whose bodies were intertwisted with one another, they carried

them out and said:…All that honored her, despised her, because they have seen her nakedness”

(Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 54b).32 These Cherubim (male and female figurines)33 no doubt were

at one time actual actors in the creation drama that was performed in the temple,34 then at some

later point were replaced35 by two Cherubim figures that were shown to those making their

Ricks/Parry/Hedges, pp. 501-503, 570 fn.138; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol. 2:214; Ioah P. Culianu,
“The Angels of the Nations and the origins of Gnostic dualism,” in Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions,
Presented to Gilles Quespel on the Occasion of His 65ht Birsthday. Edited by R van den Broek and M.J.
Vermaseeren (Brill 1981) pp.82-85; Smith, Origins of Biblical Monotheism. p.55; John Day, “Asherah in the
Hebrew Bible”, p.387; Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library,(San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1977), p.166
Hereafter NHL.

31
Samuel Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite (Indiana University 1969); Nissinen and Uro, ed., Sacred Marriages,
(Eisenbrauns, 2008); Pirjo Lapinkivi , The Sumerian Sacred Marriage, In the Light of Comparative Evidence (State
Archives of Assyriia Studies, XV): (The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project). Finland 2004; Stephane Beaulieu, Eve’s
Ritural: the Judahite Sacred Marriage Rite, pp.40-111; Martin Palmer, “Expressons of Sacred Space: Temple
Architecture in Ancient Near East” (Doctoral Dissertation, Feb.2012, University of South Africa) pp.91-96; Baker
and Ricks, Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, (Eborn 2009) pp.255-641
32
Babylonian Talmud (Hereafter TB) Yoma 54b,;for full analysis see: Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd
edition, pp. 84-85, 307-310

33
In 4Q405, frg. 19, 2-7 the cherubim are called “figures of godlike beings” as translated in, Rachel Elior, The
Three Temples, p.67,fn.36 see also Moshe Idel: Kabbalah: New Perspective, p. 134: describing them as one having a
“great face” and “little face”; Exodus 25:20-22; Num.7:89

34
Lapinkivi , The Sumerian Sacred Marriage, In the Light of Comparative Evidence, pp.69-72; Frymer-Kensky, In
the Wake of the Goddesses, (FreePress, 1992) p.76; Stephanie Budin, The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity
(Cambridge, 2010) pp.17-24; Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (Univ.Chicago) pp.330-332; Pongratz-Leisten,
“Sacred Marriage” in Nissinen and Uro, ed., Sacred Marriages, (Eisenbrauns, 2008) p.50

7
pilgrimage to the temple. Later accounts describe them embracing like a husband and wife,

according to Rabbi Kattina:

“Whenever Israel came up to the Festival, the curtain would be removed for
them and the Cherubim were shown to them, whose bodies intertwisted with one
another, and they would be thus addressed: Look! You are beloved before God
as the love between man and woman" (Yoma 54a). Babylonian Talmud (TB) 36

In the Zohar III, referring to this experience of seeing a male and female Cherubim in the temple,

“R. Isaac said: From this we learn that where there is no union of male and
female, men are not worthy to behold the divine presence.” (Ahare Moth 59a) 37

William Dever (biblical archaeologist), describes in one of the burial tombs that have been

excavated in Jerusalem dating from the eighth to seventh centuries B.C.,38 women in ancient Israel

were laid for burial with a head rest that had the carvings reminiscent of Asherah’s wig,39 showing

a hope to be resurrected in Her likeness.

35
Nissinen and Uro, ed., Sacred Marriages, (Eisenbrauns, 2008) p.23; Julian Morgenstern, “The Ark, the Ephod,
and the Tent of Meeting”, Hebrew Union College Annual, XVII (1942) pp.246-247 fn.159; Frayne,“Notes on the
Sacred Marriage Rite” Bibliotheca Orientalist 42 (1985) p.22

Rabbi Leo Jung, trans., Seder Mo’ed Yoma 54a, vol.3:255, in I. Epstein, ed., The Babylonian Talmud (TB) 18 vol.
36

Soncino; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol.3: 159; Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd edition, pp. 84,
308 fn.57 also, 67-68, 84-85; Patai, Man and Temple, p. 92, 88-93; April DeConick, “True Mysteries”, Vigiliae
Christianae., 55, No.3, p. 254; E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum that Shines, p.101; Eugene Seaich, A Great
Mystery the Secret of the Jerusalem Temple, pp. 13-16; Zohar Vol. 5:41, (Zohar III Ahare Moth 59a) ; Rachel Elior,
The Three Temples, pp.67 (66-69); 1Kgs.7:36; Exodus 25:20-22; Num.7:89
37
Sperling and Simon, trans., Zohar Vol. 5:41, (Zohar III Ahare Moth 59a-b) “R.Jose said: equity…indicates that
the Cherubim were male and female.”; Moshe Idel, “Sexual Metapors and Praxis in the Kabbalah”, in The Jewish
Family Metaphor and Memory, Edited by David Kraemer, p 204 fn.37.

38
In the grounds of the Dominican Ecole Bibique et Archeologique Francaise, a headrests was found in a burial
cave complex at St. Etienne, Cave Complex 2: in Barkay and Kloner, “Jerusalem Tombs from the Days of the First
Temple” Biblical Archaeology Review, 12:02 Mar/Apr 1986, p.36

39
William Dever: “Folk Religion in Early Israel: Did Yahweh have a Consort”, in Aspects of Monotheism, edited by
Shanks and Meinhardt. p.36; John Day,“Asherah in the Hebrew Bible”, p.389 : Asherah known as Athirat and
Qudsu in the Ugaritic texts, Qudsu is also an Egypt goddess on Egyptian reliefs wearing a Hathor wig (James B.
Pritchard, ANEP, p.163, pls.470-74); Frank Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, Harvard Press p.33

8
The early Christians had something similar to Israel’s sacred marriage ritual. 40 Shekhinah is

replaced by Mary,41 the mother of Jesus, while still retaining wisdom as her symbol 42. The new

story line replaces the yearly fertility festival of Israel, and its sacred marriage rite with the

conception of the Savior into the world seen by John in the Book of Revelation 12:1-5:

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun
and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she
being with child cried, travailing in birth…And she brought forth a man child,
who was to rule all nations...and her child was caught up unto God, and to his
throne.” 43
Gilles Quispel gives this early description:

“According to him (Philo), Wisdom received the seed of God when she had union
with him. This should be compared with a passage in the Hermetic Prayer of
thanksgiving, already known in Greek from the Louvre Papyrus 2391 and from the
Latin Asclepius, but now better preserved in a Coptic version (Nag Hammadi
Codex VI, 63, 33 ff.). According to it, the divine Mother is a uterus conceiving
through the phallus of the Father. The imagery is so crude that it was passed over

40
Rachel Elior, trans by David Louvish, The Three Temples, Littman, (2004) pp. 157-159; S.H. Hooke, believes it
was later spiritualized by Judaism into the marriage of Israel to God. “Myth and Ritual”, Oxford University Press,
London, p.85; Hooke,“The Origins of Early Semitic Ritual”, p.54;Stiphane Beaulieu, Eve’s Ritural: the Judahite
Sacred Marriage Rite, (Thesis in Department of Religion, Concordia Univ. 2007) pp.89-155
https://www.academia.edu/32203467/ ; Weinfeld ,“Feminine Features in the Imagery of God in Israel: The Sacred
Marriage and the Sacred Tree”, Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 46 Fasc. 4 (Oct. 1996), pp.515-529;
41
Eugene Seaich, A Great Mystery the Secret of the Jerusalem Temple, (Gorgias Press, 2008), pp.353-359; Marvin
Pope, Song of Songs, (Doubleday 1977) pp.185-189; Nissinen and Uro, ed., Sacred Marriages, (Eisenbrauns, 2008)
pp.388-389; Arthur Green, “Shekhinah, the Virgin Mary, and the Song of Songs”, Association for Jewish Studies
Review 26/1(Apr.2002) pp.27,32,42,47,51 https://www.academia.edu/35959305/ ; Serafim Seppala,“The Place of
Virgin Mary in the Ontology of Mystical Experience” p.139 https://www.academia.edu/40675477/
42
Margaret Barker “Wisdom Imagery and the Mother of God” in The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium, ed.,
Brubaker and Cunningham: also in Barker: http://www.margaretbarker.com/Papers/USU_Barker.pdf
43
Peter Schafer, Mirror Of His Beauty, (Princeton Univ. Press, 2002) pp.149-150 (pages 50-59 in link reference
https://www.academia.edu/36987872/ ); Margaret Barker, “The Mother in Heaven and Her Children” ( FairMormon
Conference 2015) https://www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2015/the-mother-in-heaven-and-her-children
Peterson, “Nephi and His Asherah” (see 1 Nephi ch.11 in the Book of Mormon)
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol9/iss2/4/ ;Margaret Barker, The Great High Priest, (T&T Clark) p.150
http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/books/liturgy.pdf

9
 in silence up till now. But what seemed to be a clumsy and innocent allegory of an
absent-minded philosopher turns out to be the survival of a shocking mythological
symbol.”44

Quispel tributes the story’s origin to the Gospel of Philip (part of the Nag Hammadi Library),

however the story seems to start in the Gospel of Bartholomew, where we read about the

apostle’s interest in how Christ was conceived. There we find the apostles getting ready to go

through the mysteries (temple rites/prayer circle), and to be joined by Mary the mother of the

Savior. Bartholomew wants Peter to ask Mary how Christ was conceived and after a brief

discussion, Bartholomew approaches her with the question, only to be told it’s too sacred to

discuss: “fire would come forth from my mouth” was her response. Later, after Mary finishes

leading the group in prayer, she decides to tell them what they want to know: “While working in

the temple one day,” she says, “the veil of the temple was rent.” The veil is a curtain that separates

the holy of holies from the rest of the temple that represents heaven and the presence of god.

The reference to the veil being rent would mean in this case that it was torn, causing a

transformation of the Holy of Holies in the earthly temple into a celestial one. There Mary is

received by an angel who lifts her up and takes her through the celestial portal into God’s

presence. Next she is washed and anointed then given the sacrament (bread and wine). At

this point the Savior appeared and stopped Mary from saying anything more.45

Later in the Gospel of Philip, referring to the conception of the savior, we find the
rest of the story: “Is it permitted to utter a mystery? The father of everything united
with the virgin who came down and a fire shone for him on that day. He appeared in

44
Gilles Quispel: “Ezekiel 1:26 in Jewish Mysticism and Gnosis Author(s)”: Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 34, No. 1
(Mar., 1980), p.5

45
Hennecke and Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, vol.1:494 (492-494).

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 the great bridal chamber. Therefore his body came into being from the bridegroom
and the bride. Jesus established everything in it through these”46

The bridal chamber referred to here is the temple’s holy of holies. 47 April DeConick points out:

“The analogy between the inner sanctum of the Temple with the bed of Yahweh may be very early

since already in Ezekiel's visions the association has been made between the Holy of Holies and

the womb of Yahweh's wife.”48 Arthur Nock describes one ritual that reenacted the birth of Aion

who is Christ. In the account, Mary the mother of Jesus gives birth to Aion the Savior of the world,

differing from Israel’s heavenly mother giving birth to the host of heaven and the beginning of

mankind, with both stories needing to be preserved in a temple reenactment.

“In Alexandria Aion appears as the personal object of worship. Epiphanius (Panarion,
LI 22) describes an annual festival in that city on the night of January 5-6 in the Koreion,
a very great temple. There was an all night vigil, with songs and flute music; then after
cockcrow torchbearers entered a subterranean cavern and brought up a wooden image
lying naked in a bier, with the seal of a cross on its forehead, two more on its hands, two
more on its knees. This was carried seven times round the center of the holy of holies,
with flutes and timbrels and hymns. There was a revel, and it was taken back to the
cavern. The meaning assigned to this by the worshippers, says Epiphanius, was that on
this very day the maiden (Kore), that is the virgin, has given birth to Aion; This may be a
liturgical cry, and the emphatic sounds like one, but and this is generally overlooked -

46
Gospel of Philip 71:1-15: in Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, (San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1977),
p. 143
47
Gospel of Philip 69:14-29 in Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library,(San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1977),
p.142; Raphael Patai, Man and Temple in Ancient Jewish Myth and Ritual, (Ktav 1967) p.226

48
April D. DeConick: “The True Mysteries: Sacramentalism in the Gospel of Philip", Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 55,
No. 3 (2001) p. 246

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 Epiphanius quotes it as an explanation, like the explanation which Hippolytus gives of
the Eleusinian cry,” 49

In conclusion, there is a fine line between the one God of monotheism that still must deal with

Gen.1:27: “So God created man is his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and

female created he them.” and the paradox it creates when considering their celestial counterparts

separately. It is at this point the Jewish and Christian concept of a husband and wife becoming

“no more two but one” (Matthew 19:6) must play into any understanding we have of a Father

and Mother in heaven. The sacred marriage ritual presented in their temples is where we find the

best understanding of their role in our creation and the examples we were meant to follow.

“Every true marriage is a symbolical realization of the union of God and the Shekhinah”

Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, (Schocken 1961) p.235

Online links to articles:

Mother in Heaven by LDS Church https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-

topics-essays/mother-in-heaven?lang=eng
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/mother-in-
heaven?lang=eng

The Mormon concept of a Mother in Heaven by Wilcox

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/115-6-78-87.pdf

Nephi and His Asherah https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol9/iss2/4/

Arthur Darby Nock: “A Vision of Mandulis Aion” The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 27, No.1 (Jan., 1934),
49

pp.90-91

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A Reassessment of Asherah by Wiggins
https://www.academia.edu/1307031/A_Reassessment_of_Asherah_With_Further_Consideration
s_of_the_Goddess

What Became of God the Mother? Conflicting Images of God in Early Christianity by Pagels
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/493357

The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth by MacRae

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1560039?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Loleta B. Collins, “Asherah as Tree Worship in Ancient Israel”

https://www.academia.edu/9881497/Asherah_as_Tree_Worship_in_Ancient_Israel

Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah by Freedman

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3210051?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature by Day

https://www.andrews.edu/weblmsc/moodle/public/courses/relb274/lesson02/lesson02supp02.pdf

Mother in Heaven and Her Children: by Barker

https://www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2015/the-mother-in-heaven-and-her-children

Joan Taylor, The Asherah the Menorah and the Sacred Tree: https://www.academia.edu/243240/

Loren Spendlove, “The Queen of Heaven”

https://www.academia.edu/39223668/The_Queen_of_Heaven

April D. DeConick: “The True Mysteries: Sacramentalism in the Gospel of Philip", Vigiliae
Christianae, Vol. 55, No. 3 (2001) pp. 246
https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/72208/TrueMysteries.pdf?sequence=6&isAllo
wed=y

Asherah and God of the Early Israelites by Stuckey

https://www.academia.edu/22703843/Asherah_and_the_God_of_the_Early_Israelites

Wisdom of Solomon: https://ebible.org/pdf/eng-web/eng-web_WIS.pdf

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Sirach: https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/apo/sir.htm

Ye are Gods Psalm 82 http://www.ldsscriptureteachings.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Ye-

Are-Gods-Ps-82-and-John-10-as-witnesses-to-the-Divine-Nature-of-Humankind-Peterson.pdf

Eve’s Ritural: the Judahite Sacred Marriage Rite by Beaulieu, pp.40-111

https://www.academia.edu/32203467/Eves_Ritual_the_Judahite_Sacred_Marriage_Rite

Expressions of Sacred Space by Palmer p.91 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43171057.pdf

Notes on the Sacred Marriage Rite by Frayne p.8

https://www.scribd.com/document/57694267/Frayne-Notes-on-the-Sacred-Marriage-Rite-BiOr-
42-1985-6-21

The Gnostic Gospel by Pagels

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52cdf95ae4b0c18dd2d0316a/t/53e074cee4b0ea4fa48a5704
/1407218894673/

Agie Polgar Oser, Did YHWH have a female consort?

https://www.academia.edu/6911868/Did_YHWH_have_a_female_consort_Assess_the_evidence
_from_Kuntillet_Ajr%C3%BBd

Angela Costello, “The Cult of the Virgin Mary in 6 th Century

Byzantium”https://www.academia.edu/29420506/The_Cult_of_the_Virgin_Mary_in_6th_Centur
y_Byzantium

Mary Naples, “In Search of Asherah, The Lost Hebrew

Goddess”https://www.academia.edu/4520233/In_Search_of_Asherah_The_Lost_Hebrew_Godde
ss
Arthur Green, “Shekhinah, the Virgin Mary, and the Song of Songs”, Association for Jewish
Studies Review 26/1(Apr.2002) pp.1-52
https://www.academia.edu/35959305/Arthur_Green_Shekhinah_the_Virgin_Mary_and_the_Son
g_of_Songs_Reflections_on_a_Kabbalistic_Symbol_in_Its_Christian_Context_AJS_Review_26
_1_April_2002_1-52
Serafim Seppala, “The Place of Virgin Mary in the Ontology of Mystical Experience” p.139
https://www.academia.edu/40675477/The_Place_of_Virgin_May_in_the_Ontology_of_Mystical
_Experience

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Margaret Barker, “The Images of Mary in the Litany of Loreto”
http://www.margaretbarker.com/Papers/USU_Barker.pdf

Blessing of Goddess https://www.academia.edu/5617906/

Smoak and Schniedewind “Religion at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud
https://www.academia.edu/38584179/Religion_at_Kuntillet_Ajrud

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