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Quote by Deanna Marie Riddick PhD

“Given that Asherah (Athirat) was an ancient goddess, widely worshipped, and at times, officially sanctioned, how did she disappear entirely into the sands of time? How did the wife of Yahweh disappear? Even a cursory review of the Old Testament reveals how Asherah was perceived as a monster, an abominable figure whose worship would later become prohibited. She was consciously eradicated from worship by religious authority figures. Excerpt from “Goddess Asherah, Queen of Heaven, Creatress of Gods” - Featured in Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree.”

Quote by Deanna Marie Riddick PhD

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Deanna Marie Riddick PhD

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“I see no reason why church services have to be standard. I've discussed this with the man who used to be a pastor here at the Methodist Church in Sebastopol. I told him I saw no reason why, on a certain Sunday morning, if a minister has felt during the week the burden of a topic upon his heart and he knows that it is going to take more than the standard twenty minutes to discuss this thing, why he can't rise at the beginning of the service and say 'I have something of special importance this morning so let's sing just one song, and if you'll forgive me, I think I'm going to need about an hour to explain it to you.' I think the congregation would appreciate his candor and give him their attention. If, on the other hand, he does not feel that a definite message has been given him, why not admit it from the pulpit and say, 'This morning, I'm not going to try to make up something to fill the time. We'll sing a few extra hymns and go home!' Why do the services have to begin and end at the same time, and why does everything have to be so rigid?”

Religion Church

Book:Charles M. Schulz: Conversations

Source: Charles M. Schulz: Conversations

“The suppression of Asherah as a powerful supreme deity compels us to question prevailing narratives of the divine. In the modern world the divine consists of a male dominated perspective, that being God the father, with the maternal aspect being deliberately erased. Modern religion often leads us to believe that creation is a solitary endeavor, despite the reality that it is a result of the union between male and female. In contemporary society, the divine feminine remains largely unrecognized, yet women are working to make the divine more inclusive by reintroducing goddesses like Asherah and reclaiming their ancestral power. By unearthing Asherah’s history, we have the opportunity to restore her rightful place amongst the powerful goddesses of the past. excerpt from “Goddess Asherah, Queen of Heaven, Creatress of Gods” - Featured in Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree.”

Author:Deanna Marie Riddick PhD

“Asherah’s roots are an ancient patient potency with their own uncompromisable Source. Her patience guarantees her potency. We are her walking trees.” -Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree”

Author:Trinity Thomas

“You know of a girl and her apple,” The old woman's voice is steady, cutting through the noise. A patient presence that ensnares even the attention of the trees, their branches and thinning leaves stilling as the tongues below them do, too. “Or some version of it. You know of the snake, wise and guiding. The 'me too' and 'I know the way because I've walked the path' in its hiss and slither. But you do not know the tree itself.” And her story begins. You do not know the tree itself, but once you did. Once, all did. Every house had an altar and there the pillar sat. But, by the time the books were written, they found her impossible to erase, so they took her name and called her nothing but an object. It is no accident that the fruit and the snake found home in a tree. Just as it is no accident that the tree becomes a stationary fixture. But, surely, it, too was just as breathing, just as alive. As the old woman in red speaks, the children's very imaginations dance wildly around her blaze, some primal knowing stirring deep within. They meant to bury her, but like most of the stories they tried to eliminate through the permanence of ink and binding of pages, they hadn't realized she became a seed. A dew drop on all of our own spiderwebs, if we care to listen. The more you listen, the more you hear. You see. You feel. And the more you come to know… -Excerpt from “Her True Name: A Story from the Grandmother Tree” – featured in Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree.”

Author:Ellie Lieberman

“I call on your many names! Inanna! Asherah! Ishtar! Astarte! Isis! Aphrodite! Great lady of the stars, sea and soil!! From the Kopet Mountains to the Caspian Sea, From my heart to the vault of the skies, I am devoted to you in all languages and in all hearts, And in all your names. in all the rain soaked earth and in all the stars. Asherah I cherish you, My unbridled Queen of queens, I bow to you, I am bound to you, Oh Sacred heart, Great goddess of love and hate, Of life and death, of passion and peace, Of all the holy contradictions, maiden of the ascension and descension, of the looping serpent’s Ouroboros, Guide me through my darkness, So I may see the light. So that I may rise from the fall, With the wings of the dawn, of your everlasting Arammu Of your all-embracing Ahavah! Excerpt from “Asherah: High Queen of Queens” - Featured in Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree.”

Author:Katie Ness

“Unnamed She: I sustain all who seek out my shade and feed all who gather my dates. I am the Life-Giving Tree! An icon, crafted from hands that praised me long ago. Place me in your sacred spaces. I am the Pillar Trace my triangle of life I am the Life-Giving Tree Asherah: I am the Word and in the beginning was my lullaby. My song soothed the crying babe of Creation. I am the Life-Sustaining Tree. All are welcome in my shade. All can be fed from the fruit of my branches. All can be soothed from the breeze rushing through my leaves. I am the beginning I am the creatrix I am the eternal Tree of Life Featured in Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree.”

Author:Hayley Arrington

“For she was not uprooted, she did not disappear. Her worship continues, in other forms and names. Images of a life-giving Goddess identified with trees, poles, and pillars are found everywhere in women's folk art and ceremonial customs throughout North Africa and the Near East. The Tree of Life remains a central symbol in textile motifs, jewellery designs, and seasonal ceremonies.”

Book:Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree

Source: Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree

“According to Miriam Robbins Dexter, another possible Semitic root of Asherah is the Hebrew ʾāšar, 'to tread, to go straight on.' In the footsteps of the women, in their procession from water source to threshing ground under gentle raindrops from the sky, carrying their wooden pole dressed as a divine female figure to whom they pray for rain, I see how Asherah too, treads on. Even if hidden from view, her worship was not eradicated after all. It simply went underground, like streams of precious water. This water is there, for those with eyes to see. And it flows straight on.”

Book:Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree

Source: Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree

“My name is so depthful, the casual observer only sees my surface. I invite you to dive into my essence, to explore my beauty and to share my visions. I am the tree, the grove, the coolness of the mist-filled orchard. Like tree-rings, I am multi-layered. Like leaves which rustle in the wind, I whisper in harmony with the energies of the land. I am bones, trunk, spinal column, sap, blood. We are the same, you and I. Play with me in the forests, in the loamy soil of the earth, in the salt-filled vessel of the oceans, in the rapids of fresh waters, in the root systems that connect us all. I fly and remain rooted. I reach out and stay centered. Singing is the workforce of my Goddesshood. My melodies lay out vibrational pathways for life’s journeys. My song-fueled undulations dance along with the tidal currents of the air. Time moves, landscapes change, the song remains. . .and holds within, the ancestral memories and collected wisdoms of the Great Mystery. I am the Great Goddess who birthed you. I am the egg, the seed, the sacred cauldron of life. The Song behind the song! Let me hold you, bathe you in my vibration, sing love songs. I will guide you to all the treasures I embody.”

Book:Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree

Source: Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree

“In my training as a psychologist and sex therapist, I have spent years helping others reclaim their bodies from the grip of trauma, repression, and disconnection. I have seen firsthand the ways in which the body becomes a battleground, the ways we learn to leave ourselves in order to just survive… to get by with the bare minimum. But I have also witnessed the profound healing that comes when we return—not just to sensation, but to reverence. When I move, when I breathe with awareness, when I touch my own skin with kindness, I am not merely engaging in self-care. I am performing a ritual of reclamation. I am standing at the base of the Mother Tree, placing my hands against her bark, feeling the pulse of something ancient move through me. This is what I invite those I work with into—not just healing, but remembering.” -Dr. Denise Renye, excerpt from “The Embodied Goddess: Healing, Sensuality, and the Legacy of Asherah” - featured in our upcoming anthology, Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree.”

Author:Denise Renye