Monday, June 23, 2008

Goddess Judaism and Jewitchery



I'm really rather interested in Goddess Judaism and Jewitchery - not that I'm Jewish, I'm not, but I am interested in ancient Israelite religion, Near Eastern goddesses, that sort of thing. One interesting goddess is the Biblical Asherah - when she's not simply being a wooden pole ('asherah') that must be smashed of course! Check the Hebrew Bible for more on that if you're confused. Anyway, some of the sites I think are interesting are Peel-a-Pom, which is a blog, Shuv Tamid, an online temple of Asherah, Mishkan Shekhinah, a goddess temple, Kohenet, the Hebrew Priestess Institute, Tel Shemesh, an Earth-based Judaism page, The Lilith Institute, the Women in Judaism journal, and of course The Lilith Shrine (for uppity Jewish [and Gentile] women). If I *was* Jewish, I'd be doing Goddess Judaism for sure! Hey, while you're at it, also check out PaleoJudaica.

5 comments:

Ketzirah (Carly) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ketzirah (Carly) said...

Thanks for the shout-out Caroline! You should also add www.shuvtamid.org to your list! That's D'vorah K'lilah, one of my Kohenet sisters' site. She is highly focused on near eastern goddesses. I think her work is incredibly innovative.

p.s. I hit delete by mistake. That was really stupid.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. You haven't met Trista from my f-list on facebook have you? You'd likely love having a nice, deep, detailed discussion with her. I do.
Oh as I recall Asherim were measuring rods, but the use of them as representatives suggests that Ashera/Astarte would have been seen as the embodiment of the World Tree, much as in the identifications of the stang in TIW.

Medusa said...

Thanks for all the links, Caroline.

Trystn: "Asherim" as measuring rods was one theory, but more and more mainstream anthropologists and archeologists are confirming that Asherah was a Goddess honored by the ancient Hebrews. You (and others) may be interested in one of the more recent books, by archeologist William G. Dever: Did God Have a Wife: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. I reviewed in on medusacoils.blogspot.com

D'vora K'lilah said...

thanks for the mention, Caroline!