Shall we conclude the history lesson and get down to theurgic practice? Specifically referencing Asherah, as only bits and pieces of her wisdom are preserved in the original Judaic form, you would need to adopt them from another cultures that also venerated her, and theurgy doesn’t require sticking strictly to cannon either. Christian Gnosticism mostly never spurned Ashera, so you can learn about her in their stories of Sophia. Sophia even goes so far as to call Yahweh a liar, even giving him the name Samael, Lord of the Blind.
According to Gnostic doctrine in general, to know yourself is to know God. So veneration of Asherah would be seeking the divine feminine in personal experience and as expressed in the personality of women. As well as embracing the legitimacy of intuition, it means you would have to embrace the mystery of women. To be embraced by her, and that by doing so you would come to know her in time.
Get in touch with your feminine side basically? Yes. Even the seemingly insane behaviours were considered legitimate so a really effeminate male might be in touch with Asherah.
Following the path of Asherah would not mean hating men. Women being attracted to men reflects Asherah’s pleasure in men and feelings about men. If we modernize it a bit, it can be said that we all start out as children of Asherah as all of us are female in utero at least in the early stages of development. So perhaps it’s not unfair to give Asherah the name and title of Sophia after all. Her wisdom and intuition are perhaps available to all of us if we open to it.
Back to practice. I got off on a philosophical tangent there. It’s easy to do with theurgy. There is a caveat as far as practice goes. You can only embrace the full path of a divinity you can literally imitate, because theurgy parallels imitative magic. You can respect other theurgic practices as a whole, but still have to have one that you yourself could follow.
Asteroth was the male version but that was just a lie? Actually, most theurgic cosmologies have a dual aspect. Each divinity having a counterpart of the other gender, like Kali and Shiva.
So I wouldn’t have to be a tyrant to follow Asherah? No you wouldn’t, and to respect Asherah you would just have to avoid beliefs or practices that inhibit women on her path.
Good, because I don’t look good in a dress. In the original culture both genders wore a dress. It was called a robe, but differed in exact style.
So farmers would worship Asherah? Indeed they would, and they would ask her to bless their livestock so that they would multiply. Where theurgy would come in is they would seek ritual guidance from a priestess. Rituals were not confined to temples and were believed to have real world impact. In some schools of theurgy like Zoroastrianism, they even believed that the observation and preservation of these rituals was necessary for preserving the world itself. It’s where we get a lot of the end times prophecy. It’s based on what they believed would happen when people forgot the work of the Gods. The same with the Norse Ragnarok, though less totally dependant on humans in their belief.
What is the significance of the first woman being made by a Goddess and the second being made by a God? Well, it is their lore. As far as practice goes I would advise trusting your instincts. Though I wouldn’t totally discount it either as it does seem to illustrate an aspect of feminine nature.
The daughters of Eve are more submissive? In theory, they are.
Are there daughters of Lilith walking around? There are. They would be the devil in the red dress type of woman. The woman who seem possessed, even devouring. A sort of Kali like person.
Manipulative? Potentially, though actually aggressive. Manipulative-ness is a western belief about women. As you head east, you hear more stories of women being more aggressive, even fierce, evidenced by Goddesses such as Ereshkigal. Ereshkigal is a Sumerian goddess. She had both war and fertility for her aspects and was known to be rather bloodthirsty. Strangely, for all her ferocity, there is no known doctrine of genocide or empire associated with her, just fierce combat.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~