Long ago in a land called Canaan the people there worshipped EL, God Most High, and His wife, Asherah, the Great Mother and Lady of the Sea. On earth they were said to have lived where two rivers met on the coastlands. They were happy on earth and the land EL had fashioned and Asherah had nurtured. They had many children who squabbled amongst themselves competing for EL and Asherah’s attention and benevolence.
These children behaved themselves for the most part but these were also ancient times and the law of the jungle and desert was still fresh in everyone’s mind. That is everyone but Mom and Dad, or Asherah and EL who being the highest representatives of the invisible Holy One, knew better ways of dealing with the problems of life in Creation.
EL had watched how His wild and domesticated animals behaved in their herds, flocks and packs and noticed most human beings followed much the same patterns only human beings clothed their animal behavior patterns so it seemed at first something different. But it wasn’t different at all. EL watched male wolves battle for control of the pack and saw the same thing in the way aggressive human males conducted politics and war.
EL watched but didn’t judge because that was what animal life was like without knowledge of good and evil. Tooth and claw and no mercy from the strong for the weak or meek. EL wisely understood that this animal way could not continue with humanity that He had created with Asherah of the waters for He and She wanted human beings to evolve to become one with them on earth as it is in heaven where They came from.
EL decided to educate humanity on how to overcome their animal natures so that peace and not violence ruled in human society. He told them through the mouths of seers and prophets, "Here is what pleases US. This physical world We have fashioned for the education of your souls has a fatal flaw. Physical life is dependent on death to carry on. No new life is created without the death of life somewhere else. The physical requirements for maintaining the living require the death of other living beings.
Given the true situation that death and suffering are inevitable in Creation, what can be done? EL responded and set in motion a set of guidelines for reducing unnecessary violence in the physical world. Later on He offered humanity what only a God can offer: eternal life after physical death, eternal life in heaven where the Holy One has Its spiritual and everlasting home.
EL began the spiritual education of His children in Canaan. He showed them that in order for there to be peace in the land society must be governed by the wise and compassionate just as He ruled the Divine Assembly of gods and goddesses with wisdom and compassion. An earthly king would become His son in spirit when that earthly king mirrored EL’s mercy and forgiveness and taught his subjects the truth about all things that effected human relationships with one another and with the community of life on earth.
Because EL was God Most High yet did not act like a tyrant like gods did who lacked compassion and wisdom, the Canaanites loved EL, calling Him the Compassionate One, the Merciful One, the Kindly One as well as the Father of Humanity. And the Canaanites loved His wife, Asherah, just as much devoting much prayer at shrines dedicated to Her worship. To them She was the Tree of Life on which all life was dependent.
She too held wisdom and when the time came that the memory of EL and Asherah were to be lost for many centuries after the fall of Canaan to the Hebrews, both EL and Asherah disguised Themselves and found a way into the new Hebrew religion with its own desert war god, Yahweh. EL became the generic word for "God" and some, not all, but some of EL’s compassion and wisdom was attached to Yahweh who originally was only one of the lower gods and spiritual sons of EL.
Having some of EL’s spiritual wisdom in him, Yahweh grew conceited and thought himself as the Creator and one and only God. Yahweh taught the Hebrews to bury the Canaanite memory of EL but that memory was too strong to forget and it resurfaced in the Hebrew religion as the Messianic prophesy of Immanuel, which means "EL is with us".
Asherah was attacked as a Goddess and so She went into Her Canaanite icon disguise as the Tree of Life in the Hebrew religious epic. Perhaps as a tree the Hebrews would not recognize the Great Goddess. And they didn’t, passing the Tree of Life story through the whole Hebrew epic which became part of the later Christian epic as well.
While the Hebrews would not allow Her presence as the Great Goddess they did not notice Her presence in two spiritual daughters, the Shekkinah and Sophia, both carriers of the wisdom of Asherah to the minds of human beings who listened with their hearts.
A dramatic change happened 2000 years ago when a man named Jesus was born to become a new son of EL, a son so spiritually close to EL he became known as the Son of God. Jesus resurrected the wisdom and compassion of EL buried for centuries under the worship of Yahweh. This was the fulfillment of the prophesy of the Messiah as Immanuel, that EL would return to humanity to give it the spiritual comfort of knowing "EL is with us" as the Messiah, the anointed one who carries the Spirit of Christ which continued the kindness and wisdom of EL instead of the heavy judgment and demand for absolute obedience that the war-god Yahweh could not rise above.
EL was always known as God Most High and for good reason. Only EL knew love is not love if it demands conditions. EL learned this wisdom by being married to the Great Mother for it is the unconditional love mothers have always been known for. Jesus as the good Son of God also gave the world this spiritual message of unconditional love the Holy One’s highest spiritual representatives, EL and Asherah, had shown the world in ancient Canaan.
Humanity, however, at that time, 2000 years ago, was still too immature to accept this Son of God, Jesus as he himself taught the things his heavenly Father taught him. The Hebrews had him killed for claiming himself a son of God even though their own scriptures foretold this would happen. Jesus taught us to follow him ourselves to likewise becoming faithful sons and daughters of the Holy One but the Hebrews and their masters, the Romans did not want to hear it.
Jesus was killed and later on lesser men intervened and changed the message of Jesus from EL, changed that message of compassion, wisdom and forgiveness, into a message from Yahweh, love only those who love Yahweh instead of loving all, even those who do not love you in return.
Yahweh had never learned about unconditional love because he was never married to the Great Mother, the representative of the unconditional love of the Holy One for all humanity. EL taught Jesus to respect the wisdom of women, something the followers of Yahweh could not comprehend until history of societies proved the wisdom was true: it is women who hold the keys to peace for the vast majority of violence done by human beings is done by men.
But this knowledge was not known and even when known was not accepted. EL and Asherah still had to hide Themselves because the people could not accept them as They were--the spiritual models of humanity in the fullest sense of that word while the people were still in bondage to their animal behavioral patterns where the strong and ruthless ruled as lords over the weak. Even now, 2000 years later the Meek still await the time when they will inherit the earth from the grasp of violent men.
But how did EL and Asherah disguise Themselves so well that They are with us today and have been for several hundred years? This is how: EL was imagined in ancient Canaan as an old man with long flowing hair and beard. EL dressed Himself up in the colors of Asherah, white, red and black which symbolized His connection to Her in Her three forms as virgin, mother and crone symbolizing birth, life and death. EL became the embodiment of the giving Spirit of Christ and eternal life with the Holy One, the greatest gift humankind could possibly receive. EL, the Kindly One, disguised Himself as kindly Santa Claus and the Spirit of Christmas cheer.
Asherah, still in Her disguise as the Tree of Life became the nine-candlestick menorah of the Jews, nine commemorating the nine months of gestation. You will find Her in millions of Jewish homes again celebrating Passover. For the Christians, Asherah as the the Tree of Life, became the Paradise Tree celebrating the birth of Jesus who manifested his spiritual Parent’s wisdom and loving-kindness in little Nativity scenes in tens of millions of homes beneath Asherahs we call Christmas trees.
Noël, Noël. Know EL, the Heavenly Father and you might want to become one of His helping "elves"". Remember Asherah, the Tree of Life with Her baby Jesus tucked safely underneath Her fir branch skirt. The Holy One doesn’t want us to forget our heavenly parents.
Next, the story of how Asherah’s daughter, Astarte or Ishtar, also managed to come all the way through from ancient Canaan to modern times by concealing Her worship within the Christian Easter celebration of Jesus’ spiritual resurrection from the dead.*
* See the Ishtar & Easter page.
EL, the White Bull of Heaven in Old World symbolism, becomes known as Wakan Tanka, the White Buffalo of the New World. EL was with the paleo-indians who came from Siberia as raindeer people over the connecting land bridge to North America, there to become caribou people in the north and farther south, buffalo people of the North American plains.
Through the spiritual connection of the Vision of Christ Josephine with the Lakota prophesy of the Return of White Buffalo Calf Woman, the Spirit of EL a.k.a. Grandfather a.k.a. Wakan Tanka, has completed the Sacred Hoop, the Sacred Circle, uniting the Old World with the New World for the New Millennium.**
** See the Vision of Christ Josephine chapter.
AP News Update 12/23/02
In a room crowded with reporters Odin the God publicly announced his filing suit against EL for claiming to be the inspiration behind Santa Claus. Odin bases his case on two main points: 1) the resemblance he shows to Saint Nicholas, long beard and hair and all, but that argument applies also to EL's appearance and even Father Time alias the Ancient of Days and the Grime Reaper. But then Odin brought out his winning card he said smiling a huge grimace to the press: his flying eight-legged horse which he says "obviously inspired the flying eight reindeers that pulled Santa through the air.
The logic of his argument would have had more impact, however, if he hadn't pulled out the spear he always carried and hurled it at a woman in the audience who claimed the poetry he sent her was derivative. Luckily Odin missed in his rage and was then seized by police and hauled off to jail. The turbulent scene would have quieted down after Odin's arrest except another woman identifying herself as Mrs. Santa Claus said she was filing divorce papers against Santa for two-timing her with Asherah..some people were heard muttering about the soap operas these gods get into..
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