Shekinah: The Divine Feminine 

"Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." (Romans 1:25)

He pointed out this verse, Genesis 4:12, in the KJV."When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." 

Shekinah: the Deception 

Return to Goddess (aka Asherah) Worship

Does the True God of the Bible have a "feminine side" named "Shekinah?   Shekinah appears NOWHERE in the Bible!) …So, where does it come from?

The Shekinah is the manifestation of the Wisdom Goddess of the Kabbalah.  She encompasses the primordial light of creation, the wisdom of the serpent and the inspiration of the dove.  She's the beauty of the lily and the embodiment of the Tree of Life.   She is also the World Soul, the Heavenly Glory, the Mother of Angels, inspiration for prophecy, as well as being the Shabbat Bride and thewife of god.  

In The Cosmic Shekinah the authors present a concise history of the different influences of earlier wisdom goddesses on the development of the Shekinah. These goddesses include the Sumerian Inanna, the Egyptian Ma'at, the Graeco-Egyptian Isis, the Semitic Anat and Astarte and the Canaanite Asherah.  They show that from these ancient sources the unnamed Wisdom Goddess and wife of God portrayed in the Old Testament and early Jewish wisdom literature arose. It is this unnamed Wisdom Goddess who would subsequently become the source for the development of the Shekinah as well as the Gnostic Sophia. 

The influence of the feminine divine as the Shekinah has continued to find expression, with the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit of Christianity and the Sakina of Islam all being shaped by the enduring influence of the Wisdom Goddess.

"7dPerhaps, this crop could be used.7d7d"Considered the moon-goddess and a goddess of fertility, Asherah was often presented as a consort of Baal, the sun-god (Judges 3:7; 6:28; 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4; 12:10).""The Lord God, through Moses, forbade the worship of Asherah. The law specified that a grove of trees was not to be near the altar of the Lord (Deuteronomy 16:21). Despite God's clear instructions, Asherah-worship was a perennial problem in Israel. The wicked Queen Jezebel, a Phoenician, strongly promoted Asherah-worship, with 400 prophets of Asherah on the royal payroll in Israel (1 Kings 18:19). At times, Israel experienced revival, and notable crusades against Asherah-worship were led by Gideon (Judges 6:25 –30), King Asa (1 Kings 15:13), and King Josiah (2 Kings 23:1 –7)."7d7d"

Shekhina, meaning Sabbath, is the name for the Feast of the Full Moon, which once celebrated the menstruation of the Great Goddess. Originally honored once a month. Her holiness came to be observed once every quarter moon (once a week). The Friday evening that began Her honor was the night in which the man and woman of the home made love, recapitulating the union of the God and Goddess. The following day, Saturday, was devoted to the postcoital reverie of washed perceptions and the leisurely depth of feeling that should not be disturbed by mundane doings or materialism.  Patriarchal influence, however, lessened interest in the power of love between the male and female deities within and outside of humans. Consequently, the Sabbath became more an observance obsessed with the minutiae of the law, and the Shekhina, once Goddess of Babylon and then of the Jews, went underground."7d"

"The Shekinah is the image of the Divine Feminine or the feminine face of God as it was conceived in the mystical tradition of Judaism, originating perhaps in the rabbinic schools of Babylon and transmitted orally for a thousand years until it flowered in the writings of the Jewish Kabbalists of medieval Spain and southwestern France."7d"

In the Zohar, Shekhina is imbued with a cluster of meanings: sovereignty and rulership, Elohim (God), the people of Israel, the moon, the mouth and lips, the Oral Torah, Shabbat …And she is the Earth."7d

"The women were engaged in kneading dough and baking cakes of bread for the "Queen of Heaven" (Jeremiah 7:18). This title referred to Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian goddess also called Ashtoreth and Astarte by various other groups. She was thought to be the wife of the false god Baal, also known as Molech."7d"

The Zohar does not choose to say that the goddess Asherah is evil or false and that worshipping her is a theological mistake. Rather, it says that the theological mistake would be to assume that Asherah (the tree) is separate from Shekhinah (the altar), when in fact they are one. ""The Zohar seems to be saying that the object used to worship God (i.e. the altar) must be single rather than multiple, just as all the faces of the feminine and masculine Divine are ultimately unified....

The Zohar concludes with a brief moment of panentheism. The altar must be made of earth, the Torah says. The Zohar comments: the real altar (that is, the real Shekhinah) is made of earth. Therefore Genesis says: dust from the earth. 

Humans are made of the dust of the earth that is Shekhinah. Their physical substance as well as their spirit is made of Shekhinah-stuff. That's a mother-earth image if there ever was one.  "The Zohar believes that oneness underlies all things, even pagan goddesses. Yet the mystic of the time knows the Jews cannot recognize this. So, the Zohar says, in the world to come, we will be allowed to call the Shekhinah by Her name -Asherah. Then, She will be one and Her name will be one."7d"

Rather, the Torah wants to tell us that Asherah is a name for the Shekhinah, the feminine Divine presence, already at the altar."7d"The truth is that these terms actually originate in a holy place. Asher is indeed an appellation for Hashem, and Asherah was originally a term for the "feminine" manifestation of God in this world, ie. the Shekhinah! However, the idolaters adopted these terms and turned them into full-blown idols, associated with statues and trees, and tied to all kinds of immoral rituals."7dOne page and category could be Shekinah: A Return to Goddess (aka Asherah) Worship7d7d7d7d7d7d7d7d7d

"She is the Serpent …

The relationship between the Shekinah and the serpent is significant, particularly in light of the ambivalent nature of the symbolism associated with serpents in different cultures. Considering other wisdom goddesses, the serpent motif recurs with a number of them. For instance the Canaanite wisdom and mother goddess Asherah was known as the lady of the serpent (dāt batni). The serpent motif is of course a common one in many cultures, and it is the serpent that tempts Eve to gain wisdom in the Book of Genesis, a course of action sometimes equated with initiation into wisdom."7d"

On occasion in Ugaritic myth, Asherah performs the maternal role of wet nurse. Ugaritic and other Canaanite materials further associate Asherah with lions (indicating power), serpents (representing immortality or healing), and sacred trees (signifying fertility). Thus Asherah's children at Ugarit can be called her "pride of lions"; the goddess is called "lady of the serpent" in second-millennium B.C.E. inscriptions from the Sinai; the late-thirteenth-century B.C.E. Lachish ewer dedicated to Asherah is decorated with images of sacred trees."https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/asherahasherim-bible7d 

I'm getting confused. Maybe I can put the Counterfeit of God, the Masculine Father as the Divine Masculine and Feminine. Is that a good place to put the Shekinah? Is that the Divine Feminine? Then what is the Divine Masculine. I'm not sure where to fit it all in. Where does Shekinah the feminine goddess go?7dI 

think the Shekinah could have her own page. She is the return to nature worship, paganism, the Serpent's wisdom and influence, Goddess worship in the Bible, worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. Shekinah is a continuation of Asherah worship, which was a worship of the Serpent, motherhood, sacred trees, nature, fertility, and I think the counterfeit Tree of Life because she is a goddess of the sacred tree. I think the Divine Masculine is God, and it is only emphasized as way to say that his counterpart/wife/consort was suppressed. The God of their divine masculine though is not the Father God of the Bible.7d"The serpent was the symbol of the goddess Asherah in her role as Goddess of Fertility. Similarly, her symbol as the Goddess of Wisdom (the Greeks' Athena was modeled after her) was the Tree of Knowledge. 

In the thousand years from 1500 to 500 BCE, the Israelis worshiped Asherah as well as YHWH–despite the efforts of the YHWH priesthood and the prophets to stamp out her worship. The real meaning of the Adam and Eve and the apple story is to portray Asherah worship as the reason for the Fall of Man and exile from Paradise. Read Professor Ackerman's important book on the subject, "Under Every Green Tree," in which she analyses the Biblical and other writings (like clay tablets from contemporaneous sources), archeological evidence and historical evidence of Asherah worship in Israel."7d"Queen of heaven, breather of the first fire, the great Tree of Life, Asherah!" 

An emphasis on the ancient goddess Asherah's final syllable was a rallying cry, followed by "Woo!" from multiple attendees at the JeWitch Collective's 2016 Tu B'Shevat. Sitting underneath towering trees in Northern California, the group listened to Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's story on the Canaanite goddess, who was associated with sacred trees and, sometimes, the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge."7d

They want the wife/consort of God to return so that both can be worshipped, but in reality, they don't seek to worship God the Father but want to worship nature/Mother Earth. It is a return to paganism and this divine feminine/goddess worship seems to be a hallmark of every false religion around the world because the WISDOM of the divine feminine is the WISDOM of Satan.7dThrough this wisdom Satan is promising the gift of the Tree of Life/divinity/perfection/communion with God/peace/harmony/unity.7dThrough this wisdom Satan is promising the gift of the Tree of Life/divinity/perfection/communion with God/peace/harmony/unity/HEAVEN.7dBut, even Satan's Tree of Life (like his Tree of Knowledge) is a counterfeit.7d" Biblical scholars believe that our ancient ancestors thought of Asherah as the Mother of the Gods and represented fertility, motherhood, and rebirth. She was considered the wife/consort of Yahweh (or Baal, for Canaanites). 

The goddess was represented most commonly by Asherah poles—stylized trees or poles honoring her that were erected at Canaanite and Israelite religious sites, including the Temple Mount (2 Kings 23:13-14).""An inscription to Yahweh and "his Asherah" in Hebrew was found carved in an ancient tomb in the West Bank, near Hebron, then again on two large storage jars in a (possible) shrine in the Sinai Peninsula. "7d

"In Kabbalah and the Tree of Life "Shekinah" is a unity of opposites that is the cosmic consciousness of the divine.Shekinah is both inside ourselves and out there in the world.Shekinah is the driving force of all the manifestations in the universe creating all the Sephiroth,When Shekinah is awakened and made active she will guide us up the Tree of life, for unification of the masculine and feminine energies of creation itself."4hShekinah is a lot of things: "The Shekinah is the manifestation of the Wisdom Goddess of the Kabbalah, the Old Testament and Merkavah Mysticism. She encompasses the primordial light of creation, the wisdom of the serpent and the inspiration of the dove. She is the beauty of the lily and the embodiment of the Tree of Life. She is also the World Soul, heavenly glory, mother of angels, inspiration for prophecy, and source of souls, as well as being the Shabbat Bride and the wife of God."3h

Goddess worship (aka Mother Earth/Shekinah) as well as the worship of false male Gods (aka Baal) is a return to Asherah/Ashteroth/Baal/Astarte worship, which was condemned in the Bible by God and is what sent the Israelites/Judeans into exile. Many were Gods of some aspect of nature. Baal was the ancient Canaanite and Phoenician god of storms, rain, and fertility.Astarte was an ancient Near Eastern goddess of sexual love, fertility, and war.Ashtoreth was an ancient Phoenician and Canaanite goddess of fertility, sexual love, and war.Asherah was an ancient Semitic mother goddess of fertility, motherhood, and the sea.Dagon is an ancient Near Eastern god of grain, agriculture, and fertility who later became the chief national deity of the Philistines. Molech was primarily considered a fire god and a deity of the underworld rather than a classical nature force, though he was also linked to agricultural and human fertility. Moloch is an ancient deity known in biblical sources for being associated with child sacrifice. Most related to motherhood/Earth/Nature/fertility/reproduction.15m"In Canaanite theology, Asherah and Ashtoreth are closely related, and their names share a common origin. According to the International Bible Encyclopedia, Asherah and Ashtoreth were one and the same goddess in Babylon, but "in the West . . . Asherah and Ashtoreth came to be distinguished from one another, Asherah being exclusively the goddess of fertility, whereas Ashtoreth passed into a moon-goddess.""