c 5000 bc
We have an area of the Middle East called Ugarit. We have a story…
We have a god named El. He is a male god; he is a king; he is fire. The character for his name is the head of a bull. He is the father. He created the world from his head, but he’s a one-shot creator… he is no longer creating. He had a wife named Ashtoret.
She has other names in other areas. Attar for the Hittites. Austet for the Egyptians. Isis is her Greek name (she was not a Greek goddess). Ishtar is her Sumerian name. Esther is her Biblical name. Astarte is her Phoenecian name. Asherah is her Aickadian name. Aisha is her Arabic name.
Now some scholars view these as different goddesses. But both the name and the role are so similar that my professor views this as a flawed interpretation.
Ashtoret is feminine. She is the queen of Heaven; she is water; she is a mother.
El and Ashtoret have a formal marriage. They don’t actually have much to do with each other. Ashtoret’s heart is somewhere else. Her [lover/son/both] is Ba'al.
Ba'al is depicted as a storm god (which, in the Middle East, isn’t bad). He is air. He is of much more concern to Ashtoret than El.
Ba'al has a sister named Anat. She doesn’t like men except for Ba'al and sometimes her father. She is a huntress and protector of the wild. She is earth. She is most likely El’s daughter and maybe his lovechild.
A storm god (like Ba'al) wants to do something because he has a lot of energy. He’s young and verile. But El has already done it… he created everything and there’s not much left for Ba'al to do. Ba'al complains to Anat. She goes to El and tells him that Ba'al wants to build a palace on the edge of the river to watch over, and care for… Ba'al wants to take action. Ba'al has had this idea (He is an air god, which is idea-y), but he can’t quite manifest it (Anat is an earth goddess. Earth is about manifestation). So El accepts and Ba'al is permitted to build his house. Ma'at (male), the god of the underworld, is jealous of Ba'al’s new toy and kills Ba'al. Ashtoret goes crazy, since she is so in love with Ba'al. So Ba'al is permitted to return at certain points in the year. (Sound familiar??)
In the Hebrew alphabet, fire is symbolized by yod. This letter frequently wears a crown.
We have an area of the Middle East called Ugarit. We have a story…
We have a god named El. He is a male god; he is a king; he is fire. The character for his name is the head of a bull. He is the father. He created the world from his head, but he’s a one-shot creator… he is no longer creating. He had a wife named Ashtoret.
She has other names in other areas. Attar for the Hittites. Austet for the Egyptians. Isis is her Greek name (she was not a Greek goddess). Ishtar is her Sumerian name. Esther is her Biblical name. Astarte is her Phoenecian name. Asherah is her Aickadian name. Aisha is her Arabic name.
Now some scholars view these as different goddesses. But both the name and the role are so similar that my professor views this as a flawed interpretation.
Ashtoret is feminine. She is the queen of Heaven; she is water; she is a mother.
El and Ashtoret have a formal marriage. They don’t actually have much to do with each other. Ashtoret’s heart is somewhere else. Her [lover/son/both] is Ba'al.
Ba'al is depicted as a storm god (which, in the Middle East, isn’t bad). He is air. He is of much more concern to Ashtoret than El.
Ba'al has a sister named Anat. She doesn’t like men except for Ba'al and sometimes her father. She is a huntress and protector of the wild. She is earth. She is most likely El’s daughter and maybe his lovechild.
A storm god (like Ba'al) wants to do something because he has a lot of energy. He’s young and verile. But El has already done it… he created everything and there’s not much left for Ba'al to do. Ba'al complains to Anat. She goes to El and tells him that Ba'al wants to build a palace on the edge of the river to watch over, and care for… Ba'al wants to take action. Ba'al has had this idea (He is an air god, which is idea-y), but he can’t quite manifest it (Anat is an earth goddess. Earth is about manifestation). So El accepts and Ba'al is permitted to build his house. Ma'at (male), the god of the underworld, is jealous of Ba'al’s new toy and kills Ba'al. Ashtoret goes crazy, since she is so in love with Ba'al. So Ba'al is permitted to return at certain points in the year. (Sound familiar??)
In the Hebrew alphabet, fire is symbolized by yod. This letter frequently wears a crown.
Ashtoret, the ultimate feminine, is symbolized by hei.
The lettering for El (yod),
The lettering for El (yod),
Ashtoret (hei),
Ba'al (vav),
Anat (hei)
is YHVH.
Look familiar? Add some vowels, if not. It’s the tetragrammaton. These letters are the father letters.
The name is a very early God. It’s early monotheism. It’s been condensed into God. It’s a grammatical contraction. YHVH is the God of Abraham. How did we get to the contraction? Eventually, they put vowels (in all the wrong places), so that people would know it’s too holy to speak.
Looking at it, it is yeh-ho-veh-hah. But they wouldn’t say it, because they’d look at it, see the vowels in all the wrong places, and know. Scholars call it the tetragrammaton. The word you use to say it defines you, not it.
The vowels are placed where the vowels in Adonai would go. So that you know this name is the unspeakable contraction for the name of the one God. It’s also useful for keeping it coded… it’s a very “ingroup” thing.
Abraham came from a place called Ur, which means “light.” There is a pilgrimage site there dedicated to the moon god. Abraham’s father was named Terach. Another word for the moon is Ire'ach. Terach means “worshipper of the moon.” His job was to form the letters for the gods. So he plays around, breaks them all, and realizes that if it’s broken, it can’t be god. It has to be larger, more abstract, yet have all former god characters.
In the Bible, YHVH.
In the prayer books, YY (yod yod with poo vowels). You can’t say it… the letters create.
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