Under Every Green Tree

Trees and groves have been objects of worship through many centuries and many cultures. It has been believed that trees contain sacred energy and represented gods and goddesses of pagan religions. Many of the winter solstice celebrations such as Mithra, Yalda, Yule, Saturnalia, Christmas and Hanukkah all have similar practices and traditions involving a tree. Within the Scriptures you will often find tree worship associated with the fertility goddess Asherah.

Some of the materiel that I will be covering here will be directly related to a previous post that I have done called: Hanukkah: Saturn Worship, gambling and the Dreidel

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Jeremiah 2:20…And you said, ‘I am not serving You,’ when on every high hill and UNDER EVERY GREEN TREE you lay down, a whore.

PART 1. ASHERAH TREE

Trees in ancient Israel provided many natural resources such as oils, spices, rope, and other by-products.  The Oak and Terebinth marked important sites of worship, yet, the trees themselves had become sacred objects of worship. They also are symbolic of the rise and fall of nations, kingdoms and people. The Israelites were infamous of mixing Yah’s ways with heathen or pagan ways. One of the many gods that we hear of them worshiping alongside Yahweh, is Baal and Asherah/Ashtoreth.

Asherah poles, which were sacred trees or poles, later also made into figurines, are mentioned many times throughout the scriptures, specifically in Deuteronomy where God stated that “You shall not plant any TREE as an Asherah beside the altar or your Lord God”(Deut 16:21-22).

♦Judges 3:7So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

♦1 Kings 11:5Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Molech the abomination of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD—and unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.

Asherah, was a goddess of fertility and  is known by many names and variations of names such as Astarte/Ishtar, “Queen of Heaven”, “lady of the serpent” and “lady of the sea”.

Jer 7:18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

Asherah was the counterpart of Baal, which is why you would often find them mentioned together. Within the occult, this is known as the “divine masculine” and “divine feminine”; which uses two triangles, one upward, and one downward.  Albert Mackey, a high level occultist and 33 degree freemason, states: “The triangle pointing downward is a female symbol corresponding to the yoni and the upward pointing triangle is the male, the lingam … When the two triangles are interlaced, it represents the union of the active and passive forces in nature; it represents the male and female elements.”

When the two triangles are brought together,  it forms a star or hexagram, which is the “divine union”. Within the scriptures, this star is referred to as the “star of Remphan” which is closley associated with Saturn; which I go over in my Hanukkah post.

♦Acts 7:41And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42Then God turned, and gave them up to WORSHIP THE HOST OF HEAVEN; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? 43YEA, YE TOOK UP THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH, AND THE STAR OF YOUR GOD REMPHAN, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.(KJV)

The divine union is interwoven within the Kabbalah tree within the 10 Sefirot, and is significant, because one of the symbols most closely associated with Asherah was a tree.

Notice, the two triangles being black and white. This is the duality of the occult, the light and the dark, the yin and the yang. Notice the upward triangle, appears white, and on the tip is an illuminating light, this is the path of ascension within the occult, the awakening of the serpent.

2 Cor 11:14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

Within this sacred union formed also within the 10 sephirot of the Kabbalah tree, is known as Adam Kadmon, an androgynous being, being both male and female, which is also a depiction of baphomet. The divine masculine and feminine is simply the male and female side of Lucifer(light/dark, yin/yang).

The ancient Canaanites and Phoenicians viewed the tree as a symbol of fertility. Within many pagan religions, ritual sex acts were performed under these trees/ and groves.

♦Judges 2:13So they forsook the LORD(YHWH) and SERVED BAAL AND THE ASHTAROTH.

♦ Isa 57:5who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

Ellicot’s commentary on Ashoreth:

(5) Ashtoreth (or, Astarte).–The goddess of the Zidonians, and possibly the Hittites, corresponding to Baal, the great Tyrian god, and representing the receptive and productive, as Baal the active and originative, power in Nature. As usual in all phases of Natureworship, Ashtoreth is variously represented, sometimes by the moon, sometimes by the planet Venus (like the Assyrian Ishtar, which seems a form of the same name)–in either case regarded as “the queen of heaven.” (See Jeremiah 44:17; Jeremiah 44:25). There seems, indeed, some reason to believe that the name itself is derived from a root which is found both in Syriac and Persian, and which became aster in the Greek and astrum in Latin, and has thence passed into modern European languages, signifying a “star,” or luminary of heaven. With this agrees the ancient name, Ashteroth-Karnaim (or, “the horned Ashteroth”)of a city in Bashan (Genesis 14:5; Deuteronomy 1:4; Joshua 13:12).

This place is the first in which the name Ashtoreth is used in the singular number, and expressly limited to the “goddess of the Ziaonians.” In the earlier history we hear not unfrequently of the worship of the “Ashtaroth,” that is, of the “Ashtoreths,” found with the like plural Baalim, as prevalent in Canaan, and adopted by Israel in evil times (see Judges 2:13; Judges 10:6; 1Samuel 7:3; 1Samuel 12:10; 1Samuel 31:10); and the worship of the Asherah (rendered “groves” in the Authorised version), may perhaps refer to emblems of Astarte. In these cases, however, it seems not unlikely that the phrase, “Baalim and Ashtaroth,” may be used generally of the gods and goddesses of various kinds of idolatry. The worship of the Tyrian Ashtoreth, as might be supposed from the idea which she was supposed to represent, was one of chartered license and impurity.

Early bible translations such as the Septuagint and Vulgate understood Asherim to refer to a group of trees, such as groves, so in some places where it would have “Asherah”,  it is rendered as  “groves”:

Exodus 34:13 “But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves.”

The Hebrew word for “groves” here is the word “asherah” defined by Strong’s:

Ashera(h)=groves(for idol worship) 1) a Babylonian (Astarte)-Canaanite goddess (of fortune and happiness), the supposed consort of Baal, her images 1a)the goddess, goddessess 1b)sacred trees or poles set up near an altar

There is no word for “pole” in the Hebrew text, it is simply “asherah” or sometimes “asherim” in the plural.

Jer 17:2Even their children remember their altars and ASHERAH POLES, BY THE GREEN TREES, on the high hills.(BSB)

Now, let’s compare the same verse to the King James Version:

Jer 17:2Whilst their children remember their altars and THEIR GROVES BY THE GREEN TREES upon the high hills.(KJV)

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PART 2. SACRIFICE AND SATURNALIA

Sacrifices that were made to Baal and Asherah were both animal and human sacrifice. Usually animals such as sheep or bulls (1 Kings 18:23), however, some scholars believe that the Canaanites also sacrificed pigs, and consumed them afterwards.  God prohibited his people from eating pork, not only because of the effects it has on the human body, but also in part to prevent this horrible cult from being established among them, as you can see in Isa 65 and 66 of Israel’s partaking of pagan practices with consuming and sacrificing pigs and other unclean animals in the “groves”:

♦Isa 65:3A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; THAT SACRIFICETH IN GARDENS, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; 4Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, WHICH EAT SWINE’S FLESH, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;(KJV)

♦Isa 66:17“Those who dedicate and purify themselves TO ENTER THE GROVES— to follow one in the midst of those WHO EAT THE FLESH OF SWINE and vermin and rats— will perish together,” declares the LORD.(BSB)

Ellicot’s Commentary:

“Behind one tree in the midst.–The noun “tree” is a conjectural explanation. The Hebrew text gives the “one” in the masculine, and is explained as referring either (1) to the Hierophant, who led the worshippers; or (2), as with a contemptuous reluctance to utter the name of the false deity, to Thammuz. The Hebrew margin gives “one” in the feminine, and this may have been meant for the Asherah, the “grove,” or Phallic symbol of idolatrous worship. If we adopt the masculine, and refer it to Thammuz, the word may connect itself with the lamentations of the Syrian maidens over Thammuz (Adonis) as over an only son. (Comp. Milton, Paradise Lost, i.)”

According to “The Times of Israel“, By Ilan Ben Zion, an excavation done in 2014 at a possible 3,300 year old shrine to Baal/Asherah, unearthed pig bones, among other animal bones, at a Canaanite cult site, located in Tel Burna, central Israel:

“This summer, in the courtyard of a “very large” (52 foot on each side) public building from the Late Bronze Age Canaanite city, Dr. Itzhaq Shai, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Ariel University, and his team unearthed charred young sheep, goat and pig bones, and a trove of goblets, zoomorphic vessels, figurines and votive cup-and-saucers. Most intriguing, however, were fragments of two ceramic ceremonial masks, eyeholes and noses intact.

“It could be that this is a palace,” he said. “I’m not saying that this is definitely a temple, but this is definitely an elite building that ritual practices also took place in.”

What I find interesting to this is that during the time of Jesus when he cast a legion of demons into the pigs, these pigs were from Gergesa, (Luke 8:26-39) which some scholars believe were of the Girgashites, one of the Canaanite races. Pig sacrifice was a common practice of the Romans during the celebration of Saturnalia, in which a pig was offered in the temple on the first day of the celebration.

(Saturn-alia) is called “a festival of light” and is a pagan festival in honor of the god Saturn. Saturn was referred to as the “sun-star” and so there were many correlations historically and scripturally of the worship of Saturn/Sun.

As mentioned in my Hanukkah post pertaining to Saturnalia:

The god Saturn was also known to the Israelites as: Molech, Remphan and Chiun, as well as Baal. To which they offered up their children as sacrifices.

♦2 Kings 17:17They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.

♦Psalm 106:38They shed innocent blood–the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

♦Jeremiah 32:35They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech–something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin.

HOW THE ROMANS CELEBRATED SATURNALIA

“During Saturnalia, work and business came to a halt. Schools and courts of law closed, and the normal social patterns were suspended.

People decorated their homes with wreaths and other greenery, and shed their traditional togas in favor of colorful clothes known as synthesis. Even slaves did not have to work during Saturnalia, but were allowed to participate in the festivities; in some cases, they sat at the head of the table while their masters served them.

Instead of working, Romans spent Saturnalia gambling, singing, playing music, feasting, socializing and giving each other gifts. Wax taper candles called cerei were common gifts during Saturnalia, to signify light returning after the solstice

On the last day of Saturnalia celebrations, known as the Sigillaria, many Romans gave their friends and loved ones small terracotta figurines known as signillaria, which may have referred back to older celebrations involving human sacrifice.

On the first day of the festivities, a young pig would often be publicly sacrificed at the temple,”

This is historically where the tradition of the “Christmas ham” came from, also adapted into the Norse religion, Yule. In fact, during my research on this, I actually came across an original Christmas Carol, called “The Boar’s Head Carol”, First published 1521 by Wynken de Worde in Christmasse Carolles, which is eerily similar to the passage from Isa 65:3-4.

Here are the lyrics quoted from wikipedia:

The boar’s head in hand bring I, (Or: The boar’s head in hand bear I,)
Bedeck’d with bays and rosemary.
And I pray you, my masters, be merry (Or: And I pray you, my masters, merry be)
Quot estis in convivio (Translation: As many as are in the feast)

CHORUS
Caput apri defero (Translation: The boar’s head I bear)
Reddens laudes Domino (Translation: Giving praises to the Lord)

The boar’s head, as I understand,
Is the rarest dish in all this land,
Which thus bedeck’d with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico. (Translation: Let us serve with a song)

CHORUS

Our steward hath provided this
In honour of the King of Bliss;
Which on this day to be servèd is
In Reginensi atrio. (Translation: In the hall of Queen’s [College, Oxford])

CHORUS

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Yule, is the Nordic winter solstice pagan celebration in honor of the god Odin and lasted for 12 days celebrating the rebirth of the sun. Ironically when you look up Yule in the dictionary it refers to as Christmas, as many of the traditions also came from such, like the 12 days of Christmas. The Yule tree, which came from the traditions of Yalda/Mithra also morphed into the Christmas tree.

“The Yule Tree was also another important symbol in pagan tradition. Originally, it represented the Tree of Life or the World Tree among early pagans. In ancient times it was decorated with gifts people wanted to receive from the gods. It was adorned with natural ornaments such as pinecones, berries and other fruit, as well as symbols sacred to the gods and goddess. In some holiday traditions, garlands of popcorn and berries were strung around the tree so that visiting birds could feed off the tree as well.” https://www.sacredearthjourneys.ca/blog/traditions-and-symbols-of-yule/

The Yule Tree

“Introduced into modern times apparently by the German Prince Albert in Victorian times and we love it. In ancient Rome, pine trees were an essential part of Goddess groves. On the eve of the Midwinter Solstice, Roman priests would cut down a pine tree, decorate it and carry it ceremonially to the temple celebrations. People decked their homes with boughs of evergreen trees and bushes in pots. Pines and firs were cherished as a symbol of rebirth and life in the depth of winter. It was the festival of Saturnalia. Pagan families would bring a live tree into the home so the wood spirits would have a place to keep warm in the cold winter months – food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat.”

Candles

“This is the festival of light out of darkness and the tradition of lighting candles is ever popular. Red, green and the gold of the Returning Sun are the colours of Yule. Deck your home and altar with evergreens and candles.” https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/yule

Notice the woman holding a fairy in her right hand and a candle in her left, while standing in the front center of the Yule tree, with the star at the top of the tree. This woman represents Asherah, and her symbol of the tree; which is also known as the Kabbalah tree(of life).