In Canaan we find the Goddess as Athirat also called Asherah or Astarte and Her hierodule transsexual priestesses, the Qedshtu. It should be noted that just as Gallae is changed into Gallus denying the very gender of these priestesses and erasing the truth of their lives, the bible refers to them as Qedeshim (masculine). The functions of the Qedshtu were almost identical to those of the Assinnu and sexual congress with the Qedshtu was considered sex with Athirat Herself. Apparently they also practiced a tantric sacred sexual rite accompanied by drums and other instruments and also used flagellation to obtain an ecstatic state. The worship of Athirat dates back as far as 8000 BCE by the Natufians who were replaced around 4000 BCE by the Yarmukians. The young consort, Baal added around this time and somewhat better known in biblical times as El. By around 2000 BCE the Qedshtu and the other priestesses worn long flowing caftans made of mixed colours, interweaved with gold and silver threads intended to invoke a vision of Athirat in Her full glory in the springtime and are thought to have also worn veils over their faces. They were renown for charity, maintained the garden like groves and temples of Athirat and were prized potters and weavers. Please note that maintaining the groves, pottery and spinning and weaving are all "women's work" giving further evidence of how the Qedshut lived and were seen in their society. Among the surviving rites was the preparation of a sacred ritual food made from a mixture of milk, butter, mint and coriander blended in a cauldron and blessed by lighting seven blocks of incense over the top while accompanied by music played by other Qedshtu. This food preparation is dates from the early neo-lithic societies pre-agriculture but just post the first domestication of herd animals. We encounter this all the way up to the Roman period in various similar forms giving credence to the idea that the domestication of cattle, sheep and goats may well have been a contribution, remembered in the sacred, of transsexual and intersexuals during the neo-lithic since this food is the exclusive responsibility of transsexual and intersexual priestesses.
The invasion of Canaan by the bloodthirsty, patriarchal and fanatical followers of Yahweh, the people later known as the Israelites, took place around 1000 BCE. Yahweh's worshipers insisted he was a jealous god that would have no rivals. Unable to completely conquer the Canaanites, they lived in close proximity for a while. It's no wonder that the Israelite women were drawn to Athirat, now often called Asherah, whose followers believed in equality of the sexes. It is no wonder that the sexually repressed Israelite men would also want to participate in Her rites. For a time the religions mixed enough that Yahweh and Asherah were considered co-deities. The Levite priests of Yahweh were at their wits end, since even their wives often openly worshiped Asherah. That some of their "sons" became Qedshtu, can be decoded in the story of Joseph and his "coat of many colours". It is believed that Rachel, Joseph's mother, was a priestess of Asherah and the coat came from her. We've mentioned the colourful caftans with gold and silver threads that were the marks of the Qedshtu, both transsexual and non transsexual priestesses. Small wonder that Joseph's brothers, devotees of Yahweh, would react badly to their brother becoming a woman, a hierodule priestess of Asherah, for indeed this is what the story indicates.
Almost all of the various levitian laws came from this period as an attempt to kept the Israelites from worshiping Asherah. Outlawed was the "wearing of cloth made from mixed fibres", banned from the presence of Yahweh were the eunuchs who "had crushed their testicles between stones", outlawed was the wearing of clothing of the opposite sex. Israelite men were given permission, even directed, to kill their own wives and children if they did not follow their teachings. The Levites were essentialists and not only would not recognize the womanhood of the trans-Qedshtu, but referred to them as men who laid with men. Among the Canaanites, homosexual behaviour wasn't uncommon and was widely accepted. There are ample examples of artwork showing these relations that are clearly not with Qedshtu. Then, as today, these essentialists failed to understand the difference between a transsexual and a homosexual. It wasn't so much the homoerotic sex that upset them, it was the idea that a man would become a woman and chose to live that way that terrified them. Of important consideration is that the followers of Yahweh figured descent patrilinearly and the Canaanites matrilinearly. The status of women within these two cultures reflected that difference. Levite law is filled with punishments for wives who "strayed" while in the Canaanite society women openly participated in sacred sex various times of the year at the temples. The concept of "bastard" or illegitimate child is a product of this early patrilinear model because with a matrilinear one, all children are treasured. Children conceived as a result of the sacred sexual rites were considered especially blessed within Goddess traditions.
The open warfare between the Israelites and followers of Athirat began in earnest soon after the rule of Solomon when Canaan was divided into Israel and Judah. That many Hebrew rulers were not only tolerant of the worship of Athirat, but sometimes were themselves worshipers cannot be denied. Qedshtu were welcomed and openly practiced in Hebrew temples. Jeroboam, Rehoboam and Abijam all openly worshiped Athirat and Baal. Rehoboam's mother was a Qedshtu. Abijam's son, Asa, who ruled between 908 to 867 BCE, converted wholly to Yehweh and exiled many Qedshtu and destroyed their temples and burned their groves. He removed his own mother, Maacah, from the throne because she was a Qedshtu priestess. Jehosphaphat of Judah, went further and "the remnants of the male cult prostitutes who remained....he exterminated." ( 1 Kings 22:46 RSV) The war on the followers of Athirat continued, it's interesting to note that Athirat was so feared, She is not even mentioned, but rather the biblical text refer to the followers of Baal, her consort, only. This pattern is repeated in much of the old testament. King Jehu, whose murderous attempt at genocide of Athirat and Baal's worshipers is called "cunning", pretended to convert and called all the Qedshtu together for a mass celebration at the temple of Jerusalem. When he had gathered them all together and invited them to partake of their rituals, he had the doors locked and his guards murder everyone and then throw their bodies on the city garbage dump. King Josiah, yet another son of a follower of Athirat, Amon, in the tenth year of his rule ordered all images of Athirat and Baal gathered together at Kidron and burned. Not content with this, he then committed total sacrilege and ordered all the bones of Her worshipers dug up and burned on the altars and then scattered to the winds. Then he proceeded to hunt out the remaining worshipers in their communal homes and temples (he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes......where the women wove hangings) and killed them all. The christian descendants of the Israelites a thousand years later would repeat these deeds, but more of that later. Let us now journey to ancient Russia then back to Anatolia and then on to Greece and Rome.
http://gallae.com/His2.html
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