ashera

Updated: May 20, 2025

The three sacred symbols in question are the Ashera or symbol of the Female Life Principle; the Masseba or symbol of the Male Life Principle; and a combination of the Ashera and Masseba symbols representing the two Life Principles in conjunction. On Plate LXXIX. we have in figure 14 a representation both of the Sacred Tree and of the combined Ashera and Masseba.

John Denham Parsons - The Non-Christian Cross: An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion

On the left is an Ashera under a Crescent moon; in the centre is a Masseba under the Sun-star or radiate Sun; and on the right is an altar under a sun disc. The phallic meaning of all this is evident; and a kind of Trinity is presented to us, viz.

John Denham Parsons - The Non-Christian Cross: An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion

At any rate Ashera, like Baal, is not the name of one historic deity, but a name applied to the goddess of each place all over the country. The character of Canaanite religion is clearly revealed in its apparatus of worship. In Canaan we find that Semitic worship is addressed to pairs of deities; there is a god and a goddess at each shrine.

Allan Menzies - History of Religion: A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems