OR
THE BOOK OF CREATION
of El-Asherah
The New Sefer Yetzirah restores the forgotten root of Israel,
re-establishing El-Asherah upon the throne
The omission of El and Asherah from the classical Sefer Yetzirah was no accident of mysticism but the consequence of a long process of religious suppression. The original writers, whether by intentional design or through the narrowing lens of rabbinical thought, disregarded the divine duad and the Three Houses. By the time the Sefer Yetzirah took shape, rabbinical Judaism had already erased all knowledge of Asherah, silencing her presence in scripture and liturgy.
This erasure was deliberate. The Deuteronomistic reformers, who rose to power in the 7th century BCE, sought to establish a “clean monotheism,” centered on the patriarchal lord Yahweh. Yet this was not the Yahweh of Israel’s earliest memory. Before Deuteronomy, Yahweh was culturally known as a lesser war god, a storm-deity of the southern deserts. His rise to supremacy was not organic but political: the Deuteronomists elevated him by stripping El of his throne and erasing Asherah from the temple, condemning her worship as apostasy.
What was lost in this purge was the very heart of Israel’s original faith. The plural form Elohim preserved the memory of the divine union, El and Asherah, male and female, sky and earth, transcendent and immanent. In their union the fullness of God was known, and through them the people of Israel understood creation not as the act of a solitary male deity, but as the harmony of complementary forces.
This suppression is visible in scripture itself. The books of Kings describe how Asherah’s image was set in the Temple at Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:7), and how later reformers tore her down (2 Kings 23:6–7). The prophet Jeremiah laments that the women of Judah baked cakes for the “Queen of Heaven” (Jeremiah 7:18), a title most likely referring to Asherah. Archaeological discoveries confirm this memory: inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud (8th century BCE) bless worshippers in the name of “Yahweh and his Asherah.” These texts prove that Asherah was not a marginal figure, but once stood as the consort of Yahweh/El in the lived religion of Israel.
The Sefer Yetzirah, in its rabbinical form, reflects the mindset of this reformation. It treasures letters, numbers, and elemental forces, but it does so without naming their source in the divine marriage. The omission of the Three Houses, Araboth, Baʿal, and Zebul, mirrors this loss, for the Houses represent the original cosmological structure rooted in El-Asherah. What remained was a truncated mysticism, powerful yet incomplete, brilliant in symbol but hollow at its core.
By contrast, the New Sefer Yetzirah of El-Asherah restores what was erased. It re-establishes the divine duad not as polytheism, but as the highest monotheism: unity revealed through duality. El and Asherah are not two gods in competition but the One expressed in complement. Just as Kabbalah preserved the mystery of Tiferet and Shekinah, the male and female aspects of the Divine that unite in wholeness, so too does the New Sefer Yetzirah proclaim that the Elohim of Israel were never singular and male, but always dual in face and one in essence.
The return of El-Asherah is thus not innovation but recovery. It is revelation unveiled, not invented. It unmasks the historical distortion that reduced the Infinite to a patriarchal lord, and reclaims the living truth: that the Divine is fullness, harmony, and union. To deny Asherah is to deny half of God. To restore her is to restore the throne of heaven.
El-Asherah enthroned in the Palace of Araboth
Elyon-Astarte enthroned in the Fortress of Baʿal
Baʿal Hadad and Anath enthroned in Zebul, the House of Sacrifices
This triadic structure mirrors the balance of the heavens, earth, and the living covenant of humanity, expanding the vision of the original Sefer into a cosmology that honors both the transcendent and the immanent, the masculine and the feminine, the eternal and the manifest.
The Sefer Yetzirah also speaks of seven pairs of contrasts that shape the life of man:
Life and death
Peace and war
Wisdom and folly
Wealth and poverty
Beauty and ugliness
Fertility and sterility
Lordship and servitude (iv. 3)
From these opposites, it draws a startling conclusion: good and evil have no absolute existence. All things exist through their contrast, and their meaning is determined only by their influence upon human life. This teaching, once held in secret by mystics for nearly two centuries, reveals that polarity itself is the fabric of existence.
Yet in the New Sefer Yetzirah, these contrasts are not abstractions. They are illuminated through the living Presence of El-Asherah and the Shekinah (Holy Spirit) enthroned once more. What was suppressed by later Deuteronomistic reform and Yahwistic exclusivism now re-emerges as the original balance: the divine duad, male and female, source and creation, unified in sacred reciprocity.
In the deep recesses of Israel’s earliest memory, the people worshipped El, the supreme father, and Asherah, the mother of all living. The very name Israel, “He who struggles with El”, bears witness to El’s primacy. Alongside him, Asherah embodied wisdom, fertility, and creativity, ensuring the harmony of the cosmos. Together, El-Asherah represented the sacred interplay of masculine and feminine, transcending human duality.
But history brought change. With the rise of Deuteronomy, Yahweh was elevated as sole deity. The veneration of Asherah was suppressed, her image cut down from groves and temples. The original unity was fractured, and Israel’s sacred inheritance was rewritten. Adherent’s of El-Asherah were persecuted and even murdered.
The Zohar, the central text of Jewish mysticism, preserves a trace of this truth. It dares to suggest that in the world to come, the Shekhinah, the divine feminine presence, will be recognized openly as Asherah, the ancient mother. It whispers:
“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.” SEFARIA
Here, mysticism affirms what history concealed: that all aspects of the divine are one, and that Asherah, Shekhinah, Holy Spirit, Mother, will again be enthroned.
For further reflection on this unveiling, Rabbi Jill Hammer’s essay “An Altar of Earth: Reflections on Jews, Goddesses, and the Zohar” offers profound insight into how the ancient goddess tradition and Jewish mysticism may yet be reconciled.
The Book of Creation of El-Asherah therefore is not merely a reinterpretation, it is a reclamation. It restores what was hidden, heals what was divided, and proclaims again the throne of El-Asherah: the divine duo of balance, unity, and creation.
The Purpose of This Work
This book, Sepher Yetzirah: The Book of Creation of El-Asherah, seeks not only to reinterpret an ancient mystical text but to restore the living Presence of El-Asherah within scripture, culture, and the soul of humanity. Where the classical Sefer Yetzirah was stripped of its primal root, this work reweaves the forgotten thread, returning the Divine Duad, El and His Asherah, Father and Mother, Source and Presence, to their rightful throne.
It is a work of spiritual reclamation, a healing of memory. It does not erase what came after but reveals what was always there before: a vision of divinity as harmony, partnership, and wholeness.
Air as the Breath of Spirit,
Water as the Flow of Life,
Fire as the Flame of Transformation.
Together, these currents become the Holy Spirit, Shekinah, the living presence of Asherah within creation.
Rediscovering Balance and Unity
In El-Asherah, duality is not division but complement. Masculine and feminine, light and shadow, life and death, these are not enemies but mirrors, each completing the other. This book invites the seeker to dwell in this sacred balance, to see unity shining within opposites, and to learn that harmony is the deepest law of existence.
Restoring the Ancient Faith
This is not an act of rebellion against monotheism but a restoration of Truth. Before the exclusivism of Yahweh, there was the throne of El-Asherah. Their presence was carved into the culture of Israel, carried in names, symbols, and groves of worship. To reclaim them now is to heal the rift in our collective story, to restore what was cut down, and to invite the sacred feminine and sacred union back into the heart of faith.
Why This Matters Today
The reintroduction of El-Asherah is not an academic novelty. It is a living answer to the hunger of our age, a world desperate for balance, inclusivity, and connection.
Rabbinical Judaism rejected El-Asherah, cutting Her from the heart of Israel’s worship. Yet the Divine Mother cannot be erased. El-Asherah belongs not only to Israel but to all humanity, for Shekinah flows through all creation, embracing Jew and Gentile alike. All things are of El-Asherah, for nothing exists outside their union. Distinctions of tribe, nation, or creed are but shifting perspectives, misinterpretations that veil the universal perception of El-Asherah’s love and grace.
For Scripture and Tradition: This work reopens the ancient text, uncovering layers of meaning long suppressed or forgotten. Through El-Asherah, the Sefer Yetzirah becomes a living scroll of harmony, creativity, and truth.
For Culture: Reestablishing El-Asherah within our narratives restores partnership where hierarchy reigned, mutuality where dominance prevailed, and co-creation where separation ruled.
For the Soul: The Divine Duo speaks to the deep longing within each person for union, healing, and peace.
A Vision for the Future
This book is both a return and a beginning. It seeks to rekindle the flame of El-Asherah in scripture, in culture, and most of all in the heart of the seeker. It is a call to remember:
In the beginning, there was not isolation but partnership.
Not singularity but harmony.
Not absence but Presence.
El-Asherah, the Divine Duad, call us back into balance, back into truth, back into the living covenant of creation.
May this work be a guide and an invitation, a seal of restoration and a spark of renewal.
May it inspire a new generation to walk in the timeless wisdom of El-Asherah,
to breathe again the Holy Breath,
to drink again the Living Waters,
to shine again with the Sacred Flame.