Nexus - 0110 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

— RETURN OF THE GODDESS — ABORIGINAL LORE REVIVED — It has often been argued that the original Dr Meshe! believes all or most other | Aborigines are practicing traditional Hebrews worshipped more than the ‘one | wayside shrines were destroyed by Aboriginal law around the Newcastle- god’ YHVH (Jehovah or Yahweh) of monotheistic reformers who wantedonly | Lake Macquarie area for the first time in Judeo- Christian teaching. But evidence | one holy place - the temple in Jerusalem. | almost fifty years. may have come to | He thinks Kuntillet Ajrud survived light that this male | because ithad been abandoned 150 years deity originally | before 300 years of reformist purges ruled witha female | which began in the 9th century BCE. consort, and that The shrine is the size of a large house the worship of the | and preserved an array of Hebrew and Goddess was | Phoenician inscript-ions painted on ‘deliberately | plaster walls and tall offering jars, or destroyed by the | pithoi. The inscript-ions contain the priests of ‘God the | Hebrew names of God - El and Yahweh, Father’, as well as the names of other pagan Supporting | deities... including Baal - not unusual, feminist views that | “for every spring, river, village had its scriptures have | own Baal”, according to Dr Meshel. been repeatedly edited by an all-male One inscription over a painting of a More than twenty Murrawon men, led group with a vested interest in | woman playing a lyre - thought to be | by an old and powerful man known as suppressing the female in organised | Asherah - ona pithos reads, “...May you ‘Uncle Lenny’ Da Silva, have been worship, archaeological findings in | be blessed by Yahweh of Shomron undergoing initiation and secret southern Israel have uncovered | (Samaria) and his Asherah.” Another | ceremonies in a revival of the old ways. inscriptions and drawings which indicate | reads; “Amaryau said to my Lord...May | Murrawon law involves commitment to that around the 9th century BCE the | you be blessed by Yahweh... and his | acting as custodians or protectors of goddess ASHERAH (Ashtaroth, | Asherah.” Other drawings include the | sacred country and is a belief system Astarte, Esther) was identified as the | Tree of Life with two ibex leaping at it | rooted in the Dreaming stories of the consort of Yahweh, God of Israel. from either side and a striding lion. country. The Murrawon are a collective For centuries ideological and actual “We have in the Biblea manifesto that | of initiated men from seven different battles for control occurred between | Jerusalem was the chosen city, David the | NSW language groups. monotheists, who believed Yahweh ruled | chosen king and his line the true “Don’t ever let it be said that in this alone, and those who worshipped several | succession under a contract with | State, Aboriginal law and culture and deities. Asherah is mentionedin the Bible | Yahweh, and the old tradition of Moses,” | society has died,” said Bill Smith, many times, one of a range of gods and | says Dr Meshel. The suppression of | Chairperson of the Murrawon Initiated goddesses worshipped in ancient Canaan | Asherah can now be seen as the result of | Men’s Council, during an “important - modern Israel and Syria - as well as | the “near-total suppression of the cultby | mission” to the Australian Museum in elsewhere. Asherah, however, seems to | the eighth to sixth century reformers,” | ‘Sydney aimed at securing the return of have influenced the Israelite tradition far | says Professor William Dever, biblical | sacred artefacts. more than the others, having been | archaeologist from the University of “Our culture is very, very much alive worshipped in Solomon’s temple | Arizona, who believes that Asherah was | and breathing. The Murrawon men intermittently for over two thirds of the | worshipped as the Mother Goddess and | have always had the law; it’s just that 370 years of its existence. consort of Yahweh. : they have never had the opportunity or According to Dr Bill Jobling, Reader The find, taken with other evidence, | the guidance to come together and in Religious Studies at Sydney | shows “a more inclusive, wholistic practice ceremonies,” he said. Uncle University, the latest discovery indicates | concept” of God, according to Sister | Lenny, from Armidale, has been the that Yahweh really was originally | Elaine Wainwright,aBrisbaneCatholic | keeper of complex and sacred Aboriginal worshipped by the Israelites asa member | theologian. She believes biblical | law since his initiation in the 1930s, of a pantheon of gods. evidence of women’s roles is slender “The old fella came forward [about The Asherah find was originally | because of the editing by “those with a | two years ago],” explains Mr Smith. “He made in 1975 by Dr Zeev Meshel of the | vested interest in the patriarchy and | knew that we, us men, would be genuine Tel Aviv Institute of Archaeology, who | thus in loosening the voice of women” | about going to do the law.” Mr Smith, uncovered a small wayside shrine at | and that the strong male symbols of god | who isn't a full-blood Aboriginal says, Kuntillet Ajrud, a lone hill of water wells | coincided with the male-dominated rise | “Zt’snot yourcolour or how you look, it’s in the desert 50km south of Beersheba. of the kings. E] | what you believe in”. W Nexus *10