"A Mantle of Stars" update

Astarte by Sebastian P Haines

Back in December last year there was a proposed devotional anthology that caught my attention.  A Mantle of Stars: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of the Queen of Heaven was putting out a call for poetry, rituals as well as essays and even artwork that would be edited by Jen McConnel.  When I visited the web site recently, I noticed the submission date had been to extended from April until 1 August 2013.  How wonderful, I thought.  Despite having already forwarded an essay on one aspect of the "Queen of Heaven" that had been accepted for submission, I have another piece that I am contemplating sending through - based from a more personal relationship with the "Queen of Heaven". 

The title "Queen of Heaven" is widely used within Christianity to refer to the "Mother of God", Mary herself.  Why, then, is she catching my interest?

The Lost Goddess of Israel

And [the king] set a graven image of Asherah, that he had made,

in the house of which the Lord said to David and Solomon his son,

"In this House, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen

out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever." 

-- II Kings 21:7

Asherah is arguably the most important Goddess in the Canaanite pantheon. The prototypical mother of gods and humans and consort of the chief God, El, she is also the mistress of the sea and the land, and protector of all living things. We have long known Asherah from the immense library of thirteenth-century cuneiform tablets found in Syria at the site of Ugarit. But there are also more than 40 references to Asherah in the Old Testament. What could she have meant to the people of monotheistic ancient Israel?