Under the prosperous King Omri of the King of Israel there was religious tolerance. Thus King Omri is trashed in the Bible by the Yahweh worshipers.
Omri worshiped Baal Melqart the chief god of the Phoneticians and Sidon.
This is different from Baal Hadad of the Baal cycle and the storm God that Baal-Yahweh is largely modeled on. Not the Story of Elijah at Mount Carmel. (1 Kings 18:40)
Never heard of Omri? The Omride dynasty basically made Israel. King Ahab was Omri’s son. His wife Jezebel (Jezebaal) also worshiped Baal-Melqart. The bible is not kind to her either. But they admit she was queen. (She was pushed out a window trampled by horses and fed devoured by stray dogs)
The Asherah poles have a very interesting history going back to the Tree of Life. Kings’ scepters were said to be branches from the tree of life. Note Aaron’s budding staff. Numbers 17:6
“6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron’s staff was among them. 7 Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant law.
8 The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds”
The earliest version of the plant of life and waters of life referred to a Date Tree and Rivers. However between that and the Garden of Eden story which has both he tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, the life Tree Asherah is an almond tree. The Menorah is a stylized Tree of life. The Asherah poles did disappear after King Josiah’s orders. They went underground.
God with the capital G, from the Israelites is a merger of El and Asherah with a touch of Baal Hadad. The metallurgy and life tree in the Menorah is beautiful iconography of both. (Earliest Yahweh was a Wind god of Edom used in smelting and is storms).
There are neat parallels between the pre-Jewish Kabbalah and its Sephirot Tree and the Norse Yggdrasil (Cosmic tree of the realms). Also the Qlippoth or tree of death worshiped by some Jewish cults today.
Unfortunately Asherah (do not confuse with Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) was removed as the Israelites became further and further obsessed with war, rape and genocide. The Book of Hosea in the OT is basically Yahweh’s divorce from his wife.
More on Ancient gods. I lifted the paywall
