We’ve entered into the month of Leo! It’s my birth month and I resonate with the lion goddesses.
In the dream I know I am a priestess of Qadesh. I am in a room in a mud-walled house. It’s simple and spare, with a packed earth floor covered with rugs, a pile of blankets for a bed, and in one wall, a built-in shelf containing a pot with a small living branch, a tiny spot of green in an orche world. He comes in, the man I will lead to the goddess, laying with him on the blankets. First though he must go to the twig and offer incense. This is more than just sex; I am sacred, and he must honor the Mother.
I had this dream thirty-five years ago. Back then I did my research physically, prowling the aisles of the Suzzalo library on the University of Washington campus. I followed up on the footnotes and tracked down papers in academic journals. That was where I met Qadesh. She appears on tablets called stele inscribed with variants of her name (Qetesh, Qudshu). The stele come from Egypt but she’s clearly a Canaanite transplant. Her image breaks from the Egyptian convention showing figures in side view to show her facing the viewer. She stands between two gods; Reshep is a god of war and of disease, Min is an Egyptian god shown with erect phallus. She usually holds snakes in one hand and lotuses in the other. She stands on a lion.
Nothing particularly connects her with the twig I saw in my dream. That belongs to Asherah, the Canaanite goddess honored under every green tree, and the Hebrew Goddess honored with pillars erected in the temple. Everywhere she was offered honey cakes. One of the stele depicting Qadesh also bears the names Asherah and Anat. Scholars speculate that she is a form of Asherah or she was linked syncretically with Asherah and Anat as a triple goddess. In my dream Qadesh is a daughter of Asherah. I have always experienced her in this way, as the vibrant force of sexuality bringing her people to the magnificent mother goddess.
Canaanite priestesses did engage in sexuality. The bible and western scholarship call them prostitutes. I know sacred prostitutes today who ask their clients to light incense at the altar. Others like myself who serve this goddess are not professional sex workers. Not all Qadishtu are prostitutes but all are priestesses and priests.
Decades after this dream Kelevh Qadesh was called to service as a Qadishti. Today in the Midwest sacred priestesses and priests of Qadesh and Astarte quietly continue this work. This living goddess must certainly have called others. I am certain she will continue to call us, moving in dreams, in touch, in service to love.
