Asherah also referred to as Elat, in ancient Semitic religion, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ašratu(m) (Ashratum), and in Hittite as Aserdu(s) or Asertu(s). Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʾAṯiratu  There are numerous Phoenician and Sumerian texts that have confirmed this, along with showing up as one of the original Ancient Canaanite Gods, Asherah being referred to as the one of most powerful of the Gods, along with her equal, her consort, EL. Together they Birthed Angels, and other gods, along with creation. It is said that their sacred union was like that of a powerful light sending out ripples of light, like a stone tossed into a pond, spreading out through existence, forming elements, worlds, and the spaces in between.

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Asherah is identified as the queen consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and The Ugaritic ʾEl, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons. She has also shown up in early Jewish texts as well as Yahweh, the god of Israel and Judah. This role gave her a similarly high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon. Despite her association with Yahweh in extra-biblical sources, Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain the purity of his worship. The name Dione, which like ʾElat means 'goddess', is clearly associated with Asherah in the Phoenician History of Sanchuniathon, because the same common epithet (ʾElat) of "the Goddess par excellence" was used to describe her at Ugarit.[6] The Book of Jeremiah, written circa 628 BC, possibly refers to Asherah when it uses the title "queen of heaven"[b] in Jeremiah 7:16–18 and Jeremiah 44:17–19, 25.

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There is quite a bit of evidence, that great strides were taken to erase Asherah from several ancient texts given that she was considered just as powerful as the emerging Abrahmic incarnations of god, and given the fact she governed Magick, Nature, Creation, and being a female of Equal power, didn't sit well with mortal men who thought otherwise. 

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Knowledge of her worship also dates back to Egyptian periods.

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Beginning during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, a Semitic goddess named Qudshu ('Holiness') appears prominently. Some think this is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name.  ʿAshtart or ʿAnat as both those goddesses appear under their own names and with quite a different iconography and appear in at least one pictorial representation along with Qudshu.

But in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods in Egypt, there was a strong tendency of syncretism towards goddesses, and Athirat/Ashratum then seems to have disappeared, at least as a prominent goddess under a recognizable name.

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Attempts to erase her from Jewdisim. 

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Between the 10th century BC and the beginning of their exile in 586 BC, polytheism was normal throughout Israel;[22] it was only after the exile that worship of Yahweh alone became established, and possibly only as late as the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BC) that monotheism became universal among the Jews.[23][24] Some biblical scholars believe that Asherah at one time was worshipped as the consort of Yahweh, the national God of Israel.[23][25][26] There are references to the worship of numerous gods throughout Kings: Solomon builds temples to many gods and Josiah is reported as cutting down the statues of Asherah in the temple Solomon built for Yahweh (2 Kings 23:14). Josiah's grandfather Manasseh had erected one such statue (2 Kings 21:7).[27]

 

One ancient Jewish text refers to a follower of Asherah, teaching King Solomon exorcism rites.

Following the Exile, references to polytheism were heavily redacted from the Jewish scriptures. Hosea, for example, lambasts a goddess who is associated with trees and Magickal workings but whose name is never mentioned. The "Queen of Heaven" is likewise anonymous in Jeremiah, despite that she was widely revered. As the women of Jerusalem attested: "We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem" (44:17).[28]

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Further evidence for Asherah-worship includes, for example, an 8th-century BC combination of iconography and inscriptions discovered at Kuntillet Ajrud in the northern Sinai desert[29] where a storage jar shows three anthropomorphic figures and several inscriptions. Depicting Asherah, or Elat, as the giver of spells and ancient rites to banish demons and overpower dark entities. The inscriptions found also refer not only to Yahweh but to ʾEl and Baʿal, and two include the phrases "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah." The references to Samaria (capital of the kingdom of Israel) and Teman (in Edom) suggest that Yahweh had a temple in Samaria while raising questions about the relationship between Yahweh and Kaus, the national god of Edom.[33] The 'Asherah' in question is most likely a nature Goddess who was a consort, although the relationship to Yahweh and to the goddess Asherah, consort of ʾEl, is unclear due to the defilement of her temples.[34] It has been suggested that the Israelites may have considered Asherah as the consort of Baʿal, due to the anti-Asherah ideology which was influenced by the Deuteronomistic Historians, at the later period of the kingdom.[35] It has also been suggested by several scholars[36][37] that there is a relationship between the position of the gĕbîrâ in the royal court and the worship (orthodox or not) of Asherah.[38] In a potsherd inscription of blessings from "Yahweh and his Asherah", there appears a cow feeding its calf.[39] Numerous Canaanite amulets depict wearing a bouffant wig similar to the Egyptian Hathor. If Asherah is then to be associated with Hathor/Qudshu, it can then be assumed that the cow is being referred to as Asherah.

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William Dever's book Did God Have a Wife? adduces further archaeological evidence—for instance, the many female figurines unearthed in ancient Israel, (known as Pillar-Base Figurines)—as supporting the view that in Israelite folk religion of the monarchical period, Asherah functioned as a goddess and consort of Yahweh and was worshiped as the queen of heaven, and one of the first references, of the Queen of the never-ending lands of Summer, translated to Summerland...  Dever also points to the discovery of multiple shrines and temples within ancient Israel and Judah. The temple site at Arad is particularly interesting for the presence of two (possibly three) massebot, standing stones representing the presence of deities. This runs contrary to the biblical claim that there was only one temple, in Jerusalem, and it was dedicated to Yahweh. Although the identity of the deities associated with the massebot is uncertain, Yahweh and Asherah or Asherah and Baal remain, strong candidates, as Dever notes: "The only goddess whose name is well attested in the Hebrew Bible (or in ancient Israel generally) is Asherah."

The name Asherah appears forty times in the Hebrew Bible, but it is much reduced in English translations. The word ʾăšērâ is translated in Greek as ἄλσος (grove; plural: ἄλση) in every instance apart from Isaiah 17:8; 27:9 and 2 Chronicles 15:16; 24:18, with δένδρα (trees) being used for the former, and, peculiarly, Ἀστάρτη (Astarte) for the latter. The Vulgate in Latin provided lucus or nemus, a grove or a wood (thus KJV Bible uses grove or groves with the consequent loss of Asherah's name and knowledge of her existence to English language readers of the Bible over some 400 years).[40] The association of Asherah with trees, healing, resurrection, and magickal rites in the Hebrew Bible is very strong. For example, she is found under trees (1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10) and is made of wood by human beings (1 Kings 14:15, 2 Kings 16:3–4). Trees described as being an Asherah or part of an Asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows.[41]

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Evidence of Ashera, also being incarnations of Both Isis, and Danu has been rumored. Another translation references her to being Gaia as well.