Ashera/Groves

As strange as it may seem, Believers are usually afraid to study this subject, leaving themselves ill-equipped to understand more than 250 verses in the Biblical Text and approximately 4o different gods and goddesses.
Asherah – was the name of a goddess, but is also used to identify her wooden cult symbol. She is mentioned as groves, poles, or wooden standards that are erected near holy spots usually on high places. The Mishnah mentions Asherim to be living groves, grapevines, pomegranate, walnuts, myrtle, and willows that were worshipped. Most Biblical references to Asherah are speaking of man made objects of worship. We see such warning as Deut. 16:21. Philo declares that Phoenicians consecrated pillars and staves in the name of their idols.
Asherah is sometimes translated groves and seems to have been a carved wooded pillar that was used in connection with a stone massebah. The Asherah represented the presence of the mother goddess and was one of the major irritations of the prophets and religious leaders of the Israelites.
The Asherah were associated with incense stands and high places and the Israelites were commanded to cut them down, burn them. In 2 Kgs. 23:7 the women wove hangings for the Asherah.
Asherah is not mentioned in connection with the patriarchs nor the kings of Israle of the monarchy, but they are seen later, after the kingdom split. Later, Asherah is mention in connection with both the northern and southern kingdoms. Massena introduced Asherah into the Temple in Jerusalem in 2 Kgs. 21:3, and Josiah brought the Asherah out of the Temple and burned it. When the Israelites invades the Canaanite high places and took the spots of their own worship, the also adopted the Asherah and the massebah.