B is for Ba’al

Last week’s topic at the Pagan Experience was on deity/the Divine and our experiences with Them/It. I was planning on writing a post about Ba’al, but every time I tried, only a jumbled mess came out. So I thought, maybe Ba’al didn’t want me writing anything about him after all. But then this week’s prompt is any topic that starts with the letter A or B. So, I’ll take that as a hint, and try this again.

I want to take a moment to make it clear that I am not an expert on Canaanite religion or culture. I am only a follower of the Iluma, and a new follower at that.

Ba’al is the Hebrew word for lord. There were many gods in the ancient middle east called Ba’al so it isn’t wise to assume all Ba’al’s are the same god. But more often than not, when people are talking about Ba’al they are referring to one god in particular, Ba’al Hadad. Hadad translates to Thunderer, so his name literally means Lord Thunderer. And as his name suggests Ba’al is a storm god. In addition to being a storm god, Ba’al is also a warrior and a dying and rising god.

According to this website, Hadad originated from the Sumerian/Akkadian god Ishkur/Adad. In this form he was associated with both the benevolent and destructive aspects of storms. When he became the Ugaritic Hadad he took on a more benevolent nature, and became the protector and champion of humanity. He also moved up in rank and became one of the more important, if not the most important god in the pantheon.

Ba’al is the son of Dagon, the grain god, although sometimes he’s referred as the son of the chief god El. There’s a lot of confusion over this matter because mythology contradicts itself. Another point of confusion is whether Ba’al is married, and if so, to whom. Some have made the mistake of stating that Anat (the goddess of war) is his wife. Mythology mentions that Anat is a virgin. This doesn’t necessarily mean that she isn’t sexual (although there is no evidence that she is), but it does mean she’s not married. Sometimes sources will say that Astarte is Ba’al’s wife. Astarte plays a minor roll in Ugaritic mythology, and no where does it say that she is married to Ba’al. According the the Bible, Asherah and Hadad are an item. And the Assyrian Adad is married to Shala, a goddess of the grain, emotion and compassion. Confusing right? Sometimes a pagan just has to accept that pagan mythology isn’t like the scripture of book religions. Depending on the location the same god can have different myths, different family members and sometimes even a different personality.

In Ugarit Ba’al Hadad has three women, Tallay (dewy), Pidray (light), and Arsay (earthy). They are often seen as his daughters, and sometimes as his wives. I go with the daughter explanation because in the myth of the marriage of Yarihu (moon god) and Nikkal (orchard goddess), Nikkal’s father suggests that Yarihu marry one of Ba’al’s women. This suggestion wouldn’t make sense if these women were his wives. Ba’al also has two servants Gapnu (vine) and Ugar (field). Thunder is said to be Ba’al’s voice and I imagine that his two weapons Yagarish (Driver), and Ayamari (driver) represent lightening. One of Ba’al titles is the “Rider on the clouds.” I tend to see Ba’al as traveling with his daughters and servants in rock-star-esque type entourage when he brings rain to the earth. (My UPG, but it just seems right.)

When I first started exploring the Canaanite pantheon and had little interest in Ba’al Hadad. I think my Southern Baptist upbringing had a little to do with it. Conservative Christians tend to see the name Ba’al as either as one of Satan’s many names, or at least the name of a very powerful demon. Even after I learned more about Ba’al, I still wasn’t very interested. I’m not a warrior type person, and I’m generally not attracted to the warrior archetype.

So what am I doing with this god? I felt like he chose me. One cloudy monsoon day Ba’al just showed up, and from that moment on I’ve understood why the ancient Israelites had such a hard time not worshiping him. And the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. I love rain. When I was a child, my sister and I use to run outside and play in the rain. I’ve also spent a decent portion of my life living in arid or semi arid climates, where it’s not too uncommon to go weeks without any sort of precipitation. Living in the desert really makes you appreciate, adore, and respect rain.

My Daily Personal Practice

This week’s prompt on the Pagan Experience peaked my interest. Although I’m not planning on committing to any writing projects this year, this week’s topic is something I wanted to write about anyways, so why not now? Anyways, there just aren’t many Canaanite inspired rituals floating around on the interwebs. So here’s one more. As with all of my rituals, feel free to personalize to your heart’s content.

This weeks prompt is: Share your favorite spiritual/magickal practices. What tools are incorporated into your daily practice? What feeds you and replenishes you?

My favorite spiritual practice is ritual. I love writing rituals, hosting rituals for friends, and I love doing ritual for only me and mine. I like simple contemplative rituals and I like fancy ritual with all the bells and whistle. I adore the scent of fragrant oils and incense drifting through the air. I enjoy the sight of a lit up altar. I especially love it when the gods show up and make their presence known. Ritual leaves me feeling connected and calm yet energized in ways that nothing else does.

I would love to tell you that I’m an ultra devote disciplined pagan, and that I faithfully do this ritual everyday, but I would be lying. Sometimes, I follow this ritual to the tee. Sometimes I just don’t have the time or energy to do a proper ritual and will do something simple like light incense or say a round of prayers on my prayer beads. And too often I forget my daily practice all together. Sticking to a daily routine is something I still struggle with. I have approved greatly in this area, but I still got a long way to go.

This ritual takes me anywhere from around 15 minutes to a half an hour to do, depending on what I want to do that day. Currently I’m a stay at home mother (and my daughter usually joins in), so I have the privilege to be able to dedicate this amount of time to my spiritual practice. I understand this is not something everyone can do. Don’t feel down if you can’t dedicate that kind of time. Spirituality should not be an all or nothing kind of a deal. If five minutes, 1 minute or a respectful nod to your altar is all you can give, than it’s all you can give, and that is much better than nothing.

My “Daily” Devotional Practice.

Many people who work with the Canaanite pantheon cover their head during ritual. This head covering can be anything from a scarf, to a hat, or even a thick head band. I often forget to do this, but if my hair is especially tore up that day (which happens often enough when you have super curly hair) I’ll make sure to cover my head. Ancient Near and Middle Eastern cultures were really into cleanliness, so I wash my hands before I start ritual. If I’m feeling kinda ugh for any reason I’ll do a quick cleanse with Florida Water. Usually before I start I’ll take a moment to be silent and take seven deep breaths to help ground and center me. My usual offerings to the gods are water, incense, perfumed oil and fire. Honestly, the most stressful aspect of food offerings for me is the disposal, so tend to save food offering for Holy Days. After I light the incense and my oil lamp I’ll bow to my gods seven time. Sometimes if I feel like going that extra mile I’ll prostrate myself seven times. This is something that is so foreign to the general American culture that I often feel awkward doing this, but I have found that prostrating can be very centering.

Next I pick up (or make a gesture of giving at) each offering one by one and say:

“I offer incense to the Gracious Deities
Perfumed smoke for the Gods of the Earth and of the Stars
I give back a little of what I have been given
In the spirit of gratitude I return a small portion of what I have received
I give honor, Shalam

I offer water to the Gracious Deities
Fresh and cooling water for the Gods of the Earth and of the Stars
I give back a little of what I have been given
In the spirit of gratitude I return a small portion of what I have received
I give honor, Shalam

I offer fire to the Gracious Deities
Fragrant oil for the Gods of the Earth and of the Stars
I give back a little of what I have been given
In the spirit of gratitude I return a small portion of what I have received
I give honor Shalam”

This next part I borrowed and adapted from Shifting Spectrums’ daily practice.  I grab my bottle of myrrh oil and anoint each body part as I ask for it to be blessed. The following prayer was adapted from Shifting Spectrums’ adaption of a prayer by Tess Dawson.

“Ancient Deities of the Canaanites,
Divine Assembly of Mount Lalu,
Sons and Daughters of El and Asherah,
Bless my mind that I may sense you,
Bless my eyes that I may see you,
Bless my ears that I may hear you,
Bless my nose that I may smell you,
Bless my throat that I may speak with you,
Bless my senses that I my feel you,
(I usually do a sign of the pentacle here. I once heard that the pentacle has it’s origins in Babylon, as a symbol of royalty. So I thought it was fitting.)
Bless my heart so that I may know you.

I give honor.
Shalam.

After this, my ritual gets a little more free form. Whenever I come across a prayer to a Canaanite god I copy, paste, print and add it to my binder o’ prayers, so I have a healthy selection of prayers to chose from. Most of the time I recite a prayer to Asherah, or Hadad, or both. Sometimes I’ll offer a prayer to another deity. On occasion I’ll sing, which is tricky since the Canaanite pantheon is a rather obscure and there aren’t many chants or songs dedicated to them. A year ago I came across this chant (it’s in Hebrew), and found that the translation fits well enough with the flow of the song that it can be sung in English. Sometimes I reach into the bag of Neopagan chants I’ve learned over the years from various drum circles and festivals, and find one that make at least some sort of sense in this context. One of my favorite chants to sing to the Canaanite gods is “The River She is Flowing.”  Although the Canaanite deity of both rivers and the sea is a god called Yam, this chant still makes me think of Asherah.  And if you want to see a room of young children grow silent and still, sing this chant to them.  I have personally witness this. Another chant I like to use is “Slowly Blooms the Rose Within.” That last chants is actually a Contemplative Christian chant but it works for me. Asherah is sometime associated with the rose (this is a modern association but that’s fine with me), so it makes sense.  Sometimes I’ll skip all of this and op for a quick silence mediation or a Phoenician “rune” reading instead.

I end my ritual with a moment of silent contemplation (doesn’t always work, as I have a 4 year old daughter), and then by bowing one more time and saying something like, “I give honor, Shalam.” I usually leave the lamp burning until the incense goes out. Then I put out the flame with a candle snuffer. I don’t have any taboos about blowing out candles like some Wiccanesque pagans do. I do this for purely practical reasons, to prevent incense ash from going everywhere all over my altar. That is all, it is done.

If you’re interested in the ritual without all my commentary click over there (psst… it’s a PDF) —–> A Devotional Ritual to the Iluma

‘Ashuru Shamni

Modern Canaanites have two holidays that occur during or near the traditional Western holiday season. The first is ‘Ashuru ‘Ari which occurs on the Winter Solstice and is either a celebration centered around Asherah, or Shapsu (the Canaanite Sun goddess) depending on the individual practitioner. The second holiday is ‘Ashuru Shamni which occurs 7 days after the New Moon following the Winter Solstice. This winter ‘Ashuru Shamni occurs on December 28^th. From where I view things, ‘Ashuru Shamni is a similar holiday to Imbolc/Candlemas. On this day the ritual oil for the year is created and Ba’al Hadad is asked for His protection over the household. Offerings of scented oils and food are made, as well as gifts to the community such as donations to local food banks.

This will be the first Canaanite holiday I have celebrated. I’m not a Re-constructionists so I don’t follow Natib Qadish’s (Canaanite Polytheism) calendar, but I feel driven to celebrate this holiday. During the last year or so olive oil has become a big part of my spiritual practices. I use it as an anointing oil, as fuel for my oil lamp and occasionally as a libation.  Olive oil has been my go to cooking oil for most of my adult life (canola and corn oil are abominations to nature really bad for you). Between mundane life and my spiritual practices I go through at least two of those huge jugs/tin canisters a year. Olive oil has a huge presence in this household, so celebrating this holiday just seems right. Also Ba’al is one of my main gods and I haven’t done a formal ritual dedicated to Him yet.

I plan on making a special meal (probably something Mediterranean/middle eastern inspired) and baking a loaf of bread for dipping, yum. I’ll make an oil offering, and the best way I know how to do this is by burning an oil lamp. I will also be making small batches of ritual oils, as I have found that olive based perfume oils don’t make it a full year before they start getting a little funky. (Maybe it’s because I live in a warm climate, I dunno.) I haven’t made a food donation yet this Holiday season, so I’ll make sure to drop off some non-perishables in Ba’al honor soon.

Modern Prayer to Ba’al Hadad

Peace to Ba’al Hadad

Our Beloved, Champion and Lord

Rider on the Clouds

Your clouds roll over the mountains like troops marching to battle

The thunder, Your fearsome voice

shakes us free of our complacent comfort

The softly falling rain

an invitation to take rest for our mundane concerns

The lighting, Driver and Chaser

Orchestrate a brilliant light show like fire works in the distant clouds

In Your foot prints

Flora and Fauna thrive and know life.

Peace to Ba’al Hadad and Your entourage

The Rains, Your daughters

The Vine and Field, Your servants

God who tasted death

was mourned

and reborn through the might of Your companion Anat

Bless us with Your virility and strength

We give honor

Shalam