There was a Ninja, some woman with green hair named Gertrude, probably my sister Vengeance, and Lord Skywalker. You know. The one that likes to snorkle.) colabed on a story! The Baal in the Devil’s Court. Dealer’s choice Patreon reward for Nova Quill/Firimil. · 1:40am Feb 28th, 2018
Hey readers! Running super late on blog posts mostly on account that February has traditionally, and continues to be, a garbage fire of a month for me. Buuuut the show must go on, so happy Patreon reward to Nova Quill/Firimill and let’s hope the worst is probably behind me! Discreetly wraps on the wooden wall.
Speaking of things that might be behind you, yes, you, personally, let’s talk about Satan… and I don’t mean the White Stripes Album.
Insert clever joke about this album here! I don’t know… There’s like a few good songs on it? And some other songs are grating? Like most White Stripes albums? I guess? What do you want from me?!
Anyways, I said Satan, but what we’re really here to talk about is Ba’al/Baal/Bael. Now, Ba’al can kinda refer to a few different things as it’s a word that basically just means “Lord” in the Northwest Semitic languages (Aramaic, Canaanite, some extinct languages).
But languages, on the other hand…
The focus here is to talk about Baal the demon and his/it’s background. The confusion coming from that it’s still unclear what Ba’al this is historically. See, Baal, like many demons, got his start being a rival deity to the Hebrews. However, he/it might be wining the “medal count” as it were because “Ba’al” appears about 90 times in the Hebrew scriptures in regards many different deities, possibly even referring t the “Capital G” himself. Granted, some scholars say the evidence regarding the Israelite’s calling the Y to the H to the W back to the H is flimsy at best. The Dictonary of Dieties and Demons in The Bible is particularly snide on that topic.
Not pictured: chill.
Still, Baal’s gotten, well… not the shortest stick, but certainly not the longest as we’ll get to.
Most the ire against the name (specifically just ‘Ba’al’) which likely led to the literal (in pretty much every sense of the word) demonizing of a god comes 1 Kings out of Jewish and Christian canon in regards to Jezebel gathering some Canaanite priests of Ba’al so she could have a “god-off” with the prophet Elijah.
Spoiler alert: Things do not go well for the priests of Ba’al
Scholars seem to have narrowed the Ba’al field down to either this guy or this…these… guys…Also, quite possible THIS guy Except for this/THAT guy is likely the source of a different demon then Ba’al, Beelzebub, but maybe Beelzebub got his/it’s start as a Philistine god of the city Ekron… Yeah… again, there were a lot Ba’als back in the day, and also gods in general, and few people wrote anything down so ancient historians still haven’t sorted this all out. Oh! To compound things, Ba’al and Hadad (the diety formally known as this/that guy) might have been the same deity at the time of Kings, but may have split to two distinct deities several hundred years later. Still, whichever Ba’al it was found itself demonized because that’s generally what happens to rival gods to the God of the Israelites. Though, the words “child sacrifices” often get thrown around by scholars and historians when it comes to some of these rival gods, so it’s maybe not that hard to understand why.
Anyhow, the various bad Ba’als in the Bible possibly became multiple demons in 17th century goetic writings, the Baal we’re mostly talking about got his big break in the Lesser Keys of Solomon where he/it’s the first demon listed, and is also listed as a King in this book. In the Dictionnare Infernal he’s listed as the commander and chief of the armies of Hell. He’s also listed as a Duke in some sources…
Yeah, demonology isn’t exactly known for having a comprehensive canon…
As mentioned, further confusion comes from the existence of the demon Beelzebub on goetic writings with the name Beelzebub likely stemming from mentions in 2 Kings and Mark, Matthew, and Luke from the New Testament. Given the Beelzebub showed up in passages about the J-man, he/it tends to get a lot more focus in many goetic writings and also popular culture. In addition to having a loftier position in Hell’s hierarchy than Baal when both shop up in text (if there’s an example to the contrary anywhere, please show me, I would not mind being proved wrong here) including sometimes being the Lord/Emperor of Hell, he/it’s also associated with the sin gluttony where’s Baal doesn’t seem to be associated with any of the seven deadly sins.
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, eh Baal? Sweet crown, though.
Still, Baal has shown up in at least twoMLP fanfictions, so that’s gotta count for something, right?
Anyhow, Nova Quill/Firimill let me blog about whatever I wanted this month and I picked one of my favorite occult demons. If you, yes you, want to get in on this sweet monthly blog action, visit my Patreon! Blogs that are supposed to be done THIS month likely to come early NEXT month because of reasons!
Catch you, yes you, in the comments!
I'm just happy with the Baal from Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.
Well, demonology as a whole is a bit of a ... mixed bag in regards to who did what to where and at what time.
Fascinating read my friend, thank you for giving me something to learn today. :)
I mean, isn’t it lovely when Christianity and obscure Celtic Mysticism have a love child from hell? I’m personally a fan.
I apologize for being a hopeless Grammar Nazi, but...
Should actually be "Discretely raps on the wooden wall."
Sorry...
((Heil Thesaurus...))
Bleeds together with Moloch at the fringes, doesn't our man Ba'al? Since Moloch was basically Phoenician and Ba'al Palestinian/Semitic. I tend to favor Moloch as a devil because of Ginsburg and 'Howl' but I guess that's more of an aesthetic choice.
I tried to do some stuff with Lord Paimon from the Ars Goetia once, but it never really went anywhere. He kinda just went "you do not interest me" then left. I've had more luck with angelic entities and Enochian shenanigans.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
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