#canaanite

"Star of Ghassul" wall painting from Teleilat Ghassul; Ghassulian culture, Late Chalcolithic, c. 4000–3900 BCE. (Drabsch and Bourke, 2019)

In the poorly-understood religion of preliterate Semitic-speaking peoples, the planet Venus appears to have been worshipped as a male Morning Star (ʿAthtar) and a female Evening Star (ʿAthtart) ("The Sumerian goddess Inanna (3400–2200 BC)" (1994), Paul Collins, pp. 110–11). This is reversed in the Northwest Semitic scheme for reasons I can't quite remember (Ritual and Cult at Ugarit (2002), Dennis Pardee, p. 275). This may have even deeper, more mystical roots, with it being supposed based on their art that the people of the Chalcolithic Ghassulian culture conceived of Venus and its motions in relation to the cycles of life and death (The Mysterious Wall Paintings of Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan: In Context (2015), Bernadette Drabsch, pp. 32, 57, 154, 162).

Ancient depictions of ʿAshtart in gender-ambiguous form (Sugimoto, 2015)

Although ʿAshtart and ʿAshtar (the "th" sound shifting to a "sh" in most of the relevant Semitic languages) developed with their own distinct identities in the various places they were worshipped, the gender-fluid aspect never quite faded away. Some ancient depictions of ʿAshtart give her a beard and even a penis combined with feminine characteristics such as breasts ("The Judean Pillar Figurines and the 'Queen of Heaven'", David T. Sugimoto, in Transformation of a Goddess: Ishtar ­– Astarte ­– Aphrodite (2014), Sugimoto (ed.), pp. 158–164; see also the case of a peculiar mask from Carthage). An association with gender-variant priests is also quite ancient and consistent, as seen with the gala of Inanna-Ishtar and the eunuch priesthood of ʿAttarʿatta (a combination of ʿAshtart and ʿAnat; Atargatis in Greek). This fascinatingly found its way as far as the Eurasian steppe, as after incursions by the Scythians reached ʿAshtart's cult center in Ashkelon they began maintaining a transfeminine priesthood, whose members were called Anarya ("un-man", Greek: Enaree), who served the androgynous goddess Artimpasa (Herodotus gives pejorative accounts in Histories 1.105 and 4.76).

Terracotta mask of the bearded ʿAshtart; Carthage necropolis, c. mid-7th – early 6th century BCE. (The Louvre)

Baal-Set / Set-Sapouna / Baal-Zaphon

Four depictions of the syncretic "Egyptian Baal" identified with Set.

From :

A Fresh Look at the Baal-Zaphon Stele

Eythan Levy

The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 100(1):293-310

Anat - 𐎓𐎐𐎚

Anat, the girl/adolescent.

War goddess, sister of Baal, the nuclear bomb of the ancient Canaanite pantheon.

She's a vibe and I love her, have a doodle from the Baal Cycle.

This is her father, btw, the supreme god of the pantheon, just so you know.

And he yields to her threats immediatly.

And doodles from the Aqhat text, where she is at her most unfair imo.

As she tries to bribe away Divine bow and arrows gifted to the hero Aqhat, and the young man is punished for rightfully standing his ground.

Every time I talk to a Christian about the Bible we eventually find ourselves on the topic of the Canaanites. and can I just say, I really fucking despise the way that the entire Canaanite culture and mythology has become completely disrespected and belittled by most people based on the way the Israelites described them.

“Well they deserved to die because they were all evil”

For one, there’s absolutely no historical or anthropological evidence to support this idea that the Canaanites were an evil society. What is known as Molochian infanticide and sacrifice were very likely offerings made out of stillborn babies, considering that around 50% of infants born in antiquity would die. The Israelites themselves participated in a similar practice in the name of Yahweh. And on top of that, the Israelites themselves were Canaanite, there is no archaeological definition of "Canaanite" that excludes Israel. The Israelites and Judahites were Canaanite kingdoms with Canaanite material culture that emerged in the Iron Age, speaking a Canaanite language and following Canaanite religious practices. Within the Deuteronomistic history of the Bible, "Canaanite" is a term used for othering the people of the land who do not belong to the narrow political/ethnic faction that was re-establishing its authority in Jerusalem in the post-exilic period when these texts were being compiled.

I despise this idea that says that the Canaanite culture was simply evil and wicked. Even now like 100,000 years later, most people only know of the Canaanites as the “bad people who deserved to die” and that’s heartbreaking to me. These were real people with families, beliefs and feelings, aspirations for the future. Canaanite mythology is SO COOL and majorly influenced Judaism and Christianity. It’s incredible that 100,000 year old propaganda still works this well. People read in the Bible that an entire civilization of indigenous people (that part is incredibly important) worshipping their local Gods, are evil and that they don’t deserve to live on their own land, and think, “well that all checks out. Surely there are no other motivations for the Isrealites to say these things.”

Someone told you “an entire society of people are 100% evil” and you actually fucking fell for it. Like this is fascism 101.

I don’t mean this to come off as a “fuck the Isrealites” take because I also consider their culture and stories to be just as important and worth talking about as the Canaanites. I understand that people have always had disagreements and that the Isrealites were working in their best interests. My disappointment is with people today, in modern society, who have access to information and can learn the truth about these things, but just continue to believe that these people are evil and insignificant because it’s easier to continue thinking that. I believe that there are complicated people in every society. I do not believe that an entire society is evil and worthy of cruelty. And I fucking hate that the legacy of the Canaanites is just as the evil people that God destroyed.

Working with Lady Lilith

To start off, there is a common misconception I would like to address. Judaistic Demonology is not typically seen as closed by many practitioners of demonolatry and demonomancy, not to say that Judaism as a religious practice isn’t.

Lilith is a part of Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Canaanite, Hebrew, Mandaean, Persian, Sabaean and Arabic myth and folklore. She also appears in Christian folklore as well, so she isn’t typically viewed as a deity from a closed practice.

Anyone can work with Lilith, and I cannot recommend her enough. She is a wonderful demoness/goddess to select as a matron! Lilith is either seen as a demoness, or as the primordial aspect of the divine feminine and a goddess of the night. She rules over darkness, the moon, sexuality, fertility, the shadow self (great for shadow work), feminine power, equality, freedom, the divine feminine, and seduction.

She teaches the witch to find his/her inner voice, she does work with men and does not dislike them, as well as their personal power. She also aids in opening the solar plexus and heart chakras, which are seen as sacred to her.

SOME COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS FOR LILITH:

She hates men. She actually works with men and women, and holds no favoritism towards either.

She doesn’t like working with pregnant women. Not true in the slightest. She holds no biases towards motherhood and pregnancy.

She is related to radical feminism.

I often refer to her as “momma Lilith” or “mother,” since she is so influential in my life. She is helping me to speak my feelings more.

Some holidays to celebrate Lilith are Beltane (fertility aspect) and Samhain.

Another unique fact are her two main aspects: The Younger Lilith, and the Lady of Night. The Lady of Night is married to Samael (one of the many aspects of Lucifer), while the Yonger Lilith is married to Asmodeus, who has three aspects himself (described in my post Working with Asmodeus).

For anyone just starting with demonolatry and demonomancy, I highly recommend Lilith!

As always, research any and every Satan diabolical I talk about here. I keep my explanations short to promote research.

When I searched up what a meat-hammer was I was shown pictures of meat tenderizers… I think this is funnier. I love how the footnotes are ~he probably swore.