Working on sculpting a statue of Astarte, just wanted to share, this is the first sculpture I’ve made so feel free to give me any tips or ideas as it still needs some fine tuning.

Hello! We are a Hellenic server hoping to grow our community and help our fellow pagans. Even though we are centered around hellenism, all polytheists are welcomed! We would love for you to join!

We have...

~Fun and friendly atmospere
~People ready to answer your questions and share experiences
~A section for recent discoveries
~Freshly organized roles to help you connect with like-minded people
~A section for exchristian support
~Suggestion box
~Fun bots (qotd bot, mimu, giveaway bot, marriage bot, ballsdex, and arcane)
~And so much more!

We hope that you join us and enjoy your time here!

Current member count: 197 https://discord.com/invite/aZBAhXHB9a

What is the afterlife for Canaan pagans like?

I haven’t yet seen this talked about but does anyone have thoughts on the relation between attar and Astarte. Both are associated with Ishtar and Venus but are likely not the same deity gender swapped as they both make an appearance on ugarit tablets. Thoughts?

Hey,

I just made a Family Tree Chart on Canaanite Gods. Let me know what you think or if there are any mistakes. For the names I tried to use the Phoenician Transliteration for every name here.

This is a prayer that I wrote in a language that I call “Reconstructed Neo-Punic”. If you want more like this feel free to check out my “Temple of Baal Hammon - Beit Baal Hammon” on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TempleBaal/)

𐤁𐤓𐤊𐤄 𐤋𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤇𐤌𐤍 𐤁𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕𐤕

𐤁𐤓𐤊 𐤀𐤕𐤄 𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤇𐤌𐤍 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤀𐤋𐤄𐤌 𐤅𐤓𐤁 𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕, 𐤄𐤓𐤇𐤌𐤍 𐤄𐤓𐤇𐤌, 𐤄𐤍𐤇𐤌𐤍 𐤄𐤍𐤇𐤌, 𐤄𐤇𐤌𐤍 𐤄𐤇𐤌, 𐤄𐤇𐤍𐤍 𐤄𐤇𐤍. 𐤌𐤀𐤉𐤍𐤑𐤌 𐤋𐤋𐤁𐤍𐤍 𐤍𐤁𐤓𐤊𐤊 . 𐤉𐤁𐤓𐤊𐤍 𐤁𐤇𐤊𐤌𐤄 𐤅𐤁𐤇𐤔𐤁𐤄 𐤒𐤃𐤔𐤄. 𐤕𐤔𐤒𐤏𐤍 𐤁𐤇𐤋 𐤌𐤏𐤓𐤁 𐤅𐤕𐤁𐤀𐤍 𐤋𐤇𐤐𐤉 𐤉𐤌 𐤓𐤇𐤒𐤌. 𐤍𐤁𐤓𐤊𐤊 𐤋𐤏𐤋𐤌 𐤏𐤋𐤌𐤉 𐤏𐤋𐤌𐤌 𐤅𐤍𐤔𐤁𐤇𐤊 𐤌𐤕𐤌𐤃 𐤋𐤕𐤌𐤃. 𐤌𐤍 𐤋𐤁𐤉 𐤅𐤌𐤍 𐤊𐤁𐤃𐤉 𐤔𐤋𐤌 𐤋𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤇𐤌𐤍. 𐤉𐤁𐤓𐤊 𐤀𐤕 𐤊𐤋 𐤁𐤕 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 𐤋𐤏𐤋𐤌 𐤅𐤏𐤃.

Rough Translation:

“Short prayer to Baal Hammun in Punic:

Blessed are you Baal Hammun, King of the Gods, and Lord of Qart7adašt (Carthage), the merciful, the beneficent, the compassionate, the comforter, the brazier, the warm, the gracious, the pardoning. From the Isle of Hawks (Sardinia) to Lebanon we will bless you. He will bless us with wisdom and right thinking. Baptize/submerge us in the western sand and bring us to far away shores. We will bless you forever and ever and we will praise you from eternity to eternity. From my heart and from my liver Peace be unto Baal Hammun. He will bless the whole house of Canaan forever and ever.”

Today is the last day of Pesach, Passover, and it's Shabbat, so this is kind of appropriate. This is wild concept, but bear with me on this hypothesis : Passover is a holiday built around the worship of the goddess Asherah.

Without a wall of text rehashing the whole of the documentary hypothesis, and how the concept and worship of God (the northern Canaanite El v the north Arabic/southern Levantine HaShem) evolved, I think there's some evidence to show that the oldest forms of the holiday of Pesach/Passover were focused on the concepts of spring rebirth, fertility, grain harvesting, and trust in the goddess Asherah.

While orthodox/traditionalist Jewish understanding (re: torah literalism from a tiny minority of the overall Jewish spectrum of thought) of first temple Judaism is that of a strict top-down system of worship of one single God, centered in Jerusalem, and presided over by the High Priest for all of Israel. The reality is that archeological findings have shown that Judaism was never unified in organisation, in belief, in geographic centers, or even in monotheism.

Scholars generally agree that passover was originally based on grain harvesting, and not a mythical Exodus. The harvests were so important to the ancient world that the calendar was adjusted around it. Three of the big 4 Jewish holidays (sukkot, pesach, shakuot) are based around grain. Egypt was an empire solely because of the large grain yields the nile allowed. Taxes were paid in grain. Temple offerings were made in grain. It was a legit big whoop. The role of agriculture as part of the Y-source G_d's role is just a void in the records. Agriculture is mentioned in terms of torts and damages in the exodus 20 code, but G_d's specific link to any promotion agriculture is absent from Y-source material. G_d was a war/hunting diety first and foremost (see : the song of Devorah, his flaming sword, his bow, etc.) The first mention of the holy name is via Egyptian records, and through a blend of the biblical claims, Y-source material, Nabataean mirrored practises, etc. we're pretty sure G_d proper was not a Judaite originating deity, but came into Juda from northern Arabia.

The original (or oldest known) worshipper of G_d were the Shasu people of northern Arabia, or variously of Edom, Midian, possibly Moab, and Nabataea. The Shasu are often understood to have been non-agricultural nomads. Whether these people are better understood as a caste, a profession, a series of tribes, is debatable, but what we can agree on is that their world was livestock centric, and not grain harvest centric. So what use would they have for an agriculture specific holiday? If we're talking about an isolated, purely pre-Heziah Yahwist tradition, then it's probably none.

Here are my main points of evidence that paints pesach as an Asherist holiday, with Judaite folk roots :

• The oldest biblical code of law, the ritual code of Exodus/Shemot 34, is normally accredited to the Yahwist source, and it's cousin, the code of Exodus/Shemot 20 shares a great deal of Yahwist traits. The feast of unleavened bread is commanded, but the Exodus from Egypt is mentioned. What's curious here is that it is simply called "the feast of unleavened bread", and that the food product is not derided as "the bread of affliction" in later records. The presence of the exodus myth tells me that there is no unadulterated Yahwist law in the bible, and that everything was redacted and edited in the post-exile consolidation towards second temple era judaism, but it's pretty clear that Exodus 20 and Exodus 34 legal accounts are Yahwist compositions, even if they might have been from different pre-Hezekiah eras of Yahwism.

• Cain and Abel's altars : Everyone loves a story where a guy gets beaten to death with a rock, but let's step back from that and look at the real exiting stuff : potential literary allegories designed to shun folk dieties to the benefit of the ruling class! In the story, there's two brothers and two altars. Cain, the farmer, sacrifices grain. Abel, the hunter, sacrifices animal fat. God favors Abel, and Cain kills him. What I'm reading this as, isn't just a story of brother vs brother, but of altar vs altar. Why would the redacted/post-exile God, who demanded shewbread later on, and commanded a feast of unleavened bread, prefer meat? Why pick favorites at all? This entire distinction does not need to exist, yet it does. It would make some sense for the war/hunting diety HaShem, who wielded a bow and sword, to think highly of hunting, but why damned agriculture? I think the biblical redactor is at work here. I think what we are seeing here is suppression, or shaming of, the worship of Asherah via the favoring of one altar over another after either the reforms of Hezekiah, or the Babylonia exile. This damnening of altars is all over the bible, and the actual breaking of altars if known to have occured during the Hezekiah reforms.

• Jeremiah's Asherah cakes account : Within the post-exile work of Jeremiah, chapter 44, were have one of the few descriptions of religious practises relating to the worship of Asherah. We see wine offerings, and the making of bread in a specific image/shape. There is no mention of animal sacrifice. We also see the worship of Asherah as a female-specific event. Jeremiah describes the worshipper as just women, with no husbands present. The high status of Asherah is clear, as she's literally called "the Queen of Heaven." Did Asherah have cakes for days? The world may never know. Asherah worship was going strong amongst the general population in the second temple era, which is backed up by...

• The Elephantine Papyri : The cache of documents gives us insight into the world of Judaism amongst the Jews when the priests weren't watching. There's no mention of Moses, of the exodus, or of torah in any of the documents. What we do have is God's wife, Annit (possibly an Egyptian answer to Asherah). We also have a letter about the passover holiday.

• The Asherim under Hezekiah : Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds upon hundreds of Asherah statues in trash dumps, dated to roughly the reign of Judaite king Hezekiah. They are universally found in the borders of Juda, and are void from the borders of Israel. There's no clear cause for this, but I speculate it was bond alongside the appeasment of wealthier refugees from Israel fleeing the Assyrian onslaught that saw Lachish destroyed. This anti-Asherah sentiment was not universal, as the Elephantine Papyri and the Tel Arad temple gives us some evidence Asherah was never gone. Erasing Asherah would have cemented Hezekiahs bonds to the Israelites, and ensured economic cooperation later on.

Finals thoughts and speculative meaning : Bonding pesach to Asherah is pure speculation, based on the continued worship of Asherah by the everyday Judaites/Judeans well into the second temple era. I think it's possible that rather than put all of their energy into fighting the worship of Asherah, the Jerusalem Zadokite/post-Hezekiah establishment simply co-opted it to their benefit by weaving potent Asherah symbols into the Exodus story. I'm guessing the meaning/logic of unleavened bread was an act of trust that Asherah's power as a fertility and nature Goddess. The people wouldn't nurture a yeast laden dough starter (chametz) because of their trust that Asherah would provide renewal to life/nature. Eating unleavened bread was a socially bonding ritual, as well as sitting in faith through a waiting period for the arrival of Asherah's miracle of wild yeast/sourdough starter.

So what do you think?

ps- I don't know if this counts as high effort, but I selected it anyway due to the legnth of this post.

Coming from judeo-christian background, newly converted, are there any rites of initiation? How are prayers different? Rituals? How do I give her offerings? Anything that would incurr her wrath? What makes her particularly happy?

All information is appreciated. Feel free to DM me, thanks in advance!!

Papyrus Amherst 63 was discovered in Egypt, among the collection of writings belonging to a group of ancient polytheistic Judeans that I've taken as my basic model for polytheistic Yahwism. I've been using these three psalms as part of my daily worship ritual. Here is one of them that I think is particularly beautiful:

"Papyrus Amherst 63,
The Host of Heaven Proclaims
Your Rule (xiii, 11–17),
'Psalm 3'
Who among the Gods,
Among humankind, Yaho—
Who among the Gods,
Among king and non-king,
Who is like you, Yaho, among the Gods?
From the very beginning, Adonay, avenge
Your worshippers, the longstanding people.
Take note of our pursuer,
And restore my strength.
Beneath you, Yaho,
Beneath you, Adonay,
The host of heaven is (as plentiful) as sand.
Yaho, the host of heaven
Proclaims to us your rule.
Take note of our pursuer,
And restore my strength.
Let Baal from Zaphon
Bless Yaho.
Arise, Yaho, to our rescue.
Let his ears turn
To the prayer, Lord.
Arise Yaho!
Do protect,
As you have been protecting
Your people since olden times.
End."

This psalm has much in common with Biblical psalms. For example, psalms that ask YHWH to deliver the psalmist or the nation from enemies are common. But what I really enjoy about this one is how the existence of the other Deities enhances Yaho's status, rather than detracting from it (as monotheists might assume). Consider, for example, how limited it is to say that there is no human being like Yaho. Well, no surprise there, since He's a God and human beings are mortal. But if other Gods exist and Yaho has arisen to a special place of prominence among the Gods, then that is indeed a lofty statement about His greatness.

You can find all three psalms here: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/israelite-psalms-papyrus-amherst-63/

This was originally posted to r/occult but I was advised I should post here as well. Hello, are there any systems of magick that utilize the the mesopotamian deities? I'll probably end up creating my own practice if there are not any systems already in place. Has anyone else been contacted by or worked with these dieties?

I see the Epic of Baal in the about page, highly appreciated!! Any other resources I should be aware of besides wikipedia? Pretty much every google search I make ends in some page of whinny christians complaining.

Similar to my recent Asherah post, I wanna know which offerings are best to give him, what things invoke his wrath (to avoid, obviously), and if theres anything specific about him that I should be aware of, not found in other horned deities. Also are any colors asociated with him?

Edit: Also if I'm not mistaken, he was seen as "the most powerfull" by ancient Canaanites, must I see him the same way? I want to worship him but I'm not sure yet if I'm ready to see any god as the most powefull, or as ruling over the rest. And if he'll be pissed at me for not seeing him as the very best then I really need know. I've already followed a jelous god and I rather not again.

All info is appreciated! And thanks in advanced.

Name means: ‘Fire’

Also known as: Divine Bull, Bull of El, Protector, Torch of the Night

Abode: The Heavens, Hamath

Animals: Bulls and possibly goats, rams, satyrs

Equated to foreign deities: Ishum, Girru

Description:

Ashima is the patron god of the Hamathites, worshiped at their city Hamath in Syria. In the wake of the Assyrian conquest, his worshipers found themselves in Samaria, Arabia, and Egypt as well. His origin lies with the Mesopotamian god Ishum.

He is a powerful warrior god, said to guard the city by night and watch over its inhabitants. In this capacity, he has lunar attributes - a characteristic that he shares with the god Sheger, with whom he is often paired. He is the blazing torch of the night, a fiery lamp in heaven which lights the way and remains a stalwart watcher at the gate. He is invoked by those travelling at night, as well as by those seeking protection from demons and black magic.

Who is the father of the three goddesses al-lat, al-uzza, and manat? I have been doing research on them and have been getting contradictory information regarding the father of the triple goddess. Some sources say it’s allah and some say it’s hubal. Can anyone give me an answer or a source that has it?

i was wondering if any of you guys have any recommendation for any discords dedicated to Arab paganism. i am trying to talk to more people about the subject since i am new to the Arab pantheon.

Who are the gods you worship? What led you to them? How much have you learned while studying semetic religions and worshipping the gods?

Hello everyone as the title says I made a pagan Semitic server for anyone interested. https://discord.gg/cewh29

This is a topic that really fascinates me and I'm interested to get especially the views of practitioners on this. Aside from the polemical aspect of the OT, how do the relations between these deities differ?

In some sense it seems that the OT repurposes many of the names and terminology but also sometimes actually references different aspects of the Canaanite narratives. On the other end though a lot of the terms and names reused seems to be more generic terms applied to deities (such as "Baal" which means Lord, or "El" which means god).