Description

Many forms, sometimes appears as a cat, or a toad, or a king, or heck, all three at once.

Story Notes

A great example of the complicated life cycle of a demon: originally there was no specific Ba’al, the word means something like “lord” or “king,” and is a generic title for any number of gods. Over time, one specific Ba’al (Ba’al-Hadad) became the main owner of the title, and gained a body of lore (slaying dragons, dying and being reborn, and so on.) In a sense, he became two gods, as he was syncretized with Set and his legends became a part of the Egyptian pantheon (see the Hyskos invasion). He may have evolved side by side with Yahweh in the Canaanite pantheon, but ultimately, Jahweh became ascendant, and Ba’al, his chief rival, played an ongoing series of villain parts in the ongoing story of the tribes of Israel, ultimately becoming one of the great demon kings and one of the various faces of the devil himself.

It is just possible that Ba’al, or at least one of the Ba’als, is the original El, the god that started as Yahweh’s father and ended up being swallowed up by Jahweh’s growing myth.

As a demon, Ba’al is strangely generic for someone with such an ancient pedigree. He’s one of the highest of demons, but the grimoire tradition doesn’t have much to say about him, beyond that he’s a powerful figure.

Links

wiki – demonic paradise – grimoire.org – occult world – bible history: ba’al worship