Abstract

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues, the local Neopagan community performed a peace ritual with the assistance of the local Canaanite gods Ba’al and Anat.

Keywords: Ritual, Ba’al, Anat, Neopagan, Israel, Palestinian

Since the Jews were exiled from Israel the second time, under the Romans in 70 C.E, their collective dream has always been to return home and build a state of their own. While a very small number of Jews remained in Israel, and some Jews came to live here during the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate, the Holocaust was the driving force behind the outcry for a state. On 14th of May 1948, the state of Israel was officially born (The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2013). Unfortunately, the State of Israel has not had peace since then. After the War of Independence, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated and lived in relative short-term peace, in a poor and war-torn country that began rebuilding with the assistance of its diverse local and immigrant population that did not necessarily speak the same language at first.

The wars, military operations and terrorist attacks in Israel have never been over. Fathers, grandfathers, uncles and cousins who go to their yearly army duties, do so in the fervent hope that their descendants will live in peace and not have to go to the mandatory army service in the IDF for both women and men at the age of eighteen. Currently, although there is no war per-se, the suicide bombings of busses, malls and bus stations continue. Furthermore, organized terrorist groups or solitary terrorists shoot, bomb or knife random civilians — including children — in their own homes, and in the streets, shops, restaurants, nature reserves, and coffee shops. They ignite forest fires all over the country. Rockets sent by the Palestinians, that have farther reach, kill and wound people and destroy homes in cities. Additionally, a huge number of balloons carrying explosives, sent by the Palestinian population on the Gaza border, burn down forests, corn and vegetable fields and fruit trees on the Israeli side. In the past few years, sirens have sometimes gone off up to thirty times during a twenty-four hour period. The worse the attacks are, the worse the IDF retaliation is. Needless to explain, then, why so many Israeli children who live in the southern areas of Israel suffer from post-trauma. While explaining the Israeli side of the conflict, one must be aware that the Palestinians too, have a right to their own country, pending a peace agreement, and more force is not the answer to any type of conflict.

This extremely complicated situation exacerbates the disagreement between the Right and the Left within the Israeli population who have completely different visions of how to end the struggle, although both sides unify in the face of conflict. If there is a skirmish in the South of Israel, then the rest of the population will open their homes to families from the area and vice versa if the fight is up North. Israelis can dispute amongst themselves for any and every reason but once they are collectively in danger, they stick together through thick and thin as brothers in arms. This is one of the most amazing and unfathomable qualities that prevail in Israel no matter what, who, where or when. Within the Israeli Neopagan community that mainly exists within the broom-closet since it is not acceptable to be a Neopagan in Israel, there are individuals with different political views. However, the subject of politics is almost never a topic of debate. What is important to the rather eclectic local Neopagan community, as it is to most of the Israelis, is to put an end to the wars, skirmishes and terrorist attacks. The preoccupation of the community — which includes Canaanites, Neo-Shamans, Reclaiming, Druids, Wiccans, Kemetics, Asatru, etc. — is to devise magical rituals to bring about peace, or at least some type of prolific discourse between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership.

Ba’al throwing a Thunderbolt. Louvre Museum [Public domain]

With time, and the growth of the Israeli Neopagan community in both age and numbers, Canaanism has begun to flourish, and the community’s joint rituals have been increasingly geared towards the inclusion of local Canaanite deities. “Ultimately this is based on the desire to return to origins, in the belief that early cultures had a relationship with nature and divinity that we have lost.” (Magliocco, 2004, p. 214) This mainly stems from the yearning of the local community members to synchronize themselves with the natural cycles of the land and incorporate what they define as its local deities.

The participants who come to a public Neopagan ritual in Israel expect the basic format of circle creation, evocations/invocations, libations, guided trance, power raising, acts that are either magical or at least have magical symbolism, and finally the release of the Gods, the elements and the circle. Consequently, I shall convey the ritual constructed on the Ugarit Ba’al Cycle texts translated to Hebrew by Noga and Guy Darshan, by emphasizing parts of the legend on the theme of peace by the organizer who employed her own paraphrase.

Anat: Camocon [CC0] Bronze figurine of Anat wearing a crown with arm raised (originally holding an axe or club), dated to 1400–1200 BC, found in Syria.

The first evocation, paraphrased (Darshan, 2009), was to the god Ba’al with the following words:

Hail Ba’al who sits in his mountain of power within the vast northern mountain. He who holds seven rods of lightning and eight thunder treasures. His head is wonderful with curls on his brow, trampling his enemies on the downs. His head beams among the snow and there is plenty of water at his feet. (p. 84)

According to the Ugarit texts Ba’al who was exhausted from the battles against his enemies, summoned his servants Gafen and Ugar telling them to go to his sister Anat the war goddess to put an end to the raging wars.

The second evocation, paraphrased (Darshan, 2009), was to the goddess Anat with the following words:

On the first day, you were born and on the second day, you confiscated your enemies. On the third day, you caused them to fall on the ground and flew away with your eagles. I am aware that you sat on the soft cliffs. Your temple is an innocent one, your altar is covered with gold, and your silver statue is more beautiful than the stars. Anat the mighty, the Mistress of kingship, the Mistress of dominion, Mistress of the high heavens and owner of the lofty skies with a tiara. (p. 85)

The participants turned to face the outside perimeter of the circle and poured libations of olive oil on the trees and stones around them including the stones they brought from home and continued with their evocation to the goddess Anat.

The second section of the evocation for Anat, paraphrased (Darshan, 2009) was how Ba’al asked his sister Anat to put an end to the war.

Say to the Maiden Anat, recite to the Mistress of the Peoples: Message of Baal the Conqueror of Warriors: Remove war from the earth, set love in the ground, pour peace into the heart of the earth, tranquility into the heart of the fields. Hasten! Hurry! Rush! Run to me with your feet, race to me with your legs. For I have a word to tell you, a message to recount to you: the word of the tree and the whisper of the stone, the murmur of the heavens to the earth, of the seas to the stars. (p. 90),

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Unfortunately, the ritual did not have any impact on the situation, dampening the hopes of the community to bring about some type of prolific discourse between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership. Although, the idea of organizing additional communal peace rituals has come up a number of times, it seems that the community has lost its faith in its ability to do anything significant, as a group, given the current political conditions. In spite of that, and since the conflict persists, many Israeli Neopagans continue to perform solitary peace rituals.

Despite the complicated situation, what is ultimately important to the Israeli Neopagan community is that magic has always been residing within them, since the dawn of time. They hope that all they have to do is to dig deeper into their collective unconscious, to awaken its power and, just maybe, they will succeed in bringing about peace, or at least a productive dialogue.

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