BA�AL: - We have covered the importance of Ba'al and the fact that he or she is many gods throughout many cultures which we think began in Keltic lands of pre-Ice Age times, but if Churchward is right may originate in a Phoenician 'Brotherhood' of Polynesia over 200,000 years ago. He certainly would agree that the T-square which is so important to Masonry and which became associated with Ptah in Egypt has over 50,000 years and possibly the very 200,000 years or more that he thinks spiritual awareness or instruction began. The T-square and Baphomet or Bathomet are two of many symbols on the stele I found in Chichen Itza. Thus it might be wise for us to delve into the etymology of Ba'al in the view of Masons who are outgrowths of Tuthmosis's re-organization of 'mystery cults' and have much to do with the myths of Christianity. We look again to the British Intelligence network and their one-time esoteric scholar David Barrett for a devilish plot.


"THE WORD' JAHBULON'


Until 1989, when a Mason was initiated into the Holy Royal Arch he was given the secret word 'Jahbulon'. This one word is responsible for much of the religious controversy about Freemasonry - and for a vast amount of misunderstanding and misdirection. Since Stephen Knight's 'The Brotherhood' {Another author who followed his work tells the mysterious nature of the demise of Knight and the use of medical methods in innocuous social settings by the Masons to deal with their enemies.} has received such a high profile over the last dozen years, and is still being quoted as gospel, {It is important to note Barrett admits he honours the Official Secrets Act, and that there are many Masons in government especially in England.} it seems necessary to note in passing certain of its claims and suggestions.


Knight, quite correctly, breaks Jahbulon down into three syllables revealing, quite incorrectly, 'a precise designation that describes a specific supernatural being - a compound deity composed of three separate personalities fused in one'. These are, in Knight's words:
YAH = Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews.
BUL = Baal, the ancient Canaanite fertility god associated with 'licentious rites of imitative magic'.
ON = Osiris, the Ancient Egyptian god of the underworld.


Note the pejorative slant of the description of the second syllable; more subtly, note that Yahweh is 'God', while Baal and Osiris are 'god'. Knight then goes on to discuss Baal: (1)


�the 'false god' with whom Yahweh competed for the allegiance of the Israelites {There was a time when the portrayal Knight makes had validity in the eyes of the proselytes or at least their 'flock'.}... the sixteenth-century demonologist John Weir identified Baal as a devil. This grotesque manifestation of evil had the body of a spider and three heads - those of a man, a toad and a cat. A description of Baal to be found in de Plancy's 'Dictionary of Witchcraft' is particularly apposite when considered in the light of the secretive and deceptive nature of Freemasonry: his voice was raucous, and he taught his followers guile, cunning and the ability to become invisible {In a social manner the Masons are definitely able to blend and fit and their own members are often not clued in to the uppermost plans of their group.}. (2)


This passage reveals a number of unexamined assumptions {He is right to note these things and especially about the 'Malleus' which was the handbook of heresy trials, but he isn't telling the truth I am sure he knows either.}. First, and most simply, medieval and Renaissance demonologists, following the lead of Sprenger and Kramer in 'Malleus Maleficarum' (1486), used their imagination to paint demons as terrifyingly as possible {And at the same time make 'familiars' like my cat 'Boo' seem a vile 'witches ally' rather than a help to know the soul and our true potential. That is why the cat in the three heads of Weir's Baal.}. Second, it is standard practice for one religion to demonize the Gods of another {N.B.}; it is equivalent to the malign propaganda that politicians of different parties spread about each other today {It is so good to have the bureaucrats telling truths about their 'front men'.}. Third, is Baal being seen as a Canaanite God, or as a demon, or as a devil, or by the next page, as 'THE' Devil? As a logical progression it is fallacious, but it slips by very easily on the emotive level, allowing Knight to say a few pages further on, 'The implication was clear: if Christ was an acceptable part of Freemasonry even to a non-Christian, why not the devil as well?'


{Beelzebub is another adaptation of BL and Baal but the devil concept is most related to the Goat of Mendes, although the worship of the devil really never existed until the Catholics created him around the 14th century in such directed work as the 'Inferno' by Dante Alighieri. I recently met a student at the U of T whose specialty was Dante and she knew little of the motivation and direction of the church.}


Instead of blithely accepting the colourful fictions of medieval demonology as fact, it is worth looking at Baal more closely.


The word 'ba'al' is simply Hebrew for 'lord, master, possessor or husband'; with different suffixes, it appears several times in the Old Testament in personal names and place names {E.g. Baalbek and Jezebel.}. It came to be applied as a title (not a name) for the God of the Canaanites, but in itself it is a neutral descriptive term {So true! The real forces needed to be known rather than idly worshipped. In a far earlier time than Hebrew when the Pyramid and Sphinx were built many more people were aware of the representational deity 'term'[as he uses the word] rather than some ignorant glorification of the interpreters whose priestcraft sought power for themselves and their politician/aristocrats.},not a name. The plural word 'baalim' used in the Old Testament refers to different local deities, the 'masters' or 'owners' {Does this fit with emporiae having corporate owners of trading colonies?} of different peoples {Or employees.}. It should be remembered that we are talking about a time when every 'nation' was basically a tribe, and every tribe had its own God or Gods.


The situation is further muddied by the name 'Beelzebub'. However one views Beelzebub - as the Devil (theologically unlikely), or a devil, or a 'demon' (the word translated 'devils' in Mark 3:22), or as its original meaning, the title 'Ba'al-zbub', meaning Lord or Master of the Flies, which was simply the Israelites insulting their neighboring tribe's God - it doesn't affect the fact that 'ba'al' merely means 'master'. {Was Jesus not a 'master' or adept?}


The fact that the word 'ba'al' is not regarded by Jews with the righteous horror given to it by Knight and others is borne out by its use in the title 'Baal Shem Tov' meaning 'master of the Good Name' or 'good master of the Name', given to the highly respected Israel ben Eliezer (1700-60), the Polish founder of Hasidic Judaism.


{A highly Kabalistic orthodoxy that is much closer to what Knight and some Christians would call devil-worship in a full appreciation thereof - but in reality a much closer insight to our true nature that Baal or 'BL' really stood to convey.}


Interestingly, in the 'Ugaritic' {A tribe of Semites being better understood through the linguistic work of those like Cyrus Gordon. Gurdjieff wrote a book called 'Tales of Beelzebub' that I recall may have had two companion volumes in blue hardcover. He spoke of being 1/16th 'speaker' and one of if not THE last 'speaker'. A 'speaker' had the oral tradition genetically infused and imbued into their consciousness through generations according to one interpretation I find some favour with.} Canaanite myths, Baal is the son of the High God, El. S. H. Hooke, Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of London, points out 'how much of the Baal myth was taken over by the Hebrews {As we have noted W. F. Albright says the Bible is a Phoenician/Canaanite legacy.} and transferred to Yahweh when they settled in Canaan,' (3) {But it actually occurred for the real Masons and 'arch-tectons' far earlier in their colony of Egypt set up by Osiris and Isis. The tribes of Israel are not any more or less homogeneous than others even if a little less than the Berbers who some say were Bedouins who the Canaanites sprung from around the 4th Millennium B.C. when they came out of the desert. 'Bedouin' being another epithet reflecting negatively upon tent dwellers and not real at all.} emphasizing still more the great care that needs to be taken (and rarely is) {N.B. And SO right!} when in the late twentieth century one discusses the origins of belief, some three to four thousand years ago, in what is now known as the Judaeo-Christian God {Also Islamic which is even closer to the Ur-stories as Jung calls the whole complex.}. Neither Christian nor Jewish theology arrived fully formed out of nowhere.


Far from being the Devil, then, Baal means 'master', and usually, but not always, refers to one particular early tribal God at a time when, to be historically factual, Yahweh was simply another particular early tribal God.


Rather than relying on Knight's exposition, it is worth quoting what the Freemasons themselves say about Jahbulon, in the lecture immediately following the revelation of the word to the Holy Royal Arch initiate.


It is a compound word, and the combination forms the word Jahbulon.


It is in four languages, Chaldee, Hebrew, Syriac and Egyptian. Jah is the Chaldee name of God, signifying His Essence and Majesty Incomprehensible. It is also a Hebrew word, signifying I am and shall be {Omega has a similar concept.}, thereby expressing the actual, future, and eternal existence of the Most High. Bul is a Syriac word denoting Lord or Powerful, it is in itself a compound word {Those who know the Druidic roots like Thomas Paine and his fellow Fraternitas Rosicruciaea of the Council of Three like Ben Franklin also know it is BL or Bel, which we see in Mesopotamia and the Hyperborean 'north' of Norse and Irish Kelts.}, being formed from the preposition Beth, in or on, and UI, Heaven, or on High, therefore the meaning of the word is Lord in Heaven, or on High. On is an Egyptian word, signifying Father of All, as in that well-known prayer, Our Father, which art in Heaven. The various significations of the words may be thus collected: I am and shall be; Lord in Heaven or on High:
Father of All: In every age,
In every clime adored {This even speaks directly to the worldwide nature of all history which they were involved in.}
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove or Lord. (4)
Whatever the validity of this etymology, the sentiment is somewhat different from Knight's interpretation. Is there not a case for accepting what the Freemasons themselves say they intend the word Jahbulon to represent?� (5)


A good argument; but we must remember some Masons are wise and there are many layers and intents along the path of their hierarchy. True their description is far closer to a truth than Knight but Knight's insight may be right despite what their half-truths may seek to hide. Barrett goes on to say there is nothing which this and other Masonic words say which is contrary to orthodox Christian teaching. Still he knows the roots of Christianity and he knows the 'churchianity' that prevails therein. He speaks with all the wisdom of a Soc Rocs or multi-titled Grand or Omnipotent Potentate himself. Why is it so hard to simply say 'All right we all have erred and sought power�? Let's start acting according to commonly held agreeable ethics and principles and tell truth when we are able to know and admit we never will know it all ('Incomprehensible' as they say')?!

http://www.hiddenmysteries.com/redir/index153.html

Acharya just said to say hi to Rob McConnell for her so I thought I would post this here.