Witch Hunt, In the Desert of Set

The Semitic storm God, Ba'al Hadad — The Semitic storm God, Ba’al Hadad

Everyone who keeps repeating this bullshit about “worshiping Ba’al” needs to treat themselves to a nice hot cup of SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP.

When people start murdering people in the name of HaShem, Jesus or Allah, you don’t get to re-write the narrative and blame Paganism.

A Near Eastern polytheist storm deity is not in any way, shape or form responsible for the evil things that people who claim to be Christian, Muslim, or Jewish are doing.

Saying, “These people aren’t really worshiping ‘God,’ they’re worshiping BA’AL” is real fucking cheap. Their evil and hypocrisy can’t POSSIBLY be due to something toxic within their very own religions, cultures or power structures, right? It HAS to be some kind of external “Pagan” influence, right? Because absolutely nothing good can ever come from anything that isn’t monotheism, right?

It is vital that we distinguish historical polytheism from the ghoulish polemics of monotheistic establishments. Modern claims of “Ba’al” or “Moloch” worship among global elites are based on ancient propaganda, not archaeological reality.

“Ba’al” is not a name; it is a Semitic title meaning “Lord,” “Master,” or “Owner.” Historically, it was applied to numerous distinct deities, such as Baal Hadad (storm god) or Baal Melqart. Treating “Ba’al” as a singular, demonic entity is a historical oversimplification used by biblical redactors to demonize neighboring cultures.

Modern scholarship suggests “Moloch” was never a deity. The term likely derives from the Punic word mlk (molk), referring to a type of sacrifice or votive offering.

The “Bull Oven”: There is zero archaeological evidence of a “bronze bull” used for burning infants. These accounts were largely Greek and Roman literary inventions (e.g., Diodorus Siculus) used to justify the destruction of Carthage.

The Tophets: While infant burial sites (Tophets) exist, osteological evidence suggests many remains were infants who died of natural causes. In a time of high infant mortality, these cremations were likely a ritualized return of the deceased to the gods, not mass murder.

The “infant sacrifice” trope is a recurring tool of blood libel. Just as the Romans used it against Carthage and medieval Christians used it against the Irish (Crom Cruach), modern fundamentalists use it to demonize “Pagans” and those supporting reproductive freedom. This mythologizing transforms political enemies into “barbaric sociopaths.”

There is no organized, well-funded community of “Ba’al worshipers” today. Contemporary polytheists are decentralized and lack the resources to fund global conspiracies. Those currently holding power and committing atrocities typically align with Abrahamic traditions or secularism, not ancient Levantine polytheism.

“Moloch” is a centuries-old polemic. Insisting that modern atrocities are “Moloch worship” only serves the evangelical establishment’s goal of demonizing minority faiths.

So I mean this from the very bottom of my heart: FUCK you. FUCK you and your privilege, FUCK you and your “spiritual warfare,” FUCK you and your satanic panics, and FUCK you and your cheap, fragile, performative, empty-headed “faith.”

Satan Sells

I am extremely upset to see people who are Pagans, polytheists or witches repeating these allegations that Epstein was a “Satanist.” I expect that kind of bullshit from evangelicals, but not from my own people. This is straight out of the 1980s Satanic Panic, and you should all KNOW BETTER. You are not doing Paganism, polytheism, or witchcraft any favors by peddling that stuff.

We all need to be VERY FUCKING CLEAR that there has NEVER been an international Satanist conspiracy to abuse, murder, or cannibalize entire populations of children. This entire construct is rooted in both anti-Pagan and anti-Semitic tropes. It was used in the 1980s and 1990s to distract the masses from REAL cases of systemic abuse that were happening in Christian churches and other spaces that nobody wanted to think about at the time. After all, it’s so much easier to protect an abusive priest or minister if you have everyone in your neighborhood terrified that “witches” are coming for their kids. That way, the neighbors are too busy keeping an eye out for the “devil worshipers” to even notice the abusers in their own midst.

If you’re Pagan and you are immediately jumping to this “Epstein was a Satanist” baloney, you are ignoring the fact that most of the people associated with Epstein seem to consider themselves Christian. You are ignoring the fact that a person does not HAVE to “worship Satan” to be evil; they can worship Christ, or at least claim to do so, and STILL be fucking evil. You are ignoring the fact that the entire time they had us terrified of an imaginary Satanic pedophile conspiracy, they were building and nurturing a REAL LIFE CHRISTIAN pedophile conspiracy. You are also ignoring the fact that repeating these tropes is actively harmful to our community, and will have negative consequences for ALL of us. The outside world is just too fucking stupid for us to be playing games with this shit.

I highly doubt Epstein believed in anything—and even if he did, it was only performative at best. His actions are already horrific enough for what they really are; they don’t need to be embellished with medieval tropes that have been used against various minorities over and over again. Seeing certain people in my own community share stories of Epstein making pacts with “Baal” or cooking and eating babies for some kind of magical ritual is just…really, really demoralizing. It would be one thing if there were actual evidence of these stories, but there (predictably) isn’t, which means these people are participating in a rumor panic.

Tag: Witch Hunt

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