Book excerpt: The Great Canaanite God Baal is one of the most maligned deities in western religious history. Only Satan is considered more sinister and evil. This is sad because Baal is not evil at all but has been done an injustice and that is something I will be discussing at great length later in this book. Despite his falsely ascribed reputation in western religion, Baal is a mysterious God with qualities very similar to that of Yahweh of the Old Testament. In fact, they might be more alike than you can imagine. In general, the Canaanite pantheon is one of the most mysterious pantheons of the ancient Middle East. Because of the western taint, no one has truly discussed Baal in a way that does not reflect this bias. Sure, they have discussed him academically, but seldom spiritually without this weird negativity. Even other books that discuss Baal in magickal practice, do so with the inherent western bias that he is this shady, dark character with sinister motives. Yes, he like any other God and Goddess, has this side, but he was also prayed to and worshiped for good and benevolent reasons as well. He was, in fact, a savior-like figure. In this book, we will not only learn how to call upon this great God magickally, we will also dispel the myths surrounding him. As I do with all my books, I like to discuss history; I am an historian after all. We will cover: The history of Baal. His various aspects and forms. His worship and pervasiveness in ancient Biblical writings. A brief overview of the Baal Cycle. Why Baal is incorrectly equated with the Devil and evil in the West. Demonological References to Baal from the Most Obvious to the least and why they get it wrong. And finally, we will learn his great magick. He is very powerful, I must warn you. We have a lot to cover. Let us proceed.