Children of Baal
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Children of Baal is a based-on-truth adventure thriller by Nero Calatrava, an academic writing under an alias. It follows the story of Nero and a woman named Yara, a young archaeologist he meets in Baalbek, as they go on a journey of dangerous historical and religious discovery. Although this book is a work of fiction the author maintains that parts of the story are real - and of religious and historical importance today. It is in essence a Dan Brown style "Davinci Code" story of the worship of Baal, the ancient Canaanite God. The
book is still available for sale on Amazon Books
here.
This
website was not made by the author and has not been created for profit. The site
URL was abandoned, and the professor calling himself Nero Calatrava seems to
have disappeared from public availability. He may have been persecuted and
threatened into silence... or worse. The creators of this new website purchased
the inactive web domain to take up the missing author's quest.
In the book, Nero Calatrava makes two sensational claims: 1. That he discovered (or at least has seen) fragments of an ancient and supposedly long lost text called The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel which in essence disproves a large part of Torah and Bible narrative. 2. That the author has met very small and isolated communities in Syria which have continued to worship Baal in an unbroken lineage from Biblical times until today. In addition making it part of the book's narrative, in 2016 Neo Calatrava also published an article about this at Patheos.com which is still online: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionnow/2016/06/do-people-still-worship-baal/ This perhaps contributes further perspective to his fictional work. Both of these claims are certainly plausible. There are tens of thousands of Near Eastern tablets and other writings which have not been translated, lurking in the storerooms of museums and other archives. Many of those basically unknown texts were written by pagan peoples which the authors of the Torah (and later the Bible and Quran) despised, and which would certainly hold a contrary story of religion and history. It is certainly not outrageous that an academic might find such a text one way or another, and find new truth revealed. Also, religions never truly die - most supposedly dead religions have a few faithful adherents around, both traditional ones and new. Those claims, while amazing and wonderful if true, are not the most important part of Children of Baal. The foremost wonder of this book is that it presents a genuine and sincere alternative religious world view. It reveals the ancient god Baal to be not the original Satan or some terrible demon, but instead genuine ancient deity that was related to and connected with Yahweh, and who fell victim the the obsessive hatred of a "jealous and vengeful" rival deity and his fanatical followers. This is the information you can't find in modern narrative. Why does Yahweh forbid "graven images", most especially of himself? Because he's not who you think he is, and seeing his true form would change everything about our world. This book tells the story of two different and equally valid areas of ancient Israel, the North, which worshipped Baal, and the South, which came to worship Yahweh with both frenzied fanaticism and xenophobic utter hatred. After centuries of conflict the South was victorious, and wrote the history we know today. Destruction, desecration, mass killing... such has been the work of the "good" god Yahweh and his followers ever since.
WHERE WE FEEL NEO CALATRAVA IS MISTAKEN: In Children of Baal the author states his belief that "Gods feed on the energy of their worshipers, like vampires." This rather common modern belief supposes that the less worship a God gets, the less energy they have - and if worship ends they die. This is likely why Nero believes it critical that some Baal worshipers remain; to him finding these worshipers means Baal isn't dead and he still exists today. The ancients knew differently. They believed that all Gods and Goddesses are Eternal and Unchanging, meaning they are always what they are and exist beyond the realm of Life and Death. They have existed from the Beginning and are a part of the structure of the universe itself. They lived before humans and will continue afterward. Therefore their being itself cannot be affected by humans through any means. Does that mean human faith, devotion and worship is useless? Not at all. Our worship does not affect what the Gods are, but it does help create and maintain their connection to this world. Our religious belief and action changes how our world touches the Gods. This is why all the so-called People of Abraham are filled with hatred of all other faith and religious practice. They demand that nothing else should exist, so they can own and control the world. Baal is as powerful today as in ancient Biblical times. The true issue is us being able to reach that power, not a worry it is diminished because Baal's worship was shattered in antiquity. We do forgive Nero for this misunderstanding regarding the nature of the Gods. He states he was an Atheist before writing the book so he surely was not familiar with all known ancient pagan religious theology.
WHERE WE BELIEVE NERO CALATRAVA IS CORRECT: There IS a valid and meaningful alternative view of religion out there, and there are still people who honor the ancient Canaanite storm god Baal. Whether they are old worshippers or new people questioning the narrative taught by Judaism, Christianity and Islam truly mattes not. Neo Calatrava also presents the idea that it is long time for the religious cycle of our world to change, and that moving beyond the age of Yahweh into a time of equality and tolerance is overdue.
ABOUT US: The creators of this website are not affiliated with the author Neo Calatrava. They are modern worshippers of Baal. Not Baal as a god of evil, but as an ancient deity of good who has been wronged through history and who deserves to have the truth known at last. We're not some conspiracy with evil intent. We are not at war with Yahweh and the religions of Abraham. We're simply people working to maintain the other side of religious truth and faith that was almost lost. Our hope is to right ancient wrongs and restore at least some of the truth of Baal in the world. We are working on our own books and other resources to help make this happen. Check here for future updates.
Presently we can be reached by email at: templeofbaal@proton.me .
******************* 2025 UPDATE:
Nero Calatrava's new book chapters sent to us may
be seen
here.
OTHER BAAL WORSHIP RESOURCES: 95% of the information about Baal available today is Christian propaganda. There is a whole industry of fear porn videos and books and literature which claim Baal is hiding behind every corner and responsible for all evil things everywhere, most especially including everything which plainly and obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with Baal in any way. They do indeed protest too much. There are a very few scholarly papers on the site Academia.edu which are not written by Rabbis and Priests of Yahweh, which at least give some history about Canaanite religion and Baal. You can download information for free and it's worth exploring. The book Jezebel by Leslie Hazelton (Also available on Amazon.com) tells the other side of the story of the famous queen who was "beloved by Baal." The book Whisper of Stone by Tess Dawson is currently the best "how to" book on ancient Canaanite pagan religion. While it does not focus on Baal very much, it does provide good information on how to get started on the ancient path. The book The Horned Altar, also by Tess Dawson is sadly out of print. It can be found on used book sources, sites like eBay, and possibly as pdf files online. As of this writing there is one copy on Amazon for $134.00 US... less expensive used copies can be found. You can also try an inter-library loan at your local library, and make a scan or copy if you can obtain it. Hopefully it will go into print again at some point.
A PRAYER: O Baal, Rider
of the Clouds, With the power of
thunder in your hand, O Lord of the
Skies, we call to you,
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