The Beauty of Baal (Worship)

Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. 1 Kings 19:2

And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. 1 Kings 21:7

 ----------------/The Beauty of Baal (Worship); Jezebel’s Thoughts As Jehu Approached Jezreel

And these are the things I learned as a little girl

in the temple of Baal:

coercion, hedonism, lust, intrigue, hasty hegemony:

to take what you want when you wanted it as grand metaphor

for living, honoring fertility our strictest paradigm, exorbitant increase

to parlay, to seduce to sexualize the culture’s consciousness

men and women lulled satisfied as yet unaware of consequence

temple sex suffused with incense on altars

women with women, breast on breast

(or that pitiably theyre already souls surrendered) in retrospect this was

heedless philosophy, careless theology

for laxity, the immediacy of appeasing a nations neurotic impulse

to secure divinity’s favor with grain

even at the cost of burning babies, smoke of the innocent rises

the serpentine smirk of the gods, the soot left behind comingled with blood

little bones of excess charred

in my peripheral vision detritus mixed with toe 

for the sake of the greater good promulgated by men in pompous robe

and yet hedonism only engenders anger that insatiable thirst for more

jewels, fields, priests, exotic spices….and power yet never enough

you shiver at night next to your husband uncontrollably, involuntarily

bemused beneath his quizzical midnight gaze

lying that all is well, your shrieking heart ready to explode amidst sweating

profuse

pleading with your subconscious to consider the contrary…

a little too late. It was into carnage and aristocratic condescension I was born

and to which I shall return as dust, make up, cleavage and braids

tears and blood

I will honor you Ethbaal, my father

and Baal my God

we will trample Israel until Israel tramples us

if she refuses to subjugate herself before your mighty hand

because…

we never knew another way did we Pop?

we never knew anything, Baal

but treachery

And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. 2 Kings 9:33-35