Nyxifer
February 10, 2018, 6:39pm
10
There’s not much out there that I could find about the origins of Belial, other than this passage from EA Koetting’s essay “Belial’s Rage”, found in Anthology of Sorcery, Vol. 3 :
One of the earliest permutations of Belial, one of the first masks that The Lawless One took, was that of Belili, not a demon but a goddess of the fields, goddess of mercy, goddess of the Lilies of the Valley and the fertility of the spring soil. Her brother, Tammuz, god of the harvest, had violated DIvine Law, and was being sought out by Erishkigal, goddess of the underworld, who had sent her enforcers to collect Tammuz.
Thrice he escaped Chthonic law enforcement, due only to the help of his sister, Belili.
Erishkigal, being all-knowing, eventually led her minions to his capture. They dragged him and his sister to the underworld, seeking to establish Tammuz as a force of power there alongside the Queen of Hell. Belili pled on his behalf and offered herself up as a sacrifice instead. Erishkigal agreed that Belili could take her brother’s place in the underworld for half of the year, allowing Tammuz to return to the earth during the harvest and the winter seasons.
With her power and her beauty, Belili came to rule over the underworld, second only to Erishkigal. When she returned to the earth, those who worshipped her would give her offerings and pour forth prayers to her so that when she descended again to the underworld that she would use her new command over darkness itself to lift her worshippers out of their own prisons, or to send forth the armies of the underworld to take revenge on tyrants.
Belili’s agreement with Erishkigal had establishd her as a force for change within the very system that she desired to change.
Belial, the new mask of this same Ancient God, bears similar hatred for tyranny, and causes those tyrannical systems to break down from within.
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