Ritualistic Baal worship, in sum, looked a little like this: Adults would gather around the altar of Baal. Infants would then be burned alive as a sacrificial offering to the deity. Amid horrific screams and the stench of charred human flesh, congregants — men and women alike — would engage in bisexual orgies.
Baal in the Levant
The Phoenician city of Baalbek (in modern-day Lebanon) was his cult center where he was worshipped with his consort Astarte, goddess of love, sexuality, and war (associated with the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, among others).
Hadad/Baal was the god of fertility, or reproduction/childbirth, as well as the god of rain and storms. There is a certain logic to having the same deity rule over fertility as well as rain since the rain ensures the fertility and survival of plant and animal species as well as humans.
Baal's worshipers appeased him by offering sacrifices, usually animals such as sheep or bulls (1 Kings 18:23).
It was the program of Jezebel, in the 9th century BCE, to introduce into Israel's capital city of Samaria her Phoenician worship of Baal as opposed to the worship of Yahweh that made the name anathema to the Israelites.
So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit--the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
Baal had a magnificent temple in Tyre, which was founded by Hiram, the King of Tyre. Not only human sacrifices, but also the grossest sensuality characterized the worship of Baal. Tammuz is another form of the sun-god who is represented as being slain by the boar's tusk of winter.
According to some sources, he can make people wise, speaks hoarsely, and carries ashes in his pocket. While his Semitic predecessor was depicted as a horned man or a bull, the demon Baal was in grimoire tradition said to appear in the forms of a man, cat, toad, or combinations thereof.
As mother goddess she was widely worshiped throughout Syria and Palestine, although she was frequently paired with Baal, who often took the place of El; as Baal's consort, Asherah was usually given the name Baalat.
The priests of Baal prayed to their god from morning until noon, but nothing happened. Elijah joked with them and said their god Baal must be asleep. The priests grew angry, jumped on the altar, and shouted into the evening. They hoped their god would answer, but there was still no fire.
The term "Baal" is also a title that means "Lord," which was originally used in reference to other deities. Over time, the figure Baal fused with that of Hadad, a deity with dominion over the weather and fertility and whose symbol was the bull.
People were often worked up into great frenzies at the prospects of displeasing Baal. In times of great turbulence human sacrifices, particularly children, were made to this father of the gods!
The Zeus-bull connection goes even further, however, to one of the most infamous deities in the Bible: Baal. That's because Zeus is the Greek equivalent of the Canaanite-Phoenician god Baal (in the same way that the Roman Jupiter is the later equivalent of Zeus).
Baal was worshipped in Canaan, the land that is now modern Israel or Palestine, before the entry of the Hebrew people into that territory after around 1250 B.C. In the Ugaritic language that was used in the fertile crescent, Baal was a storm god, the son of the dominant Ugaritic god named El.
Seth-Baal is a winged deity that appears on scarabs in the late New Kingdom (ca. 1295–1070 B.C.). When the Near Eastern storm god Baal was introduced in Egypt at the end of the Middle Kingdom, he was identified with the Egyptian god of chaos (and bad weather), Seth.
Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing. Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.
Authors of a new book say they have evidence to back up claims the savior was married to Mary Magdalene.
Baal was the original Electro Archon and Raiden Shogun of Inazuma, also known as Raiden Makoto.
The Ugaritic Baal Cycle cites three of Baal's daughters: Pidray, Tallay, and Arsay. These three characters have not been fully studied, despite their status as the children of one of the major figures among the gods of Ugarit.
Baal, god worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, especially among the Canaanites, who apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon.
Mot, (West Semitic: “Death”) ancient West Semitic god of the dead and of all the powers that opposed life and fertility. He was the favourite son of the god El, and the most prominent enemy of the god Baal, a god of springs, sky, and fertility. Mot was the god of sterility and the master of all barren places.
In artistic depictions and archeological finds, Baal took the shape of a bull or ram and had associations with fertility. This god also, apparently according to Canaanite lore, defeated El and had associations with the sun and thunder.
Of special importance in this story is the idea that Baal was supposed to be the god of fertility, meaning he was the god that made crops grow by giving rain, sun, good soil, and so on. Baal should have been able to send the people rain, but he couldn't because he is a false god and has no power (see D&C 29:28–29).