Blood and kisses

I Kings 18: [27] And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

[28] And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.

"They're cutting themselves with the purpose of getting Baal, the sun god, to act. Elijah begins to mock these prophets of Baal.

"Evidently Baal seems to be asleep, as Elijah says, or he's out doing business. So, the answer, in order to get Baal to act, is to begin to cut themselves to get the blood flowing.

"You can read in history about the idea of blood and this infatuation with the shedding of blood in order, either to appease the god, or to activate the god. We think, 'Oh, how ancient,' but that practice is alive and well, call it what you want.

I Kings 19:18: [18] Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

"They're kissing an image of Baal. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and part of the worship practiced during the Hajj is the worshippers circle the Kaaba seven times and then kiss the supposed black stone, which supposedly fell out of the sky from Allah, not from heaven but from where? The moon, the moon, the moon."

(new article tomorrow)