Interview with Tess Dawson: Qadish and author of Whisper of Stone

What advice would you give someone interested in exploring your religion? How should they go about getting started?

Read all you can; looking up both "Canaan" and "Ugarit" or "Ugaritic" will yield more results since many of the religious texts come from the city of Ugarit, but also try "Levant," or "Levantine." Read as much as you can from different resources; all scholars see the same information from many different angles, disciplines, backgrounds, and biases. History and historical fact are seldom hard-and-fast; even something as seemingly objective as a date can change as science develops new dating techniques or recent finds bring enlightenment. It also helps a great deal to network with others who honor the Canaanite pantheon, or who take up polytheistic Near and Middle Eastern ways. Networking provides fellowship and an active, supportive environment in which to explore ideas. Connecting with others can also help you find advice, assistance, and support when you need it.

Do you have any other projects currently in the works?

I do, indeed. This January I've been offered a contract for The Horned Altar: Canaanite Magic through Llewellyn. I'm collecting and editing Anointed: A Devotional Anthology for Near and Middle Eastern Deities, which will be published through Bibliotheca Alexandrina this summer. I have an article about animal sacrifice that is slated for publication in Witches and Pagans magazine in the next couple of years, an essay for Damon ZachariasLycourinos' anthology on occult traditions, and an essay in Lupa's forthcoming anthology on animal sacrifice. I'm also working on a couple of fiction pieces on the rare moments I get to them. And as always, I continue networking to bring Canaanite and Near/Middle Eastern polytheists together.

Yishlam le-kumu, "Peace and wellbeing to you all," in Ugaritic.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with my readers and me.

For those Pagans who may sometimes despair of our religions ever regaining the strength, cohesiveness, and legitimacy that they once possessed, think on this: 2,000 years ago Islam did not exist. Judaism was a minority religion just barely tolerated by the Roman government, and Christianity a low-class cult dismissed by most civilized people if not as openly atheistic, then as perverted and immoral. (For more information read book ten of the epistles of Pliny the Younger). Now they are the largest and most dominant religions of our world. All we can do is honor our Gods, our ancestors and never, ever stop—for Them, for ourselves, and for the benefit of the generations that will come after us. After all, things change and sometimes, just sometimes, if we work very hard, they come full circle.

Order Whisper of Stone here.