THE SEED OF AMALEK

"TO WIPE OFF THE SEED OF AMALEK"

On 7 December 2023 Israeli soldiers were witnessed by journalists celebrating their intent to
obey the scriptural command “to wipe off the seed of Amalek”1 in reference to Gaza. This
celebratory event followed Benjamin Netanyahu’s instruction to “remember what Amalek has
done to you.”

The celebration by Israeli soldiers of this scriptural command followed Netanyahu’s invocation
of the biblical memory of Amalek as the ground invasion of Gaza was launched on 28 October
2023. In Deuteronomy the command is given to remember the attack by the Amalekites on the
Israelites as they came out of Egypt. “Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way
when you came out of Egypt… you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do
not forget!”2

Invocation of this memory is central to the aims and conduct of the war. The religious
inspiration for the assault defines its entire character and potentially its legacy. The eradication
of Amalek from the face of the earth is the touchstone of the conflict and inevitably
necessitates the mass slaughter of children as implied by the biblical command to take revenge
on Amalek. The explicit scriptural instruction in 1 Samuel is to slaughter children and infants.

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel
when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally
destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women,
children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”3
It is this archaic deity, associated by the cult of child sacrifice with Saturn, that demands the
sacrifice of every human and every animal that forms the nation of Amalekite. Tacitus draws
parallels between worship of the Jewish deity and that of Saturn and equates the two deities.
“Others maintain that they do this in honour of Saturn, either because their religious principles
are derived from the Idaei, who are supposed to have been driven out with Saturn and become
the ancestors of the Jewish people; or else because, of the seven stars which govern the lives of
men, the star of Saturn moves in the topmost orbit and exercises the mightiest influence, and
also because most of the heavenly bodies move round their course in multitudes of seven.
Whatever their origin, these rites are sanctioned by their antiquity.”4

The paths of the ‘wandering stars,’ as they were termed in antiquity, could be seen to follow the
ecliptic line as they traversed the relatively static stellar backdrop. They comprised the five
known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) which when added to the Sun and the
Moon formed the seven heavenly bodies referenced by Tacitus. All these moving ‘stars’
essentially follow the ecliptic path which is perceived as an arc across the sky metaphorically
described by Hesiod as a gigantic sickle.

“Then the son (Saturn) from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the
great sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his father’s members and cast them away
to fall behind him. And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that
gushed forth earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bore the strong Erinyes and
the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs
whom they call Meliae all over the boundless earth.”5

Macrobius refers to the myth of Saturn devouring his own sons and then vomiting them up
again. The text includes a reference to Jupiter as his son and thus in this context Saturn devours
the other male denominated planets. “They say that he (Saturn) was accustomed to swallowing
his sons and then vomiting them back up: this also signifies that he is time, which by turns
creates and destroys all things and then gives birth to them again.”6
The curving linear path of the Sun through the heavens is known as the ecliptic with the planets
following the same path tracing giant sickle-shaped arcs across the vault of the heavens. The
other known planets in antiquity have much shorter orbits of the Sun than Saturn whose orbit
takes approximately thirty years. Hence they can be said to be continuously devoured and then
vomited up again by the timescale allotted to Saturn.

The continuous devouring of the other planets, or his sons, by Saturn is a theory that explains
the original act of heavenly castration. Semen streaming from the heavens as a consequence of
the castration created all the primary elements. This procreative force was transferred to water
and then to the goddess that was born from the seminal foam.

Varro states that this goddess was born from fiery semen that fell from the sky. “The poets, in
that they say the fiery semen fell from the Sky into the sea and Venus (Aphrodite) was born
‘from the foam-masses,’ through the conjunction of fire and moisture, are indicating that this vis
‘force’ which they have is that of Venus. Those born of this vis have what is called vita ‘life’...”7

The use of the expression ‘foam-masses’ clearly indicates that Varro is speaking of the myth
recited by Hesiod about the birth of Aphrodite Urania. In this vision the stars become the seed
of the gods filling the night sky with a shining heavenly foam. Ouranos, the deity representing
the vault of the heavens, was castrated with a gigantic scythe wielded by Saturn. Aphrodite
Urania emerged from the foam surrounding the severed genitals of Ouranos. According to
Hesiod this seminal foam formed the heavenly body of the goddess.

“And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the
surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time; and a white foam spread around
them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden… Her gods and men call Aphrodite
(Venus) and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the
foam…”8
According to Macrobius, primordial semen from the heavens flowed down to earth (semina
rerum omnium post caelum gignendarum de caelo fluerent). The text is probably a reference to
the Milky Way, visible to the naked eye, and resembling shining foam containing countless stars.
From this river of semen the heavens transferred creative generation to the primal waters of the
earth.

“They say that he (Saturn) cut off the genitals of his father, Heaven, and that when these were
cast into the sea Venus was engendered, taking the name Aphrodite from the foam from which
she was formed… The capacity for engendering living things in an unbroken sequence of
reproduction was transferred from water to Venus, so that all things would thenceforth come
into being through the intercourse of male and female.”9

The shining aetherial foam of the euphemistically named Milky Way represented the ejaculatory
trace of the gods in the night sky. A comparative vision is contained in an Orphic text, the
Derveni Papyrus, which states that “the deity ingested (or swallowed) the phallus that
procreated the aether.”10

From this phallus, formed of the foaming aetherial clouds at the centre of the universe, flowed
deified semen into the primordial ocean. The ancients believed, as is still the contemporary
belief, that the genesis of human life lay in the foaming clusters of stars that they perceived in
the heavens.

The path of the Sun along the ecliptic path, or heavenly sickle-shaped arc, intersects the
celestial equator at the autumnal equinox marking the beginning of the diminution of its power.
The Sun was thus castrated at the autumnal equinox and then regenerated from the spring
equinox. The mutilation of the heavens with an adamantine sickle expresses the castration of
the Sun through observation of the planetary paths that cross the night sky in sickle-shaped
arcs.
The ecliptic arc is responsible for the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon as their paths intersect
each other under certain conditions. These eclipses, especially solar eclipses, are metaphorically
comparable to the weakening virility resulting from human castration. Mutilation of the Sun in a
solar eclipse reflected the mutilation of human genitalia.

Circumcision is a less extreme homage to the act of cosmic castration and binds the human to
the original castrating act. The deity is the cause of the cosmic semen that flows from the
heavens and which engenders humans. The bond is reinforced by the practice of circumcision
which through its phallic nature relates back to the semen of the deity.

Semen of the opposing deity was seen as being contained in the children of the opposing
religions. The Bible commands that the Israelites must not pass their seed through the fire of
Moloch. The children of those worshipping Moloch are defined as the seed, or semen, of
Moloch. “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch, neither shalt
thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.”11

The words used in the Latin text of ‘Saturnalia’ denote both the concept of cutting or severing
with that of reaping. The agricultural symbolism of reaping crops was intrinsic to the idea of
cutting the human lifespan. In this context Macrobius states that the name ‘Saturn’ was derived
from the Greek ‘sathe’ which meant, according to him, the erect phallus: “quae membrum virile
declarat.”
The upward curving shape of the phallus was equivalent to the scythe or sickle and thus the
agricultural equation to human sexuality and mortality is emphasized. According to Macrobius
the name of Saturn is associated with the phallic satyrs which were prone to lust: quae
membrum virile declarat, veluti Sathurnum: inde etiam satyros veluti sathyros, quod sint in
libidinem proni…”12

Thus the deified erect phallus is directly equivalent to the sickle which reaps crops and is the
instrument of castration. The intersection of the ecliptic and celestial equator arcs marks the
period of autumnal decay and seeming death of vegetation. Rituals that focus on castration are
metaphorical rites that replicate the cutting of the path of the Sun, and the diminution of its life
force. Similar rituals held at the vernal equinox reinforced the vanquishing of the Sun’s
weakening torpor or disease and a return to regenerative virility.

The act of eliminating the seed or semen of the opposing deity is presented within the scriptural
context of an ultimate sacrifice to the supposed true deity. “Now go, attack the Amalekites and
totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and
women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”13

Prior to the current Gaza conflict the Israeli military strategy aimed at degrading the strip’s
military potential without committing to long-term occupation. This strategy was termed
‘mowing the grass.’ The extreme intensification of the conflict is now accompanied by the
invocation to “wipe off the seed of Amalek.” This is a call for the eradication of a populace
containing the semen of a rival or hostile deity. Consequently the elimination of children and
infants becomes consistent with the overall aim of wiping out the semen of a competing deity.

The command to totally destroy Amalek, including “children and infants” is given within the
context of a sacrifice in propitiation to the supreme deity. “The Hebrew term (in reference to
the term “destroy everything” in this scriptural text) refers to the irrevocable giving over of
things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them…”14
The religious imperative is to ensure the eradication of the rival deity’s DNA, seed or semen and
offering it to the perceived true deity. Ultimately the aim is to erase the genetic code of the rival
deity.

“And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the
Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.”15

1. International Court of Justice - evidence presented 11 January 2024

2. Deuteronomy 25:17-19
3. 1 Samuel 15:2-3
4. Tacitus - Histories 5.4-5
5. Hesiod - Theogony 178-188
6. Macrobius - Saturnalia 1.8.10
7. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.63
8. Hesiod - Theogony 176-180
9. Macrobius - Saturnalia 1.8.6-8
10. Derveni Papyrus
11. Leviticus 18:21
12. Macrobius - Saturnalia 1.8.9
13. 1 Samuel 15:3
14. NIV Bible translation notes
15. 1 Samuel 15:18