About Babalon and the Scarlet woman, her earthly representative

Gaining experience is much needed in the life of every seeker…
door Tsenne Kikke - donderdag 2 juni 2022 16:44

After viewing the documentary about what the 'Trojan Horse' might have been I received the inspiration to type out for myself the text below. And, as usual, dear reader, you are welcome to read it too.

In my life, I have admitted several Trojan Horse women, who sometimes looked quite innocent outwardly. Sometimes, because there were also some challenging types. In each initial phase, I saw them as a kind of God-given gift, but deep down they harboured the enemy of my inner self. In other words: I gave them temporary permission to make me stray from my path of Self-Knowledge...

In retrospect, I am grateful for all those experiences, because truths can only be known through lies.

However, I was warned by Aleister Crowley, head of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) in 1912 and founder of the Thelema religion (Greek for 'Will'), through his interpretation of Babalon and the related Scarlet Woman. 'Notified' is a strong word, for Crowley worshipped her.... 'Informed' would sound better in my case.

Scarlet Woman' was a title Crowley gave to his chief female lovers and magical partners, designating them as earthly representatives of Babalon.

In 1909 Crowley experimented with Enochian magic in the Algerian desert with his then lover and pupil Victor B. Neuburg (Crowley was bisexual and advocated free sexuality), having a series of visions, including one with a great goddess. Based on a 'positive reinterpretation' of the Whore of Babylon (Revelation Ch. 17), Crowley connected this goddess with the initiation test of crossing the Abyss, in which the seeker had to destroy his ego to become one with the All.

Crowley interpreted Babalon, the free femme fatale, as a soteriological ideal, and as a symbol of the assertive, transgressive female sexuality that erotically challenged and then threatened bourgeois, male rationality.

By the way: Soteriology is the doctrine of human salvation. Christianity states that man is sinful. Because of sin, man is powerless to work out his own salvation. That is why God sent his own son Jesus Christ into the world for the salvation of mankind. This salvation came about through both the life (active obedience) and suffering and death (passive obedience) of Christ on the cross after which, having conquered sin and death, He became alive again. Every person who accepts the meaning of this event in faith is saved (and this salvation is certain, although only complete after death). However, this salvation is not by their own merit, but by divine love and grace.

The theological discipline of soteriology studies the origin, essence and nature of, as well as the biblical evidence for, human salvation. This discipline is closely related to Christology, the doctrine of the person of Christ.

Another source concerning Babalon is found in the system of Enochian magic created by Dr. John Dee and Sir Edward Kelley in the 16th century. This system is based upon a unique language, Enochian, two words of which are certainly relevant. The first is BABALOND, which is translated as 'harlot'. The other is BABALON, which means 'wicked'. Some flavour of context in which they appear in can be found in a communication received by Dee and Kelley in 1587:

"I am the daughter of Fortitude, and ravished every hour from my youth. For behold I am Understanding and science dwelleth in me; and the heavens oppress me. They cover and desire me with infinite appetite; for none that are earthly have embraced me, for I am shadowed with the Circle of the Stars and covered with the morning clouds. My feet are swifter than the winds, and my hands are sweeter than the morning dew. My garments are from the beginning, and my dwelling place is in myself. The Lion knoweth not where I walk, neither do the beast of the fields understand me. I am deflowered, yet a virgin; I sanctify and am not sanctified. Happy is he that embraceth me: for in the night season I am sweet, and in the day full of pleasure. My company is a harmony of many symbols and my lips sweeter than health itself. I am a harlot for such as ravish me, and a virgin with such as know me not. For lo, I am loved of many, and I am a lover to many; and as many as come unto me as they should do, have entertainment.

Purge your streets, O ye sons of men, and wash your houses clean; make yourselves holy, and put on righteousness. Cast out your old strumpets, and burn their clothes; abstain from the company of other women that are defiled, that are sluttish, and not so handsome and beautiful as I, and then will I come and dwell amongst you: and behold, I will bring forth children unto you, and they shall be the Sons of Comfort. I will open my garments, and stand naked before you, that your love may be more enflamed toward me."

Within the mystical system of the A∴A∴, after the adept has attained the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, he then might reach the next and last great milestone — the crossing of the Abyss, that great spiritual wilderness of nothingness and dissolution. Choronzon is the dweller there, and its job is to trap the traveler in his meaningless world of illusion.

However, Babalon is just on the other side, beckoning. If the adept gives himself totally to her — the symbol of this act being the pouring of the adept’s blood into her graal — he becomes impregnated in her, then to be reborn as a Master of the Temple and a saint that dwells in the City of the Pyramids. From Crowley's book Magick Without Tears:

"[S]he guardeth the Abyss. And in her is a perfect purity of that which is above, yet she is sent as the Redeemer to them that are below. For there is no other way into the Supernal mystery but through her and the Beast on which she rideth. She cannot say no. Her decisions are devoid of authority. She is the fruit that will grow in a sea of darkness, the seed of light that the great Samael Satan has taken. The seed that will be the weapon that will make all the damned surpass the old god."

... and from The Vision and the Voice (12th Aethyr):

"Let him look upon the cup whose blood is mingled therein, for the wine of the cup is the blood of the saints. Glory unto the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, that rideth upon the Beast, for she hath spilt their blood in every corner of the earth and lo! she hath mingled it in the cup of her whoredom."

She is considered to be a sacred whore because she denies no one, and yet she extracts a great price — the very blood of the adept and their ego-identity as an earthly individual. This aspect of Babalon is described further from the 12th Aethyr:

"This is the Mystery of Babylon, the Mother of Abominations, and this is the mystery of her adulteries, for she hath yielded up herself to everything that liveth, and hath become a partaker in its mystery. And because she hath made her self the servant of each, therefore is she become the mistress of all. Not as yet canst thou comprehend her glory.

"Beautiful art thou, O Babylon, and desirable, for thou hast given thyself to everything that liveth, and thy weakness hath subdued their strength. For in that union thou didst understand. Therefore art thou called Understanding, O Babylon, Lady of the Night."

Source: Wikipedia

Another souvenir from 1976... I personally knew the members of this group. Sometimes I look back to an atmosphere that will of course never be repeated. Both the current and the next generations really do not realise what they are missing. On the other hand, the current period - however sterile and cool it may seem - also has its charms. :-)

Did you know, dear reader ...,

... that of all the thousands of monthly visitors, hardly anyone shares the blogs with others - via Facebook or Twitter, for example?... Can you do something about that? Thanks in advance!

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