Babalon

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The deity herself

Babalon is the feminine principle in the Thelemic cosmology. Her godform is that of a sacred whore, her primary symbol, the Chalice or Graal. The concept contained within her idea is that of the mystical ideal, the quest to become one with all. This process necessarily requires refusing to deny anything, becoming perfectly passive the world, allowing all experience to come forward, abandoning oneself into the deluge of sensation. Through this, the mystic comes to direct contact with life, formulating the wine of the Graal, being the distilled understanding derived from raw experience. This process clearly has its analogue in the career of the lady of the night.

Babalon is described in various places in the Thelemic texts, but her most edifying appearance is in The Vision and the Voice, as part of the vision which explains the function of the Chalice:

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.

With the breath of her kisses hath she fermented it, and it hath become the wine of the Sacrament, the wine of the Sabbath; and in the Holy Assembly hath she poured it out for her worshippers, and they had become drunken thereon, so that face to face they beheld my Father. Thus are they made worthy to become partakers of the Mystery of this holy vessel, for the blood is the life. So sitteth she from age to age, and the righteous are never weary of her kisses, and by her murders and fornications she seduceth the world. Therein is manifested the glory of my Father, who is truth.

(This wine is such that its virtue radiateth through the cup, and I reel under the intoxication of it. And every thought is destroyed by it. It abideth alone, and its name is Compassion. I understand by "Compassion," the sacrament of suffering, partaken by the true worshippers of the Highest. And it is an ecstasy in which there is no trace of pain. Its passivity (=passion) is like the giving-up of the self to the beloved.)

The voice continues: 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 herself 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!

— The Vision and the Voice, 12th Aethyr, Aleister Crowley.

The spelling of her Name as 'Babalon' is not revealed until the vision of the 10th Aethyr, where it is used to banish the forces of Choronzon. The discovery of the spelling represents Crowley successfully crossing the Abyss, and entering into the Sphere of Binah, which is also attributed to Babalon.

Biblical origins

Principally, the godform of Babalon seems to be derived from a scene in the Revelations, a source of much inspiration in Crowley's cosmology. In Revelations, we find this passage:

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

— Revelations 17:3-6

The text goes on to identify her as the female complement of the Beast, an image also transported into Thelema.

Etymology

The name Babalon may derive from several sources. Firstly, there is the obvious resemblance to Babylon. Babylon was a major city in Mesopotamia, part of the Sumerian culture. Coincidentally, the Sumerian deity Ishtar bears an uncanny resemblance to the Crowleyan Babalon. Babylon itself is a city that is referred to in several places in the Bible, usually as an image of a once-glorious paradise that has fallen into ruin, a warning against the evils of decadence:

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

— Revelations 18:1-5

A second possibility is from the Enochian word BABALOND, which is translated a harlot.

Crowley probably chose the spelling of Babalon for its Qabalistic significance. By replacing the letter 'y' with an 'a', the word 'AL' appears in the centre. The whole then naturally breaks into Bab-al-on. 'Bab' is Arabic for a door, or gate. 'AL' is the Key of Liber Legis, and is also a Qabalistic title of God, meaning 'The One' in Hebrew. 'On' is the name of the Egyptian city that the Greeks called Heliopolis, the City of the Pyramids.

References

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