Our Lady BABALON

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Since the First Edition of Babalon Unveiled was published it has come to our notice that some people have very strange ideas concerning who or what our Lady Babalon is, or what she symbolises. The following article is from the Second Edition.

Blake: BABALONBabalon, as divine personification and Shakti, who holds the power of ‘reversing time’ in the assimilation and reabsorption of all illusions of self, is integral to initiatic transmission and gnosis. Yet it is very common now to find ‘devotees’ of Babalon that are devoted to what can only be described as a kind of advertising agency notion of the ‘modern woman’. This involves a sexualised ideal of women that is a contradiction in itself, a dissociated idea of the self that could only come about in the confusion that owes to the spiritual vacuum of the present times. It persists in the ambiguous realm of fantasy—which also happens to be the realm used for selling products. Sadly, the licentious trading on the name of Babalon typifies the total inversion and parodying of all spiritual knowledge. It denies any possibility of real initiation while pretending to sell ‘liberation’ through the cynical commercial exploitation of completely ordinary human weakness and delusion.

Babalon, as she has come to be known, has vastly ancient origins. As we have mentioned earlier, her name derives from a corruption of the Egyptian per-hapi-en-aunnu, the ‘Nile Temple of Aunnu’.[1] The Nile Temple, dedicated to Hathoor the goddess of the sky and the divine pillar or initiatic axis that links heaven with earth, refers to the nome centre of the place named by the Greeks as Heliopolis, the City of the Sun. The name Hathoor (Het-hor) means literally ‘House of Horus’. Babalon is thus cognate with Nuit as the personification of the supreme principle. According to the book of Revelation 12: 1,

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

As ‘clothed with the sun’, Babalon signifies both the manifest and the unmanifest principle. Hathoor is notable for giving birth to Horus without the need for a father, which is indicative of a metaphysical understanding of reality that reaches beyond the cosmological level—though the latter is often the upper limit of what can be imagined by those who write on ‘ancient mysteries’.

The relatively modern spelling of the name Babalon was derived from the Enochian Keys. By Qabalistic values the name adds to 156, which is the number of the Zodiac as a unified principle (12 x 13).[2] From that we can ascertain that while the absolute principle is not altered by any conditions of manifestation, our Lady Babalon, in her manifest aspect, is the ruler of the cosmological sphere. As we know that Horus in his earliest form as Set-Mentu is the Legislator or Lord of the Cosmic Cycle, we can understand how it is not really possible to separate Horus from Hathoor, in the same way Shiva is not separate from Shakti and Hadit is not separate from Nuit, for these are dual aspects of the supreme principle. From the corporeal point of view, Babalon is the type of the human soul, named the Scarlet Woman in the (Egyptian) Book of the Law. As such, she suffers the burden of good and evil, which resides in the human heart.

We must here discern a difference between ‘heart’ as an analogy for spiritual intelligence and the conventional meaning of the word as merely emotion, instinct or sentiment. The ‘compassion and tenderness’ mentioned in the Book of the Law, which is no more than the sentimentalism that typifies our modern times, has negative implications for the soul.[3] The sympathy or feeling that the soul has is closely associated with her bodily emotions and mentality. Such ‘feeling’ thus easily becomes a mask for pride and egotism. While there is nothing wrong with love and kindness when it springs freely from the heart, the human mind has immense capacity for deception.

Scorpio, ruled by fiery Mars, the energy or ‘blood’ of life, is a correspondence of the Scarlet Woman. The number 156 also happens to be a number of Kemoz, an angel of Scorpio.[4] The name suggests ‘essence of darkness’, which is similar to what is said in the Sepher Yetzirah as descriptive of the fifteenth path of Aquarius and Nuit.[5] Darkness or blackness can symbolise the primordial state, which is identical with the supreme principle. In its inferior aspect, darkness is simply ignorance, so we are at once confronted with the dual nature of symbolism. Both aspects apply to the Scarlet Woman or human soul, for she must choose; to choose wisely she must learn the art of discrimination that makes true knowledge possible. As according to the Book of the Law, I: 57,

There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well!

The dove is the symbol of Deliverance, also the avatar that ascends and descends the axis or world tree as intermediary. It is inseparable from the symbolism of the Holy Graal. The serpent itself has a dual aspect, superior and inferior. Here it is played against the bird of heaven, as the Adversary or tendency towards evil that is in man. To a certain extent then, the soul must undergo trials in the underworld or infernal realm that has its equation with ‘ordinary life’, before reaching the centre of the labyrinth—all that which guards the true heart of knowledge. Once the centre is reached—if it is reached and not denied—it becomes possible for the soul’s initiatory death and resurrection or ascent.

Notes on our Lady Babalon

1. See ‘Babalon Unveiled’, Second Edition (Revised), p. 24.
2. The number 156 is also the number of squares in each of the Enochian Watchtowers. It is also that of the ‘Splenderous Eden’ (ODN KBVD).
3. Book of the Law, III: 43.
4. KMVTz (156) is Ruling Angel of the 1st Decanate of Scorpio.
5. See Thirty-two paths of Wisdom by the present author.

Our Lady Babalon is from Babalon Unveiled! Thelemic Monographs Second Edition (Revised). The article is there titled ‘Babalon Revisited’.

© Oliver St. John 2021, 2023

Books by Oliver St John

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Magick Here and Now

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Magick Here and Now is the title of a collection of previously unpublished articles by Oliver St. John. Here, some of the aims and core principles of the work are set out. Foremost is the need to lift the subject—and its practitioners—out of the morass to which modern magick has sunk over the last century and more, owing to its disconnection from all metaphysical and spiritual principles.

Magick Here and Now cover artAs we are going to talk about magick and the magician, it needs to be made clear that we are concerned here with reality on the individual, cosmic and absolute level. That means restoring the metaphysical principle to what has been lost, forgotten or deliberately obscured over time.[1] We are not interested in exploring imaginary worlds. René Guénon, founder of what has become known as the ‘traditionalist’ school of metaphysics, has concisely set forth our task in writing a book such as this, and the formidable difficulties involved:

“In our age the word ‘magic’ exercises a strange fascination over some people, and, as we have already noted, the weight given to such a point of view, even if in intention only, is still linked to the distortion of the traditional sciences when separated from their metaphysical principle. This is undoubtedly the major stumbling block that every attempt to reconstitute or restore such sciences is likely to face, unless one begins with what is truly the beginning in every respect, that is, the principle itself, which is at the same time the goal toward which all the rest must normally be directed.”[2]

Aim of Magick

To accomplish that aim we must first dispel the modern notion of ‘ordinary life’, which rigidly excludes the sacred and the supernatural, and which is a great obstacle to any such reconstitution. Modern man has become quite impermeable to any influences other than such as impinge on his senses; not only have his faculties of comprehension become increasingly limited but also the field of his perception has become correspondingly restricted. From this limited view rises the notion of a life in which nothing beyond the human can intervene in any way. This leads to the elimination of anything of a ritual or symbolical character. Everything that surpasses conceptions of the humanistic order is either expressly denied or otherwise relegated to the domain of the extraordinary. This is a complete reversal of the normal order as represented by integrally traditional civilisations where the possibility of spiritual influence goes without question.[3]

As ordinary life involves a more or less total reversal of the normal or traditional order of things—an order we have not seen for many centuries in the West—it is, as should be completely obvious to those who have observed modern civilisation without prejudice, a completely abnormal state of affairs. We must make it very clear we are not in any way concerned with changing the social order let alone changing the world or ‘saving the planet’. Our world always changes, as its nature is impermanence. Humanity is likewise defined by the fact that it is subject to birth, growth, decay and death, as are all other creatures on earth. Our subject here is magick as a traditional science inseparable from metaphysical principles, which means we are going to discuss various ways of escaping such limitations—that means being ‘more than human’. It is admitted that we must firstly pull ourselves up and away from the abyss of demonic and anti-spiritual influences to realise what being human can really mean. We will take a beating from life until we learn to overcome the demonic nature in us. Only then does the real journey of initiation begin. We are speaking here of demonic forces. Do we refer to supernatural entities? These are not ruled out but everyone experiences the direful afflictions of fear, greed, anger and lust when these take human form. That is how we experience them. Such afflictions easily become addictions for all the hell we suffer as a consequence. These feelings link us to sub-infra forces, by which is meant the powers that lurk on the lower threshold of the subtle world of non-physical forms perceptible to the mind. By sinking to their level we enter the realms they control and are then controlled by them. They are not in any way kind, though charm, flattery and seduction are their primary weapons; on the contrary, they are very cruel and unforgiving. Hell is not a place it is a state of mind.

Magick and Hermeticism

Access to the world of magick and traditional sciences depends on the application of the Hermetic axiom As above, so below. That is to say, the microcosm, of which man is a symbol, is known through such applications as a reflection of the macrocosm, the greater universe. A traditional cosmology can take us a long way but if we desire to transcend all limitation then we cannot separate magick from metaphysics. Metaphysics, in the way we mean to use this term, embraces all that is beyond even traditional sciences to realise in any full sense. Metaphysics is ‘beyond the physical’ and so nothing to do with the chemical state of the body or brain, or the psychological domain. It refers to the infinite, unlimited universal doctrine that can only be known metaphysically.

As metaphysics or real knowledge depends from a supra-human source—that is to say, it is transcendent of human reason—it can never be a branch of philosophy or some other science. Philosophy and the other modern theoretical sciences were originally derived from metaphysics and not vice versa, as is perfectly clear to initiates, if not to scholars whose field is exclusively academic.[4]

Symbolism is the only way to convey metaphysical reality without direct knowledge; language itself comprises a set of symbols. Ancient languages, with all their subtlety of etymology, roots of words and phonetics, are nonetheless well equipped to symbolise metaphysics, which is concerned with principles that amount to pure knowledge. Such knowledge is not in any way derived from an individual author, as is the case with all Western philosophical theories. This knowledge is not then in any way apprehended by reason or argument alone. All dialectics of the ancient sciences, including Hermeticism—something that in itself has been confused with profane science—form only an outward veil of that which is truly esoteric. There are hundreds if not thousands of books that seek to present magick as a means by which any person can obtain very ordinary goals. In this morass of darkness (or ignorance) there is no certain ground. We will provide the means by which those who are qualified to become practitioners may build a citadel and a tower of defence against this malevolent tide, so that a Great Work is even possible.

Notes

1. The metaphysical principle or absolute Real has no other words in modern languages to describe it whereas Sanskrit, for example, has very many such as Atma, Paramashiva, Brahma and so forth.

2. Guénon, Perspectives on Initiation, p. 259 [Sophia Perennis].

3. Cf. Guénon, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times Chapter Fifteen [Sophia Perennis].

4. The impossibility of explaining metaphysics to those who are bound by material-rationalist adherence becomes clear when we consider that the very notion of ‘doctrine’ has become degraded in its conventional meaning. The dictionary will tell us it has something to do with ‘belief’, or even governmental policy, whereas the original meaning is ‘teaching’, ‘learning’.

© Oliver St. John 2026

Books by Oliver St John

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    On RSS you can listen on all major platforms, including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, etc.
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