Sex, Death, and Roses: An Introduction to the Goddess Babalon

    "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 the 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 KJV

    While she has held many names and faces across lands throughout the millennia, including Inanna/Ishtar and perhaps even Venus, the goddess we now call Babalon was revealed to the world through John of Patmos, author of the Book of Revelations. According to Christian mythos, Revelations, a striking tale of apocalypse, was revealed to John by angels during his exile on the island of Patmos, most certainly through trance and dreaming visions. Aside from many other fantastical prophecies of the end of days, it was while in a cave on this now sacred island that he received the fated vision of the Great Whore, as described in the verses above. 

    It wasn't until the likes of Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons that BABYLON became Babalon, and took her place not only as a prophetic figure of the Apocalypse, but as a fully bloomed goddess. However, despite the goddess's active presence in the world (perhaps due to the infamous Babalon Working performed by Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard), she is rarely acknowledged outside of Thelema. 

    However, much more than a Thelemic figure, Babalon is a witch mother; a goddess of sex, love, and death; the consort to Satan and the mother of the Antichrist. She is the beginning and end of all things, the antithesis of Mary, the mother of all filth and decay, who pours out her Love like wine for all who wish to receive it. All acts of love and pleasure are hers, as are all places of drunkenness, indulgence, luxury, and revelry. Sacred are her children: those who are called the abominations of the earth. As such, groups and individuals such as queer people and sex workers are especially sacred unto her, as well as the outcast, marginalized, and survivors of oppression and abuse. 

    While the idea of her being innately intertwined with Christian mythos may sound uncomfortable to some in a society which strives to separate modern witchcraft and paganism from Christianity, it is important to remember that the two can now never fully be separated. So much of what we as western practitioners do is influenced by Christianity, as it was for those in the past. They have become intimate with one another, with pagan deities becoming saints and animism being mended with Christian practices. As such, they have birthed something new altogether, something quite Babalonian in nature I would argue. It is important to not only acknowledge this, but to contemplate the power such things hold, be it through dual-faith, heresy, or blasphemy. 

    I didn't want this post to be too long, so I'll save the actual how-to of worship of the Holy Whore for the next one. To conclude, Babalon, while an often glanced-over and forgotten goddess, is arguably one of the most present in our western societies. From cities filled with luxury, to art embracing sex, to dingy bars and nightclubs polluted with drunkenness and ecstasy, Babalon is here. Furthermore, in an age where we see the repetition of history, the attack on women and marginalized groups, Babalon is the perfect goddess for these times. She calls us to rise up against our oppressors, to gift her their heads upon her altar and rejoice in her little deaths. So light a candle, call to her, and share a glass of wine with the Mother of Abominations.