She Who carries the Chalice filled with the blood of the saints…
Our Lady of Heaven and Earth, the bright Morning and Evening Star, has been called by many names throughout the Ages. Her earliest incarnation was, of course, the Great, Omnipotent Inanna Herself, Hierodule, Holy Whore and Mystress of Love in all its many faces and forms.
Inanna is the first Red Goddess, holder of the thread of lineage that patriarchy has been trying to eradicate for eons. She is the wild, radiant and erotic face of the feminine that reminds us to stretch beyond traditional definitions of love, sexuality and power. She is the Bull Horned One, presiding deity of the Age of Taurus, when the Goddess of Pleasure and Abundance was at the height of Her worship.
She is the Goddess who wears the crescent Moon upon Her brow and the Zodiac Girdle around Her waist. She is both cosmic and deeply embodied. Far from the demure, flowery faces of Venus that we are often surrounded by in our modern, social media fuelled perceptions, Inanna is a Goddess of both Lust and War, Fertility and Devastation. She is a primal force, the creative, regenerative principle of the yoniverse that knows no limits or bounds. Just when we think we understand Her, She reveals another layer of truth to us. She tests our edges and limits, beckoning us in the underworld of Kur to meet Ereshkigal and gaze more deeply into the Black Mirror.
The Tower of Babel falls, and Venus/Inanna and Her Temples of fertility and sexual alchemy are buried beneath the sands of time. She merges with Ishtar, then Astarte, until She eventually becomes almost solely identified with Botticelli’s foam born Aphrodite.
The classically blonde-haired, watered-down version of Aphrodite we are familiar with is a far cry from the fiercely intoxicating original Goddess of Love.
Throughout the Ages, Venus has had many names and guises in Egypt, she was worshiped as Hathor, in the Northern lands She is Freya, to the Celts She is Rhiannon or Branwen. Yet where can we find Her within the New Aquarian Paradigm, when our old definitions of love are no longer working? When traditional roles and ways of relating are becoming outdated?
“And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”
In the apocalyptic text, the “Book of Revelation” John of Patmos describes Venus/Inanna as “Babalon, Mother of Abominations.” He describes Her as carrying a Chalice filled with the blood of the saints and martyrs. I cannot think of a better metaphor for the transition from the Age of Pisces with its religious fanaticism, to the Age of Aquarius, the Chalice Bearer.
Looking around, we can see that we are truly living in the end times, and there is no more fitting Goddess than Babalon Herself to usher us though the gateway of Rebirth.
After her debut appearance in Revelations, which depicts the end of the Mother Temples and the beginning of the Age of War, Babalon evaporates through the mists of time, before reappearing centuries later in the work of John Dee and Edward Kelley the most infamous court magicians in history.
Dee was particularly famed for his astrological talents; Kelly was his seer. Together they spoke to the Angels, creating a system of Enochian Magick which is still practiced to this day in many orders by many initiates.
As Kelley Scryed, there appeared a vision of a Goddess in the shew-stone. She was dressed in beaten gold and had a crystal cross on her forehead, her neck and breasts were bare, like the Minoan snake-goddess found at Knossos. Many believe this to have been the first sighting of Babalon since revelation.
Babalon later appears to Kelley as a spirit named Madimi, who encourages them to break through many taboos, restrictions and limitations in true Babalonian style which results in a powerful unleashing of psychic energy and inspires the infamous “Daughter of Fortitude” speech which has a very similar resonance to what we read about Her in revelation ~
“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.”
Her appearance before John and Edward ensures that She is encoded in magickal Herstory. Yet, it will be many years before she resurfaces in the work of the infamous Aleister Crowley, in his most widely known work, Liber AL or ‘the book of the Law’ and again in his epic ‘the Vision and the voice.’ Here she appears as depicted in revelations, as the rider of the 7 headed beast, carrying the chalice of abominations. For all of his multitudes of faults, Crowley is the main reason we know Babalon as Goddess.
“Flame is our Lady; Flame is Her hair. I am the living Flame” ~ Jack Parsons
Crowley’s rocket fuel inventing protegee, Jack Parsons is the next in line to devote himself and his magickal workings to our lady, Venus/Babalon. Through his rituals, he endeavours to bring Her in the world in a physical incarnation. The results of his ritual ripple through time, perhaps creating a reality where all women are waking to the realisation that they are Her.
As reward for his efforts, Jack literally goes up in flames, dying is a mysterious explosion and becoming immortalised in occult legend. The Red Headed, Scarlet Woman imprint of Venus/Babalon conjured by these great mages of our time lives on in Her imagery.
In modern times, writers such as Peter Grey and Carolyn Elliot are speaking Babalon back into existence through their work. She is truly a Goddess of the New Aquarian Aeon, a symbol of Love without attachment, Love that goes beyond the bounds of societal convention.
She who makes love to all things, asks that we pour everything into Her cup, that we break ourselves open to live life fully with no restrictions or limitations. She asks they we do not hold back on sharing our passion and allow ourselves to be fully penetrated by the experince of being alive.
She asks that we allow our egos to be annihilated as we cross the threshold of the abyss and are devoured by love.
Through the eyes of Venus/Babalon, the Holy Whore, all things become sacred. The light and the dark are equally divine. She demands that we place our heart as a sacrifice upon Her altar, surrendering fully to the agony and ecstasy of life.
To ride the Babalon current is to weave the Red thread of Inanna into the New Paradigm and reclaim the true essence of Venus in all of Her Beauty and Terror.
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