THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
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To: alt.magick
From: "Nuit" 
Subject: Re: PLEASE FINALY AWNSER
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 18:43:47 -0700

"Chris"  wrote in message
news:cHuV6.100250$Be4.31497600@news3.rdc1.on.home.com...
> Ok could someone please tell me what this facsination with Babalon the
Whore
> is ? The AA The OTO and TOT etc etc. Often claim to be serveants of the
> light.

You apparently have a specific idea in your mind of what Babalon is about,
and have decided you don't like this idea and can't see it as being "of the
light." It's possible you don't have the same idea about Her that her
devotees have; or that you do have the right idea, but are unable to that
Her attributes are "of the light."

In a Qabalistic framework, Babalon is the divine expression of the Sephirah
Binah; that is, She is the wholly divinized idea of the feminine,
encompassing more aspects than I could name here. These include ideas
reminiscent of Bast and Sekhet, Shakti and Kali, and others.

The phrase "of the light" (that is, L.V.X.) is a little misleading, too. If
I were to say, "Oh, no, you've got Her all wrong, She's *not* of the Light,
She's of the Dark," that would give the wrong idea because you'd probably
think I meant the *infernal* darkness. I do not. I mean the Supernal
darkness, which Crowley called N.O.X. (That's the problem of either-or,
Light vs. Dark thinking.) This N.O.X. is not the antithesis of L.V.X., but
more its successor in the spiritual journey. It is the consciousness of the
Supernals by the gateway of Binah, as L.V.X. is the consciousness of
Adepthood by way of Tiphareth. Think of the blissful, splendid, unending
darkness of outer space the comes *after* one rises into the air-refracted
solar light of the atmosphere. This is not at all the darkness that comes
from digging a whole in the ground and climbing in. It is *more LIGHT* than
the Light. It appears dark because the personality's sensorium cannot
assimilate it. It's "darkness" is akin to what St. John called "the Dark
Night of the Soul," which is a dry fever of love for God so passionate and
overwhelming that it burns us painfully and without release.

Babalon is called "whore" for many reasons besides the purely
physical-sexual. But, especially, She is an aspect of divinity that absorbs
all -- that "takes all comers." She is that within us which remains open to
taking in indiscriminantly, and being filled by, anything and everything
that comes in the course of life. We happily spread our legs for every
experience that wants to have its way with us!

Your paragraph gives some clues to what you consider "not of the Light":

> I would like to know how certain magicians who are on the right hand
> path, in service to the Tetragrammaton, to purity, to light, to
passivness,
> to control etc.

First, who said we were in service to Tetragrammaton? We may, or may not be.
If IHVH is your image for the Most High, then that which you are calling by
that Name, I would call by another. Regardless - you profess to be trying to
understand where others are coming from. The ancient Gnostic view of IHVH is
as the brat upstart Demi-Urge who reaches no farther up the Tree than Chesed
(He is of the number 4) -- that is, falls below the Abyss, outside the
Supernal realm, as a mental-moral construct. If this is the IHVH you mean,
then Babalon is a higher idea. If you mean the early Kabbalistic references
to IHVH as the Divine Name of Tiphareth, then Babalon, as Lady of Binah, is
the higher idea.

Purity? Yes, absolutely, though we would probably differ on what the word
means. (It certainly doesn't mean prudish, for example. All sexuality is
sacred.) In service to passiveness? I'm sure we differ more here than in
anything else you said! Receptive, yes. Taking all comers, yes. Passive? No.
(Except as a delicious counterpoint to Active.) Control? Discipline is an
essential part of the Great Work, just as it is to great sex. Also,
surrender is essential to both. (Even at the gutter level, if you think a
typical whore is without control, you should go out and meet a few more.
because you've got the *wrong* idea, babe.)

> No one awnsers me straight out,

I haven't been watching this thread very closely, but it seems to me you've
gotten quite a few candid answers.

> and in Liber ABA Crowley says that this information shall be transmitted
only orally. .

Some of it *can* only be translated orally.

> Is it just that I
> underatnd the meanings of these icons, or am I dead on when I say they are
> more "negative", "dark" and "left hand pathed"?

As you have seen, some people who identify themselves as LHP embrace these
deities as falling in that category. But they are not so narrow. Any
Supernal idea stands outside dualistic labels of this kind from below the
Abyss. It is correct to use the terms the way you intend them. On the other
hand, 'negative' is just another word for 'feminine' in some ways, and
electromagetically is that to which the 'positive' is always drawn. Dark is
how some people like the room. 'Left hand path' is considered the *light*

path in some Eastern traditions, and for the rest, it's where I might show
you to let your fingers roam -- if you were a lot luckier than you are.

> I dont find much light and wisdom in Bapthomet

You are, perhaps, unaware that "Baphomet" was a Kabbalistic code word that a
group of Christian military monks coined to veil the Gnostic idea of
Sophia -- one of the most sublime and holy ideas ever to infuse Western
civilization's spirituality.

> and esspecially in the Whore. When i think of the
> brilliance of KETHER and the host of arch-angels, The whore is not exactly
> imagery that I find to be consitant with these holy creatures.

Respectfully, I submit that you cannot think of the brilliance of Kether.
Respectfully, I suggest that your highest idea of Kether is no more than a
reflection of Tiphareth and might, in fact, really be only a reflection of
that in Yesod. This is not intended as a put-down of any kind. Kether is
beyond thought.

The hosts of Archangels of which you speak are a lesser domain of spiritual
being than Babalon. She is the Supernal Queen to whom they turn in
adoration.

> The baphomet is not exactly a symbol of Light and goodness to me.

Then it would be a shame for *you* to worship that symbol.

But it *is* a symbol of high spiritual ideas and ideals to many other.

> Could someone please explain this, because I honestly would like to get
> things straight.

I'm taking you at your word and doing my best.

93 93/93
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