The Book of Babalon

Liber 49

Received by John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons (Belarion 8○ = 3□)

February 29, 1946 EV


1. Yea, it is I, BABALON.

2. And this is my book, that is the fourth chapter of the Book of the Law, He completing the Name, for I am out of NUIT by HORUS, the incestuous sister of RA-HOOR-KHUIT.

3. It is BABALON. TIME IS. Ye fools.

4. Thou hast called me, oh accursed and beloved fool.

[5-8 missing and presumed lost. Ed.]

“

”

“

9. Now know that I, BABALON, would take flesh and come among men.

10. I will come as a penelous [sic] flame, as a devious song, a trumpet in judgement halls, a banner before armies.

11. And gather my children unto me, for THE TIME is at hand.

12. And this is the way of my incarnation. Heed!

13. Thou shalt offer all thou art and all thou hast at my altar, withholding nothing. And thou shalt be smitten full sore and thereafter thou shalt be outcast and accursed, a lonely wanderer in abominable places.

14. Ye Dare. I have asked of none other, nor have they asked. Else is vain. But thou hast willed it.

15. Know then that thus I came to thee before, thou a great Lord, and I a maid enrapt. Ah blind folly.

16. And thereafter madness, all in vain. Thus it has been, multiform. How thou hast burned beyond.

17. I shall come again, in the form thou knowest. Now it shall be thy blood.

18. The altar is aright, and the robe.

19. The perfume is sandal, and the cloth green and gold. There is my cup, our book, and thy dagger.

20. There is a flame.

21. The sigil of devotion. Be it consecrated, be it true, be it daily affirmed. I am not scorned. Thy love is to me. Procure a disk of copper, in diameter three inches paint thereon the field blue the star gold of me, BABALON.

22. It shall be my talisman. Consecrate with the supreme rituals of the word and the cup.

23, My calls as thou knowest. All love songs are of me. Also seek me in the Seventh Aire.

24. This for a time appointed. Seek not the end, I shall instruct thee in my way. But be true. Would it be hard if I were thy lover, and before thee? But I am thy lover and I am with thee.

25. I shall provide a vessel, when or whence I say not. Seek her not, call her not. Let her declare. Ask nothing. Keep silence. There shall be ordeals.

26. My vessel must be perfect. This is the way of her perfection.

27. The working is of nine moons.

28. The Astarte working, with music and feasting, with wine and all arts of love.

29. Let her be dedicated, consecrated, blood to blood, heart to heart, mind to mind, single in will, none without the circle, all to me.

30. And she shall wander in the witchwood under the Night of Pan, and know the mysteries of the Goat and the Serpent, and of the children that are hidden away.

31. I will provide the place and the material basis, thou the tears and blood.

32. Is it difficult, between matter and spirit? For me it is ecstasy and agony untellable. But I am with thee. I have large strength, have thou likewise.

33. Thou shalt prepare my book for her instruction, also thou shalt teach that she may have captains and adepts in her service. Yea, thou shalt take the black pilgrimage, but it will not be thou that returnest.

34. Let her prepare her work according to my voice in her heart, with thy book as guide, and none other instructing.

35. And let her be in all things wise, and sure, and excellent.

36. But let her think on this: my way is not in the solemn ways, or in the reasoned ways, but in the wild free way of the eagle, and the devious way of the serpent, and the oblique way of the factor unknown and unnumbered.

37. For I am BABALON, and she my daughter, unique, and there shall be no other women like her.

38. In My Name shall she have all power, and all men and excellent things, and kings and captains and the secret ones at her command.

39. The first servants are chosen in secret, by my force in her—a captain, a lawyer, an agitator, a rebel—I shall provide.

40. Call me, my daughter, and I shall come to thee. Thou shalt be full of my force and fire, my passion and power shall surround and inspire thee; my voice in thee shall judge nations.

41. None shall resist thee, whom I lovest. Though they call thee harlot and whore, shameless, false, evil, these words shall be blood in their mouths, and dust thereafter.

42. But my children will know thee and love thee, and this will make them free.

43. All is in thy hands, all power, all hope, all future.

44. One came as a man, and was weak and failed.

45. One came as a woman, and was foolish, and failed.

46. But thou art beyond man and woman, my star is in thee, and thou shalt avail.

47. Even now thy hour strikes upon the clock of my FATHER. For He prepared a banquet and a Bridal Bed. I was that Bride, appointed from the beginning, as it was written T.O.P.A.N.

48. Now is the hour of birth at hand. Now shall my adept be crucified in the Basilisk abode.

49. Thy tears, thy sweat, thy blood, thy semen, thy love, thy faith shall provide. Ah, I shall drain thee like the cup that is of me, BABALON.

50. Stand thou fast, and I shall pass the first veil to speak with thee, through the stars shake.

51. Stand thou fast, and I shall pass the second veil, while God and Jesus be smitten with the sword of HORUS.

52. Stand thou fast, and I shall pass the third veil, and the shapes of hell shall be turned again to loveliness.

53. For thy sake shall I stride through the flames of Hell, though my tongue be bitten through.

54. Let me behold thee naked and lusting after me, calling upon my name.

55. Let me receive all thy manhood within my Cup, climax upon climax, joy upon joy.

56. Yea, we shall conquer death and Hell together.

57. And the earth is mine.

58. Thou shalt (make the?) Black Pilgrimage.

59. Yea it is even I BABALON and I SHALL BE FREE. Thou fool, be thou also free of sentimentality. Am I thy village queen and thou a sophomore, that thou shouldst have thy nose in my buttocks?

60. It is I, BABALON, ye fools, MY TIME is come, and this my book that my adept prepares is the book of BABALON.

61. Yea, my adept, the Black Pilgrimage. Thou shalt be accursed, and this is the nature of the curse. Thou shalt publish the secret matter of the adepts thou knowest, withholding no word of it, in an appendix to this my Book. So they shall cry fool, liar, sot, traducer, betrayer. Thou art not glad thou meddled with magick?

62. There is no other way, dear fool, it is the eleventh hour.

63. The seal of my Brother is upon the earth, and His Avatar is before you. There is threshing of wheat and a trampling of grapes that shall not cease until the truth be known unto the least of men.

64. But you who do not accept, you who see beyond, reach out your hands my children and reap the world in the hour of your harvest.

65. Gather together in the covens as of old, whose number is eleven, that is also my number. Gather together in public, in song and dance and festival. Gather together in secret, be naked and shameless and rejoice in my name.

66. Work your spells by the mode of my book, practicing secretly, inducing the supreme spell.

67. The work of the image, and the potion and the charm, the work of the spider and the snake, and the little ones that go in the dark, this is your work.

68. Who loves not hates, who hates fears, let him taste fear.

69. This is the way of it, star, star. Burning bright, moon, witch moon.

70. You the secret, the outcast, the accursed and despised, even you that gathered privily of old in my rites under the moon.

71. You the free, the wild, the untamed, that walk now alone and forlorn.

72. Behold, my Brother cracks the world like a nut for your eating.

73. Yea, my Father has made a house for you, and my Mother has prepared a Bridal Bed. My Brother has confounded your enemies.

74. I am the Bride appointed. Come ye to the nuptials—come ye now!

75. My joy is the joy of eternity, and my laughter is the drunken laughter of a harlot in the house of ecstasy.

76. All you loves are sacred, pledge them all to me.

77. Set my star upon your banners and go forward in joy and victory. None shall deny you, and none shall stand before you, because of the Sword of my Brother. Invoke me, call upon me, call me in your convocations and rituals, call upon me in your loves and battles in my name BABALON, wherein is all power given!

And in the middle the six-rayed star

Q:

The universe is multidimensional; each thing, action or event is infinite in its depth. How can the mortal and finite adept estimate his or her attainment in these abyssal depths? How can one measure the level of personal attainment when the depths of each sephira or chakra may unfold eternally? The man is a mortal and restricted being, so how can one define what exactly and to what extent should be worked through on the path of initiation?

»Each thing, action, or event is infinite in its depth...«

Well, that statement is as good as any, shallow, and without any real meaning...if we take it without any examination and if we question not its validity.

And here I'd like to start: ignorance, immaturity, and a priori acceptance of »spiritual« truths.
One cannot progress along the »path of initiation« based solely on mental capacities. Mental capacities in this context refer to intellect, speculation, reason, and other thought processes.

And herein lays the dilemma: whom to trust, what to read, what to do, and what not to do?
We are told that there are higher levels of awareness to be attained deeper, and more fulfilling truths to be realized. And what do most of the aspirants do? Well, they join some “spiritual” or religious corporation or some other organization that offers meetings, training, masses, teachings, supervision, texts, etc.

And in 5, 10, or 20 years of effort along the lines of such organizations, progress is realized, and degrees are attained. Well, isn’t that lovely?

But what is truly happening?
What if the existing organizations offer nothing but smoke and mirrors?
What if no one can give us anything from the outside?
What if all structures we are so used to are false, a lie?
What if what we already are is enough?

And what if we need no one to progress in life?

Well, I have met only one human being (so far) who made all the progress along the empirical lines of human conscious psycho-transpersonal identity development on his own: no Orders, no masters, no degrees.

Total freedom and total independence.

That being said, and speaking for the rest of us (I am generalizing, of course), such freedom and responsibility demand way too much, and most of us do not want to bear the pressure of freedom and possess that kind of strain of knowing…

…it is simply too much to an unenlightened heart… and so we invent (yes, we make these things up) various structures (Orders, degrees, various trees, etc) to feel safer, more in control. Mind and immature heart need something to cling to, and if that does not exist yet, it makes it up.

OK, so now that I have denigrated all that I have been doing for the last 25-odd years, now we can go on, for:

“In the beginning doth the Magus speak Truth and send forth Illusion and Falsehood to enslave the soul. Yet therein is the Mystery of Redemption.”
-Liber B, 1.

Everything that one does on the path of liberation is, in reality, not helpful; it is just as effective as visiting a fitness gym in dreaming. Upon waking up, dreams vanish.

But the game is still on; sincere aspirants worldwide invest effort, time, and money into spiritual progress.

So, if no truth can ever be conveyed (as Liber B shares and empirical knowledge concurs) here on Earth and all is falsehood, what is the point?

Well, let’s at least try to produce or come in contact with those useless things and illusions that will somehow direct us toward the Real Truth. How does that sound?

Q:
Should one, on the path of initiation, strive toward the realization of oneself and the world, and does this realization have limits? If the man REALLY realizes that he or she is the infinitesimal and meaningless speck in the Universe and his or her labors are vain attempts in the web of illusion, then what should he or she do further in such an existential cul-de-sac? What should one do with the realization that is incompatible with the life and capacities of man?

Real, deep, and truly transpersonal states of awareness have nothing whatsoever to do with the life of a man here on Earth. Even slight conscious contact with the HGA tends to disrupt the life of an aspirant, what to speak of crossing the Abyss or maybe even attaining the Magus level.
So what to do?

Four elements are in play upon this world: fire, water, air, and earth. With all the funky transitions between the four and the symbolism involved, well, we are still only speaking and thinking, aren’t we?

And real and deep transpersonal (meaning above reason, above personality, transcendental, spiritual, non-material, eternal, and not impermanent) realizations bring into the existing human system completely new awareness, new depth, and new openness, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay above reason.

And that’s the trick, isn’t it: not only to attain a certain state of awareness but to bring it down into life, so to speak, to integrate.

And, speaking for my level of understanding, this is quite a challenge, for the four elements mentioned above are in no way spiritual in and by themselves. Integration needs to take place.

Liber B again contributes here:

“Let Him beware of abstinence from action. For the curse of His grade is that He must speak Truth, that the Falsehood thereof may enslave the souls of men. Let him then utter that without Fear, that the Law may be fulfilled…”
Liber B, 14

“… aspirant’s labors are vain attempts in the web of illusion…”; although I agree with these thoughts, I maintain that the actual labor starts when the true Truth is attained (above various structures and way above reason) and when all the illusions are seen as they are: a magickal display on the (empty) screen of consciousness.

And the only thing that is left to do is to start to integrate the realizations into the illusions; the six-rayed star in the middle has to recognize herself in the four elemental pentagrams around her.

In other words, as Truth is ineffable, it is of no use to try to convey it, so the next best thing is to use the illusions with clear Understanding and Wisdom that everyone needs to find the Truth on their own from within and no amount of illusions from without will produce results, for:

»It is the truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.«
- J. Krishnamurti

Q
Who had fulfilled him- or herself as a human to a greater extent – a milkmaid who goes about her business in a state of full comfort and satisfaction with life, or an adept who has debunked the myths and discovered within him- or herself too many things to enjoy being-in-the-world?

It is just a process, a tough one for sure, to try to live in a world where people downright deny their spiritual inheritance and superficial pleasures are a measure of happiness.

And that’s the whole point, in my opinion:

If a milkmaid is happy with her life, let her be satisfied.

And if an aspirant has attained realizations that put her outside this superficial world, well, maybe it is time to go even deeper, and deeper, and deeper still.....until it is not possible to go any deeper.

At that stage, the only way is back again, back up again, into the same superficial world she has been trying to escape for who knows how many incarnations.

In both cases, the same applies: »There is no law beyond do what thou wilt«.

Fr. 418 .'.