Babalon of the Labyrinth
The Sacred Prostitute in Amenta
by Louis Martinie
Many Paths lead inward and few lead out. Babalon sits at the heart of
this labyrinth. Her songs echo through its everchanging corridors. The
singing is wordless for it contains the words of all songs and its
sweet; necrotic melody calls the sods of the Blessed ever deeper in
search of her open arms.
The Kali-Yuga is a fiery house cleaning. It is a time of aimless
wandering; a time for cataloguing the blind alleys of the soul. In the
Kali-Yuga, there ate no straight passages to the heart of this Babalon.
The corridors of the labyrinth close one in upon the other. To attempt
to follow the sound of her singing to its source is to be lost in a
field of infinite echoes. The singing bounces off the walls ricocheting
down false passages, carrying with it the unwary seeker.
In the wake of LA, finding a path out or in seems hopeless. Solutions
quickly shed their colorful robes revealing more problems. In the New
Orleans Parish school system, the number of children shot at school in
gang violence has recently increased dramatically. The solution was to
employ more Ton Tons ("uncles" with its protective connotation; armed
guards) to patrol the schools. Now I have just heard that one of these
men shot and killed a student while cleaning his gun. Solutions
dissolve, adding further body to the tragic brew.
What is the nature of the Sacred Prostitute in this vast temporal
expanse of the Kali-Yuga, in the Aeon of Horus, in an age of warfare
and strife? "Now let it first h understood that 1 am a god of War and
of Vengeance. 1 shall deal hardly with them (AI, bk 3, v. 3)." Before
speaking to this question, It may be a good idea to look at some of the
characteristics of the Sacred Prostitute.
The Sacred Prostitute is of necessity neither mate or female. A male or
female may stand forward ("pro" before and "statuere" to cause to
stand) and offer themselves. Our traditions generally locate the
function of the Sacred Prostitute in the female. Babalon, as discussed
by Aleister Crowley, is an example of the Sacred Prostitute who
welcomes all and gives herself to nought. The position of Babalon is
most often filled by a woman.
The Sacred Prostitute steps forward and offers initiation. The
Mysteries into which she offers entrance include the state of "no
difference." The ugly and the beautiful, the awful and the delightful
are accepted as equal sources of ecstasy. If her light be shined in a
slightly different direction, she then offers all of the loudly roaring
and softly poignant joys to be found in duality.
The secular prostitute steps forward and offers genital sex or a
variant thereof. The offerings of the secular prostitute fail to ignite
the heart's deep fires. The offerings are localized, restricted to a
small area upon a vast field of experience.
I write as a man and it is through the fitter of my maleness that I
apprehend the Mysteries offered by the Sacred Prostitute. She enters
into a dance with my maleness and the figures of her formula are traced
by the steps of this dance. My devotion to her is tainted if she, in
the rank of her position and scope of her function, lives, of
necessity, outside of my skin. I would soon come to resent any figure
which can bestow so great a benefit. If she can give, she can just as
surely take away. There is a onesidedness to the exchange, grace flows
in but one direction. Dependency raises its hydra,like head and a new
savior, be she virgin or whore, is raised to the worn pedestal's
impossibly small peak.
In order to avoid resentment and insure respect, the Sacred Prostitute
must be contained Within and her function "lent" to others when
personal need and the other's Will coincide. The great initiators all
ride within the Self They mount the personality from within.
As a man I walk the labyrinth, my footsteps sound in counterpoint to
the singing which haunts its walls. "We have chosen to incarnate during
the Kali-Yuga. This is our environment; this is our Angel talking to
us, whispering of our secret selves. (Crapulous Creeds, Soror Chen, p.
73)." I have chosen to incarnate during the Kali. Yuga. This labyrinth
surrounding the Sacred Prostitute in her manifestation as Babalon is
not simply an obstacle or mere happenstance, I have chosen each bush
which grows within its wall. Labyrinth itself has something to tell me
about she who is at its center. It. is both a barrier and a key.
In this labyrinth movement is futile. To go is to return and to return
is to go forth. It is through the seeking, that the center is lost. It
recedes if approached. I must be still if the center is to reveal
itself. The siren song of this Babalon is everywhere equally present.
She, and the center which she occupies, is no less equally present. The
labyrinth is the World in all of its elegant, formal beauty. It is not
a means to an end, but one manifestation of the end itself. The world
is one way in which the Divine Prostitute shows herself.
A key to the nature of the Sacred Prostitute can be found in Crowley's
spelling of the word Babalon. Aba is a Hebrew word for "father." The
father lies within Babalon, he grows within her womb. Labyrinth and
Labia share an interesting orthography even though they are not related
by root. Babalon is she who contains her own father in the entirety of
his Name. Babalon is she who gives birth to her own father. In so
doing, Babalon stands outside of time. Her throne sits in eternity; in
the Egyptian afterworld of amenta. The labyrinth with its false starts
and stops can only exist in time. The journey through the labyrinth to
the Sacred Prostitute in the guise of Babalon is a journey through time
to eternity.
The nature of the Sacred Prostitute in the time of Kali-Yuga is veiled.
She and her function of sacred initiation appear to be far away, hidden
within a seeming labyrinth. The dulled spirituality so characteristic
of the Kali-Yuga feeds these perceptions and there is no way through
the labyrinth as long as these views are held. Realizing that the
Sacred Prostitute with her gifts of "no difference" and "joy in
duality" can be found in every element of existence breaks down the
perceptions which separate the seeker and she who is sought. Every part
of the labyrinth becomes the sought after center. The Sacred Prostitute
is then realized in the Self and can be shared with all.
