First Open Source Gnostic Church

From Ecclesia Gnostica Universalis

..., and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. -- AL I,15

Who then is this Scarlet Woman? Aleister Crowley identified her as "Our Lady Babalon." Turning to Book IV, Chapter XI—Of Our Lady Babalon and of the Beast Whereon She Rideth—we find only:

The contents of this section, inasmuch as they concern OUR LADY, are too important and too sacred to be printed. They are only communicated by the Master Therion to chosen pupils in private instruction.

Certainly the Scarlet Woman exists throughout the Gnostic and Tantric traditions. In the Gnostic tradition we have Barbelo and the consort of Simon Magus, Helen. Her vision has been transmitted in various times and places in various ways.

In the Tantras, she is known as the Red Goddess. I know her as Bala, Kurukulle, Lalita, Bhairavi, Vajrayogini, Chinnamasta and various other forms. Others know her through still other names and forms.

She is INNANNA, whose number is 212.

She is IShTAR, whose number is 520.

She is LALITA, whose number is 81.

he is NA'AMAH, whose number is 165.

She is the K in MAGICK (74 and 554).

She is Wisdom in Nature.

She is totally other. She does not conform to our expectations. She is elusive and she is omnipresent.

Is she BABALON, whose number is 156? What is the corpse of Therion's Scarlet Woman to me?

The map is not the territory. The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.

--Tau Aleph, 2004.