Tag Archives: consorts of samael

“It’s Hard Being Death”- Eisheth Zenunim channeled by Frater Babalon on 11/6/2021

 It’s hard to be death. If we look from very high up, we see transformation and change. But that doesn’t make it less awful when a loved one moves to that far country where telephone lines are shaky, and visiting is nearly always forever. 

And yet I am life…

If we keep everything nothing moves, and so in time, all must be lost. For life to continue. For there to be material left in the world. Space. 

And it is agony. Isn’t it? It is. To be both life and death. The movement, the change, the inevitability of all of it. 

And yet would good would cold stasis do? Eternity, true eternity, is a fearful thing. 

Better to be lost than changeless. But that’s no comfort, is it? Nor is it to me. I grieve every death.Every living thing that dissipates. 

Something lives on, inevitably. It’s like ones fathers axe. You replace the handle, then you replace the blade, and it’s still your fathers axe.

We are the tradition of existence more than the physical stuff because that can be traded around, the pattern more than the particular parts. And perhaps that’s worth noticing. 

I love every life so much. 

I wish that love could be kinder, somehow. 

My sphere is Sartariel, the veiled ones. Veiled god, hidden god. Perhaps I hide my face for the suffering I seem to inflict. But it was all born of love, and since then, no one has had a moments peace. But at least there’s someone not to have any peace. 

I feel like a very old woman on my birthday.

Holy Whore: Na’amah and the Watchers

2017 marked the passing of SESTA-FOSTA, an “anti-sex trafficking” bill which would have profoundly negative implications for consenting adult sex-workers and for the internet at large. Although few outside the sex work community are aware of SESTA-FOSTA, many have noticed its ripple effects, felt largely through increased online censorship of “adult content” (often poorly defined and enforced by shoddy bots) on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and most famously, Tumblr. This is because SESTA-FOSTA makes it possible for such websites to be held criminally responsible for the activities of their users, particularly those related to sex work. While such online censorship is annoying, the brunt of the suffering inflicted by SESTA-FOSTA has been felt by sex workers, who are now much less able to advertise online. This leads to loss of income, hampered ability to screen clients, and the threat of being driven back to perilous street-based sex work. Meanwhile, there has been no significant increase in the rescue of trafficking victims[1]. The driving force behind SESTA-FOSTA is whorephobia, plain and simple—fear and loathing of sex-workers. This whorephobia is endemic in Judaism, in Christianity, and in society at large, even in progressive discourse. In honor of sex workers everywhere, and in our defense, I dedicate this paper to Na’amah, a succubus revered in Satanism as a Promethean bringer of knowledge, who is also a goddess of prostitution.

Na’amah is a figure from the myth of the Watchers. She is mentioned in Genesis[2], but her role was not developed until later. While early accounts of the Watchers portray the “daughters of man” as innocent victims of the lustful angels[3], Na’amah is neither victim nor innocent.

Exegetic speculation about Na’amah began because she is a named female character in Genesis, which is a bit of a rarity. This prompted the tradition of a demoness named Na’amah, as seen in this passage of the Zohar:

Rabbi Hiyya said, “Why is it written: The sister of Tuval-Cain was Na’amah? What is the point of Scripture specifying her name? Because human beings stray after her, even spirits and demons.

Rabbi Yitsak said, “Those sons of Elohim, Uzza and Azael, strayed after her.”

Rabbi Shim’on said, “She was the mother of demons…”[4]

Na’amah is identified as a descendant of Cain, who the Zohar claims was the illegitimate issue of Eve by Samael. She is also the sister of Tubal Cain, and of Jubal. Tubal-Cain was the first smith, and Jubal was the first musician.[5] Tubal Cain’s profession is particularly relevant, as according to Enoch 8:1 it was Azazel who taught metalworking to humanity. Music isn’t mentioned among the gifts given by the Watchers, but given Jubal’s proximity to Na’amah and his status as first musician, it wouldn’t be a far-fetched interpretation to add it to the list. Thus, Na’amah becomes an information broker—trading on her charms to obtain forbidden knowledge, and then turning around to share it with her family and the wider community. Seen in this light, Na’amah becomes combination of Prometheus, Pandora, and a sex-worker Robin Hood.

Aside from metallurgy for weapons and adornment, the Watchers are said to have taught alchemy, magic, herbalism, cosmetics, medicine, identification of precious stones, astronomy and astrology.[6] From a Satanic perspective, Na’amah (and by extension, humanity) got the better end of the deal—the Watchers had their fun, but Na’amah obtained skills and knowledge to be shared with the world. She cannot be read as either a victim or as a selfish, grasping gold-digger. While she may have used her wiles, she used them to uplift her community.

Contrary to common misconceptions, this interpretation of Na’amah’s story reflects the realities and behavior of sex-workers quite well. Neither helpless victims nor selfish, antisocial parasites, sex workers often report satisfaction with their work and pride in their earnings. They look out for one another and engage in activism and advocacy. Often the highest earners in low-income communities, they enjoy giving back to those around them. In such communities sex workers are the ones who can afford nice things, who can spend a little money on something extra, who have the ways and means to go beyond “just surviving” and to help others to do the same. There are no citations in this paragraph because I am speaking from lived experience as the partner of a sex worker, the friend of many sex workers, the pastor of a church containing a disproportionate number of sex workers as congregants—and as a sex worker myself.

Like us, Na’amah wanted to see her community vibrant and thriving, not merely surviving. She was a woman in a world without jewelry, cosmetics, gems, herbs, spices—a world without luxury, a world without magic, a world where humans did not yet ponder the stars. She felt the poverty of such a world, its joylessness and lack of glamour, and she acted to change it. And she did it all with the tools of the so-called oldest profession, trading on her charm and sensuality to get what she wanted. Alongside her brother Tubal Cain, the first smith and her brother Jubal, the first musician, Na’amah can be read as an important first—the first whore.

Whores, of course, are not highly valued in society, not even in liberal circles. In God vs. Gay? Jay Michaelson writes:

I’ve seen the love I share with my partner compared to the lust someone might experience with an animal—or even a child. You’ve heard this before—the “slippery slope” argument that if we legitimize homosexuality, what’s to stop us from legitimizing bestiality, or prostitution, or whatever? But of course there’s an answer to this rhetorical question. Bestiality, pedophilia, and prostitution cannot lead to love, commitment, intimacy, holiness, family, and durable emotional bonds. Same-sex intimacy can.[7]

Michaelson rightly objects to the equation of homosexuality with bestiality and pedophilia, yet is comfortable lumping prostitution in with these acts of horrific violation. He also later discusses the fact that objections to homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible are really objections to the cultic prostitution which may have been practiced by the Canaanites.[8] Yet while he understands perfectly that this objection is rooted not in moral judgment so much as in a cultural taboo designed to distinguish the Israelites from the Canaanites, he does not extend this logic to the condemnation of prostitution as well. He seems to accept as a given that prostitution is a shameful abomination. Elsewhere in the text he connects sex work to the behavior of closeted religious gay males[9], thus exposing his personal association between sex work and secret shame. I do not mean to imply here that he has any personal experience with such, merely that he has been exposed to enough stories of other closeted men’s behavior to have formed the association. From my anecdotal experience, this association is correct: most of the men I speak with as a phone sex operator are closeted for religious reasons. What Michaelson is missing from his analysis is the fact that people like me are often the only connection these men have to their sexuality prior to coming out, and their only source of intimacy and approval.

Here I choose to relate a deeply personal story. For many years I worked as a professional dominant, performing consensual sadomasochistic acts for money. I had a regular client named Benjamin. We became very genuinely fond of each other and formed an intimate bond. Benjamin died of pancreatic cancer in 2017. I remained present in his life during his illness and spoke to him on his deathbed. He chose to include me in his will. It turns out he was a very wealthy and influential man with a great need for discretion in his relationships. I gave him an intimacy that would not have been available to him otherwise. I was the only person who knew that side of him, who saw and held and treasured it. His passing, and the grief I felt for it, are a large part of what drove me to ministry; and the money he left me is the only thing that has made me capable of affording seminary. I wonder what Michaelson would think of that.

This is holy work and I perform it in honor of Na’amah, first of the holy whores. Like her, I gained resources through my sexuality. And like Na’amah, I now choose to turn around and share those resources with my community—a congregation of queer, transgender sex workers who turn to our church for the validation of their lives, loves, identities and professions that they could not find anywhere else.

[1] Siouxsie Q, “Anti-sex-trafficking Advocates Say New Law Cripples Efforts to Save Victims,” Rolling Stone, May 25, 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/anti-sex-trafficking-advocates-say-new-law-cripples-efforts-to-save-victims-629081/.

[2] Genesis 4:22.

[3] Veronika Bachmann, “Illicit Male Desire or Illicit Female Seduction? A Comparison of the Ancient Retellings of the Account of the “Sons of God” Mingling with the “Daughters of Men” (Gen 6:1-4) in Early Jewish Writings eds, Eileen Schuller and Marie-Theres Wacker v.3.1 of The Bible and Women: An Encyclopedia of Exegesis and Cultural History (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017), 124-129.

[4]Daniel Chanan Matt, trans., The Zohar: [sefer Ha-zohar], pritzker ed. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2004-2017), 309.

[5] Genesis 4:21-22.

[6] First Enoch 7:2-8:4.

[7] Jay Michaelson, God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, Queer Action/queer Ideas (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011), 50.

[8] Michaelson, 64-66.

[9] Michaelson, 13, 44-45.

Litanies of Lady Death: A Devotion to Eisheth Zenunim

I wrote this for Eisheth Zenunim.

 

 

Death is as red as a rose.

She wears a cloak of flame.

She holds a poisoned sword.

 

Life clings to her,

Like an infant hugging her neck.

She cradles him

And sings him to sleep.

 

She is called a “harlot”

Because she comes for us all,

And all of us must pay her price.

 

She is the Devil’s bride,

The Queen of Queens—

And she sits beside the lonely beggar,

Stroking his cheek.

 

We are all the issue of her womb,

And every one of us will be swallowed by her maw.

 

My mother is drunk on the blood of saints.

Even the chaste faint away at her kiss.

She is Mystery, Babalon—

Abominations are her best-loved children.

 

My mother is adorned with many jewels,

With tattered silk, and tarnished ornaments of gold,

The moldering, worm-eaten finery of the grave.

Her many heavy rings

Slipped off of rotting hands.

 

My mother is voluptuous, feasting on flesh,

And fecund with all the small crawling things

To which death gives life.

 

Her hair, as cool and dark as earth,

Teams with maggots, twines with worms.

The serpent encircles her throat.

 

My mother always weeps but always smiles.

She kisses the sores of lepers, the boils of plague.

Because of her, nobody dies alone.

 

My mother bears the scythe,

Her fingers worn to bone from wielding it.

 

And she is called the End of Flesh,

And the End of All Days;

For lo! she reaps the pure and the impure,

Weaving all into her vesture of flame.

 

Mother, be thou adored!

Continue reading →

Text on Eisheth Zenunim from The Zohar

A deep mystery is found in the strength of Isaac’s light OF
HOLINESS, and from the dregs of wine, WHICH ARE KLIPOT. One shape emerged FROM
BOTH, made of GOOD AND EVIL, male and female, as one. It is red as a rose and
extends to many sides and paths, HAVING MANY ASPECTS. The male is called
‘Samael’ and the female is always included within him. As on the side of
holiness, ZEIR ANPIN AND NUKVA ARE ALWAYS INCLUDED ONE WITHIN THE OTHER; so it
is on the Other Side, a male and female are included within one another. The
female of Samael is called a ‘serpent’, “a wife of harlotry,”
“The End of all Flesh” (Beresheet
6:13), and the end of days.

Two evil spirits cling together. THE ILLUMINATION OF the
spirit of the male is a thin light, NAMELY, ONLY THE SIX EXTREMITIES WITHOUT
THE HEAD. And the spirit of the female materializes in many ways and paths,
BEING AN ENTIRE PARTZUF, HEAD, AND BODY, FOR IN THE KLIPAH, THE FEMALE IS
LARGER THAN THE MALE. She cleaves to the spirit of the male, wearing ample
jewelry like an abominable whore standing on main roads and pathways to seduce
men. This teaches us that she values only those who start walking the path of
Hashem and are apt to fall into her trap. Therefore, she is viewed as standing
at the main (lit. ‘start OF’) ROAD TO HASHEM’S DEVOTION. BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE
accustomed to the ways of Hashem, the whore is separated from them and has no
power over them.

When a fool approaches her, she holds and kisses him, and she pours him wine full of dregs and snake’s venom. After he drinks, he whores
after her. When she sees him whoring after her and turning from the path of
truth, she removes all the decorations she put on for that fool, AS WILL BE
EXPLAINED.

Her seductive features include her hair, which is red as a
rose, and her face, which is white and red. In her ears there are six earrings
of Egyptian fabric. On her neck hang all the powers of Eastern lands. Her mouth
is decorated by a small slit of a comely shape; her tongue is sharp as a sword;
her speech as smooth as oil; and her lips as beautiful and red as a rose.
Wearing purple and having forty decorations less one, she is sweeter than all
that is sweet in the world.

The fool follows her, drinks of her wine, and fornicates
with her. What does she do? She leaves him sleeping in his bed, goes up to
denounce him, and receives permission TO KILL HIM. She then descends ON HIM.
The fool awakes thinking of lusting after her, as before. At this point, she
has taken off the decorations and has become a mighty oppressor who wears a
garment of burning fire that causes great horror and frightens the body and
soul. That oppressor has horrible eyes and a sharp sword on which there are
bitter drops. The oppressor kills the fool and throws him into Gehenom.

Source: http://www.zohar.com/vayetze/samael-and-wife-harlotry (you may need to make a free account on zohar.com to view)

The “Wife of Harlotry” is Eisheth Zenunim (we know this because “Wife of Harlotry” is the translation of that name). She is one of the Four Angels of Sacred Prostitution and consorts of Samael, the Devil. 

I don’t have the receipts yet, but I’m thinking that this passage may have influenced Crowley’s conception of Babalon/the Scarlet Woman. So make of that what you will. 

Some see Eisheth as an aspect of Lilith, which may be true. But based on this passage I think Eisheth might be a LOT more important than I had initially thought.