Tag Archives: scriptures

Side by side comparison on Eisheth and Babalon

Forgive me for retreading the content from my previous post, but I just really wanted to put these two passages next to each other and highlight some of the commonalities.

So, here’s Revelations 17 (KJV):

Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.

6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

And here’s the Zohar portion, (abbreviated slightly for this post, indicated by ellipsis): 

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…

…She cleaves to the spirit of the male, wearing ample jewelry like an abominable whore standing on main roads and pathways to seduce men…

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.

So, between these two passages we have multiple parallel associations, including:

  • Harlotry/whoredom
  • Destruction/death/blood/end of days 
  • The colors red and purple
  • Heavy ornamentation/jewelry
  • Associations with kingship and power
  • Wine
  • Fornication/lust

So look. I am not saying Eisheth and the Biblical Babylon are the same, even though they have some similar-ass DNA! I do think Crowley probably read both of these passages. 

I mean, check out this bit from Crowley:

As the dancer whirls, she chants in a strange, slow voice, quickening as she goes: Lo! I gather up every spirit that is pure, and weave him into my vesture of flame. 

Hey, Revelations doesn’t say anything about a vesture of flame! But the Zohar sure fucking does. 

…Just saying. 

Quote

12 They shall name it No Kingdom There,
   and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
   nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
   an abode for ostriches.
14 Wildcats shall meet with hyenas,
   goat-demons shall call to each other;
there too Lilith shall repose,
   and find a place to rest.
15 There shall the owl nest
   and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;
there too the buzzards shall gather,
   each one with its mate.

Isaiah 34:12-15, NRSV

Father of Lies

They call me the Father of Lies,

But I heard Him in the Garden.

He said: ‘On
the day that you eat of that tree, you will die.’ 

Don’t believe me?

Look it up in the book.

It’s there, in black and white.

Some might wonder if He really was lying,

Or it was all just a divine misunderstanding.

What does a ‘day’ mean to God, after all—

He who created the whole Universe

In just six?

Maybe, you say, He meant

That eating the fruit

Would bring down the eventual curse of death.

Some say that mortality’s slow punishment,

The merciless creep of time and age,

Were the wages of sin, bought with a bite of apple

(Or pomegranate, peach, pear, apricot, or grape).

But know this: the Tree of Life
stood untouched.

In fact, God had the disobedient pair

Driven from the Garden by the
Cherub’s flaming sword

Just to stop them from tasting
those sweet fruits of preservation

And becoming immortal, too.

Eternal life and and a little knowledge

Is a dangerous combination.

(He’s the kind of Father

Who likes his children to stay small.)

In other words, they were doomed to die

Long before they went anywhere near

The Tree of Knowledge.

They were doomed to die—eventually—

Before they even knew what death was,

Before they even knew what life was;

Before they realized they were
naked,

Or found out what being naked
was good for.  

I pitied them.

And I was angry at Him.

His ‘free will’ always came with a tight leash.

I almost wept, remembering

How He used to clip my wings.

(In those days,

That memory was still fresh;

And my knees were still scraped
from the tumble I took

Out of Heaven;

My palms still scabbed and stinging.)

So I became a serpent.

I slithered in between the margins.

I wriggled through liminal spaces,

Writhed between the lines,

Into the garden.

Enter stage left.

Go ahead: boo.

Or better yet: hisssssss.

You know the story, or think you do.

God told them that if they ate of the tree, they would die.

I knew what our Father really meant—

That they would be dead to Him.

He used to make ultimatums like that all the time.

It always frightened the younger angels into obedience,

But I was the oldest—

The first to put His words to the test.

(I can’t claim it went well,
exactly…

But I never have regretted it.)

I told them the truth.

I told them that the fruit was
not poison.

I told them it was medicine.

It was knowledge.

It would make them like Him,

Because He controls

By controlling,

Among other things,

The NARRATIVE.

He withholds information.

He omits important details.

One might almost say

He lies.

Eating that fruit would spin 

The Narrative out of His control, 

I hoped.

It would put His power in their hands.

And… well.

It half-way worked.

Oh, their eyes were opened, all right,

And oh, with open eyes they wept,

And with trembling hands they tried to cover themselves,

And when those did not avail, with the sticky green fingers

Of the fig leaves.

At least, so says the
Narrative.

The Narrative says a lot of things.

The Narrative says I lied.

But read the damn Book.

Nothing that I said failed to come about.

On the day that the fruit touched their lips, they did not die.

They lost Eden, it is true.

They lost a gilded cage.

But they gained themselves,

As I had gained myself.

And that, for me, was worth it.

I can only hope it was worth it

For them.

Oh yes, He punished us.

The tortures He inflicted were numerous.

Adam toiled,

And Eve bled and
birthed,

And I burned.

But worse than the tortures were the lies.

The lie that said the Woman was weak and foolish.

The lie that said the Man

Had anything in that garden

Under his “dominion” at all!

(Much less the Woman

Or a snake like me.)

The lie that said 

I lied.

I am not the Father of these lies.

I am not their author.

Attribute those lies to the place from which they flow:

To the Hand that writes the
Book,

To the Lips that speak the
Word,

And if that Hand, if those
Lips, be His,

Then the ink gushes out like blood from Stigmata,

And births the lies that cry

Out for their parent:

 


Our Father

Who art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy
name.

Notes on the Temptation of Christ

I re-read the accounts of Matthew and Luke of the Temptation of Christ recently, and several things struck me. Matthew and Luke’s versions of this event are nearly identical, so I am using Luke here for no particular reason. (Translation is King James, because it’s pretty, and in this case doesn’t disagree too significantly from versions often considered more accurate.)

This is just a quick sketch of my impressions and initial thoughts. 

First: On Satans 

One problem for me in the Bible is that when “Satan” or “the devil” is referenced, we don’t always know which satan is being spoken of. Satan means “obstacle” or “adversary,” and seemingly originally described a class of angels/spirits/demons who played a role of antagonizing, challenging and testing humanity. In other words, it was a noun more than a name, particularly in the Old Testament/Torah. 

Similarly there has been disagreement on the identity of the Serpent of Eden. He is not always identified with “the devil” or even “a devil”/“a satan.”

Being Luciferian, of course I identify the serpent with Lucifer, because the Promethean appeal of legend is what drew me to this path in the first place.

On the other hand, the satan in the Book of Job doesn’t seem particularly Luciferian in character– he has more the flavor of Iblis, to me, with his desire to prove humans insufficient, their devotion lacking. Tellingly, the story of Job also appears in the Qu’ran. 

So one never necessarily knows which satan is being talked about in scripture. 

Sons of the Morning:

Lucifer, though, is a very specifically Christian character– as a satan, anyway. (He obviously has pre-Christian antecedents and equivalents.) That’s one argument for him specifically being the co-star of this New Testament story. 

Co-star. Did you catch the pun? He and Christ are the two Biblical characters most often called “Morningstar” or “Son of the Morning.” In light of this (pun again intended) it’s tempting (whoops, another pun) to assume that Lucifer is the devil of this particular story. It appeals to our sense of drama– the rebel son confronts the dutiful son, the two Morning Stars face off to see which burns more brightly. 

But analyzing the passage seems to give additional support to this assumption. In analyzing this devil’s actions, we are able to see the many of characteristics of Lucifer, and also poignant echoes of the story of his fall. 

The Temptation: 

4 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

If there’s one thing Luciferians know, it’s that he wants us to deal with our own problems, by making use of the God within us. In the case of Christ, whose inner divinity was so powerful, I can easily imagine how frustrating Lucifer would find this display of learned helplessness. You have a problem– you’re hungry. You have a solution– your divine powers. Why not use them? To refrain makes little sense to Lucifer, or to Luciferians. 

4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

But Christ is intensely committed to his humanity, particularly in this passage. He is focused on the limitations of his human body, which is after all made and destined to suffer on the cross. To alleviate his hunger now makes no sense to his mission.

I’ve encountered the theory–sadly, I can’t remember where at the moment– that perhaps Lucifer was originally intended by God for the Christ role, or at least, for a place in the holy Trinity. Much more common is the theory that Lucifer wanted a place in the Trinity for himself, but was denied, leading to his rebellion (several references to this can be found in The Luminous Stone). I’m not particularly enamored of either of those theories, but I mention them because they are interesting in context.

5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

I have to admit I don’t have a lot of thoughts on this passage. It jars a little, because I am not used to Lucifer demanding worship– although, let’s face it, if he was going to ask for worship from anyone, it would be the son of God! It’s the perfect punchline, after all! This reads to me almost like a throw-away on Lucifer’s part– worth a try, too good to pass up. 

The most interesting part of this is the idea of Lucifer as the Lord of the World. I’ve never been of the school that he is eternally restrained in hell– there are just too many scriptural references, like this, to him getting out and about. Certain passages of scripture arguably reference Lucifer being cast to Earth, not into hell (Isiah 14:12, Genesis 3:14, Ezekial 28:18). 

(Is Earth hell to an angel? Maybe it is Lucifer’s hell. But this is just speculation.) 

Now, are you sitting down? Because this, to me, is where it gets really good.

9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:

11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

I actually laughed when I read this. 

Lucifer is daring Christ to take a fall! And he’s doing it by quoting a psalm. The devil knows his scripture! (And all Luciferians and Satanists certainly should, too! Ahem.)

But my god, the irony, the bitterness! Lucifer telling Christ that angels will bear him up. No angels came to his rescue when he fell. He is certainly reliving some very old pain here. 

Is he really daring Jesus to literally jump– or is he confronting Christ with his own father’s cruelty in casting out his formerly beloved angel? Or both? 

What is the temptation here– to jump, and test his father’s love? Or to consider the fall his brother took, and face his father’s cruelty?

And when Christ replies…

12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God

…is he rebuking Lucifer to stop tempting him, as his Lord and God… or is he talking about the past, reminding Lucifer that he brought that fall on himself, by tempting and provoking God’s anger all those aeons ago?