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Level 8 - Vociferous
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: south africa
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Re: aenima- problem 8
Scarlet Woman (the): The name “Scarlet Woman” originates from St. John’s book of Revelation, in which it is given to the great prostitute Babylon (Rev. 17: 17–18). Together with the “Beast” she represents the force ruling the material universe. The name Babylon derives from the Hebrew word “Babel”, meaning “anointed” as well as “mix, mingle and confuse”. As manifested existence, she is multiplicity, the illusory Maya of Eastern mysticism. Her name is also related to the ancient Egyptian word for the soul, Ba.
Revelation tells the allegorical story of her initiatory death, through which she is taken as bride by the Lamb and transfigured into the heavenly Jerusalem (or renewal of the Word at the spring equinox of Aries – see Revelation, 21). The nuptial feast that follows the hour of doom of the Scarlet Woman is a celebration of the soul’s victory over death and world illusion, of her union with the eternal. Aleister Crowley spelt the name Babylon as “Babalon”, the Chaldean word for “gate of the god”, a name which qabalistically adds to 156. This is also the number of Zion, the sacred mountain that the Initiate must ascend to triumph over the “word of Sin” that is “Restriction”. Liber AL vel Legis reveals that Hadit, the giver of life, manifests Nuit as the Scarlet Woman, the supernal Khu and creative world of Briah.
In the Scarlet Woman “is all power is given” (Liber AL vel Legis I: 15). This power is that of Hadit, the serpent or 93 current animating the life of the Scarlet Woman and radiating from the Khabs contained within her. Above the Abyss the Scarlet Woman is the body of Nuit, the company of heaven, the intelligence referred to as Neschemah in the Qabalah. In her underworld aspect the Scarlet Woman is manifested as the great dragon, the material and visible world (Assiah) at the base of the Tree. Therein dwell man, demons, and the Qliphoth or shells of the dead. However, in earlier Sumerian depictions of the Scarlet Woman it is clear that the underworld was not then seen as a place of evil ipso facto – as it was in later times when scriptural interpretation became the sole means of conveying knowledge. The descent of the Scarlet Woman into the underworld was originally not seen as a “fall from grace”, but as a heroic act. By so doing, she is able to awaken the power of the Beast for the purposes of Initiation.
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