kaos

from the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites. In my experience the
true understanding of the mystery of Babalon comes essentially from occult initiation
(on “the prayer mats of the flesh” you might say, to borrow the title of the Chinese
erotic novel by Li Yu).
Just as “Babylon the Great” is generally regarded by Biblical commentators as Rome,
so is the beast with seven heads and ten horns—Rome stood on seven hills and the
Roman empire was divided into ten provinces by Augustus Caesar. But I’m not convinced
that this “reasonable” way to look at it is the only or the best way. How does seeing the
beast as Rome help, because, following this line of reasoning, so is the Great Red Dragon,
who Michael fights as Satan. Why should the beast that rose up out of the sea and
Babalon’s beast be identified as Rome but the Great Red Dragon be regarded as Satan?
More importantly—and this is a question left unaddressed by those who seek to “explain”
Revelation—if the text is properly understood as a carefully constructed allegory does
this not undermine its status as genuine visionary experience, as a “revelation” from
God?
The idea of the seven-headed serpent or dragon is much earlier than the Bible, it
appears to have emerged from Babylonia—where it is mentioned in Old Babylonian
lists and omens—from even earlier precedents. The seven-headed serpent is mentioned
in the epic Andimdimma where it is compared with the weapon of the god Ninurta (see
Landsberger, Die Fauna des alten Mesopotamien [Leipzig, 1934], p 60). A seven-headed
serpent is also found on a Sumerian macehead; a seal dating back to the middle of the
third millennium bc from Tell Asmar (ancient Eshnunna), 50 miles northeast of modern
Baghdad, shows the slaying of a dragon with seven heads (both are illustrated in
Alexander Heidel’s The Babylonian Genesis [1951], figures 15 and 16). In Psalms 74:14
“the heads of Leviathan” are mentioned, and Isaiah 27:1 has a reference to Leviathan
that strongly parallels a reference to the seven-headed dragon or serpent Lotan from
Ugaritic mythology mentioned on a tablet from Ras Shamra. Lotan was slain by Baal.
In Isaiah 27:1 it is written, in Heidel’s translation:
“On that day the Lord will punish
With his sword, which is hard and great and strong,
Leviathan, the fleeing serpent,
And Leviathan, the tortuous serpent,
And he will slay the crocodile (tannin) that is in the sea.”
[Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis, p 103]
The King James version has “dragon (tannin) that is in the sea” but Heidel sees it as a
crocodile in the Nile (the Nile is referred to as “the Sea” in Isa. 19:5 and Nah. 3:8 and is
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