kaos

In a note on the 12 th Æthyr in The Vision and the Voice (Liber 418) Crowley remarks:
“The formula of 156 is constant copulation or samadhi on Everything.” The references
to Chaos and Babalon in this work are particularly important in that they represent
Crowley’s first contact with the True Current in 1909 via the Enochian Æthyrs, after
what is looking increasingly like a false start with the reception of Liber AL in 1904.]
The “Babalon” spelling, Enochian, and bondage
[Ed’s note—In KAOS 13, p 23, I stated that the Babalon spelling of Babylon derived
from Crowley’s Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law), but on re-reading Liber AL
years later I was surprised to find that the word Babalon doesn’t occur in that work at
all, just “Scarlet Woman” and “Scarlet Concubine”, and I am uncertain where I got the
idea. I suspect I picked it up from an error of Kenneth Grant’s, on re-reading his Aleister
Crowley and the Hidden God recently I noticed in his glossary he writes: “Babalon: The
curious orthography stems from The Book of the Law…” (p 205). He also makes this
error in The Magical Revival. Crowley in the commentary on Chapter 49 in The Book of
Lies notes that Babalon “is the name referred to in Liber Legis, I, 22”—which reads: “I
am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name which I will give him
when at last he knoweth me.” In correspondence with Satyr I asked him whether he
knew where the first occurrence of the Babalon spelling occurred, my own suspicion off
the top of my head being Liber Cheth. My enquiry prompted Satyr to do a bit of digging
and he came up with a surprising find placing the original first usage of the “Babalon”
spelling way before Crowley in the Enochian Keys transmitted to Dr John Dee and
Edward Kelly. The first use by Crowley, however, is in The Vision and the Voice, which
formed much of the original spark of inspiration that led to the kaos-babalon working.
Satyr also went further into his interest in Enochian in response to my request for his
reading recommendations. And, for spice, a little on knot magick and bondage related
to the 156 current.]
Hi Joel—Glad you brought up the topic of Babalon, as I just found something interesting
in my Journal on “156”:
3 FEB III–19 [1990]—1033. Mountain View
I slept well, cat bothered us. I recall from Dream, that I was transmitting “156” over some
distance, & nothing more helpful.
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