9 posts tagged “babalon”

Our google alert brought up another reader review, we thought we'd share with you, the word is spreading:

review

Book Review
The Red Goddess By Peter Grey
Scarlet Imprint,
UK Summer Solstice 2008 edition

I enjoy the mythos of BABALON. There is something about powerful and sexual female energies that sits right with me (having worked in the past with Lilith and Morrigan, whom I still work with). But BABALON is the best aspects of both in a single entity.

So when I heard about this book, I insisted on buying it. Although the first time I heard about it, the first 2007 print run had been done (156 copies) and was sold out in quick time. And then I found a 2008 run being done, 777 copies (I got #63) with 49 hand bound leather editions being made. I bought both (still waiting for the hand bound edition to be finished and then arrive, it will be a few months).

This book is very hard to describe in words in a coherent manner. It is a wondrous mix of history, and gnostic speculation on the behalf of the author, Peter Grey.

He starts with the history of Babalon and her appearance in The Book of Revelations and why she is essentially feared by the Phallo-jealous monotheists. She empowers the freedom of enjoyment, pleasure and powerful-dangerous womanhood.

To quote two small paragraphs:

We are watchers of the dance of veils as Salome, Mary Magdalene, Isis and Astarte display the shrine of the mystery to our hungry eyes. She is a pole dancer, a dollar whore, a catwalk advert for impossibly red lipstick, a beautiful young girl. Your first love.
She is the Sophia of the Gnostics, a Black Madonna, a heroine of the heretic heart.

Both Aleister Crowley and Jack Parson's get a good lot of mention throughout the book, although in itself, it is not a Thelemic portrayed idea within the pages. Infact Grey spends a small amount of time politely attacking Crowley as a person and his documented behaviour towards women, whilst praising his spiritual practices and the path the To Mega Therion paved for the rest of us. In my reading, Grey's approach to Crowley didn't sit badly, although it may annoy or upset Othodox Thelemites partially.

The second third of the book, where the references to the O.T.O and Thelema exist the most follows on the history of Babalon to historical manifestations of her and her worship. Jesus is mentioned, along with Simon Magnus, Jack Parsons and other quite interestingly Iohn Dee, alongside his Enochian discoveries.

The third and final part explores the means to worship and bring Babalon into your life, through ritual practices, ingesting sacraments, sexual acts, bondage, chemicals and even as simple as inhaling the scent of a Damascus rose. But, as warned by the author, bringing Babalon into your life may leave scars, as she is a Goddess of both Love, Lust and War.

And last and not least, before words fail me entirely, the visual presentation of this book is breathtaking. White cover, with the BABALON lamen / sigil pressed into it in red, the bookends in a deep scarlet red, lovely thick stock paper, with smatterings of red text sprinkled throughout. And four gloss plates, illustrating Babalon herself in various forms. The Thoth Lust card by Lady Frieda Harris being the last plate.

I won't recommend everyone buys this, it may not be for them, but at least taste from its pages and get a feel for the Holy Whore, the Scarlet Woman that Rides the Seven Headed Beast.

Dear Friends.

Peter has been confirmed as opening the Thelemic Symposium in Oxford with an evocative piece on Babalon.
This will be a thirty minute prose reading, following similar lines to The Red Goddess but with some new material.
We are delighted to be speaking at this event and being given the opportunity to do this.

The Symposium is on October 4 running from midday to one in the morning.
As Peter is on first, you'll need to be there on time to catch his speech.
Full details of other speakers and how to buy tickets can be found here:

http://www.dowhatthouwilt.com/symposium/

Dear Friends,

ScarletImprint are deep in the French Alps under a world of thunderstorms and high peaks and writing, writing, writing.

There are six books in progress. We have our Work cut out.

Peter Grey has an extensive essay on Parsons and the Witchcraft published in The Oracle magazine. This is an entirely new piece of writing, which we will publish ourselves in due course.
The Oracle  is the only serious occult publication being produced with any frequency in the UK.
The website can be found here: www.oracleoccult.com
Copies can be bought in all UK Occult bookshops or obtained by emailing the editor (address is on the website).
The Oracle is the result of the tireless work of David Blank, one of the unsung heroes of the current revival. David is a true gentleman, modest and intensely dedicated to his work, a highly personal practice of sorcery. ScarletImprint hope to be publishing a piece from him later this year to bring much needed attention to his path.

The Red Goddess is continuing to make an impact, garnering lovely reviews and a steady stream of emails and orders.

We will be emailing our subscribers soon with details of our next confirmed publication, watch your inbox.

In Nomine Babalon

Scarlet Imprint x

Dear Friends,

The first public responses to The Red Goddess are being posted online, and we are thrilled with the reaction, as well as the emails sent to us.

Wanted to share this latest one from Lashtal forums with you all:

I got my copy of The Red Goddess a few days ago and I've done little more than read it since it arrived. It's a gorgeous book. It was expensive (at US$93 incl shipping), but 3/4 of the way through it, I can tell you: Man is it worth every penny! This is a serious piece of business. I'm not a Thelemite, nor a card-carry member of any tradition, but I am a practicing Tantrist and have studied and used various Western and Eastern practices for most of my life. I've never NOT been a devotee of The Goddess. With that as background, I count this as one of the best books I've ever read in the field. Peter Grey is a phenomenal writer. He's obviously well-researched, well-read, and well-practiced, but there's a relaxed, cocky, almost punk-rock style to his prose. There's real heart, gut, and immediacy here, and a kind of intoxicated lyricism -- it's gonzo occultism! But that's all balanced with sound scholarship, big ideas, and a palpable devotion to the subject matter. This is a man who LOVES his Holy Whore. As to do I. I'm so thrilled to be able to add this book as a tool in my devotion.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I can only hope that after he's exhausted the 777 copies in this edition, he puts out a cheaper general market version. This is few nights in bed with the Goddess (I've been up till dawn the last two nights reading it) that everyone working with Her (or those just interested in knowing what the attraction is) should experience.

On a more tiresome note, the first overpriced copy has sneaked onto ebay.
This is a contraversial book and will scald a few readers into selling it on, that is also a sign of success, the books will all find their rightful owners. We still have plenty of stock left though, and without a marked up price. Again, thanks to our friends who draw our attention to these online listings. We are vigilant.

All our best,

In Nomine Babalon

Scarlet Imprint x

Dear Friends,

Scarlet Imprint are delighted to announce the publication of: The Red Goddess for midday Summer Solstice June 21.

This title is now available for you to order.

The Red Goddess is an octavo book of 260pp, printed throughout in red and black ink, and with four luscious plates.
The standard edition is strikingly bound in white book cloth, scarlet endpapers, and embossed with the seven pointed star of BABALON. Each and every book is perfumed and consecrated.

It is being prepared in a strictly limited and hand-numbered edition of seven hundred and seventy-seven copies.
A copy can be yours for thirty-seven English pounds plus postage.

In addition, 49 devotee copies of The Red Goddess are being quarter bound in black moroccan goat and finished in scarlet silk with hand marbled endpapers. These fine books will be bound by Brian Settle. Each one a work of art and rare beauty in a world of mass production. We will only sell these direct to individuals who contact us and explain why they wish to own a copy, a necessary step given the speculators who seek to profit from our work.
These are magickal books, for a magickal purpose, and that is their value.
We do accept installments, as we want our books to reach the right people.

The devotee copies will each cost an hundred and fifty six English pounds plus secure delivery.

The Red Goddess is an ecstatic journey through the unheard history of BABALON, from Revelations back through the Ishtar Gate and forward into a living modern magickal current.
This is an explicit and challenging vision of a very modern Goddess coming into power. This is more than a history, it is a passionate account of living magick and the transcendent power of Love.

The epic sweep of the text takes us from Babylon to Jerusalem to Rome, and onwards to Apocalypse.
It looks at the angelic work of renaissance mage John Dee.
It lays bare the excesses of Aleister Crowley, and unlocks the secrets of Waratah Blossoms.
It explains the immolation of the Californian antichrist-superstar Jack Parsons and his relationship with Scientology founder L.Ron Hubbard.

This is the missing history of the Holy Whore.

Thirteen essays conclude the book on subjects including: roses, mirror magick, BDSM, aphrodisiac drugs, the information age, love vs lust, and the meaning of apocalypse.

Intelligent and balanced reviews for the previous edition from both readers and people of standing in the occult community can be found at www.scarletimprint.com

Those working with Ishtar, Inanna, Lilith, Kali, Sekhmet, Bast, Freya, Pomba Gira, Erzulie, witchcraft, Tantra, sacred sex and ritual transgression will find much here to intrigue, inspire and challenge them.

The Red Goddess is suitable for anyone with blood in their veins, regardless of tradition, background or experience.

It is a Love story.

To secure your copy please credit our paypal account for £37 plus postage scarletimprint@gmail.com

Postage rates are:
UK First Class £4
Europe £6
Worldwide £10

If you do not have a paypal account and wish to pay by cheque (uk residents only), please email us and we will forward you our postal address.
If you need our IBAN and SWIFT numbers for an international bank transfer again, email us and we will provide you with them.

Full details can be found at www.scarletimprint.com

This is an important book for these times.

In Nomine Babalon

Scarlet Imprint x

This release is public, please feel free to post on any communities or to personal contacts, we very much appreciate your support.

With subscriber pre-order for the Solstice edition of The Red Goddess underway, we can give you our first glimpse of the new octavo standard edition, the only thing you can't glean from the pictures is the beautiful red and black ink printing throughout..

Full size images and information on the champagne launch party can be found at www.scarletimprint.com
Exciting times.

In Nomine Babalon

Scarlet Imprint x

With well over a hundred copies gone, we have been overjoyed with the response that we have received for the book.

Whilst we are awaiting a net connection in order to update www.scarletimprint.com we wanted to share some of the reactions and reviews from our readers.

These do not include the kind letters, phonecalls and personal thanks.

This is more than just a book to us.

We have moved past the hundred mark and there are still copies available, please email us to reserve a copy if you have not done so, as we do want practitioners to get them rather than collectors.

Names have been removed to protect the anonymity of our readers:

"Of all the grimoire texts I've purchased, this one seems to be the most viscerally and palpably magickal. I can feel the whole books pulsating with its living current, and I am most inspired by its talismanic power. Thank you for creating such a precious, welcome, and imposing treasure. This is clearly a book of great power."

"Yours is an important book, and clearly a work of love. The perfumed rosepetals that adorned that talismanic package are now resting in a white bowl on my altar"

"I have nearly finished my reading of /The Red Goddess/. I must say it
is was an absolutely wonderful volume! If you can imagine: there i
was, sitting in the middle of a field, unwrapping this beautiful
talisman, the scent of rose and spikenard (i think) saturating my aura
with a glorious and sumptuous bliss. Oh, if only all gifts (and i am
strongly aware that such a book is a gift, even though it was i who
purchased it) were so wonderfully presented. The wax seal and rose
petals are now permanent additions to my altar.

And the text; well-researched, amusing, insightful, witty and
sarcastic in turns, but always with its face turned to Her. The
playful and careful subtextualising is marvellous. Her veils are drawn
back, one by one, a striptease indeed! Until finally, we are teased
with the barest glimpses of the powerhouse of the author's magick; but
those glimpses are more than sufficient.

And it is always so visual! In truth, it is rather more about what
Peter's writing made me *see* than it made me *think*: to ignite the
Vision is a rare thing in a book. And that in itself it makes it
impossibly hard for me to write the review i intended to write here. I
will have to settle with what i have managed to wring from the stone
here.

It is a great thing that all these ideas have been collected together
into one volume and presented to the world. Therefore: Bravo. I seethe
with envy and admiration "

"The book arrived perfectly preserved today and all I can say is Wow. You've done a fantastic job. For once, this is a magickal text I can't wait to read through - most we get sent I go, oh that looks interesting, set it to one side and dip into it on occasion. This is a book which will be read, most likely reread and certainly treasured."

"You've done a fantastic job and should be well pleased."

"Wow what a book. So far I have just skimmed the text, but it is clearly a highly important book and beautifully produced."

Our heartfelt thanks.

In Nomine Babalon

Scarlet Imprint x

Scarlet Imprint announces the publication of:

The Red Goddess by Peter Grey on 07/07/07

A strictly limited talismanic publication in an edition of an hundred and fifty and six copies.
All copies are hardback slip cased and 156pp, professionally printed, bound, consecrated, numbered, signed and sealed.

The contents and conclusions of this book have never been published elsewhere.

The Red Goddess takes you through a tale of sex, drugs and violence.

The epic sweep of the text takes us from Babylon to Jerusalem to Rome, and onwards to Apocalypse.
It looks at the angelic work of renaissance mage John Dee. 
It delivers a devastating exegisis on the excesses of Aleister Crowley, and unlocks the secrets of Waratah Blossoms.
It explains the immolation of the Californian antichrist-superstar Jack Parsons and his relationship with Scientology founder L.Ron Hubbard.

There is also a full supporting cast of Solomon, Simon Magus, St John the Divine, Earl Bothwell, the Templars, Mary, the Magdalene and countless others.

This is the missing history of the Holy Whore.

Thirteen essays conclude the book on subjects including: roses, mirror magick, BDSM, aphrodisiac drugs,  the information age, love vs lust, and the meaning of apocalypse.

Those working with Ishtar, Inanna, Lilith, Kali, Sekhmet, Bast, Freya, Pomba Gira, Erzulie, witchcraft, tibetan tantra, sacred sex and transgression will find much here to intrigue and inspire them.

The Red Goddess is suitable for anyone with blood in their veins, regardless of tradition, background or experience. 

It is a Love story.