Sunday, January 20, 2013

BABALON information and inspiration

If it isn't obvious, I'm running a couple of days behind in releasing BABALON, the February image for the Magical Calendar project.  The main reason for this is that I feel it is an image with a great deal of history, and I've been fussing over a multitude of tests to ensure that I feel I've conveyed this in the finished image.

Detail images of two tests:

This are both fairly quick and loose, mainly acrylic paint applied over photo collage. 

I will be releasing more information in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, here are some of my references and inspiration for this image.

Babylon, as described in the Book of Revelation
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+17&version=NIV




Which in turn Aleister Crowley adapted as BABALON
http://thelemapedia.org/index.php/Babalon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon

"Lust" card from Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck, as illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris


Which in turn Jack Parsons further adapted, invoking her as a goddess in his Babalon Working
http://hermetic.com/wisdom/lib49.html
http://feralhouse.com/sex-and-rockets/


Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, starring (Marjorie) Cameron Parsons, Jack Parson's widow, as Babalon



 Similar imagery was used in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis:








William Blake


It's been said that Jack Parsons's Babalon Working symbolically opened the floodgates for modern witchcraft.  Whether you agree with this or not, the figure of Babalon as a powerful goddess certainly brings to mind certain images of witches and witchcraft throughout the ages.  I couldn't help but draw parallels between images of Babalon riding the Great Beast to some of my favorite images of witches riding to the sabbath.  

One of my favorites, Falero's Departure of the Witches:

 

No comments: