On the 21st of December 2009, the night of the Winter Solstice, my longest magickal working to date came to an end. Following a week of daily meditation over the Star of Babalon (which I had drawn by hand on a piece of paper) and invoking Babalon thrice daily (777 being the number of The Great Work), I had finally come to the point where I would try to make contact with Babalon. I had tried before and failed, and after studying the mythology of Babalon further I had revised my approach and ritual.
I prepared by cleaning the room where I have my altar, and cleansing myself. I turned off all the lights and lit the candles on the altar. On the altar were just the candles, the cup and a stoneware bowl used to burn incense or other substances. I placed the Star of Babalon on the altar, traced the Star in the air in front of me and read the invocation aloud, opening the gate to the qlipoth and asking Babalon to come forth. Following that I knelt down and started meditating.
I took me approximately ten minutes to reach a state where my mind was more or less blank, and I started the usual visualization I use for qlipothic workings: I visualize myself standing on top of a mountain. Before me is a path leading down into a dark valley, and the sun is setting behind me. I walk down the path and let the darkness embrace me without fear.
When I reached the valley I walked through the darkness and repeated the mantra Lepaca qlipoth ama Babalon ama Lilith for a while, I don't know how long. Suddenly light penetrated the darkness, and the valley opened up to a great desert.
In the distance was a lone figure walking towards me. She walked slowly but rapidly came closer, and I could see that it was the figure of a slender but voluptuous woman, with long, red hair. She was completely naked. I stopped walking and she approached me.
I asked her if she was Babalon, and she said that she was 156 (156 = BABALON = KAOS) and the threefold 7. I thanked her for appearing and asked her to guide me on my path and help me in The Great Work. She pointed towards the sky, and there appeared a silvery moon. She pointed to the moon, then at me, and then to ground beneath her feet. She then drew in the air in front of me a golden triangle. At the uppermost point was the name Lucifer, and at the other two Da'ath and Choronzon. Then she departed and I allowed myself to return to the reality of Malkuth.
I did not understand what she had tried to show me, and for days I tried to figure it out, but the significance of it not dawn upon me until about a week after the ritual. Babalon is related to the moon, as can be seen from this passage from The Book of the Law:
15. Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather my children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.
16. For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her the stooping starlight.
- AL I:15-16
A few days later I realized that the moon is connected to the sephira Yesod, man's spiritual existence and the astral plane. All of a sudden it became clear to me. Babalon had described to me the Fall of Man – if it is a metaphor or not doesn't matter at this point. Man first lived a spiritual existence in the sphere of Yesod. At that time Malkuth did not exist, but there were ten sephira, the tenth being Lucifer, located where we now find Da'ath and the Abyss, guarded by Choronzon.
Lucifer descended to Yesod either because he and his angels desired man, or because he wanted to give man knowledge that he didn't have, depending on what story you want to believe. YHVH didn't like that, and you know what happened next. YHVH created Malkuth, the physical prison we know as existence, and man was cast out of Yesod to Malkuth. Lucifer was cast down into the Abyss, to be forever trapped in Sitra Ahra, and that is when Da'ath was created, Da'ath – knowledge – being a gateway from the Tree of Life to Sitra Ahra. The RHP kabbalist who tries to cross the Abyss will encounter Choronzon; YHVH doesn't want his sheep to stray too far from their pen.
Of course this was just something that I thought of, with my limited knowledge. But a week later I finally got my hands on Thomas Karlsson's “Qabalah, Qlipoth and Goetic Magic”, and to my delight one of the chapters deals with Lucifer-Da'ath and the Fall of Man, just as in the vision Babalon had given me!
I got chills down my spine when I read it, because I had no previous knowledge of this, which leads me to believe that my experience was actually genuine, and not something that my mind created to feed my ego.
Walking the qlipothic paths can be dangerous and exhausting, but when you experience something like this it makes it all worth it.