The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism

Oxford Studies in Western Esotericism

by Manon Hedenborg White

In the conventional dichotomy of chaste, pure Madonna and libidinous whore, the former has usually been viewed as the ideal form of femininity. However, there is a modern religious movement in which the negative stereotype of the harlot is inverted and exalted. The Eloquent Blood focuses on the changing construction of femininity and feminine sexuality in interpretations of the goddess Babalon. A central deity in Thelema, the religion founded by the notorious British occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), Babalon is based on Crowley's favorable reinterpretation of the biblical Whore of Babylon, and is associated with liberated female sexuality and the spiritual ideal of passionate union with existence.
Analyzing historical and contemporary written sources, qualitative interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork in the Anglo-American esoteric milieu, the study traces interpretations of Babalon from the works of Crowley and some of his key disciples--including the rocket scientist John "Jack" Whiteside Parsons, and the enigmatic British occultist Kenneth Grant--until the present. From the 1990s onwards, this study shows, female and LGBTQ esotericists have challenged historical interpretations of Babalon, drawing on feminist and queer thought and conceptualizing femininity in new ways.
Tracing the trajectory of a particular gendered symbol from the fin-de-siècle until today, Manon Hedenborg White explores the changing role of women in Western esotericism, and shows how evolving constructions of gender have shaped the development of esotericism. Combining research on historical and contemporary Western esotericism with feminist and queer theory, the book sheds new light on the ways in which esoteric movements and systems of thought have developed over time in relation to political movements.

Genres: Nonfiction, Thelema, Spirituality, Feminism, Occult, Magick, Mysticism

392 pages, Hardcover

Published November 11, 2019

About the author

Manon Hedenborg White, Ph.D. (History of Religions, Uppsala University, 2019), is a post-doctoral researcher at Södertörn University and a visiting scholar at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, 2018–2020. In 2019, she became Review Editor for the International Journal for the Study of New Religions.

Reviews

[Misha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manon Hedenborg White's The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism is the most important book on Paganism, esoteric spirituality, and the occult to be published in the past twenty years.

I realize that’s a bold claim. It’s certainly an arguable claim. However, I stand by it, and we can all check back in twenty years to see if I was right. In the meantime, if you have any kind of serious interest in the intersection of magic, Paganism, and/or polytheism with gender, philosophy, religion, and other artifacts of culture, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Dr. White’s book at your earliest possible convenience.

My full review can be found here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/mishama...

[John R Paez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to evaluate a scholarly work alongside the fiction and non-fiction I've been reading lately as it has its own characteristic syntax and style that lend to a different type of reading. However, this subject is dear to my heart and Dr Hedenborg White breaks new ground in both Western Esotericism and Gender Studies. I'm ambivalent about the opinions of some of the subjects of the author's qualitative study as their discussions of Babalon lack any connection to the esoteric import of the ego-death associated with the Goddess in the foundational works where she appears, choosing instead to focus on who should wield the wand inside and outside the bedroom. That's not a failing of the author, who draws some interesting and novel conclusions in this consummately executed academic work.

[Noémi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite academical in its language, but for those who appreciate that sort of thing, beautifully so. I enjoyed the wide scope of the author's interests that gave a nuanced picture of Babalon herself, but also of what she can mean and what she can do for different people. I didn't have that much previous knowledge of her or of Thelema, but that wasn't a problem. A magnificent book for those interested in the workings of Babalon, religious history, femininity and transformative, revolutionary powers.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feminism, gender studies and sex magic. Sounds good.
I liked the first half. The second half was kind of silly.
I think the word trope is White's all time favorite word.
This book is long over due, but I don't think her ideas are entirely finished.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proper review forthcoming. As brilliant as I expected it would be.

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 4 out of 5]

A challenging, informative and in-depth analysis of the Babalon current in Thelema and its derivatives.

[B. Rule · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an uneven but fascinating study of the gendered roles encompassed in the Thelemite Babalon figure. It has a few salutary contributions: a solid historical review of Crowley's writings on Babalon and her conceptual permutations in the work of other 20th century occultists (including Jack Parsons and Kenneth Grant), an excellent grip on the categories of academic feminist thinking, and an incisive view of the historicizing elements of both in framing the changing images of the goddess. Hedenborg White clearly knows and loves this material, and her enthusiasm is palpable. Her explication of Crowley and other occult writers is unusually clear: she sweeps away The Great Beast's obfuscating codes and cuts right to the chase of what he was most on about. Sex magic. Of course it's largely sex magic. Le sigh.

Hedenborg White, while obviously an interested reporter, keeps mum on the ontology of Babalon. She resists the fruitless impulse to opine on the reality of the reported visions of practitioners, instead hewing closer to anthropological reportage and literary analysis. The first half of the book is very good in this regard, and may stand as one of my favorite accounts of Crowley. She demonstrates how Crowley's view of the goddess arises from his cultural milieu, seeing Babalon primarily in terms of a receptacle for male energies and her freedom as primarily manifesting in sexual access. Later writers reconceptualized that receptivity with an active element: Babalon does not mean unfettered promiscuity, but chooses how to reveal herself (read: can be choosy about her partners). Babalon also evolved from a gender-essentialist female avatar to encompass a more fluid approach to gender in later theorists, while retaining her associations with dissolution of the self. Her characteristics may present as wrathful, lustful, or nurturing depending on how tightly you're holding on to your ego.

Hedenborg White does an excellent job unpacking the idea of an active receptivity and how that informs the divine attributes. She points out that some practitioners have complicated relationships with traditional gender signifiers, and Babalon may be a liberator by appropriating those symbols rather than rejecting them wholesale. Hedenborg White's fieldwork uncovers several such people, some of whom do fertile work with Babalon from trans, genderqueer, or intersectional perspectives. Further, Hedenborg White brings Judith Butler into the conversation to conceive of a goddess open to new "modes of being dispossessed" rather than possessing: active receptivity can mean choosing to set aside ego for another without falling (wholly) into categories of subjugation and domination. These are fascinating ideas with wide applicability beyond the occult cultural space. Babalon as alternative femininity, beyond the Virgin Mother or the whore, may open new ways of existing as a female-identifying person. I thought there was a lot to love in this project.

It's not perfect, though. It's obvious this was a repurposed dissertation, and some of the sections fit together awkwardly. The second half is devoted to Hedenborg White's fieldwork, including interviews with contemporary occultists and descriptions of rituals. It's a bit of a mishmash and lacks the strong theoretical through-line of the best parts of the book. However, those sections are mercifully shorter, and the concluding theoretical summary is capably done. This probably isn't a work for everyone, but it's got wider appeal than you would expect. Keep an open mind and give it a look.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great historical overview of the evolutionary construction of femininities around Babalon in Thelema from Crowley to contemporary times. White offers an interesting glimpse into the tensions between neopagan-gendered polarities conceptions of the early 20th century and how they get negotiated by their practitioners in the ever-evolving intellectual milieu of developments from post-modern philosophy, feminism, and queered gender studies.

[didi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The softness of all bodies; the yielding of our undone hearts; the unruliness of desire— these are the violent and delightful stories told by the eloquent blood.