
The Whore of Babylon, Part 1: Revelations
🌹 In this episode of Red Mother Rising, Ruby Magdalene and Meenakshi talk about Babalon, the Whore of Babylon, the Book of Revelation, and the strange similarities between Babalon and goddesses like Lalitā, Inanna, Kālī and Kāmākhyā. At the center of the conversation is a painting of Śrī Lalitā Tripurasundarī by Meenakshi’s friend Rashmi Thirtha Jyoti. It is a dark, regal and deeply erotic depiction of Lalitā that becomes part of the visual language of the conversation. When Ruby first told Meenakshi about Babalon, Meenakshi had never heard of her before. But when Meenakshi looked up the Whore of Babylon, she was shocked by how similar her imagery was to Lalitā: the red, the jewels, the wine, the queenship, the erotic power, and even the idea of ruling over kings. Ruby brings her own experience with Babalon, Christianity and the Western occult tradition into the conversation, while Ruby and Meenakshi examine the Book of Revelation itself, the political world it came out of, John of Patmos, Rome, Jezebel, martyrdom, misogyny, Gnosticism, Yeshua, the Kali Yuga, and the way women and the feminine are treated throughout the text. As a Śrīvidyā practitioner, Meenakshi explores what happens when the imagery of Babalon and the Whore of Babylon is interpreted through Śrīvidyā rather than through a framework of sin and sexual depravity. The woman called “whore” in Revelation looks strikingly similar to Lalitā as Śrī Mātā and Śrī Mahārājñī, the Mother and Empress: regal, erotic, adorned, sovereign, associated with wine and desire, and ultimately inseparable from the power that grants both worldly experience and liberation. The episode also explores “wine and fornications” through the lens of Śakti, Kuṇḍalinī, bhoga and mokṣa, and the possibility that symbols condemned in one tradition may point toward liberation and Self-realization in another. Ruby Magdalene and Meenakshi discuss: ✧ Babalon, the Whore of Babylon, Inanna and Lalitā Tripurasundarī ✧ Babalon and Lalitā as queen, mother, sovereign and erotic power ✧ Ruby’s Babalon initiation and the meaning of her tattoo ✧ The Rochester Śrīvidyā temple, Navarātri, Śrī Nagara and Revelation’s throne room ✧ Kāmākhyā, blood, the yoni, wine and sacred sexuality ✧ Revelation as symbolic and visionary: angels, animal-headed beings and Yoginīs ✧ John of Patmos, Rome, empire, persecution and apocalypse ✧ Jezebel, women’s spiritual authority, misogyny, sexual shame and the harlot ✧ The golden cup, blood of the saints and nondual union with the Mother ✧ “Wine and fornications,” Śakti, Kuṇḍalinī Śakti, sacred union, bhoga and mokṣa ✧ Crowley, Babalon and Western occult interpretations of the Goddess ✧ Spiritual projection, misogyny, desire and conditioning ✧ Devī Māhātmya, Mahīṣāsura, Mahābhārata and the complexity of good and evil ✧ Kuṇḍalinī Śakti, liberation, saṃskāras and Self-realization ✧ Śrīvidyā as a “controlled burn,” Gnosticism, martyrdom and institutional Christianity ✧ Kali Yuga, patriarchy, generational trauma, Yeshua and Eros as devotion rather than objectification A lot of this episode comes back to one question: what happens when the same feminine power is seen through very different minds? In one tradition She can become the whore, the fallen woman and the symbol of corruption. In another She is Śrī Mātā and Śrī Mahārājñī - the Mother and the Empress. This is part one of Ruby and Meenakshi’s conversation on Babalon. In the next episode, they will explore Crowley, Jack Parsons and the later occult interpretations of Her. Instagram: @red.mother.risingTikTok: @red.mother.risingSubstack: @red.mother.rising
