THE RITUAL FOR THE RED GODDESS

This ritual changed my life, partly because I did it way before I was ready for it. If I had not done it, I would not have been able to make a living whoring. 

The Red Goddess is Babalon in the Thelemic system, and she hearkens back to the Whore of Babylon in Revelations, as expressed by the febrile mind of John the Revelator. The Red Goddess is also many other goddesses, and also yourSelf, whatever sexual identity or orientation you have. Your Red Goddess speaks to the Goddess outside of yourself, just as with other powerful expressions of magical archetype. 

PREPARATION

Set up your altar according to your beliefs and ideas. Take two sweetmeats, as they were once called. Examples might be Turkish Delight, with its implications of the exotic and the forbidden (did you read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where the White Witch tempts poor Edmund with Turkish Delight?) or rich chocolate in small amounts. Other possibilities are figs or pomegranates. Take two shot glasses of wine or rich red cordial. Port is appropriately scarlet and sticky. Place them on the altar, one for the Goddess and one for yourself.

Make the room warm and fragrant, and inviting for the Goddess.  Use red or orange candles. Rose petals, rose water, sweet incense or red or orange flowers. Then cleanse yourself. If you have a bath, put sensual oils, rose water or whatever feels sensual to you in it. Make yourself beautiful. You are, after all, beautiful. Dress in red or orange. Wear your most opulent jewellery. While preparing, you may wish to play sensual music of your choice.

You may sit in a comfortable position, a yoga or meditation position, or stand in front of a mirror if you choose. But you will need to hold the position for a while, so don’t put too much stress on your body. Once you are comfortable, begin.

OPENING THE TEMPLE

Take your wand or ritual knife and make the sign of a trident in the air. Use your non-dominant hand. Make a statement of intent, such as ‘I am here to meet my Red Goddess. I hereby open the Temple’.

INTRODUCING YOURSELF

Introduce yourSelf to the Red Goddess. This is not like saying, err, hi, it’s me. This is mythologizing yourSelf. Speak in epithets about yourSelf in the way you would to the Goddess. Boast, providing you are truthful. If you have overcome a serious illness, describe yourSelf as the One who conquered Pain. If you did your higher education later in life, talk about your fight for Wisdom. You are the Flame of Wisdom in your family; you have flirted with Death and seduced him on your own terms, and so on. This sounds incredibly silly when you start with it, but it is great stuff and the thing is, it is all true. We are our own myths. And if we can’t boast here, where can we?

If you have a magickal name, use it here. And write it all down carefully beforehand, because if you try and wing it you will just feel awkward and you won’t do it. It is very good practice to learn to write your own rituals. It is also good practice to try to memorize them, because memorizing is an excellent discipline for the magician.

THE DUAL OFFERINGS

Make your offering of a sweetmeat and wine to the Goddess, and eat and drink the other one yourself. These sensual morsels are a kind of eucharist, the body and blood of the Goddess if you like. (And yes, that is a counter narrative to the Christian one, and even maybe blasphemous. And yet, here we are.) They also express the kind of theurgy I talked about before. If we eat something a Red Goddess might like, we are that much closer to becoming a Red Goddess ourselves

 

MEDITATION ON THE BASE AND SACRAL CHAKRAS

Take a few quiet, slow breaths.

Start with your base chakra, which is located at your perineum. It is your root, your grounding place. Turn your attention to it, breathe into it. With each outward breath, see it growing red and large and healthy. Perhaps it glows or pulses a little. It might appear as a crystal, flower or wheel. Lovingly observe it. Then feel the energy from the base chakra spread down your legs and into your feet, and from your feet down into the loving Earth. Feel tendrils or roots pushing through the Earth, down, down until they reach a crystal. What colour is it? It is large and bright. Draw the tendrils down to it, and wrap them around it. This is an anchor for your energetic work. Now breathe in, and breathe up the good Earth energy up through the earth and into your base chakra. Breathe out, and send the good energy back into the crystal. An exchange of deep and sustaining love is taking place here. Now with the next in breath, draw the energy up to your sacral chakra. This is located right below your belly button. It is the chakra governing creative force, and sexuality. Breathe into it a few times. Feel it growing large and bright and healthy. It might appear as a crystal, and flower or a wheel. Feel or see it pulsing, opening or turning.

Now, with your base and sacral chakras open and happy, attend to the pathworking.

THE RITUAL PATHWORKING

You are standing on a cliff, overlooking the sea. You are wearing a red cloak, that billows in a stiff wind. You look down and you can see and hear the waves crash onto the rocks. You know you are already a long way up.

You feel something tugging your sleeve and you turn to look at who has done this. Who is it? An animal? A person? Someone you know? A non-human being?

Whoever it is, it turns away and you follow it away from the cliff. You walk along a path together. What is the path like? Narrow, broad, natural or human made? It is warm and breezy and you smell flowers and grass, and hear birds. Your senses are waking up. 

You and your companion come to a building, atop a small hill. It might be lavish and big or small and part of nature. There are steps up to it. As you walk up the steps you can feel yourself becoming lighter, as if the air is pure up here.

There is a door, and here your companion leaves you. You knock and the door swings open. A red carpet leads towards an elaborate throne and there is a woman sitting on the throne. She is surrounded by servants or guards, perhaps human, perhaps not. She is dressed in red, but scantily clad. She wears gold jewellery and a headdress. What does she look like to you? Is she dark or fair, older or younger, what colour are her eyes, what are her clothing, jewels and headdress like?

She looks straight at you, and waves her hand.  Her attendants leave silently. She indicates for you to approach, and to remove your cloak. You remove your cloak, and you are naked underneath. You might be nervous, but you are not embarrassed.  You are curious and excited. You move towards her slowly. She puts out her right hand and touches your third eye. You may feel some heat or a sensation of light. What colour is that light? How does the touch feel?

Then she holds out her left hand and she is holding something beautiful and special and it is just for you. She places it on your sacral chakra, about two inches below your belly button. It sinks right into the chakra area, through the skin. It is now yours.

You feel the chakra pulsing orange, growing larger and healthy and gorgeous.

For a time, let whatever visions and experiences take you with them. Interact with your Red Goddess, she may speak with you, show you things, or give you her wisdom straight to your heart.  

Thank her for her gnosis and prepare to leave. Walk back along the red carpet and out the door the way you came, and shut the door behind you.

Come back to your usual state of consciousness as you are ready. Take note of any spiritual influences that are in your Temple and release any that have turned up because they are attracted to the energy released by the ritual. You can do this just with a statement of intent. Say something like ‘I release all beings and energies that have come into this temple’.

You may feel sexually aroused after this pathworking, and if you do, feel free to act on that. Consider this to be a part of the ritual. You are beginning a practice of worship to your own Red Goddess.

You may have some leftover energy and if you don’t deal with this you might become irritable or out of sorts. Here are some grounding techniques:

-         On all fours, on the ground, let energy drain out of your body, through your arms and hands, and legs and feet, into the earth

-         Dance

-         Eat some ordinary healthy food

Once you have finished, write down what you remember. You can also draw or make diagrams.

Things to consider: Some people have vivid experiences when undertaking this sort of pathworking. Some don’t. It is fine if your visions are vague and seem like not much. It will be a good first attempt and you can always do it again. It is also possible that gnosis was delivered straight to your heart, like a download. In that case, wisdom can come later and unpredictably. Watch for signs and omens. Things in your day may remind you of your pathworking. Pay attention, without trying to force your memory. During the pathworking you were in a slightly different state of consciousness. That can alter your memory. Think of it as being a bit like a dream where you can remember it only that moment after you awoke, and the memory fades within minutes. That is why you write things down as soon as you can.

Afterwards, you may wish to research what you experienced. You may discover that your Goddess is a deity from a particular spiritual tradition, or maybe she is something just your own. Find out what you can about her. Lean into the experience and watch for signs and omens. When you are ready, write a ritual to your Goddess that you can use whenever you approach her.

Here is mine.

When I wrote this invocation, I sensed myself as a very young sacred prostitute in a Near Eastern Temple, hoping to take the Goddess into myself as I waited for my sacred lover to arrive. There is a reference to the painting The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet. The words describe what I saw and experienced in my pathworking.

EVOCATION TO THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN

I hail Astarte;
I call you by your ancient names:
Innana, Ishtar,Sekhmet, Ashtart, Ariadne, Ashtaroth, Babalon.

I have much to thank you for.
You touched my breast.
You hid me in your red cloak.
You sent your men away.
You bade me kneel between your glorious pale thighs,
And your sweet cave opened for me, the origin of the world,
And a golden snake emerged, and I took it in my mouth.

My very own snake.

Now, my dark lord approaches.
His very footfalls send me shuddering.
Oh, Astarte, what can I do?
Make me ache for him.
I ache for him.
Make me say his name when I come.
Oh, Astarte, I said his name

And again.

 

So now you have the beginnings of a relationship with your red Goddess, you need to attend to it. Do the ritual over again from time to time. You may come up with something new. Make the Dual Offerings regularly. Do some research. Write, sing, dance. Watch for signs and omens. Remember who and what you are. Remember.

My whoring practice was dedicated to Astarte. Her picture was displayed in an elaborate gold frame, along with the poem. The room was decked out for her. I aimed for opulence and exoticism. The bedding and furniture were kept very clean. There was nothing cosy about it. It was never a bedroom. It was a shrine and a place where I was completely in charge. At the beginning of each working day I would light a candle and say the poem. As I waited for my client I would imagine him to be my demon lover, my dark lord. Each booking was thus sanctified. Even before the client walked in the door, magic was happening.

Blessings on you, gentle reader.