In her article “Is There a Feminine Gnosis?” Karen Voss considers the titular question in depth. She argues that, if there is a gnosis that is ‘feminine’, it is one of repression, a sort of magical liberation theology (Voss 1991, 5-24). 

In “A Double Vision of Babalon” thelemic practitioner Nema critiques the ‘playboy Centrefold’ image of Babalon, arguing that its liberating potential is destroyed by it being a ‘product of the male imagination’ that is no longer transgressive in the modern age (Nema 2008, 22-23). Nema implicates the imagery and practices surrounding the goddess Babalon in the high levels of misogyny and sexual abuse found within the thelemic current.

Babalon is the Mother of All. There are many Mother Gods, but Babalon is Mother of Abominations. As such she is a divine representation of all the negative aspects of parenthood. For me, in my practice, life and devotion, She is the forge of the molten transformation that is motherhood, a transformation which is as vicious, relentless and painful as it is full of joy.

Babalon is always both/and. The in-between of what can be spoken, what can be signified. She defies easy categorization. She encompasses polarization. She is All, and to restrict Her to one position is to stop talking about Her entirely…

The feminine path of initiation is a path of trauma. This is difficult to speak about, as people are quick to reject discussions of this as a justification for trauma. But this is only a sign of how whitewashed our spiritual consciousness has become. It has always been traumatic to be a woman…