Whore of Babylon

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Lucas Cranach the Elder: "The Babylonian Whore", 1534. Coloured woodcut for the Luther Bible of 1534. The Babylonian whore is depicted in this picture wearing a papal tiara.
The Whore of Babylon rides the Seven-Headed Beast
The Whore of Babylon in the Ottheinrich-Bible (around 1530–1532)
William Blake: The Number of the Beast is 666

The Whore of Babylon, called Babylon the Great (Greek: Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη Babylōn hē megalē: Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2; 18:10; 18:18; 18:21) in the Apocalypse of John, is mentioned several times in the New Testament. She sits on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns. The kings of the earth committed prostitution with her. What is meant here is the prostitution of the spirit with matter, black magic. On her forehead is written a name, a secret, a mystery, which marks her as the mother of all the harlots and abominations of the earth. She is drunk with the blood of all saints and strivers in the Christian sense:

„1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” 3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” 6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.“

Black magic has its origin in the seduction by the two-horned beast, the sun and earth demon Sorat. Rudolf Steiner explains:

„The abuse of spiritual powers is connected with that seductive power of the beast with the two horns. And we call this abuse of spiritual power black magic in contrast to the correct use, which we call white magic. Thus, by dividing itself, the human race will prepare itself, on the one hand, to reach ever more spiritual states and thus to enter into the use of spiritual powers, into white magic, and on the other hand, that which abuses spiritual powers will prepare itself for the wildest power of the two-horned beast, black magic. In the end, humanity will split into beings who practise white magic and those who practise black magic. Thus in the secret of 666 or Sorat is hidden the secret of black magic. And the seducer of black magic, of that most terrible crime in the evolution of the earth, which no crime can equal, is represented by the apocalyptic through the two-horned beast. Thus, as it were, the division of humanity enters our horizon in the very distant future: the chosen ones of the Christ, who will finally be the white magicians, and the opponents, the wild sorcerers, the black magicians, who cannot get away from matter and whom the apocalypticist represents as those who fornicate with matter. Therefore, all this activity of black magic, everything that arises in the marriage between man and the hardening in matter, is brought to his attention before his visionary soul in the great Babylon, in the community that unites all those who practise black magic, in the terrible marriage or rather wild marriage between man and the forces of degenerated matter.

And so, in the distant future, we see two forces confronting each other: on the one hand, those who sail into the inhabitants of the great Babylon, and on the other, those who rise above matter, who unite as human beings with that which is presented as the principle of the Lamb. We see how, on the one side, the blackest separates itself in Babylon, led by all the forces opposed to the sun, by Sorat, the two-horned beast, and we see the humanity that has developed from the elect, who unite with the Christ, the Lamb, who appears to them: the marriage of the Lamb on the one side, that of Babylon, the sinking Babylon, on the other side. And we see the elect, who have held the marriage with the Lamb, sinking into the abyss of Babylon and ascending to the handling of the powers of white magic. And because they not only recognise the spiritual forces, but also know how to handle these spiritual forces magically, they can prepare what they have on Earth for the next planetary embodiment, for Jupiter. They draw, so to speak, the great outlines which Jupiter is to have. We see rising out of the power of the white magicians the preparatory figures which are to survive as the figures of the next earth embodiment, of Jupiter: we see the New Jerusalem rising out of the white magic.“ (Lit.:GA 104, p. 233ff)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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