11. The Goddess Babalon & Thelemic Women's History - Dr. Manon Hedenborg White

Subversive Studies

A discussion with Dr. Manon Hedenborg White about the goddess Babalon, key women figures in the occult tradition of Thelema, challenging hegemonic notions of femininity, feminine sexuality, the link between sexual liberation and the larger goals of social, political, or psychological liberation, contemporary interpretations of Babalon that question binary and biologistic conceptions of gender, and many of the historical figures that have been influential in bringing forth this Babalon discourse into our contemporary world, such as Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons, and Kenneth Grant. Dr. Manon Hedenborg White is a postdoctoral research fellow at Södertörn University and Guest researcher at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP), University of Amsterdam. Her areas of interest include contemporary Occultism, Western Esotericism, gender and sexuality. Dr. Hedenborg White’s forthcoming book: "The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism" is due later this year from Oxford University Press (link to pre-order below!). She is the author of a chapter entitled "The Other Woman: Babalon and the Scarlet Woman in Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian Trilogies" in the recently published "Servants of the Star & the Snake: Essays in Honour of Kenneth & Steffi Grant" (edited by Henrik Bogdan and published by Starfire). Links: Pre-order "The Eloquent Blood" https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-eloquent-blood/manon-hedenborg-white//9780190065027 Thelemic Women's HIstory Project Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thelemicwomenshistory/ Thelemic Women's HIstory Instagram: @thelemicwomenshistory Dr. Hedenborg White's Academia page: http://sh.academia.edu/ManonHedenborgWhite Miscellaneous Babalon resources: The Red Goddess by Peter Grey - https://scarletimprint.com/publications/the-red-goddess Babalon, an album by Knifesex - https://knifesex.bandcamp.com/album/babalon Rune Soup, "Talking Babalon" with Alkistis Dimech and Peter Grey - https://runesoup.com/2016/06/talking-babalon-with-scarlet-imprint-episode-26/