Please note: this recording ended prematurely due to technical issues. Dr. Quin will be providing additional content to complete the lecture in due course.

“Knowledge is really confined to experience.” - A. Crowley

When stepping over the threshold of a magical temple we begin, not as a blank slate but as we are. We are shaped by the world, by our choices, by our desires, and these are reflected in the way we meet the divine, and yet from a polytheistic perspective there is an experiential phenomenon beyond our own subjective view.

Within the “pantheon” of Thelema we find a powerful Goddess with two faces, two forms (or are they two separate beings?) - the Great Starry Heavens, Nuit, and Her Daughter-Manifest-Self, the red goddess of earth and blood and flesh, Babalon. Between these all potential becomes manifest – here art and magic finds life.

What, then, happens when the subjective and objective meet and we encounter Babalon as magicians? What is She to the practitioner that seeks Her? What might the experiential encounter with the phenomena of this divine being reveal about the nature of magic, love, and desire? If we begin from the phenomenological position that we can meet a goddess, as philosopher Parmenides did in ancient Greece, then what knowledge can be gained from this experience?

Can we know Babalon through our encounters with Her? Can we encounter Her directly at all?

In this talk philosopher and practitioner Dr Halo Quin enquires into the phenomenological encountering of Babalon, her nature as an experience and as a deity, and what knowledge might be uncovered thus.

Dr Halo Quin (they/them) is an author, storyteller, singer-songwriter, and Feri witch based in Wales who has flirted with Thelema for many years. Halo teaches and speaks at events internationally on experiential, embodied, and spirit-based practical magic, and sacred sensuality in a pagan context. With almost 30 years of magical practice and roots in several traditions, plus a PhD in philosophy, Halo draws on a broad range of experience and research to facilitate enchantment, deep magical connection, and transformation.

They are a devotee of the deities of love and passion, including Babalon, and a sensual witch exploring ritual, performance, and kink, to unlock the divine erotic and sacred nature of pleasure and beauty which is the birthright of every human being. Their academic practice blossoms at the intersection of philosophy and magic, with a focus on phenomenological, embodied experience and creativity.

Halo is co-founder of Star Club, training multi-disciplinary magicians in the UK, and the HeadWitch of pagan school The Enchanted Academy (TEA). Their books focus on practical, accessible magic, and include "Gods and Goddesses of Wales", "Faeries, Folktales, and Spirits" and "Crimson Craft - sexual magic for the solo witch". Find books, courses, and more here: https://haloquin.net/