Abyss (Thelema)

This doctrine is extremely difficult to explain; but it corresponds more or less to the gap in thought between the Real, which is ideal, and the Unreal, which is actual. In the Abyss all things exist, indeed, at least in posse, but are without any possible meaning; for they lack the substratum of spiritual Reality. They are appearances without Law. They are thus Insane Delusions.

Now the Abyss being thus the great storehouse of Phenomena, it is the source of all impressions.

—Little Essays Towards Truth, Aleister Crowley

In the Kabbalistic system of Crowley, the Abyss is the 11th (hidden) sephira, Da'ath, which separates the lower sephiroth from the supernals. It represents the fall of man (as in Genesis) from a unified consciousness into a duality between ego and divine nature. The Abyss is guarded by the demon, Choronzon, who represents those parts of one's consciousness that are unwilling or unable to enter the divine.

"Crossing the Abyss" is regarded as a perilous operation, and the most important work of the magician's career. Success confers graduation into the degree, Magister Templi, or "Master of the Temple."

[edit] Recent Views and Heresies

In connection with the growing occult interest in Chaos Magic(k), some seekers are discovering new meanings for the Abyss as well as a more sensible means of crossing it, or even a downgrading of the value of "crossing" such a moat at all.

One influence relating to this is the "heresy" of resonance with Choronzon which holds that Choronzon was demonized by Crowley, out of a severe phobia of chaos on his part, which made him even change the name of Choronzon from inventor John Dee's spelling, which was Coronzom (See Joel Biroco, "The Seven-Headed Dragon and the Demon Choronzon", KAOS magazine, issue #12) Resonants with Choronzon claim the entity is hostile to those who enter its domain seeking a fight, in which case it may be considered natural that they end up getting one. Adherents of this very new occulture befriend or honour Choronzon instead of subscribing to the notion that it must be conquered "as if it were a Boss in some cosmic video game." (D.M Thraam, Choronzonic Effectuation at the Grinnoire: http://choronzon.org/grinnoire.)

The practice of Effectuation is a very loose system of "magick" stripped of most mysticisms like astrology, gematria, etc. and focused on methods and means of achievement of "the art of changing reality in accordance with the Will" that are suited to the twenty-first century as opposed to being flavoured with ancient gods and leitmotifs. as well as providing more modernized terms to describe them. It is said that the friends of Choronzon will often get ferried across the "moat around the factory and foundry of all creation" if they treat Choronzon like the boatman of the river Styx and make an offering of friendship to this strange xenodimensional - usually, this will mean allowing it to temporarily possess one's body, since xenodimensionals (angels and demons - without these judgmental names) are all supposedly desirous of having solid form, and so envy the humans for having this form, while they themselves are naught but phantoms.

Adherents of such recently introduced, present-day-oriented systems of dealing with extradimensional phenomena are scattered, but growing in number as their ideas become investigated and experimented with. A recent claim is that Choronzon has been freed from the Abyss and now walks the earth, having been shown love, and thus no longer malevolent, its role is now as a destroyer of entropy. One mythopoieic thread has Choronzon choosing one of his three governers, named Lexarp, to be the new Guardian of the Abyss, and states that although Lexarp is less combative and more serious about his role as guardian, he is also more picky about who he'll ferry across the moat.

Another such mythopoieic thread sees there to be no Abyss at all - and that which has been called an Abyss represents the creation, or "the Precreate". (The authors of these mythopoieic screeds are anonymous.)