271 It may also be a form(ula) of the Woman girt with a Sword, though the analysis of that will need to wait for another time.
272 See The Ordeal of the Abyss, present volume.
273 Luke 10 : 13
274 Kenneth Grant, Nightside of Eden, Skoob, pp 240, footnote.
275 As noted, in the Count Magnus quote, Lucifer
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they told me, "It is not certain that you will survive, but if you survive you will attain your true will, and manifest the Antichrist. This passage holds many clues as to what Parsons has attained. The first relates to the prince of that place” who can only be the Faceless god, called Nyarlathotep276 by Lovecraft, Set by the Egyptians and the Black Man in the Witchcult of the middle ages. A passage from Theatre of the Abyss277 makes this designation clear:
From the Western Watchtower comes the Faceless god, robed in the Black of Night. He bears the sword and rod of the office of the Hierophant of DAATh. None shall see in the darkness of this Night, none shall hear in the Silence, nor attain against the Tide of Time. For KAOS bears against thee and Lucifer hath shut and sealed the doors of the Temple, setting an Angel to stand forth before it, for it is decreed that none shall enter who knows not the Word by which the initiate may rouse the Great Dragon and bind the demon CHORONZON until the halls of the Temple of the Abyss be opened.
Amen
Before thee, the Tower of CHORAZAIN Behind thee, the ruler of the underworld On thy right hand, the Angel of Vengeance
On thy left, the Secret Lord, wrapped in a shroud of Silence278
He is also aspected as the Secret Lord or Concealed One; It was the Concealed One that revealed the twin configuration of the matrix and appeared before me speaking the Word by which the pattern is
initialized. The Word in question is spoken over the brink of the very abyss, thus projected across the waters thereof, reveals the mystical configuration of the MChA cultus. And this mystery is a curse upon the Worlds and the revelation of it.
The Demon appeared in the form of a flayed corpse, an Avatar that is known to certain cults that practice abominable rites, including human sacrifice, torture of the most inhuman kind and others only whispered
276 See Great Old Ones, this volume.
277 See Theatre of the Abyss in Cycles of the Aeons I .
278 Theatre of the Abyss, Concerning the Temple of the Abyss in Cycles of the Aeons I present author appendix to Part V this volume.
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about. The god was worshipped by the blood priests and sorcerers of the Maya and Aztecs and there is indications he was known in both the Vedic and Celtic mysteries. The most detailed descriptions come, of course, from the fantastical accounts of the European witch trials in the Middle Ages.
He vibrated a Word, a formula of great power when used to activate certain configurations of the matrix. This formula is not simply a
“barbarous name”; the structure of it and the associated QBL analysis reveals the theological definition of the forces implied in the use of the configuration.
The numerical value 88 contains the primary key of the revelation; the completion of the Gnostic formula IAO (10+1+70=81) in silence (Zain) provides the proof of the formula as IAOZ (10+1+70+7=88) is Kabbalistically equivalent to Word of the Silent Aeon, which itself is the completion of the Cycle. [the formulas is not here given] Beyond this I shall not write.279 This passage recapitulates what was said previously concerning the formula of IAOZ and, interestingly, when this book was composed I was instructed in a similar fashion to what Parsons seems to have been, specifically not to reveal more than this, Beyond this I shall not write.
My own work has convinced me that Parsons experience was genuine, though of course it can be chalked up to one psychotic inspiring
another. I present this material as received.
The Black Pilgrimage concludes with Parsons declaring his acceptance of the charge; And thereafter I returned and swore the Oath of the Abyss, having only the choice between madness, suicide, and that oath.
But the Oath in no wise ameliorated that terror, and I continued in the madness and horror of the abyss for a season. …having passed the ordeal of 40 days I took the oath of a Magister Templi, even the Oath of Antichrist before Frater 132, the Unknown God.
And thus was I Antichrist loosed in the world; and to this I am
pledged, that the work of the Beast 666 shall be fulfilled, and the way
279 Cycles of the Aeons Volume II, Angel of the Abyss, present author, also online at http://www.timestation-z.com/valentinusConc3.asp
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for the coming of BABALON be made open and I shall not cease or rest until these things are accomplished. And to this end I have issued this my Manifesto. I have discussed the ordeal of the Abyss at length previously and will not spend any time on the subject here. One oddity that is striking is the fact that Frater 132, a.k.a Wilfred Smith is the one who witnesses Parsons oath of the grade of 8 = 3, or Magister Templi, even though supposedly he was banished from the O.T.O.. While Parsons had left the Order by this time, it seems likely that they kept in contact, despite the Smith’s absconding with Parsons’ first wife and Crowley’s banishment at, at least officially, Smiths failure in his magical retirement which was supposed to reveal what god he was an avatar of280.
I would submit that the initiation of Da’ath and then Binah lasted for the rest of Parson’s life. As we discussed in Ordeal of the Abyss, the passage is not optional once the Adept has attained Chesed, and here Parsons statement (a)nd thereafter I returned and swore the Oath of the Abyss, having only the choice between madness, suicide, and that oath may be taken as an example of this “Cosmic inertia”. Notice that Parsons does not even seem to consider the possibility of becoming a Black Brother, though whether this is because he has rejected it or simply chose not to consider the possibility is not known. Next, Parsons mentions the “horror” of the Abyss saying I continued in the madness and horror of the abyss for a season, though the real horror is that the world is a prison beloved by so many of its inmates. It seems likely that the death of Parsons after the successful crossing of the Abyss is a result of his personal karma playing out and not as a direct result of the operation. Recall that earlier we came across a quote purportedly from a draft of Liber 49 in which he says; Babalon is incarnate upon the earth today awaiting the proper hour of her manifestation. And in that day my work will be accomplished and I shall be blown away upon the breath of the father even as it is prophecied.
And thus it came to pass.
280 Considering his penchant for adultery, I will put my money on Zeus.
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Chapter 27 : Conclusions
It is impossible to say more concerning the entire affair without slipping into baseless conjecture. Did Parsons cross the Abyss?
Considering that he seemed to rebuild his life to a considerable degree after words argues in favor. His strange letter to Smith quoted above, perhaps argues against, though as I have said before, it is a common fallacy to suppose that these initiations are contained in some event.
The crossing of the Abyss may take place within an short time span.
The assimilation of Binah may take years. Was Parsons the Antichrist?
He was certainly committed to be an Antichrist. Beyond this, however, Parsons was the prophet of a message that has been heard to some extent, but now, after all these years281 the time may be to harvest what was sown. The seeds, as we have seen, were the formula for the
creation – it is no use arguing that there is any sort of survival or revival – of Witchcraft. It is true that the message has been obscured, particularly in America where the Witchcraft revival was hijacked for political ends, both of the iconoclastic and the identity varieties. It would be unfair to lay all of the blame on the hippies and their spawn (though they do get the lions share) as Gardner himself was overly coy about the origin of his ideas which inspired his later followers to do the same. The effect this has had is to detach Wicca, as it is now known, from any historical base, and the resulting deluge of pure fantasy and nonsense currently being published on the subject is proof enough of this assertion. As I wrote in Cycles of the Aeons I, The loss of any esoteric basis in Wicca is, in and of itself is not the issue, religion is something that each must decide for themselves. The problem, as I see it, is that while Wicca, etc., are pushing for
recognition (and acceptance with the inevitable ascendance of those who are have more mundane goals, such as the accumulation of status, power or – not likely with the lowbrow Wicca set - filthy lucre), there is the fact that once the cult becomes mainstream, the esoteric is jettisoned (not that there was much to pitch). This clearly happened with Christianity and has now, thanks to mass market paperbacks and the Internet has happened that much faster to Wicca. If it were simply religion, it wouldn’t be any different then every trailer park refugee with a bible and a Geocities website that thinks they have a
281 58 as of this writing.
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“ministry”. Simply browse the WWW and marvel at the Temples, Orders, etc. that are nothing more than some lonely moron (or worse, jaded suburbanite) offering “initiation”. Then look at the pages of all the “Chaos” magicians whose greatest achievement is fitting all those tattoos on their bodies. To initiate requires that one has been, in fact, truly initiated and therefore has some secret to pass on. These sorts of
“Witches” - and there are not any others since anyone who would challenge the Wiccan “orthodoxy” will be shouted down – have little understanding of what the Mysteries are, never mind the capacity formulate them. Fortunately, volume is their only real weapon.
Nevertheless, Wiccans love nothing more than to tell everyone that will listen about how pure and righteous their vision of the “Craft” is, allowing the pretense and pomposity to be readily exposed. Wicca is fast becoming not only a failure but also a pestilence282. I would only add that since I wrote this, my view has become more certain that the movement has lost any hope of redemption.
The so-called counter culture, however, bred the current pestilence of Christian fundamentalists as surely as the false prophets of
Communism were the midwives of Fascism in the last century.
Perhaps we may see this as a necessary phase in the evolution of the ideals that Parsons advocated; history will be the judge of that. We have, however, the writings that Parsons left behind and the work of those that succeeded – and were inspired by – him, Michael Bertiaux and Kenneth Grant and others come to mind. That we may in turn be inspired by them and continue the work Crowley began and Parsons advanced is, in the end, all that matters.
What shall we make of the Babalon Working? Clearly, Parsons attempt to create a literal Moonchild did not succeed; no human child has ever been connected with the working. We may question,
however, what mechanism Parsons believed he was initiating as, in a letter we discussed already he writes; Babalon is incarnate upon the earth today awaiting the proper hour of her manifestation. And in that day my work will be accomplished and I shall be blown away upon the breath of the father even as it is prophecied. It could be simply that he
282 The Problem of Witchcraft, Cycles of the Aeons I, at http://www.timestation-z.com
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believed a conception had occurred, but would he have been so certain if he were expecting Cameron to be pregnant? Parsons would have known full well that it would be weeks before an actual pregnancy could be confirmed. It is not apparent in his later writings that he considered the working a failure. As noted previously, there were several claims by others, including Cameron after Parsons death that declared the working had succeeded but I the more spiritual world that interpenetrates ours. Perhaps Parsons himself was not sure, at least at the time. Then, however, came the Black Pilgrimage and Parsons’
death three years later.
In my own work, I have reproduced some of Parsons’ experiments;
that he was a magician of no small skill is, in my mind a fact. His initiations were genuine, as were his contacts. That he was a prone to faults and failures as a human being is to say nothing at all; too often claims are made regarding the attainment or lack thereof of an Adept, and even Crowley has not been immune to this, where the attainment of an adept is doubted because of this or that supposed flaw. Let it be said that the lives of saints are not the same as biographies. The only people whose lives are pure, in the hypocritical sense of appearance, which ought not mean anything, are fictional. We cannot allow children’s stories to color our understanding.
Beyond this, let each understand as they are able.
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Afterward: The Key to the Abyss
The astute reader will, by this time, have come to understand the nature of the Apocalypse as it is presented here. There are, it may be said, two equally valid perspectives on this subject, though it is also true that the confusion of the two has had a negative impact on history that reaches far beyond the abstract nature of these concepts283. The first, which we may call Aeonic progression, is one of the main ideas contained in Liber Al vel Legis. This concept is one that is part of many of the more ancient religions, both existing and extinct, such as the Hindu concept of the Ages – the present one known as the Kali-Yuga – and the Maya and their concept of the Long count which will end a cycle seven years from this writing, are examples. The second is the idea of Ascension, or the rising of the individuated being up to the higher realm or Pleroma. The Aion of Light. This concept has much in common with the Buddhist concept of Liberation, though I am sure a Buddhist may have cause to disagree. It is oversimplifying to say that the second is the Microcosmic reflection of the first but it will suffice for my purposes.
As to the first, the cosmic cycles – the Cycles of the Aeons – is a mechanism of the Universe. It does not rely on human agency, of course, as it clearly existed before humans evolved on this planet. The second, however, relies solely on human action (at least in humans) as it is an event that occurs within the person that invokes it. This is the sense in which Crowley, and later Parsons, unleashed the Apocalypse, though in Parsons case it does seem that he believed there would be an external manifestation of this current. And perhaps there was, though not in the history shattering way he may have thought. Crowley perceived that there were cases when the inner apocalypse and the outer manifestation of the Aeonic progression – an event he referred to as the Equinox of the Gods – coincided. Whatever the reality of this phenomenon, it is true that the inner event – and Apocalyptic is a good term for it – can be triggered by a living person. This is the experience we have previously referred to as the Ordeal of the Abyss.
283 such as in the undeniable apocalyptic elements in Germanys National Socialist movement.
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Kenneth Grant has done a thorough job of unearthing the occult secrets employed by past magicians and orders and, again the interested reader is encouraged to read Grant, for no matter how difficult he can be sometimes, the rewards are equal to the effort. In particular, Nightside of Eden is required reading. The work of Michael Bertiaux is equally rewarding, as he has mapped out paths and currents that would take lifetimes for the solitary magician to explore. It has been announced that his Voudon Gnostic Workbook is going to be reprinted soon and, again this is simply an indispensable work for the working magician. Naturally, this assumes that one is familiar with Crowley, Dee, Levi and all those that have come before as these books are by no means primers.
I would speculate that the Angels who revealed to Dee the Enochian language were trying to push him along this road, but for whatever reason, Dee did not bite. It may be that the Ascension of a single person will inevitably send shockwaves through the collective unconscious, initiating a chain reaction, so to speak. This, it seems to me, is the sense in which the Angels told Dee "For, my Barn hath been long without Threshers. And I have kept my flayles for a long time hid in unknown places:” which indicates the spiritual abyss Medieval Christianity had become, producing no Adepts ot prophets except those sanctioned by the Church. This possibility is strengthened as the Angel, recall, says Which flayle is the Doctrine that I deliver unto you:
Which is the Instrument of thrashing, wherewith you shall beat the shears, that the Corn which is scattered, and the rest may be all one.
Perhaps if Dee had, he would have been in the same position Crowley assumed, as the revealer of the secrets that are, in the end, the
birthright of every living person for, indeed, Every Man and Every Woman Is a Star. As I have said, magick is a dangerous business at times, but it is, in the end, the only game worth playing. The Key of the Abyss is yours; it always was.
I await you in Temple of the Abyss.
176 Eliphas Levi’s The Goat of the Sabbath
This image encodes the Key to the reconstruction of the Witchcult.
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