The Abyss

• “Daath, in the Abyss” –Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “Concerning the Holy Three-in-Naught. Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, are only to be understood by the Master of the Temple. They are above The Abyss, and contain all contradiction in themselves… Cast down through The Abyss is the Light, the Rosy Cross, the rapture of Union that destroys, that is The Way. The Rosy Cross is the Ambassador of Pan.” –Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “Those which are above the Abyss are therefore said to live in the Night of Pan; they are only reached by the annihilation of the All. Thus, the Master of the Temple lives in the Night of Pan. Now, below the Abyss, the manifested part of the Master of the Temple, also reaches Samadhi, as the way of Annihilation.” –Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “The number of the chapter, 26, is that of Tetragrammaton, the manifest creator, Jehovah.
• He is called the Second in relation to that which is above the Abyss, comprehended under the title of the First.”-Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “…that method of destroying the reason by formulating contradictions is definitely inculcated. The reason is situated in Daath, which corresponds the the throat in human anatomy. Hence the title of the chapter, “The Garotte”. The idea is that, by forcing the mind to follow, and as far as possible to realise, the language of Beyond the Abyss, the student will succeed in bringing his reason under control. As soon as the reason is vanquished, the garotte is removed; then the influence of the supernals (Kether, Chokmah, Binah), no longer inhibited by Daath, can descend upon Tiphareth, where the human will is situated, and flood it with the ineffable light.”-Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “Also, since below the Abyss Reason is Lord, let men seek by experiment, and not by Questionings.”-Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “Since Jivatma was separated from Paramatma, as in paragraph 2, not only is the Divine Unity destroyed but Daath, instead of being the Child of Chokmah and Binah, becomes the Abyss, and the Qliphoth arise.”-Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “The reason for thus addresing the reader is that he has now transcended the first and second persons. Cf. Liber LXV, Chapter III, vv. 21-24, and FitzGerald’s Omar Khayyam: “Some talk there was of Thee and Me There seemed; / and then no more of Thee and Me.”) The third person plural must be used, because he has now perceived himself to be a bundle of impressions. For this is the point on the Path of Gimel when he is actually crossing the Abyss; the student must consult the account of this given in ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’.”-Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “Be this thy task, to see how each card springs necessarily from each other card, even in due order from The Fool unto The Ten of Coins. Then, when thou know’st the Wheel of Destiny complete, mayst thou perceive THAT Will which moved it first. [There is no first or last.] And lo! thou art past through the Abyss.”-Liber 333: The Book of Lies
• “From Calcutta he proceeded to Rangoon (Nov. 3-6), where {9} he found his old comrade, I. A., now a member of the Buddhist Sangha, under the name of Bhikku Ananda Metteya. It was from him that he received the instructions which were to help him to reach the great and terrible pinnacle of the mind whence the Adept must plunge into the Abyss, to emerge naked, a babe — the Babe of the Abyss. “Explore the River of the Soul,” said Ananda Metteya, “whence and in what order you have come.”” –Temple of Solomon the King
• “As far as the grade of Exempt Adept, they are on the same path as the White Brotherhood; for until that grade is attained, the goal is not disclosed. Then only are the goats, the lonely leaping mountain-masters, separated from the gregarious huddling valley-bound sheep. Then those who have well learned the lessons of the Path are ready to be torn asunder, to give up their own life to the Babe of the Abyss which is — and is not — they. The others, proud in their purple, refuse. They make themselves a false crown of the Horror of the Abyss; they set the Dispersion of Choronzon upon their brows; they clothe themselves in the poisoned robes of Form; they shut themselves up; and when the force that made them what they are is exhausted, their strong towers fall, they become the Eaters of Dung in the Day of Be-with-us, and their shreds, strewn in the Abyss, are lost. Not so the Masters of the Temple, that sit as piles of dust in the City of the Pyramids, awaiting the Great Flame that shall consume that dust to ashes. For the blood that they have surrendered is treasured in the Cup of OUR LADY BABALON, a mighty medicine to awake the Eld of the All-Father, and redeem the Virgin of the World from her virginity.” –Liber ABA: Magick, Part 3, chapter 21
• “Adeptus (Exemptus). —Completes in perfection all these matters. He then either (a) becomes a Brother of the Left Hand Path or, (b) is stripped of all his attainments and of himself as well, even of his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes a babe of the Abyss, who, having transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in the womb of its mother. It then finds itself a [Magister Templi].” –One Star in Sight
• “He will thus prepare himself properly for the crisis of his career in the Order, the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel. His Angel shall lead him anon to the summit of the Order of the R. C. and make him ready to face the unspeakable terror of the Abyss which lies between Manhood and Godhead; teach him to Know that agony, to Dare that destiny, to Will that catastrophe, and to keep Silence for ever as he accomplishes the act of annihilation. From the Abyss comes No Man forth, but a Star startles the Earth, and our Order rejoices above that Abyss that the Beast hath begotten one more Babe in the Womb of Our Lady, His concubine, the Scarlet Woman, BABALON. There is not need to instruct a Babe thus born, for in the Abyss it was purified of every poison of personality; its ascent to the highest is assured, in its season, and it hath no need of seasons for it is conscious that all conditions are no more than forms of its fancy.” –One Star in Sight
• “To attain the Grade of Magister Templi, he must perform two tasks; the emancipation from thought by putting each idea against its opposite, and refusing to prefer either; and the consecration of himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the order to which he aspires. He must then decide upon the critical adventure of our Order; the absolute abandonment of himself and his attainments. He cannot remain indefinitely an Exempt Adept; he is pushed onward by the irresistible momentum that he has generated. Should he fail, by will or weakness, to make his self-annihilation absolute, he is none the less thrust forth into the Abyss; but instead of being received and reconstructed in the Third Order, as a Babe in the womb of our Lady BABALON, under the Night of Pan, to grow up to be Himself wholly and truly as He was not previously, he remains in the Abyss, secreting his elements round his Ego as if isolated from the Universe, and becomes what is called a “Black Brother”. Such a being is gradually disintegrated from lack of nourishment and the slow but certain action of the attraction of the rest of the Universe, despite efforts to insulate and protect himself, and to aggrandise himself by predatory practices. He may indeed prosper for a while, but in the end he must perish, especially when with a new Aeon a new word is proclaimed which he cannot and will not hear, so that he is handicapped by trying to use an obsolete method of Magick, like a man with a boomerang in a battle where every one else has a rifle.” –One Star in Sight
• “The outline given of the several successive steps is exact; the two crises – the Angel and the Abyss — are necessary features in every career. The other tasks are not always accomplished in the order given here; one man, for example, may acquire many of the qualities peculiar to the Adeptus Major, and yet lack some of those proper to the Practicus.” –One Star in Sight

Crossing the Abyss

• “Part of the effect of crossing the Abyss is that it takes a lone time to connect the Master with what is left below the Abyss. Deprived of their ego, the mind and body of the man are somewhat at sea until, as one may say, the “wireless control” has been established.” –Confessions, chapter 67
• “The Order of the S. S. is composed of those who have crossed the Abyss; the implications of this expression may be studied in Liber 418, the 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, and 9th Aethyrs in particular. All members of the Order are in full possession of the Formulae of Attainment, both mystical or inwardly-directed and Magical or outwardly-directed. They have full experience of attainment in both these paths…. Every active Member of the Order has destroyed all that He is and all that he has on crossing the Abyss; but a star is cast forth in the Heavens to enlighten the Earth, so that he may possess a vehicle wherein he may communicate with mankind. The quality and position of this star, and its functions, are determined by the nature of the incarnations transcended by him.” –One Star in Sight
• “Unless your Universe is perfect—and perfection includes the idea of balance—how can you come even to Atmadarshana? Hindus may maintain that Atmadarshana, or at any rate Shivadarshana, is the equivalent of crossing the Abyss. Beware of any such conclusions! The Trances are simply isolated experiences, sharply cut off from normal thought-life. To cross the Abyss is a permanent and fundamental revolution in the whole of one’s being.” –Magick Without Tears, chapter 12