The Abyss

The second major spiritual transition is that of the crossing of the Abyss, becoming a “Babe of the Abyss”, and being “cast from the Abyss”. As a profound and mystical experience, it is inevitably couched in symbolism and metaphor. Crowley refers to Choronzon , the Dweller in the Abyss, the City of Pyramids, the Night of Pan, and many other constructs to express this stage of mystical progress.

We meet the Abyss in the High Priestess card which also illustrates the Holy Guardian Angel, and where Crowley quotes a section from his Book of Lies :

This desert is the Abyss wherein is the Universe.

The Stars are but thistles in that waste.

Yet this desert is but one spot accurséd in a world of bliss. Now and again Travellers cross the desert; they come from the Great Sea, and to the Great Sea they go.

And as they go they spill water; one day they will irrigate the desert, till it flower. [95]

Crowley also refers us to his vision of the 10th Aethyr which was recorded in The Vision and the Voice . This Aethyr, called ‘ZAX’, is ascribed to the presence of Choronzon, the “Devil of the Aethyr” and was deemed by Crowley to be the most difficult to scry, being “accursed”.

The description of this segment of the magical working includes precautions taken by Crowley and Neuburg to avoid possession and the escape of Choronzon beyond the magical circle. It also details the risk of obsession and madness during the initiatory journey, particularly in the latter stages:

The malice of Choronzon is not the malice of a being; it is the quality of malice, because he that boasteth himself “I am I”, hath in truth no self, and these are they that are fallen under my power, the slaves of the Blind One that boasted himself to be the Enlightened One. [96]

The only way across the Abyss is through concentration and silence:

For Choronzon feareth of all things concentration and silence: he therefore who would command him should will in silence: thus is he brought to obey. [97]

Whilst abstruse, these two critical transitions in the spiritual life are written throughout the Thoth Tarot. When we read in the verse for the Tower, “Break down the fortress of thine individual Self”, it is in specific context to this initiatory journey. [98] When we read that the Empress is “below the Abyss”, and thus has a different creative power than the Fool and the Magician, it is because she is Nature once manifest and in division, not a higher divine unity. [99]

We will now turn to the artist who was to bring these concepts and designs to life, whilst also contributing her own intelligence and insight to the whole deck – Lady (Frieda) Harris.