Abomination of Desolation

“This same Lucifer, the Old Serpent, was cast out upon the Earth, where he became the arch-enemy of mankind in order to avenge himself on his exilers”

This sort of hermeneutic makes human history of magical myth. There is no conflict between the Elder Gods and the Great Old Ones; they are opposite terminals of a single current.²⁴⁰

As Kenneth Grant points out in the quote from Hecate’s Fountain above, the difficulty that we have reconciling the nature of Babalon to human thought disappears once we recognize the schism of man and nature, as well as God and man, is within the psyche of humanity, not phenomenal reality. It is therefore shown that the tension so apparent in contemporary America is the false dichotomy spawned by this very misunderstanding, advanced by the slaves of Choronzon²⁴¹ that have infested the Earth like flies on a fresh corpse. To put it anther way, recalling that when we looked at Choronzon and the “Ordeal of the Abyss” previously, the fundamental issue was, and is, the nature of the individuated psyche which, in contrast to the materialist paradigm that underlies Western culture posits the existence of a spiritual being that dwells within each being, for Every man and every woman is a star²⁴². The issue is, as we have seen, the struggle of the Ego, which is the inner reflection of Choronzon within the microcosm of humanity, against the manifestation of the greater being that dwells within. Thus the seemingly suicidal yearning for the Apocalypse is revealed for what is. The ego knows, apriori as it were, that it cannot abide; it has beginning (birth) and an end (death). Nevertheless, it has an aversion to this fact, and seeks to extend itself – impossibly – into Eternity. In order to accomplish this, the ego (and this can be seen as a

phenomenon that can become greater than the individual) attempts to make a “pact” with the Devil, ignoring the fact that it (the Ego) is itself that very Demon, and would sacrifice the entire universe and every

240 Kenneth Grant, Hecate’s Fountain, pp 177, Skoob

241 i.e. religious fundamentalists of every stripe, but most especially the particularly virulent strains of fundamentalist Christianity which are the deformed children of Puritanism.

242 Al vel Legis, I : 3

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other thing in it in order to continue. But, of course, the part of us that is eternal is a point in the continuum of the singular reality that we call, for lack of a better term “God”, and so we may conclude that to reject the Self that is beyond ego is to reject what is real in favor of illusion. This is the ultimate origin of the War in Heaven. And no mistake, it is a war.

Therefore, we see that the Terrible One, the accuser and the tempter²⁴³, the Whore and the Beast and the Dragon are all manifestations of the same Reality that is Truth and Light and, always, Love. Crowley asserted that Love is the Law, and adopted the Greek word AGAPE as an axiom of his New Aeon (AGAPE, like Thelema, has the Kabalistic value 93) but this is not childish, sentimental love; it is the recognition and acceptance of everything; the Understanding that every

phenomenon is a particular dealing of God with my soul. Thus, when duality is transcended, Lucifer is Christ, and Christ, Lucifer. Babalon has been rightly compared with Kali as (t)he name Kali derives from the Sanskrit root word Kal meaning time. Nothing escapes from time.

Her Tibetan Buddhism counterpart is named Kala, a male figure. Of the Hindu goddesses, …. The Encyclopedia Britannica (has)…"Major Hindu goddess whose iconography, cult, and mythology commonly associate her with death, sexuality, violence, and, paradoxically in some of her later historical appearances, motherly love."²⁴⁴ This is only paradoxical if the human distinction between “good” and “evil”

are applied, as the devouring Goddess is when rightly perceived, the benevolent Mother of the All.

This concept is demonstrated in a different context in the Tibetan Bardo Thodol, the instructions for the dead in the initial stages of life post mortem; In the second week of the second bardo, the soul meets seven legions of Wrathful Deities: hideous, terrifying demons who advance upon him with flame and sword, drinking blood from human skulls, threatening to wreak unmerciful torture upon him, to maim, disembowel, decapitate and slay him. The natural tendency, of course,

243 the Satan of Orthodoxy.

244 Goddess Kali Ma - Liberator of Souls - Destroyer of Negativity at http://www.goddess-kali-ma.com/

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is for the soul to attempt to flee from these beings in stark, screaming, blood-curdled terror; but if he does, all is lost. ..he is told to awaken to the fact that all these fearsome creatures are not real, but are merely illusions emanating from his own mind. If he can recognize this, they will vanish and he will be liberated. If he can't, he eventually wanders down to the third bardo.²⁴⁵ The Key is the recognition of what is real and what is illusory and the rejection of fear.

This Way, is not an easy one, however, particularly in the West where the illusion of the phenomenal world has been elevated to the position of Truth. We may see in Parsons a seeker on this Path, recalling what he wrote; "...because of this mystery BABALON is incarnate upon the earth today, awaiting the proper hour for Her manifestation. And this my book, that is dedicated to Her, is preparation and a portent for that time. And in that day my work will be accomplished, and I shall be blown away upon the Breath of a Father, even as it is prophesied. And thus I labour lonely and outcast and abominable, an he-goat upon the muck heaps of the world. Yet I am content with my lot, since though I am clothed with barncloth, yet shall I come in power and purple, for of this also am I contemptuous. Yea, I am.²⁴⁶

Magick is a dangerous business, though not as the Ego-self would have it – a danger of damnation – but the possibility that one may “call up what you cannot put down”²⁴⁷. In perhaps the last letter he wrote, Parsons said; No doubt you will be delighted to hear from an adept who has undertaken the operation of his H.G.A. in accord with our traditions.

245 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/buddhism01.html

246 Beloved of Babalon http://www.skeptictank.org/belovob.htm

247 This is a phrase from Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, in which a letter from a necromancer discusses the dangers of being unable to control the forces one may contact.

This is certainly a subject relevant to the subject of this study and, additionally is from one of Lovecraft’s more successful stories. The quote from the book is:

say to you againe, doe not call up Any that you can not put downe; by the Which I meane, Any that can in Turne call up Somewhat against you, whereby your Powerfullest Devices may not be of use. Ask of the Lesser, lest the Greater shal not wish to Answer, and shal commande more than you.

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The operation began auspiciously with a chromatic display of pscho- somatic symptoms, and progressed rapidly to acute psychosis. The operator has altered satisfactorily between manic hysteria and depressing melancholy stupor on approximately 40 cycles, and satisfactory progress has been maintained in social ostracism, economic collapses and mental disassociation.

These statements are mentioned not in any vainglorious spirit of conceit, but rather that they may serve as comfort and inspiration to other aspirants on the Path.

Now I'm off to the wilds of Mexico for a period, also in pursuit of the elusive H.G.A. before winding up in the guard (room) finally via the booby hotels, the graveyard, or ---? If the final, you can tell all the little practicuses that I wouldn't have missed it for anything."

No one. Once called 210.²⁴⁸

At times, ascension and madness are indistinguishable.

248Beloved of Babalon http://www.skeptictank.org/belovob.htm , ibid.

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