Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in Chaos Magic - Peter J. Carroll 2000

Heresy V The Abysses

The so-called Oath of the Abyss wherein the adept vows to interpret every phenomena as a direct message from the ultimate reality to his or her self will indeed open several possible abysses, but to no constructive purpose.

Commentary 24

Forget all that Golden Dawn and Thelemic stuff about the Abyss and Crossing the Abyss. Three major pitfalls await the traveler on the short and dangerous path of magick. The initial exhilaration of accelerating into each may for a time, mask mounting failure in reality.

The Abyss of Paranoia pays initial dividends in self-importance, but, as this ’effective’ paradigm takes hold, things will really start to go wrong in a big way, and enemies will fill the spaces you reserve for them.

The Abyss of Sophistry pays initial dividends in ease and leisure, but the more you imagine yourself innately and effortlessly magickal, the less effective you become. (See the following chapter.)

The Abyss of Obsession pays initial dividends in a hypertrophied feeling of meaningfulness. However, no insight can have universal application, and the areas it misses will eventually explode in your face.

To the diamond wisdom sutra of ’Enchant Long and Divine Short’ we should perhaps add:

’Don’t Invoke that which only merits Evocation.’

The magician only fully identifies with well formed gods, and then only for a period. Keep the demons in the triangle of Arte. Mistake not the demon Choronzon who hath single form, for the multiplicious Holy Guardian Angel who hath legions of names. Your ’real self’ consists of many selfs.