Tag Archives: Choronzon

“Somewhere along the way from one side to the other, Crowley says, the magician must also confront and temporarily become the ‘Demon of the Abyss’, whose nature is Dispersion. Crowley named this demon Choronzon, a name for Satan from the works of Dr. John Dee; but the characteristics he assigns to the demon owe more to the ‘Dweller on the Threshold’ from Bulwer-Lytton’s Zanoni novels. It is unclear how this confrontation relates to the destruction of the magician’s human self.”
— Benjamin Rowe, The Illusion of the Abyss

Quote featured at MILLIONS OF MAD VOICES from the Ministry of Information.

“For know that I am proud and revengeful and lascivious, and I prate even as thou. For even as I walked among the Sons of God, I heard it said that P. . . . could both will and know, and might learn at length to dare, but that to keep silence he should never learn. O thou that art so ready to speak, so slow to watch, thou art delivered over unto my power for this. And now one word was necessary unto me, and I could not speak it. I behold the beauty of the earth in her desolation, and greater far is mine, who sought to be my naked self. Knowest thou that in my soul is utmost fear? And such is my force and my cunning, that a hundred times have I been ready to leap, and for fear have missed. And a thousand times am I baulked by them of the City of the Pyramids, that set snares for my feet. More knowledge have I than the Most High, but my will is broken, and my fierceness is marred by fear, and I must speak, speak, speak, millions of mad voices in my brain.

With a heart of furious fancies, Whereof I am Commander, With a burning spear And a horse of Air To the wilderness I wander.”
— Choronzon speaking in ZAX, the 10th Aethyr

Quote featured at MILLIONS OF MAD VOICES from the Ministry of Information.

The Book of Lies

Hermetic Library fellow T Polyphilus reviews The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley, from Samuel Weiser.

Aleister Crowley The Book of Lies from Samuel Weiser

Its author wrote that The Book of Lies, Which Is Also Falsely Called Breaks should serve as the text-book for a Babe of the Abyss, i.e. an aspirant to Perfection who has irrevocably committed himself to “interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with his soul,” but who has not yet attained to Mastery on that basis. He assigned it the number 333, which is the number of Choronzon, the “mighty devil” who assails the Babe of the Abyss with the carrot of ego-attachment and the stick of cosmic fear. At the same time, he recommends the book even to beginners as containing useful wisdom regarding “many matters on all planes of the very highest importance.”

It is a short book, made up of many short chapters. Nearly all posthumous editions include the author’s later commentary to the original text, chapter by chapter. While these commentaries often contain useful instruction in their own right, they also frequently serve to misdirect the reader regarding the central message coded into a given chapter. And indeed, it is a highly cryptic book—sometimes whimsical, and often baffling.

There are certain conflicts of fact between the two stories that Aleister Crowley wrote regarding this book’s relationship to his status in O.T.O. (one in his Confessions, reproduced in the foreword to most of the later editions of The Book of Lies, and the other in Magick Without Tears chapter 25). It seems fitting that a volume called Lies should produce two irreconcilable stories from the author about its significance. Leaving aside Crowley’s hardly credible protestations of innocence, it has long been my surmise that The Book of Lies served as Crowley’s de facto “application” for the office of Grand Master General of the English O.T.O., since the book tidily synthesizes such topics as sex, metaphysics, qabalah, yoga, esoteric freemasonry, and original magical ritual. The facts that O.T.O. is never mentioned in the text itself, and that Lies includes several official rituals of Crowley’s own A∴A∴ initiatory system, actually serve to support this contention. At the time, O.T.O. Frater Superior Theodor Reuss, the Order’s international Head, was in the habit of recruiting as Grand Masters individuals who a) shared his propensity for esoteric synthesis, and b) had a proven track record as organizers of other initiatory societies. (A sterling but hardly isolated example would be Gerard “Papus” Encausse, whose Martinist Order was eventually listed among the bodies contributing their wisdom to O.T.O. in the latter’s Manifesto.)

In his accounts of his induction to the Ninth Degree, Crowley seems to tease the reader by claiming that the chief secret of O.T.O. is written in plain language in one of the chapters of The Book of Lies. Be that as it may, not only one, but most of the chapters contain doctrines relevant to O.T.O. mysteries. And considering that he equated the fully instructed and proficient O.T.O. initiate to an Adeptus Major, two full grades shy of the Babe of the Abyss in the A.∴A∴ system, one must infer that the best readers can get rewards from The Book of Lies that surpass the innermost Truths of O.T.O. [via]

The Choronzon Machine

The Choronzon Machine: a Multi-media Multi-cultural Multi-subcultural Ritual Opera by the Metamophic Ritual Theatre company, written and more by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule (credited on the cover as Orryelle Bascule-Defenestrate), with music by The HarleQuintet, a 2006 DVD of enhanced live performances from 2001, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.

Metamorphic Ritual Theatre Orryelle Defenstrate-Bascule The Choronzon Machine

I picked this up a few years ago primarily for the track “Melek Taus“, about a figure of importance with the Feri Tradition which I also later found mentioned in relation to Aleister Crowley’s Aiwass, and to a lesser degree because of the name of The HarleQuintet.

“In the ritual theatrickall-musical device we call The Chrononzon Machine the Audience Initiates follow the Fool Initiate’s journey through the Great Wheel of the TARO/ROTA, as he cycles through different refractions of Self as reflected through the archetypes of the Major Arcana. On one level this is a personal journey, as the Fool with a child’s innocence heedlessly plunges past the dweller on the threshold and into the Abyss. Through a series of ordeals he confronts and accepts the shadow of Choronzon as he progressively opens to ever more layers of complexity in the hidden mechanisms of the universe. The journey brings him eventually full circle back to the innocence of Zero but with a new layer of Wisdom and Understanding …

The Play is also socio-historical, as The Fool apprehends the escalating frenzy of ‘progress’ & technology in the post-modern world; which the audience also must deal with. It is they, after all, who are controlling the Machine—putting the 33.3¢ Illuminati coins—collected by the Jackal—in it which make the cogs start turning to generate each new scene of coupled polar cards …

Of course it’s not real, it’s just a Play, an Illusion generated by the Magicians for the Audience—a collectively willed hallucination. Is there a play? Is there a ritual? The HarleQuin de-faced itself. The machine goes on … Civilizations rise & crumble and fall. Were they ever There at All?” — back cover

“The Choronzon Machine Ritual Opera was performed 3.33 times in Melbourne (Australia) on 2001. The original footage of the already spectacular live production is now further enhanced with effects, animations, and diverse studio-recorded music into a feature-length film.” — back cover

Nightside of Eden

Nightside of Eden by Kenneth Grant is being republished by Starfire Publishing, and is scheduled for release in March, 2014. It is currently on pre-order in both a standard edition, available directly and, for US and CA, from J D Holmes, and in a deluxe edition available directly.

Kenneth Grant Nightside of Eden from Starfire 2014

“The republishing of the Typhonian Trilogies continues with the release in March 2014 of the fourth volume in the series, Nightside of Eden, which opens the second of the three trilogies. Originally published by Muller in 1977, it was subsequently reissued by Skoob Publishing in 1994. This new edition of 1500 copies is freshly typeset in an octavo format of 316 pages. Sewnbound hardback, with a frontispiece, a twenty-page section of plates, illustrated endpapers and a full-colour dustjacket, this republication integrates the errata from the Skoob edition within the text, and incorporates further corrections noted subsequently in Kenneth Grant’s personal copy of the book. Many of the plates have been rephotographed, and some are printed in colour.” [via]

“There exists a map of consciousness, with its light and dark byways, in the form of a qabalistic glyph known as the Tree of Life. It has its roots in the primal earth of Eden, but its branches extend into extra-terrestrial dimensions. This Tree, which is a familiar concept to mystics and magicians alike, has another side, a nightside which receives but passing mention in contemporary manuals of occultism; as if the ancient writings of the Arabs and Jews contained allusions to mere figures of speech and monstrous fancies.

Nightside of Eden interprets the symbolism of the Tree of Death, the ‘other’ side of the Tree of Life which forms the basis of the Western Occult Tradition. Kenneth Grant, whose Typhonian Trilogies have infused new life and meaning into ancient and forgotten mysteries, here provides an exhaustive survey of the other side of the Tree, haunted by dark forces that are today seeping insidiously into human consciousness and threatening it with violent disruption. The creative magical current represented by Aleister Crowley, Charles Stansfeld Jones, Austin Osman Spare, and in our day by Michael Bertiaux, Margaret Cook, and others, is here traced to its source in the formless voids beyond the threshold of mentation.

Nightside of Eden is an explication of the Cult of Choronzon and an initiated exposition of the Mysteries of the Left-Hand Path in relation to Western Occultism. Here, for the first time, the head of a genuine Magical Organization reveals the esoteric doctrines of the ‘black’ magic of the Left-Hand Path, as well as the practical application of psycho-sexual formulae of which very little is generally known.

The book is illustrated not only with the demonic sigils of the ‘other side’, which make of it a grimoire of the Dark Doctrine, but also by curious works of siderealism, or stellar art, sprung from the New Aeon consciousness which permeates those occult Orders working in harmony with the Typhonian Tradition.” [via]

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell: The screenplay never filmed by Carlos Atanes, previously mentioned, is now available.

Carlos Atanes' Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

“Underground filmmaker Carlos Atanes has been trying to make a movie about Aleister Crowley and his Magick for more than ten years. In the beginning of 2007 this was the third and last attempt of the deal with Magick: “Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell”. This script is structured in the reverse order of the Major Arcana of Crowley’s Tarot. The plot describes the mystical trip of Crowley through the Duat, the egyptian underworld, the encounters with significant characters in his real life (people such as Hanni Jaegger, Fernando Pessoa, Leila Waddell, Victor Neuburg, Raoul Loveday) and the confrontation with the demon Choronzon, his old adversary. Here you have the screenplay such as it was written and never filmed.” [via]

 

 

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell by Carlos Atanes is an unfilmed screenplay, that is being made available as a book in March.

Carlos Atanes' Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

“Underground filmmaker Carlos Atanes has been trying to make a movie about Aleister Crowley and his Magick for more than ten years. He started in 2002 shooting two crowleyesque feature length films, Ian Perplexed and Perdurabo. They were both unfinished. On the way he made two non-crowleyesque movies, FAQ and PROXIMA.

In the beginning of 2007 this was the third and last attempt of the deal with Magick: In the Mouth of Hell. Atanes wrote it for two years, until the end of 2008. This script is structured in the reverse order of the Major Arcana of Crowley’s Tarot. The plot describes the mystical trip of Crowley through the Duat, the egyptian underworld, the encounters with significant characters in his real life–people as Hanni Jaegger, Fernando Pessoa, Leila Waddell, Victor Neuburg, Raoul Loveday– and the confrontation with the demon Choronzon, his old adversary.

Atanes’ intention was to shoot it in Spanish with his flagship actor Manuel Solàs playing the mature Crowley. While he was looking for fundings he was shooting another two apparently non-crowleyesque feature movies, Maximum Shame and Gallino, the Chicken System–although this one contains clear references to Sexual Magick.

In the Mouth of Hell was a complex and expensive project, and it was not conceived for everybody but just for curious, informed and/or initiated audiences, which means an added difficulty to attract producers and investors’ interest. After four years of search, finally fundings didn’t arrive and Atanes threw in the towel. He decided to shelve the matter. But he also thought it would be a pity to bury a text that could be interesting for all of those who were waiting for this film for a decade. This way people could watch the film and recall in their heads.

This is the screenplay such as it was written and never filmed.” [via]

 

 

In Nomine Babalon, CXVII

CXVII

As I come through the ordeal which is bliss,

Careful I tread to avoid the Abyss

And escape the clutches of Choronzon!

I raise up the cup and adore Babalon!

— In Nomine Babalon: 156 Adorations to the Scarlet Goddess

 

The Hermetic Library arts and letters pool is a project to publish poetry, prose and art that is inspired by or manifests the Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to submit your work for consideration as part of the Arts and Letters pool, contact the librarian.

In Nomine Babalon, XLII

XLII

Comfort me Mother, enfold me in bliss,

Destroy me and keep me from that black Abyss

And from the deceiving tongue of Choronzon

I raise up the cup and adore Babalon!

— In Nomine Babalon: 156 Adorations to the Scarlet Goddess

 

The Hermetic Library arts and letters pool is a project to publish poetry, prose and art that is inspired by or manifests the Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to submit your work for consideration as part of the Arts and Letters pool, contact the librarian.