Anthony Testa - The Key of the Abyss.pdf

Chapter 13 : The Work of the Adept
There are actually two questions we need to address here, though the
second will depend on an affirmative answer to the first; 1. as
discussed above, is there an underlying order to the world, a purpose, a
reality beyond the gross matter we are made of and, 2. is this force
understandable; can we observe its actions (however subtle), discern
its intent and even communicate with it?
As to the first question, it is a matter of perspective, or perhaps,
perception. In spite of the modern world and all of its supposed
advances, the idea that the Universe is in some sense irrational,
numinous and operating under laws that transcend both the physical
and the temporal limits of our ordinary lives is still the status quo, in
spite of those who wish to declare such ideas as primitive and
superstitious. And these ideas, detached from the cultural myth
structures of our supposedly backward ancestors are, quite simply,
terrifying. It is no coincidence, I think, that the explosion of religious
fundamentalism has came on the heels of the 20 th and now 21 st
centuries adoption, however superficially, of rationalism, scientific
supremacy and technology that comes very close to Arthur C. Clarke’s
threshold of being indistinguishable from magic. Fundamentalism, of
course, is a childish escape behind fictional absolutes, a false salve for
a wound that can be ignored but never healed; the dislocation of man
from nature in favor of convenience and consumption. It may be that
this is a phase in the evolution of man, a transition state before a
greater evolution into something we can only imagine. But for many, it
feels like the death throes of civilization.
In his massive and fascinating three volume look at just this question –
from the perspective of politics and social ordering – Peter Levenda
sums up the disjointed psyche of the modern West, exemplified in
America; Our culture in the West—formed as it is by a faith in science,
a reliance on the technological—has convinced us to ignore the
unseen. There is a web of connections between visible events and
visible, measurable phenomena that we cannot see, cannot measure—
so our response has been to ignore this web in favor of what we can
see and measure. The blind leading the blind. The drunk looking for
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