Anthony Testa - The Key of the Abyss.pdf

As for the second question, we have already touched upon it. In fact
we have been talking about it all along. If that reality beyond the
senses is anything other than delusion then the simple fact that it can
be felt, however fleetingly, is all the evidence that is needed to show
that indeed we can, in some sense, relate to it. These are simply the
first steps however; we need not start from these shadowy and
incomplete ideas for we have the records left us by the “Leapers of the
Abyss”, as Kenneth Grant calls them, and if we will we may follow
the maps they have left us.
It is the nature of such questions that the answers, incomplete and
unsatisfactory as they are, lead only to more questions. So it is with
our subject here. Having come thus far we may now ask, what is the
nature of these hidden – occult – powers or forces? What are they,
what is their relationship to humanity and, ultimately, what do they
want? 151 Here we may look to the “maps” mentioned earlier, the
records of those who have sought to answer this question, not through
intellectual exercise 152 , but through experience, experiment, action.
Magick. Crowley famously defined magic (magick in his usage) as the
art and science of causing change in accordance with the will. More
than that, however, magick is the means by which the mortal may
connect with the immortal, the transcendental, the eternal.
Magick is not, however, a pursuit of simple answers nor easy result.
For individuals like Crowley and Jack Parsons, the questions were,
often as not, discovered along the way. We should keep this in mind as
we now return to Parsons Babalon Working and consider not only the
success or failure of his operation – and his life – but also what we can
learn from the sojourn “in the witchwood under the Night of Pan” 153
151
It is a logical extension of this line of reasoning, since it makes no sense for whatever lies
behind this phenomenon to have a relationship with humans unless there is a reason. Whether
good bad or indifferent, these spiritual beings seem, often as not, to initiate contact so we may
therefore conclude – or at least hypothesize - that there is a motive.
152
though it must be said that Dee, Crowley and Parsons were all, irregardless of their
personal faults and idiosyncrasies, remarkably intelligent men.
153
Jack Parsons, Liber 49, Verse 30 (see Book of Babalon)
107