Anthony Testa - The Key of the Abyss.pdf

Chapter 17 : Aftermath
There are several matters that need to be addressed before proceeding
to apply the Cipher Key to Liber 49. The most important is the
command to Parsons; Thou shalt publish the secret matter of the
adepts thou knowest, witholding no word of it, in an appendix to this
my Book. I would speculate that this is naturally the secret of the IX
Degree of the O.T.O., though to my knowledge, Parsons did dot
publish this “matter”, or any other identified as such. It seems logical
that the issue is in fact the “secret”, as Parsons seems to have been
instructed in this Arcanum even though it is not clear what his actual
Grade in the Order was at the time of the Babalon working. It is no
great secret anymore 179 , though at the time it was held in strict
confidence and one wonders if Parsons was initiated into the secret by
Smith or perhaps Jane Wolfe? In any case, the issue is interesting only
if the IX was not the what was here discussed.
The other issue is the possibility that the spirit, Babalon, was in fact
the same Goddess that we may identify as the Hekate of Greek
paganism and later Witchcraft beliefs 180 . Again, it is interesting to
speculate that the force that Parsons encountered had as its (her)
purpose the inspiration of a revival of Witchcraft, not unlike what has
been accomplished by Gerald Gardner, et.al., though not without some
odd permutations. I suppose that is what happens when you work
through Americans(!) 181 .
It is worth mentioning that the text of verse 65 closely mirrors a
passage from Leland’s Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches which is a
cornerstone of modern Wicca (acknowledged or not) in that Leland’s
“Witches” worship the Goddess Diana and Lucifer, the Sun and
Diana’s brother. This is certainly one of the sources Gardner drew
upon especially for his inspiration to replace the “Devil” of the middle
179
The secret can be found by the industrious student, though it is my assumption that most of
the readers of this work are well acquainted with it.
180
i.e, Shakespeare’s “Pale Hecate” Again, see Hekate, Evolution of a God and also
Witchcraft and Demonology in Cycles of the Aeons. A revised version of the chapter Withcraft
Decoded is included in this volume
181
Kenneth Grant, Hecate’s Fountain, pp 24, Skoob
126