Anthony Testa - The Key of the Abyss.pdf

encouraged to pursue the explication of this complex of symbols in
those works.
As the quote from Magick at the beginning of this chapter
demonstrates, for Crowley, Babalon was intimately bound up with and
a part of his key concept, Thelema (Greek. ‘Will’) and the symbol of
the Holy Grail (he calls it the Graal, anticipating the Holy Blood, Holy
Grail controversies of the 80’s by the better part of a century), along
with, as we have seen, the Beast of Revelation, etc. The main
explication of these symbols is found in what may be, in my opinion,
the most important work written by Crowley (at least from the
standpoint of practical magick), Liber 418, the Vision and the Voice.
The actual working by Crowley and Neuberg has been documented
many times over. The first and most interesting that I came across was
the description in Israel Regardie’s The Eye in the Triangle and also
the biography of Neuberg, the Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuberg 65
both of which are either in print or can be obtained through a book
reseller. The Vision and the Voice has, likewise, been republished
many times. The earliest that is still in print was Regardie’s Gems from
the Equinox 66 , and it is now available on the Internet as well as in a
very nice edition in The Equinox, Volume IV, No. 2. The operation is
described in Crowley’s introduction: The Seer had with him a great
golden topaz (set in a Calvary Cross of six squares, made of wood,
and painted vermillion) which was engraved with a Greek Cross of
five squares charged with the Rose of 49 petals. He held this, as a rule,
in his hand. After choosing a spot where he was not likely to be
disturbed he would take this stone and recite the Enochian Call, and
after satisfying himself that the forces invoked were actually present,
made the topaz play a part not unlike that of the looking glass in the
case of Alice. (He had long learned not to trouble himself to travel to
any particular place in his Body of Light. He realized that Space was
not a thing in itself, but merely a convenient category [one of many
such] by reference to which we can distinguish objects from each
65
The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg, Jean Overton Fuller. This was a library book,
sorry no publisher info.
66
Gems from the Equinox, Israel Regardie, Falcon Press, 1988
52