>I've been running into these two terms in my studies of the Western
>Magickal Tradition.  I'm interested in various viewpoints regarding
>them and some alternatives to the traditional.  They are related in
>some way to Kabbalah (i.e. to the space below the Supernal Triad and
>to the Guardian which bars the way to unready individuals).  What
>thoughts, references, criticisms, other questions do you have about
>these?
> 
>The terms to be considered:
> 
>The 'Abyss' 
noun, from "very large dark place approximately as large as my mouth"
	1)  	A very bad movie viewed precognitively by the Ancient Rabbins.

	2)   A Slayer album.

	3)   A discontinuity between the lower worlds and the higher worlds.
After you get the elemental initiations, the Adeptus/a (even today's Latin
must be politically correct!)  Minor/Minora (yes, I know that's not the correct
feminine Nominative singular.  So bite me.)  degree, and the Major and Exempt
Adept degrees, you have hit the top of the heap.  So you have to jump off the
heap -- you have to leave behind the tremendously powerful incarnate being you
have perfected yourself to be, and enter a primordial state that is above
ordinary kinds of incarnation.  It is said by the lint-ridden belly-buttoned
ones who adhere to strict dietary traditions that no mortal can attain to
Ipsissimus.  That's how weird it gets...beyond the Abyss (cue creepy music).

	Some people (who have done LOTS o' hash) say that the Abyss is the
essence of abstract intellectuality, and therefore horrid and unspiritual
and demonic and a really wild trip.  

	Some say that crossing the Abyss is analogous to opening the throat
chakra :  it makes for eloquence, knowledge, and power great, but perfection
is beyond it, and one must not stop there.

	Some say that silly uninitiated folks like me ought speak not o' what
they know not.  Of course, that never stops me...


> 
>The 'Dweller on the Threshold' 

Noun
	1)  Inspiration for an H.P.Lovecraft story.
	2)  Bart Simpson
	3)  The accumulated bad karma and nastiness of all time.  The Shadow.

	The Lesser Dweller on the Threshold is equivalent (some say) to the
Jungian shadow.  Not being a Jungian, I wouldn't know.  It is the bad karma of
the individual.  Everybody has their own.

	The Greater Dweller of the Threshold is a LOT worse... if I remember 
correctly, it's all the bad karma in all of the collective unconsciousness
or something....interesting topic, but no one ever goes into it very far.

    Check out WEButler and Dion Fortune for both of these, esp. the D on the T.

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