kaos

appear to assume that this has some meaning to the reader and yet neither actually refer
the phrase back to what appears to be its only genuine occurrence, namely in the 8 th
Enochian Key received by Dee and Kelly. Now it could be that they took this knowledge
for granted, but the fact remains that they went on to use the phrase in what to me is an
obscurantist fashion and I am not convinced their obfuscations shed a great deal of
light on the use of the term in the 8 th Key. In a note on his skrying of the 10 th Æthyr
Crowley says: “The doctrine of the ‘Fall’ and the ‘Stooping Dragon’ must be studied
carefully.” I am inclined to think this is in the nature of a marginal reminder to himself
to do just that some time. But he is certainly right that these ideas have a great bearing
on the question of the Abyss.
The Dweller in the Abyss, Choronzon, comes in two spellings. Coronzon is the
original spelling of John Dee and Edward Kelly, Choronzon is the “corrected” spelling
by Aleister Crowley that adds up to 333 (actually churunzun, ie }wznwrwx). In The Vision
and the Voice (Liber 418) Crowley was specifically told that the number of Choronzon
was 333 in his skrying of the 10 th Æthyr. Yet he obviously already knew this because he
used the spelling in the previously skryed Æthyrs 17, 15, 12, and 11. The 17 th was
skryed on Dec 2, 1909, and the 10 th on Dec 6. So far as I am aware, The Vision and the
Voice, published in 1911, was the first time Crowley ever wrote about Choronzon, Liber
333 (The Book of Lies) was published in 1913 (note Chapter 42, “Dust-Devils”). He
shows that he was aware of the original spelling of Dee and Kelly because like them he
refers to the demon as “that mighty devil”. In the 28 th Æthyr Crowley received what he
regarded later as a prophecy concerning his experience of Choronzon in the 10 th : “Thou
shalt be vexed by dispersion.” Dispersion also adds up to 333 in Greek (a)kolasia).
In the 10 th Æthyr it is even stated explicitly: “Choronzon is Dispersion.” Yet in a footnote
Crowley claims not to have realised at the time that there was any correspondence
between “Dispersion” and “Choronzon”. Dee’s spelling of “Coronzon” adds up to 345
in Hebrew (Donald Tyson gets 365 by taking Nun final as 70). So why exactly did
Crowley change the spelling from Dee’s original before he was told the demon’s number
in the 10 th , if not because he wished to link Choronzon to the forewarning of being
vexed by dispersion mentioned in the 28 th , and present the demon as responsible for
mental scattering and distraction. Did he perhaps, either consciously or subconsciously,
desire to have his change legitimised and this is why he had the demon state its number?
It’s fascinating that the spelling “Choronzon” is already in use before the 10 th Æthyr but
the “Babalon” spelling is not, Crowley was still spelling her name “Babylon”, and it is in
the 10 th Æthyr that he first uses the correct spelling alluded to in the 12 th Æthyr (in the
phrase “Gate of the God On” }(l)b)b, ie Babalon: bab b)b = gate; al l) = God; on
}( = On) where it becomes representative of a “victory over Choronzon” and mark of
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