Wednesday, April 21, 2010

ABYSS~ShapeShifting out of Y


THE ABYSS (1989)
Masonic Allegory


Abyss in the general sense, signifies any unfathomable gulf. It is also the name of a vast cavern filled with water, supposed to exist near the center of the earth. In scripture it is sometimes used for hell, in antiquity it is a name given to the temple of Proserpine and among alchemists, it signifies the receptacle of the seminal matter, and sometimes the seminal matter itself.

Abyssinia is the kingdom of Africa, bounded on the North by that of Sennar, Nubia; on the East partly by the Red Sea, and partly by Dancala; on the West by Gorham and Gingiro; and on the South by Alaba and Ommo-Zaidi. It was formerly of greater extent than it is at present, because several provinces have revolted, and the Turks have made encroachments to the east. The land is fertile in many places, and the air is very hot, except in the rainy season, and then it is very temperate. For four months in the year, greater rains fall there than perhaps in any other part of the world, which occasion the swelling of the river Nile, that its source in this country. It contains mines of all sorts of metal, except tin; but the inhabitants make no great advantage thereof. The fields are watered by several streams, except in the mountainous parts. The emperor, or king, is called Negus; and has been commonly taken for Prester John. His authority, and he often dwells with his whole court in tents. However, , Abyssinia is not without cities, as some pretend; for Gondar is a large place, where the king commonly resides when he is not in the field. The inhabitants are black or very near it. They make profession of the Christian religion religion, but it has a mixture of Judaism. The Abyssinian church established in the empire of Abyssinia is a branch of the Copts or Jacobites a sect of heretics, who admit but one nature in Jesus Christ. The habits of the persons of quality is a silken vest, with a sort of scarf; but the common people wear nothing but a pair of drawers.


And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. -Friedrich Nietzsche