Where Is The Abyss?
In Egypt, Odysseus encounters “Nile,” the type of Lenin who is plotting a revolution to establish justice on earth. Odysseus expresses solidarity but concedes that he is ambivalent concerning the wisdom of such a project. “You’re welcome on your own terms to our just revolt,” Nile tells him, “whether from love or raging fury or search for God.” But the revolutionary leader is clearly contemptuous of those who are not fully committed to the cause: “What shame to waste such strength … trying to find God!” Odysseus knows that he cannot live for bread and material comfort; unlike Nile, he is alive not when he is fighting for a better world, but when he feels the purifying flame (the vital impulse) burning within him. Continuing on his journey to the southern tip of Africa, Odysseus gains a reputation as an ascetic, even a savior. “I’m the great savior of the world where no salvation lies,” he tells a blind hermit in self mockery. But his fame continues to spread and he receives a visit f
We will rely on the Scriptures to find out. When we do this we discover that the Greek word ‘abussos’ is translated in the King James Bible as the ‘bottomless pit’ or in Luke’s gospel as ‘the deep.’ In Luke’s account we are given an important clue about the Abyss. We find that it is a kind of spirit penitentiary, a prison which evil angels dread.
