In the occult tradition of Thelema, Choronzon represents the abyss of chaos. He is described as the “demon of dispersion” and as the dangerous, unstable force confronting an adept in the Abyss.
The concept entered modern occultism through the Enochian magical work associated with John Dee and Edward Kelley in the 16th century. Aleister Crowley later made Choronzon central to Thelema, presenting him as the last great obstacle between the magician and spiritual enlightenment. The Abyss separates ordinary manifested existence from higher divine awareness, and crossing it involves the dissolution of the ego.
Crowley and Victor Benjamin Neuburg claimed to have evoked Choronzon in Bou Saâda, Algeria, in December 1909. The account describes a chaotic, shape-changing manifestation, though later writers have disagreed about whether it records a supernatural event, a psychological experience, or an invention.
Choronzon is not another name for Babalon, Hadit, or Aiwass. Babalon is associated with the region beyond the Abyss, while Aiwass is the entity Crowley identified as the author of The Book of the Law. In Thelemic symbolism, Choronzon chiefly embodies fragmentation, dispersion, and the resistance of the ego to transformation.