Abyss (Sequence 0)

The Abyss is the summit of the path, and its authorities are listed as a catalogue of everything that corrupts a person from within:

Degeneration — a share of this power;

Corruption — also a share;

Taint — and it too;

Desires — a share of power over them;

Curses — a share;

The Deviated — power over those who have turned away from their nature.

The Canon explains what binds all of this together, and the explanation is worth quoting in full: the authorities of Degeneration, Taint, Corruption, Desire, and Curse are tied to power over the Mind. More precisely, only when power over the Mind is joined with them — in whole or in part — can they be considered truly complete. Hence the name of the very essence of this step: the Abyss of the Heart.

That is, the summit of the path is not about monsters and not about blood, though there was plenty of both along the way. It is about the fact that everything listed lives in the human mind, and the Abyss merely gives it free rein.

It is useful to compare with its neighbors. The Hanged Man is the vicious nature of all living things; the Abyss, as the Canon notes in its description, is a medium that inevitably drives everyone who finds themselves in it to degeneration: it not only causes corruption but also creates it.

The Canon provides no separate description of the composition and ritual for the zero step.