Hermetic.com | Crowley | Equinox | Vol I No v
{Chart approximated}
Ú____Â___________________Â_______________Â_________________Â___________Â_____¿
³ VI.³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³
³Mys-³ V ³ IV. ³ III. ³ II. ³ I. ³
³tic ³ English of Col.IV.³ The Heavens ³English of Col.II³HebrewNames³ Key ³
³# of³ ³ of Assiah ³ ³ of Numbers³Scale³
³Seph³ ³ ³ ³and Letters³ ³
Å____Å___________________Å_______________Å_________________Å___________Å_____´
³ Ú³ ³ ³Nothing. ³ןיא ³¿ ³
³ 0´³ ³ ³No Limit. ³ ףוסןיא ³Ã 0 ³
³ À³ ³ ³Limitless L.V.X. ³רואףוס ןיא ³Ù ³
³ 1 ³S. of Primum Mobile³ םילגלגהתישאר ³Crown. ³ רתכ ³ 1 ³
³ 3 ³S. of the Zodiac ³ תולסמ ³Wisdom. ³ המכח ³ 2 ³
³ 6 ³S. of Saturn ³ יאתבש ³Understanding. ³הניב ³ 3 ³
³ 10 ³S. of Jupiter ³ קדצ ³Mercy. ³דסח ³ 4 ³
³ 15 ³S. of Mars ³ םידאמ ³Strength. ³הרובג ³ 5 ³
³ 21 ³S. of Sol ³ שמש ³Beauty. ³תראפת ³ 6 ³
³ 28 ³S. of Venus ³ הגונ ³Victory. ³ חצנ ³ 7 ³
³ 36 ³S. of Mercury ³ בכוכ ³Splendour. ³ דוה ³ 8 ³
³ 45 ³S. of Luna ³ הנבל ³Foundation. ³דוסי ³ 9 ³
³ 55 ³S. of the Elements ³ תודוסיםלח ³Kingdom. ³ תוכלמ ³ 10 ³
³ 66 ³Air ³ חור ³Ox. ³ףלא ³11 ³
³ 78 ³Mercury ³(Planets follow³House. ³תיב ³ 12 ³
³ 91 ³Luna ³Sephiroth ³Camel. ³למג ³ 13 ³
³105 ³Venus ³corresponding.)³Door. ³תלד ³ 14 ³
³120 ³Aries ³ הלט ³Window. ³הה ³ 15³
³136 ³Taurus ³ רוש ³Nail. ³וו ³ 16³
³153 ³Gemini ³ םימואת ³Sword.³ ןיז ³ 17³
³171 ³Cancer ³ ןטרס ³Fence. ³תיח ³ 18³
³190 ³Leo ³ הירא ³Serpent. ³תיט ³ 19³
³210 ³Virgo ³ הלותב ³Hand. ³דוי ³ 20³
³231 ³Jupiter ³ ³Palm. ³ףכ ³ 21 ³
³253 ³Libra ³ םינזאמ ³Ox Goad.³ דמל ³ 22³
³276 ³Water ³ םימ ³Water. ³םימ ³23 ³
³300 ³Scorpio ³ ברקע ³Fish. ³ןונ ³ 24³
³325 ³Sagittarius ³ תשק ³Prop. ³ךמס ³ 25³
³351 ³Capricornus ³ ידג ³Eye. ³ןיע ³ 26³
³378 ³Mars ³ ³Mouth. ³הפ ³ 27 ³
³406 ³Aquarius ³ ילד ³Fish-hook. ³ידצ ³ 28³
³435 ³Pisces ³ םיגד ³Back of Head. ³ףוק ³ 29³
³465 ³Sol ³ ³Head. ³שיר ³ 30 ³
³496 ³Fire ³ שא ³Tooth. ³ןיש ³31 ³
³528 ³Saturn ³ ³Tau(as Egyptian).³ות ³ 32 ³
³ ³Earth ³ ץרא ³ --- ³ות ³32bis³
³ ³Spirit ³ תא ³ --- ³ןיש ³31bis³
À____Á___________________Á_______________Á_________________Á___________Á_____Ù
{Chart approximated}
Ú______Â____________________Â________Â_______Â_________________Â_______Â_____¿
³ XV. ³ XIV. ³ XIII. ³ XII. ³ XI. ³ X. ³ ³
³Secret³ The Four Worlds ³Parts of³Secret ³The Elements and ³Letters³ ³
³Names ³ ³the Soul³Numbers³ Senses. ³of the ³ ³
³the 4 ³ ³ ³corres-³ ³ Name. ³ ³
³Worlds³ ³ ³spond'g³ ³ ³ ³
Ã______Å____________________Å________Å_______Å_________________Å_______Å_____´
³ המ ³Yetrirah, Formative ³ תור ³ 45 ³AirAir, Smell ³ ו ³ 11 ³
³ גס ³Briah, Creative ³ המשנ ³ 63³Water Water, Taste ³ ה ³ 23 ³
³ בע ³Atziluth, Archetypal³ היח ³ 72 ³DeeFire, Sight ³ י ³ 31 ³
³ ןב ³Assiah, Material ³ שפנ ³ 52 ³SpiritEarth, Touch ³ h ³32bis³
³ ³ ³ הדיחי ³ ³ Spirit,Hearing³ ש ³31bis³
Ã______Á_________________Â__Å________Á______ÂÁ_______Â_________Á_______Å_____´
³ XVI. ³ ³ IX. ³ VIII. ³ VII. ³ ³
³ The Planets and their ³ ³Numbers printed³Value of³Hebrew Letters & ³ ³
³ Numbers. ³ ³on Tarot Trumps³Col.VII.³English Equiv. ³ ³
³ ³ ³ ³ ³Symbols used in ³ ³
³ ³ ³ ³ ³ this Article. ³ ³
Ã________________________Å__Å_______________Å________Å_________________Å_____´
³ Mercury 8 ³12³ 0 ³ 1 ³ A א ³11 ³
³ Moon 9 ³13³ I ³ 2 ³ B ב ³ 12 ³
³ Venus 7 ³14³ II ³ 3 ³ G ג ³ 13 ³
³ Jupiter 4 ³21³ III ³ 4 ³ D ד ³ 14 ³
³ Mars 5 ³27³ IV ³ 5 ³ H ה ³ 15³
³ Sun 6 ³30³ V ³ 6 ³ V ו ³ 16³
³ Saturn 3 ³32³ VI ³ 7 ³ Z ז ³ 17³
Ã_______________Â________Å__´ VII ³ 8 ³ Ch ח ³18³
³ XVIII. ³ XVII. ³ ³ XI ³ 9 ³ T ט ³19³
³English of Col.³Parts of³ ³ IX ³ 10 ³ I י ³20³
³ XVII. ³the Soul³ ³ X ³20, 500 ³ K כ , ך ³ 21 ³
Ã_______________Å________Å__´ VIII ³ 30 ³ L ל ³22³
³The Self ³ הדיחי ³ 1³ XII ³40, 600 ³ Mמ , ם ³23 ³
³The Life Force ³ היח ³ 2³ XIII ³50, 700 ³ Nנ , ן ³ 24³
³The Intuition ³ המשנ ³ 3³ XIV ³ 60 ³ Sס ³ 25³
³ ¿³ Ú³ 4³ XV ³ 70 ³ O ע ³26³
³ ³³ ³³ 5³ XVI ³80, 800 ³ P פ , ף ³ 27 ³
³The Intellect ó חיר ´³ 6³ XVII ³90, 900 ³ Tzצ , ץ ³ 28³
³ ³³ ³³ 7³ XVIII ³ 100 ³ Q ק ³29³
³ ³³ ³³ 8³ XIX ³ 200 ³ R ר ³30 ³
³ Ù³ À³ 9³ XX ³ 300 ³ Sh ש ³31³
³The Animal Soul³ שפנ ³10³ XXI ³ 400 ³ Th ת ³ 32 ³
³ ³ ³ 400 ³ ת ³32bis³
³ ³ ³ 300 ³ ש ³31bis³
À___________________________Á_______________Á________Á_________________Á_____Ù
{WEH NOTE: In the above, col XVIII. head has been corrected and col. XVII.,
item 2 has been corrected --- all typo's in original. Note additionally that
col. XVIII., item 1, "The Self" is not the separate self, but the Universal
Self, not distinct in traditional Qabalah from the single divinity.}}
GREAT as were Frater P.'s accomplishments in the ancient sciences of the East, swiftly and securely as he had passed in a bare year the arduous road which so many fail to traverse in a lifetime, satisfied as himself was ___ in a sense ___ with his own progress, it was yet not by these paths that he was destined to reach the Sublime Threshold of the Mystic Temple. For thought it is written, "To the persevering mortal the blessed immortals are swift," yet, were it otherwise, no mortal however persevering could attain the immortal shore. As it is written in the Fifteenth Chapter of St Luke's Gospel, "And when he was yet afar off, his Father saw him and ran." Had it not been so, the weary Prodigal, exhausted by his early debauches (astral visions and magic) and his later mental toil (yoga) would never have had the strength to reach the House of his Father.
One little point St Luke unaccountably omitted. When a man is as hungry and weary as was the Prodigal, he is apt to see phantoms. He is apt to clasp shadows to him and cry: "Father!" And, the devil being subtle, capable of disguising himself as an angel of light, it behoves the Prodigal to have some test of truth. {69}
Some great mystics have laid down the law, "Accept no messenger of God," banish all, until at last the Father himself comes forth. A counsel of perfection. The Father does send messengers, as we learn in St Mark xii.; and if we stone them, we may perhaps in our blindness stone the son himself when he is sent.
So that is no vain counsel of "St John" (1 John iv. 1), "Try the spirits, whether they be of God," no mistake when "St Paul" claims the discernment of Spirits to be a principal point of the armour of salvation (1 Cor. xii. 10).
Now how should Frater P. or another test the truth of any message purporting to come from the Most High? On the astral plane, its phantoms are easily governed by the Pentagram, the Elemental Weapons, the Robes, the God- forms, and such childish toys. We set phantoms to chase phantoms. We make our Scin-Laeca pure and hard and glittering, all glorious within, like the veritable daughter of the King; yet she is but the King's daughter, the Nephesch adorned: she is not the King himself, the Holy Ruach or mind of man. And as we have seen in our chapter on Yoga, this mind is a very aspen; and as we may see in the last chapter of Captain Fuller's "Star in the West," this mind is a very cockpit of contradiction.
What then is the standard of truth? What tests shall we apply to revelation, when our tests of experience are found wanting? If I must doubt my eyes that have served me (well, on the whole) for so many years, must I not much more doubt my spiritual vision, my vision just open like a babe's, my vision untested by comparison and uncriticized by reason? {70}
Fortunately, there is one science that can aid us, a science that, properly understood by the initiated mind, is as absolute as mathematics, more self- supporting than philosophy, a science of the spirit itself, whose teacher is god, whose method is simple as the divine Light, and subtle as the divine Fire, Whose results are limpid as the divine Water, all-embracing as the divine Air, and solid as the divine Earth. Truth is the source, and Economy the course, of that marvellous stream that pours its living waters into the Ocean of apodeictic certainty, the Truth that is infinite in its infinity as the primal Truth with which it is identical is infinite in its Unity.
Need we say that we speak of the Holy Qabalah? O science secret, subtle, and sublime, who shall name thee without veneration, without prostration of soul, spirit, and body before thy divine Author, without exaltation of soul, spirit, and body as by His favour they bathe in His lustral and illimitable Light?
It must first here be spoken of the Exoteric Qabalah to be found in books, a shell of that perfect fruit of the Tree of Life. Next we will deal with the esoteric teachings of it, as Frater P. was able to understand them. And of these we shall give examples, showing the falsity and absurdity of the uninitiated path, the pure truth and reasonableness of the hidden Way.
For the student unacquainted with the rudiments of the Qabalah we recommend the study of S. L. Mathers' "Introduction"1 to his translation of the three principal books of the Zohar,2 and Westcott's "Introduction to the Study of the Qabalah." We venture to append a few quotations from the {71} former document, which will show the elementary principles of calculation. Dr Westcott's little book is principally valuable for its able defence of the Qabalah as against exotericism and literalism.
The literal Qabalah ... is divided into three parts: GMTRIA, Gematria; NVTRIQVN, Notariqon; and ThMVRH, Temura.
Gematria is a metathesis of the Greek word γραμματεια . It is based on the relative numerical values of words. Words of similar numerical values are considered to be explanatory of each other, and this theory is extended to phrases. Thus the letter Shin, Sh, is 300, and is equivalent to the number obtained by adding up the numerical values of the letters of the words RVCh ALHIM, Ruach Elohim, the spirit of Elohim; and it is there fore a symbol of the spirit of Elohim. For % = 200, V = 6, Ch = 8, A = 1, L = 30, H = 5, I = 10, M = 40; total = 300. Similarly, the words AChD, Achad, Unity, One, and AHBH, Ahebah, love, each = 13; for A =1, Ch = 8, D = 4, total = 13; and A = 1, H = 5, B = 2, H = 5, total = 13. Again, the name of the angel MTTRVN, Metatron or Methraton, and the name of the Deity, ShDI, Shaddai, each make 314;3 so the one is taken as symbolical of the other. The angel Metatron is said to have been the conductor of the children of Israel through the wilderness, of whom God says, "My name is in him." With regard to Gematria of phases (Gen. xlix. 10), IBA ShILH, Yeba Shiloh, "Sjhiloh shall come" = 358, which is the numeration of the word MShICh, Messiah. Thus also the passage, Gen. xviii. 2, VHNH ShLShH, Vehenna Shalisha, "And lo, three men," equals in numerical value ALV MIKAL GBRIAL VRPAL, Elo Mikhale Gabriel Ve-Raphael, "These are Mikhael, Gabriel and Raphael"; for each phrase = 701. I think these instance will suffice to make clear the nature of Gematria.
Notariqon is derived from the Latin word notarius, a shorthand writer. Of Notariqon there are two forms. In the first every letter of a word is taken from the initial or abbreviation of another word, so that from the letters of a word a sentence may be formed. Thus every letter of the word BRAShITH, Berashith, the first word in Genesis, is made the initial of a word, and we obtain BRAShITh RAH ALHIM ShIQBLV IShRAL ThVRH, Berashith Rahi Elohim Sheyequebelo Israel Torah; "In the beginning Elohim saw that Israel would accept the law." In this connection I may give six very interesting specimens of Notariqon formed from this same word BRAShITh by Solomon Meir Ben Moses, a Jewish Qabalist, who embraced the Christian faith in 1665, and took the name of Prosper Rugere. These have all a Christian tendency, {72} and by their means Prosper converted another Jew, who had previously been bitterly opposed to Christianity. The first is, BN RVCh AB ShLVShThM IChD ThMIM, Ben, Ruach, Ab, Shaloshethem Yechad Thaubodo: "The Son, the Spirit, the Father, ye shall equally worship Their Trinity." The third is BKVRI RAShVNI AShR ShMV IShVO ThOBVDV, Bekori Rashuni Asher Shamo Yeshuah Thaubodo: "Ye shall worship My first-born, My first, Whose name is Jesus." The fourth is, BBVA RBN AShR ShMV IShVO ThOBVDV, Beboa Rabban Asher Shamo Yeshuah Thaubodo: "When the Master shall come Whose Name is Jesus ye shall worship." The fifth is, BThVLH RAVIH ABChR ShthLD ISh VO THAShRVH, Bethulh Raviah Abachar Shethaled Yeshuah Thashroah: "I will choose a virgin worthy to bring forth Jesus, and ye shall call her belssed." The sixth is, BOVGTh RTzPIM ASThThR ShGVPI IShVO ThAKLV, Beaugoth Ratzephim Asattar Shgopi Yeshuah Thakelo: "I will hid myself in cake (baked with) coals, for ye shall eat Jesus, My Body."
The Qabalistical importance of these sentences as bearing upon the doctrines of Christianity can hardly be overrated.
The second form of the Notariqon is the exact reverse of the first. By this the initials or finals, or both, or the medials, of a sentence, are taken to form a word or words. Thus the Qabalah is called ChKMH NSThRH, Chokhmah Nesthrah, "the secret wisdom"; and if we take the initials of these two words Ch and N, we form by the second king of Notariqon the word ChN, Chen, "gracce." Similarly, from the initials and finals of the words MI IOLH LNV HShMIMH, Mi Iaulah Leno Ha-Shamayimah, "Who shall go up for us to heaven?" (Deut. xxx. 120, are formed MILH, Milah, "circumcision," and IHVH, the Tetragrammaton, implying that God hath ordained circumcision as the way to heaven.
Temura is permutation.4 According to certain rules, one letter is substituted for another letter preceding or following it in the alphabet, and thus from one word another word of totally different orthography may be formed. Thus the alphabet is bent exactly in half, in the middle, and one half is put over the other; and then by changing alternately the first letter or the first two letters at the beginning of the second line, twenty-two commutations are produced. These are called the "Table of the Combinations of TzIRVP," Tzirup. For example's sake, I will give the method called ALBTh, Albath, thus: ---
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
K I T Ch Z V H D G B A
M N S O P Tz Q R Sh Th L
Each method takes its name from he first two pairs composing it, the system {73} of pairs of letters being the groundwork of the the whole, as either letter in a pair is substituted for the other letter. Thus, by Albath, from RVCh, Ruach, is formed DTzO, Detzau. The names of the other twenty-one methods are: ABGTh, AGDTh, ADBG, AHBD, AVBH, AZBY, AChBZ, ATBCh, AIBT, AKBI, ALBK, AMBL, ANBM, ASBN, AOBS, APBO, ATzBP, AQSTz, ARBQ, AShBR, AND AThBSh. To these must be added the modes ABGD and ALBM. Then comes the "Rational Table of Tziruph," another set of twenty-two combination. There are also three "Tables of the commutations," known respectively as the Right, the Averse, and the Irregular. To make any of these, a square, containing 484 squares, should be made,and the letters written in. For the "Right Table" write the alphabet across from right to left; in the second row of squares do the same, but begin with B and end with A; in the third begin with G and end with B; and so on. For the "Averse Table" write the alphabet from right to left backwards, beginning with Th and ending with A; in the second row begin with Sh and end with Th, &c. The "Irregular Table" would take too long to describe. Besides all these, there is the method called ThShRQ, Thashraq, which is simply writing a word backwards. There is one more very important form called the "Qabalah of the Nine Chambers" or AIQ BKR, Aiq Bekar. It is thus formed:
Ú___________________Â____________________Â____________________¿ ³ 300 30 3 ³ 200 20 2 ³ 100 10 1 ³ ³ Sh L G ³ R K B ³ Q I A ³ Ã___________________Å____________________Å____________________´ ³ 600 60 6 ³ 500 50 5 ³ 400 40 4 ³ ³ M final S V ³ K final N H ³ Th M D ³ Ã___________________Å____________________Å____________________´ ³ 900 90 9 ³ 800 80 8 ³ 700 70 7 ³ ³Tz final Tz T ³ P final P Ch ³ N final O Z ³ À___________________Á____________________Á____________________Ù
I have put the numeration of each letter above to show the affinity between the letters in each chamber. ?sometimes this is used as a cipher, by taking the portions of the figure to show the letters they contain, putting one point for the first letter, two for the second, &c. Thus the right angle, containing AIQ, will answer for the letter Q if it have three dots or points within it. Again a square will answer for H, H, or K final, according to whether it has one, two, or three points respectively placed within it. so also with regard to the other letters. But there are many other ways of employing the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers, which I have not space to describe. I will merely mention as an example, that by the mode of Temura called {74} AThBsH, Athbash, it is found that in Jeremiah xxv. 26, the word ShShK, Sheshakh, symbolises BBL, Babel.
Besides all these rules,there are certain meanings hidden in the shape of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; in the form of a particular letter at the end of a word being different from that which it generally bears when it is a final letter, or in a letter being written in the middle of a word in a character generally used only at the end; in any letters or letter being written in a size smaller or larger than the rest of the manuscript, or in a letter being written upside down; in the variations found in the spelling of certain words, which have a letter more in some places than they have in others; in peculiarities observed in the position of any of the points or accents, and in certain expressions supposed to be elliptic or redundant.
For example the shape of the Hebrew letter Aleph, A, is said to symbolize a Vau, V, between a Yod, I, and a Daleth, D; and thus the letter itself represents the word IVD, Yod. Similarly the shape of the letter He, H, represents a Daleth, D, with a Yod, I, written at the lower left-hand corner, &c.
In Isaiah ix. 6, 7, the word LMRBH, Lemarbah, "for multiplying," is written with the character for M final in the middle of the word, instead of with the ordinary initial and medial M. The consequence of this is that the total numerical value of the word, instead of being 30 + 40 + 200 + 2 + 5 = 277, is 30 + 600 + 200 + 2 + 5 = 837 = by Gematria ThTh ZL, Tet Zal, the profuse Giver. Thus by writing the M final instead of the ordinary character, the word is made to bear a different qabalistical meaning.
. . . . . . . . .
It is to be further noted with regard to the first word in the Bible, BRAShITH, that the first three letters, BRA, are the initial letters of the names of the three persons of the Trinity: BN, Ben the Son; RVCh, Ruach, the Spirit; and AB, Ab the Father. Furthermore the first letter of the Bible is B, which is the initial letter of BRKH, Berakhah, blessing; and not A, which is that of ARR, Arar, cursing. Again, the letters of Berashith, taking their numerical powers, express the number of the years between the Creation and the birth of Christ, thus: B = 2,000, R = 200, A - 1,000, Sh = 300, I = 10, and Th = 400; total = 3910 years, being the time in round numbers. Picus de Mirandola gives the following working out of BRAShITh, Berashith: --- By joining the third letter, A, to the first, B, AB, Ab = Father, is obtained. If to the first letter B, doubled, the second letter, R, be added, it makes BBR, Bebar - in or through the Son. If all the letters be read except the first, it makes RAShITh, Rashith = the beginning. If the fourth letter, Sh, the first B and the last Th be connected, it makes ShBTh, Shebeth = the end or rest. {75} If the first three letters be taken, they make BRA, Bera = created. If, omitting the first, the three following be taken, they make RASh, Rash = head. If the fourth and the last be joined, they give ShTh, Sheth = foundation. Again if the second letter be put before the first, it makes RB, Rab = great. If after the third be placed the fifth and the fourth, it gives AISh, Aish = man. If to the two first be joined the two last, they give BRITh, Berith = covenant. And if the first be added to the last, it gives ThB, Theb, which is sometimes used for TVB, Thob = good.
. . . . . . . . .
There are three qabalistical veils of the negative existence, and in themselves they formulate the hidden ideas of the Sephiroth not yet called into being, and they are concentrated in Kether, which in this sense is the Malkuth of hidden ideas of the Sephiroth. I will explain this. The first veil of the negative existence is the AIN, Ain, Negativity. This word consists of three letters, which thus shadow forth the first three Sephiroth or numbers. The second veil is the AIN SVP, the limitless. This title consists of six letters, and shadows forth the idea of the first six Sephiroth or numbers. The third veil is the AIN SVP AVR, Ain Soph Aur, the Limitless Light. This again consists of nine letters, and suymbolises the first nine Sephiroth, but of course in their hidden idea only. But when we reach the number nine we cannot progress farther without returning to the unity, or the number one, for the number ten is but a repetition of unity freshly derived from the negative, as is evident from a glance at its ordinary representation in Arabic numerals, where the circle O represents the Negative and the I the Unity. Thus, then, the limitless ocean of negative light does not proceed from a centre, for it is centreless, but it concentrates a centre, which is the number one of of the Sephiroth, Kether, the Crown, the First Sephira; which therefore may be said to be the Malkuth or the number ten of the hidden Sephiroth. Thus "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether." Or as an alchemical author of great repute (Thomas Vaughan, better known as Eugenius Philalethes) says, apparently quoting from Proclus; "That the heaven is in the earth, but after an earthly manner; and that the earth is in the heaven, but after a heavenly manner." But inasmuch as negative existence is the subject incapable of definition, as I have before shown, it is rather considered by the Qabalists as depending back from the number of unity than as a separate consideration therefrom; therefore they frequently apply the same terms and epithets indiscriminately to either. Such epithets are "The concealed of the Concealed," "The Ancient of the Ancient Ones," the "Most Holy Ancient One," etc. {76}
I must now explain the real meaning of the terms Sephira and Sephiroth. The first is singular, the second is plural. The best rendering of the word is "numerical emanation." There are ten Sephiroth, which are the most abstract forms of the ten numbers of the decimal scale --- "i.e.", the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Therefore, as in the higher mathematics we reason of numbers in their abstract sense, so in the Qabalah we reason of the Deity by the abstract forms of the numbers in other words, by the SPIRVTh, Sephiroth. it was from this ancient Oriental theory that Pythagoras derived his numerical symbolic ideas.
Among the Sephiroth, jointly and severally, we find the development of the persons and attributes of God. Of these some are male and some female. Now, for some reason or other best known to themselves, the translators of the Bible have carefully crowded out of existence and smothered up every reference to the fact that the Deity is both masculine and feminine. They have translated a feminine plural by a masculine singular in the case of the word Elohim. They have, however, left an inadvertent admission of their knowledge that it was plural in Genesis iv, 26: "And Elohim said: Let Us make man." Again (v. 27), who could Adam be made in the image of Elohim, male and female, unless the Elohim were male and female also? The word Elohim is a plural formed from the feminine singular ALH, Eloh, by adding IM to word. But inasmuch as IM is usually a termination of the masculine plural and is here added to a feminine noun, it gives to the word Elohim the sense of a female potency united to a masculine idea, and thereby capable of producing an offspring. How, we hear much of the Father and the Son, but we hear nothing of the Mother in the ordinary religions of the day. But in the Qabalah we find that the Ancient of Days conforms Himself simultaneously into the Father and the Mother, and thus begets the son. Now, this Mother is Elohim. Again, we are usually told that the Holy Spirit is masculine. But the word RVCh, Ruach, Spirit, is feminine, as appears from the following passage of the Sepher Yetzirah: "AChTh RVCh ALHIM ChIIM, Achath (feminine, not Achad, masculine) Ruach Elohim Chimm: One is She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life."
Now, we find that before he Deity conformed Himself thus --- "i.e.", as male and female --- that the worlds of the universe could not subsist, or, in the words of Genesis, "The earth was formless and void." These prior worlds are considered to be symbolised by the "kings who reigned in Edom before there reigned a king in Israel," and they are therefore spoken of in the Qabalah as the "Edomite kings." This will be found fully explained in various parts of this work.
we now come to the consideration of the first Sephira, or the Number One, the Monad of Pythagoras. In this number are the other nine hidden. It is {77} indivisible, it is also incapable of multiplication; divide 1 by itself and it still remains 1, multiply 1 by itself and it is still 1 and unchanged. Thus it is a fitting representative of the unchangeable Father of all. Now this number of unity has a twofold nature, and thus forms, as it were, the link between the negative and the positive. In its unchangeable one-ness it is scarcely a number; but in its property of capability of addition it may be called the first number of a numerical series. Now, the zero, 0, is incapable even of addition, just as also is negative existence. How, then, if 1 can neither be multiplied nor divided, is another 1 to be obtained to add to it; in other words how is the number 2 to be found? By reflection of itself. For thought 0 be incapable of definition, 1 is definable. And the effect of a definition is to form an Eidolon, duplicate, or image, of the thing defined. Thus, then, we obtain a duad composed of 1 and its reflection. Now also we have the commencement of a vibration established, for the number 1 vibrates alternately from changelessness to definition, and back to changelessness again. Thus, then, it is the father of all numbers, and a fitting type of the Father of all things.
The name of the first Sephira is KThR, Kether, the Crown. The Divine Name attributed to it is the Name of the Father given in Exod. iii. 4: AHIH, Eheieh, I am. It signifies Existence.
. . . . . . . . .
The first Sephira contains nine, and produces them in succession thus: ---
The number 2 or the Duad. The name of the second Sephira is ChKMHm, Chokmah, Wisdom, a masculine active potency reflected from Kether, as I have before explained. this Sephira is the active and evident Father, to whom the Mother is united, who is the number 3. This second Sephira is represented by the Divine Names, IH, Yah, and IHVHY; and the angelic hosts by AVPNIM, Auphanim, the Wheels (Ezek. i.). It is also called AB, Ab, the Father.
The third Sephira, or triad, is a feminine passive potency, called BINH, Binah, the Understanding, who is co-equal with Chokmah. For Chokmah, the number 2, is like two straight lines which can never enclose a space, and therefore it is powerless till the number 3 forms a triangle. Thus this Sephira completes and makes evident the supernal Trinity. It is also called AMA, Ama, Mother, and AIMA, Mima, the great productive Mother, who is eternally conjoined with AB, the Father, for the maintenance of the universe in order. There fore is she the most evident form in whom we can know the Father, and therefore is she worthy of all honour. She is the supernal Mother, co-equal with Chokmah, and the great feminine form of god, the Elohim, in whose image man and woman are created, according to the teaching of the Qabalah, equal before God. Woman is equal with man, and certainly not {78} inferior to him, as it has been the persistent endeavour of so-called Christians to make her. Aima is the woman described in the Apocalypse (chap. xii.). This third Sephira is also sometimes called the Great Sea. To her are attribute the Divine names, ALHIM, Elohim, and IHVH ALHIM; and the angelic order, ARALIM, Aralim, the Thrones. She is the Supernal Mother as distinguished from Malkuth, the inferior Mother, Bride, and Queen.
The number 4. This union of the second and third Sephiroth produced ChSD, Chesed, Mercy or Love, also called GDVLH, Gedulah, Greatness or Magnificence; a masculine potency represented by the Divine Name AL, EL, the Mighty One, and the angelic name, ChShMLIM, Chashmalim, Scintillating Flames (Ezek. iv. 4).
The number 5. From this emanated the feminine passive potency GBVRH, Geburah, strength or fortitude; or DIN, Deen, Justice; represented by the Divine Names, ALHIM GBVR, and ALH, Eloh, and the angelic name ShRPIM, Seraphim (Isa. vi. 6). This Sephira is also called PChD, Pachad, Fear.
The number 6. And from these two issued the uniting Sephira, ThPARTh, Tiphereth, Beauty or Mildness, represented by the Divine Name ALVH VDOTh, Eloah Va-Daath, and the angelic names, Shinanim, ShNANIM (Ps. lxviii. 18), or MLKIM, Melakim, kings. Thus by the union of justice and mercy we obtain beauty or clemency, and the second trinity of the Sephiroth is complete. This Sephira, or "Path," or "Numeration" --- for by these latter appellations the emanations are sometimes called --- together with the fourth, fifth, seventh eighth, and ninth Sephiroth, is spoken of as ZOIR ANPIN, Zaur Anpin, the Lesser Countenance, Microprosopus, by way of antithesis to Macroprosopus, or the Vast Countenance, which is one of the names of Kether, the first Sephira. The six Sephiroth of which Zauir Anpin is composed, are then called His six members. He is also called MLK, Melekh the King.
The number 7. The seventh Sephira is NTzCh, Netzach, or Firmness and Victory, corresponding to he Divine Name Jehovah Tzabaoth, IHVH TzBAVTh, the Lord of Armies, and the angelic names ALHIM, Elohim, gods, and ThRShIShIM, Tharshishim, the brilliant ones (Dan. x. 6)5.
The number 8. Thence proceeded the feminine passive potency HVD, Hod, Splendour, answering to the Divine Name ALHIM TzBAVTh, Elohim Tzabaoth, the God of Armies, and among the angels to BNI ALHIM, Beni Elohim, the sons of the Gods (Gen. vi. 4).
The number 9. These two produced ISVD, Yesod, the Foundation or Basis, represented by AL ChI, El Chai, the Mighty Living One, and ShDI, Shaddai; and among the angels by AShIM, Aishim, the Flames (Ps. civ. 5), yielding the third Trinity of the Sephiroth. {79}
The number 10. From this ninth Sephira came the tenth and last, thus completing the decad of the numbers. It is called MLVth, Malkuth, the Kingdom, and also the Queen, Matrona, the inferior Mother, the Bride of Microprosopus; and ShKINH, Shekinah, represented by the Divine Name Adonai, ADNI, and among the angel hosts by the kerubim, KRVBIM. Now, each of these Sephiroth will be in a certain degree androgynous, for it will be feminine or receptive with regard to the Sephira which immediately precedes it in the sephirotic scale, and masculine or transmissive with regard to the Sephira which immediately follows it. But there is no Sephira anterior to Kether, nor is there a Sephira which succeeds Malkuth. By these remarks it will be understood how Chokmah is a feminine noun, though marking a masculine Sephira. the connecting-link of the Sephiroth is the Ruach, spirit, Mezla, the hidden influence.
I will how add a few more remarks on the qabalistical meaning of the term MThQLA, Metheqla, balance. In each of the three trinities or triads of the Sephiroth is a duad of opposite sexes, and a uniting intelligence which is the result. In this, the masculine and feminine potencies are regarded as the two scales of the balance, and the uniting Sephira as the beam that joins them. Thus, then, the term balance maybe said to symbolise the Triune, Trinity in Unity, and the Unity represented by the central point of the beam. But, again, in the Sephiroth there is a triple Trinity, the upper, lower, and middle. Now, these three are represented thus: the supernal, or highest, by the Crown, Kether; the middle by the King, and the inferior by the Queen; which will be the greatest trinity. And the earthy correlatives of these will be the primum mobile, the sun and the moon. Here we at once find alchemical symbolism.
. . . . . . . . .
The Sephiroth are futher divided into three pillars --- the right-hand Pillar of Mercy, consisting of the second, fourth, and seventh emanations; the left-hand Pillar of Judgment, consisting of the third, fifth, and eighth; and the middle Pillar of Mildness, consisting of the first, sixth, ninth, and tenth emanations.
In their totality and unity the ten Sephiroth represent the archetypal man, ADM QDMVN, Adam Qadmon, the Protogonos. In looking at the Sephiroth constituting the first triad, it is evident that they represent the intellect; and hence this triad is called the intellectual world, OVLM MVShKL, Olahm Mevshekal. The second triad corresponds to the moral world, OVLM MVRGSh, Olahm Morgash. The third represents power and stability, and is therefore called the material world, OLVM HMVTHBO, Olahm Ha-Mevethau. These three aspect are called the faces, ANPIN, Anpin. Thus is the tree of life, OTz ChIIM, Otz Chaiim, formed; the first triad being placed above, the {80} second and third below, in such a manner that the three masculine Sephiroth are on the right, the three feminine on the left, whilst the four uniting Sephiroth occupy the centre. This is the qabalistical "tree of life," on which all things depend. There is considerable analogy between this and the tree Yggdrasil of the Scandinavians. I have already remarked that there is one trinity which comprises all the Sephiroth, and that it consists of the crown, the king, and the queen. (In some senses this is the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which in their highest Divine nature are symbolised by the first three Sephiroth, Kether, Chokmah, and Binah.) It is the Trinity which created the world; or, in qabalistical language, the universe was born from the union of the crowned king and queen. But according to the Qabalah, before the complete form of the heavenly man (the ten Sephiroth) was produced, there were certain primordial world created, but these could not subsist, as the equilibrium of balance was not yet perfect, and they were convulsed by the unbalanced force and destroyed. These primordial worlds are called the "kings of ancient time" and the "kings of Edom who reigned before the monarchs of Israel." In this sense, Edom is the world of unbalanced force, and Israel is the balanced Sephiroth (Gen. xxxvi. 31.). This important fact, that worlds were created and destroyed prior to the present creation, is again and again reiterated in the Zohar.
Now the Sephiroth are also called the World of Emanations, or the Atziluthic World, or the archetypal world, OVLM ATzILUTh, Olahm Atziloth; and this world gave birth to three other worlds each containing a repetition of the Sephiroth, but in a descending scale of brightness.
The second world is the Briatic world, OVLM HBRIAH, Olahm Ha-Briah, the world of creation, also called KVRSIA, Khorsia, the throne. It is an immediate emanation from the world of Atziloth, whose ten Sephiroth are reflected herein, and are consequently more limited, though they are still of the purest nature, and without any admixture of matter.
The third is the Jetziratic world, OVLM HITzIRAH, Olahm Ha-Yetzirah, or world of formation and of angels, which proceeds from Briah, and, though less refined in substance, is still without matter. It is in this angelic world that reside those intelligent and incorporeal beings who are wrapped in a luminous garment, and who assume a form when they appear unto man.
The fourth is the Asiatic world, OVLM HOShIH, Olahm Ha-Asiah, the world of action, called also the world of shells, OVLM HQLIPVTh, Olahm Ha-Qliphoth, which is this world of matter, made up of the grosser elements of the other three. In it is also the abode of the evil spirits, which are called "the shells" by the Qabalah, QLIPVTh, Qliphoth, material shells. The devils are also divided into ten classes, and have suitable habitations. (See Tables in "777.") {81}
The demons are the grossest and most deficient of all forms. Their ten degrees answer to the decad of the Sephiroth, but in inverse ratio, as darkness and impurity increase with the descent of each degree. The two first are nothing but absence of visible form and organisation. The third is the abode of darkness. Next follow seven Hells occupied by those demons which represent incarnate human vices, and those who have given themselves up to such vices in earth-life. Their prince is Samael, SMAL, the angel of poison and death.. His wife is the harlot, or woman of whoredom, AShTh ZNVNIM, Isheth Zennuim; and united they are called the beast, CHIVA, Chioa. Thus the infernal trinity is completed which is, so to speak,the averse and caricature of the supernal Creative One. Samael is considered to be identical with Satan.
The name of the Deity, which we call Jehovah, is in Hebrew ad name of four letters, IHVH; and the true pronunciation of it is known to very few. I myself know some score of different mystical pronunciations of it. The true pronunciation of it is a most secret arcanum, and is a secret of secrets. "He who can rightly pronounce it, causeth heaven and earth to tremble, for it is the name which rusheth through the universe." Therefore when a devout Jew comes upon it in reading the Scripture, he either does not attempt to pronounce it, but instead makes a short pause, or else he substitutes for it the name Adonai, ADNI, Lord. The radical meaning of the word is "to be," and it is thus, like AHIH, Eheieh, a glyph of existence. It is capable of twelve transpositions, which all convey the meaning of "to be"; it is the only word that will bear so many transpositions without its meaning being altered. They are called the "twelve banners of the mighty name," and are said by some to rule the twelve signs of the Zodiac. These are the twelve banners: --- IHVH, IHHV, IVHH, HVHI, HVIH, HHIV, VHHI, VIHH, VHIH, HIHV, HIVH, HHVI. There are three other tetragrammatic names, which are AHIH, Eheieh, existence; ADNI, Adonai, Lord; and AGLA. This last is not properly speaking, a word, but is a notariqon of the sentence, AThH GBVR LOVLM ADNI, Steh Gebor Le0Olahm Adonai: "Thou art might, for ever, O Lord!" A brief explanation of Agla is this; A, the one first; A, the one last; G, the Trinity in Unity; L, the completion of the great work.
. . . . . . . . .
But IHVH, the Tetragrammaton, as we shall presently see, contains all the Sephiroth with the exception of Kether, and specially signifies the Lesser Countenance, Microprosopus, the King of the qabalistical Sephirotic greatest Trinity,and the Son in His human incarnation, in the Christian acceptation of the Trinity. Therefore, as the Son reveals the Father, so does IHVH, Jehovah, reveal AHIH, Eheieh. And ADNI is the Queen, by whom alone Tetragrammaton {82} can be grasped, whose exaltation into Binah is found in the Christian assumption of the Virgin.
The Tetragrammaton IHVH is referred to the Sephiroth, thus: the upper-most point of the letter Yod, I, is said to refer to Kether; the letter I itself to Chokmah, the father of Microprosopus; the letter H, or "the supernal He," to Binah, the supernal Mother; the letter V to the next six Sephiroth, which are called the six members of Microprosopus (and six is the numerical value of V, the Hebrew Vau); lastly, the letter H, the "inferior He," to Malkuth, the tenth Sephira, the bride of Microprosopus.
Advanced students should then go to the fountain head, Knorr von Rosenroth's "Kabbala denudata," and study for themselves. It should not prove easy; Frater P., after years of study, confessed: "I cannot get much out of Rosenroth"; and we may add that only the best minds are likely to obtain more than an academic knowledge of a system which we suspect von Rosenroth himself never understood in any deeper sense. As a book of reference to the hierarchical correspondences of the Qabalah, of course "777" stands alone an unrivalled.
The graphic Qabalah has been already fully illustrated in this treatise. See Illustrations 2, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 28, 29, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82.
By far the best and most concise account of the method of the Qabalah is that by an unknown author, which Mr. Aleister Crowley has printed at the end of the first volume of his Collected Works, and which we here reprint in full.
QABALISTIC DOGMA
The Evolution of Things is thus described by the Qabalists.
First is Nothing, or the Absence of Things, ןיא , which does not and cannot mean Negatively Existing (if such an Idea can be said to mean anything), as S. Liddell Macgregor Mathers, who misread the Text and stultified the {83} Commentary by the Light of his own Ignorance of Hebrew and Philosophy, pretends in his Translation of v. Rosenroth.
Second is Without Limit ףוס ןי a {WEH NOTE: Corrected, original text had ףומ }, "i.e.", Infinite Space.
This is the primal Dualism of Infinity; the infinitely small and the infinitely great. The Clash of these produces a finite positive Idea which happens (see תישארב , in "The Sword of song," for a more careful study, though I must not be understood to indorse every Word in our Poet-Philosopher's Thesis) to be Light, רוא . This word רוא is most important. It symbolises the Universe immediately after Chaos, the confusion or Clash of the infinite Opposites. א is the Egg of Matter; י is Taurus, the Bull, or Energy-Motion; and ר is the Sun, or organised and moving System of Orbs. The three Letters of רוא thus repeat the three Ideas. The Nature of רוא is thus analysed, under the figure of the ten Numbers and the 22 Letters which together compose what the Rosicrucians have diagrammatised under the name of Minutum Mundom. It will be noticed that every Number and Letter has its "Correspondence" in Ideas of every Sort; so that any given Object can be analysed in Terms of the 32. If I see a blue Star, I should regard it as a Manifestation of Chesed, Water, the Moon, Salt the Alchemical Principle, Sagittarius or What not, in respect of its Blueness ---- one would have to decide which from other Data --- and refer it to the XVIIth Key of the Taro in Respect of its Starriness.
The Use of these Attributions is lengthy and various: I cannot dwell upon it: but I will give one Example.
If I wish to visit the Sphere of Geburah, I use the Colours and Forces appropriate: I go there: if the Objects which then appear to my spiritual Vision are harmonious therewith, it is one Test of their Truth.
so also, to construct a Talisman, or to invoke a Spirit.
The methods of discovering Dogma from sacred Words are also numerous and important: I may mention: ---
("a)" The Doctrine of Sympathies: drawn from the total Numeration of a Word, when identical with, or a Multiple of Submultiple of, or a Metathesis of, that of another Word.
("b)" The Method of finding the Least Number of a Word, by adding (and re- adding) the Digits of its total Number, and taking the corresponding Key of the Taro as a Key to the Meaning of the Word.
("c") The Method of Analogies drawn from the Shape of the Letters.
("d") The Method of Deductions drawn from the Meanings and Correspondences of the letters.
("e") The Method of Acrostics drawn from the Letters. This Mode is only valid for Adepts of the highest Grades, and then under quite exceptional and rare Conditions. {84}
("f") The Method of Transpositions and Transmutations of the Letters, which suggest Analogies, even when they fail to explain in direct Fashion.
All these and their Varieties and Combinations, with some other more abstruse or less important Methods, may be used to unlock the Secret of a Word.
Of course with Powers so wide it is easy for the Partisan to find his favourite Meaning in any Word. Even the formal Proof 0 = 1 = 2 = 3 = 4 = 5 = ....... = n is possible.
But the Adept who worked out this Theorem, with the very Intent to discredit the Qabalistic Mode of Research, was suddenly dumfounded by the Fact that he had actually stumbled upon the Qabalistic Proof of Pantheism or Monism.
What really happens is that the Adept sits down and performs many useless Tricks with the Figures, without Result.
Suddenly the Lux dawns, and the Problem is solved.
The Rationalist explains this by Inspiration, the superstitious Man by Mathematics.
I give an Example of the Way in which one works. Let us take IAO, one of the "Barbarous Names of Evocation," of which those who have wished to conceal their own Glory by adopting the Authority of Zarathustra have said that in the holy Ceremonies it has ineffable Power.
But what Kind of Power? By the Qabalah we can found out the Force of the Name IAO.
We can spell it in Hebrew ואי or עאי . The Qabalah will even tell us which is the true Way. Let us however suppose that it is spelt ואי . This adds up to 17.
But first of all it strikes us that I, A, and O are the three Letters associated with the three Letters ה in the great Name of Six Letters, הוהיהא , which combines הוהא and הוהי {WEH NOTE: sic. Should be: היהא and הוהי }, Macroprosopus and Microprosopus. Now these feminine Letters ה conceal the "Three Mothers" of the Alphabet, א , מ , and ש . Replace these, and we get אומישא , which adds up to 358, the Number alike of שחנ , the Serpent of Genesis, and the Messiah. We thus look for redeeming Power in IAO, and for the Masculine Aspect of that Poser.
Now we will see how that Power works. We have a curious Dictionary, which was made by a very learned Man, in which the Numbers 1 to 10,000 fill the left hand Column, in Order, and opposite them are written all the sacred or important Words which add up to each Number.
We take this Book, and look at 17. We find that 17 is the number of Squares in the Swastika, which is the Whirling Disc or Thunderbolt. Also there is נוח , a Circle or Orbit;דוז , to seethe or boil; and some other Words, {85} which we will neglect in this Example, thought we should not dart to do so if we were really trying to find out a Thing we none of us knew. To help our Deduction about Redemption, too, we find הדה {WEH NOTE: sic, should be: הדח }, to brighten or make glad.
We also work in another Way. I is the Straight Line or Central Pillar of the Temple of Life; also it stands for Unity, and for the Generative Force. A Circle from which everything came, also Nothingness, and the Female, who absorbs the Male. The Progress of the Name shows then the Way from Life to Nirvana by means of the Will: and is a Hieroglyph of the Great Work.
Look at all our Meanings! Every one shows that the Name, if it has any Power at all, and that we must try, has the Power to redeem us from the Love of Life which is the Cause of Life, by its masculine Whirlings, and to gladden us and to being us to the bosom of the Great Mother, Death.
Before what is known a the Equinox of the Gods, a little While ago, there was an initiated Formula which expressed these Ideas to the Wise. As these Formulas are done with, it is of no Consequence if I reveal them. Truth is not eternal, any more than God; and it would be but a poor God that could not and did not alter his Ways at his Pleasure.
This Formula was used to pen the Vault of the Mystic Mountain of Abiegnus, within which lay (so the Ceremony of Initiation supposed) the body of our Father Christian Rosen Creutz, to be discovered by the Brethren with the Postulant as said in the Book called Fama Fraternitatis.
There are three Officers, and they repeat the Analysis of the Word as follows: ---
Chief. Let us analyse the Key Word --- I.
2nd. N.
3rd. R.
All. I.
Chief. Yod. י .
2nd. Nun. נ .
3rd. Resh. ר .
All. Yod, י .
Chief. Virgo (Virgo) Isis, Mighty Mother.
2nd. Scorpio (Scorpio) Apophis, Destroyer.
3rd. Sol (Sun) Osiris, slain and risen.
All. Isis, Apophis, Osiris, IAO.
All spread Arms as if on a cross, and say: ---
The Sign of Osiris slain! {86}
Chief bows his Head to the Left, rises his Right Arm, and lowers his Left
keeping the Elbow at right Angles,thus forming the letter L (also the
Swastika).
The Sign of the Mourning of Isis.
2nd. With erect Head, rises his Arms to form a V (but really to form the
triple tongue of Flame, the Spirit), and says: ---
The Sign of Apophis and Typhon.
3rd. Bows his Head and crosses his Arms on his Breast (to form the
Pentagram).
The Sign of Osiris risen.
All give the Sign of the Cross, and say: ---
L.V.X.
Then the Sign of Osiris risen, and say: ---
Lux, the Light of the Cross.
This formula, on which one may meditate for Years without exhausting its wonderful Harmonies, gives an excellent Idea of the Way in which Qabalistic Analysis is conducted.
First, the Letters have been written in Hebrew Characters.
Then the Attributions of them to the Zodiac an to Planets are substituted, and the Names of Egyptian Gods belonging to these are invoked.
The Christian Idea of I.N.R.I. is confirmed by these, while their Initials form the sacred Word of the Gnostics. That is, IAO. From the Character of the Deities and their Functions are deduced their Signs, and these are found to signal (as it were) the Word Lux (רוא ), which itself is contained in the Cross.
A careful Study of these Ideas,and of the Table of Correspondences, which one of our English Brethren is making, will enable him to discover a very great Deal of Matter for Thought in these Poems which an untutored Person would pass by.
To return to the general Dogma of the Qabalists.
The Figure of Minutum Mundum will show how they suppose one Quality to proceed from the last, first in the pure God-World Atziluth, then in the Angel-World Briah, and so on down to the Demon-Worlds, which are however not thus organised. They are rather Material that was shed off in the Course of Evolution, like theSloughs of a Serpent, from which comes their Name of Shells, or Husks.
Apart from silly Questions as to whether the Order of the Emanations is {87} confirmed by Palaeontology, a Question it is quite impertinent to discuss, there is no Doubt that the Sephiroth are types of Evolution as opposed to Catastrophe and Creation.
The great Charge against this Philosophy is founded on its alleged Affinities with Scholastic Realism. But the Charge is not very true. No Doubt but they did suppose vast Storehouses of "Things of one Kind: from which, pure or mingled, all other Things did proceed.
Since ג , a Camel, refers to the moon, they did say that a Camel and the Moon were sympathetic, and came, that Part of them, from a common Principole: and that a Camel being yellow brown, it partook of the Earth Nature, to which that Colour is given.
Thence they said that by taking all the Natures involved, and by blending them in the just Proportions, on might have a Camel.
But this is no more than is said by the Upholders of the Atomic Theory.
They have their Storehouses of Carbon, Oxygen, and such (not in one Place, but no more is Geburah in one Place), and what is Organic Chemistry but the Production of useful Compounds whose Nature is deduced absolutely from theoretical Considerations long before it is ever produced in the Laboratory?
The difference, you will say, is that the Qabalists maintain a Mind of each Kind behind each Class of Things on one Kind; but so did Berkeley, and his Argument in that Respect is, as the great Huxley showed, irrefragable. For by the Universe I mean the Sensible; any other is not to be Known; and the Sensible is dependent upon Mind. Nay, though the Sensible is said to be an Argument of a Universe Insensible, the latter becomes sensible to Mind as soon as the Argument is accepted, and disappears with its Rejection.
Nor is the Qabalah dependent upon its Realism, and its Application to the Works magical --- but I am defending a Philosophy which I was asked to describe, and this is not lawful.
A great Deal may be learned from the Translation of the Zohar by S. Liddell Macgregor Mathers, and his Introduction thereto, though for those who have Latin and some acquaintance with Hebrew it is better to study the Kabbala Denudata of Knoor von Rosenroth, in Despite of the heavy Price; for the Translator has distorted the Text and its Comment to suit his belief in a supreme Personal God, and in that degraded Form of the Doctrine of Feminism which is so popular with the Emasculate.
The Sephiroth are grouped in various Ways. There is a Superior Triad or Trinity; a Hexad; and Malkuth: the Crown, the Father, and the Mother; the Son or King; and the Bride.
Also, a Division into seven Palaces, seven Planes, three Pillars or Columns, and the like. {88}
The Flashing Sword follows the Course of the Numbers; and the Serpent Nechushtan or of Wisdom crawls up the Paths which join them upon the Tree of Life, namely the Letters.
It is important to explain the Position of Daath or Knowledge upon the Tree. It is called the Child of Chokmah and Binah, but it hath no Place. But it is really the Apex of a Pyramid of which the three first Numbers for the Base.
Now the Tree, or Minutum Mundum, is a Figure in a Plane of a solid Universe. Daath, being above the Plane, is therefore a Figure of a Force in four Dimensions, and thus it is the Object of the Magnum Opus. The three Paths which connect it with the First Trinity are the three lost Letters or Fathers of the Hebrew Alphabet.
In Daath is said to be the Head of the great Serpent Nechesh or Leviathan, called Evil to conceal its Holiness. (שחנ = 358 = חישמ , the Messiah or Redeemer, and ךתיול = 496 = תוכלמ , the Bride.) It is identical with he Kundalini of the Hindu Philosophy, the Kwan-se-on of the Mongolian Peoples, and means the magical Force in Man, which is the sexual Force applied to the Brain, Heart, and other Organs, and redeemeth him.
The gradual Disclosure of these magical Secrets to the Poet may be traced in these Volumes, which it has been my Privilege to be asked to explain. It has been impossible to do more than place in the Hands of any intelligent Person the Keys which will permit him to unlock the many Beautiful Chambers of Holiness in these Palaces and Gardens of Beauty and Pleasure.
Of the results of the method we possess one flawless gem, already printed in the EQUINOX (Vol {I, No.) II. pp. 163-185), "A Note on Genesis" by V. H. Fra. I. A.
From this pleasant, orthodox, and-so-they-all-lived-happy-ever-after view let us turn for a moment to the critical aspect. Let us demolish in turn the qabalistic methods of exegesis; and then, if we can, discover a true basis upon which to erect an abiding Temple of Truth.
1. Gematria.
The number 777 affords a good example of the legitimate and illegitimate deductions to be drawn. It represents the sentence AChTh RVCh ALHIM ChIIM, "One is the Spirit {89} of the Living God," and also OLAHM H-QLPVTh, "The world of the Shells (excrements --- the demon-world)."
Now it is wrong to say that this idea of the unity of the divine spirit is identical with this idea of the muddle of chaos --- unless in that exalted grade in which "the One is the Many." But the compiler of Liber 777 was a great Qabalist when he thus entitled his book; for he meant to imply, "One is the Spirit of the Living God," "i.e." I have in this book unified all the diverse symbols of the world; and also, "the world of shells," "i.e." this book is full of mere dead symbols; do not mistake them for the living Truth. Further, he had an academic reason for his choice of a number; for the tabulation of the book is from Kether to Malkuth, the course of the Flaming Sword; and if this sword be drawn upon the Tree of Life, the numeration of the Paths over which it passes (taking ג , 3, as the non-existent path from Binah to Chesed, since it connects Macroprosopus and Microprosopus) is 777. [See Diagrams 2 and 12.]
To take another example, it is no mere coincidence that 463, the Staff of Moses, is ת , ס , ג , the paths of the Middle Pillar; no mere coincidence that 26, הוהי , is 1 + 6 + 9 + 10, the Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar. But ought we not to have some supreme name for 489, their sum, the Middle Pillar perfect? Yet the Sepher Sephiroth is silent. (We find only 489 = MShLM GMVL, the avenger. Ed.)
Again, 111 is Aleph, the Unity, but also APL, thick Darkness, and ASN, Sudden Death. This can only be interpreted as meaning the annihilation of the individual in the Unity, and the Darkness which is the Threshold of the Unity; in other words, one must be an expert in Samadhi {90} before this simple Gematria has any proper meaning. How, then, can it serve the student in his research? The uninitiated would expect Life and Light in the One; only by experience can he know that to man the Godhead must be expressed by those things which most he fears.
We hare purposely avoid dwelling on the mere silliness of many Gematria correspondences, "e.g.", the equality of the Qliphoth of one sign with the Intelligence of another. Such misses are more frequent than such hits as AChD, Unity, 13 = AHBH, Love, 13.
The argument is an argument in a circle. "Only an adept can understand the Qabalah," just as (in Buddhism) Sakyamuni said, "Only an Arahat can understand the Dhamma."
In this light, indeed, the Qabalah seems little more than a convenient language for recording experience.
We may mention in passing that Frater P. never acquiesced in the obvious "cook" of arguing: "x" = "y" + 1 .'. "x" = "y", by assuming that "x" should add one to itself "for the concealed unity." Why shouldn't "y" have a little concealed unity of its own?
That this method should ever have been accepted by any Qabalist argues a bankruptcy of ingenuity beyond belief. In all conscience, it is easy enough to fake identities by less obviously card-sharping methods!
2. Notariqon.
The absurdity of this method needs little indication. The most unsophisticated can draw pity and amusement from Mr Mathers' Jew, converted by the Notariqons of "Berashith." True, F.I.A.T. is Flatus, Ignis, Aqua, Terra; showing the Creator as Tetragrammaton, the synthesis of the four elements; {91} showing the Eternal Fiat as the equilibrated powers of Nature. But what forbids Fecit Ignavus Animan Terrae, or any other convenient blasphemy, such as Buddha would applaud?
Why not take our converted Jew and restore him to the Ghetto with Ben, Ruach, Ab, Sheol! --- IHVH, Thora? why not take the sacred 'Iota chi theta upsilon sigma of the Christian who thought it meant 'Iota eta sigma omicron upsilon sigma Chi rho iota sigma tau omicron sigma Theta epsilon omicron upsilon 'Upsilon iota omicron sigma Sigma omega tau eta rho and make him a pagan with "'Iota sigma kappa delta omicron sigma Chi alpha rho iota sigma Theta eta sigma alpha upsilon rho omicron sigma 'Upsilon iota omega nu Sigma omicron phi iota alpha sigma "?
Why not argue that Christ in cursing the fig, F.I.G.., wished to attack Kant's dogmas of Freewill, Immortality, God?
3. Temurah.
Here again the multiplicity of our methods makes our method too pliable to be reliable. Should we argue that BBL = ShShK (620) by the method of Athbash, and that therefore BBL symbolises Kether (620)? Why, BBL is confusion, the very opposite of Kether.
Why Athbash? Why not Abshath? or Agrath? or any other of the possible combinations?
About the only useful Temurah is Aiq Bkr, given above. In this we do find a suggestive reasoning. For example, we find it in the attribution of ALHIM to the pentagram which gives pi . [See EQUINOX, No. II. p. 184] Here we write Elohim, the creative deities, round a pentagram, and read it reverse beginning with ל , Libra, the letter of equilibrium, and obtain an approximation to pi 3.1415 (good enough for the benighted Hebrews), as if thereby the finite square of creation was assimilated to the infinite circle of he Creator.
Yes: but why should not Berashith 2, 2, 1, 3, 1, 4, give, say, "e"? The only answer is, that if you screw it round long enough, it perhaps will! {92}
The Rational Table of Tzirup should, we agree with Fra. P., be left to the Rationalist Press Association, and we may present the Irregular Table of Commutations to Irregular Masons.
4. To the less important methods we may apply the same criticism.
We may glance in passing at the Yetziratic, Tarot, and significatory methods of investigating any word. But though Frater P. was expert enough in these methods they are hardly pertinent to the pure numerical Qabalah, and we therefore deal gently with them. The attributions are given in "777". Thus א in the Yetziratic world is "Air," by Tarot "the Fool," and by signification "an ox." Thus we have the famous I.N.R.I. = י , נ , ר , י = Virgo, Scorpio, Sun, Virgo; the Virgin, the Evil Serpent, the Sun, suggesting the story of Genesis ii. and of the Gospel. The initials of the Egyptian names Isis, Apophis, Osiris, which correspond, give in their turn the Ineffable Name IAO; thus we say that the Ineffable is concealed in and revealed by the Birth, Death, and Resurrection of Christ; and further the Sings of Mourning of the Mother, Triumph of the Destroyer, and Rising of the Son, give by shape the letters L.U.X., Lux, which letters are (again) concealed in and revealed by the Cross
..L V \/
: .'. /\ the Light of the Cross. Further examples will be found in "A
Note on Genesis." One of the most famous is the Mene, Tekel, Upharsin of Daniel, the imaginary prophet who lived under Belshazzar the imaginary king.
MNA. The Hanged Man, Death, the Fool = "Sacrificed
to Death by thy Folly." {93}
ThKL. The Universe, the Wheel of Fortune, Justice =
"Thy kingdom's fortune is in the Balance."
PRSh. The Blasted Tower, the Sun, the Last Judgment
= "Ruined is thy glory, and finished."
But we cannot help thinking that this exegesis must have been very hard
work.
We could more easily read
MNA. To sacrifice to death is folly.
ThKL. Thy kingdom shall be fortunate, for it is just.
PRSh. The Tower of thy glory shall endure until the Last Day.
There! that didn't take two minutes; and Belshazzar would have exalted us
above Daniel.
Similarly AL, God, may be may be interpreted, "His folly is justice," as it
is written: "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."
Or, by Yetzirah: "The air is His balance," as it is written: "God made the
firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament."
Or, by meaning: "The ox and the goad," "i.e.", "He is both matter and
motion."
We here append a sketch MS. by Frater P., giving his explanation by Tarot,
etc., of the letters of the alphabet spelt in full.
MYSTIC READINGS OF THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET
("See" TAROT CARDS, "AND MEDITATE")
ALP. Folly's Doom is Ruin.
BITh. The Juggler with the Secret of the Universe.
GML. The Holy Guardian Angel is attained by Self-Sacrifice and Equilibrium.
{94}
DLTh. The Gate of the Equilibrium of the Universe. (Note D, the highest
reciprocal path.)
HH. The Mother is the Daughter; and the Daughter is the mother.
VV. The Son is (but) the Son. (These two letters show the true doctrine
of Initiation as given in Liber 418; opposed to Protestant
Exotericism.)
ZIN. The answer of the Oracles is always Death.
ChITh. The Chariot of the Secret of the Universe.
TITH. She who rules the Secret Force of the Universe.
IVD. The Secret of the Gate of Initiation.
KP. In the Whirlings is War.
LMD. By Equilibrium and Self-Sacrifice, the Gate!
MIM. The Secret is hidden between the Waters that are above and the
Waters that are beneath. (Symbol, the Ark containing the secret
of Life borne upon the Bosom of the Deluge beneath the
Clouds.)
NVN. Initiation is guarded on both sides by death.
SMK. Self-control and Self-sacrifice govern the Wheel.
OIN. The Secret of Generation is Death.
PH. The Fortress of the Most High. (Note P, the lowest reciprocal
path).
TzDI. In the Star is the Gate of the Sanctuary.
QVP. Illusionary is the Initiation of Disorder.
RISh. In the Sun (Osiris) is the Secret of the Spirit.
ShIN. Resurrection is hidden in Death.
ThV. The Universe is the Hexagram.
(Other meanings suit other planes and other grades.)
Truly there is no en to this wondrous science; and when the sceptic sneers,
"With all these methods one ought to be able to make everything our of
nothing," the Qabalist smiles back the sublime retort, "With these methods One
did make everything out of nothing."
Besides these, there is still one more method --- a method of some little
importance to students of the Siphra Dzenioutha, namely, the analogies drawn
from the shapes of letters; {95} these are often interesting enough. א ,
for example, is a ו between י and י , making 26. Thus
הוהי 26 = א , 1. Therefore Jehovah is One. But it would be as
pertinent to continue 26 x 2 x 13, and 13 = Achad = 1, and therefore Jehovah
is Two.
This then is an absurdity. Yes; but it is also an arcanum!
How wonderful is the Qabalah! How great is its security from the profane;
how splendid its secrets to the initiate!
Verily and Amen! yet here we are at the old dilemma, that one must know
Truth before one can rely upon the Qabalah to show Truth.
Like the immortal burglar:
"Bill wouldn't hurt a baby --- he's a pal as you can trust,
He's all right when yer know 'im; but yer've got to know 'im fust."
So those who have committed themselves to academic study of its mysteries
have found but a dry stick: those who have understood (favoured of God!) have
found therein Aaron's rod that budded, the Staff of Life itself, yea, the
venerable Lingam of Mahasiva!
It is for us to trace the researches of Frater P. in the Qabalah, to show
how from this storehouse of child's puzzles, of contradictions and
incongruities, of paradoxes and trivialities, he discovered the very canon of
Truth, the authentic key of the Temple, the Word of that mighty Combination
which unlocks the Treasure-Chamber of the King.
And this following is the Manuscript which he has let for our instruction.
{96}
AN ESSAY UPON NUMBER
(May the Holy One mitigate His severities toward His servant in respect of
the haste wherewith this essay hath been composed!
When I travelled with the venerable Iehi Aour in search of Truth, we
encountered a certain wise and holy man, Shri Parananda. Children! said he,
for two years must ye study with me before ye fully comprehend our Law.
"Venerable Sir!" answered Frater I.A., "the first verse of "Our" Law contains
but seven words. For seven years did I study that verse by day and by night;
and at the end of that time did I presume --- may the Dweller of Eternity
pardon me! -=-- to write a monograph upon the first word of those seven
words."
"Venerable Sir!" quoth I: "that First Word of our law contains but six
letters. For six years did I study that word by day and by night; and at the
end of that time did I not dare to utter the first letter of those six
letters."
Thus humbling myself did I abash both the holy Yogi and my venerable Frater
I. A. But alas! Tegragrammaton! Alas! Adonai! the hour of my silence is
past. May the hour of my silence return! Amen.)
PART I
THE UNIVERSE AS IT IS
SECTION I
0. The Negative --- the Infinite --- the Circle, or the Point.
1. The Unity --- the Positive --- the Finite --- the Line, derived from 0
by extension. The divine Being.
2. The Dyad --- the Superficies, derived from 1 by reflection 1/1, or by
revolution of the line around its end. The Demiurge. The divine Will.
3. The Triad, the solid, derived from 1 and 2 by addition. Matter. The
divine Intelligence.
4. The Quaternary, the solid existing in Time, matter as we know it.
Derived from 2 by multiplication. The divine Repose.
5. The Quinary, Force or Motion. The interplay of the divine Will with
matter. Derived from 2 and 3 by addition.
6. The Senary, Mind. Derived from 2 and 3 by multiplication.
7. The Septenary, Desire. Derived from 3 and 4 by addition. (There is
{97} however a secondary attribution of 7, making it the holiest and most
perfect of the numbers.)
8. The Ogdoad, Intellect (also Change in Stability). Derived from 2 and 3
by multiplication, 8 = 23.
9. The Ennead, Stability in Change. Derived from 2 and 3 by
multiplication, 9 = 32.
(Note all numbers divisible by nine are still so divisible, however the
order of the figures is shifted.)
10. The Decad, the divine End. Represents the 1 returning to the 0.
Derived from 1 + 2 + 3 + 4.
11. The Hendecad, the accursed shells, that only exist without the divine
Tree. 1 + 1 = 2, in its evil sense of not being 1.
SECTION II
0. The Cosmic Egg.
1. The Self of Deity, beyond Fatherhood and Motherhood.
2. The Father.
3. The Mother.
4. The Father made flesh --- authoritative and paternal.
5. The Mother made flesh --- fierce and active.
6. The Son --- partaking of all these natures.
7. The Mother degraded to mere animal emotion.
8. The Father degraded to mere animal reason.
9. The Son degraded to mere animal life.
10. The Daughter, fallen and touching with her hands the shells.
It will be noticed that this order represents creation as progressive
degeneration --- which we are compelled to think of as evil. In the human
organism the same arrangement will be noticed.
SECTION III
0. The Pleroma of which our individuality is the monad: the "All-Self."
1. The Self --- the divine Ego of which man is rarely conscious.
2. The Ego; that which thinks "I" --- a falsehood, because to think "I" is
to deny "not-I" and thus to create the Dyad.
3. The Soul; since 3 reconciles 2 and 1, here are placed the aspirations to
divinity. It is also the receptive as 2 is the assertive self.
4-9. The intellectual Self, with its branches:
4. Memory. {98}
5. Will.
6. Imagination.
7. Desire.
8. Reason.
9. Animal being.
6. The Conscious Self of the Normal Man: thinking itself free, and really
the toy of its surroundings.
9. The Unconscious Self of the Normal Man. Reflex actions, circulation,
breathing , digestion, etc., all pertain here.
10. The illusory physical envelope; the scaffolding of the building.
SECTION IV
Having compared these attributions with those to be found in 777, studied
them, assimilated them so thoroughly that it is natural and needs no effort to
think "Binah, Mother, Great Sea, Throne, Saturn, Black Myrrh, Sorrow,
Intelligence, etc. etc. etc.," in a flash whenever the number 3 is mentioned
or seen, we may profitably proceed to go through the most important of he
higher numbers. For this purpose I have removed myself from books of
reference; only those things which have become fixed in my mind (from their
importance) deserve place in the simplicity of this essay.
12. HVA, "He," a title of Kether, identifying Kether with the Zodiac, and
"home of the 12 stars" and their correspondences. See 777.
13. AChD, Unity, and AHBH Love. A scale of unity; thus 13 x 1 = 1; 26 = 13
x 2 = 2; 91 = 13 x 7 = 7; so that we may find in 26 and 91 elaboration of the
Dyad and the Septenary respectively.
14. An "elaboration" of 5 (1 + 4 = 5), Force; a "concentration" or 86 ( 8
+ 6 = 14) Elohim, the 5 elements.
15. IH, Jah, one of the ineffable names; the Father and Mother united.
Mystic number of Geburah: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5.
17. The number of squares in the Swastika, which by shape is Aleph, א .
Hence 17 recalls 1. Also IAV, IAO, the triune Father. See 32 and 358.
18. ChI, Life. An "elaboration" of 9.
20. IVD, Yod, the letter of the Father.
21. AHIH, existence, a title of Keter, Note 3 x 7 = 21. Also IHV, the
first 3 (active) letters of IHVH. Mystic number of Tiphereth.
22. The number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet; and of the paths on the
Tree. Hence suggests completion of imperfection. Finality, the fatal
finality. Note 2 x 11 = 22, the accursed Dyad at play with the Shells.
24. Number of the Elders; and 72 ö 3. 72 is the "divided Name." {99}
26. IHVH. Jehovah, as the Dyad expanded, the jealous and terrible God, the
lesser Countenance. The God of Nature, fecund, cruel, beautiful, relentless.
28. Mystic number of Netzach, KCh, "Power."
31. LA, "not"; and AL, "God." In this Part I. ("Nature as it is") the
number is rather forbidding. For AL is the God-name of Chesed, mercy; and so
the number seems to deny that Name.
32. Number of Sephiroth and Paths, 10 + 22. Hence is completion of
perfection. Finality: things as they are in their totality. AHIHVH, the
combined AHIH and IHVH, Macroprosopus, and Microprosopus, is here. If we
suppose the 3 female letters H to conceal the 3 mothers A, M, Sh, we obtain
the number 358, Messiach, q.v. Note 32 = 25, the divine Will extended through
motion. 64 = 26, will be the perfect number of matter, for it is 8, the first
cube, squared. So we find it a Mercurial number, as if the solidity of matter
was in truth eternal change.
35. AGLA, a name of God = Ateh Gibor Le Olahm Adonai. "To Thee by the
Power unto the Ages, O my Lord!" 35 = 5 x 7. 7 = Divinity, 5 = Power.
36. A Solar Number. ALH. Otherwise unimportant, but is the mystic number
of Mercury.
37. IChIDH. the highest principle of the soul, attributed to Kether. Note
37 = 111 ö 3.
38. Note 38 x 11 = 418 q.v. in Part II.
39. IHVH AChD, Jehovah is one. 39 = 13 x 3. This is then the affirmation
of the aspiring soul.
40. A "dead" number of fixed law, 4 x 10, Tetragrammaton, the lesser
countenance immutable in the heaviness of Malkuth.
41. AM, the Mother, unfertilised and unenlightened.
42. AMA, the Mother, still dark. Here are the 42 judges of the dead in
Amennti, and here is the 42-fold name of the Creative God. See Liber 418.
44. DM, blood. See Part II. Here 4 x 11 = the corruption of the created
world.
45. MH, a secret title of Yetzirah, the Formative World. ADM, Adam, man,
the species (not "the first man"). A is Air, the divine breath which stirs
DM, blood, into being.
49. A number useful in the calculations of Dr. Dee, and a mystic number of
Venus.
50. The number of the Gates of Binah, whose name id Death (50 = נ = by
Tarot, "Death").
51. AN, pain. NA, failure. ADVM, Edom, the country of the demon kings.
There is much in the Qabalah about these kings and their dukes; it never meant
much to me, somehow. But 51 is 1 short of 52. {100}
52. AIMA, the fertilised Mother, the Phallus (י ) thrust into AMA.
Also BN, the Son. Note 52 = 13 x 4, 4 being Mercy and the influence of the
Father.
60. Samekh, which in full spells 60 x 2 = 120 (q.v.), just as Yod, 10 in
full spells 10 x 2 = 20. In general, the tens are "solidifications" of the
ideas of the units which they multiply. Thus 50 is Death, the Force of Change
in its final and most earthy aspect. Samekh is "Temperance" in the Tarot: the
6 has little evil possible to it; the worst name one can call 60 is
"restriction."
61. AIN, the Negative. ANI, Ego. A number rather like 31, q.v.
64. DIN and DNI, intelligences (the twins) of Mercury. See also 32.
65. ADNI. In Roman characters LXV = LVX, the redeeming light. See the 5ø
= 6ø ritual and "Konx om Pax." Note 65 = 13 x 5, the most spiritual form
of force, just as 10 x 5 was its most material form. Note HS, "Keep silence!"
and HIKL, the palace; as if it were said "Silence is the House of Adonai."
67. BINH the Great Mother. Note 6 + 7 = 13, uniting the ideas of Binah and
Kether. A number of the aspiration.
70. The Sanhedrin and the precepts of the Law. The Divine 7 in its most
material aspect.
72. ChSD, Mercy. The number of the Shemhamphorasch, as if affirming God as
merciful. For details of Shemhamphorasch, see 777 and other classical books
of reference. Note especially I + IH + IHV _ IHVH = 72.
73. ChKMH, Wisdom. Also GML, Gimel, the path unitingKether and Tiphereth.
But Gimel, "the Priestess of the Silver Star," is the Female Hierophant, the
Moon; and Chokmah is the Logos, or male initiator. See Liber 418 for much
information on these points, though rather from the standpoint of Part II.
78. MZLA, the influence from Kether. The number of the cards of the
Tarot, and of the 13 paths of the Beard of Macroprosopus. Note 78 = 13 x 6.
Also AIVAS, the messenger. See Part II.
80. The number of פ , the "lightning-struck Tower" of the Tarot. 8 =
Intellect, Mercury; its most material form is Ruin, as Intellect in the end is
divided against itself.
81. A mystic number of the Moon.
84. A number chiefly important in Buddhism. 84 = 7 x 12.
85. PH, the letter P‚. 85 = 5 x 17: even the highest unity, if it move or
energise, means War.
86. ALHIM. See "A Note on Genesis," EQUINOX, No. II.
90. Number of Tzaddi, a fishhook = Tanha, the clinging of man to life (9),
the trap in which man is caught as a fish is caught by a hook. The most
material aspect of animal life; its final doom decreed by its own lust. also
MIM, Water. {101}
91. 91 = 7 x 13, the most spiritual form of the Septenary. AMN, Amen, the
holiest title of God; the Amoun of the Egyptians. It equals IHVH ADNI
(IAHDVNHI, interlaced), the eight-lettered name, thus linking the 7 to the 8.
Note that AMN (reckoning N as final, 700) = 741 = AMThSh, the letters of the
elements; and is thus a form of Tetragrammaton, a form unveiled.
100. The number of ק , the perfect illusion, 10 x 10. also ףכ ,
Kaph, the Wheel of fortune. The identity is that of matter, fatality, change,
illusion. It seems the Buddhist view of the Samsara-Cakkram.
106. NVN, Nun, a fish. The number of death. Death in the Tarot bears a
cross-handled scythe; hence the Fish as the symbol of the Redeemer.
ΙΧΘΥΣ = Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.
108. Chiefly interesting because 108 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 3 = the square of 2
playing with the cube of 3. Hence the Buddhists hailed it with acclamation,
and make their rosaries of this number of beads.
111. AChD HVA ALHIM, "He is One God."
ALP, Aleph, and ox, a thousand. The redeeming Bull. By shape the
Swastika, and so the Lightning. "As the lightning lighteneth out of the East
even unto the West, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man." An allusion to
the descent of Shiva upon Shakti in Samahdi. The Roman A shows the same
through the shape of the Pentagram, which it imitates.
ASN, ruin, destruction, sudden death. "Scil.", of the personality in
Samadhi.
APL, thick darkness. "Cf." St John of the Cross, who describes these
phenomena in great detail.
AMO, the Hindu Aum or Om.
MHVLL, mad --- the destruction of Reason by Illumination.
OVLH, a holocaust. "Cf." ASN.
PLA, the Hidden Wonder, a title of Kether.
114. DMO, a tear. The age of Christian Rosencreutz.
120. SMK, Samech, a prop. Also MVSDI, basis, foundation. 120 = 1 x 2 x 3
x 4 x 5, and is thus a synthesis of the power of the pentagram. [Also 1 + 2 +
... + 15 = 120.] Hence its importance in the 5 = 6 ritual , q.v. "supra"
EQUINOX, No. III. I however disagree in part; it seems to me to symbolise a
lesser redemption than that associated with Tiphereth. Compare at least the
numbers 0.12 and 210 in Liber Legis and Liber 418, and extol their
superiority. For while the first is the sublime formula of the infinite
surging into finity, and the latter the supreme rolling-up of fi9nity into
infinity, the 120 can symbolise at the best a sort of intermediate condition
of stability. For how can one proceed from the 2 to the 0? 120 is also ON, a
very important name of God.
124. ODN, Eden.
131. SMAL, Satan so-called, but really only Samael, the accuser of the
{120} brethren,. unpopular with the Rabbis because their consciences were not
clear. Samael fulfils a most useful function; he is scepticism, which accuses
intellectually; conscience, which accuses morally; and even that spiritual
accuser upon the Threshold, without whom the Sanctuary might be profaned. We
must defeat him, it is true; but how should we abuse and blame him, without
abuse and blame of Him that set him there?
136. A mystic number of Jupiter; the sum of the first 16 natural numbers.
144. A square and therefore a materialisation of the number 12. Hence the
numbers in the Apocapyse. 144,000 only means 12 (the perfect number in the
Zodiac or houses of heaven and tribes of Israel) x 12, "i.e." settled x 1-000,
"i.e." on the grand scale.
148. MAZNIM, Scales of Justice.
156. BABALON. See Liber 418. This number is chiefly important for Part
II. It is of no account in the orthodox dogmatic Qabalah. Yet it is 12 x 13,
the most spiritual form, 13, of the most perfect number, 12, HVA. [It is
TzIVN, Zion, the City of the Pyramids. --- ED.]
175. A mystic number of Venus.
203. ABR, initials of AB, BN, RVCh, the Trinity.
206. DBR, Speech, "the Word of Power."
207. AVR, Light. Contrast with AVB, 9, the astral light, and AVD, 11, the
Magical Light. Aub is an illusory thing of witchcraft ("cf." Obi, Obeah); Aud
is almost = the Kundalini force ("Odic" force). This illustrates well the
difference between the sluggish, viscous 9, and the keen, ecstatic 11.
210. Pertains to Part II. See Liber 418.
214. RVCh, the air, the mind.
220. Pertains to Part II. The number of verses in Liber Legis.
231. The sum of the first 22 numbers, 0 to 21; the sum of the Key-Numbers
of the Tarot cards; hence an extension of the idea of 22, q.v.
270. I.N.R.I. See 5 = 6 ritual.
280. The sum of the "five letters of severity," those which have a final
form --- Kaph, Men, Nun, Pe, Tzaddi. Also the number of the squares on the
sides of the Vault 7 x 40; see 5 = 6 ritual. Also RP = terror.
300. The letter ש , meaning "tooth," and suggesting by its shape a
triple flame. Refers Yetziratically to fire, and is symbolic of the Holy
Spirit, RVCh ALHIM = 300. Hence the letter of the Spirit. Descending into
the midst of IHVH, the four inferior elements, we get IHShVH Jeheshua, the
Saviour, symbolised by the Pentagram.
301. ASH, Fire.
314. ShDI, the Almighty, a name of God attributed to Yesod. {103}
325. A mystic number of Mars. BRTzBAL, the spirit of Mars, and GRAPIAL,
the intelligence of Mars.
326. IHShVH, Jesus --- see 300.
333. ChVRVNZVN, see Liber 418, 10th Aethry. It is surprising that this
large scale 3 should be so terrible a symbol of dispersion. There is
doubtless a venerable arcanum here connoted, possibly the evil of Matter
summ¢. 333 = 37 x 9 the accurs‚d.
340. ShM --- the Name.
341. The sum of the "3 mothers," Aleph, Mem, and Shin.
345. MShH, Moses. Note that by transposition we have 543, AHIH AShR
AHIEH, "Existence is Existence," "I am that I am," a sublime title of Kether.
Moses is therefore regarded as the representative of this particular
manifestation of deity, who declared himself under this special name.
358. See 32. MShICh, Messiah, and NChSh, the serpent of Genesis. The
dogma is that the head of the serpent (N) is "bruised," being replaced by M,
the letter of Sacrifice, and god, the letter alike of virginity (י = Virgo)
and of original deity (י = the foundation or type of all the letters).
Thus the word may be read:
"The Sacrifice of the Virgin-born Divine One triumphant (ח , the
Chariot) through the Spirit," while NChSh reads "Death entering the (realm of
the) Spirit."
But the conception of the Serpent as the Redeemer is truer. See my
explanation of 5 = 6 ritual (EQUINOX, No. III.).
361. ADNI HARTz, the Lord of the Earth. Note 361 denotes the 3 Supernals,
the 6 members of Ruach, and Malkuth. This name of God therefore embraces all
the 10 Sephiroth.
365. An important number, though not in the pure Qabalah. See "The
Cannon." ΜΕΙΘΡΑΣ and ΑΒΡΑΧΑΣ in Greek.
370. Really more important for Part II. OSh, Creation. The Sabbatic Goat
in his highest aspect. This shows the whole of Creation as matter and spirit.
The material 3, the spiritual 7, and all cancelling to Zero. also ShLM =
peace.
400. The letter ת , "The Universe." It is the square of 20, "The Wheel
of fortune," and shows the Universe therefore as the Sphere of Fortune --- the
Samsara-Cakkram, where Karma, which fools call chance, rules.
400 is the total number of he Sephiroth, each of the 10 containing 210 in
itself and being repeated in the 4 worlds of Atziluth, Briah, yetzirah, and
Assiah. These four worlds are themselves attributed to IHVH, which is
therefore not the name of a tribal fetish, but the formula of a system.
401. ATh, "The" emphatic, meaning "essence of," for A and Th are first and
last letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, as Alpha and Omega are of the Greek, and A
and Z of the Latin. Hence the Word Azoth, not to be confused with Azote {104}
(lifeless, asotos), the old name for nitrogen. Azoth means the sum and
essence of all, conceived as One.
406. ThV, the letter Tau (see 400), also AThH, "Thou." Note that AHA (7),
the divine name of Venus (7), gives the initials of Ani, Hua, Ateh --- I, He,
Thou; three different aspects of a deity worshipped in three persons and in
three ways: viz. (1) with averted face; (2) with prostration; (3) with
identification.
418. Pertains principally to Part., q.v.
419. TITh, the letter Teth.
434. DLTh, the letter Daleth.
440. ThLI, the great dragon.
441. AMTh, Truth. Note 441 = 21 x 21. 21 is AHIH, the God of Kether,
whose Will is Truth.
450. ThN, the great dragon.
463. NTH HShQD, Moses' Wand, a rod of Almond. 3 + 60 + 400, the paths of
the middle pillar.
474. DVTh, {WEH NOTE: sic, should be DOTh in the substitutions used in
text} Knowledge, the Sephira that is not a Sephira. In one aspect the child
of Chokmah and
Binah; in another the Eighth Head of the Stooping Dragon, raised up when the
Tree of Life was shattered, and Macroposopus set cherubim against
Microposopus. See 4 = 7 ritual "supra." Also, and very specially, Liber 418.
It is the demon that purely intellectual or rational religions take as their
God. The special danger of Hinayana Buddhism.
480. LILITh, the demon-queen of Malkuth.
543. AHIH AShR AHIH, "I am that I am."
666. Last of the mystic numbers of the sun. SVRTh, the spirit of Sol.
Also OMMV SThH, Ommo Satan, the Satanic Trinity of Typhon, Apophis, and Besz;
also ShM IHShVH, the name of Jesus. The names of Nero, Napoleon, W. E.
Gladstone, and any person that you may happen to dislike, add up the this
number. In reality it is the final extension of the number 6, both because 6
x 111 (ALPh = 111 = 1) = 6 and because the Sun, whose greatest number it is,
is 6.
(I here interpolate a note on the "mystic numbers" of the planets. The
first is that of the planet itself, "e.g." Saturn, 3. The second is that of the
number of squares in the square of the planet, "e.g." Saturn 9. The third is
that of the figures in each line of the "magic square" of the planet, "e.g."
Saturn 15. A "magic square" is one in which each file, rank, and diagonal add
to the same number, "e.g." Saturn is 816, 357, 492, each square being filled in
with the numbers from 1 upwards.
The last of the magic numbers is the sum of the whole of the figures in the
square, "e.g." Saturn 45. The complete list is thus:
Saturn 3, 9, 15, 45.
Jupiter 4, 16, 34, 136. {105}
Mars 5, 25, 65, 325.
sol 6, 36, 111, 666.
Venus 7, 49, 175, 1225.
Mercury 8, 64, 260, 2080.
Luna 9, 81, 369, 3321.
Generally speaking, the first number gives a divine name, the second an
archangelic or angelic name, the third a name pertaining to the Formative
world, the fourth a name of a "spirit" or "blind force." For example, Mercury
has AZ and DD (love) for 8, DIN and DNI for 64, TIRIAL for 260, and
ThPThRThRTh for 2090. But in the earlier numbers this is not so well carried
out. 136 is both IVPhIL, the Intelligence of Jupiter, and HSMAL, the Spirit.
The "mystic numbers" of the Sephiroth are simply the sums of the numbers
from 1 to their own numbers.
Thus (1) Kether = 1.
(2) Chokmah = 1 + 2 = 3.
(3) Binah = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
(4) Chesed = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10.
(5) Geburah = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15.
(6) Tiphereth = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21.
(7) Netzach = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28.
(8) Hod = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36.
(9) Yesod = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 45.
(10) Malkuth = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55.
The most important attributions of 666, however, pertain to the second
part, q.v.
671. ThORA the Law, ThROA the Gate, AThOR the Lady of the Path of Daleth,
RPThA the Wheel. Also ALPH, DLTh, NUN, IVD, Adeonai (see 65) spelt in full.
This important number marks the identity of the Augoeides with the Way
itself ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life") and shows the Taro as a key;
and that the Law itself is nothing else than this. For this reason the outer
College of the A ∴ A ∴ is crowned by this "knowledge and conversation of
the Holy Guardian Angel."
This number too is that of the Ritual of Neophyte. See Liber XIII.
741. AMThSh, the four letters of the elements. AMN, counting the N final
as 700, the supreme Name of the Concealed One. The dogma is that the Highest
is but the Four Elements; that there is nothing beyond these, beyond
Tetragrammaton. This dogma is most admirably portrayed by Lord Dunsany in a
tale called "The Wanderings of Shaun." {106}
777. "Vide supra."
800. AShTh, the Rainbow. The Promise of Redemption (8) --- 8 as Mercury,
Intellect, the Ruach, Microprosopus, the Redeeming Son --- in its most
material form.
811. Iota Alpha Omega (Greek numeration).
888. Jesus (Greek numeration).
913. BRAShITh, the Beginning. See "A Note on Genesis." This list6 will
enable the student to follow most of the arguments of the dogmatic Qabalah.
It is useful for him to go through the arguments by which one can prove that
any given number is the supreme. It is the case, the many being but veils of
the One; and the course of argument leads one to knowledge and worship of each
number in turn. For example.
Thesis. The Number Nine is the highest and worthiest of the numbers.
Scholion alpha . "The number nine is sacred, and attains the summits of
philosophy," Zoroaster.
Scholion beta . Nine is the best symbol of the Unchangeable One, since by
whatever number it is multiplied,the sum of the figures is always 9, "e.g." 9 x
487 = 4383. 4 + 3 + 8 + 3 = 18. 1 + 8 = 9.
Scholion gamma . 9 = ט , a serpent. And the Serpent is the holy Uraeus,
upon the crown of the Gods.
Scholion delta . 9 = IX = the Hermit of the Tarot, the Ancient One with Lamp
(Giver of Light) and Staff (the Middle Pillar of the Sephiroth). This, too,
is the same Ancient as in 0, Aleph.
"The Fool" and Aleph = 1.
Scholion epsilon . 9 = ISVD = 80 = P = Mars = 5 = ה =
= G =GML = 73 = ChKMH =
the Mother = Binah = 3 { = AB = The Father =
= ( 1 + 2 ) Mystic Number of Chokmah =
= Chokmah = 2 = B = the Magus = I = 1.
Scholion digamma . 9 = the foundation of all things = the Foundation of the
alphabet = Yod = 10 = Malkuth = Kether = 1.
Scholion zeta . 9 = IX = The Hermit = Yod = 10 = X = The Wheel of Fortune =
K = 20 = XX = The Last Judgment = Sh = 300 = 30 = L = Justice = VIII = 8 = Ch
= The Chariot = VII = 7 = Z = The Lovers = VI = 6 = V (Vau) = The Pope = V = 5
= H = The Emperor = IV = 4 = D = The Empress = III = 3 = G = The High
Priestess = II = 2 = B = The Magus = I = 1 = A = The Fool = 0. {107}
Scholion eta . 9 = Luna = G _ 3, etc., as before.
Ú Indigo ¿
Scholion theta . 9 = ´ Ã Saturn = 3, etc., as before.
À Lead Ù
There are many other lines of argument. This form of reasoning reminds one
of the riddle "Why is a story like a ghost?" Answer. "A story's a tale; a
tail's a brush; a brush is a broom; a brougham's a carriage; a carriage is a
gig; a gig's a trap; a trap's a snare; a snare's a gin; gin's a spirit; and a
spirit's a ghost."
But our identities are not thus false; meditation reveals their truth.
Further, as I shall explain fully later, 9 is not equal to 1 for the neophyte.
These equivalences are dogmatic, and only true by favour of Him in whom All is
Truth. In practice each equivalence is a magical operation to be carried out
by the aspirant.
PART II
THE UNIVERSE AS WE SEEK TO MAKE IT
6 The complete dictionary, begun by Fra. I.A., continued by Fra.
P. and revise by Fra. A. e. G. and others, will shortly be
published by authority of the A ∴ A ∴
In the first part we have seen all numbers as Veils of the One, emanations
of and therefore corruptions of the One. It is the Universe as we know it,
the static Universe.
Now the Aspirant to Magic is displeased with this state of things. He
finds himself but a creature, the farthest removed from the Creator, a number
so complex and involved that he can scarcely imagine, must less dare to hope
for, its reduction to the One.
The numbers useful to him, therefore, will be those which are subversive of
this state of sorrow. So the number 2 represents to him the Magus (the great
Magician Mayan who has created the illusion of Maya) as seen in the 2nd
Aethyr. And considering himself as the Ego who posits the Non-Ego (Fichte) he
hates this Magus. It is only the beginner who regards this Magus as the
Wonder-worker --- as the thing he wants to be. For the adept such little
consolation as he may win is rather to be found by regarding the Magus as B =
Mercury = 8 = Ch = 418 = ABRAHADABRA, the great Word, the "Word of Double
Power in the voice of the Master" which unites the 5 and the 6, the Rose and
the Cross, the Circle and the Square. And also B is the Path from Binah to
Kether; but that is only important for him who is already in Binah, the
"Master of the Temple."
He finds no satisfaction in contemplating the Tree of Life, and theorderly
arrangement of the numbers; rather does he enjoy the Qabalah as a means of
juggling with these numbers. He can leave nothing undisturbed; he is the
Anarchist of Philosophy. He refuses to acquiesce in merely formal proofs of
{108} the Excellence of things, "He doeth all things well," "Were the World
understood Ye would see it was good," "Whatever is, is right," and so on. To
him, on the contrary, whatever is, is wrong. It is part of the painful duty
of a Master of the Temple to understand everything. Only he can excuse the
apparent cruelty and fatuity of things. he is of the supernals; he sees
things from above; yet, having come from below, he can sympathise with all.
And he does not expect the Neophyte to share his views. Indeed, they are not
true to a Neophyte. The silliness of the New-Thought zanies in passionately
affirming "I am healthy! I am opulent! I am well-dressed! I am happy," when
in truth they are "poor and miserable and blind and naked," is not a
philosophical but a practical silliness. Nothing exists, says the Magister
Templi, but perfection. True; yet their consciousness is imperfect. Ergo, it
does not exist. For the M.T. this is so: he has "cancelled out" the
complexities of the mathematical expression called existence, and the answer
is zero. But for the beginner his pain and another's joy do not balance; his
pain hurts him, and his brother may go hang. The Magister Templi, too,
understands why Zero must plunge through all finite numbers to express itself;
why it must write itself as "n - n" instead of 0; what gain there is in such
writing. And this understanding will be found expressed in Liber 418 (Episode
of Chaos and His Daughter) and Liber Legis (i. 28-30).
But it must never be forgotten that everyone must begin at the beginning.
And in the beginning the Aspirant is a rebel, even though he feel himself to
be that most dangerous type of rebel, a King Dethroned.7
hence he will worship any number which seems to him to promise to overturn
the Tree of Life. He will even deny and blaspheme the One --- whom, after
all, it is his ambition to be --- because of its simplicity and aloofness. He
is tempted to "curse God and die."
Atheists are of three kinds.
1. The mere stupid man. (Often he is very clever, as Bolingbroke,
Bradlaugh and Foote were clever.) He has found out one of the minor arcana,
and hugs it and despises those who see more than himself, or who regard things
7 And of course, if his revolt succeeds, he will acquiesce in
order. The first condition of gaining a grade is to be
dissatisfied with the one that you have. And so when you reach
the end you find order as at first; but also that the law is that
you must rebel to conquer.
from a different standpoint. Hence he is usually a bigot, intolerant even of
tolerance.
2. The despairing wretch, who, having sought God everywhere, and failed to
hind Him, thinks everyone else is as blind as he is, and that if he has failed
--- he, the seeker after truth! --- it is because there is no goal. In his
cry there is {109} pain, as with the stupid kind of atheist there is smugness
and self-satisfaction. Both are diseased Egos.
3. The philosophical adept, who, knowing God, says "There is No God,"
meaning "God is Zero," as qabalistically He is. he holds atheism as a
philosophical speculation as good as any other, and perhaps less likely to
mislead mankind and do other practical damage than any other.
Him you may know by his equanimity, enthusiasm, and devotion. I again
refer to Liber 418 for an explanation of this mystery. The nine religions are
crowned by the ring of adepts whose password is "There is No God," so
inflected that even the Magister when received among them had not wisdom toe
interpret it.
1. Mr Daw, K.C.: M'lud, I respectfully submit that there is no such
creature as a peacock.
2. Oedipus at Colonus: Alas! there is no sun! I, even I, have looked and
found it not.
3. Dixit Sultus in corde suo: "Ain Elohim."
There is a fourth kind of atheist, not really an atheist at all. He is but
a traveller in the Land of No God, and knows that it is but a stage on his
journey --- and a stage, moreover, no far from the goal. Daath is not on the
Tree of Life; and in Daath there is no God as there is in the Sephiroth, for
Daath cannot understand unity at all. If he thinks of it, it is only to hate
it, as the one thing which he is most certainly not (see Liber 418. 10th
Aethyr. I may remark in passing that this book is the best known to me on
Advanced Qabalah, and of course it is only intelligible to Advanced
Students)).
This atheist, not in-being but in-passing, is a very apt subject for
initiation. He has done with the illusions of dogma. From a Knight of the
Royal Mystery he has risen to understand with the members of the Sovereign
Sanctuary that all is symbolic; all, if you will, the Jugglery of the
Magician. he is tired of theories and systems of theology and all such toys;
and being weary and anhungred and athirst seeks a seat at the Table of Adepts,
and a portion of the Bread of Spiritual Experience, and a draught of the wine
of Ecstasy.
It is then thoroughly understood that the Aspirant is seeking to solve the
great Problem. And he may conceive, as various Schools of Adepts in the ages
have conceived, this problem in three main forms.
1. I am not God. I wish to become God.
This is the Hindu conception.
I am Malkuth. I wish to become Kether.
This is the qabalistic equivalent. {110}
2. I am a fallen creature. I wish to be redeemed.
This is the Christian conception.
I am Malkuth, the fallen daughter. I wish to be set upon the throne
of Binah my supernal mother.
This is the qabalistic equivalent.
3. I am the finite square; I wish to be one with the infinite circle.
This is the Unsectarian conception.
I am the Cross of Extension; I wish to be one with the infinite Rose.
This is the qabalistic equivalent.
The answer of the Adept to the first form of the problem is for the Hindu
"Thou art That" (see previous chapter, "The Yogi"); for the Qabalist "Malkuth
is in Kether, and Kether is in Malkuth," or "That which is below is like that
which is above" or simply "Yod." (the foundation of all letters having the
number 10, symbolising Malkuth.)
The answer of the Adept to the second form of the problem is for the
Christian all the familiar teaching of the Song of Songs and the Apocalypse
concerning the Bride of Christ.8
For the Qabalist it is a long complex dogma which may be studied in the
Zohar and elsewhere. Otherwise, he may simply answer "H‚" (the letter alike
of mother and daughter in IHVH). See Liber 418 for lengthy disquisition on
this symbolic basis.
The answer of the Adept to the third form of the problem is given by pi ,
implying that an infinite factor must be employed.
For the Qabalist it is usually symbolised by the Rosy Cross, or by such
formulae as 5 = 6. That they concealed a Word answering this problem is also
true. My discovery of this word is the main subject of this article. All the
foregoing exposition has been intended to show why I sought a word to fulfil
the conditions, and by what standards of truth I could measure things. {111}
But before proceeding to this Word, it is first necessary to explain
further in what way one expects a number to assist one in the search for
truth, or the redemption of the soul, or the formulation of the Rosy Cross.
(I am supposing that the treader is sufficiently acquainted with the method of
reading a name by its attributions to understand how, once a message is
received, and accredited, it may be interpreted.) Thus if I ask "What is
knowledge?" and receive the answer "DOTh," I read it Daleth the door, O
matter, Th darkness, by various columns of 777 (To choose the column is a
matter of spiritual intuition. Solvitur ambulando). But here I am only
dealing with the "Trying of the spirits, to know whether they be of God."
Suppose now that a vision purporting to proceed from God is granted to me.
The Angel declares his name. I add it up. It comes to 65. An excellent
number! a blessed angel! Not necessarily. suppose he is of a Mercurial
appearance? 65 is a number of Mars.
Then I conclude that, however beautiful and eloquent he may be, he is a
false spirit. The Devil does not understand the Qabalah well enough to clothe
his symbols in harmony.
But suppose an angel, even lowly in aspect, not only knows the Qabalah ---
your own researches in the Qabalah --- as well as you do, but is able to show
you truths, qabalistic truths, which you had sought for long and vainly! Then
you receive him with honour and his message with obedience.
It is as if a beggar sought audience of a general, and showed beneath his
rags the signet of the King. When an Indian servant shows me "chits" signed
by Colonel This and Captain That written in ill-spelt Babu English, one knows
what to do. On the contrary the Man Who Was Lost rose and broke the stem of
his wineglass at the regimental toast, and all knew him for one of their own.
In spiritual dealings, the Qabalah, with those secrets discovered by
yourself that are only known to yourself and God, forms the grip, sing, token
and password that assure you that the Lodge is properly tiled.
8 This Christian teaching (not its qabalistic equivalent) is
incomplete. The Bride (the soul) is united, though only be
marriage, with the son, who then presents her to the Father and
Mother or Holy Spirit. These four then complete Tetragrammaton.
But the Bride is never united to the Father. in this scheme the
soul can never do more than touch Tiphereth and so receive the
ray from Chokmah. Whereas even St John makes his Son say "I and
my Father are one." And we all agree that in philosophy there
can never be (in Truth) more than one; this Christian dogma says
"never less that four." Hence its bondage to law and its most
imperfect comprehension of any true mystic teaching, and hence
the difficulty of using its symbols.
It is consequently of the very last importance that these final secrets
should never be disclosed. And it must be remembered that an obsession, even
momentary, might place a lying spirit in possession of the secrets of your
grade. Probably it was in this manner that Dee and Kelly were so often
deceived.
A reference to this little dictionary of numbers will show that 1, 3, 5, 7,
12, 13, 17, 21, 22, 26, 32, 37, 45, 52, 65, 67, 73, 78, 91, 111, 120, 207,
231, 270, 300, 326, 358, 361, 370, 401, 406, 434, 474, 666, 671, 741, 913,
were for me numbers of peculiar importance and sanctity. Most of them are
venerable, referring to or harmonious with the One. Only a few --- "e.g." 120
--- refer to the means. There {112} are many others --- any others --- just
as good; but not for me. god in dealing with me would show me the signs which
I should have intelligence enough to understand. it is a condition of all
intellectual intercourse.
Now I preferred to formulate the practical problem in this shape; "How
shall I unite the 5 and the 6, Microcosm and Macrocosm?"
And these are the numbers which seemed to me to bear upon the problem.
1. Is the goal, not the means. Too simple to serve a magician's purpose.
2. "Vide supra."
3. Still too simple to work with, especially as 3 = 1 so easily. But, and
therefore, a great number to venerate and desire.
4. The terrible number of Tetragrammaton, the great enemy. The number of
the weapons of the Evil Magician. The Dyad made Law.
5. The Pentagram, symbol of the squaring of the circle by virtue of ALHIM =
3.1415, symbol of man's will, of the evil 4 dominated by man's spirit. Also
Pentagrammaton, Jeheshua, the Saviour. Hence the Beginning of the Great Work.
6. The Hexagram, symbol of the Macrocosm and Microcosm interlaced, and
hence of the End of the Great Work. (Pentagram on breast, Hexagram on back,
of Probationer's Robe.) Yet it also symbolises the Ruach, 214, q.v., and so
is as evil "in viƒ" as it is good "in termino."
7. A most evil number, whose perfection is impossible to attack.
8. The great number of redemption, because Ch = ChITh = 418, q.v. this
only develops in importance as my analysis proceeds. A priori it was of n{o}
great importance.
9. Most Evil, because of its stability. AVB, witchcraft, the false moon of
the sorceress.
10. Evil, memorial of our sorrow. Yet holy, as hiding in itself the return
to the negative.
11. The great magical number, as uniting the antitheses of 5 and 6 etc.
AVD the magic force itself.
12. Useless. Mere symbol of the Goal.
13. Helpful, since if we can reduce our formula to 13, it becomes 1 without
further trouble.
17. Useful, because though it symbolises 1, it does so under the form of a
thunderbolt. "Here is a magic disk for me to hurl, and win heaven by
violence," says the Aspirant.
21. As bad, nearly, as 7.
26. Accursed. As bad as 4. Only useful when it is a weapon in your hand;
then --- "if Satan be divided against Satan," etc. {113}
28. Attainable; and so, useful. "My victory," "My power," says the
Philosophus.
30. The Balance --- Truth. Most useful.
31. LA the reply to AL, who is the god of Chesed, 4. The passionate denial
of God, useful when other methods fail.
32. Admirable, in spite of its perfection, because it is the perfection
which all from 1 to 10 and Aleph to Tau, share. Also connects with 6, through
AHIHVH.
37. Man's crown.
44. Useful to me chiefly because I had never examined it and so had
acquiesced in it as accursed. When it was brought by a messenger whose words
proved true I then understood it as an attack on the 4 by the 11. "Without
shedding of blood (DM = 44) there is no remission." Also since the messenger
could teach this, and prophesy, it added credit to the Adept who sent the
message.
45. Useful as the number of man, ADM, identified with MH, Yetzirah, the
World of Formation to which man aspires as next above Assiah. Thus 45 baffles
the accuser, but only by affirmation of progress. It cannot help that
progress.
52. AIMA and BN. But orthodoxy conceives these as external saviours;
therefore they serve no useful purpose.
60. Like 30, but weaker. "Temperance" is only an inferior balance. 120,
its extension, gives a better force.
65. Fully dealt with in "Knox om Pax," q.v.
72. Almost as bad as 4 and 26; yet being bigger and therefore further from
1 it is more assailable. Also it does spell ChSD, Mercy, and this is
sometimes useful.
73. The two ways to Kether, Gimel and Chokmah. Hence venerable, but not
much good to the beginner.
74. LMD, Lamed, an expansion of 30. Reads "By equilibrium and self-
scrifice, the Gate!" Thus useful. Also 74 = 37 x 2.
So we see 37 x 1 = 37, Man's crown, Jechidah, the highest Soul --- "in
termino."
37 x 2 = 74, The Balance, 2 being the symbol "in viƒ."
37 x 3 = 111, Aleph, etc., 3 being the Mother, the nurse of the
soul.
37 x 4 = 148, "The Balances,: and so on. I have not yet worked
out all the numbers of this important scale.
77. OZ, the Goat, "scil." of the Sabbath of the Adepts. The Baphomet of the
Templars, the idol set up to defy and overthrow the false god --- though it is
understood that he himself is false, not an end, but a means. Note the 77 = 7
x 11, magical power in perfection. {114}
78. Most venerable because MZLA is shown as the influence descending from
On High, whose key is the Tarot: and we possess the Tarot. The proper number
of the name of the Messenger of the Most Exalted One. [The account of AIVAS
follows in its proper place. --- ED.]
85. Good, since 85 = 5 x 17.
86. Elohim, the original mischief. But good, since it is a key of the
Pentagram, 5 = 1 + 4 - 14 - 8 + 6 = 86.
91. Merely venerable.
111. Priceless, because of its 37 x 3 sumbolism, its explanation of Aleph,
which we seek, and its comment that the Unity may be found in "Thick darkness"
and in "Sudden death." This is the most clear and definite help we have yet
had, showing Samadhi and the Destruction of the Ego as gates of our final
victory.
120. See Part I. and references.
124. ODN, Eden. The narrow gate or path between Death and the Devil.
156. BABALON. This most holy and precious name is fully dealt with in
Liber 418. Notice 12 x 13 = 156. This was a name given and ratified by
Qabalah; 156 is not one of the … priori helpful numbers. It is rather a case
of the Qabalah illuminating St John's intentional obscurity.
165. 11 x XV should be a number Capricorni Pneumatici. Not yet fulfilled.
201. AR, Light (Chaldee). Note 201 = 3 x 67, Binah, as if it were said,
"Light is concealed as a child in the womb of its mother." The occult retort
of the Chaldean Magi to the Hebrew sorcerers who affirmed AVR, Light, 207, is
holy enough.
206. DBR, the Word of Power. A useful acquisition = "The Gateway of the
Word of Light."
210. Upon this holiest number it is not fitting to dilate. We may refer
Zelatores to Liber VII. Cap. I., Liber Legis Cap. I., and Liber 418. But this
was only revealed later. At first I only had ABRAHA, the Lord of the Adepts.
"Cf." Abraha-Melin.
214. RVCh is one of the most seductive numbers to the beginner. Yet its
crown is Daath, and later one learns to regard it as the great obstacle. Look
at its promise 21, ending in the fearful curse of 4! Calamity!
216. I once hoped much from this number, as it is the cube of 6. But I
fear it only expresses the fixity of mind. Anyhow it all came to no good.
But we have DBIR, connected with DBR, adding the Secret Phallic Power.
220. This is the number of the verses of Liber Legis. It represents 10 x
22, {115} "i.e." the whole of the Law welded into one. Hence we may be sure
that the Law shall stand as it is without a syllable of addition.
Note 1022, the modulus of the universe of atoms, men, stars. See "Two new
worlds."
222. The grand scale of 2; may one day be of value.
256. The Eighth power of 2; should should be useful.
280. A grand number, the dyad passing to zero by virtue of the 8, the
Charioteer who bears the Cup of Babalon. See Liber 418, 12th Aethyr. See
also 280 in Part I.
300. Venerable, but only useful as explaining the power of the Trident, and
the Flame on the Altar. too stable to serve a revolutionary, except in so far
as it is fire.
333. See Part I.
340. Connects with 6 through ShM, the fire and the water conjoined to make
the Name. Thus useful as a hint in ceremonial.
358. See Part I.
361. See Part I. Connects with the Caduceus; as 3 is the supernal fire, 6
the Ruach, 1 Malkuth. See illustration of Caduceus in EQUINOX No. II.
370. Most venerable (see Part I.). It delivers the secret of creation into
the hand of the Magician. See Liber Capricorni Pneumatici.
400. Useful only as finality or material basis. Being 20 x 20, it shows
the fixed universe as a system of rolling wheels (20 = K, the Wheel of
Fortune).
401. See Part I. But Azoth is the Elixir prepared and perfect; the
Neophyte has not got it yet.
406. See Part I.
414. HGVTh, Meditation, the 1 dividing the accursed 4. Also AIN SVP AVR,
the Limitless Light.
418. CHITh, Cheth. ABRAHADABRA, the great Magic Word, the Word of the
Aeon. Note the 11 letters, 5 A identical, and 6 diverse. Thus it interlocks
Pentagram and Hexagram. BITh HA, the House of H‚ the Pentagram; see Idra Zuta
Gadisha, 694. "For H formeth K, but Ch formeth IVD." Both equal 20.
Note 4 + 1 + 8 = 13, the 4 reduced to 1 through 8, the redeeming force; and
418 = Ch = 8.
By Aiq Bkr ABRAHADABRA = 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 22.
Also 418 = 22 x 19 Manifestation. Hence the word manifests the 22 Keys of
Rota.
It means by translation Abraha Deber, the Voice of the Chief Seer.
It resolves into Pentagram and Hexagram as follows: --- {116}
A
/ \ [This is by taking the 5 middle letters.]
R-----B
A The pentagram is 12, HVA, Macroprosopus.
/ \
H D The hexagram is 406, AThH, Microprosopus.
\ /
A-A
B---R Thus it connotes the Great Work.
\ /
A Note ABR, initials of the Supernals, Ab, Ben, Ruach.
(2) A [This is by separating the One (Aleph) from the Many
/ \ / \ (diverse letters).]
A A R H ¿ "The Vision and the Voice," a
\ / | | BRH = 207, Aur, Light à phrase which meant much
A-A B D DBR = 206, Deber, Voice ³ to me at the moment of dis-
\ / Ù covering this Word.
R
(3) A A
/ \ / \
A A B A
\ / | | [By taking each alternate letter.]
R-B H D
\ /
R
205 = GBR, mighty. ¿
à This shows Abrahadabra as
213 = ABIR, mighty. Ù
the Word of Double Power, another phrase that meant much to me at the time.
AAB at the top of the Hexagram gives AB, AIMA, BN, Father, Mother, Child.
HDR by Yetzirah gives Horus, Isis, Osiris, again Father, Mother , Child.
This Hexagram is again the human Triad.
Dividing into 3 and 8 we get the Triangle of Horus dominating the Stooping
Dragon of 8 Heads, the Supernals bursting the Head of Daath.
Also A
/ \ The Supernals are supported upon two squares ---
R---B
A--B A--H ABAD = DD, Love, 8.
| | | |
A--D R--A AHRA = AVR, Light, 207.
Now 8 x 207 = 1656 = ChI, Living, and 207 = 9 x 23, ChIH, Life. At this
time "Licht, Liebe, Leben" was the mystic name of the Mother-Temple of the
G.'. D.'. {117}
The five letters used in the word are A, the Crown; B, the Wand; D, the
Cup; H, the Sword; R, the Rosy Cross; and refer further to Amoun the Father,
Thoth His messenger, and Isis, Horus, Osiris, the divine-human triad.
Also 418 = ATh IAV, the Essence of IAO, q.v.
This short analysis might be indefinitely expanded; but always the symbol
will remain the Expression of the Goal and the Exposition of the Path.
419. Teth, the number of the "laughing lion" on whom BABALON rideth. See
Liber 418. Note 419 + 156 = 23 x 25, occultly signifying 24, which again
signifies to them that understand the interplay of the 8 and the 3. Blessed
be His holy Name, the Interpreter of his own Mystery!
434. Daleth, the holy letter of the Mother, in glory as Queen. she saves
the 4 by the 7 (D = 4 = Venus = 7), thus connects with 28. Mystic number of
Netzach (Venus), Victory. Note the 3 sundering the two fours. This is the
feminine victory; she is in one sense the Delilah to the divine Samson. Hence
we adore her from full hearts. It ought to be remembered, by the way, that
the 4 is not so evil when it has ceased to oppress us. The square identified
with the circle is as good as the circle.
441. Truth, the square of 21. Hence it is the nearest that our dualistic
consciousness can conceive of 21, AHIH, the God of Kether, 1. Thus Truth is
our chiefest weapon, our rule. Woe to whosoever is false to himself (or to
another, since in 441 that other is himself), and seven times woe to him that
swerves from his magical obligation in thought, word or deed! By my side as I
write wallows in exhaustion following an age of torment one who did not
understand that it is a thousand times better to die than to break the least
tittle of a magical oath.
463. Shows that the Wand ought to represent. Not 364; so we should hold
it by the lower end. The Wand is also Will, straight and inflexible,
pertaining to Chokmah (2) as a Wand has two ends.
474. See Part I. To the beginner, though, Daath seems very helpful. He is
glad that the Stooping Dragon attacks the Sanctuary. He is doing it himself.
hence Buddhists make Ignorance the greatest fetter of all the ten fetters.
But in truth Knowledge implies a Knower and a Thing Known, the accursed Dyad
which is the prime cause of misery.
480. Lilith. See Liber 418. So the orthodox place the legal 4 before the
holy 8 and sublime Zero. "And therefore their breaths stink."
543. Good, but only carries us back to the Mother.
666. Chosen by myself as my symbol, partly for the reasons given in Part
I., partly for the reasons given in the Apocalypse. I took the Beast to be
the Lion (Leo my rising sign) and Sol, 6,666, the Lord of Leo on which Babalon
should ride. And there were other more intimate considerations, unnecessary
{118} to enter upon in this place. Note however that the Tarot card of Leo,
Strength, bears the number XI., the great number of the Magnum Opus, and its
interchange with Justice, VIII.; and the key of 8 is 418.
This all seemed to me so important that no qabalistic truths were so firmly
implanted in my mind at the time when I was ordered to abandon the study of
magic and the Qabalah as these: 8, 11, 418, 666; combined with the profoundest
veneration for 1, 3, 5, 7, 13, 37, 78, 91, 111. I must insist on this at the
risk of tautology and over-emphasis; for it is the key to my standard of
Truth, the test-numbrs which I applied to the discernment of the Messenger
from the Sanctuary.
That such truths may seem trivial I am well aware; let it be remembered
that the discovery of an identity may represent a year's toil. But this is
the final test; repeat my researches, obtain your own holy numbers; then, and
not before, will you gully understand their Validity, and the infinite wisdom
of the Grand Arithmetician of the Universe.
671. Useful, as shown in Part I.
741. Useful chiefly as a denial of the Unity; sometimes employed in the
hope of tempting it from its lair.
777. Useful in a similar way, as affirming that the Unity is the Qliphoth.
But a dangerous tool, especially as it represents the flaming sword that drove
Man out of Eden. A burnt child dreads the fire. "The devils also believe,
and tremble." Worse than useless unless you have it by the hilt. Also 777 is
the grand scale of 7, and this is useless to anyone who has not yet awakened
the Kundalini, the female magical soul. Note 7 as the meeting-place of 3, the
Mother, and 10, the Daughter; whence Netzach is the Woman, married but no
more.
800. Useful only in 5 = 6 symbolism, p.v.
888. The grad scale of 8. In Greek numeration therefore
Iota Eta Sigma Omicron Upsilon Sigma the Redeemer, connecting with 6 because of its 6
letters. This links Greek and Hebrew symbolism; but remember that the mystic
Iesous and Yeheshua have no more to do with the legendary Jesus of the
Synoptics and the Methodists than the mystic IHVH has to do with the false God
who commanded the murder of innocent children. The 13 of the Sun and the
Zodiac was perhaps responsible for Buddha and his 12 disciples, Christ and his
12 disciples, Charlemagne and his 12 peers, &c., &c., but to disbelieve in
Christ or Charlemagne is not to alter the number of the signs of the Zodiac.
Veneration for 666 does not commit me to admiration for Napoleon and
Gladstone.
I may close this paper by expressing a hope that I may have the indulgence
of students. The subject is incomparably difficult; it is almost an unworked
{119} vein of thought; and my expression must be limited and thin. It is
important that every identity should be most thoroughly understood. No mere
perusal will serve. This paper must be studied line by line, and even to a
great extent committed to memory. And that memory should already be furnished
with a thorough knowledge of the chief correspondences of 777. It is hard to
"suffer gladly" the particular type of fool who expects with a twenty-third-
rate idle brain to assimilate in an hour the knowledge that it has cost me
twelve years to acquire. I may add that nobody will ever understand this
method of knowledge without himself undertaking research. Once he has
experienced the joy connecting (say) 131 and 480 though 15, he will
understand. Further, it is the work itself, not merely the results, that is
of service. We teach Greek and Latin, though nobody speaks either language.
And thus I close: Benedictus sit Dominus Deus Noster qui nobis dedit
Scientiam Summam.
Amen!
We may now return to Frater P.'s experiences. It will be remembered that
he found Yoga practices of any kind very difficult in the cold climate of his
home; for he was now sufficiently advanced to need long spells of continuous
concentration --- very different from the early days of practice when twenty
minutes in the morning and again in the evening sufficed fro the day.
Further, he had entered on the third stage of life, and from a Brahmachari
became a householder. It was in the course of the journey undertaken by him
shortly after his marriage that occurred the event which we shall proceed to
relate.
And to that end we must ask the reader to accompany us in imagination to
the sovereign nursery of wisdom and initiation, to the holy land of the Uraeus
serpent, to the land of Isis and Osiris, of the Pyramids and the Nile, even to
Khem, more magnificent in ruin than all other lands are in plenitude of their
glory.
{120}
Part IV | Part VI
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX
1 WEH NOTE: Plagiarized entire from Ginsburg's "The Kabbalah".
2 WEH NOTE: Better: His purported translation of three of the
more obscure books of the Zohar.
3 WEH NOTE: This observation led Mathers to miss-identify a
picture of Moses as Metatron in his edition (not translation, the
MSS were in English!) of "The Greater Key of Solomon."
4 WEH NOTE: Strictly speaking, no. Temura is substitution code,
with 24 principal tables. Crowley tended to use simple
permutation of the letters in some instances, calling it Temura.
5 WEH NOTE: Tharshisim. Literally the "ships of Tarshish".
Isaiah, II, 16: "And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon
all delightful imagery." See also Isaiah XXIII, 1. Mathers
copies Ginsburg's "The Kabbalah" with a reference to Daniel X,6 for
this angelic order, but all that is found there is a description
of an angel. The figuration of "Brass" in the description is all
that can be directly found to unite to Netzach --- in as much as
Brass contains Copper, the metal commonly attributed to Netzach.
One could just as well attribute to Hod, Brass being a mixed
metal.
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