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NAGRIKSHAMISH

A "Forgotten One." The Dog of Sirius, Orthrus. Grant refers to this as "The red passage of Samadhi, Blood-Vision." It is not necessary to invoke it, for it is living in us all.


NAGUAL

Castaneda's term for the self (an alter ego or even a witch), as opposed to tonal, "ego." A Mexican word meaning "magic, mystery, disguise, double." The ego is a mask for the self. Kenneth Grant says that Don Juan's nagual is the "world of non-being" (his ubiquitous "Universe B" whose entrance is via Woman).


NAM-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO

(Japanese for: "Glory to the lotus sutra of the mystical law.") This chant, under the auspices of Nichiren Shoshu of America, a Buddhist sect, and delivered before an altar containing a sacred scroll in a black box, is believed to help bring about a world of unity and peace. It has been adapted out of context by many American non-Buddhists, simply as a mantram for the granting of personal wishes.


NAME

Nomen est numen. No name ever does justice to the person or thing designated by it and so, in the strictest sense, to call anything by its name is to blaspheme it.

The Egyptians -- certainly Ra and Isis -- insisted that the names of the Gods were even more powerful than the Gods themselves. Everything has a secret name which is its real name. "To be" and "to name" are the same thing in the Babylonian language. Amongst the Dogon so means "real" language as distinct from the howling of beasts or the gibberish of foreign tongues.

It was because the ancient Egyptians believed so strongly in the vitality of names that a person's name (ren) was considered one of his "bodies." All magicians experiment with assuming different names because our names determine the nature of the events that gravitate toward us. We must never forget, however, that no one is his name. To identify totally with any name is to turn to stone.

Names are also like clothes -- they can become you or you can become them. Along with all the other bodies we inhabit, the Egyptians also had the renpit ("name" body), an extra post-life soul. "John" or "Mary" are actually manifestations of you. We can assume these masks as we need them -- or not, if we don't. Those who have been disfigured and must undergo plastic surgery and skin grafts must dwell in the lowest circle of their own private hell. They actually become the horrible demon, Yog-Sothoth, God of Infernal Transitions and Lord of the Abyss, with the bulging eyes, tentacles, etc. But what such patients become is really only the renpit body of the monster, so they identify with it only long enough to draw on its hideous strength. Otherwise they wouldn't have anything to hold onto. It is in this way that the ugliest devils and most dangerous dragons can also serve as resources for us. Later on, with a bit of effort, supposedly, we can return to being the Buddha or Odin or Apollo.

Note: To disguise the true nature of a thing, just give it a new name!


NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Jehovah punished this king of Babylon for the hubris of presuming himself to be divine, by causing him to behave like an animal and eat grass.


NECRONOMICON

Lovecraft's (fictional?) grimoire. (See CTHULHU.) Its motto: "That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."


NEGENTROPY

Negative entropy. The degree to which any system is coherent is an indication of its impulse away from entropy. Information, in general, is considered to be "negentropic."


NEOMENIUM

Conjunction of Sun and Moon. New Moon. Time of greatest division between Conscious and Unconscious. Time for beginning new projects.


NEOLEXICAL ENCODING

Naming of any biode or machine circuit that has not been named before.


NEOPLATONISM

By the 3rd Century A.D., an eclectic occultism composed of Neoplatonism and Qabalah seriously rivalled Christianity. All those who wrote on this subject went under the name of "Hermes," the best known book of which is "The Pymander." Later, Hermes was equated with alchemy. With Ammonius Saccas and Plotinus, the religion of the Orient were fused to Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle and Stoicism eventually to form a doctrine of three hypostases (Monos, Nous, Psyche). The material world and its glories are the work of demons but union with the gods, our higher souls, our higher egos, can be accomplished only by theurgical means, which join us according to individual capacity to the divinely creative realm. Vatic powers reside in the higher ego which we all possess. In the 4th Century, Iamblichus (author of De Mysteriis), in struggling against the Galileans, stressed intellectual meditation and vigorously opposed magic and religion. But he virtually equated theurgy with raja yoga, calling samadhi manteia. In the 5th Century, Neoplatonism under Porphyry (who was Jewish), split into a Xtian version at Alexandria and an extremely short-lived Pagan version at Athens under Proclus. Porphyry and Plotinus also disapproved of "phenomenal theurgy" (physical magic). Neoplatonism was revived during the Renaissance by Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, whereafter it survived through the XIXth Century.

Its chief philosophy can probably be summed up as simple pantheism, but which the Xtians complexified to "the Logos that derives from One Divine Source."

Neoplatonism regarded Egypt as the source of all occult knowledge. Saccas himself rejected Xtianity totally, as it had in it nothing that could not be found in previous teachings. Paul Christian in his History of Magic tells us that, according to Proclus, Plato underwent a 13-year initiation in the mysteries of Thoth-Hermes by famed magi of Memphis -- Patheneitb, Ochoaps, Sechtnouphis and Etymon of Sebennithis. He emerged with what we now know as the "Platonic Doctrine."

At its best, Neoplatonism encouraged in the West an interest in Oriental systems, picking up Qabalah, Buddhism and Hinduism as enrichments. At its worst, it popularized an "anything goes" bubble-headed mysticism.


NEOTERISM

The study of and predilection for the new, to a somewhat morbid (hence, very interesting) degree.


NEPHELIM

The so-called "giants" mentioned in the Old Testament, who supposedly preceded Adam. In Hebrew, however, nefelim also means "the fallen ones" (or "those who have descended"), leading some contemporary writers, such as Zecharia Sitchin, to assume that they may have been visitants from another world. Even the Norse mythology places the giants before the Gods and the one version of their Underworld is Nifelheim, coldest and darkest of the 9 hells. It means "Home of mists." From nifel, cognate of Latin nebula, "cloud" and Sanskrit nabhas, "sky." The Judaic mythology states that it was the "Watchers of the Throne of God" who were attracted by the earth women, fell, mated with them, and produced the giants. The giants, in turn, taught man everything it has taken until the 20th Century to sort out. (See OZ.)


NEPHESH

The animal instincts appropriate to the chakra of Yesod, realm of the Moon.


NEPTUNE

In extremity comes Neptune, the northernmost of all our arts, to help us overcome the forces of darkness that would enslave us. Neptune confers insight into the heart of the mystic powers. This knowledge, however, can be squeezed out only with great pain, only by the heaviest of pressure of affliction and torment.

The planet was discovered in 1864, in the sign of Aries. It has been assigned the rulership of Pisces. Neptune entered Capricorn in 1984, there to remain until 1998, the year of its entry into Aquarius. It will enter Pisces in 2013.


NETER

For those raised in the monotheistic tradition, the concept of many Gods is difficult to accept. We should understand, however, that for the Egyptians all of life was a religico-magical experience in which everyone and everything shared in divinity. When you separate the one from the many, you always obtain a god. Therefore, in their hieroglyphs a "God" was depicted by an ax, since an ax chops things up and separates the "one from the many." And these Gods were called neteru, a word very close in meaning to our word "Nature," in the sense of "the nature of" something. Thus, Ptah was the neter of Creation, Isis the neter of Mystery, Thoth the neter of speech and writing, Anubis the neter of the dead, and so on. Pharoah was the neter of his people and your soul is the neter of yourself.

There is no indication of popular of folk etymology linking neteru to Latin natus, naturus, "born, a-borning." On the other hand, there is no indication neter and nature aren't connected. Says Her Bak: "One must search for the means of making or undoing something always within its own nature."


NETZACH

The seventh qabalistic power zone on the Tree of Life, the abode of Venus, concerned with feelings, sensations, etc. It is victory over the fear to experience.


NEW AEON

The new time of illumination based not on wishful thinking but upon deep, laborious insight.


NEW AGE

The current renaissance of mystical awareness, beginning circa 1968 and now largely given over to commercial enterprises designed to take advantage of a phenomenal growth of popular interest in the occult. Proper term should be "New Aeon."


NEWTIME

(See also DRUIDIC MONTHS.) The calendar to begin in the year 2000 and replace Gregorian time with a 365-day year of 13 months of 28 days each, plus one extra "unnamed" day at year's end. Every first of the month begins on a Monday and every fourth year is a New Moon. The equinoxes and solstices occur always on the same dates of the year.


NEXHAGUS

One of Lovecraft's "Forgotten Ones." Grant calls him "The elder jester of the Pre-Create." A blend of Fool, Magus, Tower. He is Choronzon's brother, who dwells at the killing and curing center of laughter and has drawn the blueprint of human thought patterns.


NIANTIEL

The watcher of the 24th Tunnel. This figure from The Nightside of Eden corresponds to death in the conventional Tarot In Kenneth Grant's distortion, however, this is the path of sodomy, the reverse of Tiphareth, the "infernal sun in Amenta, the phallus in anus as distinct from the supernal sun." He also includes the scorpion and beetle as symbols of the "Dark Sun." The mysteries here evoked are sex magic and death magic, naturally, as well as "black magic" and Voodoo generally.

The sickness attributed to Niantiel was cancer, even before the advent of AIDS. The engineers of this disease, however, have sealed themselves off from all possibility of Salvation. The evil that Kenneth Grant saw -- to turn the Qliphah of Death into sodomy -- has at last been realized and the Kingdom of Hell is complete. The path between Tiphareth and Netzach is now the paved highroad between Belphagor and Baal.


999

Eternal Evolution (past, present, future). This is the most mystical number of all. It is the number of the Archon of the Ending Aeons. 999 is the year in which Kukulcan (Quetzalcoatl) died. It is the name of a very high IQ Society. 999 is the final transmutation of the current that began with 333, reached its culmination of evil mysticism in 666 and which will unlock the gates of the Otherworld at the end of this cycle's unfolding. It has also been appropriated by the J. R. "Bob" Dodds mock-cult (The Church of the Sub-Genius) as its seal, but is (for them) totally without significance or occult purpose, except as another symbol to subvert in their addiction to chaos.

9 to the 9th power is 387,420,489, which is sure to have some important meaning. Breaking that
down, 3 + 8 + 7 = 18 = 9; 4 + 2 + 0 = 6; 4 + 8 + 9 = 21 = 3; and ultimately 9 + 6 + 3 = 18 =
1 + 8 = 9. (See NUMEROLOGY.)


NIRVANA

As sickness, age and death impel us to recede ever more deeply into ourselves and we discover that the illusory world outside is but the creation of our own minds, we begin to realize the bitter truth that there is no death either. If life is agony, there is no resting, for no sooner dead than ... reborn! And the torment of life must be endured again and again, until even amnesia wears thin and we find that we are nothing more nor less than hapless old Sisyphus himself. And if we pursue things far enough, it must be admitted that there even comes a time when we must accept our identity with the terrible Abraxas. (The final, ironic punishment of the atheist is that he himself, in mournful solitude, must bear the yoke of immortal godhood.)

Now it is that we remember the message of the Buddha -- that there is a way out of the endless cycle of birth and redeath. We can step off the wheel of Karma into Nirvana. Buddhism's goal is Nirvana, or release form the bonds of existence. The Sanskrit word means "blown away" or "blown out," i.e., extinguished, and since rebirth is the result of desire, freedom from rebirth is attained by the removal of desire, so that, for lack of fuel, the torch of rebirth blows out and is no longer passed on. Therefore, we can achieve Nirvana now, in this life. The elimination of egoism and selfless aspiration are some of the ways. That means the end of material existence, the attainment of Being, rather than becoming, and union with Ultimate Reality. The Buddha calls this "unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed," as opposed to the born, originated, created and formed phenomenal world.


NO

One of the Forgotten Ones. The name of quiet erasing that removes the utterer with it. Says Kenneth Grant: "I send my power forth, so I may eat more power."


NON-LOCALITY

It works on Time as well as Space. Thus every sub-atomic experiment affects the Big Bang and reshapes the universe. Robert Anton Wilson: "Isomorphism and synchronicity are both aspects of the basic non-locality of information."


NOOSPHERE

Term from Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary theory. The expanding omnidimensional structure of all reality-labrynths on this planet; sum total of all human thoughts, feelings and (apparent) sense impressions.


NOTARIQON

A form of gematria in which the letters of a word are used to spell out a sentence or alternate or complementary meaning. Examples: E-G-O ("Externalized Godling Obsession"), S-E-X ("Spontaneously-Erupting Xenomania"), etc.

Further examples:

and, finally


NOTHING

The ultimate origin of the universe. The entire panoply of the manifest world is but an expression or eversion of the primordial vacuum. Nothing always equals something, so the underside of non-existence is existence. ("The reference of things in existence is preformed in the realm of non-existence.") Anything can be considered a universe, so the same thing that allowed the universe to come out of nothing applies to anything else coming out of nothing. Nothingness, of course, is the creative element in rooms, boxes, wombs, vacuums, empty sheets of paper, etc.

Contrasting is an important aspect of Nothing. To understand a thing, its opposite must be brought to bear. To add dark and light results in Nothing. To subtract one equality from the other eliminates both minuend and subtrahend. All opposites extend into nothing. Thus, the opposite of multiplication by tens is the infinitesimals. The zero could have been used to measure the dimensions of minus reality.

Importance and dominance are a function of location and position rather than of substance per se.


NOUMENON

(noein, to perceive; Nous, the mind.) An unknown and unknowable thing or substance as it is in itself as opposed to phenomenon, the form by which it is known or perceived by the senses. Loosely, it refers to a mental phenomenon, especially of the anomalous sort, such as ESP, spirit visions, etc.


NUIT

Infinite space. She can stand in for Isis, but she is the non-conceptualizing sky goddess. She contains the various lights of Heaven -- the stars, which illuminate earthly (mundane) consciousness, which are the children of the Sun (Superconscious) and Moon (Subconscious). Horus, Nuit's son, is the "freed" consciousness, liberated in order to wander at will, unconfined by particularity.


NUMEROLOGY

The first thing to remember about numbers is that each number, far from being just an accretion of previous numbers, really is unique. Numbers are the quintessence of symbology, and numerology appeals mostly to the abstract metaphysician, just as, in science, mathematics appeals to the abstract-minded scientist. Numerology, like astrology and palmistry, has a bad reputation because it's so easily misunderstood and misused. Since we can all recognize synchronicity, it's only natural to rush from there to the assumption that coincidence is the same thing as divination. But, synchronicity is nothing more than evidence that there are patterns of many kinds. It would be better if we could de-emphasize the practical side of everything and concentrate on the esthetics. The Egyptians used to teach that the most valuable things are the most useless: the arts, for example, or philosophy, or gold.

Finally, we should remember that it was through the indolent adoption of the easy decimal system (rather than the more perfect and exacting duodecimal system) that Atlantis finally brought itself down. This mathematically lazy way out is exactly the same path for which we have settled.

So numerology is simply the metaphysical side to numbers. One and one, for instance, are two, not because arithmetic says so, but because being equally "unique" they can't be reconciled as one, or "united," and are therefore at odds and in conflict with each other, as opposites in a mutual duality or "duel." Three, on the other hand, is a collection based on some kind of agreement, four a quaternity based on crossed oppositions in perfect balance, and so one.

There are also different ways of dealing with numerology -- theoria and praxis. In gematria, however, the idea is to add up the value of a word and then find other words that add up to the same number. They would thus be equivalents. This works rather well in Hebrew (to a lesser extent in Greek) but rather poorly in English -- simply because of the intrinsic differences between languages. Example: Jehovah has the same value as Chozeh ("seer" or "prophet"). Therefore, to the ancient Jews, God and Prophesy would be practically synonymous.

Numerological reduction is a convenience. It's easier to deal with numbers from 1 to 10 than with great blobs like 847 or 9,556,431. But numerologists also add before reducing. If a room contains 8 people, the numerology lecturer might perhaps decide to deliver his "octave" message. If 3 more people arrived, he'd change that to 11 which has an entirely different meaning from its reduction to 1 + 1 = 2. The higher the number, the more unstable its meaning becomes. For example, 11 stands symbolically for all the higher numbers (above 10), which is why 11 is the number of Sorcery.

The values of the Hebrew letters are: 1-ALEPH, 2-BETH, 3-GIMEL, 4-DALED, 5-HE, 6-VAU, 7-ZAYIN, 8-CHETH, 9-TETH, 10-YOD, 20-KAPH, 30-LAMED, 40-MEM, 50-NUN, 60-SAMECH, 70-AYIN, 80-PE, 90-TZADDE, 100-QOPH, 200-RESH, 300-SHIN, 400-TAV, 500-FINAL K, 600-FINAL M; 700-FINAL N, 800-FINAL P, 900-TZ, 1000-ALEPH (writ large).

In both Arab esoteric studies and in Judaic Cabal, such numbers form anagrams and extend the power of words: e.g., 93=Greek Agape, 398=Neshek, the serpent, and also Messiah.

The meanings of some of the numbers (my own attributions, plus some of Crowley's gematria from Liber 777):


NYARLATHOTEP

The faceless god of the Late Egyptians, as well as one of the Lovecraftian Forgotten Ones. Nyarlathotep is the blind "messenger of the Gods," whose tentaculary adorned cyclops-eye is "all-seeing." (He may also be completely headless.) We will know when the Great Old Ones break through, because Nyarlathotep will act as a siren, beginning his infernal howl out of the depths of the darkness, and the howling will continue without pause forever after.


NYINGPO

Tibetan "Alaya" or the universal self or soul of all things.


NYMPHOLEPSY

Overtaken by insatiable and mad desire. In Greek, nymphe means "bride," as contrasted with porne, or "prostitute."


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