From tyagi@bjt.net Sat Feb 1 16:17:13 1997 Return-Path: tyagi@bjt.net Received: from kudonet.com (kudonet.com [165.227.52.1]) by bitsy.hollyfeld.org (8.7.4/8.7.3) with SMTP id QAA05416 for ; Sat, 1 Feb 1997 16:17:08 -0500 Received: from kudo20.kudonet.com by kudonet.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id NAA08736; Sat, 1 Feb 1997 13:23:56 -0800 Received: by kudo20.kudonet.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id NAA24286; Sat, 1 Feb 1997 13:14:49 -0800 From: tyagi@bjt.net (Tyagi Nagasiva) Message-Id: <199702012114.NAA24286@kudo20.kudonet.com> Subject: Esoteric/Text/Thelema/engematria.jsk To: tyagi@hollyfeld.org Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 13:14:48 -0800 (PST) Orientation: House of Kaos, St. Joseph, Kali Fornika, US -- Kali Yuga X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 ME8b] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Status: O To: thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org From: jake stratton-kent Subject: English-Qaballa FAQ. Long! Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 22:19:07 +0000 A L W H S D O Z K V G R C N Y J U F Q B M X I T E P 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Frequently Asked Questions Q. Why is the E.'.Q.'. Order & Value a serial order (one to twenty six) rather than hundreds, tens and units like the Hebrew system and others? A. Many students of the Golden Dawn system and the better known sources on Greek and Hebrew Qabalah ask this question. In fact there is a considerable body of evidence that Greek and Hebrew characters were used for a serial order first, and that this order was important in the development of these systems, similarly many other ritual alphabets have used serial orders rather than hundreds, tens and units. There is thus no reason why E.'.Q.'. should adhere to the same pattern as the systems which have had most currency since the nineteenth century. On the other hand the vast majority of alternative English Gematrias proposed since E.'.Q.'.'s discovery have adopted the 1 to 26 "value" while proposing another "order" for the letters. Q. Surely any attribution of numbers to letters would produce results? Isn't it more a matter of belief and "word association by numbers"? A. Apparently not, though before my own experience of E.'.Q.'. I might well have thought so myself. Several alternative gematrias do exist, but as yet none has produced a magical system. The question of belief is not appropriate to a true numerical system, numbers are a standard of immutable truth that rises above mythology and other limited paradigms. So far the alternative gematrias have indeed proved to be nothing more than systems of word association, or go little further than "proving" the discoverer is Crowley's successor! E.'.Q.'. on the other hand has shown itself capable of considerably more than this, a situation that cannot be entirely due to the superior ability of its exponents! Since writing the above I have become familiar with the work of David Allen Hulse, whose unpublished work on English gematria is a major exception to the above rule. Though not extending to a magical methodology in itself - as yet - the system he uses is the simplest of all, the ABC series numbered 1 to 26, which the discoverers of E.'.Q.'. had tried and not found of interest, my own researches also failed to find anything of interest in this schema. Hulse on the other hand, and I take my hat off to him for it, came at the problem from another direction, as may be seen in his "Key of it All" which I cannot recommend too highly, and got first class results from what had seemed to some of the best qualified persons in this field to be an unlikely schema. Having surveyed and examined many alternative methods of English gematria it is my belief that more is to come, and that the serial order applied to ABC and its odd numbered permutations (of which "family" E.'.Q.'. is an honoured member) is likely to be the most fertile area for future discoveries. Q. What simple proofs can you present that E.'.Q.'. is a valid solution to the Qabalistic puzzles of the Book of the Law? A. Simple proofs are many, though in their enthusiasm E.'.Q.'. writers have often assumed the reader will find them for themselves, and have concentrated on other more technical aspects. These following are among the simplest and most "accessible" indicators of E.'.Q.'.'s astonishing ability to detail Thelemic principles exactly without mindbending calculation or peculiar spellings! Many Thelemites are accustomed to writing "Love is the law, love under will" as three 93's. The value of LOVE IS THE LAW, LOVE UNDER WILL by E.'.Q.'. is 279 or 3x93. Similarly "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" = 386 which is 2x193. The second chapter of the Book of the Law, gives the number of "Had" as eleven, the value of HAD in E.'.Q.'.. The phrase STRANGE DRUGS from AL has the value 143, the same value as the phrase DISTANT DRUG in Liber VII. This is a striking example of the accuracy of the gematria system, involving not only AL but the entire Class A literature. The Book of the Law injoins us to exceed by delicacy and drink by the eight and ninety rules of art. DELICACY = 98 by E.'.Q.'., no other reason has ever been presented for the number of "rules of art". The Thelemic Pentagram rituals frequently attribute Babalon to West and Water, while Aiwass/Aiwaz is frequently attributed to the direction of Air. BABALON = 65 = WATER, AIWAZ = 36 = AIR. Accordingly E.'.Q.'. derived ritual corresponds closely with traditional ritual in this obvious respect and in others less obvious, without any necessity to squeeze round pegs into square holes by selective spelling or other contortions. The Counting Well process (briefly, value of word a times number of letters in word b and vice versa) produces other startling proofs. AZURE % LIDDED = 718 Note eleven letters and initials AL, the next word is "Woman", thus the initials ALW, which are the first three letters of the E.'.Q.'. Order & Value. Note also that the phrase "O Azure-Lidded Woman" starts with the letters O.A.Z., which letters have the E.'.Q.'. values of 7.1.8. ABRAHAD % ABRA = 418 (Crowley's "Hebrew" system gives the same value). AUM % HA = 93 (this word seals the book). SUN % MIDNIGHT = 666, this number is traditionally associated with the Sun and with the "Solar Phallic" current of which "The Beast" is the embodiment. There are important keys in this equivalence, relating to Khephra, results magick and the IVth house of astrology, the enemy naming ceremony and much else. [BABALON % BABALON = 910, 91 is a significant number, with or without considerations of the Hebrew system, since it is the sum of the numbers one to thirteen, and the value of 13x7. The E.'.Q.'. value of BABALON is 65, 65 + 91 = 156, the value of Babalon in Crowley's "Hebrew" system.] These simple proofs are outside the realm of coincidence and are unmatched by any alternative system. Neither Achad or Crowley produced results of this quality or quantity with their qabalistic analyses, simply because they lacked the tools, no alternative gematria schema has come close either. It is not a matter of "my qabalah is better than yours", though many responses to E.'.Q.'. have been based on such a petulant attitude. The "English Qaballists" have done considerable research into all alternatives which have been put forward, and have often tried harder to extract sense from them than the proposers of the alternatives themselves. The vital thing to bear in mind is a qabalah is a ritual language, and any proposed system that does not produce a magical system is not a qabalah, whatever else it might be. I see no reason to reject the possibility of further numerical systems within the Book of the Law, but this is no argument against making use of the only one so far to produce practical results! -- jake stratton-kent ----- End of forwarded message from jake stratton-kent -----