The Literal Qabalah - Gematria

Gematria is that branch of the literal Qabalah which is the subject of this study. We forego Temurah and Notariquon and dismiss these methods for falling outside the bounds of Science and Empiricism. They pertain primarily to the creative aspect of these Arts and primarily those that regard Magick or the projection of the Will. However, behind the idea of Gematria lies an equally outrageous notion: namely, that there is a simple and basic correspondence or syncreticism between Number and any phenomena—particularly words and letters. It is this prima facie preposterous claim that has spawned simple Numerology that most everyone is familiar with, in one sense or another; and has been the source of many another misguided superstition ever since John of Patmos wrote that famous line in his Revelations: “Here is Wisdom, Let him that hath Understanding count the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and three score and six.”²¹.

It has been affirmed clearly by eminent scholars in the past that a name or title and its number bear no real relation to the nature of that Person on this Plane (and by extension, no other Plane, since the Name codified is codified in the Material). Thus, because you discover that your neighbour’s name adds to 666, does not mean he is the incarnation of the ‘Anti-Christ’, even though on the Astral Plane the suggestion is that this would be the case. This statement was generally followed by the injunction to ‘not confuse the Planes’. That is, that the laws of one Plane are not necessarily applicable on another. Thus we see that Gravity which exists in the Material, has no effect on that which is not constituted by mass (e.g. energy, information and the Body of Light). Nonetheless, the laws of attraction that govern the laws of gravity hold on both, so that it would appear that the former is a manifestation of the latter, so that the previous statement is clearly an oversight. Empirically, with the application of the Key, continual evidence of perfect concordance on the Material Plane has been found; that formulae manifest themselves materially, and that all Creatures (human beings as well) somehow follow this Law when materialized in Place and Time regardless of the ‘plane’. This is a statement which breaks with Tradition. The Student will have to verify its veracity personally.²²

It is important to note that this correspondence goes beyond the simple Numerology that most everyone is familiar with. Nor is it a form of cryptography or code. Qabalists will claim that it is the most convenient means we have of describing and arriving at the “thing-in-itself” or the “idea” and subsequently classifying it. Because the number represents the “idea”, it becomes the genetrix for all those other “images” (in this case, the symbol, letter or word) that equate or sum to it and so partake of its Nature. This is the basic assumption (premise, or axiom) behind the practice of Gematria: namely, the preposterous claim that because two things reduce to the same number (in this case, words or letters) they are in a sense refractions or symbols of the same “idea”. There is no Reason for making such a claim except Evidence of it. For we find that not only does this preposterous claim hold empirically, but its practical extensions are apparently without limit.

Returning to History for a moment, we see how Gematria in the past employed the numerical values of the Hebrew alphabet. This allowed the Student to tabulate the numerical value of words, thus enabling the comparison of words of equal value or through their multiples. For example one can take the Hebrew word for love which is AHBH and unity which is AChD. They both sum to 13 implying that the nature of Love is Unity.²³ In English, we have the same reduction of the 3 into the 1 but in the glyph 331, denoting the triune Nature of Man and Woman equal and counterpart to each other and the Power of Love to raise consciousness to the 3rd sphere (BINAH). We have a further elucidation in the Aeon for 331 is also “Selflessness’²⁴ and presents a development that is evolutionary (as we shall discuss later) in the idea of Love being concordant to the idea of Selflessness.

All this is admittedly needless, for a little meditation upon the Nature of Love would produce the realization of that same Truth but more fully, and not so coldly and analytically as through Number alone. However, it is not only their equality that is of interest, but that they are equal to a particular number, which as a symbol must also be representative of the process or operation the word signifies (two open circle’s (3 - is a circle open at center hinge) combining to reduce to 1. 331 is also prime suggesting its final unity.²⁵ It is when the Question or the Object is somewhat more complex, that these correspondences become useful; or perhaps when we are trying to move from the known to the unknown and require a test of verifiability. We provide an example by way of illustration.

A Student asks: I would like some clarification of the value of ‘ck’ in this system. Is it 60? Or does the existence of both c and k make one “silent” in terms of value?

The ‘ck’ combination is perplexing. The c is, we agree, phonetically superfluous. It may be fading; that with internet and phone texting as it is, words like neck, back, sock, will soon all be spelt nek, bak, sok... So that the hard or soft C is somehow anachronistic; and mysteriously, even counter-intuitively in the larger scheme of things, appears to be disappearing.²⁶

But to answer the question: We can not take the c as silent, i.e. despite its possible disappearance, if the glyph is present in the Word or Formula, then it is present and so must be counted, until that moment that it ceases to be there. Now, do we count it hard (30) or soft (3)? Supposing we don’t know, we can take sample data and look at the alternatives.

We can take the words ‘sick’ and ‘attack’—two simple enough ideas (but any others will do). We have (58 + C) for ‘sick’ and (234 + C) for ‘Attack’. Now, if c is soft then ‘sick’ is 61 (which we already know cannot be, but assuming we don’t...); and ‘attack’ is 237. If C is hard, then ‘sick’ becomes 88 and ‘attack’, 264.

We have two possibilities:

1. ‘sick’ is 61 and ‘attack’ is 237; or
2. ‘sick’ is 88 and ‘attack’ is 264.

• Under the identity ’61’ we have: “Place” (as in “let it reside in one place”); Made He (as in Made He the Worlds); Kheph-RA; Help (ideas consistent with AIN)
• Under identity ‘88’ we have: “He is Mad”, KALI, Maim, Vice, Saw (versus See), Bind, etc…Certainly the idea of ‘sick’ pertains to identity 88. 61 appears to be ‘Holy’ if we can resort to a colloquialism.
• For 237, we have: Drug, Gladness, Khu, Rosa…
• While for 264 we have, A Lion, Curse, Pestilence, Python, Severities, Typhon, I am the Heart (with T final).

Again, attack appears to be counted with C hard as the ideas of 264 are concordant with the idea of an attack or attacking, whereas 237 (Drug, gladness, ROSA) obviously are not. One can continue this analysis until one is satisfied, e.g.: ‘rock’ can be 122 or 149 depending on this C. 122 contains ‘feather’ and ‘fly’, so once again, we appear confirmed in our original hypothesis.

Finally, we can look for concordance on the Material Plane: if C were ‘soft’ then words like ‘back’, ‘sack’ would sound phonetically like bask and sask; while with C ‘hard’ they sound like bakk, sakk, which conforms to the Reality.²⁷

The above may be no great revelation. The point to be retain however, is that Qabalah properly formulated will extend to all planes and encompass all matters, events and things. It matters not what we look at it, since it is everywhere.²⁸ For as we’ve intimated above, this concordance extends to all practical matters, glyphs and ‘properties of things’. In this way, ideas that are classified under the same ‘key’ or number, are related through identity and are equated. It is more precise however, to consider them as materializations or rarefactions (depending on the case) of the idea.

The glyph of Shin for instance, which is enumerated at 300 and signifies “tooth” and “spirit”²⁹ is equivalent to the number obtained by adding up the numerical values of the letters of the words myhla jwr (RVCh ALHIM) oor Ruach Elohim, the spirit of the Elohim (r = 200, w = 6, j = 8, a = 1, l = 30, h = 5, y = 10, m = 40; total = 300). According to the tradition then, the letter Shin (ç) itself (and the number 300) is a symbol of the spirit of the Elohim. This was further confirmed when later generations also showed that ALHIM spelt in full also adds to 300.³⁰ Note also that this 300 is now fully attainable and materializable, through the activation of the X glyph, through the “Ordeal ‘x’”.³¹

For a more modern or practical example, we return to our original question, “What is the Qabalah?” for a final example. Seeing as this is not an English word, we seek a formula. Its original alliteration is QBLH for there are no vowels in the Hebrew script. We discover that QBLH is 10 + 6 + 70 + 7 = 93 so that it is the ‘Law’ and Necessity, and it is Love (Agapé). We proceed further by taking the Roman Script dimension with its full spelling to arrive at Qabalah = 105 which is again ALHIM (4 + 50 + 7 + 4 + 40) and Nike (Victory). “The Qabalah” (211)is the “Hope” of “every man” which when united with Malkuth (10) is 221, another glyph for the Law and the covenant of Will³².

We can proceed as far in this analysis as we like. Applying to the lexicon, we see another entry for “The Holy Qabalah”³³ that it is one with the “Primeval Things”; it is the Chariot “drawn by doves”, that leads to the “Four Gates” to the Palace³⁴ to finally reach BINAH—the 3rd sphere from which the perception and action of the Qabalah is made Perfect and Whole. It is the “Divine Perfection” (or its manifestation) and is a Path of the Adepts, all of which end in “The Fool” the world glyph for the man seated in Kether. The application of the Key suggest that all these ideas are identical in their source—that is, they are rays or precipitations of the primal undifferentiated “idea” which we classify only as “558”³⁵ for now, to later explore or deconstruct. All we know is this ‘idea’ possesses this list of qualifications (the expressions equal to it by the key) which it is identical to, in both its sum and separate parts.

Such is the general exegetic method of Qabalistic Gematria. More concise exposition and further elucidation upon practical Gematria and its uses is provided in a subsequent chapter.³⁶

We forego entering into this matter further, without first answering the natural cry of the rational mind to escape the question and relegate the matter to one of ‘coincidence’. For the burden of proof lies heavy on the Qabalist and his Mind will be the weapon he turns on himself. For when confronted by contiguities it can not explain, the mind seeks to refute the causality with the declaration that the contiguity is a coincidence: a species of ‘noise’ or random event in Chance. Fortunately, we have recourse to Logic and to the laws of random numbers and of probability to advance our introduction and exploration into the Qabalah and its verifiability.³⁷

We will return later to a discussion on the Roman Script (the letters of the English Alphabet) and the Arabic Numerals (numbers as they are represented in the West) along with their elemental significance and qabalistic correspondences. For these: the letters of the Roman Script and the Arabic Numeral, are the symbolic basis for the English Qabalah and with a minor exception, span the set of glyphs that comprise the phenomenological set of the perceivable material Universe.