The Temurah is about “commutations” or the substitution of one letter for another, and is a precursor to cryptography. For example, one can divide the alphabet in half and exchange the letters that coincide in position:
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
|
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
|
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
U |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
Thus, the word “ant” would be transliterated as “nag”. The arrangements for letter substitutions and all the possible commutations are gathered together and are known as the “Tables of the Commutations”.
Amounting to a form of crude cryptology or cipher-writing, Temurah deals with permutations and substitutions of the letters and assumes that either the mystics or the Holy Spirit which hath moved them to write the words would condescend to such trifles as writing in code, or that the nature of the Perfections are such that the Truth of the particular case is apparent when viewed from a particular angle only—as though Understanding would not require perfect knowledge of both the interplay of the parts and the action of the whole. The trouble once again, is that the Student will take those permutations that suit him and forego the others that spell nothing sensible or desirable, so that he will most likely find something that panders to his pre-conceit. In those cases where he doesn’t, it becomes very easy to claim ignorance. A child will see scribbling and scratching where a man sees letters, and the Student may content himself with the notion that what he fails to see is due to his present Ignorance—a situation which Time will relieve.
Other methods also grouped under the practice of Temurah, are the Thashraq, which is writing a word backwards, and the Aiq Bekar, popularly known as the “Qabalah of the Nine Chambers,” which groups the letters by their unit, decimal and hundreds values.