The Letter M
A WAVE, A VALLEY Value: 40
M denotes the Great Sea. It is the Water that Binds and Nourishes. Its elastic Flow, its power of permeability, its ability to adopt the form of its container, its very Ebb and Flow—all mimic the powers and Principles of Life. And as IT is a vehicle for Life it is necessarily a precondition for IT.16
One of the Mother letters in the Old Key, its shape denotes a Wave or a Valley carved by a River, and has traditionally been associated with the element Water. Mystically, it has been the symbol of self-sacrifice, of motherhood and the Hanged Man, in the Book TARO. Also, to pronounce ‘m’ requires compressing both lips shut, and thus it has also been associated with Silence in the Tradition.
| Title | Value | Attribution | Sex | Weapon | God/Goddess |
| The Sea | 40 | Water | Female | The Cup & Cross of Suffering, the Wine | Tum, Ptah, Asar, Neptune |
Notes
M is sometimes a syllabic consonant: it is considered by some to be a vowel in certain cases. An example would be chasm, where a vowel is implied between the s and the m. It is the most ubiquitous letter in the English language and many others as well. As a glyph, it has persisted throughout the Aeons, and its function and properties have remained immune to Change. It’s value remains 40, and being the 13th letter, it also divides the Key17, and is a hinge on which the System turns for its numerical value changes Not throughout the Aeons. All formulas for transcending Death require this M as indicated by the passwords and formulae and Godnames presiding over this Place.18
L is the Balance without which there could be no Movement. It resembles a Leg and a Foot in Shape: that is, the lower parts of Man, his motive power.
If the L is balanced it will sum to 70 which is the EYE in the old key; otherwise it denotes 50, the old glyph for Death.
16 Water as ubiquitous as it is, is still a great mystery to modern chemistry and physics. It defies many a physical law or property. Water binds two of the most combustive or fiery elements (Hydrogen and Oxygen) into some thing wet. These two elements exist naturally as gases yet are bound together my electrostatic and gravitational forces into something not quite gaseous and not quite solid. It conducts electricity but is electrostatically inert. It will not contract, but expand if you attempt to slow its atomic motion.
17 There are 26 letters in the English Alphabet.
18 See M**N (of the OTO III° rite and other Masons which now instead of 93 is enumerated at 120 which makes better sense - as per ON and the Aethyrs), MAUT, MAT, AIMA, NEMO—not one of which is male (NEMO is neither).