~ Notes.
Today I have the pleasure of taking a look at a small piece of the gematria within the Book of the Law. Written in 1904, Crowley – who had made a keen study of the Merkabah and the Torah – encoded a Hebrew/English transliterated form of gematria within the pages of the dual monikered ‘Liber Al vel Legis’[1]. The story behind Crowley’s relationship with the Merkabah is for another day. Today I just want to share the results of my studies regarding the AL III,7 : “I will give you a war-engine,” as the phrase is particularly enigmatic. Also I believe that allowing you to read my notes will give you insight into how to go about the art of gematria properly.
I have a number of tools open on my desktop; Shematria, this word pad, and an ordinary calculator. I want to start by seeing line 7 in context of the gematria around it, since the math is probably part of a series.
Prior to line 7 we have the following sums in the chapter:
Line 1: Abrahadabra = 418. [abrahadabra + reward + ra + hoor +khut = 1420
(710 x 2. See AL 1.3-4 also).
Line 2: “ There is division hither homeward; [hither homeward = 555, corresponding in value to the phrase “The Hearts of Men”, so we may read “there is division in the hearts of men”.]
[Continuing line 2:]
there is a word not known [probably a reference to the ‘lost word’ of the freemasons, but we have that word and it has the value of 217 so no matter.]
Spelling is defunct; all is not aught”.
[We should pay attention to spelling errors. All is not aught may be an allusion to the value of ‘all’ which is 61, sharing the value with words such as Ain (Nothing (not aught)) which Crowley may have believed was a clever enough reason to include it.]
Beware! 219 + Hold! 109 + Raise the Spell 490 = 818
818 – (minus because it is from) Ra Hoor Khuit! 596 = 222.
Therefore, to cure the division in the hearts of men (which is 555) we add 222 and receive 777.
Line 3: a + God + War + Vengeance = 418
Line 4: Choose ye an island! = 434
Line 5: Fortify it! = 478 [418 + 434 + 478 = 1,330]
Line 6: Dung it about with enginery of war! = 880 [1330 + 880 = 2020]
Line 7: War Engine = 330
Line 8: “With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you”.
Peoples = 330. Peoples
– War Engine = 0 and thus the peoples have been metaphorically ‘smited’ with gematria.
Line 9: Law of the Battle of Conquest =
710.
As a student of gematria it’s made me wonder whether Crowley
was alluding to biblical battles as being similar plays of mathematics. The first time the word for war is mentioned
in the bible is Genesis 14:2 if you fancy following that up, but for me that’s
it for today. Have a great day and stay
tuned for more numerical honey.
[1] א Aleph A = 1, ב Beth B = 2, ג Gimel G = 3, ש Shin Sh = 3, ד Daleth D = 4, ת Tav Th = 4, ה Heh H,E = 5, ו Vav U,V,W = 6, ז Zayin Z = 7, ח Cheth Ch,C = 8, ט Teth T = 9, י Yod I,J,Y = 10, כ,ך Kaph K = 20, ל Lamed L = 30, מ,ם Mem M = 40, נ,ן Nun N = 50, ס Samekh S,X = 60, ע Ayin O = 70, פ,ף Peh Ph,P = 80, צ,ץ Tsade Ts = 90, ק Qoph Q = 100, ר Resh R = 200.