BACK to site navigation
BACK to list of published material
THE QABALLA OF AL (TNE Vol 5 Part 1).
=====================================
It will take as long as the history of mankind to write a commentary to Al because the history of mankind is the commentary. What we are seeking to achieve is to explain some of the ways in which the Qaballa is being used, but first we will discuss the parallels and divergences between the English Qaballa and previously accepted methods of analysis.
Aleister Crowley gave us Liber AL; he solved the first half of the equation, but he could not resist trying o solve the second. This resulted in attempts to translate English words into Hebrew, Greek, Egyptian, Chaldean, and other languages in order to make some sense of Liber Al. In a previous incarnation he had interfered as a desperate magician and wrested the Enochian system, stillborn, from the bosom of the Goddess. In this Aeon the gods wreaked their vengeance on him in an all too obvious manner for his opportunism.
Liber AL, if it is a hieratic text, must have a qaballa in the language in which it was written or it simply cannot be counted as a hieratic work. We are presenting to Thelemites the Qaballa of AL in English - we can do no more. It will then be up to them whether they "go down the tubes" of Set or go forward into the New Aeon armed with a magic citadel, the power of which the world has not known for many aeons.
Magick is a complete, coherent, and logical system requiring no faith but work, its Qaballa requires the same attribute.
In our last article we gave the English Qaballa and a rudimentary explanation of a few of its numbers, and it was our original intention to leave it at that. However, we realised that it could take years for the reader to work out the Keys, so we decided to speed up the process by giving some of the English Qaballistic magical system of AL within the Law of Thelema. (The information in this article is up to the Neophyte grade of our order).
Magick is based on AL and AL is based on number, the number 11 to be precise, which gives, as explained in our previous article, the following English Qaballistic values:
A=1; L=2; W=3; H=4; S=5; D=6; O=7; Z=8; K=9; V=10; G=11; R=12; C=13; N=14; Y=15; J=16; U=17; F=18; Q=19; B=20; M=21; X=22; I=23; T=24; E=25; P=26.
We repeat - no qaballa can be used to interpret a hieratic book unless it is in the language of that book!
We will begin by comparing some of the conclusions of other Thelemites with those given by this Qaballa. In the Book of the Law themes are followed throughout all three chapters in linked verses. The links may be a key number like 93 or a word like "Thee" or even the device of studying the same number verse in all three chapters. The puzzle of the key number 718 is an example of how the numerical values link with the text to give blinding insights into the nature of Man and the Universe.
With the number 718 we are at variance with Aleister Crowley on logical grounds. For those who would dispute this let them turn to the expanded commentary on III 19 for a treatise of mid-blowing contortions and fiddling. To explain AL using words like XAIPE, AXPICTA, CTHAH, and CTAYPOS etc., is as silly as converting Hebrew words into Chinese to illuminate the Qaballa of Genesis. No, let us use the method of Science to illuminate the Aims of Religion.
I 19 "O azure lidded woman, bend upon them".
II 19 "Is a god to live in a dog? No - but the highest are of us".
III 19 "That stele they shall call the abomination of desolation, count well its name & it shall be to you as 718".
The Goddess says "I give certainty not faith while in life." All previous religions have demanded faith from their followers:- You must believe because. In the New Aeon the Goddess Nuit furnishes proof, gives certainty; there is no call for faith, no need of because. Proof gives certainty. III 19 furnishes that proof.
Ra-Hoor-Khuit is a God of war and vengeance. Hadit gives the knowledge of death, therefore the stele is the stele is the stele of the Goddess. Initiates know that the "abomination of desolation" is space. In II 19 we get "The highest are of us". Wherever one is in the universe the sky or space is the highest phenomena. The sky is the azure lidded one bending upon us, as shown in the stele of revealing. Any other stele must exist within space, within her. "O azure lidded woman, bend upon them" is a key to the proof of the certainty of Nuit.
AZURE-LIDDED WOMAN has the initials A.L.W. ALW are the first three letters of the alphabet when arranged qaballistically, (see above) which would indicate that the phrase has more than ordinary significance.
"AZURE-LIDDED" interested Crowley in that it has the initials "AL" and has eleven letters. He suspected that it had a deeper meaning, but although he tried for many years, off and on, he never succeeded in elucidating it.
If we take the phrase "Azure-Lidded Woman" the initials A.L.W. have the numerical values 1.2.3. In the English Qaballa, the phrase "I am Nuit" adds up to 123 as does "Revealing" and "Threefold". This is dramatic proof that the azure lidded one is indeed the Goddess of infinite space - Nuit. Azure-Lidded in our Qaballa adds up to 131 which is also the value of "UNIVERSE".
Now to the injunction to "Count well its name" i.e. the name of the stele - of space - of Nuit - of the azure-lidded one. This requirement is also fulfilled by our Qaballa. If every letter of the one word is added to every letter of the other word and the whole is totalled it comes to - 718! It is indeed counted well.
A=1
Z=8
U=17
R=12
E=25
L=2
I=23
D=6
D=6
E=25
D=6
A
1+ 2(L)
1+23(I)
1+ 6(D)
1+ 6(D)
1+25(E)
1+ 6(D)
=74
Z
8+ 2
8+23
8+ 6
8+ 6
8+25
8+ 6
=116
U
17+ 2
17+23
17+ 6
17+ 6
17+25
17+ 6
=170
R
12+ 2
12+23
12+ 6
12+ 6
12+25
12+ 6
=140
E
25+ 2
25+23
25+ 6
25+ 6
25+25
25+ 6
=218
--------
=718
--------
The general formula is, sum of first word x number of letters in 2nd word x number of letters in 1st word.
(Incidentally, if the same counting process is applied to SUN-MIDNIGHT the total is 666, and there are other significant phrases which similarly give key numbers).
The stele "The abomination of desolation" is the sky Goddess, the highest.
Verse III 20 following is "Why, because of the fall of because, that he is not there again." Nuit causes the fall of because through certainty. The proof is written in her stele, the unity - 1 - of the Goddess Nuit 78 - 7 (1) 8.
The reader may well be a little bewildered by these details and wonder what relevance the Qaballa has to him, and what purpose it serves. It is written in AL - "The book of the Law is written and concealed." AL is concealed in its Qaballa of 11. In expounding a few, a very few, of the numerical puzzles of AL it is our desire to stimulate Thelemites to investigate further this magick of the New Aeon. There is little purpose to be served in trying to sharpen the old rusty swords of magicks long dead, but Thelemites as Seigfried must forge the new sword of Thelema from the concealed law, our law that is the joy of the world, and then and only then will this regenerate the world. "The little world my sister, the sister and bride of On of the God that is all and in none by the power of eleven." The power of eleven that when applied to the English alphabet reveals AL.
As we said in the beginning it is not our purpose to try and lead Thelemites but to freely give them the keys that they may see for themselves. The task that has been laid before us is to simply reveal the Qaballa before the Eighties are upon us. It is up to Thelemites to use their discrimination - for in the beginning did not our Goddess teach discrimination?
There is no place for faith in Thelema. If your Holy Guardian Angel grips you and drives you onward, as he did us, then yours will be the Ordeal X, and should you win then certainty will be thine. The certainty of Nuit and victory will be thine, and joy of earth, ever unto her. Aye, ever unto her.