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Five and forty apprentice masons out of work!
Fifteen fellow-craftsmen out of work!
Three Master Masons out of work!
All these sat on their haunches waiting The Report of the Sojourner; for THE WORD was lost.
This is the Report of the Sojourners: The Word was love;[1] and its number is An Hundred and Eleven.
Then said each AMO;[2] for its number is An Hundred and Eleven.
Each took the Trowel from his LAP,[3] whose number is An Hundred and Eleven.
Each called moreover on the Goddess NINA,[4] for Her number is An Hundred and Eleven.
Yet with all this went The Work awry; for THE WORD OF THE LAW IS ΘΕΛΗΜΑ.
COMMENTARY (ΝΔ)
The title of this chapter refers to the duty of the Tyler in a blue lodge of Freemasons.
The numbers in paragraphs 1 to 3 are significant; each Master-Mason is attended by 5 Fellow-Crafts, and each Fellow-Craft by 3 Apprentices, as if the Masters were sitting in pentagrams, and the Fellow-Craftsmen in triangles. This may refer to the number of manual signs in each of these degrees.
The moral of the chapter is apparently that the mother-letter א is an inadequate solution of the Great Problem. א is identified with the Yoni, for all the symbols connected with it in this place are feminine, but א is also a number of Samadhi and mysticism, and the doctrine is therefore that Magick, in that highest sense explained in the Book of the Law, is the truer key.
NOTES
[1] L=30, O=70, V=6, E=5 = 111.
[2] A=1, M=40, O=70=111.
[3] The trowel is shaped like a diamond or Yoni. L=30, A=1, P=80=111
[4] N=50, I=10, N=50, A=1=111.