Liber LVIII

(May the Holy One mitigate His severities toward His servant in respect of the haste wherewith this essay hath been composed!

When I travelled with the venerable Iehi Aour in search of Truth, we encountered a certain wise and holy man, Shri Parananda. Children! said he, for two years must ye study with me before ye fully comprehend our Law.

"Venerable Sir!" answered Frater I.A., "the first verse of Our Law contains but seven words. For seven years did I study that verse by day and by night; and at the end of that time did I presume — may the Dweller of Eternity pardon me! — to write a monograph upon the first word of those seven words."

"Venerable Sir!" quoth I: "that First Word of our law contains but six letters. For six years did I study that word by day and by night; and at the end of that time did I not dare to utter the first letter of those six letters."

Thus humbling myself did I abash both the holy Yogi and my venerable Frater I. A. But alas! Tegragrammaton! Alas! Adonai! the hour of my silence is past. May the hour of my silence return! Amen.)

The Negative — the Infinite — the Circle, or the Point.

The Unity — the Positive — the Finite — the Line, derived from 0 by extension. The divine Being.

The Dyad — the Superficies, derived from 1 by reflection 1/1, or by revolution of the line around its end. The Demiurge. The divine Will.

The Triad, the solid, derived from 1 and 2 by addition. Matter. The divine Intelligence.

The Quaternary, the solid existing in Time, matter as we know it. Derived from 2 by multiplication. The divine Repose.

The Quinary, Force or Motion. The interplay of the divine Will with matter. Derived from 2 and 3 by addition.

The Senary, Mind. Derived from 2 and 3 by multiplication.

The Septenary, Desire. Derived from 3 and 4 by addition. (There is however a secondary attribution of 7, making it the holiest and most perfect of the numbers.)

The Ogdoad, Intellect (also Change in Stability). Derived from 2 and 3 by multiplication, 8 = 2³.

The Ennead, Stability in Change. Derived from 2 and 3 by multiplication, 9 = 3². (Note all numbers divisible by nine are still so divisible, however the order of the figures is shifted.)

The Decad, the divine End. Represents the 1 returning to the 0. Derived from 1 + 2 + 3 + 4.

The Hendecad, the accursed shells, that only exist without the divine Tree. 1 + 1 = 2, in its evil sense of not being 1.

The Cosmic Egg.

The Self of Deity, beyond Fatherhood and Motherhood.

The Father.

The Mother.

The Father made flesh — authoritative and paternal.

The Mother made flesh — fierce and active.

The Son — partaking of all these natures.

The Mother degraded to mere animal emotion.

The Father degraded to mere animal reason.

The Son degraded to mere animal life.

The Daughter, fallen and touching with her hands the shells.

It will be noticed that this order represents creation as progressive degeneration — which we are compelled to think of as evil. In the human organism the same arrangement will be noticed.

The Pleroma of which our individuality is the monad: the "All-Self."

The Self — the divine Ego of which man is rarely conscious.

The Ego; that which thinks "I" — a falsehood, because to think "I" is to deny "not-I" and thus to create the Dyad.

The Soul; since 3 reconciles 2 and 1, here are placed the aspirations to divinity. It is also the receptive as 2 is the assertive self.

The intellectual Self, with its branches:

The Conscious Self of the Normal Man: thinking itself free, and really the toy of its surroundings.

The Unconscious Self of the Normal Man. Reflex actions, circulation, breathing, digestion, etc., all pertain here.

The illusory physical envelope; the scaffolding of the building.

Having compared these attributions with those to be found in 777, studied them, assimilated them so thoroughly that it is natural and needs no effort to think "Binah, Mother, Great Sea, Throne, Saturn, Black Myrrh, Sorrow, Intelligence, etc. etc. etc.," in a flash whenever the number 3 is mentioned or seen, we may profitably proceed to go through the most important of he higher numbers. For this purpose I have removed myself from books of reference; only those things which have become fixed in my mind (from their importance) deserve place in the simplicity of this essay.

הוא, "He," a title of Kether, identifying Kether with the Zodiac, and "home of the 12 stars" and their correspondences. See 777.

אחד, Unity, and אהבה Love. A scale of unity; thus 13 x 1 = 1; 26 = 13 x 2 = 2; 91 = 13 x 7 = 7; so that we may find in 26 and 91 elaboration of the Dyad and the Septenary respectively.

An "elaboration" of 5 (1 + 4 = 5), Force; a "concentration" or 86 (8 + 6 = 14) Elohim, the 5 elements.

יה, Jah, one of the ineffable names; the Father and Mother united. Mystic number of Geburah: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5.

The number of squares in the Swastika, which by shape is Aleph, א. Hence 17 recalls 1. Also יאו, IAO, the triune Father. See 32 and 358.

חI, Life. An "elaboration" of 9.

יוד, Yod, the letter of the Father.

אהיה, existence, a title of Keter, Note 3 x 7 = 21. Also יהו, the first 3 (active) letters of יהוה. Mystic number of Tiphereth.

The number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet; and of the paths on the Tree. Hence suggests completion of imperfection. Finality, the fatal finality. Note 2 x 11 = 22, the accursed Dyad at play with the Shells.

Number of the Elders;[1] and 72 ÷ 3. 72 is the "divided Name."

יהוה. Jehovah, as the Dyad expanded, the jealous and terrible God, the lesser Countenance. The God of Nature, fecund, cruel, beautiful, relentless.

Mystic number of Netzach, כח, "Power."

לא, "not"; and אל, "God." In this Part I. ("Nature as it is") the number is rather forbidding. For AL is the God-name of Chesed, mercy; and so the number seems to deny that Name.

Number of Sephiroth and Paths, 10 + 22. Hence is completion of perfection. Finality: things as they are in their totality. אהיהוה, the combined אהיה and יהוה, Macroprosopus, and Microprosopus, is here. If we suppose the 3 female letters ה to conceal the 3 mothers א‎, מ‎, ש‎, we obtain the number 358, Messiach, q.v. Note 32 = 2⁵, the divine Will extended through motion. 64 = 2⁶, will be the perfect number of matter, for it is 8, the first cube, squared. So we find it a Mercurial number, as if the solidity of matter was in truth eternal change.

אגלא, a name of God = Ateh Gibor Le-Olahm Adonai. "To Thee by the Power unto the Ages, O my Lord!" 35 = 5 x 7. 7 = Divinity, 5 = Power.

A Solar Number. אלה. Otherwise unimportant, but is the mystic number of Mercury.

יחידה. The highest principle of the soul, attributed to Kether. Note 37 = 111 ÷ 3.

Note 38 x 11 = 418 q.v. in Part II.

יהוה אחד, Jehovah is one. 39 = 13 x 3. This is then the affirmation of the aspiring soul.

A "dead" number of fixed law, 4 x 10, Tetragrammaton, the lesser countenance immutable in the heaviness of Malkuth.

אם, the Mother, unfertilised and unenlightened.

אמא, the Mother, still dark. Here are the 42 judges of the dead in Amennti, and here is the 42-fold name of the Creative God. See Liber 418.

דם, blood. See Part II. Here 4 x 11 = the corruption of the created world.

מה, a secret title of Yetzirah, the Formative World. אדם, Adam, man, the species (not "the first man"). א is Air, the divine breath which stirs DM, blood, into being.

A number useful in the calculations of Dr. Dee, and a mystic number of Venus.

The number of the Gates of Binah, whose name id Death (50 = נ‎ = by Tarot, "Death").

אן, pain. נא, failure. אדום, Edom, the country of the demon kings. There is much in the Qabalah about these kings and their dukes; it never meant much to me, somehow. But 51 is 1 short of 52.

אימא, the fertilised Mother, the Phallus (י) thrust into אמא. Also בן, the Son. Note 52 = 13 x 4, 4 being Mercy and the influence of the Father.

Samekh, which in full spells 60 x 2 = 120 (q.v.), just as Yod, 10, in full spells 10 x 2 = 20. In general, the tens are "solidifications" of the ideas of the units which they multiply. Thus 50 is Death, the Force of Change in its final and most earthy aspect. Samekh is "Temperance" in the Tarot: the 6 has little evil possible to it; the worst name one can call 60 is "restriction."

אין, the Negative. אני, Ego. A number rather like 31, q.v.

דין and דני, intelligences (the twins) of Mercury. See also 32.

אדני. In Roman characters LXV = LVX, the redeeming light. See the 5° = 6^□ ritual and "Konx om Pax." Note 65 = 13 x 5, the most spiritual form of force, just as 10 x 5 was its most material form. Note הס, "Keep silence!" and היכל, the palace; as if it were said "Silence is the House of Adonai."

בינה the Great Mother. Note 6 + 7 = 13, uniting the ideas of Binah and Kether. A number of the aspiration.

The Sanhedrin and the precepts of the Law. The Divine 7 in its most material aspect.

חסד, Mercy. The number of the Shemhamphorasch, as if affirming God as merciful. For details of Shemhamphorasch, see 777 and other classical books of reference. Note especially י + יה + יהו + יהוה = 72.

חכמה, Wisdom. Also גמל, Gimel, the path uniting Kether and Tiphereth. But Gimel, "the Priestess of the Silver Star," is the Female Hierophant, the Moon; and Chokmah is the Logos, or male initiator. See Liber 418 for much information on these points, though rather from the standpoint of Part II.

מזלא, the influence from Kether. The number of the cards of the Tarot, and of the 13 paths of the Beard of Macroprosopus. Note 78 = 13 x 6. Also איואס, the messenger. See Part II.

The number of פ, the "lightning-struck Tower" of the Tarot. 8 = Intellect, Mercury; its most material form is Ruin, as Intellect in the end is divided against itself.

A mystic number of the Moon.

84. A number chiefly important in Buddhism. 84 = 7 x 12.

פה, the letter Pé. 85 = 5 x 17: even the highest unity, if it move or energise, means War.

אלהים. See "A Note on Genesis," Equinox, No. II.

Number of Tzaddi, a fishhook = Tanha, the clinging of man to life (9), the trap in which man is caught as a fish is caught by a hook. The most material aspect of animal life; its final doom decreed by its own lust. also מים, Water.

91 = 7 x 13, the most spiritual form of the Septenary. אמן, Amen, the holiest title of God; the Amoun of the Egyptians. It equals יהוה אדני‎ (יאהדונהי, interlaced), the eight-lettered name, thus linking the 7 to the 8. Note that אמן (reckoning ן as final, 700) = 741 = אמתש, the letters of the elements; and is thus a form of Tetragrammaton, a form unveiled.

The number of ק, the perfect illusion, 10 x 10. also כף, Kaph, the Wheel of fortune. The identity is that of matter, fatality, change, illusion. It seems the Buddhist view of the Samsara-Cakkram.

נון, Nun, a fish. The number of death. Death in the Tarot bears a cross-handled scythe; hence the Fish as the symbol of the Redeemer. ΙΧΘΥΣ = Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.

Chiefly interesting because 108 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 3 = the square of 2 playing with the cube of 3. Hence the Buddhists hailed it with acclamation, and make their rosaries of this number of beads.

אחד הוא אלהים, "He is One God."
אלף, Aleph, an ox, a thousand. The redeeming Bull. By shape the Swastika, and so the Lightning. "As the lightning lighteneth out of the East even unto the West, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man." An allusion to the descent of Shiva upon Shakti in Samahdi. The Roman A shows the same through the shape of the Pentagram, which it imitates.
אסן, ruin, destruction, sudden death. Scil., of the personality in Samadhi.
אפל, thick darkness. "Cf." St John of the Cross, who describes these phenomena in great detail.
אעם, the Hindu Aum or Om.
מהולל, mad — the destruction of Reason by Illumination.
עולה, a holocaust. Cf. אסן.
פלא, the Hidden Wonder, a title of Kether.

דםע, a tear. The age of Christian Rosencreutz.

סמך, Samech, a prop. Also מוסדי, basis, foundation. 120 = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5, and is thus a synthesis of the power of the pentagram. [Also 1 + 2 + ... + 15 = 120.] Hence its importance in the 5 = 6 ritual , q.v. supra Equinox, No. III. I however disagree in part; it seems to me to symbolise a lesser redemption than that associated with Tiphereth. Compare at least the numbers 0.12 and 210 in Liber Legis and Liber 418, and extol their superiority. For while the first is the sublime formula of the infinite surging into finity, and the latter the supreme rolling-up of finity into infinity, the 120 can symbolise at the best a sort of intermediate condition of stability. For how can one proceed from the 2 to the 0? 120 is also ען, a very important name of God.

עדן, Eden.

סמאל, Satan so-called, but really only Samael, the accuser of the brethren, unpopular with the Rabbis because their consciences were not clear. Samael fulfils a most useful function; he is scepticism, which accuses intellectually; conscience, which accuses morally; and even that spiritual accuser upon the Threshold, without whom the Sanctuary might be profaned. We must defeat him, it is true; but how should we abuse and blame him, without abuse and blame of Him that set him there?

A mystic number of Jupiter; the sum of the first 16 natural numbers.

A square and therefore a materialisation of the number 12. Hence the numbers in the Apocapyse. 144,000 only means 12 (the perfect number in the Zodiac or houses of heaven and tribes of Israel) x 12, i.e. settled x 1000, i.e. on the grand scale.

מאזנים, Scales of Justice.

BABALON. See Liber 418. This number is chiefly important for Part II. It is of no account in the orthodox dogmatic Qabalah. Yet it is 12 x 13, the most spiritual form, 13, of the most perfect number, 12, הוא. [It is ציון, Zion, the City of the Pyramids. — Ed.]

A mystic number of Venus.

אבר, initials of אב, בן, רוח, the Trinity.

דבר, Speech, "the Word of Power."

אור, Light. Contrast with אוב‎, 9, the astral light, and אוד‎, 11, the Magical Light. Aub is an illusory thing of witchcraft (cf. Obi, Obeah); Aud is almost = the Kundalini force ("Odic" force). This illustrates well the difference between the sluggish, viscous 9, and the keen, ecstatic 11.

Pertains to Part II. See Liber 418.

רוח, the air, the mind.

Pertains to Part II. The number of verses in Liber Legis.

The sum of the first 22 numbers, 0 to 21; the sum of the Key-Numbers of the Tarot cards; hence an extension of the idea of 22, q.v.

I.N.R.I. See 5° = 6^□ ritual.

The sum of the "five letters of severity," those which have a final form — Kaph, Men, Nun, Pe, Tzaddi. Also the number of the squares on the sides of the Vault 7 x 40; see 5° = 6^□ ritual. Also רף = terror.

The letter ש, meaning "tooth," and suggesting by its shape a triple flame. Refers Yetziratically to fire, and is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, רוח אלהים‎ = 300. Hence the letter of the Spirit. Descending into the midst of יהוה, the four inferior elements, we get יהשוה Jeheshua, the Saviour, symbolised by the Pentagram.

אש, Fire.

שדי, the Almighty, a name of God attributed to Yesod.

A mystic number of Mars. ברצבאל, the spirit of Mars, and גראפיאל, the intelligence of Mars.

יהשוה, Jesus — see 300.

חורונזון, see Liber 418, 10th Aethyr. It is surprising that this large scale 3 should be so terrible a symbol of dispersion. There is doubtless a venerable arcanum here connoted, possibly the evil of Matter summó. 333 = 37 x 9 the accurséd.

שם — the Name.

The sum of the "3 mothers," Aleph, Mem, and Shin.

משה, Moses. Note that by transposition we have 543, אהיה אשר אהיה, "Existence is Existence," "I am that I am," a sublime title of Kether. Moses is therefore regarded as the representative of this particular manifestation of deity, who declared himself under this special name.

See 32. משיח, Messiah, and נחש, the serpent of Genesis. The dogma is that the head of the serpent (נ) is "bruised," being replaced by מ, the letter of Sacrifice, and god, the letter alike of virginity (י‎ = Virgo) and of original deity (י‎ = the foundation or type of all the letters). Thus the word may be read: "The Sacrifice of the Virgin-born Divine One triumphant (ח, the Chariot) through the Spirit," while NChSh reads "Death entering the (realm of the) Spirit." But the conception of the Serpent as the Redeemer is truer. See my explanation of 5° = 6^□ ritual (Equinox, No. III.).

אדני הארץ, the Lord of the Earth. Note 361 denotes the 3 Supernals, the 6 members of Ruach, and Malkuth. This name of God therefore embraces all the 10 Sephiroth.

An important number, though not in the pure Qabalah. See "The Canon." ΜΕΙΘΡΑΣ and ΑΒΡΑΧΑΣ in Greek.

Really more important for Part II. עש, Creation. The Sabbatic Goat in his highest aspect. This shows the whole of Creation as matter and spirit. The material 3, the spiritual 7, and all cancelling to Zero. also שלם = peace.

The letter ת, "The Universe." It is the square of 20, "The Wheel of Fortune," and shows the Universe therefore as the Sphere of Fortune — the Samsara-Cakkram, where Karma, which fools call chance, rules.

400 is the total number of he Sephiroth, each of the 10 containing 210 in itself and being repeated in the 4 worlds of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. These four worlds are themselves attributed to יהוה, which is therefore not the name of a tribal fetish, but the formula of a system.

את, "The" emphatic, meaning "essence of," for א and ת are first and last letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, as Α and Ω are of the Greek, and A and Z of the Latin. Hence the Word Azoth, not to be confused with Azote (lifeless, asotos), the old name for nitrogen. Azoth means the sum and essence of all, conceived as One.

תו, the letter Tau (see 400), also אתה, "Thou." Note that אהא‎ (7), the divine name of Venus (7), gives the initials of Ani, Hua, Ateh — I, He, Thou; three different aspects of a deity worshipped in three persons and in three ways: viz. (1) with averted face; (2) with prostration; (3) with identification.

Pertains principally to Part II., q.v.

טית, the letter Teth.

דלת, the letter Daleth.

תלי, the great dragon.

אמת, Truth. Note 441 = 21 x 21. 21 is אהיה, the God of Kether, whose Will is Truth.

תן, the great dragon.

מטה השקד‎, Moses' Wand, a rod of Almond. 3 + 60 + 400, the paths of the middle pillar.

דעת, Knowledge, the Sephira that is not a Sephira. In one aspect the child of Chokmah and Binah; in another the Eighth Head of the Stooping Dragon, raised up when the Tree of Life was shattered, and Macroposopus set cherubim against Microposopus. See 4 = 7 ritual supra. Also, and very specially, Liber 418. It is the demon that purely intellectual or rational religions take as their God. The special danger of Hinayana Buddhism.

לילית, the demon-queen of Malkuth.

אהיה אשר אהיה, "I am that I am."

Last of the mystic numbers of the sun. סורת, the spirit of Sol. Also עממו סתן, Ommo Satan, the Satanic Trinity of Typhon, Apophis, and Besz; also שם יהשוה, the name of Jesus. The names of Nero, Napoleon, W. E. Gladstone, and any person that you may happen to dislike, add up the this number. In reality it is the final extension of the number 6, both because 6 x 111 (אלף‎ = 111 = 1) = 6 and because the Sun, whose greatest number it is, is 6.

Thesis. The Number Nine is the highest and worthiest of the numbers.

Scholion α. "The number nine is sacred, and attains the summits of philosophy," Zoroaster.

Scholion β. Nine is the best symbol of the Unchangeable One, since by whatever number it is multiplied,the sum of the figures is always 9, e.g. 9 x 487 = 4383. 4 + 3 + 8 + 3 = 18. 1 + 8 = 9.

Scholion γ. 9 = ט‎, a serpent. And the Serpent is the holy Uraeus, upon the crown of the Gods.

Scholion δ. 9 = IX = the Hermit of the Tarot, the Ancient One with Lamp (Giver of Light) and Staff (the Middle Pillar of the Sephiroth). This, too, is the same Ancient as in 0, Aleph, "The Fool" and Aleph = 1.

Scholion ε. 9 = יסוד = 80 = P = Mars = 5 = ה =