First thing's first...
One of the most important keys to The Universe is Gematria.
Gematria is basically the assigning to Letters a Numerical Value. (Example: A=1, B=2, C=3...Z=26)
Gematria really began with the Hebrew and Greek alphabets. In fact, the Old Testament of the Bible (which is Hebrew), and the New Testament (which is Greek), actually have traces of either intentional, or possibly even unintentional gematric structure secreted within the words and verses.
The Hebrew, Greek, and English gematric formulas vary distinctly from one another, yet each one maintains a syntactical mathematic in its own right. Often times, two formulas can be seen to inter-pinge one another, revealing a hidden connection or insight.
Initially, I was very skeptical that something so simple could actually exist. I've now deciphered enough to know good and well that gematria can be a very powerful tool...
For example;
In the regular English alphabet there are 26 letters:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The word 'GOD', happens to equal 26. (7+15+4=26)
When you consider that one of the major Hebrew names for God is יהוה
[Yod (10), Heh (5), Vav (6), Heh (5)] and equals 26 also, well that is a gematric connection.
The Hebrew alphabet is incredibly valuable, especially when it comes to gematria.
There are 22 Hebrew letters and each one fits in a particular 'Path' on a symbolic diagram of the Macrocosm (The Universe) and Microcosm (Man) known as the Tree of Life.
Rather than to go deeply into the relevance of this system and all of its symbology, I am only going to state that the Tree of Life is one of the many important things I will be referring to later on. Being acquainted with this system will help immensely, not only in understanding my writings, but it can serve as an amazing initiatory system if one really wants to gain its fruit. Much can be found about it online and in books.
Basically, the premise is that all Things are composed of Numbers. Numbers, as we know them, all consist of the 9 fundamental numbers; 1, 2 ,3 ,4 ,5 ,6 ,7 ,8, and 9. 10 simply begins a new cycle and all the previous numbers are recycled. The purpose of the particular structure of the Tree is vague, until you actually begin to work with it and engage in the Practice of Pathwork by ascending the Tree.
Each sphere on the Tree of Life represents a number and is known as a Sephira. Collectively, they are known as the Sephiroth.The Paths that join them symbolize the communion between the Sephira they connect.
According to the general interpretation of various oral myths and religious texts, stories like the biblical Fall of Adam from the Garden of Eden are metaphorical adaptations of the same story the Qabalah tries to teach. An in-depth discussion of this can also be left for another time, but again, why this is relevant is because it all implies that we have fallen away from some sort of Truth or state of being and in order to truly be able to apprehend Reality we must refine our senses, mentalities, and often our over-all health.
This subject is so huge it is easy to digress. I was going to say that 26 is also the number of the Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar of the Tree of Life, but first I had to introduce it in case you are unfamiliar with it.
The Middle Pillar is very important since it is made of some of the more powerful Sephiroth - Kether (1), Tiphareth (6), Yesod (9), and Malkuth (10).
Another gematric connection, perhaps the one that makes the other examples a lot more relevant, is the fact that 26th verse of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible (Genesis) says:
| Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. |
Well, when you take the name for God 'יהוה ', and you put it vertically:
י
ה
ו
ה
Like so.You get the image of Man. Head, Arms, Torso, and Legs...
Thus, MAN is made in the image of GOD.
Now, I urge anyone who wants to know more about this to first read this chapter from Aleister Crowley's Magick Without Tears. For me, it was one of the best articles on the subject when beginning my research, maybe it will be of benefit for you too.
Before I end this I want to give a little more information on the Hebrew alphabet.
Though there are 22 letters, 5 of those 22 can be given a different symbol and value when they are the last letter of a word. These are known as the 'Final' letters.
For example, the word החשך, (chosek; darkness) ends with one of the letters that has a final value.
The enumeration of the word can either be 5+8+300+20 (333), or 5+8+300+500 (813).
The values of the Hebrew alphabet are shown below:
As you can see, the formula is different than the one I used for the regular English.
In Hebrew gematria the numbers go from 1-9, 10-90, and 100-900, so technically there are 27 letters.
Greek gematria is similar, though its letters are slightly different.
What I meant earlier by using different formulas for different alphabets is that when you use the Hebrew formula for, say, English words, you can find some pretty startling revelations.
For example:
The word 'REVELATION' can be rendered as
ר - Resh = 200
ה - Heh = 5
ו - Vav = 6
ה - Heh = 5
ל - Lamed = 30
א - Aleph = 1
ת - Tau = 400
י - Yod = 10
ע - Ayin = 70
נ - Nun = 50 +
777
777 is the number of
ואתמשל : to represent, liken, be like; to speak in a proverb, use a proverb, speak in parables
מלבהן: inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding; inner part, knowledge, thinking, reflection
הסבריך: explanation, interpretation,
explication, account; excuse
δοκιμαζοντες: prove
This may seem arbitrary, but it serves a a tool for analysing cryptic meanings and discerning concepts by deciphering their mathematical construction.
The best thing you could do is create your own gematric database, either by hand or on a computer.
I have begun one of my own, and I am currently working on it so that maybe one day I can release it to the world as an example of how Reality can be apprehended as a metaphysical web of sorts.
As Terence McKenna once said:
“The syntactical nature of reality, the real
secret of magic, is
that the world is made of words.
And if you know the words that the world is
made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.”
-M.A.L.
