SOME OBSERVATIONS INTO THE THELEMIC GEMATRIA OF LIBER AL VEL LEGIS sub figura CCXX as delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI

SOME OBSERVATIONS INTO THE THELEMIC
GEMATRIA OF LIBER AL vel LEGIS
Sub figura CCXX
As delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI
BY
BARRY VAN-ASTEN



Chapter II

1. Nu! the hiding of Hadit.

Nuit conceals Hadit; Nuit is the infinite in which Hadit manifests. Also, note that the first verse contains five words, five being the pentagram, which is the symbol of Hadit.2. Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the complement of Nu, my bride. I am not extended, and Khabs is the name of my House.

Khabs= star, which is the House of Hadit.
3. In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.

Viewed from the circumference the centre of the circle is constant and is a concentrated point while the circumference is an expansion or central point stretched to its limit and therefore less defined. The central light of the circle radiates outwards in diminishing rays of light.
4. Yet she shall be known & I never.

Hadit has the ability to ‘know’ but cannot be ‘known’. Nuit is ‘known’ and Hadit (the complement of Nu) is hidden within her sensual veils where He ‘knows’ Her yet remains ‘unknown’ for it is His nature to ‘never’ be known.
5. Behold! the rituals of the old time are black. Let the evil ones be cast away; let the good ones be purged by the prophet! Then shall this Knowledge go aright.

The ‘old time’ refers to the previous aeon, that of Osiris in which ‘self sacrifice’ and suffering was the order of the day and deities were worshipped as ‘the dying god’. The word ‘Knowledge’ with its capital letter seems to imply another meaning. Also, note that the verse contains 31 words.6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.

This ‘knowledge of death’ may be an allusion to the act of ‘crossing the abyss’.7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

Hadit symbolizes motion and change and therefore his nature is to ‘go’. The Ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life in appearance is a sandal strap, which is another symbol of the power to go. Hadit is the ‘axle of the wheel’, which turns, and Nuit ‘is the wheel’, She is the circle. The cube has six sides and six is a solar number. The function of a god is ‘to go’ and to go= HVK (5+6+20) = 31.8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.

Hadit is stating through Aiwass that he is not to be worshipped and that it is Nuit who is the Goddess of devotion; Hadit is the motion, or act of the ‘worshipper’ which is what the adept is to become in order to worship Nuit.
9. Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.

These shadows are those who have failed to understand their true wills and thus have not found the pure joy of existence. They are unrecognized by Hadit.10. O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing.

Crowley found much of the ‘language’ of the Book of the Law distasteful to him.11. I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but I am stronger.

A reference to Crowley’s annoyance at being used as the vessel for the law of Thelema: The Book of the Law.
12. Because of me in Thee which thou knewest not.

The ‘voice’ of Aiwass (as Hadit) in reference to Aiwass being Crowley’s Holy Guardian Angel.13. for why? Because thou wast the knower, and me.

14. Now let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light devour men and eat them up with blindness!

15. For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.

‘Nine by the fools’ has a double meaning: Teth=9 (XI in the Tarot) and the sephira Yesod=9 and its grade is zelator. Cheth=8, Aleph=1(one and eight in the Tarot). Not=31. IX in the Tarot is the Hermit, which is Virgo, Yod and Mercury and VIII in the Tarot is Justice, which is Libra, Maat, Lamed and ‘one’ in eight = Aleph, ‘which is vital, for I am none indeed’ = None (or Nvne)= 50+6+50+5=111. ‘The Empress’ (Daleth) = III and ‘The King’ (He)=IV ‘are not of me’. III+IV=VII.
16. I am The Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.

The Empress = III in the Tarot and the Hierophant = V.
III+V=VIII (8).
17. Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.

The poem suggests that those who seek the light of Thelema are uplifted in strength and beauty. The old aeon ruled by the worship of the ‘dying god’ was an aeon of weakness and suffering, pain and regret. Those who become Thelemites embrace life with positive energy and stand apart from those who are blind, weak, and dead, in other words those who have not adjusted to the new aeon and accepted the Law of Thelema – the Light of Love and Liberty!
18. These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.

Self-pity, misery, and all forms of sorrow are anathema to Thelema, and so is compassion, which is to pity a fellow star and insult him or her.
19. Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.

The words ‘god’ and ‘dog’ both give the numeration 77 (3+70+4) or 13 (3+6+4). 77 = the Devil/goat; 13 = Death/Saturn. No=NV=56. Perhaps the god/dog formula represents a reversal of attitude to worshipping and we are urged to ‘be god from within’.

20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.

These are the qualities of Hadit; qualities that are desirable to possess. Beauty represents Tiphereth. Strength= Yesod. Leaping laughter= Hod. Delicious languor= Netzach. Force= XI in the Tarot and Fire = XVI in the Tarot.21. We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake.

Outcasts are those who have become black brothers and unfit seems to indicate those who are not accepted or the uninitiated. The word ‘unfit’ also has another meaning for it has five letters and contains the name of ‘Nuit’ (Nu reversed to form ‘un’ and a central solar ‘vau’. Looking further into this we get 6+50+6+10+9=81, a perfect square. Taking ‘T’ as final, which is 400, we get 472 [4+7+2=13]. Continuing this line of examination, by dividing the word into ‘UN’ ‘F’ ‘IT’, that is using ‘F’ (vau) as the principle factor 6 we find 56 + 6 + 19=81 (a lunar number). Other equations include 56-6-19=31.
56x6-19=317 [3+1+7=11]. Now by taking the first half of the equation alone=
56+6=62 (Healing). 56-6=50 (The number of the gates of Binah, also, letter nun, and therefore Death in the Tarot). 56x6=336 [336-3=333 Choronzon]. But most interestingly: 56 divided by 6= 9.3333333 [93=Thelema, Agape etc and 333 (Choronzon) or 333+333=666].
By the second half of the equation, we find 19+6=25 (5x5, the pentagram in action and the pentagram is the symbol of Hadit). 19-6=13 (AChAD, AHBH). 19x6=114 (DMO a tear and the age of Christian Rosencreutz. Also 114-3+111), but like before, the most interesting appears with division: 19 divided by 6= 3.1666667 [31 LA & AL etc and 666 is the Beast ThRION and 667 is the Scarlet Woman by Greek gematria].22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.

There is no sin but restriction – by the strength of the individual will all things that give joy and pleasure are to be indulged as long as the initiate remains the master of all.23. I am alone: there is no God where I am.

GOD=3+70+4=77 (OZ) [7x11]. Also 3+6+4=13 (taking ‘O’ as vau).24. Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath.

Hermits not in the usual sense for they do not live in seclusion practicing a life of devotion as monks of old, they stride the world, strong and noble, the Light of Love radiating outwards in all directions.
25. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!

26. I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one.

The Serpent is the Kundalini, a sexual energy that rises up the spine to flourish in the mystic union with the Ajna, symbolic of the pentagram and the hexagram, the union of matter and spirit or man and God.27. There is great danger in me; for who doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason.

Hadit=5+1+4+10+9=29, [2+9=11]. Reason=200+5+1+7(zayin) +70+50=333 ChVRVNZVN (‘Choronzon’).28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin!

KIN=20+10+50=80.29. May Because be accursed for ever!

30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.

In its simplest form all actions which are not acted out of Love under will fail to manifest as a result of inertia and lack of interest, thus the will has been reduced to ‘slave’ and not the ‘master’ as it should be.
31. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.

32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.

33. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!

34. But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!

35. Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!

36. There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.

37. A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!

12th August. [Crowley married Rose Kelly at Dingwall in Scotland on this date in 1903].38. A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law.

8, 9 & 10 April, beginning at midday. [Crowley received the Law of Thelema on these days in the year 1904, between the hours of midday and one p.m.].39. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet--secret, O Prophet!

A secret feast known only to initiates!40. A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods.

The Invocation of Horus: 20th March, the Equinox of the Gods. [The beginning of the Thelemic New Year].
41. A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death!

Fire= puberty for a boy. Water= puberty for a girl. Feast for life= birth, and a Feast for death is ‘death’ also known as the ‘greater feast’. Feasts are joyous occasions and a time to celebrate the events in a Thelemite’s journey through life; death is not the end and it is not a time for sadness and mourning.
42. A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture!

43. A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight!

44. Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.

45. There is death for the dogs.

46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?

FAIL=6+1+10+30=47 [4+7=11].47. Where I am these are not.

48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler.

To pity an individual is to cause shame and to create weakness, which stirs the ego into action and divides the ‘one thing from the other’; this can develop into a delusion of a hierarchy of opposition and will against will. Therefore, it is better to ‘strike hard’ and let the fallen, fall.49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg. )

AMEN=AMN=91. The ‘4’ is the four elements and the ‘fifth’ is the fifth element of ‘spirit’. Damned suggests Hell (HLL=65).50. Blue am I and gold in the light of my bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my spangles are purple & green.

51. Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight.

52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me. Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries: veil not your vices in virtuous words: these vices are my service; ye do well, & I will reward you here and hereafter.

53. Fear not, o prophet, when these words are said, thou shalt not be sorry. Thou art emphatically my chosen; and blessed are the eyes that thou shalt look upon with gladness. But I will hide thee in a mask of sorrow: they that see thee shall fear thou art fallen: but I lift thee up.

Crowley overcame many difficult obstacles throughout his life and much pain and so the word ‘sorrow’ does apply to the prophet and as for his falling that is a matter of opinion.54. Nor shall they who cry aloud their folly that thou meanest nought avail; thou shall reveal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of because: They are not of me. The stops as thou wilt; the letters? change them not in style or value!

WILT=6+10+30+9=55
(1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10=55, the Mystic number of Malkuth).55. Thou shalt obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new symbols to attribute them unto.

56. Begone! ye mockers; even though ye laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long: then when ye are sad know that I have forsaken you.

57. He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.

58. Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.

59. Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him.

KING=20+10+50+3=83 [8+3=11]. HIM=5+10+40=55.60. Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!

61. There is a light before thine eyes, o prophet, a light undesired, most desirable.

EYES=5+10+5+60=80.62. I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body.

63. Thou art exhaust in the voluptuous fullness of the inspiration; the expiration is sweeter than death, more rapid and laughterful than a caress of Hell's own worm.

64. Oh! thou art overcome: we are upon thee; our delight is all over thee: hail! hail: prophet of Nu! prophet of Had! prophet of Ra-Hoor-Khu! Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, & write sweet words for the Kings.

Oh=6+5=11. WE=6+5=11.
65. I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.

66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none.

The verse ends with 6 words: ‘ONE’ 6+50+5=65 and ‘NONE’ 50+6+50+5=111 [the difference between one and none is death (50, the letter nun and ‘death; in the Tarot).

BED=2+5+4=11.
67. Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the excellent kisses!

68. Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so deep -- die!

DIE=4+10+5=19.69. Ah! Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted?

Crowley’s consciousness returns believing that the writing is finished.70. There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!

‘Eight and ninety’: 8= Cheth, the charioteer and 90= Tzaddi, the Emperor.

‘SPELLS’ by the Tarot= XIV+XVI+XVII+VIII+VIII+XIV=77 (7x11) OZ [Baphomet].71. But exceed! exceed!

72. Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine -- and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous! -- death is the crown of all.

The Thelemite must endure all forms of experiences be they painful or pleasurable to test the limitations of the will and ‘exceed’ beyond one’s expectations. The nature of the god Hadit is to be in motion and not remain inert for inertia is the great destroyer of the self; the will must aspire to continual growth through the practice of new experiences and the process of ‘refining’ and ‘exceeding’ those experiences.
73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee.

74. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings.

75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:

The sentence seems to suggest that the numbers and words in verse 76 have a hidden oral cipher.
76. 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember, o chosen one, to be me; to follow the love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to tell them this glad word.

LOVE=30+70+6+5=111.
‘GLAD’ word= Glad by the Tarot= II+VIII+O+III=13 [AChad (unity) & AHBH (love). 13 is also 31 reversed. Glad = 3+30+1+4=38 (3+8=11). 38x11+418.
‘WORD’ by the Tarot= V+XV+XIX+III=42.

Glad word= 13+42=55 [5x11, the pentagram and the number of Magick. 55 is the mystic number of Malkuth].
77. O be thou proud and mighty among men!

‘O be’=70+2+5=77 (Oz etc) also, 6+2+5=13 (AHBH, AChAD…)
78. Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men or among Gods! Lift up thyself, o my prophet, thy stature shall surpass the stars. They shall worship thy name, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, the number of the man; and the name of thy house 418.

‘house 418’= Boleskine House on the banks of Loch Ness in Scotland where Crowley began the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. GODS=3+70+4+60=137 [1+3+7=11] Boleskine=BVLShKIN=2+6+30+300+20+10+50= 418.

LIFT= 30+10+6+9=55.
79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!

‘Star’ by the Tarot= XIV+XI+O+XIX=44 (DM, blood).