"History of Ciphers" (part 4c) - The Thelemic Ciphers (III)

    Dear Reader,

    In this third part of the History of Thelemic ciphers we will be talking more about two specific ciphers, which I have already addressed in Part II of this Thelemic series of texts. These ciphers are:

    – The Illuminati Novice cipher. My Readers may think it is strange that I'm talking again about a cipher that I have already explored in my first text regarding the History of Ciphers. My justification for this will become apparent when I explain it to my Readers;

    – The Anglossic Qabbala / Alphanumeric Gematria. This cipher hides some surprises and it will be of great interest in this specific Thelemic context. Even though it is used mainly in a context that has nothing to do with Thelema, the way how it shows some curious "synchronicities" in an analysis of Thelema and certain key Thelemic materials, is more than noteworthy and will thus be fully explored in this presentation of mine. My work with this cipher is still in its early days, but so far it has delivered some very, very curious results.

    I also planned to make reference to other specific Thelemic ciphers. However, as the publication of this text was purposefully delayed for almost two weeks, those other ciphers will have to be explored in a fourth — and final... finally! — chapter on the history of the Thelemic ciphers.

 

   With these words, let us then continue with the fourth part of...

Hystory of Ciphers

by Luís Gonçalves

Part 4: The Thelemic Ciphers (III)

    In the first part of the History of Thelemic Ciphers, I talked about how English Qaballa was discovered in the context of the search for a "Key of it All" which would unravel the mysteries of Liber AL.

    Eventually, my search for materials about English Qaballa led me to a book by Allen H. Greenfield, an occultist and UFOlogist, called "Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts". In this book, Greenfield explains how he used English Qaballa to decode the "strange" names in some esoteric UFOlogical movements, and comes to the conclusion that this would be the true "Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts", and that it would be the "key" to UFOlogy.

    A word of caution is needed at this point. Even though I enjoy Greenfield's work and find it entertaining, I believe that it would be immature to consider EQ to be the "ultimate key" to Esoteric UFOlogy, based on the examples given by Allen H. Greenfield. The reason for this is that English Qaballa, as well as other ciphers that are used for the English Alphabet, uses low values (from 1 to 26 only), and so it isn't that difficult or improbable to find "meaningful" connections for any desired name, word or phrase. There are certain mathematical and probabilistic laws at play whenever we work with Gematria, and some of those laws can be more easily verifiable when we work with low-value ciphers (especially Ordinal and Reduction ciphers):

    – Words/phrases with the same number of letters will be more likely to share the same value (thus demonstrating that it isn't always the "concept" or "meaning" behind a word or phrase that is important, but instead its structure and the specific letters that compose it);

    – The most probable value of a word/phrase in an Ordinal or Reduction cipher can be easily predicted by considering (1) the number of its letters, and (2) the mean value of each letter in that specific cipher. This mean value can be obtained by calculating the total sum of all letters of the alphabet divided by the number of letters (26 in the Modern English alphabet). For example, using Serial English (A=1, B=2, ..., Z=26), the mean value of the letters is 351/26 = 13,5. Multiplying 13,5 by the number of letters of a word returns its most probable value in Serial English. In other words, if you have a list of words that share the same number of letters, it's quite probable that you'll find some "matches" in that list – regardless of the meaning of those words or phrases. It's very important to keep this in mind. Context is fundamental in Gematria.

    One of the examples given by Allen H. Greenfield in "Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts" is the case of the well-known "contactee" George Adamski who claimed to have been visited by a Venusian alien called Orthon, on November 20, 1952. According to Adamski's own words, Orthon was a "long-haired visitor from the sky calling for peace on Earth and good will" (Greenfield, pg. 23), and according to English Qaballa, "ORTHON" = 68 (EQ) = "JESUS":

    Applying the same principle, one could use any Ordinal cipher to find equally "meaningful" connections. If we use the Elizabethan Simple cipher, for example, which I have already addressed in my text about the Baconian ciphers, we will be surprised to note that the name "Orthon" seems to point to Aleister Crowley himself (remember that the "Orthon" episode supposedly happened 5 years after A.C. had passed away):

 

    "ORTHON" = 85 (Bacon Simple) = "ALEISTER" = "THERION" = "KO YUEN"

    In fact, here we have the alien's name "Orthon", Crowley's first (adopted) name "Aleister", one of his titles ("Therion" meaning "Beast" in Greek), as well as "Ko Yuen", the pseudonym he used when writing Liber 157, The Tao Teh King.

    Correspondences and "matches" like these are often ludicrous and deceive more than they enlighten, so we've got to be extremely careful when taking "conclusions" based solely on numerical matches using Gematria. Particularly, using certain ciphers out of their natural context (when/where applicable) can be especially misleading.

    Anyway, it was precisely this type of exercises that kept me engaged in reading Allen H. Greenfield's book. Even though I didn't always agree with the methods and the conclusions that the author took from his discoveries, I felt that I could replicate those results – or even find better results – by using another cipher. As at that time I was deeply involved in my studies about the Bavarian Illuminati and their numerical cipher, my next step was easily predictable:

    Why not using the numerical cipher of the Illuminati to "decode" stuff? I had already managed to find some astounding patterns when I applied it to the Great Seal in the 1 Dollar bill, so now was the time to start using it in other contexts. So yeah... in a way, I also used the numerical cipher of the Illuminati out of its natural context, even though I had some "strong" reasons to do it. I'll elaborate more on that in a few moments.

    I had read all materials about English Qaballa that were available to me, and I thought how extraordinary it was that a single cipher like that was able to deliver some extremely curious results in the analysis of the Holy Books of Thelema, and more specifically of Liber AL vel Legis. What would happen if I used the numerical cipher of the Illuminati in trying to decode the same Thelemic materials?

    And then, in 2009 I wrote an article. 😁

"Liber AL vel Legis and the Illuminati Cipher"

    This article was published on June 15, 2009 on my long abandoned blog called Ciphers & Symbols of the Illuminati. It was later to be published in Volume 2, Issue 2, on the Summer Solstice 2010 edition of Silver Star – A Journal of New Magick.

    Today, looking again at my text, I confess that it is a bit clumsy on some parts, even though the overall idea was good. If I were to write it now I would most certainly write it in a different way, and possibly with more interesting "matches".

    The reason why I felt compelled to use the Illuminati Cipher in "decoding" Liber AL vel Legis has mostly to do with a very important (though frequently underestimated) symbol in the religion/philosophy of Thelema – the Circumpunct, or a Circled Dot:

 

The Circumpunct, or a Point within a Circle. A traditional symbol of the Sun since ancient times, and the official symbol of the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati.

      The importance of this symbol in the context of Thelema may not be immediately grasped, but in order to explain it to my Readers I would like to recommend the reading of my own article from August 2009 The Real Symbol of the Illuminati (greatly based on Terry Melanson's excellent book "Perfectibilists – The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati": link here). I would also like to quote some passages from Kenneth Grant's masterful book "The Magical Revival", which will no doubt enlighten the meaning of this all-important symbol in the context of Thelema: 

    [Speaking about Carl Kellner's O.T.O. – Ordo Templi Orientis] 

    "This Order also included the Hermetic Brethren known as the Illuminati, headed in the eighteenth century by the notorious Adam Weishaupt, whose work, though still incalculable, is of undoubted significance in relation to the present magical revival.

    Jean Adam Weishaupt (1748-1830) founded the Order of the Illuminati on May 1, 1776. He adopted the symbol of the Point within the Circle to represent the Current that found expression through him. He formulated the basic principles of the Order in terms very similar to those which Crowley uses in Liber Oz.

    The "Lost Word" in Weishaupt's system, is "Man". The recovery of this Word required that man should find himself again; that the redemption of humanity is to be effected through and by man; that man should govern himself and throw off the shackles of alien powers and controls. In a word, he should become a king in his own right, by virtue of his own primal inheritance.  

    Later, in Crowley's system, the idea of the "kingly man" became paramount; it is synonymous with being a Thelemite, i.e. one who has discovered his True Will (thelema) and is capable of doing it. Hence, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.  

    When Crowley assumed control of the O.T.O., he chose as its motto Deus est Homo (God is Man), and in Liber Oz he declares "There is no God but Man". It was to Man that his Manifesto was addressed, when, in the middle of the Mediterranean in 1924, he declared Thelema (Will) to be the Word of the Law, in accordance with what had been revealed to him by Aiwaz in Cairo, twenty years previously."

Some paragraphs afterwards, Kenneth Grant writes:

    "The Point within the Circle, the symbol of the Illuminati, is not only the hierogram of the Sun and of the god Horus, but, in Crowley's system, is also symbolic of the union of Nuit and Hadit, which are emblematic of Consciousness and its projection as a ray of light.  

    The union of the Circle (Nuit) and the Point (Hadit) formulates their "child", or combined wills, expressed as Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The Circle and the Point also represent the abstract expressions of Love and Will, twin components of the magical equation known as the Law of Thelema."

    We have seen in the previous texts about the Thelemic ciphers that Crowley's Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis) is divided into three chapters, with each one being represented by a specific Thelemic 'deity', which is also its respective 'speaker':

    – Chapter 1: represented by Nuit, the ever-expanding circle;

    – Chapter 2: represented by Hadit, the infinitesimal point and "centre of the wheel";

    – Chapter 3: represented by Ra-hoor-khuit, the Solar Child of Nuit and Hadit; the Lord of the Aeon; the Sun ⊙.

    It certainly isn't a coincidence that this online version of Liber AL vel Legis has the symbol of each deity right at the start of each respective chapter: first the circle, then the dot, and finally the circled dot or circumpunct.

    In my studies of languages and their alphabets I remembered that the Greek letter Theta Θ (corresponding to the Hebrew letter Teth ט) wasn't always written the same way: in fact, in ancient times it was sometimes written as a point within a circle, or as a crossed circle. There are many examples of Greek tetradrachms (a "tetradrachm" was a coin used in ancient Athens) where, besides the Owl of Athena, we can see the three letters Alpha-Theta-Epsilon (A-TH-E) – and the letter Theta has a distinct circle-dot configuration:

Athenian Owl Tetradrachm: from Ancient Art & Numismatics.

    Now, why would this be important in the context of Thelema?

 

    Well... Thelema (Θελημα, "will") begins with a Theta, as does Therion (Θηριον, "Beast"), the "Beast 666" which was incarnated by Aleister Crowley himself. Besides, in Crowley's own rearrangement of traditional qabalistic correspondences for the Hebrew alphabet, the letter Teth corresponds to the Tarot card of "Lust" (the traditional "Strength"), which shows the goddess Babalon, or the Scarlet Woman, riding upon the 7-headed Beast from the biblical text of Revelation – and this is more than fitting to Aleister Crowley's doctrine / religion / philosophy of Thelema. The qabalistic value of the letter Teth written in full (טית) is 419, which is another key number in Thelema, and just one more ("one to follow thee"?) than 418, the Word of the Aeon – Abrahadabra. Another primitive form of the Hebrew letter Teth, the crossed circle, is also specifically mentioned in the verse III:47 as the "circle squared":

The "circle squared" in the manuscript of the Book of the Law.

 

     The first time I noticed these "coincidences" was when I was staring at the Holy Sigil of Aleister Crowley's Fraternity of the A∴A∴, in which two alternative forms of the letter Theta/Teth can be seen:

     In the upper part of this sigil we can see a crossed circle 𐤈, which was the Phoenician shape of the later Hebrew letter Teth. And at the centre of the sigil, in the middle of the seven 7's, the modern shape of the Greek letter Theta appears: θ.

    With all these synchronicities, and the seemingly obvious connection between Thelema, the Illuminati, their official symbol of the Point within the Circle, and the letter Theta/Teth, my most logical conclusion was to apply the numerical cipher of the Illuminati to the text of this same sigil. And the result was... quite interesting!

Cipher table from GEMATRO - Gematria Calculator.

    [Notice that I'm writing the V's in the sigil as U's. As the Illuminati Cipher doesn't differentiate "U" from "V", giving the same value to both letters (as it is based on an older form of our own alphabet), this difference doesn't affect the final result.]

    What's interesting about this number it that 343 is the product of 7×7×7 – and the same sigil discloses another very clear reference to the number 7, by repeating it exactly seven times. In fact, the seven 7's refer to the formula of Babalon, whose number (in both Greek Isopsephia and Hebrew Gematria) is 156:

 

    The most interesting aspect of this, however, is that if you add the letters of BABALON, which can also be seen in the Holy Sigil of the A∴A∴, the final result is 418 – which is the value of Abrahadabra, the Word of the Aeon!

(click to enlarge)

    Another phrase where I tested the numerical cipher of the Illuminati was the motto of the A∴A∴, "The method of science, the aim of religion". This motto first appears in Aleister Crowley's The Equinox:

Source: Scans from Aleister Crowley's The Equinox.

    Using the Illuminati Cipher, this motto shows an intriguing connection with the Greek letter Theta, which as we have seen corresponds to the Circumpunct – the real symbol of the Bavarian Illuminati – and it perfectly symbolizes Crowley's own Scientific Illuminism.

(click to enlarge)

    Certainly not of less interest is the fact that in Greek, the words Theta (the Greek letter Θ) and Helios (the Sun) share the same value. The Circumpunct, or Circled Dot, is an old – and almost universal – symbol of the Sun.

 

 

    I also noted the value, using the Illuminati Cipher, of the transliterations of the names of the two letters, "THETA" (Greek) and "TETH" (Hebrew), and those have clear Solar associations too:

    These two tables, of course, do not necessarily "prove" that the letters Theta and Teth are related to the Sun, since we are analyzing foreign names by their modern Latin transliteration, not by how they're written in their native languages. The exception here is obviously "Theta" and "Helios" written in Greek, which share the same value in Greek Isopsephia. Anyway, I present these last two tables to my Readers merely as a curious coincidence that is worthy of note.

    As soon as I started analyzing Crowley's Liber AL vel Legis more coincidences and synchronicities started to emerge. I'm not showing all of them, as that would be tedious and needlessly repetitive (they're already mentioned in my old/abandoned blog). However, I must address at least two of them, which I believe will attract my Readers' attention.

    After I searched for more clues in Liber AL regarding this Thelemic/Illuminati connection to the letter Theta and the Circumpunct, I noted especially verses 49 and 50 of the third chapter:

"I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods of men." (AL III:49)

"Curse them! Curse them! Curse them!" (AL III:50)

    In Crowley's commentaries to this verse, Crowley notes a probable connection between the "secret fourfold word" and the Law of Thelema "Do what thou wilt" (4 words). However, as it seems to me, "Do what thou wilt" wouldn't be fitting to the description of a "fourfold word". Instead, in my interpretation back then, I imagined that the word "Theta" (with 4 letters in Greek, thus a "fourfold word") would be quite fitting to this description, as I noted in my text from 2009:

    "The secret fourfold word is Θητα, Theta (4-lettered in greek), which is the blasphemy against all gods of men because it represents the Point in the Circle, the Lord of the Aeon, and the Word of the Law ("Thelema", beginning by a greek Theta). Besides, the three sentences in AL III:50 (3x "Curse them!") have a total value of 318, according to the Illuminati Cipher, which is the value of Theta written in full (Θητα), according to Greek Isopsephia."

[From: Liber AL vel Legis and the Illuminati Cipher by Luís Gonçalves, 2009]

(click to enlarge)

    Another of the verses of Liber AL where I applied the numerical cipher of the Illuminati was the following one:

"I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty." (AL I:24)

    It is usually believed that "six and fifty" refers to "NU", which sums 56 in Hebrew Gematria and is the first word of the second chapter of the Book of the Law. In fact, it's curious to note that the first chapter of Liber AL (corresponding to Nuit) begins with the word "HAD", while the second chapter (corresponding to Hadit) begins with the word "NU". Crowley's own Old and New Commentaries on the Book of the Law make this mathematical puzzle clearer, and the verse following this one gives some clues as to how this puzzle should be solved:

"Divide, add, multiply, and understand." (AL I:25)

    The Illuminati Cipher, however, gives a simple solution, as "six and fifty" (56) is precisely the value of the word "NUIT":

 

     Another example of the use of the Illuminati Novice cipher in the 'decoding' of the Book of the Law is right at the beginning of the first chapter, where the intelligence that dictated Liber AL to Aleister Crowley in 1904 presents him/itself:

"Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat." (AL I:7)

    In his commentaries to this verse, Crowley writes:

    "Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the "Babe in the Egg of Blue", is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. The connexion is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is unmanifested.

    (...)

    But the "Small Person" of Hindu mysticism, the Dwarf insane yet crafty of many legends in many lands, is also this same "Holy Ghost", or Silent Self of a man, or his Holy Guardian Angel.

    He is almost the "Unconscious" of Freud, unknown, unaccountable, the silent Spirit, blowing "whither it listeth, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth". It commands with absolute authority when it appears at all, despite conscious reason and judgment.

    Aiwass is then, as this verse 7 states, the "minister" of this Hoor-paar-Kraat, that is of the Saviour of the World in the larger sense, and of mine own "Silent Self" in the lesser."

    How curious it is, then, that using the Illuminati Cipher, the phrase "minister of Hoor-paar-kraat" shares exactly the same value as Crowley's own birth name!

    The name "Aiwass" itself is of great interest, since it shows with a motto that Crowley used X° (Rex) of the O.T.O.. Coincidently, it also coincides with the name of the qabalistic Spirit of the Sun, Sorath (סורת), whose number in Hebrew Gematria is 666.

(The name "Bafomitr" is an alternative spelling of "Baphomet", and it was obtained by Crowley during the Amalantrah Working.)

 

   But the name "Hoor-paar-kraat" is also very interesting from a gematric point of view, since its value in the Illuminati Cipher is 169, or 13×13, and it can thus represent the "Unity of Unities" since "One" in Hebrew is Achad, which sums 13. In my article from May 2008, "Ciphers of the Illuminati and the One Dollar bill", I had already come across this number, as it is the value of the only two mottos in the 1 Dollar bill that have 13 letters, as well as of "Eye in the Pyramid" and "Eye in the Triangle":

 

     And with this I conclude this section about my use of the Illuminati Cipher in the context of Thelema. I invite my Readers, however, if they're interested in pursuing this research further, to take a look at my text: Liber AL vel Legis and the Illuminati Cipher.

 

 

Concluding Remarks on the Cipher of the Illuminati

 

 

     At this time some of my Readers will ask: "So, is the cipher of the Illuminati a Thelemic cipher?" My answer will be a definite NO. As far as I know, the first person using the Illuminati Cipher to "decode" Thelemic materials was me, when I wrote the article that I previously mentioned. Nor are there any reasons to associate this numerical cipher to Thelema, except in a symbolical level — and that's precisely the reason why applied it to the Holy Books of Thelema in the first place.

    Besides an obvious connection between Thelema and the doctrines of the Illuminati, as explained by Kenneth Grant in "The Magical Revival" (whose valuable quotes were included in this text of mine), there is also an intriguing connection between the Circled Dot (the official symbol of the Illuminati), the three "speakers" of the Book of the Law (Nuit = the Circle, Hadit = the Dot, Ra-hoor-khuit = the Circled Dot), and the Greek letter Theta which is the initial of the word "Thelema" — as well as the Hebrew letter Teth, which represents the union of Babalon and the Beast.

 

     So when I saw all these intriguing symbolical connections, I thought that maybe I should give it a try. My work with the Illuminati cipher in a Thelemic context is far from complete, though, so obviously this is a work in progress.

    Giving then a more detailed answer to the question presented in this section:

 

    1. Is this a Thelemic cipher? No, it isn't.

 

    2. Can this cipher be used in a Thelemic context? Well, from some of the things that I've presented in this text, I would argue that yes, the Illuminati cipher can be used in a Thelemic context. However, this will always be the result of a personal choice, so obviously, what is valid for me may not be equally valid for all my Readers. So, can it actually be used in a Thelemic context? I'll let you decide the answer to that question, my fellow Reader. 😉

 

 

* * *

 

 

    The following cipher I'll be talking about is one that came to my life with a number of curious "coincidences" and synchronicities. My work with it was absolutely feverish from the very first moment I found that it was actually being used by someone (for some reasons that I'll explain in due time). Technically speaking, even though it is not a "Thelemic" cipher, it surely does deliver exceedingly interesting results when applied to a Thelemic context – so that's the reason why I'm writing about it in this text of mine.

    Fasten your seat belts! I present you...

Anglossic Qabbala

(Alphanumeric Qabbalism)

    This specific cipher has become absolutely fascinating for me from the first time I read about it, and I'm pretty sure that most of my Readers will enjoy (or at least be intrigued by) this presentation of mine. Even though the context where this cipher is most frequently used has nothing to do with Thelema, the fact is that not only it is perfectly logical from an alphanumeric point of view, but it also delivers some quite extraordinary results in the context of Thelema. So, if I was writing about Thelemic ciphers, and as this cipher is hardly known outside of the context where it is usually used, I guessed that it would be a nice finding to most of my Readers who are more into the practice of Gematria.

    The best way to explain what this cipher is, is by talking about numeration systems first.

 

    As we all know, our modern numeration is by definition a positional base-10 (decimal) numeration system, which of course uses ten digits from 0 to 9 to represent numbers. What this means in practical terms is that a numeral written in our base-10, like for example 365, is to be interpreted as 3×10² + 6×10¹ + 5×10º, or 300+60+5. In other words, the decimal value of a digit is to be calculated according to its position inside a numeral, and that position always corresponds to a specific power of 10 (i.e., 10, 10×10, 10×10×10, etc). That's why we count in tens, hundreds and thousands.

    Other numeration systems exist, of course, and we have plenty examples of them. One such example comes from France, where the names for the numbers 70, 80 and 90 show a clear influence of an anterior vigesimal (base-20) numeration system. Their names in French (as spoken in France) are:

– 70 = soixante-dix (literally, "sixty [and] ten");

 

– 80 = quatre-vingts ("four twenties");

– 90 = quatre-vingts-dix ("four twenties [and] ten").

    Other cultures have used and continue to use a base-20 numeration. The Sumerians and Babylonians, for example, used a base-60 numeration system, which has left its influence in the modern counting of minutes and seconds in groups of sixty.

    There are many other numeration systems, of course. In fact, there can be as many numeration systems as there are numbers. Binary or base-2 numeration (using 1's and 0's only), for example, is the basis of computing and telecommunications, while Base-16 (hexadecimal), with its sixteen digits from 0 to F (=15) is also widely known and used.

    This last numeration system I mentioned is of special interest in this case. Hexadecimal (base-16) numeration obviously needs sixteen different digits in order to express numbers, which we don't have in our numeration (because it's decimal). The answer to this problem lies in using letters of the alphabet as numerical digits, which in this case are the letters from A=10 to F=15, in order to make a total of sixteen different digits in base-16, from 0 to F.

 

    Some of my Readers might wonder at this point: How about we use 0 to 9, and all the letters of the alphabet, as numerical digits? My answer is: that's precisely the point in regards to Base-36. And how does that work?

    Base-36 (Hexatridecimal or Sexatrigesimal – there are some different opinions regarding its "correct" name) is elegantly fitting to the modern English alphabet, as it uses the Arabic numerals from 0 to 9, as well as all the letters of the alphabet in order to achieve a total of 36 numerical digits. In fact, Base-36 can be seen as a harmonious continuation of Hexadecimal (Base-16) in the sense that it continues the same numerical sequence from A=10 to F=15, and then to Z=35.

     In mid December 2020, me and Saun Virroco (the creator of GEMATRO - Gematria Calculator), during one of our subversive-creative-highly-technical conversations, talked about Gematria and the meaning of "numerical matches" in non-decimal bases, and Base-36 was precisely one of the subjects we talked about. My interest in Base-36 numeration arose when I read an article called Understanding Base-36 Math, where a part of the text immediately caught my attention:

    "By using the base-36 number, massively bigger numbers can be referenced with an economy of size. While a two digit number gets you to 99; ZZ, a two digit Base-36 expression gets to 1295.  Z,ZZZ,ZZZ is the base ten equivalent of 78,364,164,095.

    With that seven digit number under base-36, you can reference every person alive and almost every person who was ever alive with their own unique 7-digit number."

 

 

    This was extremely significant in a lot of ways. In some of my previous texts, particularly the one about the Latin ciphers, I talked about 666: the "Number of the Beast". This number is of special interest in this case because it holds a deep connection with the number 36. If you add all natural numbers from 1 to 36, you get 666: or, in other words, 666 is the 36ᵗʰ triangular number (that's why roulette is called the "Devil's game", by the way). When I read this excerpt I immediately recalled the biblical text referencing the same number:

 

    "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: / And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. / Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

 

[Revelation 13:16-18, KJV]

 

 

    Actually... the practical meaning of the "Mark of the Beast" would become quite apparent if, one day in the future, we received a singular "World Citizen ID Code" composed of 7 digits in Base-36. But that's just me thinking out loud... 👀

 

   So... some days before the actual moment of 'discovery' of Anglossic Qabbala I thought about using just the alphabetical part of this numeration as a system of Gematria. At that time I actually misnamed this cipher by baptizing it "Hexadecimal Qabalah", since 'hexadecimal' refers to Base-16, not Base-36. The correct name would have been "Hexatridecimal Qabalah".

 

Custom cipher table made with GEMATRO - Gematria Calculator.

 

    Then, in a completely unexpected way, Saun Virroco told me on April 29, 2021 that someone had 'forked' his calculator, adding a cipher called "Anglossic Qabbala", as well as a link to some 2004 blog with further informations on that cipher.

    The link pointed to a post titled Qabbala 101: Part 1 in the Hyperstition blog. In this text, a short (and to the point) explanation is given about Anglossic Qabbala:

    "The basic tool of August Barrow's 'Anglossic Qabbala' is the Alphanumeric Gematria.

    Since this numerization of the Neo-Roman alphabet merely continues the procedure now familiar from Hexadecimal (A = 10 ... F = 15), it proved elusive to qabbalists expecting a traditional gematria.

    As Reza [Negarestani] has explained in his introductions to the Abjad, these traditional systems (whether Hebrew, Greek, Farsi or Arabic) have distinctive typical features:
(1) They substitute letters for numerical values, overcoding numerals where they exist.
(2) They code for discontinuous numerical values, typically 1-10, then 20, 30 ... chunked in decimally significant magnitudes. 

In contrast, Barrow's Gematria is a continuous nonredundant system, supplementing the numerals 0-9 with numerized letters from A (= 10) to Z (= 35), treating the 0-Z alphanumeric sequence as a numeral succession, corresponding to the numerals of a modulus 36 notation."

 

    Leaving aside the reference to "August Barrow", whose name I had never heard before, I was completely blown away, as in fact this was a perfect explanation of my own thoughts about what I had called the "Hexatridecimal Qabalah".

 

     Anglossic Qabbala, or Alphanumeric Gematria, or Alphanumeric Qabbala as it is more frequently called ("AQ" for short), is precisely based on Base-36 numeration, but using only the correspondences for the letters for the purposes of Gematria:

Cipher table from GEMATRO - Gematria Calculator.

     Some time later I learned that this text called "Qabbala 101" was written by Nick Land, an English philosopher considered to be the 'father' of a fringe philosophy known as Accelerationism and one of the co-founders of the CCRU – Cybernetic Culture Research Unit together with Sadie Plant. He's also a writer of horror fiction, and to my knowledge, he has profusely used Anglossic Qabbala throughout many of his works. In fact, Land is the only source for AQ that I know of.

    When I started studying these things, it all seemed... quite unusual, to say the least! All of it seemed so strange, schizophrenic and alien, that I thought that it could actually be dangerous for anyone unprepared to deal with this, or with a weak mind – an opinion which, in a way, I continue to uphold to this day. That was actually one of the reasons why I wasn't sure if I should write about this cipher, in the first place.

 

    I'm not a fan of Accelerationism, and to be honest with my Readers, I can't really enjoy most of Nick Land's works. However, something that I quickly realized is that the CCRU Writings are all heavily coded with Alphanumeric Qabbala, and I started seeing patterns all over the texts, including the "strange names", neologisms and "curious" spellings of words. In fact, it is the mathematical and alphanumeric, as well as the "Lovecraftian" aspects of the CCRU materials – including Hyperstition, the Numogram, Tic Xenotation, etc (link) – as well as Nick Land's own work with numbers (see One Two Many: On Nick Land's Numbering Practices), that kept me curious. Anyway, this is an extremely vast material and I wouldn't like to spend too much time with these explanations. If my Readers are interested in pursuing these studies, I can only warn you that it can be heavy, dirty, and seem markedly alien to your own "common sense" – but that's precisely how it should be from its own point of view. These are not light readings.

    Strictly speaking about Anglossic Qabbala, there are a number of questions that could be asked about this system of Gematria. Namely:

    1. Where did this cipher come from?

 

    2. Why 'Anglossic Qabbala'? What does 'Anglossic' mean?

    3. Are there other names for this cipher? And if so, which ones?

    4. Why would AQ (and Base-36) be relevant in the context of Thelema?

    All of these questions will hopefully be answered in this text of mine.

    1. Where did this cipher come from?

    From what I've presented before, Nick Land seems to be the sole source for the use of AQ as a system of Gematria. However, in "Qabbala 101" Land mentions the name "August Barrow" in connection with this cipher, a name that didn't seem familiar to me. After searching for both of the names, "August Barrow" and "Anglossic Qabbala", I was only able to find materials from either Land or CCRU, nothing more. The CCRU Writings only mention "Barrow" three times, and on one of those occasions it simply says: "18th century occultist August Barrow". And that's all the information given about "Barrow".

    At first I was really confused about this, until I understood that "August Barrow" was a "hyperstitional carrier" and so, not a "real" historical person – depending, of course, on how you define "real".

    In this case, the name "August Barrow" should have a meaning. First I noted the initials of the name: if we write the name as "A.B.", that could stand for the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha+Beta (obviously, the origin of our own word "alphabet"). And this seemed to be the original intention, as both "August Barrow" and "English Alphabet" share exactly the same value:

 

    I had also noted another very curious correspondence using the same principle, because the initials of the name of this cipher (AQ) give a total sum of 10+26 = 36, which is precisely the numerical base behind the creation of this cipher. A similarly significant correspondence happens if we use the name "Alphanumeric Gematria", since A+G equals 10+16 = 26, which is the number of letters in the English Alphabet.

    I would recommend my Readers, however, to always use "AQ" when you're referring to this cipher, as it is the most common acronym for this cipher, and it also beautifully describes what Anglossic Qabbala is all about:

    — A=10, representing the ten Arabic numerals from 0 to 9;

    — Q=26, representing the twenty-six letters of the English Alphabet.

    ... thus perfectly illustrating that AQ was formulated from Base-36 numeration.

    2. Why 'Anglossic Qabbala'? What does 'Anglossic' mean? 

 

 

    The word "Anglossic", as well as "Anglossia", only occur once in the CCRU Writings. In the CCRU Writings, the term "Anglossic" is referred to as the gematric value of a word using AQ. And in the CCRU Glossary, "Anglossia" is defined as "Language of the Angels" and the "mystical telos of the English language". The first time I read the cipher's name I thought that it referred to the English language (by a subtle reference to the Germanic people of the Angles, or the Anglo-Saxons), but the reference to "angels" could still be an anagrammatic reference to the Angles – and thus to the English ("Angelic") language.

    There is more to this than meets the eye, though, as the value of "Language of the angels" hides a curious 'secret'. In fact, the total sum of this phrase corresponds to the total sum of all natural numbers from 1 to 26, thus showing a clear connection with the 26 letters of the English Alphabet:

    The part about the "mystical telos" (i.e. ultimate purpose) "of the English language" is also especially revealing...

    And this is especially revealing because 666 is the 36ᵗʰ triangular number. So this is another connection with Base-36 numeration, and its connection with Alphanumeric Qabbala.

 

    Well... by now you should be able to understand my interest about the mathematics and Gematria contained in the CCRU Writings. This is just a very small part of all the gematric riddles contained in these writings. 😁

    3. Are there other names for this cipher? And if so, which ones?

    I've only known three names for this from the sources I mentioned before: "Anglossic Qabbala", "Alphanumeric Gematria", and "Alphanumeric Qabbala". The last one is perhaps the most common, even though Anglossic Qabbala is equally used. In any case, regardless of the spelling that we choose to use, the acronym "AQ" has become widely used as a reference to this specific cipher.

    From a Thelemic point of view, however, "Anglossic Qabbala" seems to be especially relevant, as its total sum equals 279, or 3×93, a key number in Thelema:

    I wasn't able to find any "meaningful" connection for any of the other two names, except "Alphanumeric Qabbala" = 328 (AQ) = "Number of Letters" – which in this case could have a double meaning.

    However, there was a fourth name for AQ that I found in the Hyperstition blog and it is absolutely... brilliant.

 

    In a post called Problems and Mysteries, in the comment section, there was a brief discussion / disagreement on how "AQ" should be called. In two comments written on December 22, 2004, Land wrote:

    "(...) [I'll use AQ, for Alphanumeric Qabbalism, until one of you guys comes up with something better]

    PS. Of course, since AQ = 36, maybe no one will."

    This is fascinating, even though it looks misleadingly simple, for two reasons. As we have seen before, the AQ cipher was created from the base-36 numerical notation, so it is highly significant that "AQ" totals 10+26 = 36. However, there is more to this than it looks, and we can only see "beyond the appearances" once we calculate the value of Alphanumeric Qabbalism:

    And why is this important? It becomes astonishingly meaningful once you find out how the number 386 is written in Base-36:

386 = 10(A)×36 + 26(Q)×1

    So... not only do the initials of "Alphanumeric Qabbalism" (AQ) sum 36, which represents the actual origin of Anglossic Qabbala (Base-36), but the gematric value of that name also corresponds to "AQ" when converted to Base-36. This was actually one of the most satisfying discoveries I made while studying Anglossic Qabbala, and it surely shows some of Land's ingenious uses of AQ in order to encode numerical clues in his texts.

    I wondered, however, about where did the unusual spelling of "Qabbalism" come from. And I found one – only one – source where the exact same spelling is used: Manly P. Hall in his "The Secret Teachings of All Ages", an author that, by some strange coincidence, I had already talked about a lot in my text about the Baconian ciphers. In this book, in a chapter dedicated to the Fraternity of the Rose Cross, Hall used the expression "Rosicrucian Qabbalism" – and while there isn't any clue in the text that this could refer to any system of Gematria, I found it really interesting that "Rosicrucian Qabbalism" shares the same value as "Alphanumeric Qabbalism" in AQ:

    In my text about the Baconian ciphers I wrote about two Baconian/Rosicrucian ciphers known as the "Kaye" ciphers. There are two different Kaye ciphers: one is called the "Bacon Kaye" cipher and is adapted to the Elizabethan English alphabet of 24 letters (where I=J and U=V), containing two extra signs ("&" and "et"); the other one is called the "Modern Kaye" cipher and is adapted to the Modern English alphabet of 26 letters.

 

Bacon Kaye

Cipher table from "Baconian-Rosicrucian Ciphers" (PDF - 2,56 MB)

 

Cipher table from GEMATRO - Gematria Calculator.

    The importance of these ciphers (and this correspondence between phrases) in this context lies in the fact that, just like Anglossic Qabbala, these two ciphers also comprise values from 10 to 35, thus making it possible to use them as a (cryptic Rosicrucian?) Base-36 numeration system. The only difference between these ciphers and AQ is that in the Kaye ciphers the alphanumerical sequence begins at the 10th letter of the alphabet (K=10 in Elizabethan English, J=10 in Modern English), while in Anglossic Qabbala the alphanumerical sequence begins with A=10.

 

Table by Luís Gonçalves – click to enlarge.

   

    If any of my Readers has read the CCRU Writings, it will also be interesting to note that an anonymous (hyperstitional?) William Kaye is mentioned several times in those texts.

    I will also take this opportunity to show another curious detail. The specific spelling of "Qabbalism" sums 157 in the AQ cipher, and that is a known Rosicrucian/Baconian Seal number of Sir Francis Bacon:

    However, I must make it clear that I don't believe that there is any direct connection between Anglossic Qabbala and a hypothetical secret Rosicrucian Base-36 numeration system. This was simply something that seemed to me to be extremely interesting, so I thought that I should share it here with my Readers.

    4. Why would AQ (and Base-36) be relevant in the context of Thelema?

    Up until this point I've only talked about Anglossic Qabbala outside of a purely Thelemic context, which was something that I had to do if I wanted to talk about the 'history' of this cipher. However, the question remains: "Why would this cipher, and Base-36, be relevant in the context of Thelema?".

    Well, first of all there is a basic numerical 'coincidence': AQ was devised from Base-36 numeration, and the sum of the first 36 integers (1+2+3+...+36) is 666. Didn't Aleister Crowley call himself the "Beast 666"? And isn't 666 a peculiarly important number in the doctrines and symbolism of Thelema? That alone is worth noting if we are trying to make sense from any possible connection between AQ and Thelema.

    But there's also a curious geographical coincidence. According to the Wikipedia article on the CCRU, when this collective had to withdraw from its space at (or claim affiliation with) Warwick University, it started to operate from a flat in Leamington Spa – precisely the place where, in 1875, Aleister Crowley was born.

 

    If we apply this cipher to the Holy Books of Thelema, particularly to Liber AL vel Legis, some curious patterns emerge. I ask my Readers to please note that this is a disconnected series of findings using AQ, meaning that there isn't any specific order in which I'll show them – except when it is logical to show some findings together.

    Some of these discoveries were already covered by Nick Land in Part 1 of Qabbala 101,  while some others have been the result of my own research. I invite my Readers to read Mr. Land's text, as it surely contains some very pertinent informations in a Thelemic context.

    First of all, let's look at the name of the Book. In my first text about the Thelemic ciphers, I explained how Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones) found an important "Key" to the Book of the Law in the Hebrew words AL (meaning "God") and LA (meaning "Not"), and how it were his discoveries that led to the Book of the Law being renamed from "Liber L vel Legis" to "Liber AL vel Legis".

    This word "AL" sums 31 in Anglossic Qabbala, which exactly coincides with its value in Hebrew Gematria:

    This number 31 is doubly meaningful because:

 

    1. The AQ value of the word "Thelema" is 127, the 31ˢᵗ prime number;

 

    2. Number 31 is the eleventh prime number, and 11 is of extreme significance in the context of Thelema (about this, read David Cherubim's article "Thelemic Numbers and Words"). The number 11 is referred to more than once in the Book of the Law, and the Law of Thelema contains eleven words:

    Oh... and yeah, it sums 777. 😁

    Using the initials of the first title of the Book of the Law, "Liber L" or Liber Legis" (LL), we find that it is the expression in Base-36 of the decimal number 777 (converter here):

    In Qabbala 101, Land also notes the following:

 

    «"Why did Crowley entitle his book of qabbalistic essays '777'?" asks Barrow-Scholar Peter Vysparov.

    This question seems to point to the most astounding qabbalistic datum of modern times, the alphanumerically rigorous gematria equation:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law = 777
One remarkable feature of this equation is that neither Crowley not any of his followers explicitly recognized the exact qabbalistic identity of the Thelemic Law (as stated in The Book of the Law, Liber AL vel legis) to the numerical index of modern qabbalism (777 & Other Qabalistic [sic] Writings). This relates intriguingly to the topic of secrecy (of which more elsewhere).»

 

 

    Notice how he writes "[sic]" after "Qabalistic", as if it was wrongly spelled. If instead we use the word "Qabbalistic" (with two B's, as in Anglossic Qabbala, or Alphanumeric Qabbalism), we'll see something... curious!

 

    In fact, 496 is the sum of all natural numbers from 1 to 31, thus showing a connection with "AL" = 31, the key to the Book of the Law.

 

    But the number 777 was also used by Frater Achad as the Hebrew qabalistic equivalent of his initiatic motto V.I.O.O.I.V. (Unus in Omnibus, Omnia in Uno). Achad also used the motto Parzival, which in Hebrew Gematria sums 418. By an enormous coincidence, his own full name, usually written as Charles Stansfeld Jones, sums 418 in Anglossic Qabbala (!!!):

    His actual full name was, however, Charles Robert Stansfeld Jones, and the AQ total of this name is 550. Even though this may not seem to be relevant, the question is that, qabalistically speaking, 55 is the mystic number of Malkuth, the 10ᵗʰ sphere of the Tree of Life, meaning that it is the total sum of all natural numbers from 1 to 10. Multiplying 55 by 10, the total value is 550. And this becomes very significant in the case of Frater Achad, since he took the Oath of the Abyss while he was still a Neophyte (1=10° - Malkuth) being afterwards, symbolically speaking, "cast out into Malkuth" again, as he himself wrote in his Liber 31.

    Another curious connection for Frater Achad lies in the total sum of the word "Achad": in AQ, its value is 62 (or 2×31), which precisely corresponds with Achad's dual key of AL+LA!

    I also noted other curious equivalences. Taking the fundamental part of the Law of Thelema, we find that it matches (at least) a most interesting name and one phrase from the Book of the Law:

    It actually matches the name of Aleister Crowley himself, as well as the phrase "one to follow thee" (referring to the Child of the Beast, i.e. Frater Achad).

    Besides "Do what thou wilt", there's another statement that is of major importance in the Law of Thelema: "Love is the law, love under will".

 

    Frater Achad also used the magical motto "Tantalus Leucocephalus" as X° O.T.O., which by another coincidence happens to match Crowley's own full birth name!

 

     I have no idea of what's going on here, but this surely is... tantalizing!

 

    But what is really interesting in this connection is the following: the decimal number 438 is written as 666 in Base-8 (octal).

 

     Now, if my Readers have been following my series of articles about the History of Ciphers, you may remember that in Part 3: The Latin Ciphers I also wrote about the number 666, and Beatus of Liébana's list of the eight names of the Antichrist. This connection between the numbers 8 and 666 has a strong geometrical basis, since:

 

    → The 8ᵗʰ triangular number is 36;

    → The 36ᵗʰ triangular number is 666.

    So that is the reason why I thought that this detail should be noticed. I understand, however (and some of my Readers may rightfully claim the same) that the number written "666" in base-8 is not the same number as "666" written in base-10, and that is absolutely true. However, I would contend that even if we're talking about different numbers and different numerical bases (which we are), both numerical representations consist of a triple repetition of the same numerical digit. So even if there isn't any real "match" in terms of numerical correspondence, there is an actual correspondence in terms of the numerical digits used to represent those otherwise unrelated numbers.

 

* * *

 

    Proceeding to an analysis of Aleister Crowley's magical mottos, we find that at least three of his better known mottos share the value of Heru-ra-ha, which is the name of a Thelemic composite deity, composed by both Hoor-paar-kraat (the "passive" aspect of Horus) and Ra-Hoor-Khuit (the "active" aspect of the Lord of the Aeon):

* * *

    The Book of the Law begins with the words:

 

    "Had! The manifestation of Nuit" (AL I:1)

 

 

    And in verse I:24, Nuit says:

 

    "I am Nuit and my word is six and fifty"

 

 

    It is thus curious to note that the word "Manifestation" sums 263, which is the 56ᵗʰ prime number – and by an intriguing synchronicity, it's also the value of Leamington Spa, the birth place of Aleister Crowley himself:

 

    Coincidently, the words "six and fifty" from AL I:24 sum 236 in AQ, which is a perfect numerical anagram of 263 in Base-10:

 

 

    Don't forget, however, that "numerical anagrams" usually only work in one specific numerical base, so this can be considered to be a mere coincidence.

 

* * *

 

    In the first chapter, verse 7 of the Book of the Law, it's written:

"Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat."

    In this case, it's curious to note that "Aiwass" shares the same value as "Horus", the Lord of the Aeon whose passive aspect is Hoor-paar-kraat:

    Another correspondence is to be noted, as "Aeon of Horus" matches the value of "Heru-pa-kraath", another spelling for Hoor-paar-kraat that appears in AL II:8:

* * *

 

    To conclude this section about Anglossic/Alphanumeric Qabbala, there is a little detail in the Book of the Law that surely deserves to be mentioned.

    Just like each chapter of Liber AL has a divine speaker, each of the three chapters also begins with a word which is connected to the speaker itself:

— The first chapter (dedicated to Nuit) begins with the word "Had":

AL I:1. "Had! The manifestation of Nuit"

 

 

— The second chapter (dedicated to Hadit) begins with the word "Nu":

 

AL II:1. "Nu! the hiding of Hadit"

 

 

— The third chapter (dedicated to Ra-Hoor-Khut) begins with the word "Abrahadabra":

AL III:1. "Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut"

    When I wrote about the Illuminati cipher I quoted Kenneth Grant's explanation about how the Circumpunct, or Circled Dot, which was the official symbol of the Illuminati, is intimately connected to this "Thelemic Trinity":

    — Nuit is represented by the unmanifested Circle. The word beginning her chapter, "Had", corresponds to the manifestation of Nuit;

    — Hadit is represented by the Dot. The word beginning his chapter, "Nu", corresponds to the hiding of Hadit;

    — Ra Hoor Khut is represented by the Circled Dot, or the union of the symbols of Nuit and Hadit. His word is Abrahadabra, the Word of the Aeon.

    It is thus curious to note, then, that the sum of both "Had" and "Nu" gives 93, the value of "Thelema", whose initial letter is Theta — in old times written as a  Point within a Circle...

    ... and the word beginning the third chapter of the Book of the Law, the Word of the Aeon of Horus, returns instead, quite unexpectedly, the sacred number of the Goddess Babalon, 156:

    And this is absolutely remarkable. You see, my Reader... for some Thelemites who are not Crowleyites (meaning: who are not fundamentalist and who don't see Crowley as the "perfect Prophet" of their Religion), the third chapter of the Book of the Law is in fact a blind, as parts of it come to contradict some things that are written in the first and second chapters of Liber AL.

    Thanks to my friend Skye Love Hill, I've come to know one such group which has an "unorthodox" view on the Book of the Law and the role of Crowley as the Prophet of Thelema. That group is the Heru Ma'at Lodge, whose Facebook group contains the following introductory text:

 

    «Like Nema and the original Horus Ma'at Lodge, we also incorporate an earlier work variously known as Liber L, Liber AL, or the Book of the Law, which was channeled by Aleister Crowley in 1904. Many modern magicians have deemed this book to be a New Aeon Tantra.

    The Book of the Law contains a blind, a misdirection aimed at preventing the unworthy from properly understanding and applying the book. This blind is the entire third chapter of the book, a violent rant purporting to be the words of the god Heru, a claim of godship which is explicitly denied by the speaker Nuit in the first chapter of the book itself. [AL I:21 "... I am Heaven, and there is no other God than me, and my lord Hadit."]

    Aleister Crowley fell for this blind, using the third chapter of the book to exalt himself as a "prophet" and to found an order dedicated to promulgating hatred against the prophets known as Jesus and Mohammed along with their followers, as well as followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, and the religions of Tibet, Mongolia, and China. The Heru Ma'at Lodge recognizes this third chapter as a blind, rejects Crowley as a prophet along with his interpretation of the Book of the Law and his concept of True Will.»

 

 

    I entirely subscribe to most of these conclusions. However, let it be made perfectly clear that neither the Heru Ma'at Lodge nor the Horus-Maat Lodge have any connection whatsoever with this Alphanumeric Qabbala. As such, my own considerations on the value of the word "Abrahadabra" being 156 (connecting it with Babalon) don't actually serve as proof for this different (but in my view, legitimate) perspective of the HML on the third chapter of Crowley's Liber AL.

 

 

* * *

Concluding remarks on the Anglossic Qabbala

    In writing this series of articles about the History of Ciphers, especially this section on the Thelemic ciphers, I have no doubts that some people would think that I'm talking about "too many ciphers". Given the fact that on one side of the Thelemic spectrum we have Thelemites who consider the subject of an English Gematria almost a religious taboo, and on the other side we have Thelemites who are dedicated to work with a single system of English Gematria (and reject all others), my intention in writing this series of articles is precisely to let everyone know about the different opinions about English Gematria in the context of Thelema. In this way, every single system of Thelemic Gematria can be explored, and its pros and cons be known by any student of Thelema who seeks to embark on this kind of exploration. So if any of my Readers would think that I've been talking about too many ciphers... wait until you see my next (and hopefully final) text on the Thelemic ciphers. 😁

    My personal opinion about this subject is that, from all the ciphers that I've talked about in a Thelemic context, English Qaballa seems to be the most convincing, and it answers quite elegantly to many of the riddles in Liber AL. However, my most honest advice to my Readers is to never take any system of Gematria too seriously, either in a Thelemic or in any other context. Sometimes, the true beauty of a system lies in looking at it from various perspectives and see what each one of them has to offer. And in my view, that is precisely the case when we explore the numerical secrets behind Liber AL vel Legis and the Holy Books of Thelema. However, caution must be taken when working with Thelemic ciphers outside of their natural context. This is something that I will always, always, make reference to, since the practice of Gematria always involves responsibility, as well as an inquisitive and especially discerning spirit.

    Why did I choose to talk about Nick Land's Anglossic Qabbala, then? Well, not only his first(?) text referring to AQ did also make reference to a lot of Thelemic stuff (the Law of Thelema, the particle "AL", and some others), but from my own findings I've also been able to dig some 'pearls' while applying this cipher to a Thelemic context. So, how could I not talk about this cipher, if my latest texts have been entirely dedicated to Thelema and its ciphers?

    Even in this case, there is this question of "context" that I'm always referring to. Some of my Readers may still ask at this point:

 

 

    — "Is Anglossic Qabbala specifically a "Thelemic" cipher?" 

 

    No, it is not. From what I've explored about this question, I strongly believe that it was Nick Land who devised/discovered this cipher and then applied it in the CCRU Writings.

 

 

    — "So, if this cipher isn't specific to Thelema, and if its discoverer never had any connection with Thelema, what is in fact the natural context of this cipher?". 

 

    Well... apparently, it doesn't have any specific context to be used on. I mean, it is mostly used by people who are more or less involved in the study of the CCRU materials, Hyperstition, and other related things, but nevertheless, I think that it is more or less safe to assume that it can be used in a Thelemic context by all the reasons that I've shown in this text, even though neither Thelema nor any Thelemic scripture have directly inspired its discovery — contrary to what happened with English Qaballa (EQ), for example. However, I also do believe that it can be used outside of a Thelemic context. "How exactly" is something that I can't really answer at this moment — but I ask my Readers to always pay attention to one important detail: if you try to "decode" stuff with this cipher on any given context, be sure to note if what you are trying to decode was willingfully encoded; otherwise you'll just walk around in circles and may be misled during that process. Work with Gematria, but don't take it too seriously. Or else... practice some coincidence engineering with this cipher, and use it to encode secret correspondences in your texts. I've done that a lot in this text about AQ... just so you know. 

 

    (Am I not talking about Gematria, after all?) 😈

    In the next (and final) part dedicated to the Thelemic ciphers, I will be giving a simple introduction to each one of the ciphers that I'll be talking about. It won't be a massive text like the previous ones were, and it will contain all, or most of my sources for each one of those ciphers. This actually serves two purposes: (1) it gives my Readers all necessary informations about the ciphers, using other sources besides my texts, and (2) it saves me some space in my already big texts. 😅

    Until the next part, then!

    I send you all my warmest regards,

    Luís Gonçalves