THE
ARCANE
ARCHIVE

a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.


TOP | OCCULTISM | DIVINATION | NUMEROLOGY | GEMATRIA

Gematria, Language and History

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.divination,alt.occult,talk.religion.misc
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (hara)
Subject: Gematria, Language and History
Date: 28 Feb 1998 19:08:42 -0800

49980126 aa2 Hail Satan!  

rose.dawn@ouroboros.org (Rose Dawn), omy kalidasakin wrote:
# ...how would you avoid what I see as the distinct possibility 
# that the gematria systems propounded in _The Key to It All_, 
# or any other textbook-type source will come to be seen equally 
# as gospel by those who read em?

unfortunately, without a greater degree of emphasis on critical
thought in the occult world it will continue to generate
religious spinoffs and cultish slavishness to traditional or
hyped materials.

  
# I don't think replacing Hebrew-centered gematria with
# alt-language-centered gematria in a "follow the book" sense is much of
# an improvement, & I suspect that anyone who blindly follows another's
# system without ever questioning it, or wanting to know why it works 
# that way, or where it came from, would be likely to do just that.

this is the fun in store for those of us living now: to break all 
the rules, recreating tradition through exploding the traditional
limitations (perhaps what the Wizard meant about gematria), until
there remains only the creation of entirely NEW structures of
language (as Enochian) or the experiment with sign language,
mathematics, or something one step aside from linguistics.  
anything can be used for divination.

  
# ...do you really feel that folx don't *realize* that Hebrew is not
# the only language with mystical applications to number & letter? 

I've met many whose ideas were precisely this narrow, yes.


# ...the fact that _777_ contains a very high percentage of Hebrew 
# words & phrases makes it "easy" for people to use, 

people with a penchant for Hebrew language, sure.  I think that the
entire focus is due to an obsession with Judeochristianity and
that this was established as standard within groups like the GD
and as promoted by Crowley and his followers.


# I think most of us already know that language & number have played major
# roles in the philosophy & spirituality of many diverse cultures, so is
# such a stepping-stone really necessary? 

if you're still talking about _The Key to It All_, which contains
(apparently, I don't think I have that here :>) Sanskrit gematria
values and interps, then it is traditional, it seems, for newer
methods to be put forward in dogmatic tones to seize hold of the
newer cult members' minds.  thereafter the whole can be broadened
through elaboration or revisionism.  cf. Levi and his fabulous
truths without followup.


# ...one would be better served by reading a variety of others' 
# interps, *especially* those that tackle the same system & come 
# to hugely divergent results.

for you to do.  this way (as dogma) it serves those who are looking
for "the key to it all" (which, unless one is very fanatical, will not
serve long-term) AND as a part of a diverse research.  this is how
I have viewed the variety of tarot-interpretation books that are in
the library here: many of them read like the One and Only Set of
Meanings, and yet they are valuably compared and contrasted, some
entirely dispensible but not all.
 

# ...gematria _per se_  has not been a traditional Hindu practice, 
# till fairly recently. 

from my recent read of John Opsopaus, I glean that the Jews 
got it from the early Greeks who may have had it from others, 
so borrowing of the system appears to be rather traditional 
and the Hindus are following in a time-honored practice:

	...there is considerable evidence that the Hebrew
	practice [of gematria -- 333] is later than the 
	Greek and probably derived from it.  We'll 
	consider the evidence briefly.

	First, the Greek use of their alphabet for numeration
	goes back at least to the fourth century BCE,
	whereas use of the Hebrew alphabet for numeration
	goes no earlier than the end of the second
	century BCE (Ifrah, Chs. 16, 17 [no reference
	to this author in his bibliography -- 333]).
	Indeed, Fideler (75) argues that the standard
	spelling of the Greek gods' names were formu-
	lated according to isopsephic ["isopsephia" means 
	'Greek gematria' here -- 333] principles under
	the influence of the Pythagorean League c.
	500 BCE.  He further argues (216-9) that many
	Greek temples, such as the Parthenon (447 BCE)
	and Apollo's temple at Didyma (300 BCE), were
	constructed isopsephically.  The Greeks may
	have learned the idea from the Babylonians,
	who as early as the eighth century BCE
	constructed buildings according to an isop-
	sephia based on their syllabic writing system.

	Second, the only explanation for the word 
	gematria is that it derives from the Greek word 
	*gametria*, which is an alternative spelling
	for *geometria*, "geometry," but literally,
	"land surveying" (LSJ s.v. gametria, geometria;
	OED s.v. gematria).  This is suggestive of its
	use (in Greece, Babylonia and perhaps other
	places) for laying out temples and other
	important buildings.

	Third, the archaic Greek alphabet had 27 letters;
	thus it divided naturally into three Enneads
	(groups of 9), which were assigned to the numbers
	1-9; 10-90 and 100-900 in order.

		A B G D E F Z E Q
		I K L M N X O P q
		R S T U F C Y W 3

	The later alphabet dropped one letter from each
	group (F q 3), resulting in three Ogdoads (groups
	of eight), which was also considered to be 
	esoterically significant.  However, the three
	Enneads were retained for writing numbers, which
	is the basis of isopsephia.  In contrast, the
	Hebrew alphabet had only 22 letters, so there
	were no numerals for 500, 600, 700, 800 or 900.
	(The use of the final forms of the letters for
	these numbers cannot predate their appearance
	in the Square Hebrew alphabet of the first or
	second century BEC; Diringer 135-7.)

	How much significance should be attached to
	isopsephia?  We cannot fail to be astonished
	when we discover that a square around Apollo's
	temple at Didyma has a perimeter of 1415 Greek
	feet, and that 1415 is the numerical value of
	O QEOS APOLLWN (*ho Theos Apollon*, the God
	Apollo); or that a hexagon inscribed in the
	same temple has a perimeter of 1061 feet, which
	is the numerical value of *APOLLWN (Fideler 216-7).
	---------------------------------------------------
	John Opsopaus, "Introduction to the Pythatorean
	 Tarot", on the internet at the following URL:
 
	http://www.cs.utk/edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/Intro.html
	_________________________________________________

I can't recommend his website highly enough.

this also adds another usage to Harold's list: the 
intentional relation of architecture (and indeed any 
construction) and measurement related to gematric 
associations (whether Babylonian, Greek, Hebrew,
Romanized English, Enochian, or whatever).

blessed beast!
hara
-- 
tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (emailed replies may be posted); 408/2-666-SLUG
http://www.abyss.com/tokus       FUCK       http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi

The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org.

Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site.

The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories,
each dealing with a different branch of
religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge.
Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit:
interdisciplinary: geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness
occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells
religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo
societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc.

SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase

OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST

Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including slave narratives & interviews
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy, sacred architecture, and sacred geometry
Lucky Mojo Forum: practitioners answer queries on conjure; sponsored by the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Herb Magic: illustrated descriptions of magic herbs with free spells, recipes, and an ordering option
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: ethical diviners and hoodoo spell-casters
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith, the Smallest Church in the World
Satan Service Org: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive: FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century ceremonial occultist
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective
The Mystic Tea Room: divination by reading tea-leaves, with a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, etc.
      Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
      Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
      Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
      Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races