An example of how one might construct a Qabbalistic analysis of a given number.

By Our esteemed brother Gehazi, servant of Elisha, who washed the hands of Elijah PBH.

Foreword by Harrison Mansfield.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

The following is an example of how one might go about giving a Qabbalistic analysis of a number. The reader should in no wise consider the piece to be ‘true’ for it is not, at least to the reader; it represents the universe particular to the author, it is in his language and uses his images. What is important are the techniques he applies, they should excite in the imagination of the audience a selection of possibilities for their own analysis of such numbers.

Unfortunately the author of this work is not as lucid as we might hope; his writing is at times as confusing as it is brief. There are two possible reasons for his brevity; either he has sufficient respect for his audience that he feels they might actually be educated and capable of basic thought, or he is trying to hide his lack of in-depth knowledge on the subject. In my opinion the latter is most likely. At any rate I have attempted to remedy this by splitting the text into small segments and providing my own commentary in-between.

Love is the law, love under will.

An Analysis of the Number 496

The number 496 is primarily a number explaining the state of division. The universe, dividing itself into two that it might experience union, can be expressed by the symbols of Had, Nuit and the love moving the two back together. ‘For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union.’ AL I v.29

For a full explanation of this one should consult both Liber AL and Liber Aleph. Early Qabbalistic texts, such as the Zohar and Bahir, also talk about the primal singularity dividing that countenance might behold countenance. The idea implied is that the universe wishes to understand itself and cannot if there is not division for the observer, observed and observation to exist.

This idea is again suggested by the organisation of the number: 4 is love, it is 13 and 31; 9 is the moon, woman; 6 is the sun, man. Is this number then a glyph of union? No, not union, for the 9 and 6 face away from each other, but rather the desire for union, as yet unfulfilled. Voluntary duality. Divided for the sake of love et cetera.

The reasoning behind the numerical attributions is best studied in Liber 777. 4 is attributed to the Hebrew letter Daleth which is, in turn, attributed to the Empress card of the Tarot who is associated with Venus, hence love. Further AHBH (Hebrew for love) and AchD (Hebrew for One) equal 13, which by Aiq Bakir (or the Qabbalah of the nine chambers) equal 4. By the same method so does 31, 496 is the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 31. 31 is AL (‘God’ and ‘Not’ in an indefinite sense) and LA (‘Not’).

This love, from a particular standpoint is the serpent NChSh ( =358=MchISh, messiah) which, in an appendix to Book One of Crowley’s ‘Works’, is associated with Leviathan (496) which subsequently is said to be synonymous with the Kundalini of Hindu philosophy. The head of this serpent, which rests in Daath, is said to be evil to conceal its holiness.

The Leviathan represents the Qlippoth. In this case it might be looked at as ‘sexual energy’; not in the sense that it has anything to do with sex (though that is very good way of creating it) but is rather of a sexual nature, which is to say it functions in a similar way to magnetism.

496=Malkuth, the virgin bride, who is the daughter of BABALON; the mother of abominations, which also equals 496.

Babalon might be considered as Binah, whose daughter is Malkuth. This is the lowest sphere on the Tree of Life and is referred to the four tens of the Tarot.

The lowest of the low, as it were, is expressed by the element of earth to which the zodiacal signs of Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo are attributed. Capricorn, being the cardinal sign, is the initial explosion of energy and lust that drew the divine so far down the tree of life. Taurus, the kerubic sign, is the steady form of the earth; the sacrificial bull slain by Mithras (according to some interpretations). Osiris is also associated with the bull as is the Soma of India. The mutable sign is Virgo, at this point, having gone to the very bottom, the energy has no where to go but up. Virgo is therefore a glyph of the beginning of redemption (consider that messiah is 496) of spirit (the symbolism of this process is explained in the 10 of Disks in the Tarot). It therefore must surely also be the secret seed that is the anchorite, the Yod re-expressed after a different manner: the sun at night, Kephra.

FR. GEMINI. Tell me, Brother, is not Mercury a great God?
VIRGO. Indeed, Son of Maia, the greatest of all Gods that tread upon the Milky Way.
FR. GEMINI. It is so.

SOR. GEMINI. Yet, Brother, there is the Sun-God!
VIRGO. Is not Mercury the Sun-God, when hidden during the Night, among the souls of the dead? Hail unto Thee, Trismegistus, Hail unto thee!

The Rites of Eleusis – Crowley et al.

In fact the magician might consider himself as any of the aforementioned signs depending upon the nature of his work.

This process is, I always feel, expressed best by the lesser energy orbit of the Taoist system, in which the sexual energy or ching (literally sperm) is drawn up the spine. (Is this not obviously depicted in the Hermit card?) As a further development the energy is then purified (possibly similar to crossing the abyss – the ego is destroyed) and bought down to the Tan-Tien, where the spiritual foetus is incubated. (The sign of Mater Triumphans?)

Daath can perhaps be bought in here, consider its use in Genesis: ןיק־תא דלתו רהתו ותשא הוח־תא עדי םדאהו. Daath then implies a sexual union and could relate to this spiritual child.

The passage translates thusly: And the man (Adam) knew (Daath) Eve (ChVH, Havah), his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.

I would like to comment further on this, however as there are so many conflicting views as to what Daath is, even Crowley seems to change his mind a lot, I do not feel at all qualified to discuss this particular non-sephiroth.

As a final note on this train of thought; 888, Hod in extension, is the value of ΙΗΣΟΥΣ which has six letters linking it to the sun.

496 is the force of love which is 13 (=4 [by ayq bkr]=לא), it express the gulf between the lover and the loved; the sum of the numbers from 1 to 31. It specifically relates to the lust when felt by and expressed as a function of the lower (the virgin bride, also Hadit; Pan and Artemis in this regard seem to me to be interchangeable. ‘Be thou Artemis to Pan’ is said of the High Priestess, but with regards to the path of Ayin ‘Thou art Pan to Artemis’). Thus all the symbolism refers to the redemption of earth or Malkuth.

I cannot help but feel that there is, here, also some connection to the inverted pentagram, as the symbol of descent into matter. It is the symbol Levi attributes to Lucifer who ‘by rebelling becomes truly an angel of light’. It is, I would hypothesise, the sun at night (Mercury) and bears relation to the Moon card of the Tarot. Consider 111; the primal whirlings, the logos (duality) and manifestation: voluntary, that countenance might behold countenance. The Golden Dawn Philosophus initiation states that ADAM must travel down ‘even unto Malkuth’ to be crucified on the cross of Daath. Thus all this seems in some way, to me, to be connected with the crossing of the abyss and the signs of NOX. But these are musing and not yet ready for serious discussion.

There is here an interesting resonance with the teachings of the Manichaeans. They stipulated that the two original forces were God and the Hyle – the motus inordinatus - essentially extreme and chaotic sexual lust. If god is love then we have Eros and chaos, which I believe are BABALON and ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ. Later Augustine teachings claim that this sexual lust actually originated with man courtesy of Eve, Malkuth.

Tetalestai, as a particular prophet once said; here then you have a series of examples as to how you might wish to conduct your own experiments on the subject. It is not perfect, but it’s a start.