The Key to Musical Qabalah
Luke Andrews 07/03/14
0 1
A
1
2
B
2
3
C
3
4
D
4
The Star
Sun
The Book
Mercury
Orange
G#/Ab
1
1
Ionian
Yellow Green
B
2
2
Locrian Dorian
Night Sky
Aquarius
Red
F#/Gb
3
3
Bow
Venus
G reen Gr
C
4
4
Triple Flame
Air
Yellow
A#/Bb
5
5
Phyrgian
Melodic Minor
5
E
5
6
F
6
Force
Mars
Red
F#/Gb
6
6
Lydian
Gemini
Orange
G#/Ab
7
7
Locrian
Jupiter
Violet
E
8
8
Sagitariu s
Blue
D
9
9
Yellow
A#/Bb
1
10
Yellow Green
B
2
20
Locrian
Green
C
3
30
Phyrgian
7
G
7
Union / Coitus
8
H
8
Throne / Ladder
9
I
9
Arrow
10
J
t
Horn of Plenty
Uranus
11
K
e
Virgin
Virgo
12
L
0
Balance / Foot
Libra
13
M
1
Wave
Water
14
N
1
The Gate
Sc Scorpio
15
O
0
Moon
Moon
16
P
e
Goddess
Ea Earth
17
Q
t
18
R
9
Birth
Cancer
19
S
8
Serpent
Pi Pisces
20
T
7
Altar
21
U
6
Spermata zoon
Cup Horns of Power
Mixolydi an
Mixolydi an
Whole Tone
Blue
D
4
40
Minor
Green Blue
C#/Db
5
50
Lydian
Blue
D
6
60
Aeolian
Violet Red
F
7
70
Yellow
A#/Bb
8
80
Ionian
Orange Yellow
A
9
90
Aeolian
Violet Red
F
1
100
Blue Violet
D#/Eb
2
200
Dorian
L eo Le
Capricor n Neptune
Diminish ed
Mixolydi an
Red
F#/Gb
3
300
Minor
Red Orange
G
4
400
Phyrgian
Red Orange
G
5
500
Major
Blue Violet
D#/Eb
6
600
Dorian
22
V
5
23
W
4
Eyes
Fire
24
X
3
Cross
Saturn
25
Y
2
Tree
Earth
Blue Violet
D#/Eb
7
700
26
Z
1
Lightnin g Flash
Aries
Violet
E
8
800
Lydian
Alphabet Al
PC
Meaning
Sign
Color
Pitch
Pythagor ean
Value
Mode
Simple EQ
Taurus
Diminish ed
To make this key it took us years of research which eventually came together quite quickly once we realized the Tarot correspondences. Still unfinished, (we keep adding stuff).
0 1
A
1
2
B
2
3
C
3
4
D
4
The Star
Sun
The Book
Mercury
Orange
G#/Ab
1
1
Ionian
Yellow Green
B
2
2
Locrian Dorian
Night Sky
Aquarius
Red
F#/Gb
3
3
Bow
Venus
G reen Gr
C
4
4
Triple Flame
Air
Yellow
A#/Bb
5
5
Phyrgian
Melodic Minor
5
E
5
6
F
6
Force
Mars
Red
F#/Gb
6
6
Lydian
Gemini
Orange
G#/Ab
7
7
Locrian
Jupiter
Violet
E
8
8
Sagitariu s
Blue
D
9
9
Yellow
A#/Bb
1
10
Yellow Green
B
2
20
Locrian
Green
C
3
30
Phyrgian
7
G
7
Union / Coitus
8
H
8
Throne / Ladder
9
I
9
Arrow
10
J
t
Horn of Plenty
Uranus
11
K
e
Virgin
Virgo
12
L
0
Balance / Foot
Libra
13
M
1
Wave
Water
14
N
1
The Gate
Sc Scorpio
15
O
0
Moon
Moon
16
P
e
Goddess
Ea Earth
17
Q
t
18
R
9
Birth
Cancer
19
S
8
Serpent
Pi Pisces
20
T
7
Altar
21
U
6
Spermata zoon
Cup Horns of Power
Mixolydi an
Mixolydi an
Whole Tone
Blue
D
4
40
Minor
Green Blue
C#/Db
5
50
Lydian
Blue
D
6
60
Aeolian
Violet Red
F
7
70
Yellow
A#/Bb
8
80
Ionian
Orange Yellow
A
9
90
Aeolian
Violet Red
F
1
100
Blue Violet
D#/Eb
2
200
Dorian
L eo Le
Capricor n Neptune
Diminish ed
Mixolydi an
Red
F#/Gb
3
300
Minor
Red Orange
G
4
400
Phyrgian
Red Orange
G
5
500
Major
Blue Violet
D#/Eb
6
600
Dorian
22
V
5
23
W
4
Eyes
Fire
24
X
3
Cross
Saturn
25
Y
2
Tree
Earth
Blue Violet
D#/Eb
7
700
26
Z
1
Lightnin g Flash
Aries
Violet
E
8
800
Lydian
Alphabet Al
PC
Meaning
Sign
Color
Pitch
Pythagor ean
Value
Mode
Simple EQ
Taurus
Diminish ed
To make this key it took us years of research which eventually came together quite quickly once we realized the Tarot correspondences. Still unfinished, (we keep adding stuff).
Use this key to make auditory sigils, i.e generate pitch material for compositions, riffs, etc. Compose musical cyphers, encoded with intent, sonic symbols. Heres an example: Magick MAGICK Take out repeated letters or Vowels in PC… MGCK M=1 G=7 C=3 K=e set: [137e] use this arbitrary method to extract and generate pitch material from a desire.
reasoning behind this method :
> take simple english gematria:
a b c d e f g h i
j
k
l
m n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
http://multiver.se/tools/seg/
> then by matching the numbers and aligning pitch classes based on alan chapman’s english qabalah:
The Origin of the Order & Value of the English Alphabet Since obtaining the Knowledge and Conversation of my Holy Guardian Angel, Angel, I have killed Him many times: each time regaining the K and C with a new name and understanding of His nature.
The third and last time I re-established the link with my angel, I received a vision of his name. My angel must have shown me the spelling of his name for a reason: and the only reason that springs to mind is Qabalistic.
I discovered upon entering my angel's name in the gematria databases (found in the linkssection) links section) that my angel's name equals 110 in both the Hebrew and Greek Qabalah. Although no other words were found with the same value, I found the equivalence of value in both systems intriguing.
Two weeks ago and three months later (I suppose it wasn't that intriguing), I decided to explore the number 110. Imagine my surprise to discover that 110 10 is is sphenic, pronic, a harshad number and a self number. Golly.
Messing around with the number, I discovered that the sequence of products of 110 (i.e. the results of multiplying 110 by various numbers), when reduced by the simple addition of digits (i.e. 81 = 8 + 1 = 9), results in the following repeating 6 figure pattern, inherent in all product sequences s equences of 110:
2,4,8,7,5,1
Adding these together, we get the number 27. Of course, 2 + 7 = 9.
So I have the magic numbers 110, 27 and 9. And I suppose 3 as well (3 x 3 is 9 and 3x 9 = 27).
Still no wiser concerning the reason for the vision of my angel's name, I decided to have a go at obtaining 'the Order & Value of the English Alphabet', as instructed by Hadit H adit in Chapter 2 of 2 of The Book of the Law.
Rubbish
There are numerous English Qabalahs, most of them rubbish. I see no reason to believe that there isn't a simple mathematical relationship between the letters and words of the English language, just as there is for Hebrew and Greek; however, I do not ascribe to the popular pluralistic Thelemic opinion that there is a unique English Qabalah for each individual. It is patently absurd to attribute any kind of philosophical, political or ethical attitude to the mathematical structure of a language.
Every attempt I have seen at the English Qabalah has been based on a process of trial and error or spurious problem solving of the puzzles found in The Book of the Law , usually resulting in an overly complex and clumsy set of values.
Although an English Qabalah should certainly elucidate many of the concepts of The Book of the Law , adding to our understanding of the text, the English Qabalah should
throw light on the relationship between concepts of the English language full stop . As well as demonstrating an initiated perspective on the relationship between concepts previously considered unrelated, words with an obvious relationship should share the
same value (such as Fire and Light).
With this in mind, I decided to look for a mathematical relationship between the letters of the English Alphabet. It didn’t take long to find one.
If we assign each letter of the alphabet the value of its sequential order i.e. A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc., then divide the alphabet into two columns of 13, folded at M and N, we get this:
A=1
Z = 26
B=2
Y = 25
C=3
X = 24
D=4
W = 23
E=5
V = 22
F=6
U = 21
G=7
T = 20
H=8
S = 19
I=9
R = 18
J = 10
Q = 17
K = 11
P = 16
L = 12
O = 15
M = 13
N = 14
If we add the value of A to the value of Z, we get 27. Ooh, a magic number. If we add the remaining rows together, we discover that each row equals 27 (B = 2 + Y = 25 = 27, C = 3 + X = 24 = 27, etc).
Of course, 2 + 7 = 9.
I took the fact I had come across the very number implicit in the Qabalistic analysis of my angel's name as an indication that I should explore further.
The Value of the English Alphabet
So I tried the first thing that came to mind:
A=1 B=2 C=3 D=4 E=5 F=6 G=7 H=8 I=9
J=1 K=2 L=3 M=4 N=5 O=6 P=7 Q=8 R=9 S=1 T=2 U=3 V=4 W=5 X=6 Y=7 Z=8
Adding up the value of my angel's name using this system, I discovered it equalled 27.
A couple of days of furious addition later and I had some interesting results. These can be viewed here as a simple list, and at some point in the future I hope to integrate the list with the calculator in the side navigation. Many of the equivalences speak for themselves (thank god!), and I’ve included commentary and quotation where I feel the results of the system elucidate key Thelemic concepts.
The Order of the English Alphabet
The values assigned give us two lists from 1 to 9 and one list from 1 to 8.
If we group the letters of the alphabet together by value, we get the following order:
AJS
=1
BKT
=2
CLU
=3
DMV
=4
ENW
=5
FOX
=6
GPY
=7
HQZ
=8
IR
=9
There are 8 sets of three letters, and one of two. This might seem a little inconsistent, until we consider the values obtained by adding the individual values of the letters together:
Letter Group
Shared Value
Values added
Reduction (e.g. 12 = 1 + 2 = 3)
AJS
1
3x1=3
3
BKT
2
3x2=6
6
CLU
3
3x3=9
9
DMV
4
3 x 4 = 12
1+2=3
ENW
5
3 x 5 = 15
1+5=6
FOX
6
3 x 6 = 18
1+8=9
GPY
7
3 x 7 = 21
2+1=3
HQZ
8
3 x 8 = 24
2+4=6
IR
9
2 x 9 = 18
1+8=9
This gives us the repeating sequence: 3, 6, 9.
If we compare the letter groups by their reduced value, we get a table of nine squares:
3
6
9
AJS
BKT
CLU
DMV
ENW
FOX
GPY
HQZ
IR
If we add the rows and columns together using the added values of each letter group (e.g. AJS = 3 x 1 = 3), and reduce the results by simple addition, we get this:
3
6
9
Total
Reduction
AJS
BKT
CLU
18
9
DMV
ENW
FOX
45
9
GPY
HQZ
IR
63
9
Total
36
45
36
Reduction
9
9
9
If we add up the values of the Total column, we get 126, which also equals 9 by simple reduction (1 + 2 + 6 = 9). The same is true if we add the values of the Total row: 117 = 1 + 1 + 7 = 9.
Rather interestingly, 9 + 9 + 9 = 27! And of course, 2 + 7 = 9.
This English Qabalah demonstrates an inherent, mathematical consistency of the most simple and elegant kind; the fact that these values (27 and 9) also happen to represent the most significant key concepts of Thelema only adds to the possibility that this is indeed the genuine English Qabalah.
It is worth noting that the Hebrew Qabalah was supposedly taught to man by angels: is it possible that this is true of the English Qabalah too?
http://thebaptistshead.co.uk/2007/06/21/the-origin-of-the-order-value-of-the-englishalphabet/
>add musical pitch classes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_set_theory Pitch class ( pc). All pitches with the same name plus their enharmonic equivalents; e.g. all C#s make up a single pitch class. But, Db and Bx are also in the same class. Pitch number ( pin). Each pc can be represented by a number from 0 to 11 in the twelve-tone system.
C
C#
D
D#
E
F
F#
G
G#
A
Bb
B
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
The first row of numbers in this table indicates the decimal notation for each pc. The last row shows the same pcs in hexadecimal (base 16) notation. The table shows abdo (absolute-do) notation, where C is always zero (0). In the reldo (relative-do) notation, any pc may be set to zero, usually the first of an arbitrary rotation. Thus, FAC is represented as 590 in abdo, but as 047 in reldo. pcs or pitch-class set. A group of pitch classes.
http://solomonsmusic.net/setheory.htm
>then add samuel vincent’s english qabalah meanings:
The Key to the English Qabalah
THE ENGLISH QABALAH
An excerpt...
The English Alphabet The Letter A a THE STAR Value: 4
A is the Star: that Fire Visible in the Sky corresponding each one to a Living Soul on Earth. It is that Point of Light that shines in the Darkness of Night; it is that which is fixed above the revolving Earth to guide the Traveller. Its sound when prolonged is the Song of Ecstasy (Aaaaaa!). When punctuated with H, or the Light, it is the sound of discovery (aha!) so that the A in itself concentrates already that Light into the Wheel, whereas the I, is the Ray, the Hollow Tube wherein was hidden the stolen Fire of Heaven. By extending the middle bar, it becomes the Pentagram. In this way the A, the Star can be see as the concentration of this Light, whereas I is the projectile Light. And these are both the feminine and masculine forms of 4.
Notes The letter A, takes as its origin, the letter aleph, which in the Old Key was the first and enumerated as 1. The revelation of the Aeon and the Aethyrs reveals three positions (1,2, and 3 or E, F and C) preceding the A in the new system . Together, these three engender and provide the framework for the manifestation of the Star. They are: the Triple Flame and Light (E), the Separation of Space (F) and The NightSky (C).
*A is also the Arrow after a certain mystery (see Liber 418), wherein the projectile nature is also evinced. The Letter B b THE BOOK Value: 6
B is the first of three "Stable" glyphs whose value is 6 , The lower case "b" denotes the
6 in its shape, which corresponds to its numerical value. B– uppercase, is The Book, fanned open as seen from its figure is Open to All. Traditionally associated with the "Word" it denotes the Word Spoken (not the Word Flesh) and is that Falseness and Illusion which is the Highest truth below the Veil of the Abyss and lights the happy, balanced, golden character of Tiphareth.
Mystically, it is the glyph for the Conversation of the HGA. Its appearance in Formulae such as BABALON for instance, announces the Conversation as the catalyzing initial step, which is again revisited before Balance is achieved and ON is opened, and the N is set to vibration. __
* The others are Z, Nf b and 6: symbols denoting a wheel taking its light from above.
Notes
The proper ordering of the glyphs by their value is presented at the end of the chapter. The lower case a suggests an ear in shape, and the common manner of drawing an ear is an ‘a’ with a loop around one end of it. The Student will note that "the ear’ equals 111 when T is taken as final, and that 111 is the full enumeration of aleph in the old key. One can proceed with such analysis to determine the precise manner in which the glyphs have transitioned. To provide another example, we take the next letter: B, the Book, which in the old Key is beth, which is beth-heh-tau which spelt in full as byt hh faw = 2+10+400 + 5+5 + 9+1+6 = 438 = 8+200+200+30=Book, etc.
The Letter C c THE YONI, THE WOMB Value: 3, 30
C is the glyph of NUIT. It is the over-arching of the Night Sky (even the crescent of the Moon, after another manner); it is the womb and in a sense represents the Cup manifest in one of its more immediate and practical incarnations. For the first Sky of Man is the wall of the Womb, and the Gash in the Sky from which the Light pours in is the Yoni, and all these symbols are interchangeable here.
As a yoni, or a womb, or a Cup, it is necessarily modified in character by that which is poured into it, or that which it contains. Hence we see that the C glyph takes on two distinct phonetic existences: It can be Soft or Yielding, as in the word Celebration; or Hard and Active as in the word Cat. As a general rule, the C is Soft when followed by one of the male vowels, E or I as in the words cease, cent, ice, or dice. In this case, C takes the value of 3, which is also P, the Pregnant Goddess.
When followed by one of the female vowels A, O or U, it is usually ‘hard’ in the English language. Examples are case, cane, cone, copper, cute and cuddly. In this case C takes on the Value of 30 which is K, its homophone, holy to DIANA the Huntress, and even BABALON.
____
Notes C was born of a modified G. Ts or tzaddi of the Hebrews (which was later abbreviated in sound to ‘s’) also plays role in the adoption of this glyph particularly when c is ‘soft’ as in the words "once" or "face".
Hard C, Soft C—This is a simple case of phonetics, the hard c and k being homophones are given the same value. In fact, the letter C has no distinct phonetic existence. When soft as in the word "cedar" it is phonetically, an S; when hard as in "case" it is phonetically equivalent to a K.
*However, the attentive Student will note either the addition of a k to a word terminating in c (as in magick) and the growing tendency of people to replace c with a k in alternate spellings of a name or catch-phrase. In this way, "kool" is cooler than "cool" and "Karla" is sexier than "Carla". Most Ad and PRfirms exploit this truth. Instinctively aware of this development, they use its power to attract attention. Finally, by employing it, and disseminating its use, advertisers themselves contribute to the advance of this evolution. The Letter D d THE BOW Value: 8
D is the BOW that makes swift (and deadly) the ARROW. This is the first indication of
movement. The A is light fixed in a Star, the Bis a vibration, the C is that which receives (say, feels) the Vibration. With D we have the first notion of movement, and it is the primum mobile, that which is All Motion, but Moves Not. It’s value is 8 and by its shape we have a hint of this infinite motion contained in its double loop and centre-fold.
The Letter E e THE TRIPLE FLAME, THE TRIPLE SWORD Value: 1
E is the Light, the Breath and the Fire in One. The First of the Letters, it is the Foundation of all other glyphs and replaces the aleph as the First, the primum mobile.
The Letter F f BREATH Value: 2, 10 F is the first of the "lost" father letters, now re-instated with the English Key. It is from F, that U is born; and together they gave birth to the V which in turn fathered the W . And IT required P, the Pregnant Goddess in order to accomplish This. *
*See letters U,V and W in this chapter. The Student will note the transition in the Latin of the p into the f of English as in pater for father, pedis for foot. The Greeks overcame the difficulty by appending an h to the P, hence the ph equivalent to the English F in Greek-derived words such as phonograph, telephone, physics, etc. Notes Once considered an axe, at other times a club; and a pin to the Hebrews: F is in reality the source of which all these are the result or fruit. F is Force. F is one of three fricatives in the English Language. The others are S and Th which like the F require air to be forcefully expelled between the upper teeth and the lower lip (labiodental fricative).
The nature of this force is double, or as is said, it is double-wanded. As 2, it is the force that divides, the axe or the hatchet which makes 2 of 1 (e.g. in the act of splitting a single log in two). And this ‘f’ is the division between the Waters Above and the Waters Below the Firmament it is the Aethyr, or the Aire by which Vision, Hearing, Distance and in a sense, Time, are made Possible.
When Initial it is 10, which is Ph its homophone, and is the female counterpart to the 2 (the 1 0, that is the Lingam standing by the Yoni), the Pregnant Goddess (P) enthroned (H).
This reveals further revisions in the old formulae. IAO, which was revealed to be FIAOF to correct the short-sightedness of IAO, which was enumerated at 93, is in actuality 220. The Letter G g THE WHEEL Value: 20
Union, Coitus, the Beloved and the Lover, Summing: all these are symbols pertinent to G. In shape it denotes the Lingam and Yoni conjoined (the C taking in the horizontal I) and also the Child in its Womb. Its very Nature destroys duality and its numerical glyph of (2 0) denotes this Union that is the Reduction to 0 through the Union of the opposite (the 2 reducing to the 0, which is the Great Work). The Wheel is the Circle Squared and all androgynous Gods, and all Child gods preside over its operation and for this reason, it is the first vocalizations infants make. It is also one of the primal letters and corresponds to primal conditions and forces. It requires no teeth and no tongue to pronounce, but only the action of the throat and so it is one of the sounds infants first articulate, as in the "goo-goo ga-ga" of the folklore.
Notes
G is the Union, and it is out of this Union that was born the C. The K and the Q (homophones of hard C) were necessary products and constituents of this operation, which later contributed to the naissance of J. But it was G, the Union, which was the process, by which all these were created. G has a history unlike any other letter. It seems that when Gladness left the world, it took the G with IT. It was G that held the third position ever since the inception of the first alphabets before 2000 B.C. Despite this, the G disappeared for 500 years in the Middle Ages, eclipsed by the rise of the C (hard), it’s Daughter which was used in G’s stead. That C is a direct descendent of G is the reason why C retains all of G’s properties (e.g. turning soft before all the male vowels, and hard before the female vowels.) When the letter G returned, it did so with an accretion and development which it seemed to have been gestating for those five centuries. For it was by uniting with the I that the soft G (as in Georgia) was born. Before then, there had been no equivalent in the Latin script. And it was this G which, in its Union with the male vowels, contributed to the creation of J—a sound in
English identical to the soft G. (e.g.: Georgia and Jorja are phonetically equivalent). Generally, G is soft before E, I, and Y (the male vowels) and hard otherwise, and that G often makes the I "long" as in sign (long i) which otherwise would have been sin (short I). It is not improper to say in this case, that the G e xcites the I, the Phallus, thus making it ‘long’ or ‘hard’. This holds for all GN digraphs, and is also the case for the GH* digraph (e.g. sight (long i) would otherwise be sit (short i). Note also that the uppercase G, is the C taking in the horizontal I while lower case g which denotes two circles: the taking in from above and from the right, and the wrapping of the tail onto itself of what would otherwise have been a ‘p’ (note: all symbols associated with the third position: c, g, p). Observe that in both the upper and lower case, the letter in shape suggests a taking "into" a circle. * Otherwise the GH glyph denotes a process of F (e.g. as in Tough)
The Letter H h THE CASTLE , THE THRONE Value: 7 H is Light in Extension. It is Love and denotes in its shape the Constant Union of two pillars or Ones. Its Goddess is Venus whose number is 7 and denotes Victory for Love is the Law, and so IT is a Fortress ( H ) for it Defends Life, and IT is a Throne ( h ) because it is exalted in the Soul of Man. Its Sound is like the Sigh, and because it is Love, it combines perfectly with more letters than any other in the English set (often softening them in the process), and in so-doing creates a new glyph with its distinct phoneme. Among these we can list, Ch, Gh, Ph, Rh, Sh, Th, Wh.
The uppercase H denotes a castle with its two towers in shape, while the lowercase h, denotes the throne.
The Letter I i THE LINGAM, A COLUMN Value: 4 I, with A, is the male counterpart to the Star. It is a Ray, and it is the projectile. Its Shape indicates perfection, and the unity, whereas the A indicates the culmination or the harmony of this perfection. Both reduce the 4 to the 1. Notes It is in fact, the softening* of the I, which is responsible for many additions of letters and the transition from Latin to the Romance Languages. This ‘I’ in the English gives
birth to J (through union with G) and the Y sounds; to H sounds in Spanish and modified G in French and Italian. The introduction of the letter J into English usage can be traced to Spanish influence, in which the softening of the I became a H. Thus original Iesus in Spanish (or Hay-Zeus), becomes Jesus, the let ter J in Spanish denoting the English H sound. Similarly, the I in French and Italian took on a soft g instead of a j, as in gesu. The Hebrew glyph Yod, transliterated as I, also plays a contribution in J’s usage in English. An example is Halleluyah and Hallelujah, where j retains its original ‘I’ phoneme. ____ * See Letter I - Notes
The Letter J j THE HORN OF PLENTY, A HOOK Value: 1 J is the Last. As the Last, it is also the First. The First and the Last are One. The Letter J is the last of the letters to be included in the modern English Alphabet (V comes just before). It is also one of only of two affricates in the collection of English Language sounds (the other is Ch as in Chain, but not hard as in Chaos.) It was Born from the Union of G and I. Notes It is in the 17th Century that J make its first appearance in the English Language. It took 150 years after that, before it was accepted. Until then, J was viewed not as a letter in itself but as a mere variant of I*. In fact J succeeds I in order of the English Alphabet, because it was essentially born of it. The same holds for the letter V which was born out of the U, and so was inserted after it. Consonants are typically inserted after their mother vowels. The Letter K, k THE VIRGIN Value: 30
Of the Three homophones: the K, Q, and the hard C: The K has always been favoured by the Poets. Its very existence is at War with two other letters with which the K must Fight for survival. In shape, the letter K denotes the Arrow hitting its target. IT is also the Goddess seated on Her Throne (seen from above), her Legs Open in Love—and so there is Success in the Operation, for in Shape it is also the God without standing with an erect Lingam. Its value is 30, that of the hard C, which is the C materialized (30 = 3 ! 10 = C ! 10, 10 being Malkuth). It’s glyph in numeral, again denotes this process: 30 or 3 0 is the C (3) materializing (0 - the Egg of the Universe). Note the progressive materialization of the same Element: from C, to hard C, to K, to Q: the Sky, (the Sea),
the Womb, the Yoni, the Lingam, the Spermatazoon.
Notes K, Q and hard C, are homophones, and are once more male and female perspectives of the One idea which is summarized in 30. The Letter K is favoured by Northern and Eastern Nations (German, Russian, etc) when using script to denote the phenome that is K, Q, and hard C, while the C is favoured by Southwestern nations (Spanish, French, Italian). The complexity of C, which is phonetically sometimes a K, sometimes an S, has meant that newly created or adopted words with a hard C sound in the English Language are increasingly spelt with a K as the choice of preference. This is done in order to avoid confusion* and suggests that the K is Rising, and will eventually gain ascendency over the C.
In terms of the Mystical Tradition, there is some Confusion as well in the History of this Letter. The letter K has traditionally been the glyph for the Hand. Now, the development of the Alphabets is traceable. Its origins were in Egypt. The Semitics adopted it, and developed upon it. From the Semitics it found its way to the Pheonicians, who gave it to the Greeks and to the Hebrew of the Jews. From the Greek, it found its way eventually to Latin which is the script of the English Language. The Hand, a symbol of man’s will and his sovereignty over the Animal is also the main instrument of auto-eroticism. We know that the original Eygptian glyph for the Hand stood for the first letter of the Eygptian word for Hand* which corresponds to the modern letter D, and was identical to it in Sound. However, the Pheonician word for hand began with the voiceless velar plosive which is the sound of the modern K. When they adopted the hand glyph (in shape it resembled an upright hand) they adjusted their system to compensate. In this way the Hand glyph became associated with the K.* This development was already in place by the time the Hebrews took the Phoenician alphabet to devise their own. When arriving at the 11th position, they adopted kaph, which is the word for the Palm of a hand and begins with a K. The English Alphabet throws some light on these matters. A further hint may be taken from the Egyptian papyri, primarily the creation myths: I gathered together my members, and afterwards had union with my hand, and my heart came unto me from out of my hand, and the seed fell into my mouth, and I emitted from myself the gods Shu and Tefnut.* By this act, Kephra creates Shu and Tefnut. Note also that this operation is said to have taken place at Heliopolis, or ON
to the Egyptians*. As a rule, this letter is taken to be 30 by the key. This is problematic in certain instances where it is silent as in the words Knowledge and Unknown. We leave this to the discretion of the Qabalist. The Authors have preferred to take the following line of reasoning: that if it is present in the word, it is significant and will continue to be so, until that day it disappears. *In fact, the Caesars in Rome were not pronounced "the Seezers" but the Keezers. Had the English adopted the K, they would have avoided this error as thedid in their equivalent title ‘Kaiser’. We see that the Russian with czar, have got but half way. Note that Caesar, Kaiser and Czar share the same etymological root. *dirite. * It was the Phoenicians who also introduced Q as competitor to K. Later that Latins would introduce hard C into the mix. * The Book of Overthrowing Apep, British Museum. * See The Letter N,
The Letter L
BALANCE Value: 50, 70 L is the Balance, without which there could be no Movement. It resembles a Leg and a Foot in shape: that is, the lower parts of Man. The Squaring of the Circle or its Failure are mysteries that correspond to the letter L, which can take two values, the Upright and the Averse depending on the letters immediately following and preceding it. Whether this letter is Averse or Upright is decided by whether the particular Balance is established or Not. Technically, the L is said to be Balanced if it is supported on either side by the same vowel (as in Palace or Element). Otherwise, L is said to be Averse. If the L is balanced it will sum to 70 which is the EYE in the old key; otherwise it denotes 50, the old glyph for Death.
Notes
Dr. John Dee* and Edward Kelley first make mention of a special property of this letter, back in the 17th century.* Their research suggested that L can sometimes be an "N that extendeth" — N which in the Old Key was the glyph for Death, which is now known to be a Gate—that this state of Death or lingering about the Threshold or Gate, can Prolong itself unnecessarily. For the failure to Square the Circle would imply
Death, a release of energy into Piscean realms over which the letter N presides. Kelley records in his journal that "Avé" explained that Dee must make up the name PARAOAN. Dee asks, "What shall become of the "L" aversed?" Avé replies "In EXARPH there wanteth an "L." Though Dee could not anticipate this: the implication here is that when L is averse, it takes on the Value (and operation) for N in the old Key. *Note the name: John ‘D’ *Dr. John Dee, A True and Faithful Relation, CASAUBON, London, England, 1659 The Letter M m
A WAVE, A VALLEY Value: 40 One of the Mother letters in the Old Key, its shape denotes a Wave or a Valley carved by a River, and has traditionally been associated with the element Water. Mystically, it has been the symbol of self-sacrifice, of motherhood and the Hanged Man, in the Book TARO. Also, to pronounce ‘m’ requires compressing both lips shut, and thus it has also been associated with Silence in the Tradition*.
Notes
M is sometimes a syllabic consonant: it is considered by some to be a vowel in certain cases. An example would be chasm, where a vowel is implied between the s and the m. As a glyph, it has persisted throughout the Aeons, and its function and properties have remained immune to Change. It’s value remains 40, and being the 13th letter, it also divides the Key, and is a hinge on which the System turns for its numerical value changes Not throughout the Aeons. All formulas for transcending Death require this M as indicated by the passwords and formulae and Godnames presiding over this Place: M**N, MAUT, MAT, AMT, AIMA, NEMO—not one of which is male (NEMO is neither). * See "The Letter L" and "Special Considerations – L Upright, L Averse" in this Book.
The Letter N n
A GATE Value: 70 N is a Gate, which is the Threshold; and it is the glyph, which in the past has been traditionally associated with Death—that Death that is Regeneration or New Life. It
takes on two possible values: 6 or 70 depending on which side of the gate One is ON*. And that Gate that is N is the Gate that the Key ON opens (which is 150, which opened from one side is 156 (150 + Nf) and from the other 220 (150 + N) which are both BABALON. *Babalon etymologically equivalent to the Gate (Babal) ON and BABAL ON = 156 with N final, and 220 otherwise. Notes For the purposes of Gematria, the letter N takes two values depending on its position*. Its value is 70 except when it terminates a word or a phrase (appears as the last letter) as in "Man" or "Babylon". In this latter case, it takes on the value of 6 and becomes a Z, which is the Lightning Flash*, by falling on its side*. This addition contains a new key to the Mysteries of Death, which loses its Aspect of Terror for Humanity, and is discussed in greater length under the letter Y. Later we will see how the letter Y, the Tree of the World, which is the Tree of Life, ultimately culminates in one of the two possible values for N*. * It is the first letter to take a final value. The other two are S and T, as will be seen shortly. A discussion on the significance of final values is presented separately. Page 6 The English Alphabet * Z=6 suggests the lightning bolt in shape. * The Falling of N on its Side, or the N final, which is 6. In shape, an N is a Z on its side and vice-versa. * See Letters Y and L.
The Letter O o
THE MOON Value: 80, 200 The O is the Moon, the reflective nature of Water and the Egg of Spirit. It is also the Universe or the reflective nature of Consciousness. In both cases, reflection (= projection) is implied. It is 80 when it is New and when Full it is 200. Like the Cup, the Moon is Full when directly facing the Sun: Only then does it Receive fully of its Light and is wholly illumined. And as the Sky at Night, it is The Splendour into the Kingdom which is 8 (the 8th sphere - Hod - Splendour) into 10 (Malkuth, the Kingdom) or 80; which in the Day, shines Golden like the Cup which is 200.
Notes
O can be 80 or 200. At 80 the Egg is Fertilized, the Eye is Established, the Yoni is Fulfilled.* At 200, the Earth is Parched, the Eye is Closed, the Yoni is in Travail. As 200 it is solar—impregnated with the force of 120, while at 80 it is Mercurial in character as evidenced by the Horns.* * These symbols being interchangeable here. * The symbol for Mercury is the symbol of Venus crowned with the Crescent Moon, or Horns of Power. The Letter P p
THE PREGNANT GODDESS Value: 3 Traditionally the symbol of War and of Priesthood, it is She who stands guard: The Pregnant Goddess embodies not only the generative life, but also that attitude of the bearing Mother, who is armed and Mighty to defend and empowered to do All to direct the Future or the Outcome of the Battle.
The Letter Q q
THE SPERMATAZOON Value: 10 Q was first a Monkey. The Sumerians drew the body of the animal with a tail. The letter today retains this tail. Later when the Semitics appropriated the symbol from the Phoenicians, they named it "qoph" which signified "the back of the head", that is, the animal soul of man, or his primal consciousness. Today, we call it the spermatozoon; but it is all of these: IT is the evolutionary motive power within the individual, and that buried force that propels its growth both within its life and throughout the Aeons, and so also that which made the Ape overcome or rise above itself. Notes
Q is the power of generation which when applied to another element raises it to a higher wheel or plane and manifests the Egg of Spirit beneath it ready for fertilization. (Q = 10, 156 ! Q = 1560). It is THAT which reproduces itself into the Egg of Spirit in Its original Perfection (n ! 10 = n0, for any integer n).
Note that Q = F and so manifests the Father. Q summarizes then, the Secret of the FreeMasons and the Miracle of the Mass, and in its sound it models the mechanics by which this process is achieved.* As a final note, Q shares this power of generation with a third glyph, Ch which also is 10 (soft C=3 and H=7) and is that female half (to counterbalance the male Q) of that glyph which is the Chariot of which it is written, "There is no power that may endure, save only the power that descendeth in this my chariot…"* The Q is followed by the U, except in rare cases, which aptly denotes the Cup. And this denotes the Universal process which to Halt in order to arrive at one free of the other can only be effected with great pains. *Q sounds like Kw (e.g. kwick for quick, or kwark for quark). A further hint: KW = 90 = 30 ! 3 that is the Hard C (30 akin to the Arrow) transitioning upon the soft c (3, akin to the Pregnant Goddess) , that is cc as in success. Also W=60 is the Spirit, concentrated with force upon a point, K=30. Such meditations should provide ample material for experiment. *Liber 418, 12th Aire The Letter R r
BIRTH Value: 9 R is the Phallus, flaccid or exhausted as its shape denotes both in the lower case (r, flaccid) and the uppercase (R, fallen); and by its number 9, which also resembles the profile of the flaccid male genitalia (the testicle and the lingam). It’s alteration from 200 to 9 in the new key, denotes the end or impotence of the heliocentric ideal, and the paternal system of old. The new key gives U the Cup for 200, and reveals a new perspective for R, the Osirian Gods, which are now Exhausted. Notes
Traditionally, a Solar glyph, we now know that the Sun, a Star, like other Stars is but One in the Body of Nuit. Note also how the R is troublesome, rendering impotent the W, which is the Vision and the Voice (VV or W)*. We have the words wreck, write, wrap, etc, as an illustration. However, in the sense described above, practically, R is the phallus post-
coitus, and the womb post-parturition. The New glyph for R denotes Birth: that is The I emanating from the Pregnant Goddess or P. Its glyph is 9 which demonstrates not only this re-birthing but also that particular refusal to change under combination with other elements. Thus the recursive sum on the digits of the product of 9 with any other number is again 9 (e.g.: 9 x 23 = 207 and 2 + 0 + 7 = 9; or 9 x 146 = 1314 and 1 + 3 + 1 + 4 = 9; a final example: 9 x 63 = 567 and 5 + 6 + 7 = 18 and 1 + 8 = 9.) so that whatever is born of 9 is 9 again and progress is halted. Ris the glyph of Birth which invokes the Powers of Death, for all that is born must Die. And in this letter, Death and Birth are one. Note that the R renders null the W (see the Letter W) - The eyes, and that the human Being is blind at both Birth and Death. * See Letter W.
The Letter S s
THE SERPENT, THE SON Value: 24, 42 The letter S holds a special place in the English Lexicon as the main symbol for denoting plurality. There is a distinction to be made therefore in the S that terminates the word as it is, (e.g.: chaos) and the S that although terminating the word is not of it, but is suffixed to denote pluralization (e.g.: words). The letter S therefore takes on two values depending on its position. As S final it takes t he value of 42 (21 into 2) versus 24 (12 into 2).
Notes
Perhaps the most tortuous of the glyphs, the letter S sometimes denotes a clear hiss as in words like Super or Supper or case. In others this hiss is constrained by bringing the tongue to rest upon the palate, as in the words Sure and Sugar, which appear to compound an h to s. Other times yet, this hiss is entirely constrained until by force of pressure* it releases thundering and rumbling in the throat, turning it essentially into a z especially when terminating a word as in towards and days, or sometimes in the
middle of the word : rose, nose (versus doze and dose).
* The pressurized release vibrates the air between the palate and the tongue which creates the sound corresponding to the letter. One can feel this.
The Letter T t
THE TABLE, THE ALTAR Value: 89, 98 T is the table upon which the Banquet is laid; and T is the Altar where the Sacrifice is made. When final it is the Altar, and takes the value of 89. Otherwise, it is 98, and a Table. Notes
The T final is distinct. The T elsewhere in a word denotes an explosive release of energy. It takes on an entirely different character at the end of the word. It is the most sudden and violent of the terminations and denotes in this case an implosion, or the reverse effect, the value of which is the corresponding reversal of the digits of its usual numerical attribution.* It takes the value of 89, a prime, traditionally associate with the "Wrong" kind of Silence.* The arcs over and beneath the twentieth entry are suggestive of this reversal. Otherwise it is taken as 98 in value.
* See Table I: T = 98, T final = 89 * That of those who are drowned before the vine is planted - technically, the Black Brothers.
The Letter U u
THE CUP (THE URN) Value: 200 So much has been said and hinted at concerning this glyph, that there is little to add for what may be of practical use. Legends of the Graal*, of the Cup of Babalon and others are essentially representations of this glyph in form of legend and folk-tale. However, some oversights are prevalent, and certain other practicalities are often overlooked by rasher Students. Note for instance, that the Cup as IT is, possesses not only the Power to contain and restrain liquids into shape (that is, give them Form), but also all ground or powdered solids (or ash, in the case of an Urn). In the case of
the liquid (the most immediate application), the Student will notice t hat the Cup must be still, that is Fixed, for Reflection on the liquid’s surface to be possible. The slightest vibration sends the liquid in the Cup in motion, and the rippling of the liquid distorts the image, into Hellish and Obscene caricatures of the True Reflection. The importance of this fact cannot be overstated. Finally, U often succeeds Q. Note that the U is prevalent everywhere without the Q, but that Q, has trouble appearing without the U at its Side. Q and Ch represent the male and female counterparts of that which the U contains. They are each 10, and there union is 20 (the G – the Yoni satisfied), which together with the U is 220. Observe also that U = Q x G
* The Graal is Nemo and refers to the initiate at such a stage. It does not denote a historical fact, but a process continually present and incarnating in the Universe. The Letter V v
THE HORNS OF POWER Value: 80 A fricative like the F, and one of the last letters along with the J to be included into the standardized listing of the English Alphabet. It’s original usage was that of an initial U. Thus whenever the letter u appeared at the beginning of a word (e.g. upon) it was written with a ‘v’ (vpon). Born from its mother vowel the U, it was placed immediately after it. Resembling Horns in shape, V is the glyph of that which born of the skull, gores the flesh and uproots the tree. It’s value is 80, which is that of the soft O, or the new or crescent moon, its corresponding female glyph. Note that both glyphs resemble these horns in shape.* * The difference between these letters and their correspondents on the pole of the sexes, is in their shape at the root. U and C are right angle images of each other, and differ from the V only at the base, which in the latter case resolves to a point and in the case of the U is a continuous, smooth arc.
The Letter W w
THE EYES Value: 60, 400 Another late addition to the language, this letter at the beginning of a word always denotes the free flow of energy as evinced by its sound – the mouth opening wide and the air passing unrestricted (as in Wah, Weh, Wuh etc) and expresses the free flow of force of the letter F which fathered it. Its value is that of 60, that is Tiphareth or Human Consciousness into Malkuth, the material plane. It is the source of Intelligent Life. Called the "Double U", when activated, it takes on the value of 400* which is the totality of the Universe, and as Tau IT is the Crucifixion, and in Shape IT denotes the two Eyes of Horus, like pins, or hot brands in Thine Head, that see into the Horizon, and are fixed on Eternity, and are like two Cups that pour forth the Golden Light to Brighten the World. W is silent when it precedes R, which is the exhaustion, or the Sleep of Shi-Lo-Am for the righteous* wherein the Eye of HIM is closed. Note also that two hard cs or two ks (arrow hitting their targets each constituting a pin), or a ‘ck’, denote a ‘w’ which in all four cases are 60, denoting this double fixing, or the pinning of the separate poles wherein the Wheel turns. * U=200, two U’s = 400 * A foul word and not to be interpreted in its usual sense : Righteousness implies Seperation between two standards, not Union. Notes
The W is in a sense unique to English. There are only four other European languages that employ W in words native to their language, and these five use the letter to denote yet other sounds that /w/ known in English. This is suggestive of the glyph’s modernity. For the German and the Polish, the wis closer to the voiced labio-dental fricative of the letter , thus employing the teeth and the tongue to restrict the freeflow of air evinced in the English. Instead, the Polish employ a symbol very much like the averse L ( ") to denote the /w/ sound as we have it in English. In Cyrillic the W sound is denoted with a y shaped glyph, while in Welsh, the W can represent a vowel as well as a consonant, and in Finland the "W" hasn’t been born of the V yet, and is
still viewed as a mere variant of "V" and not a separate letter.* * This is always the case when the effect of a glyph is perceived but not isolated or understood: Humanity seeks to relate the unknown to something it knows. Until it separates the action of its combination with other elements, it sees the new glyph as modifications or variations of an existing glyph.
The Letter X x THE WHEEL, THE CROSS Value: 9, 300
The letter X a very modern addition and problematic, is sometimes a Z (xylophone) sometimes a ks (tax) yet others a gz (exert, execute), gsh (luxurious), and ksh (noxious). Via the Greek, it came to the English language where it originally denoted a sound identical to Z. It is the counterpart to the R and the ideas summarized in the numeral 9, especially as these relate to what has been said concerning the exhaustion of the Osirian Gods, i.e. the resurrecting gods.
The Letter Y y THE TREE OF THE WORLD Value: 6, 70 Y enjoys the special distinction of being the only letter which can be both vowel (e.g. cry) and consonant (e.g. yellow). Here we see that Y, the Tree of Life, the forked road suggested by its Shape, ends in one of two ways: in that Death which is Balanced Life (70 = N = L balanced), or into Tiphareth which is Harmony and Beauty (Nf=6). In both cases, the Letter Y or the Tree of Life, ends in N (the old glyph for death). Yet, this is the Glad Word for Humanity: how the active glyphs (L, Y, N) coalesce into these two: the 70 and 6, wherein Beauty and Love are exalted.
And that path which is fixed and which leads unto Tiphareth, or Sol, is the consonant Y whose value is 6. It is the illusory word which Man, the Son is subject to, and incarnates. So it is also B*, which is the Book. The light of RHK here, is like the lightning flash (Z)*, which is only seen distantly, but soon trembles in the breast (the falling of N on its side*) all of which are 6. * B=6 * Z=6 suggests the lightning bolt in shape. * Or N final which is 6. Note that N is identical in shape to Z, when turned 90 degrees in any direction.
That path which leads to the open EYE and is the Balance, is Y vowel and takes the value of 70 which is N which is a Gate and Eye and Death. For this Gate is the Gate to the Understanding or Binah, and this Eye is the Eye of Shiva. The passing through the Gate N or the opening of the Eye of Shiva, destroys the Universe. This necessary step is not as dire as it would seem. To perceive the Universe without Error—and this is the meaning of the "Eye of Shiva" or its Opening—requires that the Initiate Cease. This Universe (of the 6), being a Mirror or a Looking Glass, reflects the Image of that which envelops the Eye, and is False unless what looks is No Longer, is Dead, or in this Life, Empty of Light.* Otherwise, All that is Seen is one’s own Reflection. And this path is beyond the Supernals, and IT is the Balanced L which is the key to the Gate that is N.*
* See formulae for NOX: The pure spirit is pure darkness in the same way the Sun does not light up the Space it travels through unless it hits upon a planet or some coarser material: so pure Understanding is Darkness, for it passes the light unto Others and in this way, is invisible and illuminating at once. * N in shape denotes a gate.
Notes:
The y is called "the greek I" in many languages (I griega, Spanish; i greca, Italian, i grec, French, i grego, Portuguese) or sometimes epsilon. Phonetically, it is kin to the Spanish double ll which is kin to the j in Germanic languages. The Y is a Greek discovery, a gift of the Classical Period and symbolic of that Age. The glyph was absorbed into the Qabalistic systems later on as a welcome development when it was found that the double l had not as elemental constituents two l’s, but was in itself such an element. These two halves then united at the centre, and extended as one down to the root, hence morphing the two bar shape of the double l (like two pillars), into the forked shape of the modern Y. The consonant Y therefore is kin to the double LL and in some cases where the phonetics appears clear and spelling may be in transition – a judicious application of the rule is advised. In the English language however, the inclusion and subsequent integration of the Y glyph in the language takes an unexpected turn. Here the symbol is used to denote the contraction of two separate letters "T" and "H" and the accompanying sound. Today we still see remnants of this as in Ye Olde English. This symbol "Y" denoting a "Th" was called thorn. However, when coming across a Ye as in Ye Olde Pub, an Anglophone will pronounce it yee and not thee as was originally intended and
practiced. The Letter Z z
THE LIGHTNING FLASH Value: 6 While S is that serpent that Climes the Tree of Life, Z is that lightning flash that shoots from the Crown when it is Storm-Laden. Traditionally seen as a sword that divides, it explodes from ON High, and in an instant, irresistible in its force, traverses the Spheres to discharge its Might on the Ground of Earth. Ch is the crescent Moon or the Cup or Holy Graal exalted. It is the High Priestess and the Symbol of the Great Work accomplished. Its value is 2 or 10 (3 + 7 or C + h). As 37 it is something altogether different. It is the Chariot of the old glyphs and 418 fully spelt, which is ABRAHADABRA in the old Key, a formula denoting the Great Work; and actually, "Great Work" in the English Key. It is that Chariot of which IT is spoken, "There is no Power which endureth except in this my Chariot that descendeth from Babalon," and this Ch is the hard c paired with the h, whose enumeration is 30 (hard c) and 7 (h) which united makes 37. Witness then, the power which descendeth from Babalon which lies in Binah, which is the 3, which into 37 is 111 (111 = 37 ! 3) and so spans the triune numbers which in themselves are balanced and so Endure. IT – The miracle of the mass. ST – The Son on the Cross or on the Altar. Its value is 131 which is S final and T final (42 + 89). 131, the surrounding of the 3, Alchemically, the fire, the serpent on the altar (crucible) conjoined. However, here are some preliminary results of our research. Let us know if you are able to confirm. 4 elements, 12 houses, 10 spheres = 26 glyphs of the Roman Alphabet 4 elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water 12 houses: Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn 10 spheres corresponding to Sol, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune A the Star, is that Star particular to our System: Sol, the 1st (or 6 in the old system) B the Book, is the vessel of the Word, which is Hermes or Mercury, the 2nd (reflected in the 8th - HOD) C the Womb and Sky, is Aquarius, the Water-Carrier, which is the Womb or the Sky which rains upon the Earth. D the Bow, is Venus the 3rd (reflected in the 7th: Netzach), which is Love and the Victory (Netzach) of the propelling, penetrating force of Cupid's Bow. E the Triple Flame, is that triple Sword (aleph) which is AIR. F Force, is Mars, the
Fifth. G the Union, is Gemini ruled by Mercury as boy Cupid and contains the projectile Arrow of Sagittarius into the sky womb of Aquarius H the Throne, is Jupiter which is dominion over the 4. I the Arrow/Lingam/Column, is Sagittarius, the projectile of the Archer (Cupid/Mercury) J the Horn of Plenty, is Uranus (one of the Fathers Lost) K the Virgin, is Virgo the Virgin wading in Water (the element ruling over this house) L the Foot/Balance, is Libra the scales over which Venus presides M the wave or valley, is Water - its Element form. N the Gate, is Scorpio, another house over which Water presides. O the Moon, is Luna in both her phases. P the Pregnant Goddess, is Earth (the 4th Sphere-Gaia) Q the Spermatazoon, is Leo, which is constituted by Fire, and whose symbol has the shape of the spermatazoon. R the Birth, the exhausted Phallus, is Cancer the Crab, which comes out at night (and is ruled by Moon) and is the only creature to move sideways. S the Serpent or the Son, is Pisces, a fish that walks on the Water. T the Altar or Table, is Capricorn the Goat, the first of sacrificial animals: the first altars being the mountain tops where these lofty creatures enjoy gracing. U the Cup is Neptune, the outermost which V the Horns of Power, is Taurus, which cavorts in the Earth and is ruled by Venus W is Fire, which is Light that gives Sight X the Cross and Wheel is Saturn, Time Y the Tree of the World, is Malka the Elemental Earth in her redeemed and abased forms (Y consonant, Y vowel) Z the Lightning Flash, is the last and so the first: Aries, the Ram that breaks down the Doors to the Palaces within the Spheres. http://englishqabalah.blogspot.com/
> : then add paul foster case’s color tarot correspondences: Table of TAROT Correspondences
Letter Key
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Colour
The Fool
The Magician
The High Priestess
The Empress
The Emperor
The Hierophant
The Lovers
The Chariot
Strength
Yellow
Yellow
Blue
Green
Red
Red-Orange
Orange
Orange- Yellow
Yellow
Note
Signific. Gematria Astrology Alchemy
E
Aleph bull 1 Uranus Air
E
Beth house 2 Mercury Mercury
G#
Gimel camel 3 Moon Silver
F#
Daleth door 4 Venus Copper
C
Heh window 5 Aries Fiery
C#
Vav hook 6 Taurus Earthy
D
Zaïn sword 7 Gemini Airy
D#
Cheth fence 8 Cancer Watery
E
Teth serpent 9 Leo Fiery Yod open hand
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
The Hermit
The Wheel of Fortune
Justice
The Hanged Man
Death
Temperance
The Devil
The Tower
The Star
The Moon
The Sun
Yellow-Green
Violet
Green
Blue
Blue-Green
Blue
Blue-Violet
Red
Violet
Violet-Red
Orange
F
10 Virgo Earthy
A#
Kaph closed hand 20 Jupiter Tin
F#
Lamed ox goad 30 Libra Airy
G#
Mem water 40 Neptune Water
G
Nun fish 50 Scorpio Watery
G#
Samekh prop 60 Sagittarius Fiery
A
Ayin eye 70 Capricorn Earthy
C
Peh mouth 80 Mars Iron
A#
Tzaddi fish-hook 90 Aquarius Airy
B
Qoph back of head 100 Pisces Watery
D
Resh head 200 Sun Gold
20
21
Judgement
The World
Red
Blue-Violet
C
Shin tooth 300 Pluto Fire
A
Tav mark 400 Saturn Lead
http://www.botaineurope.org/index.php?id=16
> only transpose them a tritone away to match with correct scientific evidence:
Corresponding light-spectrum harmonics were computed from equal temperament musical pitches, using a reference of A440 and a half-step frequency ratio of 21/12. Given the speed of light, C = 299792458 meters/ second, and !=C/F, wavelengths were computed for each frequency. The 780.75nm “F” falls outside of the 380-780nm range but I added it for interest. Note that exactly 12 pitches fit within the range. The light spectrum “C” is 41 octaves above middle-C F — F# — G — G# — A — Bflat B — C — C# — D — Eflat E — F —
349.228231 Hz ~ 369.994423 Hz ~ 391.995436 Hz ~ 415.304698 Hz ~ 440.000000 Hz ~ — 466.163762 Hz 493.883301 Hz ~ 523.251131 Hz ~ 554.365262 Hz ~ 587.329536 Hz ~ — 622.253967 Hz 659.255114 Hz ~ 698.456463 Hz ~
383.980501 THz ~ 406.813170 THz ~ 431.003540 THz ~ 456.632344 THz ~ 483.785116 THz ~ ~ 512.552476 THz 543.030432 THz ~ 575.320702 THz ~ 609.531052 THz ~ 645.775654 THz ~ ~ 684.175473 THz 724.858663 THz ~ 767.961002 THz ~
780.749171 nm 736.929087 nm 695.568436 nm 656.529179 nm 619.681028 nm ~ 584.901004 nm 552.073033 nm 521.087555 nm 491.841158 nm 464.236235 nm ~ 438.180657 nm 413.587466 nm 390.374586 nm
http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/what-color-is-
middle-c-musical-pitch-related-to-color/
Audible frequencies are from 20 Hz. to 25,000 Hz. The basis of the logic for pitch/colour connection is as follows: Assume the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant i.e. 299,792,458 metres per second. The wave length of a particular colour may be expressed in metres (nanometres or Angstroms). We assume that 299,792,458 metres is equivalent to a number of wavelengths, which may be determined by dividing 299,792,458 by the distance in metres of one wavelength. i.e. frequency = (metres travelled by light per second) _ (wavelength of specific colour)
Eg: for 5800 Angstroms (yellow) Frequency = 299,792,458 / 0.000,000,58 = 516,883,530,000,000 Hz. As octaves are a result of doubling or halving frequency this high frequency may be reduced to a precise audible value by cumulative halving. The following table shows the results of this logic: Equivalent Wavelengt h Hertz Approximate Not LucyTun Angstroms/ e Colour ed 10 Nanometre s A
440
619.69
OrangeYellow
A#
457.75
595.66
YellowOrange
Bb
472.27
577.34
Yellow
B
491.32
554.95
YellowGreen
Cb
506.91
537.89
GreenYellow
B#
511.13
533.44
Green
C
527.35
517.03
Green
C#
548.62
496.99
Green-Blue
Db
566.03
481.70
Blue-Green
D
588.86
463.03
Blue
D#
612.61
445.08
Blue-Violet
Eb
632.05
431.39
Violet-Blue
E
657.54
414.67
Violet
Fb
678.41
401.91
Ultra Violet
E#
684.06
398.59
Invisible Violet
F
705.77
772.66
Invisible Red
F#
734.23
742.71
Infra Red
Gb
757.53
719.86
Red
G
788.08
691.96
Red-Orange
G#
819.87
665.13
Orange-Red
Ab
845.89
644.67
Orange
http://www.harmonics.com/lucy/lsd/colors.html
>Add in pythagorean numerology (which appears in alan chapman’s version) Pythagorean Numerology
The Pythagorean system of numerology is the most widely used form of numerology. This is most likely due to the fact that it is very straightforward and easy to learn. Before we get started, be sure you have read Part I of this guide and have a full understanding of the mathematics behind numerology.
In the previous section we discussed how two or more digit numbers are reduced to a single digit in Pythagorean numerology. This holds true in every case except with the numbers 11 and 22. These two numbers are considered master vibrations are are not reduced. If you come up with 11 or 22 for one of your answers in the follow excersise do not reduce it further. The Pythagorean Number Values
The following chart shows the numbers assigned to each letter in Pythagorean numerology and is the basis for many numerology readings. To read the chart, find the letter you are looking for and look at the corresponding number at the top of the column containing the letter. For example, the letter A would be 1,
the letter B would be 2, the letter C would be 3, etc.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
X
The following excercise will teach you to translate letters into numbers. This is one of the most basic components of numerology, so be sure you have a full understanding of it before moving on. To begin with, write down your full name (first, middle and last). In Pythagorean numerology it is important that you use your name as it appears on your birth certificate. Then assign a number to each letter in your name. To do that, locate the letter in the above chart, and then look at the number at the top of the column containing that letter. That number is the number you would assign to that letter. Do that for each of the letters in yo ur full name. For our example, we will use a fictional character named John Alan Smith. J
O
H
N
A
L
A
N
S
M
I
T
H
1 6 8 5 1 3 1 5 1 4 9 2 8 The next step is to add up all these numbers and then reduce the result to a single digit. You will want to be sure to add each name separately, then add those sums together to get the total for the whole name, then if necessary reduce to a single digit. We add the parts of the name separately instead of adding the whole name straight across because not only does the total number for the name have meaning, but each part of the name also has some bearing on who we are. John = 1+6+8+5 = 20 = 2+0 = 2 Alan = 1+3+1+5 = 10 = 1+0 = 1 Smith = 1+4+9+2+8 = 24 = 2+4 = 6 Adding those totals together we get: 2+1+6 = 9 This means that in our example, John’s birthname reduces to a 9. http://aboutnumerology.com/learnnumerology2.php
>Then double the values by 10’ 100’s from english/hebrew/greek gematria etc for fun!
Master Key to the Secrets of Freemasonry
Letter
Value
Aa
1
Bb
2
Cc
3
Dd
4
Ee
5
Ff
6
Gg
7
Hh
8
Ii
9
Kk
10
Ll
20
Mm
30
Nn
40
Oo
50
Pp
60
Qq
70
Rr
80
Ss
90
Tt
100
Uu
200
Xx
300
Yy
400
Zz
500
Jj
600
Vv
700
(Hi
800)
Ww
900
These gematria values are recorded in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1532), Book II: chapter xx. The Latin based code appears a bit irregular when presented in this way. The reason for this is that it is based on the 23 letter Latin alphabet. The additional letters 'J', 'V', 'Hi' and 'W' ('Hu') were
recognised as representative of separate sounds and used to increase the alphabet to 27 letters - and three tiers of nine digits.
Letter Value Final Value
Name
Transliteration
1
aleph
A
2
beth
B
3
gimel
G
4
daleth
D
5
he
H
6
vau
V
7
zayin
Z
8
cheth
Ch
9
teth
T
10
yod
I
kaph
K
lamed
L
20
500
30 40
600
mem
M
50
700
nun
N
60
samekh
S
70
ayin
Aa
80
800
pe
Ph
90
900
tzaddi
Tz
100
qoph
Q
200
resh
R
300
shin
Sh
400
tau
Th
These gematria values are very well established. A standard reference for them during the Renaissance was Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1532), Book II: chapter xix. The 'Final' figures for Kaph, Mem, Nun, Pe and Tzaddi are counted as such when these letters come at the end of a word. The gematria value of the word may be taken at this higher value, but it can also be counted low. The rule of Colel allows for the addition or subtraction of one digit to or from a computed total.
Letter
Value
Name
Transliteration
"#
1
"$%#
a
&'
2
&()#
b
*+
3
*#,,#
g
-.
4
-/$)#
d
0/
5
012$34
e
(5'
6
-2+#,,#
st)
67
7
6()#
z
8(
8
8)#
e
9:
9
9()#
th
;2
10
;<)#
i
=>
20
=#??#
k
@$
30
@#,.#
l
A ,
40
AB
m
C4
50
CB
n
DE
60
D2
x
F3
70
F ,2>G34
o
H ?
80
H2
p
IG
100
I<
r
JK5
200
J2+,#
s
L)
300
L#B
t
MB
400
M12$34
y/u
N%
500
N2
ph
OP
600
O2
ch
Q1
700
Q2
ps
R<
800
R ,/+#
o
These gematria values are recorded in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1532), Book II: chapter xviii. In the Greek cabala the obsolete letter digamma may be substituted for the two letters 'st' where they occur together (See, K. Barry, The Greek Qabalah, Samuel Weiser Inc., ME, 1999, p.217). This gives a combined value of 6 rather than 500. Thus a word like !"#$%&' (cross)
has a value of either 1271 or 777. The rule of Colel allows for the addition or subtraction of one digit to or from a computed total. http://www.masoncode.com/The%20Jewels%20of%20Freemasonry.htm
add in modes/planets correspondences:
Planetary Rulers Planetary Rulers of the Zodiac Signs In astrology, each zodiac sign has a ruling planet. The following shows the planets that rule each sign. Note that we've added the classical rulers of signs in
brackets.
These rulers were assigned to the signs
before Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered. These classical rulers are still used by some astrologers. Note also that some planets rule two signs. Aries - Mars Taurus - Venus Gemini - Mercury Cancer - Moon Leo - Sun Virgo - Mercury Libra - Venus Scorpio - Pluto (Mars) Sagittarius - Jupiter Capricorn - Saturn Aquarius - Uranus (Saturn) Pisces - Neptune (Jupiter) http://www.cafeastrology.com/articles/sign-rulerships.html
The words "music theory" have a dull, chalkdusty sound to most musicians, and with good reason. Music theory is usually taught by the "drill-and-kill" approach -- making students memorize how many sharps this key has, how to label that dominant-seventh chord, etc. The components of music theory are presented in a fragmented and arbitrary way, obscuring their underlying unity; and they are treated as neutral objects on the same level as car parts, without any discussion of their aesthetic and expressive characteristics. Teachers themselves are not to blame for this, however -- in these days of arts cutbacks, it is all they can do to keep a band program intact, much less devote scarce classroom time to theoretical discussion. But in the days when music theory was considered one of the Seven Liberal Arts, it was considered an integral part of higher education. Musical intervals, for instance, were studied, not merely for the sake of ear training, but to gain insight into the meaning of ratio and proportion. The terminology and notational mechanics of music were not an end in themselves, as they are now, but a means to learn the philosophy of music. I am constructing a Web site that will present teaching materials, articles, sound files, and relevant links that •
teach the technical elements of music theory by showing their fundamental interconnections, and illustrating them by links, references, and soundfiles drawn from many styles of music -- folk, rock, early music, classical, etc.; • discuss the expressive aspects of these elements -- how they are used to communicate emotion; • explore the philosophical and even metaphysical side of music theory. The site will be a resource for teachers and students to use to supplement their classes, as well as for musicians and music-lovers to use for teaching themselves about music theory. The overall plan for the Web site is based on what I call the "Five Elements" of music:
1. Acoustics 2. Rhythm 3. Melody 4. Harmony 5. Timbre Explore a cluster of Web pages about modes and scales, the first phase in the construction of this site. If you are interested in providing financial or technical help to continue its construction, please contact me at
[email protected].
http://www.oldenwilde.org/oldenwilde/members/diu/musweb.html
This "quadrivial compass" represents the intersection of Astrology, Music, Number, and Geometry. With an understanding of these four art/sciences, you can orient yourself in any unfamiliar field of knowledge. What are these four symbols?
The Quadrivium I: The Seven Liberal Arts What are the "liberal arts"? Nowadays, we usually define a liberal-arts education in the negative -- "impractical", the opposite of technical or professional training; rarely leads to a job, usually due for a cutback next year. It is a vague phrase used to lump together all the academic disciplines that we perceive as soft, subjective, in distinction from disciplines like law, business, the sciences, which are supposedly based on a hard, objective body of facts. In these moneydominated days, in which a college degree is seen merely as a ticket to a higher-paying job, we increasingly forget that a "liberal arts" education has always been meant, not to train one to perform specialized labor -- which is merely "vocational" teaching --, but to liberate the mind . The word comes from Latin liber, a "free man", one who is not a slave. Little wonder that, the more we become slaves to an omnipotent and all-pervading economic order, the less we remember the origin of the liberal arts as the curriculum of philosophers, priests, and magicians. Originally the liberal arts were seven in number. They were divided into the three-fold Trivium of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and the four-fold Quadrivium of Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. These words mean, respectively, a three-way and a four-way crossroads, implying that these paths of knowledge are fundamentally interconnected -- and, by extension, that all other paths can be found to intersect here, as well. The T. was the basis of elementary education (whence we probably get the word "trivial"): Grammar taught the craft of reading and writing; Logic, of careful reasoning; and Rhetoric, of effective communication. The Q. was the
basis of advanced education: Arithmetic taught the science of number; Geometry, of form; Music, of sound (and of "harmony" in the most general sense of the word -- "number in motion", as it was often put); Astronomy, of time (of "form in motion"). Moreover, from the very beginning, whether openly acknowledged or carefully alluded to, each of the Quadrivial sciences was accompanied by its complementary metaphysical art. Each dealt not only with the outer structures, but also with the inner meanings of its discipline. Thus, Arithmetic included Arithmology, the understanding that numbers were not merely quantities, but also qualities (that "two", for instance, is also "duality, polarity"); Geometry included what is nowadays called Geomancy, the understanding (in, for example, the design of temples or cathedrals, or in the graphic arts) that the spirit and the emotions can be affected in particular ways by particular forms; Astronomy included Astrology, the divination of the meanings of cycles of time; and Music included not only the study of "practical theory", of nomenclature and technique (e.g. "this is a minor third", "this is the Mixolydian mode"), but also the study of "speculative theory", of the meanings and influences of tones and intervals and scales.
II: History of the Quadrivium The choice of these particular disciplines was by no means arbitrary. Plato, who learned the arts of the Quadrivium from the school of Pythagoras (who, in turn, probably learned them from the priestly schools of Egypt or Babylon), exalted them in the Republic and the Laws as the essential education for the philosopher -- for the study of these art/sciences awakens the mind to the intrinsic order of the cosmos, freeing it from its bondage to mere "shadows on the cave wall". By studying the links and intersections among these disciplines, one learns to recognize analogies, patterns, correspondences, through which the archetypal Ideas that underlie and unite the cosmos manifest themselves in the world of time and space. Little wonder that, a thousand years after Pythagoras, as the Roman Empire was collapsing and the ancient libraries and academies were being burned and outlawed by religious fanatics, the seven liberal arts were the one essential seed of classical wisdom that was rescued and preserved by the monasteries through the so-called Dark Ages, to bloom in the Carolingian renaissance and yet again in the age of the cathedrals as the curriculum of the first universities. The Quadrivium flourished uninterruptedly in the philosophy, art, and science of medieval Islam; in fact, as interconnected sacred canons of measurement, of spatial orientation and architectural and artistic proportion, of musical scales and modes, and of calendric cycles, the four arts the West knew as the Quadrivium were also the basis of priestly and shamanic education and practice in ancient Egypt, Babylon, India, China, Meso-america -- indeed, in practically every pre-modern culture one can examine. In the West, up through the Renaissance, the seven liberal arts retained an important role in education, and the influence of the Q. deeply pervaded the visual arts, architecture, music, and philosophy. Composers wrote musical works that were based on arithmetical patterns or, in at least one instance, on the geometry of the cathedral at whose dedication the work was performed(1). The proportions of cathedrals and palaces were in turn often borrowed from the "consonant" musical intervals. The astronomer (and astrologer) Kepler was led to his discovery of the mathematical laws of planetary motion by his investigation of the "music of the spheres" and his discovery that the five Platonic solids could be nested within the orbits of the known
planets. Ficino's and Agrippa's magickal philosophies were based on the metaphysical arts of the Quadrivium. Such historical examples could be multiplied ad infinitum. But they end rather suddenly in the 1600's, with the combined onslaught of the Christian "witch craze" -- which branded the metaphysical arts of the Q. as "satanic" and "occult" -- and the Scientific Revolution, which inaugurated a dogmatically materialistic view of the cosmos (originally, scholars such as Frances Yates ( The Rosicrucian Enlightenment ) and Carolyn Merchant (The Death of Nature ) argue, as a protection against religious persecution, but which soon hardened into an ideology that fit conveniently with the increasing domination of society by commercial and economic interests). It was as if a heavy iron gate had abruptly slammed shut between the outer and the inner, between the left brain and the right, between the physical sciences and the metaphysical arts. After Descartes, Newton, and the Royal Academy, numerology was permanently factored out of arithmetic; numbers henceforth were allowed to signify only quantities, not qualities. Astronomy deliberately eclipsed astrology; time was decreed to be measurable only by the uniform ticks of the clock, not the variegated images of the zodiac. Geometry was circumscribed to exclude geomancy; shape and proportion were deprived of symbolism by engineer and artist both, as utilitarian and aesthete increasingly diverged from their once-shared perspective. Music was silenced from singing of any art but its own -- the scientists who commandeered its study of acoustics could only sneer at the "music of the spheres" and the "harmonies of heaven and earth", and the artists who inherited its practice of harmony and rhythm were eventually left with a mere technical argot of chord-names, scaleintervals, and key-signatures. Although the four Quadrivial sciences survived into the Age of Reason in the new materialist priestcraft of "physics", the four arts were largely abandoned (numerology), ridiculed (astrology), forgotten (geomancy), or isolated (music). The Crossroads was buried and soon forgotten, and the link it provided between the material and the spiritual order was severed. In the new world order, knowledge and truth could no longer be uncovered through the traditional reasoning of analogy and correspondence, but only through the revelation of the Bible or the proof of the test-tube -- that is, either religious faith or cause-and-effect materialism. Once the habit of "pattern"-thinking was replaced by "straight-line" thinking, knowledge lost its unity and interconnectedness, and began to fragment into ever smaller specialties, each with its own jargon, each dominated by its own elite of "experts".
III: A Universal Crossroads Today, the process of specialization of knowledge has reached extreme proportions. We live in a Tower of Babble, bombarded by information and facts and expertise, little of which is expressed in a common language, even less of which is seen to interrelate or form a comprehensible overall pattern. Yet, on the other hand, we increasingly hear physicists, ecologists, and religious figures speak about holism, interconnectedness, the web of all being. We sense that this is true, that we and the cosmos do participate in an organic unity; but we have as yet found few ways to practice it, or even to understand it on a practical, meaningful level. Above all else, how do we teach it? Academics and educators are at long last beginning to show serious interest in "interdisciplinary" research and teaching, and the ability to reason analogically, to recognize patterns in common among seemingly diverse areas of knowledge and experience, is coming to be recognized
increasingly (even, for example, by such a committed scientific materialist as Marvin Minsky, in a recent interview (2)) as a highly practical skill in a world where people must constantly adapt to ever more swiftly changing technologies, careers, and cultural and economic conditions. Perhaps it is time to re-connect ourselves with our past as well, and to excavate and rebuild the ancient pedagogy of the Crossroads -- but in a new way, appropriate to the environment of the Computer Age.
A brief testimonial: As if to prove the timelessness of the Q., I stumbled across it years before I knew of its name or its historical existence. My own specialty was music theory, and it was my interest in how and why scales, chords, and harmonies work as they do that led me to study vibrational ratios and harmonious proportions, and the physics of waves and cycles. From music's "cycles per second", it was not a very large step to "cycles per century", as it were -- the realm of astrology. In both, these systems of cycles are associated with analogous ideas and emotions. Soon, my work with tuning systems and calculating astrological charts by hand (I didn't have a computer; but it's really not that hard) cured me of a lifelong allergy to math. Suddenly, numbers were alive with meanings and associations. Rather than the disconnected sets of dry formulas I'd been made to memorize in school, I could hear and see mathematical patterns take shape. These patterns led me into geometry, and an interest in what we call geomancy and the Chinese call "feng shui": the intentional arrangement of space in architecture or landscape to create harmony or discord. When you begin to follow a theme such as "cycles" or "proportions" -- or "resonance", "twelve", "symmetry", to name some others -- that runs through all four of these fields, you quickly find yourself learning about geometry and math, for example, while you thought you were simply studying music. Moreover, because the kinds of knowledge that the Q. teaches truly do intersect with nearly every other field of study, you find it far more easy and enjoyable to read and understand the underlying theories of texts on physics, electronics, ecology, computer science, philosophy, and many other technical specialties than it had ever been before. The Q. acts as a kind of "universal translating device", which -- because it represents all-pervasive patterns of order -- helps one to identify and build upon the most significant points of commonality between what one already knows and an unfamiliar new field or skill, and to penetrate the fog of jargon and terminology that so often obscures those points. It teaches you to recognize commonality and similarity, rather than the constant focus on distinctions and divisions and particularities, on learning as a linear march through a series of isolated compartments, that is enforced by conventional educational methods. In a larger sense, analogical understanding -- "that" is similar to (but not identical with) "this", "you" are similar to (but not identical with) "us" -- is an essential skill that seems to be largely missing today from a world increasingly dominated by religious separatism, factional warfare, and economic selfishness. One might even say that it is the intellect's counterpart to the emotion of compassion.
I think of the Q. as a kind of compass for navigating the Information Flood (a more accurate metaphor, it seems, than "superhighway"!). Just as you use a compass to orient you to the point on the earth where all lines of latitude and longitude unite, so you use the Q. to find the points where seemingly disparate areas of information converge. This is a twelve-fold compass, in
which the arts of the Trivium are not added to the Q. as in the "seven liberal arts", but multiplied with it. Each Quadrivial discipline can be divided according to its "logic", its "grammar", and its "rhetoric". The logical branch is its scientific, "left-brain" side, the investigation into the laws by which it works; the rhetorical branch is its aesthetic, "right-brain" side, its expression of meaning and emotion, as well as its relationship to the spirit and soul; and the grammatical branch is the terminology and conventions it uses, a neutral middle ground which draws on both the logical and the rhetorical branches. For example, in Music, Grammar describes certain combinations of tones as "major triads", others as "minor triads". Logic observes that major triads are formed "upward", by frequency multiplication, with the smaller and more complex interval above the larger, simpler one, whereas the minor triad is formed "downward", by frequency division, exactly inverting the two intervals. Rhetoric uses the upward-tending major triad to express "yang" feelings like joy or courage, and the downward-tending minor triad to express "yin" feelings like sorrow or fear. I would go so far as to say that every field is usefully divisible into these three branches, and note that, by and large, the Logic and Grammar branches are nowadays given most of the educational and practical attention, whereas the Rhetorical branch is written off as arbitrary and random (because it is "non-quantifiable"), and ignored or left to individual whim. (If only architects considered the rhetoric of their geometry and not merely its logic, for example, we might have fewer harsh rectilinear surfaces dominating our landscapes and contributing to the anomie of modern life.) Steven C. Rasmussen March 28. 1996
Have I caught your interest in the Quadrivium? Find out more about it my book The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems, co-authored with my wife Disie Deerman (Sterling, Sept. 2005), available online and in bookstores around the world. Check out the excerpt below, then click on it to find out more about The Goodly Spellbook.
Send e-mail to Steven C. Rasmussen at
[email protected]. Tell me something about your own interests and background, too. A website for teaching and learning music theory in innovative ways (currently under construction) is the first phase of a proposed Quadrivial website, called Liberal7Arts. (In The Goodly Spellbook, you can find a more complete version of the information on the 7 Modes that this prototype website demonstrates.)
FOOTNOTES: (1) Guillaume Dufay, in the 15th century, structured the motet "Nuper rosarum flores" according to the architectural proportions of the Duomo in Florence, at whose dedication the work was performed. Return to text. (2) In Mira Balaban et al., eds., Understanding Music with Artificial Intelligence: Perspectives on Music Cognition , 1992 MIT Press, p. xi-xii. I cite this at length because Minsky arrives at the same conclusion as me from the opposite end of the philosophical spectrum:"So you think computer science -- or at least AI -- needs other, richer kinds of descriptive ideas and terms [than binary logic]? MM: Yes indeed. I want AI researchers to appreciate that there is no one 'best' way to represent knowledge. Each kind of problem requires appropriate types of thinking and reasoning ... For example, logical methods are based on using rigid rules of inference to make deductions. This works well inside formal domains -- those artificial worlds that we imagine for ourselves. But to cope with the unknowns and uncertainties of reality, we must base our actions on experience -- and that requires us to reason by analogy, because no two situations are ever quite the same. In turn, this means that we have to be able to recollect similar experiences and understand which differences are relevant. But in the logical world, ideas like 'similar' and 'relevant' are alien because logic can only answer questions like 'what is this an instance of?' or 'what is this a generalization of?' The trouble is that concepts like instance and generalization apply only to ideas -- because no actual object or event can be an instance of anything else. However, real things can be seen as related -- at least in an observer's mind -- by apparent similarities of structures, effects, or useful applications. Certainly this is the case in music." Return to text.
"COMPASS" SYMBOLS: Clockwise from top: Astrology: The symbols for the planets arranged in the traditional "Chaldean order", with Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto added at the three corners. Music: The overtone and the undertone series for middle C. Number: Plato's proportion series from the Timaeus, with the middle proportions filled in. Geometry: Circles arranged to form a Pythagorean tetractys.
http://www.oldenwilde.org/oldenwilde/members/diu/quadriv.html
A Musical Cipher by *Diuvei
A "cipher" is a method of transforming a text into a secret code. These days this is usually done for cloak-and-dagger purposes, but in olden times witches and magicians used ciphers to create magical inscriptions for talismans or to write their grimoires (books of spells and rituals). In fact, historians trace the origins of the science of cryptography to the 15th-century treatiseSteganographia , by Abbot Trithemius -- the magician who was the mentor and teacher of the most famous magician of all, Agrippa. For our spells, we sometimes use a cipher that translates letters of the alphabet into musical notes and rhythms. We might encipher a God or Goddess's name, one of our own names, or a word that represents the purpose or focus of the spell (e.g. "safety" or "health"). This gives us a melody that we can make the basis of a chant or of a drum rhythm -- a kind of musical sigil or talisman. The system we use is adapted from one described by G. Porta, De furtivis literarum notis (On the secret notes of letters), 1602. Porta's method was widely used for secret communications by spies, diplomats, and generals throughout the 18th century. Porta's system was more limited than ours -- it used only the major mode, omitted K and W, and only went up to the note f'' and back. Our version uses the natural correlation between letters of the scale and letters of the alphabet (the letter A = the note A, the letter B = the note B, etc.), which composers such as Bach and Schumann have used for centuries to create musical themes. Partly for numerological reasons, we use the traditional 24-letter "Latin" alphabet, in which I is the same as J and U is the same as V.
To create a musical talisman: • • • •
Write down the letters of the word or phrase you want to encipher above a blank music staff. On the staff, write the musical note that corresponds to each letter. On a musical instrument, play the resulting melody. To improve the melody, you can transpose any of the notes up or down an octave -- in other words, to the note with the same name. (In the example below, you can see that I transposed down the note D that corresponds to "L" in "WEALTH".)
