'a secret key of this Law'
Dwtw
This will be my last post on this verse. I've looked at a straight math equation, 8n + 18 = x, and I've looked at a straight qabalistic Tarot approach, and got some math and gematria that pointed to the Tarot as part of the solution to the verse. The last approach will combine these elements, and reference the whole of the Law.
Using Trigrammaton qabalah, the entirety of Liber CCXX can be calculated as the sum of the English gematria of the words, plus all of the verse-numbers and numbers in the text, plus Tzaddi as 90 and Thelema as 93. The sum of all these elements of the Book is 267,696
This global sum can be arrived at very simply via the numbers and words mentioned in verse 1:46.
The method used to crack the code employs the instructions from verse 1:25 to 'divide, add, multiply and understand'.
Taking the number words used in verse 1:46 we have:
Nothing
sixty-one
eight,
eighty
four hundred & eighteen
We first *divide* these number-words into the two groups shown above, which are the Jews' half and Nuit's half, and then do the other two operations on them separately:
we *add* the first group as Trigrammaton gematria values;
nothing = 81
sixty-one = 95
81 + 95 = 176
and *multiply* the second group as numerals;
8 x 80 x 418 = 267,520
Now all we have to do is 'understand', which we do when we 'unite by thine art'.
176 + 267,520 = 267,696
And thus we arrive at the global sum of Liber CCXX, which is the product of 8 times 80 times 418, plus the sum of the gematria of nothing and sixty-one.
Now what does this have to do with Tarot?
One of the features of the global sum is this:
267,696 = 78 x 78 x 44
What this can represent in Tarot terms is the probability of choosing three distinct cards from two full decks and a third deck of majors only (with their reversals).
For example, I can take a standard Tarot deck, shuffle and pull a card. That's a 1/78 chance of a particular card. I can then replace the card and choose another, again a 1/78 chance. But the chances of picking *those two particular cards together* is of course 1/78 x 1/78, or 1/6084.
I now use a deck of Majors only, and include their reversals, making 44 different possibilities. Pulling a particular card or its reversal from this group has a chance of 1/44 . I choose a card from this group, and now the overall probability of pulling *all three* of those particular cards is 1/78 x 1/78 x 1/44 = 1/267,696.
I will now do a divination with this method.
My question is, what is the meaning of verse 1:46?
My first card is SCIENCE, the 6 of Swords.
My next card is the Hanged Man
My third card is the Devil, reversed.
Science tells me that the solution is mathematical, and that I should use hexagrams, or six-digit numbers, an important feature of the Trigrammaton Qabalah. These hexagrams are composed of the three digits in base 3: 0,1 and 2. They represent Tao, Yang and Yin lines.
The Hanged Man carries the Hebrew letter Mem with him, and this has the value of 40.
40 is the English value of the name HADIT. This refers, overall, to my discussion of the eightfold cube and its relation to Hadit discussed earlier. But it also points to a hexagram.
In base 3, the hexagram for the number 40 looks like this:
001111. It's antigram, i.e., the hexagram with all of its lines changed to their opposites, (or all the 1s changed into 2s), is 002222, and this is the decimal number 80.
Now 80 is one of the numbers Nuit gives as her definition of Nothing. Since the Hanged Man and Hadit are the *antigram* of 80, this is a clue to use the antigrams of ALL the numbers mentioned in the verse.
Here are the antigrams:
61 - 002021 is the antigram of 32 - 001012
8 - 000022 is the antigram of 4 - 000011
80 - 002222 is the antigram of 40 - 001111
418 - 120111 is the antigram of 593 - 210222
So the antigrams are 32, 4, 40, and 593.
The total is 32 + 4 + 40 + 593 = 669.
This is the value of the Hebrew word AChRNITh, meaning 'backwards'. This is a very important clue to what follows.
Now the third card I got was the Devil, reversed, and this card carries the Hebrew letter Ayin, which is verrry similar to the word AIN, and points to treating it (61) separately, perhaps by subtracting it so that 'all disappear', and perhaps by using the reversal of a number, or perhaps both of these. But the reversal is sure to be important, because this is the number 'backwards', as indicated by the 669 just mentioned.
So we forget about 32 as the antigram of AIN for the moment, and just look at Nuit's half.
The antigrams of Nuit's half (8,80,418) sum to 4 + 40 + 593 = 637
As it happens, 637 looks like this: 212121; this is the 63rd hexagram of the I Ching, whose name is 'after completion'. It is the hexagram which has all the right lines in all the right places in the I Ching system. As such it denotes the 'end' of the sequence.
But what about the AIN as 61 and its antigram, 32?
Well if we want to have a zero, or nothing, on one half of the equation, then we have to subtract something. In this case, we want to make the 61 'disappear', so comparing the two halves of this equation, if 61 = 637, then we subtract 61 from both sides and get
61 - 61 = 637 - 61
0 = 576
Now this number 576 is very peculiar, because it looks like this in base 3:
576 = 210100.
and if we *reverse* this number, writing it 'backwards' we get 001012 = 32.
Notice that the reversal of 576 is the antigram of 61!
We have not only taken 61 and subtracted it from both halves, (thus making it 'disappear'), but we have turned it into the reversal of its antigram, making it disappear even more symbolically, because its identity is changed to its opposite, then written in reverse.
{And this also fulfills the instruction to make 'all' disappear, because the word ALL can be transliterated Alef-Lamed-Lamed, or 1 + 30 + 30 = 61.}
So we got the number 576, and this is the reverse of 32.
Obviously 32 has important connotations with the Tree of Life; it is the sum of the paths of Wisdom, the 22 paths and 10 spheres of the Tree. These of course are part of the framework of the Tarot, and we were told the Taro would be part of the solution.
what import does 576 have otherwise?
In Sepher Sephiroth, 576 = MQLUTh = 'Wands'
I'm not sure what that indicates.
But we've reduced our Zero to a single hexagram:
0 = 576 = 210100
This hexagram is 576 read in one direction, and 32 in the other direction. The sum of these two directions is; 576 + 32 = 669
Now the number 669 looks like this:
669 = 220210
So for the hell of it, continuing the backwards theme, we'll turn this number backwards too;
the reversal of 669 = 012022 = 143
143 is not only the sum of the numbers in the cipher found in verse 2:76, it is also the TQ gematria of the title of the Book:
The Book of the Law = 143.
Thus is nothing 'a secret key of this Law'.
so to wrap up with a shortcut version:
Take the sum of the antigrams of the four numbers mentioned in the verse, which is 669. This is the value of the word 'backwards' in Hebrew. Change this number 669 into base 3, (220210), and turn it backwards, (012022), and you get the decimal number 143, which is the title of the Book.
This establishes that the backwards, or reversed, antigram of a number has a valid connection to the original number, and should provide some hidden meaning. So let's take a number not found in this verse and see what happens;
666 = 220200 ( = To Mega Therion)
reversing this we get
62 = 002022 (= the word 'Beast')
and the antigram of this is
31 = 001011 ( = the word 'Had')
So the 'disappearance' of 666, converting it into its opposite and then its reversal, results in 31, a number long held to be a 'key of this Law.'
I realize this post has been quite lengthy, with lots of numbers in it. I won't be going into this much depth on any other verses, but this particular enigma required a rather intricate explanation, at least for someone new to the subject matter. But once you get the hang of the idea, it actually turns out to be quite simple.
Litlluw
RLG