QABALISTIC DOGMA

BY ALEISTER CROWLEY

First published in vol. i

of Collected Works (1905)
Key entry and formatting by Frater T.S.
for Sunwheel Oasis, O.T.O.
 QABALISTIC DOGMA
The Evolution of Things is thus described by the Qabalists.
First is Nothing, or the Absence of Things, }ya, which does not mean and cannot
mean Negatively Existing (if such an Idea can be said to mean anything), as S.
Liddell MacGregor Mathers, who misread the Text and stultified the Commentary by
the Light of his own Ignorance of Hebrew and Philosophy, pretends in his
Translation of v. Rosenroth.
Second is Without Limit, [ws }ya, i.e., Infinite Space.
This is the primal Dualism of Infinity; the infinitely small and the infinitely great.
The Clash of these produces a finite positive Idea which happens (see tycarb1 for a
more careful study, though I must not be understood to indorse every Word in our
Poet-Philosopher’s Thesis) to be Light, rwa. This word rwa is most important. It
symbolises the Universe immediately after Chaos, the Confusion or Clash of the
Infinite Opposites. a is the Egg of Matter; w is _, the Bull, or Energy-Motion; and r
is the Sun, or organised and moving System of Orbs. The three Letters of rwa thus
repeat the three Ideas. The Nature of rwa is this analysed, under the figure of the ten
Numbers and the 22 Letters which together compose what the Rosicrucians have
diagrammatised under the name of Minutum Mundum. (See Table of
Correspondences.2) It will be noticed that every Number and Letter has its
“Correspondence” in Ideas of every Sort; so that any given Object can be analysed in
Terms of the 32. If I see a blue Star, I should regard it as a Manifestation of Chesed,
Water, the Moon, Salt the Alchemical Principle, Sagittarius or What not, in respect
of its Blueness—one would have to decide which from other Data—and refer it to the
XVIIth Key of the Taro in Respect of its Starriness.
The Use of these Attributions is lengthy and various: I cannot dwell upon it: but I
will give one Example.
If I wish to visit the Sphere of Geburah, I use the Colours and Forces appropriate: I
go there: if the Objects which then appear to my spiritual Vision are harmonious
therewith, it is a Test of their Truth.
So also, to construct a Talisman, or to invoke a Spirit.
The methods of discovering Dogma from sacred Words are also numerous and
important: I may mention:—
(a) The Doctrine of Sympathies: drawn from the total Numeration of a Word, when
identical with, or a Multiple or Submultiple of, or a Metathesis of, that of another
Word.

1
I.e., Crowley’s essay Berashith – T.S.
2
The Tables of Correspondences supposedly appended to vol. i. of Crowley’s Collected Works
are missing in the 1970s reprint. See 777 instead – T.S.
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(b) The Method of finding the Least Number of a Word, by adding (and re-adding)
the Digits of its total Number, and taking the corresponding Key of the Taro as a Key
to the Meaning of the Word.
(c) The Method of Analogies drawn from the Shape of the Letters.
(d) The Method of Deductions drawn from the Meanings and Correspondence of the
Letters.
(e) The Method of Acrostics drawn from the Letters. This Mode is only valid for
Adepts of the highest Grades, and then under quite exceptional and rare Conditions.
(f) The Method of Transpositions and Transmutations of the Letters, which suggest
Analogies, even when they fail to explain in direct Fashion.
All these and their Varieties and Combinations, with some other more abstruse or
less important Methods, may be used to unlock the Secret of a Word.
Of course with Powers so wide it is easy for the Partisan to find his favourite
Meaning in any Word. Even the formal Proof 0 = 1 = 2 = 3 = 4 = 5 = . . . . . . . = n is
possible.
But the Adept who worked out this Theorem, with the very Intent to discredit the
Qabalistc Mode of Research, was suddenly dumbfounded by the Fact that he had
actually stumbled upon the Qabalistic Proof of Pantheism or Monism.
What really happens is that the Adept sits down and performs many useless Tricks
with the Figures, without Result.
Suddenly the Lux dawns, and the Problem is solved.
The Rationalist explains this by Inspiration, the superstitious Man by Mathematics.
I give an Example of the Way in which one works. Let us take IAO, one of the
“Barbarous Names of Evocation,” of which those who have wished to conceal their
own Glory by adopting the Authority of Zarathustra have said that in the holy
Ceremonies it has an ineffable Power.
But what Kind of Power? By the Qabalah we can find out the Force of the Name
IAO.
We can spell it in Hebrew way or uay. The Qabalah will even tell us which is the true
Way. Let us however suppose that it is spelt way. This adds up to 17.
But first of all it strikes us that I, A, and O are the three Letters associated with the
three Letters h in the great Name of Six Letters, hwhyha, which combines hyha and
hwhy, Macroprosopus and Microprosopus. Now these feminine Letters h conceal the
“Three Mothers” of the Alphabet a, m, and c. Replace these, and we get awmyca,
which adds up to 358, the Number alike of cjn, the Serpent of Genesis, and the
Messiah. We thus look for redeeming Power in IAO, and for the Masculine Aspect
of that Power.
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Now we will see how that Power works. We have a curious Dictionary, which was
made by a very learned Man, in which the Numbers from 1 to 10,000 fill the left
hand Column, in Order, and opposite them are written all the sacred or important
Words which add up to each Number.3
We take this Book, and look at 17. We find that 17 is the number of Squares in the
Swastika, which is the Whirling Disc or Thunderbolt. Also there is gwj, a Circle or
Orbit; dwz, to seethe or boil; and some other Words, which we will neglect in this
Example, though we should not dare to do so if we were really trying to find out a
Thing we none of us knew. To help our Deduction about Redemption, too, we find
hdj, to brighten or make glad.
We also work in another Way. I is the Straight Line or Central Pillar of the Temple
of Life; also it stands for Unity, and for the Generative Force. A is the Pentagram,
which means the Will of Man working Redemption. O is the Circle from which
everything came, also Nothingness, and the Female, who absorbs the Male. The
Progress of the Name shows then the Way from Life to Nirvana by means of the Will:
and is a Hieroglyph of the Great Work.
Look at all our Meanings! Every one of them shows that the Name, if it has any
Power at all, and that we must try, has the Power to redeem us from the Love of Life
which is the Cause of Life, by its masculine Whirlings, and to gladden us and to
bring us to the Bosom of the Great Mother, Death.
Before what is known as the Equinox of the Gods, a little while ago, there was an
initiated Formula which expressed these Ideas to the Wise. As these Formulas are
done with, it is of no Consequence if I reveal them. Truth is not eternal, any more
than God; and it would be but a poor God that could and did not alter his Ways at his
Pleasure.
This Formula was used to open the Vault of the Mystic Mountain of Abiegnus, within
which lay (so the Ceremony of Initiation supposed) the Body of our Father Christian
Rosen Creutz, to be discovered by the Brethren with the Postulant as said in the Book
called Fama Fraternitatis.
There are three Officers, and they repeat the Analysis of the Word as follows:
Chief.. Let us analyse the Key Word—I.
2nd. N.
3rd. R.
All. I.
Chief. Yod. y
2nd. Nun. n
3rd. Resh. r
All. Yod. y

3
Published as Sepher Sephiroth in Equinox I (8).
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 Chief. Virgo (c) Isis, Mighty Mother.
2nd. Scorpio (e) Apophis, Destroyer.
3rd. Sol (•) Osiris, slain and rise.
All. Isis, Apophis, Osiris, IAO.
All spread Arms as if on a Cross, and say:—
The Sign of Osiris slain!
Chief bows his Head to the Left, raises his Right Arm, and lowers his Left, keeping
the Elbow and right Angles, thus forming the letter (also the Swastika).
The Sign of the Mourning of Isis.
2nd. With erect Head, raises his Arms to form a V (but really to form the triple
Tongue of Flame, the Spirit), and says:—
The Sign of Apophis and Typhon.
3rd. Bows his Head and crosses his Arms on his Breast (to form the Pentagram).
The Sign of Osiris risen.
All give the Sign of the Cross, and say:—
L. V. X.
Then the Sign of Osiris risen, and say:—
Lux, the Light of the Cross.
This Formula, on which one may meditate for Years without exhausting its
wonderful Harmonics, gives an excellent Idea of the Way in which Qabalistic
Analysis is conduct.
First, the Letters have been written in Hebrew Characters.
Then the Attributions of them to the Zodiac and to Planets are substituted, and the
Names of Egyptian Gods belonging to these are invoked.
The Christian Idea of I.N.R.I. is confirmed by these, while their Initials form the
sacred Word of the Gnostics. That is, IAO. From the Character of the Deities and
their Functions are deduced their Signs, and these are found to signal (as it were) the
word Lux (rwa), which itself is contained in the Cross.
A careful Study of these Ideas, and of the Table of Correspondences, which one of
our English Brethren is making, will enable him to discover a very great Deal of
Matter for Thought in these Poems which an untutored Person would pass by.
To return to the general Dogma of the Qabalists.
The Figure of Minutum Mundum will show how they suppose one Quality to proceed
from the last, first in the pure God-World Atziluth, then in the Angel-World Briah,
and so on down to the Demon-Worlds, which are however not thus organised. They

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are rather Material that was shed off in the Course of Evolution, like the Sloughs of a
Serpent, from which comes their Name of Shells, or Husks.
Apart from silly Questions as to whether the Order of the Emanations is confirmed by
Palæontology, a Question it is quite incompetent to discuss, there is no doubt the
Sephiroth are types of Evolution as opposed to Catastrophe and Creation.
The great Charge against this Philosophy is founded on its alleged Affinities with
Scholastic Realism. But the Charge is not very true. No Doubt but they did suppose
vast Storehouses of “Things of One Kind” from which, pure or minggled, all other
Things did proceed.
Since g, a Camel, refers to the Moon, they did say that a Camel and the Moon were
sympathetic, and came, that Part of them, from a common Principle: and that a
Camel being yellow brown, it partook of the Earth Nature, to which that Colour is
given.
They thence said that by taking all the Nature involved, and by blending them in the
just Proportions, one might have a Camel.
But this is no more than is said by the Upholders of the Atomic Theory.
They have their Storehouses of Carbon, Oxyen, and such (not in one Place, but no
more is Geburah in one Place), and what is Organic Chemistry but the Production of
useful Compounds whose Nature is deduced absolutely from theoretical
Considerations long before it is ever produced in the Laboratory?
The difference, you will say, is that the Qabalists maintain a Mind of each Kind
behind each Class of Things of one Kind; but so did Berkeley, and his Argument in
that Respect is, as the great Huxley showed, irrefragable. For by the Universe I mean
the Sensible; any other is Not to be Known: and the Sensible is dependent upon
Mind. Nay, though the Sensible is said to be an Argument of a Universe Insensible,
the latter becomes sensible in Mind as soon as the Argument is accepted, and
disappears with its Rejection.
Nor is the Qabalah dependent upon its Realism, and its Application to the Works
magical—but I am defending a Philosophy which I was asked to describe, and this is
not lawful.
A great Deal may be learned from the Translation of the Zohar by S. Liddell
Macgregor Mathers, and his Introduction thereto, though for those who have Latin
and some acquaintence with Hebrew it is better to study the Kabbala Denudata of
Knorr von Rosenroth,4 in Despite of the heavy Price; for the Translator has distorted
the Text and its Comment to suit his belief in a supreme Personal God, and in that
degraded Form of the Doctrine of Feminism which is so popular with the
Emasculate.

4
Facsimile reprint by the German academic published Georg Olms in the 1970s; may be found
in some academic libraries – T.S.
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The Sephiroth are grouped in various Ways. There is a Superior Triad or Trinity; a
Hexad; and Malkuth: the Crown, the Father, and the Mother; the Son or King; and
the Bride.
Also, a Division into seven Palaces, seven Planes, three Pillars or Columns: and the
like.
The Flashing Sword follows the Course of the Numbers and the Serpent Nechushtan
or of Wisdom crawls up the Paths which join them upon the Tree of Life, namely the
Letters.
It is important to explain the Position of Daath or Knowledge upon the Tree. It is
called the Child of Chokmah and Binah, but it hath no Place. But it is really the
Apex of a Pyramid of which the three first Numbers form the Base.
Now the Tree, or Minutum Mundum, is a Figure in a Plane of a solid Universe.
Daath, being above the Plane, is therefore a Figure of a Force in four Dimensions,
and thus it is the Object of the Magnum Opus. The three Paths which connect it with
the First Trinity are the three lost Letters or Fathers of the Hebrew Alphabet.
In Daath is said to be the Head of the great Serpent Nechesh or Leviathan, called Evil
to conceal its Holiness (cjn = 358 = hycm, the Messiah or Redeemer, and }tywl = 496
= twklm, the Bride.) It is identical with the Kundalini of the Hindu Philosophy, the
Kwan-se-on of the Mongolian Peoples, and means the magical Force in Man, which
is the sexual Force applied to the Brain, Heart, and other Organs, and redeemeth
him.
The gradual Disclosure of these magical Secrets to the Poet may be traced in these
Volumes,5 which it has been my Privilege to be asked to explain. It has been
impossible to do more than place in the Hands of any intelligent Person the Keys
which will permit him to unlock the many Beautiful Chambers of Holiness in these
Palaces and Gardens of Beauty and Pleasure.

5
I.e., the three volumes of Crowley’s Collected Works – T.S.
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