Hermetic Alchemical Order of the QBLH
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A Brief Introduction by Frater D.T. QBLH

"We can refer everything in the Universe to the system of pure numbers whose symbols will be intelligible to all rational minds in an identical sense. And the nature of these symbols are fixed by nature...We must not work towards any other type of central Truth than the nature of these symbols in themselves. The object of our work must be, in fact, to discover the nature and power of each symbol. We must clothe the nakedness of each prime idea in a many-coloured garment of correspondences with every department of thought."

Aleister Crowley, "A Brief Essay Upon The Nature And Significance Of The Magical Alphabet"

The "New Aeon English Qabala" was first discovered as such by Jim Lees in Great Britain in 1976 EV, although earlier hints of it are found in the writings of Frater Achad, in specific in Liber 31, and indeed, in Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law, itself. It is a controversial, still experimental, system of Qabala first revealed to the occult community by Lees, Jake Stratton-Kent and Carol Smith in Britain, and later taken up by QBLH, notably by Frater Damon and Soror Ishtaria and others. It has encountered remarkable resistance and even occasional hostility in orthodox Thelemic circles, but has enjoyed a gradually and persistently growing circle of enthusiasts worldwide. The rule of thumb seems to be that those who have worked most with it are the most impressed with it; those who have worked with it least tend to be the most critical.

Carol Smith wrote, in 1980: "A key has been left by Crowley, under the direction of Aiwass in order that 'Thou shalt obtain the Order and Value of the English Alphabet'. (II:55) The instruction is in AL III:47 'This shall be translated into all tongues but always with the originals in the writing of the beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another; in these are mysteries no beast shall divine."

Sheet 16 of Chapter III of Liber AL in Crowley's original has a grid superimposed on the page containing the balance of verse 47 written under the grid. An unexplained diagonal line crosses the page, and a circle with a cross or + in it appears near the end of this line. Smith continues, "There are letters along the top of the page, and it would seem to be obvious to continue with the alphabet in the manner indicated, but the clue is in the numbers down the side. A is written instead of 1 which suggests that B is 2, C 3 and so on. Fill in all the squares on the grid in this manner, repeating the alphabet when one gets to Z. To proceed to the next step the instruction is written on the page, for those who have eyes to see. 'Then this line drawn is a key.' The line drawn is a diagonal line across the page. If one reads any diagonal across the square one gets the order of the English alphabet to be used in the English Qabala. Whichever diagonal is read the order of the letters is obtained. There is only one order which can be obtained and all 26 letters appear in this order."

Using this set-up, another way of deriving the values in sequence is to count eleven spaces down from A at upper left, moving across the columns top to bottom, left to right, giving the next sequential number value to the eleventh letter counted, until all twenty six letters are accounted for. Done thusly:

A=1  L=2  W=3  H=4  S=5  D=6  O=7  Z=8  K=9  V=10 G=11 R=12 C=13
N=14 Y=15 J=16 U=17 F=18 Q=19 B=20 M=21 X=22 I=23 T=24 E=25 P=26

Jake Stratton-Kent has written: " the English Qabala is a qabala and not a system of numerology. A qabalah is specifically related to three factors: one, a language; two, a 'holy' text or texts; three, mathematical laws at work in these two."

One wonders why Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law, written in English and transcribed by an Englishman should have other than an English Qabala of the New Aeon. Yet, traditionalists are irrationally resistant to this obvious observation.

The major strength of the system is that it works. With Soror Ishtaria's subsequent development of the New Aeon English Qabala computer program "Lexicon" the 'proofs' of the validity of this system are staggering and beyond the scope of this brief introduction. But one dual proof that arrived in the first decade of exploration should suffice to illustrate. It refers, in both forms, to the seemingly mysterious string of letters and numbers given in AL II:76:

4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y
X 24 89 R P S T O V A L          

"What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it."

Using the Cipher mentioned above, Jake Stratton-Kent made a discovery:

"When I first had my attention drawn to the existence of a purported English Qabala, my first reaction as a qabalist was to use it on this meaningless string of digits and characters. I converted all the letters into their numerical equivalents in the E.Q., and added them to the numbers in the series." In the original handwritten text, the string of letters and numbers is divided into two lines, the first ending with "Y" and the second beginning with "X". Stratton-Kent says, "There are seventeen numbers and letters in the first line and eleven in the second...but in the manuscript the 'X' at the beginning of line two looks like a multiplication symbol, so I made this calculation; 17x11=187, the numerical value of the phrase ENGLISH ALPHABET."

By the same token, if one ADDS the numbers and letter values in the "meaningless string" one comes up with the number value 351. IF ONE TAKES THE VALUE OF ALL THE LETTERS OF THE ENGLISH ALPHABET, A+B+C+D, etc. to Z, one obtains THE SAME VALUE, 351.

QBLH is dedicated to exploration of this experimental system, properly termed "New Aeon English Qabala" (NAEQ).

Copyright © 1996 QBLH
All Rights Reserved

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