How to add up numbers, basic gematria
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I have been looking for a good website that explains the bare basics of how to do gematria, what value the letters have and how to add the numbers up and then look it up in the Sepher Sephiroth.
Any suggestions?Thanks
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You already know the numerical values of the Hebrew letters, right?
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Yes, but I get mixed up about whether to add up each word separately or the whole phrase or what. When do you stop adding the numbers together?
I worked on gematria a long while ago, and I don't remember now.
I also want more guidance on how to use the Sepher Sephiroth. I see I can look up a number and get a list of words, but then what?
I just feel so much a beginner and don't know what I am doing.
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@AliceKnewI said
"Yes, but I get mixed up about whether to add up each word separately or the whole phrase or what. When do you stop adding the numbers together?
I worked on gematria a long while ago, and I don't remember now.
I also want more guidance on how to use the Sepher Sephiroth. I see I can look up a number and get a list of words, but then what?
I just feel so much a beginner and don't know what I am doing."
In the Holy Books, all modes contain information. Words and phrases. There are natural breaks, forwards and backwards, that can be identified with the Keys. Not just the gematria value, but the number of letters, number of words, etc, are ciphers that contain information. From there various squares, talismans, and geometric figures among other hidden arcana can be extracted. Always look for the Keys, i.e. Thelemic Holy Numbers. The Atu (also called Keys, for this very reason) can also be used to reveal knowledge hidden in the words and numbers of Class A Documents.
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I guess I am looking for "Gematria for Dummies"
LOLOh, as soon as I typed this, I thought of Lon Milo Duquette's Chicken Qabalah. I looked, he does have a gematria section toward the end. Probably just what I need. I will be reading it.
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I'll play.
We're talking about a language where the letters were also used as numbers. When you start analyzing words because they have the same number value, it can get kind of trippy. Sometimes, there's a kind of obvious sense to it. Sometimes, it seems like a real stretch.
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One perspective/method is to just use it as a technique to stretch your mind to find or create some kind of meaningful (to you) connection between words or phrases of the same value. In this sense, it's purely a mental exercise promoting the ability to think abstractly without belief in any intentional connection, human, cosmic, or otherwise. The mental ability just comes in handy later when it abstract thought is required.
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Another way of thinking about it says that at least some words were intentionally created by qabalists (through conscious choice of numerical value, sound, and spelling) to communicate very abstract or even secret (heretical to the masses) concepts to others who would analyze the word or phrase in the future, comparing it to others.
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Still a third way, and the one that can get really trippy if you allow it, is to consider all of these word/number connections as somehow absolutely meaningful, as if there was some kind of intelligence (within humanity, individually or collectively, or even "cosmically") that caused all words with the same value to have a particularly meaningful and important connection.
Which perspective you choose to work with is up to you, and you'll find a lot of people who are hardcore committed to just one perspective on it. But... me... I like to go back and forth as the moment or the context takes me, being more open to incredible possibilities in one moment and context, and then not in the next.
Whether you're working with a word or a phrase doesn't matter. It's the number value that matters. That's the tool for pushing the brain to find the connection. Sometimes the connection lies on the surface as the meaning of words seems easily related. Even when words are starkly contrasted in overt meaning, you use that to ponder a more abstract form of meaningful connection (like love and hate being opposite sides of the same coin). Sometimes, you look at one letter at a time, imagining it as an equation that represents a mental/spiritual process as it evolves into completion, for example, A -> B -> R -> A -> H -> A -> D -> A -> B -> R -> A. Then you find another word with the same value and analyze it the same way and compare, contrast, look for a connection on a "higher" level, etc..
This process sometimes yields those flashes of insight, where this unusual form of analysis makes a previously unexpected and unexplored connection in your mind. Then, sometimes you wonder if you're the only one who sees that, or if that was consciously intended by some past qabalist, or if there is just some great Divine orchestration of meaning that lies beneath the surface of all things.
My take anyway.
Peace.
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I'll play, too. From a slightly different, yet the same, perspective.
The tables for converting Hebrew, Greek, Coptic, English, etc. characters to number can be found in 777, Book 4, 776 1/2, etc.
As far as "what it all means," that's completely up to you. You are the creator of your own belief. As maturity grows within the system, it will become less "outside" of you. That being said, the idea of it "being all in your head" fades as well. Gematria is simply another way we see the Harmony in everything (or, if needed, the differences in something that you may wish to separate from) - the real "proof" always lies with the observer as he correlates it with the observed. Self and Other become married and gematria can be a form (language) of this Love.
Oh, and oh boy I agree with Legis. He makes some great points on different perspectives. Pragmatically, there is strong evidence that practice with the Qabalah promotes neuroplasticity - there can be no doubt. I highly recommend a book by Norman Doidge M.D. called The Brain that Changes Itself that illustrates the power of willed brain-change or "magick" by strict definition with real world examples. Also, here is Crowley's "practical perspective":
hermetic.com/crowley/magick-without-tears/mwt_04.html
Also importantly, remember the "H" and "D" in Abrahadabra - always grasp at the Limitless Mystery with Love - when one truly makes connection with an "Other," one takes notice unmistakably (sometimes eventually - e.g. it takes time) the changes/realizations/clarifications that take place in the Ruach. In my own mystical experience, the are vast consciousnesses/energies out there that go beyond anybody's subconscious underpinnings.
As far as basic Gematria, just a suggestion: start with basic english word conversion to (say) Hebrew. Pay attention to the Interlude in Book 4 Part II - this is where Crowley highlights the absurdity AND (concurrent) purity of Truth when compared to rational thought. Then start totalling other words - just use basic sentences - then add and subtract and use factors "as the Spirit takes you." It helps to do this at first with spritual texts in most cases to preserve the sense of awe and allow your skeptic to take a backseat for a bit...
Example:
As = 60 + 1 = 61 = Nothing/All
Far = 6+1+200= 207 = Light
As = 61 = Nothing/All
Basic = 81 = Number of Yesod/Also the Moon (18), sacred to Saturn as 3 cubed; also illusion as "ALIM" (81)
Gematria = 269 = An enclosure, also a weapon (also the 57th Prime); look up 57 for more points to relate.(Don't forget factorals as tools when dealing with large numbers to get down to the "root" idea/energy)
So, for me, this idea of "as far as Gematria": It is both nothing and everything, all-encompassing, both the Light and the expansiveness of the Sun and the illusion and/or pure spiritual communion of the Moon (depending on the arc) - "basic" being the erosive nature of Saturn as well, as endless/eternal and death-dealing/birth-giving as the Great Sea of Binah, the no-man, before the unit of identity, the Supernal womb. Gematria is also then an enclosure, something that carries the Spirit, also a weapon to be used to smite warring thoughts, etc. ad infinitum.
That's how I play with it anyway.
Good luck, brother.
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Thank you all.
I just stumbled upon an online Gematria calculator:
www.gematrix.org