Gematria

The goal of gematria, in modern use, is to elucidate and elaborate upon magickal principles. In itself it often does not constitute proof of a magickal idea, but can lead to new avenues of investigation, provide material for ritual, or provide new avenues of understanding for texts or visions resulting from qabalistic magick.

First of all, how does gematria work? The idea has a very old history. Before numerals were invented, the letters of the alphabet had to pull "double-duty" as numerals. Even after the invention of number systems, the idea of alphabetic letter values lingered, and was utilized by qabalists seeking new levels of meaning to their system. When the qabalists looked deeper and deeper into their system, they found ever-increasing levels of evidence for divine or superhuman origin for their mystic system. That words and names had these hidden connections or correspondences, brought to light through numerological gematric methods, was a logical extension of this search.

Perhaps the problem that many mages have is not knowing how to apply gematria. One might read Crowley's gematric elaboration on 418 in his essay Gematria, and wonder how the heck he arrived at this understanding. Much of it was perhaps trial and error; some of it surely arose from easy familiarity bred over years of gematric practice. So half, perhaps, don't know where to start, while the other half doesn't know where to end. Developing an understanding for what constitutes "good" gematria should be a key goal. This is a difficult skill; "good" or effective gematric argument is sparing when it needs to be, heavy with number detail when it needs to be, conservative or experimental when it needs to be. A "grocery list" of words or phrases that have the same gematric value can have effect but is not an effective gematric argument; one can just enumerate phrases as long as one has free time, finding a few delectable ones that share a value or some common factor. While this is not without value or meaning, it does not really teach us anything. (Limiting oneself to a narrow sample space, for example the set of angelic names, or the words and phrases of a given text, might be an allowable limitation to add meaning to a list of words or phrases with the same meaning.)

But where else are mages to look in order to produce gematria of deep meaning? The most effective gematria perhaps comes from tying words to other types of concepts via some numerical tie.

Certain numbers acquire qabalistic importance of their own outside of word-value. Some have important number-theortic properties; others are key symbols for qabalistic concepts. Thus numbers have qabalistic meaning on many different levels, and an important goal of gematria is finding ways to tie concepts on different levels together. This is why a list of words that share a gematric value is not "deep" gematria, nor does it impress the seasoned magician; words have to be tied to deeper, otherwise unconnected concepts for us to really "learn" anything. Some sort of hidden relationship must be hinted, or some ineffable secret that unlocks qabalistic puzzles, for a gematric result to have some significance.

Gematria is an art, not a science, though choosing a system of rules may lend credence or underscore the improbability of a correspondence. Thus the only limits to gematria are the limits of imagination and skill of the applying magician. This is as much a liability as a benefit, since the value or purpose of gematria will remain forever elusive to the one who looks for a logical basis to it. The skeptic will be inclined to see gematria as nothing more than mental doodling that perhaps gets occasional eyebrow-raising results, forever doomed to see nothing more than random ideas, much like someone who cannot, however hard he or she tries, discern the image hidden in "Magic Eye" random-scatter art.

More on Gematria and Numerology at "Math and Magick":

Numerology in Theory and Practice by Dean Hildebrandt

Some Notes on the Attributions of the Rhombi-Caduceus by Frater Zalanes