c. 1998 Callisto Radiant (T. Roberti)
Several powerful approaches in magick involve a focus on the meanings, sounds, and shapes of letters as well as their correspondences. In a primal way letters are the basic conceptual building blocks of linear thought, so it is only natural that they should receive attention.
Analysis - taking things apart and seeing how the pieces fit together - is a common approach to understanding how things work. When it comes to understanding Universe, however, "looking for the basic-most parts" has proven problematic. Science seems to provide us with a never-ending string of “basic-most” particles that make up all matter. Atoms were once assumed to be indivisible - but now we know they are made of particles, some of which are made of even smaller particles. Some theories, such as “superstring” theory, postulate even smaller entities.
When we analyze the things around us by disassembling them, our goal is usually to develop a lexicon of basic-most particles. Laid out end-to-end, the lexicon of basic-most particles is a key to the understanding of everything. Or so we hope.
This is why alphabets are so prized in magick. One could argue that words are the essence of magick; if this is true, then the letters that make up those words are important too. A small sequence of little symbols are combined and recombined in potentially infinite ways to encode all words - and hence all things of magick. This is power. Since the conceptual universe is made up of words, letters are the basic-most blocks of conceptual "stuff."
I can imagine protests already. Why not phonemes, since those are the units that make up spoken words? Why not the ideas that are supposedly signified by words? Why not ideograms? Well, the first is a historical matter. Linguistics as we know it is a recent science. Most mystics and magicians are not linguists, though, of course, some are. Also, magick differentiates between spoken word and written word. Briefly, spoken word is manifestation of principle, while written word is knowledge, or potential manifestation. Regarding ideas: it is questionable how strongly words correspond to ideas. This dispute has yet to be resolved. Words, especially the names of potent deities or beings, are considered in and of themselves to house great power (since the speaking of word is evocation). In ritual the magician is often advised to make the sounds without concentrating on the meaning, even though meaning is often known already to the magician. Hence in magick there is much less emphasis on the idea "behind" a word than with the word itself. As for ideograms - these are a different case altogether. Most languages are written with alphabets, rather than ideograms. Ideograms do play some role in magick (sigils, for example), but they generally represent things other than words.
The idea that the letters of an alphabet contain great power is a very old one. The Sanskrit alphabet, called devanagari, is considered a god by Hindus (deva = god). Another important case in point is gematria, the practice of assigning a numerical value to each letter, and then finding correspondences between words based on their gematria values. Mystics have long used this method as a key to understanding the Qabalah. Runes, the letters of the Norse or Celtic alphabets, are used even today in divination. Another strong example here is the Enochian system, which was introduced to the world by John Dee and Edward Kelley. The heart of this system is the Angelic language (sometimes called the Enochian language) and alphabet. Magicians who work with this system find it extremely powerful, allowing the magician access to considerable power. Some interesting recent developments in magick involve the use of English gematria within Thelema (the system introduced by Aleister Crowley).
The Angelic alphabet is not the only alphabet solely used in magick. A large abundance of such magickal alphabets abound in many traditions. This is possibly to “distance” the mind of the magician from a formula once it has been transliterated into an unfamiliar alphabet. (Emotional distance of this sort from the subject of a working has been cited by many authorities on magick as a crucial element in the success of a magickal working.)
Marshall McLuhan, in "Understanding Media," argues that writing is an extension of the visual sense; if this is true, correspondences of meaning to the shapes of letters themselves would make perfect sense. Vision is the sense associated with the Sword, the magickal weapon that enables the magician to cut through to something's core: hence, the alphabet acts like the Sword, showing the very essence of what we see. Important correspondences to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet result from their shape: for example, Teth is a coiled serpent, or uroboros; Tau is a doorway.
It's important to note that correspondences of meaning or significance to letters of the alphabet are the result of a logical error that is central to magick and which seems to act as follows:
If P then Q
Therefore, if Q then P.
This is the idea behind correspondnce: if a letter or image corresponds with a deity, within a system of magic, then that letter or image can be used as a "hologram" of the deity or to give the magician additional power when dealing with the deity. Instances of this type of reasoning fly in the face of causality, yet occur very commonly in mystic and magickal traditions. Still, these correspondences are invaluable to the magician, and the scholarly students of magick, as keys to the unconscious and to the magickal method. The Magician must learn to cope with logical errors, or else sie will find hirself caught in an endless Strange Loop.
The idea that everything in Universe can be "spelled out" in terms of alphabets extends beyond language. In particular, the Elements make up an alphabet of four (with a mysterious fifth letter); other "magickal alphabets" include the alchemical substances (sulfur, salt, and quicksilver), the signs of the Zodiac, the planets, the Sephiroth of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, the Paths on the Tree of Life, the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, among many others.
My examination of these alphabets has led me to conclude that they fall into two general types, "synchronic" and "anachronic." This is not proposed as an absolute distinction, or one that always applies, but merely as an illustrative tool to aid understanding. "Synchronic" alphabets are ones in which all letters combine to form a complete encapsulization of Universe, or a spectrum which contains all things. Synchronic alphabets would include the Four Elements, the Sephiroth, and linguistic alphabets. If linguistic alphabets are synchronic, then so are the Major Arcana and the Paths on the Tree of Life, since these have strong traditional ties to the Hebrew Alphabet. Alphabets that do not work this way could be called "anachronic," meaning that we do not pretend they are complete hologram of Universe. This does not belittle their importance. Numbers, the planets, alchemical processes, and alchemical substances would fall into this category.
Important magickal "words" are often made up of the connection between a synchronic letter and an anachronic letter; for example, "planet A in sign X" (say, "Mars in Scorpio") is a shorthand used by magicians to define currents that fall along a wide spectrum. Spectra of this sort are best portayed by lists of words rather than being treated as alphabets of their own because of the logical patterns and inter-relationships they exhibit. These complex spectra behave rather like what they are: synchronic/anachronic hybrids. While they are inherently complex, and so cannot be called "basic-most," they do provide a handy way of describing complex "currents" the magician encounters while receiving spirit visions.
An interesting case is given by the trigrams of the Yi King (I Ching). The trigrams are both anachronic and synchronic, when taken in different contexts; the combination of two trigrams into a hexagram is similar to the occurrence of planet A in sign X . Patterns within the hexagrams are not immediately apparent, but it seems to me that the lower trigram acts as essence, playing an anachronic role, while the upper trigram acts as form, and as such is synchronic. Change the positions of the trigrams, and the meaning is much changed. (Elaboration on this point is beyond the scope of this little essay and the reader is referred to a reference on the Yi King, such as the one listed below.)
Gematria ties together two powerful tools - the alphabets and the system of numerals. In brief, gematria is a system of assigning a numerical value to a word by adding up the values of the individual letters. Words with the same gematria value are "connected" mystically. Gematria thus ties the letters of a synchronic alphabet with the letters of an anachronic alphabet. Gematria acts to make magicians familiar with currents that affect what they do.
Bibliography and suggested reading
Blofeld, John, trans., ed. I Ching: The Book of Change. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1965.
Butler, W. E. Magic and the Magician. London: Aquarian Press, 1991.
Crowley, Aleister. 777 and other Qabalistic Writings. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1977. This edition contains Gematria and Sefer Sephiroth, two detailed texts on gematria.
Denning, Melita, and Osborne Phillips. The Sword and The Serpent. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1975.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.
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This is an original work by Callisto Radiant (T. Roberti) that has been placed on the Web for public use. Callisto Radiant may be reached at Sabrin1315@aol.com. You may share it, copy it, print it, etc., so long as this copyright notice is shared, copied, printed, etc., along with it.