Mission Quest: Program developed before 1989 by author Susan Starr. It features astrology and numerology.

(See also: Mission Quest, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

ARITHMOSOPHY

Numerology, but specifically Bertiaux's breaking down of words into numbers for one of his alternate universes.

(See also: ARITHMOSOPHY, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Numbers Diet (Jean Simpson's Numbers Diet): Numerological diet for weight loss developed over 23 years by Jean Simpson, author of Hot Numbers: How to Use Numerology to Discover What Makes Your Lover, Boss, Friends, Family, and You Really Tick! (Grammercy, 1998) and Hot Lotto Numbers. The principle of the Numbers Diet is that, with a number based on the month, day, and year of one's last birthday, one can learn what dietary pitfalls are likely on any particular day.

(See also: Numbers Diet, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

LOTTERY

 To obtain a winning number, use this formula:

(P-P1) N=L

in which P-P1 representes the difference between the last winning number and the previous number, N is your personal numerological designation (or lucky number) and L is the new winning number.

(See also: LOTTERY, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

BABALON

Crowley's numerologically-derived spelling. Another name for the Scarlet Woman (i.e., a fire elemental). It is also the city of Babylon in its greatness, before its relegation to the New Testaments whoredom. Ba is the Egyptian soul and its repetition in Baba-lon indicates the double-wanded one's double path.

(See also: BABALON, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

NINE STAR KI (Kyu Sei ki-Gaku, Japanese) - system of Oriental astrology, numerology, directionology and study of destiny based on a Magic table of nine basic stages of energy flow; derived from the Later Heaven Diagram of the I Ching.

(See also: NINE STAR KI, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Celtic magic: Western European magical tradition. It is a form of ritual magic that: involves numerology and plant and herb magic; utilizes planetary and natural energies (e.g., Moon energy); and promotes mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Practitioners of Celtic magic must respect, befriend, and petition the powers of the elementals and Elements.

(See also: Celtic magic, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

GEMATRIA: A system of discovering truths and hidden meanings behind words, using numerical values for letters of the alphabet. Each letter corresponds to a number. The numerical values of words are totaled and interpreted in terms of other words with the same numerical value.

Gematria dates back to the 8th century B.C. Babylon, and has been used by most mystics since that time including the Magi, Gnostics, and Quabbalists. Notarikon is a form of gematria in which the first and last letters of a word or phrase are put together to create a new word, or to turn a word into a phrase. Temurah is a form of gematria that creates anagrams through systematic letter substitutions. Related to Numerology.

(See also: GEMATRIA, Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

NOTARIKON: A form of gematria in which the first and last letters of a word or phrase are put together to create a new word, or to turn a word into a phrase. Gematria is a system of discovering truths and hidden meanings behind words, using numerical values for letters of the alphabet. Each letter corresponds to a number. The numerical values of words are totaled and interpreted in terms of other words with the same numerical value. Gematria dates back to the 8th century B.C. Babylon, and has been used by most mystics since that time including the Magi, Gnostics, and Quabbalists. Temurah is a form of gematria that creates anagrams through systematic letter substitutions. Related to Numerology.

(See also: NOTARIKON, Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

ABRACADABRA/ABRAHADABRA

The former is the traditional magical word, the latter is Crowley's mutation, for the sake of its "proper" numerological value (418), which was also the number for Boleskine, his castle and for AIWASS, his Holy Guardian Angel. Originally the intention of the word was to cause ailments to diminish and death to be vanquished as letters were progressively removed from either end.

ABRACADABRA

BRACADABR

RACADAB

ACADA

CAD

A

As an amulet, therefore, it should be worn with the point downwards. Similar traditional magical words were Shabriri (for banishing the demon of the same name) and Ochnotinos (for diminishing fever). The Gnostics used Ablanathalba, a palindrome, meaning "The Father hath given to us". With Crowley, however, Abrahadabra meant "The Great Work of the aeon of Horus". (See ABRAXAS).

(See also: ABRACADABRA, ABRAHADABRA, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Eight Although infrequently used in occultism, one of the important numerical stages in nature and, therefore, in all occult systems of reckoning and computaton.

An inaccurate use of 8, or a use springing from ignorance, can very easily mislead the student of archaic numerology as to its ancient computational value and numerical signification. After remarking that the ancients always referred to seven planets (the sun being included in the septenary), Blavatsky says:

"These 'seven' became the eight, the Ogdoad, of the later materialized religions, the seventh, or the highest principle, being no longer the pervading Spirit, the Synthesis, but becoming an anthropomorphic number, or additional unit" (SD 2:358n).

However, the ogdoad of the ancients had a special significance, among other things referring to the addition of the linking unit, whether of a superior or inferior hierarchy, to the septenary hierarchy envisioned at the moment. Furthermore, when the seven sacred planets of the ancients were considered in connection with their relations to earth, this conjoining of the eight units was often called an ogdoad. Hinduism takes cognizance of eight great gods, namely, the eight adityas, and on some of the oldest monuments of India, Persia, and Chaldea one may see the eight-pointed or double cross.

When the figure 8 is placed on its side . . . it symbolizes the eternal and spiral motion of cycles "and is symbolized in its turn by the Caduceus. It shows the regular breathing of the Kosmos presided over by the eight great gods -- the seven from the primeval Mother, the One and the Triad" (SD 2:580). In modern mathematics, it is the symbol for infinity, or for the approach to infinity.

(See also: Eight, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

MESOPOTAMIAN MAGIC

The Qabalah owes its origin to prior Assyrian origins. The usual attributions to the Etz Chaim are:

In which Ishtar is Venus, Marduk is Jupiter, Nergal is Mars, Nabu  is Mercury, Ninurtu is Saturn, Shamash the Sun and Sin the Moon. However, this is confusing, because there are only 28 paths on the Assyrian tree, not 32. Moreover, the Assyrian syllabary has 30 signs, not 22 letters as in the Hebrew alphabet. The 8-rayed star, symbol of divinity, may be taken as the eight atus missing from the conventional Tarot. Moreover, Ninurtu, "Saturn" is missing from the above diagram and the Gods (corresponding to the planets) are placed differently. The Babylonian system, being much older than the Hebrew version, must be taken as more correct, but the details have not been completely worked out. It's clear that they used a 60-based numerological system and that they practiced an early form of gematria.

Notice in the Assyrian Tree of Life that each branch has 7 leaves ("for the healing of nations") which are repetitions of the 7 large leaves near the top. These leaves represent the planets. Therefore the historical attributions of the sephiroth must not be quite correct. They may be zodiacal representations.

(See also: MESOPOTAMIAN MAGIC, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

NIANTIEL

The watcher of the 24th Tunnel. This figure from The Nightside of Eden corresponds to death in the conventional Tarot In Kenneth Grant's distortion, however, this is the path of sodomy, the reverse of Tiphareth, the "infernal sun in Amenta, the phallus in anus as distinct from the supernal sun." He also includes the scorpion and beetle as symbols of the "Dark Sun." The mysteries here evoked are sex magic and death magic, naturally, as well as "black magic" and Voodoo generally.

The sickness attributed to Niantiel was cancer, even before the advent of AIDS. The engineers of this disease, however, have sealed themselves off from all possibility of Salvation. The evil that Kenneth Grant saw -- to turn the Qliphah of Death into sodomy -- has at last been realized and the Kingdom of Hell is complete. The path between Tiphareth and Netzach is now the paved highroad between Belphagor and Baal.

999

Eternal Evolution (past, present, future). This is the most mystical number of all. It is the number of the Archon of the Ending Aeons. 999 is the year in which Kukulcan (Quetzalcoatl) died. It is the name of a very high IQ Society. 999 is the final transmutation of the current that began with 333, reached its culmination of evil mysticism in 666 and which will unlock the gates of the Otherworld at the end of this cycle's unfolding. It has also been appropriated by the J. R. "Bob" Dodds mock-cult (The Church of the Sub-Genius) as its seal, but is (for them) totally without significance or occult purpose, except as another symbol to subvert in their addiction to chaos.

9 to the 9th power is 387,420,489, which is sure to have some important meaning. Breaking that

down, 3 + 8 + 7 = 18 = 9; 4 + 2 + 0 = 6; 4 + 8 + 9 = 21 = 3; and ultimately 9 + 6 + 3 = 18 =

1 + 8 = 9. (See NUMEROLOGY.)

(See also: NIANTIEL, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Divination (from Latin divination a soothsayer from divus spiritual being, god)

The art of obtaining hidden knowledge by the aid of spiritual or ethereal beings. It is divisible into two main kinds: the inducing of seership or clairvoyance, and the interpretation of signs. Under the former come the oracular responses of the Pythian priestess, of the Cumaean Sibyl, and many similar instances, including all cases where the diviner induces trance or clairvoyance, whether in himself by natural power or by incantations, drugs, or other preparations; or in a subject, as when ink is poured into the palm of a child, who sees visions in it, or by some kind of hypnotism.

Under the second head come geomancy, augury, the reading of the marks on the liver of a slaughtered animal, reading cards, Chinese throwing-sticks, predictive astrology, palmistry, numerology, and a great variety of other forms. Between the two classes are ranged such practices as gazing into crystal or water, where external means and interior vision both play a part in the result. Often it is a means of utilizing one's own inner faculties, whether by natural or induced clairvoyance, or by employing the agencies which regulate events apparently casual such as the fall of the cards, the marks in the sand, the drawing of lots; and this last is related to the subject of omens.

The universal correspondences in nature, the interrelation of all things, imply that the most apparently casual and trivial events have of necessity connection with other events, so that the one can be interpreted by means of the other, provided only that the diviner knows the rules and has the insight and skill. Thus, in cartmancy, one deals the cards with a mind concentrated on the knowledge desired, and their fall is determined by these unseen and little understood influences. It is evident, however, that the condition and capacities of the diviner play an essential part in the success of the operation; hence the instructions as to fasting, continence, and the like, so often laid down as preliminaries.

The art of divining is and always has been universally diffused. Today this art, in common with many other items of ancient lore, has fallen into disrepute on account of the great abuse to which it has been subjected, as in the case of the abuses of black magic and sorcery. The same remarks would apply as are made in the case of psychism, seances, etc. -- that a large proportion of humanity is neither wise enough nor well-balanced enough to meddle with such methods; and there is too much tendency to use the methods for the gratification of mere personal desires or curiosity. We do far better to attend to the cultivation of our spiritual faculties, incomparably more powerful and effective, such as intuition.

It may be added that such practices as the slaughter of animals in order to read the entrails can scarcely be regarded, in any age, as pertaining to divine or white magic.

(See also: Divination, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

666

Many have been the designators of this apocalyptic finger, from Nero to the Popes, to Mohammed, to Ronald Wilson Reagan. But only through careful numerological analysis can we be certain of its true meaning. In The Dimensions of Paradise, John Mitchell shows clearly how this "number of the beast" is actually the Gnostic designation for Jesus Christ and the Crucifiction foisted on the world by the corrupt Church. Christ as an historical figure instead of a spiritual force was repugnant to the Gnostics. Decadent Babylon and the New Jerusalem are one and the same City of God, symbolizing the death rattle for the perverted religion and the birth of a new understanding. In Revelation, 666 refers to the phrase kai ho arithmos Chi-Xi-Sigma and stands for Jesus Christ as the idol on the cross rather than the Gnostic idea of the new Christ spirit, "the son of man," present in all men (much like our own "New Aeon" feeling). The New Jerusalem numbers are 3168, 1080, 1224 and 1764, but especially 864 and 666 (all of these, by the way, reduce to 9). New Jerusalem itself is 961 (seven), as is "the number of the leaves of the Tree of Life which are for the healing of nations."

A similar attribution can be found in Kenneth Grant's work (Outside the Circles of Time). For him, as for the writer of Revelation, the number has special apocalyptic meanings: "The Christians misunderstood the Unspeakable Name (IHVH) and supposed that by causing a rift between the Old Ones and the life-wave on earth they could 'save' mankind, and incidentally [of course!] gain total mastery of the planet." In order to do this, they inserted the Hebrew letter Shin (Grant calls this the letter of "Spirit," others associate it with "fire") between IH and VH, the Sh of Spirit. Thus we derive the name Yeheshuah or Johoshuah (IHShVH), which in Latin we call Jesus. The Xtians proceeded from there to identify this mythological name with a real person who, as Gerald Massey demonstrated, could only have been -- in an historic sense -- Jesus ben Pandira, an Egyptian who lived a century earlier. This wizard's mother was named Mary Magdalene, and he was stoned to death for sorcery. But the letter Shin, Grant tells us, "represents the triple-tongued flame of the Great Old Ones, whose supreme concentration -- Choronzon -- exhibits the triple Firetongue in the number 333." The latter is "mirrored in the final Heh of Tetragrammaton, the daughter-letter, whose number becomes the trebled Hex and the Unholy Act of Earth's destruction, under the rule of the Son of Typhon who is Set/Satan and the Anti-Christ."

Thus, to this very day, the idol that the entire "Christian" world bows down to is not the Christos spirit at all, but the Anti-Christ. The washed faces, the white gloves, the alb and pale lilies of Sunday worship cannot dispel the blood of ages. Average Galileans are unable to display love of any kind for their fellow-man. Instead, they constantly evoke the images of sin, corruption, misery and damnation. All "holy books" contain contradictions, lies and false teachings, but the Xtian Bible is a monument of fabrications and contradictions, second only to the Koran.

(See also: 666, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

THE EMPEROR AND THE STAR

These are Crowley's two greatest mysteries. We need to study them in tandem, because Crowley insists that the Emperor's proper letter is not Heh, but Tzaddi, so it must change places with The Star. Since these new attributions fly in the face of every tradition, let's try to guess why he does this.

By Crowley's reckoning, the star, Kokhav = 48 (a multiple of 12), the astrological number) or the "sphere of Venus". It represents Mercy (Gedulah or Chesed ). It also means, "strength" and "army". Forty eight divided by four is 14, the card of Temperance (or Alchemy), where we also have the angel pouring the waters. Qisar and Melech both translate as "Emperor". To continue with Crowley's reckoning, qisar would equal 371 ("Evil") and melech would equal 78 (that is, 15, or The Devil). However, if we use the ordinal value of the letters alone we get for Qisar and Melech, respectively, 60 and 33. Thirty Three is "sorrow, weeping" and a spring or fountain." Sixty is "watch-tower", excellence, sublimity, glory, pride, a Vision..." For kochav we get 28 or "Union, unity, power, and the mystic Netzach. . ." If we skip Aleph we get for Qisar and Melech, 60 and 30 ("Judah, Libra, Justice"). All of these seem appropriate enough for "The Emperor" but still do not explain why Crowley wants him to be the 17th card!

One reason that Crowley might have wanted to exchange The Emperor with Atu number 17 is so that (17 = 1 + 7 = 8) The Emperor (4) would serve as the higher exponent of Justice, which he had renamed "Adjustment" and already exchanged with Strength at 11. In his system, that places mundane authority (the Emperor) in the most subservient position and exalts Sirius (the Star) to the seat of greatest power at Atu 4. Meanwhile, Strength, now Atu 11, becomes the higher exponent of The Priestess (Atu 2), since 11 is the number of sorcery. This kind of highly rational manipulation of universal symbols is typical of Crowley's creative and very original approach to M/magic(k). The whole thing is extremely round-about and vexatious and looks like nothing so much as one of those infinitely-regressing whorls of cocaine-induced ratiocination, which were sometimes characteristic of Crowley. His paltry excuse that tzaddi is the letter that begins the word for Emperor "in many languages", is not meant to fool any serious student. It occurs only in Russian, Tsar, which is but a corruption of "Caesar."

Moreover, even if we assign the ordinal value to tzaddi (18), that translates as the notariqon of Yehi Aur ("Let there be light!"); Chai (the "living"); the antique serpent (Lucifer?); Hatred and "My Beloved". All of those seem strangely fitting for The Star, whereas "four" seems more natural to the Emperor if we think of him as the Tetragrammaton (IHVH). Apparently, that was precisely what AC wanted to avoid -- the ascription of IHVH to the Emperor. All the same, after all this numerology, we are no closer to the meaning of these cards. Indeed, we are farther at sea than ever!

(See also: THE EMPEROR AND THE STAR, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

APO PANTAS KAKODAIMONES!

False banishing mantram ("Away all evil demons!")

APOCALYPSE

We are aware that the muslims insist that there can be no Universal Eschatonic Implosion until the world has endured "40 years of rain." We would remind them that we have endured *more* than forty years of the "rain" of nuclear radiation and pollution. Aztec prophesies place the end of the world in the 20th Century (who can doubt it?). The Great Pyramid is said to contain, in its mystical measurements, similar predictions in stone of which the last is Sept. 17, 2001 A.D. Two thousand is commonly believed by western civilization to be the year of the Eschaton. The date given by Nostradamus, on the other hand, is slightly pre-millennial: 1999. This is just 13 years prior to the end of the great 160,000-year Mayan Cycle and Terence McKenna's Timescape Zero (based on Ancient Chinese cycles), both at 2012 C.E. And although many others cite 2020, there are interesting reasons for seizing on 1999.

First of all, there is a scientific reason. As meteorologists have noted, the 11-year sunspot cycles which serve to heat the earth, have not only been increasing in severity, they have progressively exacerbated the greenhouse effect. This resulted, during the drought of 1988, in the first of the summer-long record-breaking temperatures that continue to plague us. In '99 the sunspot activity could well have a cataclysmic effect.

Metaphysically, however, there are more compelling reasons. Since the exact interface betweeen the end of the Christian Aeon of Pisces and the beginning of the Humanist Aeon of Aquarius is impossible to pipoint, we are thrown back on sheer numerology. 1+9+9+9 = 28 = 2+8 = 10; numerologically and Pythagoras-wise ten is the number of perfect completion. In other words 1999 is the natural culmination of the Aeon, whereas 2000 is simply a thousandfold manifestation of the Duality: Two - that epitome of evil amongst numbers (from the cosmic point of view, the end of the world isn't necessarily evil). The date, January 16, 1999 adds up to 9. That date is also Julian Day number 2,451,195, which adds up to 9 as well. Ironically enough, most computer projections of disaster, based on current ecological trends, ozone depletion, demographic patterns, etc. predict the peak somewhere between January, 1999 and September, 2013 - by which time the population of the earth will be nine billion and the "end" of the human yardstick on this planet will have come.

And although the Bible stipulates that "no man knoweth the day or the hour" of the last day, I do not hesitate to name the 9th second of the 9th minute of the 9th hour of January 16, 1999 as the eschaton (or the 9th day of the 9th month September).

As one of the Archons of the Ending Aeon, however, I have chosen 999 as my personal sigil, not 1999, because I want to ally myself with the spirit of the ending process, rather than with the End itself. Moreover, from an opitimistic point of view, 999 is qabalistically virginal - it has nothing written on it. Yet I see no reason to dispute '99 as the Climax of the Apocalypse, and I take that most useful point of the Eschaton as the date of my own eschaton-count. My Newtime (13 month) calendar begins approximately on the winter solstice of 2000 (Newtime Year Zero), displacing Gregorian time forever. Hence I count forward from 1999, calling 1997 "Year Minus 3", etc.

It should be noted that "end of the world" predictions are always cropping up. For instance, there was Rev. Whisenant's eschatonic prediction that September 13, 1988 would be the Great Day. Newspapers were gleeful in reporting that the date came and went. What they failed to realize was that 1988, in fact, the beginning of the end - since it was in that year that the greenhouse effect was finally accepted by the planetary powers and acknowledged as the harbinger of the end. If nothing else, 1988 was the year in which the Shroud of Turin was finally pronounced an error by the Vatican. At any rate, the good Rev's numerology may have been naive and the particular fate he chose may have had little synchronistic sparkle, but his prediction wasn't entirely off the wall. Isn't it always the 11th hour? At least sub specie aeternitatis?

But with the 20th Century we leave eternity behind and enter the dimensional worlds. The date Whisenant gave has another meaning. As you know, we stand in the slough of time and at the perimeters of various magico/religious aeons - including the multitudinous segments of the Galilean era - all of which end at different points. The prophecies are fulfilled at different velocities in different ways. The world "ends" perennially because "World" derives from Anglo-Saxon wer-µld ("Man's Era" or "human time.")

Part of our confusion has to do with the fact that we tend to use "the world" and "the earth" as though they were synonyms. The earth is merely one of the stages on which the drama of the world is enacted. From the Olympian point of view, the end of a world isn't a tragedy. Everything has its ?ld. Even the gods have their time. Even the dinosaurs had an "Age" so the toymakers tell us. The word for "world", in every language, is invariably linked to the notion of time. Arabic duniya, "the present (world)", Hebrew olam "eternity", Latin mundus, originally a division into sections (of time), like the Greek kosmos. Religion is always, sooner or later, part of that chronometry.

It amazes me that people, especially gullible Xtians, can be so blind as to expect everything to go on as it has done for millions of years when the end has, in fact, arrived. By now it should be clear even to rotting elephants and establishment flakes that the fulfillment of the prophesies is at hand. Even technocratic corporationism concedes that any time between now and the early 21st Century pollution, population, drought, disease and famine will have hit their strides (the "four horsemen" as the four elements: polluted air, sewage-laden water, barren earth, radiocative fire). Therefore 2000 also marks the beginning of the Age of Aquarius and the official end of the Piscean "Age of Jesus". After that date the Christians (all of whom by then will have been swept up into the arms of their Redeemer) will find themselves, or so asserts self-styled Neo-Xtian, Constance Cumbey, "preserved in their own bubble of spiritual sterility on the dimensional shelf of an alternate reality," where they may eternally contemplate the wonder of their salvation. Meanwhile, mankind's post-holocaustic, enlightened remnant (should such a remnant, by any miracle, remain) will be free to move ahead...to? Incidentally, by the word "holocaust" I do not refer to war but to the destruction of the biosphere by the ravages of unchecked human growth.

For remarks on the return of Christ or "Second Coming" (see PAROUSIA). Meanwhile, the elect, who are still being sacrificed, already inhabit the New Jerusalem. The safe and sound remainder are not saved at all, despite their belief. They call themselves Xtians, but they are Philistines. The zealous guardians of the faith are precisely those about whom Matthew was shouting: "Not everyone who saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!", and of whom Mark said, "But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days." Those who remain are increasingly damned to the hell that earth is henceforth becoming. September 13, 1988 was the last day before it would be too late to begin the task of repairing the biosphere and reversing daily descent to terracide. So the jubilant laughter of Whisenant's scoffers begins to sound increasingly hollow, doesn't it?

 Obviously, there are many of us who, though raised in the Xtian tradition, can view the Apocalyptic experience which the world is undergoing even now, without falling gibbering to our knees in a final paroxysm of millennial conversion. . . No matter what happens henceforth, will retain our Neo-Gnostic and Neo-Pagan allegiances and avoid the horror of "Salvation."

Other cultures are more confrontational. Coinciding with the Xtian Apocalypse is the Hopi ending of the "Fourth World". In their system, evolution produces new strengths but also creates new bad habits which must periodically be burned away. Those who have not been corrupted will become the seed people of the next world. Hindus and Yogis (q.v.) rather than living in the world, tend to think of themselves as living in an "age" - at present, that age is the evil "Kali Yuga" (quite similar, in fact, to our own "apocalyptic era" and not necessarily lengthier). The Chinese also live in an older world. As of this writing (1988), this is the year 4686 for them. And for the Jews it's 5748. But the Mayans (q.v.) dwell in almost inconceivably vast ages, called baktuns and the current one ends in 2012, our time. The "Harmonic Convergence" of July, 1987, marked the entry, for the Mayans, into the final lustrum of the penultimate 20-year period, before the "hotting up" time of 1992, which is the beginning of the final 20 years of a 160,000 year cycle!

The "world" is, in a very real sense, however, the creation of those who inhabit it. Thus, when our forefathers created the United States, they quite deliberately and correctly referred to this as a "new world" and gave the Great Seal the designation NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM ("New Order of the Ages"), which you can still read on every dollar bill. But every maker of a "new" world, whether secular or religious, brings in his own "Age." The makers of the R_publique Fran_aise, after the Revolution of 1789, even came up with a brand new calendar to mark their "new age," complete with new names for the months. Anton LaVey, high priest of the "San Francisco Church of Satan", proclaimed 1966 as the beginning of the "New Satanic Age". Jesus Christ, arriving at the beginning of the Piscean Age, brought with him an automatic 2000-year non-renewable lease on time, which runs out in this century, the beginning of the Aquarian Age. Magicians also fabricate their own elaborate times - Aleister Crowley, for instance, began his "Age of Horus" in 1904. Moreover, although it might be expected to have ended at his death in 1947, his followers, seeing him as an immortal, still maintain Crowley's "Thelemic" calendar in that system, 1996 C.E. would be AN 72.

Crowley's aeon was itself superseded in 1947 (the year of the saucers) when the doorway to the Hell of Universe B was opened by Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard, whence the "Forgotten Ones" are now penetrating this world.

In 1980 Mickey Mouse and Jesus joined forces to end personal liberty in the United States (the end of the Democratic Party forever). In 1983 the Hopis announced the end of the 5th World - henceforth man would be obliged to boost his own stock, somehow. In July of 1987, the world entered the final lustrum of the penultimate katun of the Mayan aeon - another time of tribulation. 1992 was the beginning of yet another 20-year battle of armageddon. On January 6, 1999 Julian Day 2,415,195, the world will end by Nostradamus's calculation. Few will notice, perhaps, sind the "end" refers merely to the official passing of the Galilean Age and the world will be so desperately struggling to survive that there will be little time for outmoded messiahs.

Zoroaster, who died in 1000 B.C., will be reborn and complete the end of futility and Ahriman's rule. His seed at the bottom of a lake, it was prophesied, would thrice conceive maidens at three millennial points. The final chapter in the Zoroastrian cycle and yet another eschaton in our time.

Finally, it should be noted, in 2012, Terence McKenna's Timescape reaches Absolute Zero, the point of infinite novelty (See AUTOPOETIC LAPIS). And, interestingly, Jung also predicted the outer limit as occurring approximately fifty years after his death, which was in 1961.

You will understand that these 'end of the world' dates constitute a map of reality, but are obviously not Reality itself (apart from the fact that there is no "reality", as such). One doesn't necessarily visit every town on the map. We can choose to live out our allotted span to 1999 or 2012, and perhaps save the world, after all, or we can commit mass suicide beforehand in any of a hundred different ways, thus escaping the horror that is building up. The date of the Apocalypse isn't important. What matters is its immediacy. We have to understand that we've reached the outer limit of our dimension - THERE IS NO FUTURE - or at least very little. Like the amoeba in his drop of water it's time to turn away from the edge and move back to the center.

At any rate, by now it should be clear that we're moving quickly, not only metaphysically and synchronistically, but literally into the charged nexus of all the "ending aeons", into a kind of central transformer which is approaching its limit like an overworked fuse. The task of the archons of the ending aeons is to guide the confused through the wreckage of our disintegrating society.

(See also: APO PANTAS KAKODAIMONES!, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

WANDS (Or Rhabdology.)

The other day I found myself replying in this way to a fairly common request for more information on magic wands that chelas submitted to the Academy of M/magic(k)al Arts:

"No, polishing metallic wands doesn't build up static electricity  in me, or at least I keep dispersing it. Although after I pushed the elevator  up button yesterday, the unfortunate fellow right behind me, pushed it also  and he got a flash that was visible and nearly knocked him over.  I'd better be more careful. Sorry I contracted to buy this one, since it's  not double-ended anyway, and is twice what they were charging for  similar ones at the last New Age Fair I attended! [1986]. Still, it does have  lots of amethysts (eupeptics) and the crystal is well-shaped. but this  particular tool is ill-named: "power wand." Quartz is mainly a counter-measure  against malefics, evil influences and diseases. My teacher, to protect herself  on the street, keeps a small, double-ended power wand in her purse, like a  lady's revolver. Mine, however, doesn't do too many positive things, except that is excellent for visualization cuttings, like the ritual knife (see ATHAME).  but it's supposed to be used ritualistically, so is of minimal value to those  too indolent to conduct rites. I have heard rumours that it can be  "programmed" provided it can first be "cleared." (Always consult your books  for instruction on "clearing" your wand before using it and then "consecrate" it for what you plan to do with it). Since this one is not double, but  single-ended, it should be powerful in first-time situations, initiations,  etc.

However, if I want to do really creative things, I use a small Hindu  vajra, which is double-ended and can be half hidden when held in the  fist. The vajra is a true thunder-stick and must always be of traditional  design -- not always doubled and hence not always to be used as a wand. The  txuringa is another individualistic type of "wand," actually more like a  personal totem -- but it's too private to discuss in public. A txuringa,  however, is always made of wood or stone, never bronze, lead or crystal."

So much for the idiosyncratic point of view.

Asking what to do with a wand is a question that would probably not occur to a man -- though it is hardly like asking what one does with a penis! (Some women use their "power wands" as surrogate phalloi -- which is useful in drawing down Hermes or Ares as an imaginary love partner.) Wands represent the creative fire locked inside everything -- it's the power to transmute and be transmuted. On a simplistic level, a wand can be seen as the same as the thing that produces life, but actually it's even more basic than that. The wand is the source of manifestation in any form on any level. It's the connective "One" in face of the womb "Zero."

Next time you start something, anything, from scratch -- think of the wand as its producer. Its purpose is to make you more creative, to facilitate doing as opposed to mere being. Practice and experimentation will enable you to discover uses for yourself. Magical implements are tokens of spontaneity.

Wands are extremely individualistic. Some are very powerful, some only very subtle. I have a number of them which serve different purposes. The most expensive one, made of crystal and velvet, is very mysterious to me. I'm never sure how to use it properly. My most effective one is a twig I found in the woods. I've stuck all kinds of junk onto it and stained it different colors. It has been baptized with all of my own bodily fluids and carefully exposed to all seven elements. It is so powerful that I never use it! No. Again, the wand I actually use is that same two-ended Tibetan vajra. I use it to evoke curiosity sometimes, but mostly as protection and a guide for meditation in the midst of everyday life.

Wands should be of wood. If possible a wand should be a still living branch. The preferred wood for wands is almond. The almond tree possesses a virgin delicacy, sweetness and fertility. First to blossom in spring, it is also fist to succumb to the frost of autumn. The almond nut is the most advanced seed of life in the evolution of the vegetable kingdom. Hazel wood is second best. In any case, it is a good idea to fashion your own wand from scratch, using virgin tools. It should be personalized and earthed. Then it must be exposed to fire, immersed in water, hurled into the air and buried.

How do wands work? They aren't intended to serve as mere "indicators," worse yet, as "directors" (like an orchestra conductor's baton). I'm afraid we have to go back to the sexual aspect and think of what the Egyptians called bah -- "phallos" -- but apart from its ordinary sexual usage. If you can imagine such stuff outside the context of raw pornography, wands are non-penetrative. They are the conduits or vehicles of life (or being/becoming) and energy, and as such, demand of their users sometimes superhuman abstinence. We have to understand also that it's only one of the four magickal ikons (Wands, Cups, Coins, Swords). By themselves wands summon only the fire-world, the Lion of courage (and through the archangel Michael, one of the archangels of the celestial quaternary). Fire can be Will, Artistic Creation, Procreation, Health Protection, Life, etc. Wands are not hazy, mystical, psychedelic, emotional, desiring or delusional as Cups are. They are the masculine, Yang-bearers, but only symbolic of the phallus, as the Cups symbolize the vagina. (Beware -- don't try to take these things all the way down into the gutter! This is not Freud's world! Such glibness will cause you to be eaten alive and your unhallowed remains tossed into the eternal fire!). In Paracelsus' teaching, Sex is the 7th of the 7 Magickal Principles, not an activity necessarily involving the human body in any way. The Cup, i.e., Chalice (Holy Grail), being virginal and receptive, is to be contrasted in similar fashion to the Coin or Pentacle (Devil's sign), which is "closed" because "pregnant."

Amongst the Hebrews, there is the Rod of Almond, "Mateh Hashaqad" of numerological value 463 (400 = tau or Malkuth to Yesod, 60 = samekh or Yesod to Tiphareth, 3 = gimel or Tiphareth to Kether). Thus the staff is the whole of the paths from the Kingdom to the crown. (Reference is to Exodus -- the staff of Moses.) The top of the wand is in Kether, which is one, whereas the Qliphoth of Kether are the Thaumiel, or opposing heads that rend and devour one another.

At any rate, wands are unifying, juxtapositive, connective devices, whereas swords are penetrative and divisive. Fire (the wand) transmutes in the "melting pot," whereas air (the sword) disengages and separates things.

So wands work by coping with disparate or opposite things. If you want to repel, use single-ended quartz (or two ended quartz/amethyst, i.e., Moon/Jupiter). If you want to attract, use double-ended diamond, gold, ruby or carbuncle. Since the vajra is itself the "diamond" of the Bodhi-Sattva, it is harmoniously proportioned, even a vajra of brass will serve -- for that matter, even paper will suffice! Longevity, however, is an ideal attribute of life, so metal is more suitable than paper as a carrier. And if your wand must be of metal, then gold is best.

Finally, on the most pragmatic level (earth of fire), the wand is one's oath. The Word herewith must express the Will, hence the mystic name of the Probationer is the expression of his highest will.

You might think that the more wands you have, the better, and that is true to some extent. But after accumulating four or five of them, they begin to be a burden to carry around. You may have more powers, but you also begin to attract more challenges. Four wands indicate established strength without competition, but after that, if you start collecting more and more wands, you'll have to go on acquiring more still, in order to meet the new obligations associated with these power levels. Ultimately you will either become monarch of the unwieldy things or the inundated sorcerer's apprentice. At that point your responsibilities will outnumber your privileges. The King of Wands is executor of power, engaged continuously in the fulfillment of endless obligations.

(See also: WANDS, Rhabdology, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

2005-04-23

abjad: Sufi system of numerology.

(See also: Abjad, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Divination: By stars, cards, and alphabets. These are the three most popular methods of divination that have survived into the twentieth-century. The three occult sciences governing these oracular techniques are astrology (divination by the placement of the stars), cartomancy (divination by the random fall of the tarot or playing cards), and numerology (divination by the numbers concealed in the letters of a name or the digits of a birth date).

(See also: Divination, Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)