English Qaballa

What it is

English Qaballa is a modern Hermetic Qabalah and a form of arithmancy, meaning a number system used to interpret words. Each letter of the English alphabet receives a fixed value. James Lees created the system in 1976 while trying to read and expand Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law. Other writers have given it the labels ALW cipher and NAEQ. Practitioners treat matching totals between different words as meaningful, though the meaning of a match is left to the individual Qaballist.

Where it comes from

In 1904 Crowley wrote out Liber AL vel Legis, also known as The Book of the Law. One verse, 2:55, asks the reader to obtain the order and value of the English alphabet and to find new symbols for the letters. Crowley took this as a promise that an English Qabalah would come later. In November 1976 the English magician James Lees set out an order and values. Ray Sherwin used the name English Qaballa in a 1979 editorial in the final issue of The New Equinox. Lees then published more of his gematria in that journal from 1981 to 1982.

How it is done

One method is calculation and comparison. A word or sentence is given a total from its letters, and that total is checked in a numerical dictionary for other words with the same value. A second method adds the first letters of a phrase and, separately, its last letters, as a way to mark a beginning and an end. Another reverses the digits of a total, a rule drawn from a verse where Ra Hoor Khut is 97 and Abrahadabra is 79. A further method, written with the sign %, combines two words by multiplying each value by the other word's letter count and adding the results. Words can also be summed step by step, split into parts, or replaced by equal-valued words in context.

Tools and materials

Lees based the order on a grid placed over a manuscript page of Liber AL, sheet 16 of Chapter III, where a diagonal line and a circled cross also appear. The grid has ten squares in each column, and letters are read from it in sequence. The same values can be found by placing the alphabet in a circle: A is 1, then counting forward eleven letters reaches L, which is 2, and the count continues. A numerical dictionary is a key tool for looking up totals. Counting the circle in the opposite direction gives a different set of values.

What it is for

The system is used to interpret texts, chiefly Crowley's Book of the Law and other Holy Books of Thelema. A Qaballist calculates a word's total and then looks for other words with the same total. Such matches are called word collisions. Practitioners hold that these collisions can point to a connection in meaning, though the individual Qaballist decides what that connection is. The first-and-last-letter method is meant to show how a process begins and ends. Other methods aim to clarify a word by placing it beside equal-valued words or by reading a sequence of partial totals.

Who does it

The system is associated with the English magician James Lees, who described its order and values in 1976. Ray Sherwin, editor of The New Equinox, first used the name English Qaballa in 1979. Lees took over as publisher of that journal and issued further material in it. Trevor Langford wrote software for analysing Liber AL and other Thelemic holy books in 1984 and 1985. Jake Stratton-Kent summarised more original EQ material in the March 1988 issue of The Equinox: British Journal of Thelema.

What people believe

EQ sits inside Hermetic Qabalah and Thelema. Its starting point is a line in Crowley's Book of the Law that speaks of the order and value of the English alphabet and of new symbols for the letters. Crowley read this as a task for a future English Qabalah. The book's instruction that it be printed with Crowley's handwritten text led him to suspect that the shapes and positions of letters in his hand carried hidden meaning. Lees's grid follows one manuscript page. Practitioners treat numbers as a way to compare words, and they leave the final reading of a match to the individual Qaballist.

Compare and confuse

EQ belongs to Hermetic Qabalah and Thelema. It is a form of gematria, the practice of giving letters numbers and comparing the totals of words. Writers also call the system the ALW cipher; NAEQ is a short form of New Aeon English Qabalah.

Today

Material on EQ continues to appear. A numerical dictionary is included in an appendix to Thompson (2016). An online summation and lookup tool is listed, and an episode of Thelema Now! features Cath Thompson discussing the system. These items keep the method available to readers of Thelemic texts and to Qaballists who work with English words.

Questions people ask about English Qaballa

Good reading and sources

• English Qaballa on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data