THE ART OF GEMATRIA

Talk No.58

Peter Taylor is a Past Master of Lodge Albert No.448 and Discovery No.1789

The Art of Gematria

Not Yet Delivered in the Lodge (2020)

Gematria is the art of assigning numbers to letters to reveal deeper meanings and significance towards. The art of gematria has been used since antiquity and was a quintessential science employed in the writing of many ancient holy books. The Greeks, the Kabbalists, the Hindis along with many other cultures all mastered this ancient art. Without intuiting and understanding the symbolism and geometry of the letters within an alphabet, as well as the numbers attached to them, a true discernment of the meanings behind these ancient mystical books could not be grasped. The phrase “Read between the lines” is a direct reference to this ancient art. Gematria is and was a “scientific art” that when mastered allows one a deeper look into the mystical and magical construction of our universe and the universe within man himself. By merging mathematics and language, gematria immerses one into the language and thoughts of the universal creator. It allows one a glimpse at the blueprints of the Grand Architect.
The primordial language spoken of in the Holy Bible (before the fall of the Tower of Babel and the infamous “Confusion of Tongues”) is a reference to a language that has been shared by all civilisations, in all epochs of time. It is a language that transcends all dialects and all cultural pretences, a language that the universe herself speaks and one that expounds its glory on your two hands. It is the language of mathematics. Without a firm understanding of basic mathematics and geometry, one cannot possibly comprehend the universe, as a whole. The banner above the Platonic schools read “Let None Ignorant of Geometry Enter Here”.

If one was ignorant of geometry and mathematics, one was essentially ignorant about all things. The most famous mathematician of all, Pythagoras’, famously exclaimed “All is number”. The root word of ignorant is “ignore”. Angles, arcs, ratios and geometries are all around us, screaming at us from every corner of our world – every flower, every tree, every sunrise and sunset, every wave of sound bellowed from our mouths and every tick-toc of the clock works its magic through the laws, principles and essences of number. To ignore the fact that number rules all is to ignore the ingenious construction and glory of the world that we have inherited. There is an intelligence behind nature and that intelligence is speaking to us through the magic of number.

“The universe cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word.” – Galileo Galilei.

Numerology, the study of the occult significance of numbers, is a science, much like astrology, that is completely dismissed by contemporary, corporeal science. Numerology lies at the heart of gematria and in the opinion of this author, without understanding numerology, one cannot possibly intuit the beauty and utter simplicity of mathematics. Mathematics is not merely quantitative but qualitative as well. Numbers are not cold, dead, dry arbitrary accidents of cosmic chaos but the language and lifeblood of the creative force behind creation. Numbers, as understood by the Greek and Egyptians, are cosmological principles whose essences play out and are revealed to us in the material world. Numbers contain within them an inherent message – each number has a story to tell and each of these a story pertains to the magnificence of the creation of our cosmos.
But no matter how many stories are told, no matter how many infinite numbers unfold to weave the manifested matrix of all material creation, all divisions will ultimately lead back to the one philosophy that lies behind every true science and spirituality that has graced this blessed Earth and that is the incontrovertible fact that ALL IS ONE.

The Crux of Numerology: 1-9 and Decimal Parity

The crux of numerology is the idea of breaking down any number to the digits of 1 – 9. This property has a bevy of names: Digital Root, Kabbalistic Reduction, Pythagorean Addition, Theosophical Addition and Decimal Parity.
Example: the number 361 can be reduced down to “One” by simply adding 3 + 6 + 1 = 10 and 1 + 0 = 1. Therefore, the quality or essence of the number 361 equals 1.
Breaking down any number from 1 – 9, with zero, or the placeholder, gives us a total of ten numbers / digits to work with. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. No matter how large or complex the number, it can ultimately be reduced down to the numbers 1 – 9.
These 9 numbers were celebrated by the Greeks and Egyptians in the Ennead and recognized in the 9 angels of the Christian Angelic Hierarchy. These 9 gods / angels were archetypal principles that regulated and ruled the cosmos through the laws of number. I go over this concept at length in my first book, Pi – The Great Work and show how Decimal Parity works on some basic mathematical principles such as Pascal’s Triangle, Pi and the Fibonacci Sequence. I will not be delving into this idea too much in this article for there are many references and excellent explanations of this on the internet as well as in my books and videos if you would like to study the simplistic beauty of this mathematical method further.

This methodology has been disregarded by contemporary mathematicians and scientists whose collective view has an almost deranged focus on material existence. The modern scientific method invariably sees any ancient practice, albeit numerology, astrology, or divination as archaic, speculative, and interpretative pseudo-sciences. Deviating from the current understanding of physics and mathematics is often considered blasphemous. Anything that does not follow theoretical physicists’ current story of universal construction is often ridiculed – and this is where I believe science and mathematics has lost its way. Numerology shows us that the universe is much simpler, more magical, more ‘crafty’, (and in the firm beliefs of this author, unquestionably intelligent) than we currently tend to believe.
Numerology points us to the axiological philosophy that the universe is constructed using ten basic principles. Ten: is a number of completion to the ancients. Ten qualities weave their magic into the fabric of space time – ten numbers unfold in numinous ways, complexifying, constructing and destructing, building and dissolving, casting and remoulding the eternal presence of the immediate experience – the eternal WOW that is happening right now. Ten numbers that lead to universal scales so infinitely big and minutely small that to simply ponder on them boggles the mind.

The numbers 1 – 9 and the “Holiness” of the zero lead us to the Tree of Knowledge within the garden of true wisdom. These 10 digits may help us recognize a universal truth within our creation – that no matter how many branches and leaves and roots there are on the tree of life, they all converge at the trunk as ONE to form ONE ecosystem and ONE home for its inhabitants. These ten numbers, expressed on your two hands, come together to form you, ONE human being who is at ONE with all of creation. No matter how many ONES you have, they are always ONE.

Nature is economical

Nature invariably is going to find the easiest, most frugal way to do something. Economy is nature’s calling card and shows how truly intelligent she is. If nature can get by with using one thing to do many things, you can bet she will. For instance, look at the human mouth. We use it speak, to sing, to breathe and to eat. Imagine having an orifice for each of these activities? When creating you, nature was intelligent enough to know that all it needs to do was create one mouth to perform a host of different activities. We can view numbers in much the same way, and this is where numerology comes in handy.
Numerology applies the classic K.I.S.S. formula, “Keep It Simple Stupid”. Finding the simplest answer to a problem is often the most elegant way to solve a problem – termed the Principle or Parsimony or Occam’s Razor in scientific mechanics. This simplicity is expressed beautifully by the internet. The internet is a perfect analogy for the natural order – all the complexities of the internet – blogs, vlogs, images, algorithms, etc are brought to us by two numbers, 0 and 1.
The internet is infinitely complex and yet, at its heart, uses a binary system to create that complexity. From an outside perspective, it would seem impossible to understand the internet but deep within its script, its underlying matrix is profoundly simple. We need to intuit this fundamental philosophy to comprehend the immensity of our cosmos. Simplifying things allows us to get to the heart of the matter. And this philosophy as we will see can be used on the English Alphabet as well.

The Language

Understanding what language is, how it works, how it is structured and how it came to be widely used across the known world has been an enormous question mark for those who have inquired about it. The spoken word is something we use every single day and yet we hardly stop to consider how it works. Somehow thoughts are coordinated internally and then emitted through vibrations of sound via one’s mouth that equate to geometric formations of lines and arcs that when combined convey meaning to another human being – who in turn takes in this information in and correlates it to his or her internal dictionary – and all of this happens almost instantaneously. What magic! How is this even possible?
Can we equate the birth of language to years of natural selection and evolution and the need to communicate to our fellow monkey-man such things as where the herd has migrated to or where a source of water is? Did language originate by the simple need to survive or is there an underlying order, something much more syntactical, mystical, and magical going on with our speech? Where language originated and how it evolved are questions, we may never answer. We know that the English “Alphabet” was constructed or evolved from the Latin Alphabet and that in turn evolved or morphed from the Hebrew Aleph Beth and/or as well from the Greek Alpha Beta. In Arabic, we find the Alif Ba in the Syriac Alaf Beth and the Coptic the Alpha Bida.
We can easily surmise that there has been a definite transformation or evolution of language that has left us, somehow and in some way, with the 26 letters of our current English Alphabet. Since we cannot go back in time and see first-hand how our language was constructed or how it evolved, maybe we can understand it with the universal, primordial language of nature and God – mathematics. And maybe to understand it fully, we need to make things as simple as possible.

Three becoming One

The concept of Three becoming One is a concept that is shared by two very prominent religions, mainly Christianity and Hinduism. In Hinduism, the Holy Trinity is known as Shiva, Brahman, and Vishnu and in the Christian canon this is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How can three things become one? Is this not the definition of paradox? This conundrum can easily be solved by understanding mathematics. One point may be infinitely large and infinitely small, two points creates two points and a line, but it is only with three points that we create the first triangle or polygon in creation – three sides coming together to make one shape. The Holy Trinity. The Triangle and / or 3-dimensional pyramid is a consistent theme expressed architecturally worldwide. Pyramids decorate the landscapes of Egypt, South America, Meso-America, and China. Across the world, the Holy 3 is celebrated. There are 3 stars in the belt of Orion, 3 outs in an inning and time itself is divided into 3 parts: Past, Present and Future. Schoolhouse Rock even told us that “3 is the Magic Number!”. The Hindu symbol of AUM, the vibratory essence or sound that created the entire universe has 3 letters and is symbolized by a 3 with a tail swirling out its back.

Pi

One of the most prominent ratios in mathematics is the ratio of Pi, or 3.14… Pi is considered an irrational, infinite and transcendental number which basically means that it is said to have no order and that its decimals unfold infinitely – which means we cannot see its tail. To date, computers have calculated over 10 trillion digits of Pi. Pi is one of the most important numbers in mathematics. We see this number encoded in temples all-through Egypt and Pi plays an important part in the Great Pyramid of Giza. As we know, many cultures throughout time understood the sacred nature of mathematics and geometry and knew that nothing in existence existed without it as its foundation. Existence itself was based around the cosmological archetypal principles of number. The word archetype itself seems to want to tell us about two things – arcs or geometry and numbers and type, or letters. God, a trinity, saying “Let there be light” and the Hindu vibratory threefold essence of AUM must have a mathematical equivalent – a ratio or number that represents the creation of our entire universe. If this be the case, our best candidate is assuredly that elusive mathematical beast of 3.141… or Pi.
“Mathematics is the language the God wrote the universe in.” – Galileo Galilei
If Pi is indeed a mathematical representation of the creation of our universe, then this ratio must be the mathematical basis or structure for many phenomena here on Earth. Since mathematics is the universal language of the creator, we should assume that the very words we speak must be built by the magical principles of mathematics as well. Using all that we have learned so far and utilizing the above rational, we can logically assume that the construction of our alphabet must, at its heart, be simple, economical, and just might possibly have something to do with that all-important ratio of Pi.

The next few pages are extracts from Volume 1 in a series entitled “Pi & The English Alphabet”. In a few short pages, we will unearth the cipher and decode the structure of the English Alphabet using simple philosophy, occult methodologies as well as esoteric and religious symbolism. In the next few articles, we will delve into many different topics using this achromatic cipher so taking the time to intuit it is highly suggesting. Take out a notebook and compose the cipher yourself. Underline the non-prime numbers and draw the Jewish menorah. Meditate on its symmetry and elegance, concentrate on each stroke of each letter and on each arc and line of each number. Calculate your name and find its sum. Most importantly though recognize that numerous wise, gnostic, spiritual, and loving mystics have done the same before you. Recognize that by reconstructing the structure of the Alphabet you are aligning yourself with all of the prophets, seers and spiritually awakened people of the past – wise individuals who without a shred of doubt knew of the intelligent force that lay behind nature; sages and philosophers of such illumination that they needed no faith to believe in God – for they experienced him directly.

For a detailed video on this cipher, please check out the video “Pi & The English Alphabet – Marty Leeds” on youtube.com/martyleeds33

The Cypher

The numerical equivalents of the letters on the previous page can be easily abridged into the following cipher (Plate 4)

We will be using this cipher throughout the text so taking the time to internalize this cryptogram is most advised.
There are 26 letters in the English Alphabet. The Tetragrammaton, known as Jehovah or YHWH, was a symbol used by the Kabbalahists, alchemists and Hermeticists and in the Hebrew gematria it added up to 26 (Plate 5).

We see on the stained-glass window shown below, from an Episcopal church in Iowa, built in 1868, the Tetragrammaton is slightly modified from the original Hebrew representation (Plate 6). Here the Tetragrammaton is symbolized as Pi 7 Pi 7.

The seventh letter of the English Alphabet is G. In the Freemason symbol, we see that the G is encased by a compass and a square (plate 7). The compass and square represent a common mystical mathematical problem celebrated throughout the ages known as “Squaring the Circle”. We will revisit this concept in a bit, but in short, when one “squares the circle” of the Earth, one can find the radius of both the Moon and the Earth equalling 5,040 miles. Interestingly and absolutely not coincidental, if we multiply the numbers 1 through 7, we yield the number 5,040. 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 = 5,040.

The G is of course the 7th letter of the alphabet and lo and behold, it is nestled between both a compass and a square.
The Freemasons accept all manner of faith into their organization but subscribe to the King James Holy Bible as their holy book. God was said to have created the universe in 6 days, resting on the 7th or the Sabbath. If we take this mythological motif and lay it upon the alphabet, we can assign numbers to the first 7 letters, A through G (Plate 8).

Resting on the seven, or the Sabbath, God’s work was, and man’s work was about to begin. If we now fall back down the ladder of the alphabet, or from 7 back to 1, representing the fall of mankind from the Garden of Eden, we can assign numbers to half of the alphabet.
Falling back down to 1 in our alphabet has found us at the letter “M”. M is the 13th letter of the alphabet which makes for a perfect division of the 26 letters of our entire alphabet (Plate 9). The next letter is of course “N” dividing our alphabet between M and N. The Alpha, represented by the “A” in our alphabet, was the first creation. If we insert the alpha into the natural division of our alphabet, we find the human race: MAN.

With the use of mirroring, or perfect symmetry, the numerical equivalents of the first half of our alphabet, A-M, can now be transferred to the second half of our alphabet, N-Z. This is best displayed on the human hands. The “A” or Alpha is one’s left thumb and the “Z” or Zed, representing the end or Omega is one’s right thumb with the 12 sections of one’s four fingers, 24 in total, representing the remaining 24 letters of our alphabet (Plate 10).

Now that we have the numbers for our alphabet, we can pull out the prime numbers within our letters. Prime numbers are numbers that are divisible by only 1 and themselves. 2, 3, 5 and 7 are all prime numbers and are highlighted below (Plate 11).

If we add up the prime numbers on each side of the alphabet, they total 27. 2+3+5+7+5+3+2 = 27. This yields 27 for the left hand of our alphabet and 27 for the right hand. What is most interesting is that there are 27 bones that make up the human hand. Notice we have 7 prime numbers for each hand of our alphabet as well, with the central prime number, 7, paired with the letters G and T. “T”, or the Tao Cross, is a symbol for man (Plate 12). It is a symbol that represents balance within the duality of the material word. The Freemasons used this cross often as seen in their amulets and rituals.

We can now underline the non-prime numbers within our alphabet, 1, 4 and 6, and we can separate these numbers from the rest of our primes (Plate 13).

By utilizing the ancient symbol of the Jewish Menorah on each half of our alphabet positioning the central 7s, G and T, as the pillars, we can derive the ratio of Pi. Notice below we connected the 1 and the 1, the 4 and the 4 and the 6 and 6 on each side of the alphabet with the branches of the menorah. 1+4+6+6+4+1 = 22.
This 22 is connected by the central pillar of the menorah leading to the 7. A whole number approximation of Pi can be found by dividing 22 by 7 equalling 3.142. This yields us Pi begotten by 7 on the left hand of our alphabet and Pi begotten by 7 on the right hand of our alphabet.
And this comes together to give you the Tetragrammaton, or the Holy Name of God.

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Peter Taylor 2020.