IRC Chat server for Pagans.

 point your irc client here:

www.digitalguide.net [port: 6667]   (join #occultstudies)

 

java

there's a game of correspondences i used to play with some [occult] study group friends... it is alot of fun to play, and you can learn things at the same time.

 

This game is easy to play, and anyone of any level of understanding/knowledge can participate without worry.

 

The gist of it is that someone starts off naming something... maybe a horoscope sign... virgo lets say... next person corresponds it to mercury who rules the sign, next person says intelligence, which is an aspect of mercury, and so someone says hod, or netzach which is a qbalaistic correspondence to it... and so on and so forth...

 no winner or loser, no rules really... just a method to share correspondences and learn yet have some fun doing it.

 i started a thread on my group forum for the game... come check it out!

 it is in the Qabalah section (no qabalah knowledge required i just happened to put it there) 

http://eoh418.covenspace.com 

I don't know how many Thelemites might be on this site, but i figured i'd start a Thelema related group. Of course anyone is welcome to check it out and join if they so desire.

I just set it up so i'm still working on setting it all up, but i will continue to do so on a regular basis.

 

Please visit: The Eye of Horus

I'm often asked 'What exactly is Thelema?' To some its just plain foreign, to others they've gathered only mis-information from people who don't truly know but formed an opinion anyways. And for others they have an interest in it, yet aren't sure where to get a simple, concise explanation.

Thought i'd give a brief overview on what Thelema is and isnt.

 Thelema was established by Crowley after he claimed to have recieved a message from a praeter-human being named Aiwass in Cairo during 1904. The message he recieved he published under the title Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of The Law).

 The two fold Law of Thelema is stated as thus: “Do what thou wilt shall be
the whole of the Law” 

 [This is not to mean that one should just go around doing whatever they damn well please, but rather 'what thou wilt' refers to ones "true will"]

 and “Love is the law, love under
will.”

 [love being action... thus the Law of Thelema is a declaration to realize one's true will, and for every act to be in accord to that Will.]

 

Thelema is an existential religion, eschewing the dogmas of faith in favor of experiencing existence thru direct interaction... while alot of Thelemites refuse to put trust in empirical scientific structures, many more accept it. Original sin is not a concept accepted by Thelema... the Book of The Law states that “Every
man and every woman is a star.” –AL I:5

 

Thelema accepts and encourages the uniqueness of each individual's Will. Thelema isnt so much a religion as it is a philosophy or way of life (i guess you could think of it similar to Taoism) which makes use of 'magick' or occult practices as a means to learn and grow individually.

 Thelemites are open to an endless variety of methods for their path of attainment (by attainment i mean insight into ones self). The practices range from those as common as prayer, meditation, study of religious texts (thelemic as well as other religious texts).. to methods suchs as geomancy, evocations, qabalah, etc etc and so on, ad nauseum. 

 

Hope that gives you a better idea of what Thelema is about... there tends to be alot of misinformation or confusing information on the path which often paints a less than favorable picture of it. Thelemic studies tend to be very complex or indepth.. some being rather mathematical, highly conceptual or just damn confusing for beginners too... that often scares people away from the idea of Thelema, but all in all, what i have written about it above is all it truly comes down to.

Abramelin's Magickal Word Squares

Compiled and Corrected for the First Time

by Aaron Leitch

The following word-squares (or "acrostics") have been complied from Book IV of George Dehn and Steven Guth's English translation of the Book of Abramelin. These are the completed squares taken from the German original(s), rather than the corrupted and incomplete versions found in the French recension translated by S. L. Mathers.

However, in this new translation, Mr. Dehn did not compile the magickal words into gridsquares. (According to his notes, the manuscripts he used for his translation contained the words written only in line form.) Therefore, I have undertaken the task of inserting them into proper grids. What follows is the first time English speaking students have seen the Abramelin word squares in their
compiled (and corrected) form.

As I placed Abramelin's words into their grids, I discovered a large number of errors. (Most of them apparently from the original manuscript, and not the fault of Mr. Dehn or Mr. Guth!) Some were apparent transcription errors- such as confounding "c" and "e", "f" and "s", or "b" and "k". I also found several places where adjacent letters were transposed- similar to writing the word "receive" as
"recieve." Some of the errors seemed unexplainable, unless they were deliberate blinds. Lending weight to that theory, I also found a few of the squares inverted, backward or mis-labeled.

In each case of correction, I have also included Dehn's text of the original square in a footnote. Out of 242 squares, I have found approximately 156 in need of correction- not counting several instances where labels were applied to the wrong squares. Only one square in the entire set was irreparable.

Methods of Correction

The easiest squares to correct were the simple Acrostics and the 'Perfect' Double Acrostics- both of which contain repeated patterns throughout the square. It was more difficult to judge the regular Double Acrostics, though I have made my best attempts to correct them where necessary. There were very few cases where I had to choose between one letter or another, or even fill in a missing letter. In
such cases I would either go with intuition (usually based on the overall pattern in the square), and/or analyze the square linguistically to discover an acceptable spelling. (The latter was often used to confirm or correct the former.)

I also compared Dehn's work to the French recension each step along the way. Mathers' notes have been surprisingly useful (given the sorry state of the text he was using)- and I have referenced each case where his notations aided me in correcting a square.

As a side note: I suspect the author of the French version was working on these same corrections, but left the task incomplete. With this document, the French author's long-awaited goal is finally realized.

Further Analysis Ongoing...

This document is only a presentation of the corrected Abramelin squares, with notes explaining the differences between my squares and Mr. Dehn's. I have not included the bulk of my linguistic analysis of the words themselves, as that work is ongoing. I have already compared the Abramelin squares to all of Mathers' linguistic notes, and cross-referenced both to Biblical Hebrew, Greek and
Latin Lexicons. I am, of course, also using the Lexicons to find etymologies that Mathers missed (most often due to the corruption of the French squares).

In many cases, the linguistic "decoding" of a square has resulted in further corrections to its lettering. I have nearly completed the Hebrew analysis (save for a few squares that have eluded me, and may not turn out to be Hebrew at all), and some of the Greek and Latin as well. Fortunately, the Abramelin squares are overwhelmingly based upon Hebrew, so I do not expect any further significant
corrections to the squares' lettering. In the case of further corrections, I will update this manuscript in the future. My complete linguistic analysis will appear in a later work.

A Brief Overview of Word Squares

Note these three types of word-squares:

Acrostic ("Staircase"): reads the same forward and downward:

..>..>

B	I	T
I	C	E
T	E	N

Double Acrostic: reads differently forward and downward:

..>..>

T	O	O
U	R	N
B	E	E

'Perfect' Double Acrostic: reads the same forward, downward, backward and upward:

..>..>

S	A	T	O	R
A	R	E	P	O
T	E	N	E	T
O	P	E	R	A
R	O	T	A	S

Also note these common aspects of word-squares. Any square my have one or more of them:

Frame: a single word written around the circumference of a square, in the fashion of a 'Perfect' Double Acrostic. (This does not mean the entire square will be a 'Perfect' Double Acrostic):

..>..>

S	A	T	O	R
A				O
T				T
O				A
R	O	T	A	S

Central Cross: only exists in an odd-numbered square. Consists of a single word (usually a palindrome- spelled the same way forward or backward) written across the center of the square:

..>..>

		T
		E
T	E	N	E	T
		E
		T

Palindromes: Palindromes are always preferable anywhere in a magickal word-square. I have also discovered that some of the Abramelin squares contain "reflected palindromes" (as I call them). This means a smaller word has been written forward and backward in mirror reflection, creating a new (more mystical-looking) palindrome. For example, we might spell the common word HELLO as a reflected palindrome:


HELLOLLEH


The quintessential magickal word square is a 'Perfect' Double Acrostic made entirely of palindromes.

Unstandardized Spelling: Proper spelling is not necessary for magickal word-squares. Especially when using languages such as Greek and Hebrew, one is dealing with transliterations anyway. One may shrink, stretch or spell the words in nearly any manner to make them fit the square. Only one rule restricts this- the word must be phonetically like the original. A square should be decipherable by other scholars, even hundreds of years into the future.

In a later work, I will provide a more complete account of word squares (mundane and magickal), how to create them and how to work with them.

You can see all of the corrected Abramelin word squares here:

http://kheph777.tripod.com/abrasquares.pdf

Or you can find the same document on my writings page at:

http://kheph777.tripod.com/

Aaron Leitch
March 2007