The Gematria of Kenneth Grant

[Marc]

I think this thread would eventually be inevitable. Anyone who has read the Typhonian Trilogies knows Kenneth Grant's gematria is very difficult to follow. I think when he was writing the trilogies, he was simply communicating strings of concepts in his highly complex mind and not necessarily being aware that many of us would be left with clueless looks on our puzzled faces after reading some of the chapters of the trilogies. I am aware that he is using multiple systems of gematria but there are some passages that are just perplexing. 

I think this will be sufficient to open up discussion or elaboration attempts at some of the gematria found in the volumes   

[Vadge Moore]

This will be a very interesting thread!

[Michael Staley]

The key to Grant's use of gematria is that he uses it to underpin insight, not to derive insight from it. This could at times lead him to stretch gematria, to use a number of different types; every now and then, the gematria is flawed.

In most cases, Grant uses the Hebrew qabalah in a straightforward manner. Occasionally he uses variant spellings in order to derive a particular number. There is at least one instance in Nightside of Eden where on the face of it the arithmetic is incorrect, but on further investigation he is using one of the more obscure variants of Hebrew Qabalah, Aiq Bekar, the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers; here, letters are organised in groups of three, within which letters can take on the value of others in the same group. Some of these variants of the Hebrew Qabalah are mentioned in Crowley's 'An Essay on Number' in The Equinox Volume I Number 5.

Kenneth also used the Greek Qabalah, as well as, on occasion, Qabalah Simplex, whereby the letters of an English word are assigned the value of their Hebrew equivalents.

Occasionally there are mistakes in calculation. Like many of us, Kenneth was good at proof-reading the work of others, but not quite so much his own. These errors, some of which are simple transliterations, are being addressed as each volume is prepared for republication.

When preparing The Ninth Arch for publication, I experienced several times his pragmatic use of qabalah. Working methodically through each chapter in the typescript, I scrutinised each item of Qabalah to make sure that it was correct. This could sometimes take a long time, taking account of variant spellings. If after all this it seemed incorrect, then I discussed it with Kenneth. He either demonstrated to me that the calculation was correct, or accepted that he made made a mistake. Where the latter, he rewrote the passage using an item of qabalah that was correct.

If you'd like to give me specific instances of qabalah that you find puzzling, Marc, I'll have a look at it for you.

[Vadge Moore]

Wow. Thank you for that, Michael. It's great to have insight into how all of that gematria was "fact checked" as it were. Kenneth writes in the Ninth Arch about using Dali's paranoiac critical method in his gematria. Would you mind elaborating on that?

[Marc]

I was also wondering about this as well. I'm wondering if he is referring to an actual gematria "method" employed by Dali or simply an elaborate web of connections that manifested without Dali's conscious knowledge. From the little I know, Dali was receiving transmissions from the outer for sure. Did anyone ever acknowledge whether he was actually diagnosed with "mental illness"? Many times these are tremendous releases of DMT in the brain which kick open the doors of perception as Aldous Huxley would word it. Perhaps the gematria wasn't his but an existing gematria from the outer?

[Vadge Moore]

Marc- The method of Paranoiac Critical originated with Dali, but Grant used it to enhance HIS understanding of gematria.

[Marc]

I see. I was a bit off. It's always a bit wonky when it comes to various systems of Gematria I guess. For example, if you have ever read anything on Martinez De Pasqually (Martinism), you will notice that he wreceived an entire pantheon of entities with all of their correspondences, sigils, etc.., and their seems to be nothing found on them before he was communicated this knowledge. I love it. It's a classical case of extra-terrestrial transmission. The same could be said of Dee/Kelly and Enochian. Gematria is something that I think is always evolving as new transmissions come through.

[Marc]

*received*

[fraterii]

"if you have ever read anything on Martinez De Pasqually (Martinism), you will notice that he wreceived an entire pantheon of entities with all of their correspondences, sigils, etc.., and their seems to be nothing found on them before he was communicated this knowledge."

Could you clue me in as to exactly which work you are discussing here? Curious.

[Marc]

Sorry, are you actually referring to where I received the above information about Pasqually? His biography is available in French (not sure if it has been translated into English) and Pasqually's Treatise is also available in PDF if you search online.

As for specifics on the system itself, I have worked personally with Martinism.