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Star of Babylon Tattoo

I first took an interest in Thelemic magick some time around 1995. I started to read Crowley and become interested in ceremonial modern magick. After reading “The Book of the Law,” I was struck, like many impressionable young people, by the possibilities of Gematria.

“Thou shall obtain the order and value of the English alphabet. Thou shall find new symbols to attribute them unto” II 55 Liber Al

*An aside for those unfamiliar with these terms: Gematria is an attempt to connect language with mathematics and find therein correlations. What makes this endeavor truly interesting philosophically is that from a rational, mundane perspective, there really shouldn’t be any correlation between mathematics and language. Why not? Well, mathematics is based on scientific laws, and language is an arbitrary human construct. If some connection were found it would seem to indicate that there are broader patterns at work in the world around us. It would, in effect reveal something planned in our reality, by showing correlations in the real world, where none, logically ought to exist.

The first people to try and do this were the ancient Hebrews. Their work with Kabbalah was not only a system for religious understanding and illumination but also a complex attempt at creating a workable Gematria.

Okay, now fast forward to the beginning of the 20th century. Aleister Crowley writes a short text called “The Book of the Law.” It is both a riddle, a dare, and an attempt at prophecy. Only 25 pages long it has enormous ramifications for the next 100 years of interest in and the study of esoteric forms of knowledge. It challenges the reader to create a “new gematria” not using Hebrew, but English.

At the same time I was becoming interested in Thelema I met some other like minded individuals, one of whom was The Archetypal Theriomorph, and my late partner C. He and two other mages had recently developed a novel Gematria as a solution to the challenge posed by “The Book of the Law.” (BoL) I was so impressed with the power of their Gematria to behave as predicted by Thelemic prophesy, that I began to study it in earnest. It is, I think, to this day, unmatched in its power to link language and mathematics.

Perhaps the greatest attribute of the system is that the phrase “Six hundred and Sixty six” equals 0 (zero). And this is the most important omen of all. (We use “six hundred AND sixty six” because this is how Crowley wrote it.)

This is a prized correspondence, sought after for more than 100 years, and can only bring immense satisfaction and outright glee to those who care about the ramifications of a Gematria. Needless to say I was very taken by his success, When he passed away I was forever changed and decided to get a tattoo to honor his memory. The GON came to mind immediately, as it is one of his greatest achievement, in my mind.

For my tattoo I chose the seven pointed star of Babalon, because he made me feel and understand my own inner Babalon. In the center I placed his primordial equation, 666=0, beast=god, man=divinity or however you may choose to see it based on your particular lens for understanding. This correlation was one of his masterpieces. It collapses everything.

As it says in the BoL, “nothing is the secret key of this law” also. . .
“my number is 11 as all their numbers who are of us” . . .
Also “unite by thine art so that all disappear” . . .
In the GON:
Nothing = 11
Zero = 8
One = -8
Cosmos= 0
Will = 0

My tribute to it is a rather large tattoo covering most of my left hip.

-Daerice

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Hips, Stars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.