Without going too much into explication of the history of EQ, I’m a second-hand witness and Cath Thompson has covered all that wonderfully in her books, alongside the relevant publications by Jim Lees and JSK, I think it’s probably about time to define the core tools for the EQ cipher in some kind of useful and comprehensible form. So I won’t bother justifying these techniques, I’ll just get straight to application.
The functional literary resources that I find most useful in my practical EQ work are The Magickal Language of the Book of the Law and The Numbers & The Words, both by Cath Thompson, the first outlining the various methods of EQ and containing a lexicon of single-word values from Liber Al, the second being Liber Al itself with enumeration throughout for each word, for many important fragments, and for each full verse. Without those, and with the methods described below and a copy of the book of the law, you can still perform your own investigations with a lot of work, but with them, while there’s still a lot of work to do, you have references against which to check your calculations, and the fundamental lexicon. Moving beyond that, and covering tools like the AMEN tables below as well as the more operational or sorcerous applications of EQ, the best resources from JSK are his Liber 187: The Serpent Tongue, and Thus Spake Magnus Dictus. This list can be supplemented greatly with their other works, and with the TNE/BJM edited by Jim Lees and reprinted by Hadean Press.
An important note is that EQ always works by reference to scripture - the Book of the Law first and foremost. One of the great wonders of EQ is that as the magician conducts their ongoing enquiry into the nature of creation through the application of these methods, their lexicon, while built around the book of the law, will develop and expand a secondary collection of their own magical vocabulary. As with other matters of esoteric interpretation, it’s wise to remember that these lessons are for oneself, and may appear to conflict entirely with other coherent dialogues by other Thelemites. Truth is always relative to medium and environment. Equally it pays to be careful and selective in the creation of that lexicon, and not to fall prey to the dizzying intoxication of running too gleefully around the infinite web of possible numerical relationships. Exploit subjectivity carefully to build a rational enquiry intelligently. Move with intention.
Anyway.
The EQ Order of the English Alphabet
The cipher works with our usual alphabet order (A-Z) by moving in jumps of 11, a fundamental and important number in Thelema: so beginning with A(=1) we take eleven steps to L(=2), eleven more to W(=3), etc, until we have completed a circuit of all twenty-six letters and arrived back at A.
The complete EQ order produced by the application of cipher 11 is as follows:
Two further modes of encipherment are possible within the core methods of EQ, the first is a magical language derived from EQ called Wakanaba, from which we can derive syllables, words, names, mantras, etc, for use within our magical work.
Wakanaba
Wakanaba reverses the process of conversion from letters into numbers, reconverting resulting figures into letters and using a simple scheme to make pronounceable syllable units. The rules for Wakanaba, as with all the techniques of EQ, are derived from the Book of the Law by various levels of enquiry, including the application of other EQ methods.
Experienced Thelemic students will recognise the importance of the letter combinations Al and La (AL/LA and LA/AL) even in analyses which predate the EQ cipher, and this combination provides the basis of extension for all vowels in the English alphabet towards speakable units. So any time we encounter a vowel in our conversion of numbers to letters, we follow it with the letter L to make a word unit: the letter A becomes AL, O becomes OL, etc. When we encounter the letter L(2), we tend to add the letter A, making LA, to create our speakable syllable. The purpose of the extension of single letters into Wakanaba units becomes obvious when we’re dealing with numbers that create strings of either consonants or vowels which are normally unpronounceable.
When dealing with consonants other than L we use a system derived from the letter order of the EQ cipher to assign vowels, following the table below:
Following the table, when we encounter consonants, we can combine them with the vowel found at the end of the row (WA, YO, GU, TI, ZE, etc) to create our word-syllables for the generation of names, mantras, and word sigils as we’ll see later. When constructing words and phrases, consider modification with Wakanaba extension to be the norm, but still optional. When letters already work well together, or if you want to preserve meter in your mantras for example, the extensions may be added or dropped according to preference. This has the added benefit of further obscuring your original English and associated number values, just as it generates new ones.
Theban Script
The second further mode of encipherment is the use of a magical script. Unlike Wakanaba this is always decipherable with a key or enough material and effort, being a simple substitution of single symbol for single letter. For a few reasons, some sentimental, some traditional, some original and magical, and some just amusing, the script I and my colleagues prefer is Theban (or the Witch’s Alphabet).
Like most of the traditional magical alphabets, in its original form it does not provide a complete one-for-one substitution with the English alphabet, some of our letters being clustered in groups under single symbols (u/v/w for example). We intuit a precedent within the traditional Theban alphabet for the use of simple radicals to alter these symbols, allowing for a complete Theban script of twenty-six symbols, directly corresponding with the English alphabet standard.
Our Theban alphabet is as follows:
With these methods covered we can now move on to the methods of Gematria which the OAA under Jim Lees derived from the text of Liber Al.
Gematria
1: Value Correspondence
Gematria begins with the calculation of word values by adding the value of each letter according to the EQ order to create the sum of the word. Having done so, using our own lexicon or that found in The Magickal Language of the Book of the Law, and any further records of numeric correspondence and significance available to us, we can gain insight into the basic nature of the form beneath the image. We always refer to the values and words which occur in the Book of the Law first, adding our own personal lexicon as a secondary layer of interpretation.
A derivative of this technique for use when dealing with values greater than is meaningful for normal analysis comes from traditional (Hebrew derived) magical Qabala and is called Theosophic Addition or Reduction. To make a value more manageable, add the individual digits of a value together to create a smaller number. This process can be repeated as many times as necessary, until a number within the range of words, fragments, or phrases from Liber Al, the values of the alphabet, or an integer under ten is achieved. This method has variable usage, only really being employed when the numbers aren’t yielding much to the usual methods.
2: First and Last Letter Values
When dealing with a phrase or fragment, or any other combination of two or more words, the first letter of each word can be added together and some insight gained from the result for how the motion or process indicated by the phrase or fragment will begin. Doing the same thing with the last letter of each word speaks to how the process will end.
3: Finding the Reward
Having found our principle word or phrase value and established the scope of its action, we need a perspective on its product. We call this the reward, and discover it by reversal of the number we’re working with (23=32, 19=91, etc).
4: Counting Well
Counting Well applies specifically to combinations of two words. At this level, there is a shorthand process to derive a single number value. As we shall see below, this can be extrapolated into a word square system with a variety of practical magical applications. Counting Well can be described by the symbol % placed between the two words.
To Count Well, first calculate the value of each of the two words. Multiply the value of the first word by the number of letters in the second, and vice versa, and then add the two figures together. The result gives us a clue to the nature of the unit created by the combination of these words, and by use of Wakanaba can give new magical names for these concepts. The generation of new principles by the combination of two components indicates that always in synthesis new principles deviate from (or in dialectic language exceed) those components.
5: Finding the Expression
Adding 34 to any value tells us the expression (or Word) of that thing - how it will be expressed. Equally, subtracting 34 tells us which principle is expressing the value that we’re investigating.
6: Letter Sequencing
Building up a word letter by letter and checking each set of values as we go (1st letter+2nd letter=a, a+3rd letter=b, b+4th letter=c, etc). This gives an indication of the process of manifestation of the principle expressed by the word. In EQ, everything is radical, dynamic, and relational.
7: Component Units
This technique is similar to that above, but looks within the sequences of letters that make up any given word, starting on any letter and being any length, but which rather than being an abstract combination like FA is a functional word like ART. This tells us something about the nature of the composition of the word we are investigating.
8: Unity and Division
This tells us about the boundary between any two words or concepts. Having obtained two number values we subtract the smaller from the larger. What remains is the boundary between them, at which they interact: the thing which both separates and unites these two principles, the point at which they are reactive.
9: Scriptural Context
Finally, for words which occur in Liber Al or other proven scripture, analysing their context within that scripture places that concept in its relationship to the expressions of the gods themselves.
Sorcery
The following sorcery techniques are taken from JSK’s work, and it’s unclear to what extent the work of his own magical group or the OAA contributed to their development. Only two meetings between the two groups are on record, though they were obviously important. That they certainly did have a bearing and influence is clear, but Jake’s ferocious and independent nature in his work is of course one of his more notable qualities.
1: Wakanaba Squares
Aside from more traditional ways of creating Magic Squares which still function wonderfully in EQ, and which Jake has laid out in Liber 187 in some depth along with other very elegant technological derivations, one method in particular is worth outlining here, which derives from the Counting Well technique.
Taking your two words (or for example a single god name twice), compose a grid (which may be a rectangle and not a square) with one word across the top and one down the side. Working along each row, fill in the grid squares by adding the value of the letter at the top of that column to that of the letter at the beginning of the row. Once you have your number grid, you can use the cipher to convert them back to letters, Wakanaba to construct chants or invocations from those letters, you could derive sigils from the square, use the square talismanically or ritually, or employ it as part of a great many other techniques.
2: Mantra, Names, Sigilisation
Wakanaba and the various degrees of numerical investigation and encipherment hold a lot of obvious potential for the creation of magical names, words, chants, invocations, and sigilised intentions. Letters converted into numbers or Theban symbols, or arranged on magical squares, can be used to generate sigil images for almost any magical or particularly talismanic usage.
3: Spontaneous Correspondence
In the times when long tables of correspondence aren’t immediately to hand, or when items available aren’t listed in those sources, quick reference to numerical correspondence by EQ analysis can provide all sorts of ways to intergrate or resolve materia (or really any thing which is expressive in either word or number) in our practice. This kind of exploration and extension of magic is to be encouraged in preference to adopting overly complex historical systems. The mutability and subjectivity of interaction with EQ is much of the point IMO.
4: The AMEN Tables
The AMEN tables are for the allocation of sets of names to four worlds, which can then be assigned quarterly, elementally, or used in combination as words of power in the creation of talismans or spoken spellwork. The combination reflects a process of movement or creation, rather than a set of traditional correspondences, and investigations should reveal that where there are apparently surprising combinations, as ever in Thelema that which divides also unites, and thereby is the dynamism preserved in creation.
Typically we read names across rows of the two tables below. If working with a planet then use the four names from its row in spells and formulae, or do the same with the elements in the second table. The utility of these names is broad, so an exploration of the deeper implications in Jake’s work is worthwhile.
Planetary Table:
Elemental Table:
Resources
For information regarding further context, convention, records of correspondences, more advanced derivative methods, and integrated ritual applications of EQ techniques, please see Cath, Jake, and Jim Lees’ publications from Hadean. With regard to basic skills and concepts, and their histories and justifications, it’s the TNE/BJM edited by Jim Lees (and Cath Thompson), The Magickal Language of the Book of the Law by Cath herself, and Liber 187 by JSK.
In the absence of these resources, and particularly the lexicon and values found in The Magickal Language of the Book of the Law, the first necessary task is to enumerate Liber Al. Without those resources though there’s little context as to why these techniques exist without having to extrapolate it all yourself, and proceeding like that would be dumb.
