GEMATRIA - THE MIssInG KEy

Masonry and the Cabala

The most comprehensive exposition of Literal Cabala

published by a Freemason is, The Canon (1897). William
Stirling, the author of this work makes it plain that
Freemasonry has a deep interest in the Kabbalah:
' (Qabalah) . . . formed an important
part of the Masonic traditions, and
undoubtedly contains the nearest
approach to a direct revelation of the
ancient canonical secrets of the old
world;' (1)

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We are also informed that the Brotherhood in its higher

degrees is deeply concerned with the cabala. Albert Mackey,
in the authoritative Encyclopedia of Freemasonry , asserts
that cabala is, " . . . intimately connected with the symbolic
science of Freemasonry," (2). He goes on to say that:
Much use of it is made in the advanced
degrees, and entire rites have been
constructed on its principles. Hence it
demands a place in any general work
on Freemasonry.

More recently, Thomas D. Worrel spelled out, in a paper

delivered to the Allied Masonic Degrees Britannia Lodge
#303, where in Masonry the Cabala is mainly to be found:
Some of our rites have obvious
kabbalistic influence, such as the 28th
degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish rite which is called: "The
Knight of the Sun". (3)

Albert Pike is yet another well-respected Mason avowing the

central place of cabala within the craft. He wrote: "Masonry is
a search after Light. That search leads us directly back, as you
see, to Kabalah" (4). He also confirmed for us that Kabalah
lies at the heart of Masonic cryptography, "All the Masonic
associations owe to it their Secrets and Symbols" (5). Pike
seems o have regarded Knight of the Sun as an
extraordinarily important degree, for he devoted no less than
219 pages of Morals and Dogma to an exposition of it - far,
far more than to any of the other degrees (6). The largest
single chunk of this chapter is taken up by fifteen pages of a
'Lecture of the Kabalists'. This starts in the form of a
'Masonic question and answer ritual', concerning the
numerical mysteries of the cabala, and is prefaced by the
words, 'Omnia in numeris sita sunt' - 'Everything lies veiled
in numbers' (7).
Pike tells us that not only is cabala 'the key of the occult
sciences', but that this key turns on the secret science of
numbers - a big hint about the nature of Masonic cryptology.
Brother Thomas Worrel is more explicit than Pike about how
cabalistic numerology is employed in practical terms as a

cryptic technique, and cites another eminent Freemason in

his exposition (8):
Gematria is basically exploring the
inner meaning of mystical writings
and scriptures by use of numerology.
The way it is used is by interchanging
letters of special names, phrases, and
passages with their numerical
equivalent. This is only done with the
ancient languages of Hebrew, Greek,
Latin, and Arabic. It is thought that
the ancient writers were adept at
hiding the initiatic wisdom in this
fashion. Paul Foster Case (1884 1954), a writer, occultist, and
Freemason, explains it thus:
Gematria is based on the idea that
words having the same value, have
correspondences in meaning (9).

The Magical Language is a mode of

cryptic writing used to preserve and
transmit the practical secrets of the
Western Tradition of Ageless Wisdom.
It is an artificial language, combining
Hebrew, Greek and Latin elements.
Its outstanding characteristic is that
the letters of the three alphabets it
employs serve also as numbers.
Consequently, every word, phrase, or
sentence is also a number, the sum of
the values of the letters (10).
We can see that the artificial language used by the ancient
writers to conceal their initiatic secrets was essentially a
language of numbers hidden from view, beneath the words,
by means of gematria. Gematria is a viable cryptographic
technique - and one of fundamental concern to the higher
levels of Freemasonry. Some Freemasory's most enduring
secrets are thereby hidden.
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A Big Secret

One indicator that we are dealing with a big secret here is the
fact that Paul Foster Case's book is strictly off-limits to the
general public. When I enquired about buying a copy with the
publishers, Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), they informed
me that it was only available to members of their
organization - and only those who had served a fifteen year
probationary period. This is extraordinary caution.
Clearly there are secrets of great significance revealed in Mr
Case's exposition of 'the magical language' of gematria.
At first glance, the secrecy is also rather curious, since there
are a good number of books openly published on the subject
of gematria, some of which are evidently written by
Freemasons. The Canon by "William Stirling" is a prime
example. We also find that John Michell, who is the modern
editor of The Canon, has written a number of excellent books
on the subject: The View Over Atlantis, City of Revelation,
The Dimensions of Paradise, etc. Additionally, there are
works examining Hebrew gematria, such as S.L. MacGregor
Mather's The Kabbalah Unveiled and those concerned with
Greek gematria, like David Fideler's Jesus Christ Sun of God
and Kieran Barry's The Greek Qabalah.

An example currently displayed online comes courtesy of the

J.J. Crowder Masonic lodge in California.
There are some Masonic researchers
who think that the letter G
represents . . . gematria . . . Exploring
this technique of letter-number
substitution, one looks for words,
names, and phrases that add up to like
values. Like values are thought to have
meaningful relationships. For
example, the Hebrew word for
heaven (ha-shamayim) has the same
gematria value as the word for soul
(neshamah); that is, 395, derived by
adding up each letter to arrive at a
total. The Qabalist would say this
means that the soul is identical with
heaven.
This exegetical technique can be used
with both the Hebrew scriptures and
the Greek Christian scriptures. There
are other texts that have been found to
contain hidden gematria in Latin and
Arabic, as well. From the practice of
gematria have arisen extremely
interesting techniques, which reveal a
type of spiritual Geometry hidden
within the Scriptures. (11)

The crux of the matter here, as Sherlock Holmes noted in the

dog that didn't bark in the night, is that something is missing.
There has been no credible work ever published on the
subject of Latin gematria. We are informed that the subject
exists and that it is important, but nowhere is it expounded.
Why not? The reason for this omission hinges on the fact that
gematria is not confined simply to the ancient
languages, as the brethren would have us believe, but also
extends to the modern European languages which are based
on Roman (Latin) script. Some of the greatest secrets of
Freemasonry are hidden in the gematria coding of these
languages - not least of which is English.
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Nothing Is Missing But The Key

The really big secret is the key: the actual code used. It
appears never to have been published and probably so for the
reason that any Mason letting the cat out of the bag might
expect to have his tongue cut out at the root, his beating heart
plucked from his chest and his guts drawn painstakingly
through his ears and burnt to ashes before his all-seeing eyes.
How can we find this code?

Like all the mysteries of Freemasonry, finding the key is a

matter of following a trail of clues. We saw above that the
Masonic degree most closely associated with numerical
cabala, or gematria, is the 28th degree in the Scottish Rite:
'Knight of the Sun'. If we wish to find out a little more about
this degree we can go to Albert Mackey's History of
Freemasonry. Here, he tells us that, "Knight of the Sun . . . in
its original ritual is a mere condensation of Rosicrucian
doctrines."(12) This is interesting. He then goes on to put the
point more forcefully with the words, "There is not in the
wide compass of Masonic degrees, one more emphatically

Rosicrucian than this." Mackey seems quite clear about this,

and not in the least bit allegorical.
What does he mean by this term 'Rosicrucian', and where
does it lead? He elaborates when he tells us that Henry
Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, ". . .
may be considered as the text book of the old Rosicrucian
philosophy." (13) It is in Agrippa's esoteric compendium,
published in 1531, that we find the key. The second book of
this tome is devoted to numbers and mathematical magic:
the eighteenth chapter gives the gematria code of Greek, the
nineteenth chapter gives that of Hebrew and the twentieth
gives the code of Roman script languages, such as English.
Eureka! We've found it!
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The Missing Key

(* 'Hi' is an obsolete letter)

The Right Key?

How can we be sure that Agrippa's key is the right key? Once
again our Masonic writers confirm it for us. "William
Stirling" drops a hint like a ripe plum on page 153 of The
Canon when he likens the Greek Orpheus to Jesus Christ:
" . . . the name has the value
of 1275 . . . in the earliest efforts of
Christian Art, it is not uncommon to
find Christos depicted playing upon a
lyre in the fashion of Orpheus. No
reason is known for this singular
impersonation, but the number 1275,
deduced from the name Orpheus,
suggests the reason why the two gods
had a similar identity."

The number 1275 in no way suggests any reason why Christos

should have a similar identity to Orpheus - at least not until
we count the name 'Jesus Christ' by Agrippa's code. If we do,
we find the letter values of his name sum as: 600 + 5 + 90 +
200 + 90 + 3 + 8 + 80 + 9 + 90 + 100 = 1275. It is quite clear
that "Stirling" is alluding to Agrippa's code, and it is equally
clear from the veiled nature of his reference that it must
constitute an initiation secret of high degree Freemasonry.
Now we have the key, we can turn it - and begin to unlock the
thesaurus of King Solomon's Temple.

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Footnote: Revealing the secrets of Freemasonry

Notes

1) William Stirling, The Canon - An Exposition of the Pagan Mystery Perpetuated in the
Cabala as the Rule of all the Arts, London, 1897, - modern ed., The Garnstone Press,
London, 1974, p.39.
2) Albert Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Vol. I, p. 166.
3) Thomas D. Worrel, 'A Brief Look at the Kabbalah', A Paper presented to the Allied
Masonic Degrees Britannia Lodge #303, March 3, 1996 (see - http://millvalley.freemasonry.biz/worrel/kabbalah.htm)
4) Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry,
Charleston, 1871, p. 741.
5) Pike, p. 744.
6) Pike, pp. 581-800.
7) Pike, pp. 626-642
8) Worrel, op. cit.
9) Paul Foster Case (Anon.), Gematria: The Magical Language, Builders of the Adytum,
Los Angeles, 1988, p. 1.
10) Foster Case, ibid., p.7
11) See http:\\mastermason.com/jjcrowder/threedegrees/threedegrees.htm
12) Albert Mackey, The History of Freemasonry, 1881, modern ed. Gramercy Books,
Random House, 1996, p.353.
13) Mackey, History of Freemasonry, p.350.

Peter Bull 2004-2015

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