Golden Dawn

Golden Dawn essentially acted as a storehouse for certain categories of esoteric (Gnostic/Hermetic) wisdom, as well as a group that carried out rituals. Its members were prominent members of society, especially the intelligentsia.

## kabbalah

The kabbalah, qabala, "tree of life" has its roots in the Jewish mysticism tradition; it was then passed to the Gnostic/Hermetic tradition, Christianity, and Islam.

10 Sepirot : the ten aspects of God / "the absolute".

1. Crown
2. Wisdom
3. Understanding
4. Mercy
5. Severity
6. Beauty
7. Victory
8. Glory
9. Foundation
10. Kingdom

Each of the ten points is linked in a web by 22 paths, each associated with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and further mystic connotations (such as the 22 cards of Tarot or certain Astrological aspects).

## Gematria

Gematria (/ɡəˈmeɪtriə/; Hebrew: גמטריא or gimatria גימטריה, plural גמטראות or גימטריאות, gimatriot) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher which is used.

Hebrew alphanumeric ciphers were probably used in biblical times, and were later adopted by other cultures. Gematria is still widely used in Jewish culture. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures: the Greeks isopsephy, and later, derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria.

Although a type of gematria system ('Aru') was employed by the ancient Babylonian culture, their writing script was logographic, and the numerical assignations they made were to whole words. The value of these words were assigned in an entirely arbitrary manner and correspondences were made through tables, and so cannot be considered a true form of gematria. Aru was very different from the gematria systems used by Hebrew and Greek cultures, which used alphabetic writing scripts. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria; Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria. There is currently no academic consensus over whether Hebrew gematria or Greek isopsephy was used first.

Gematria sums can involve single words, or a string of lengthy calculations. A well-known short example of Hebrew numerology that uses a gematria cipher is the word חי chai (lit. "alive"), which is composed of two letters that (using the assignments in the Mispar gadol table shown below) add up to 18. This has made 18 a "lucky number" among the Jewish people. Donations of money in multiples of 18 are very popular.

In early Jewish sources, the term "gematria" can also refer to other forms of calculation or letter manipulation, for example atbash.

### Methods[edit]

#### Standard encoding[edit]

In the standard (*Mispar hechrechi*) version of *gematria*, each letter is given a numerical value between 1 and 400, as shown in the following table. In the *Mispar gadol* variation, the five final letters are given their own values, ranging from 500 to 900. It is possible that this well-known cipher was used to conceal other more hidden ciphers in Jewish texts. For instance, a scribe may discuss a sum using the 'standard gematria' cipher, but may intend the sum to be checked with a different secret cipher.

## Gallery

10 aspects of Kabbalah3 orders of the Golden DawnKaballah & AstrologyKaballah & Astrology, 2Kaballah and Tarot cards