A Commentary on Liber
XXVII
The 27 trigrams of Liber XXVII appear in four distinct sets; the triple Tao, the double Tao, the single Tao, and the eight trigrams with no Tao line at all. These groups exactly parallel the Four Worlds of the Hebrew Qabalah: Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. Their names mean emanation, creation, formation, and making. They are called the Archetypal World, the Creative World, the Formative World, and the Material World.
Atzilut is the divine world of the archetypes and exactly corresponds to the Zero trigram; it is the nought that informeth all things. The name for this figure is therefore Archetype. This word comes directly from the Greek Archetypos, which means the first model, form, or ideal. Its value in Greek gematria is 1606, which is 11 x 146.
Archetype means the first form, and this is the first trigram of the whole series, the one that informeth all the others. This Nothing is under three forms because it will expand into those dimensions as it creates, forms, and makes the four worlds. The architecture of the Universe is already inherent in this Nothing. This is symbolized in the fact that the word Archetype has a value of 81, the same as the word Nothing. When 81 is divided by 3, (representing 3 dimensions), the result is 27, the number of trigrams.
The next world is Briah, the world of Creation, and this word Creation equals 77, which is also the value of the words triangle and wisdom. Briah exactly parallels the set of six trigrams that constitute the vertexes of the octahedron matrix. These six trigrams display the six possible energy states of the three dimensions of space. That is, each line of the trigram is separately described as a Yang or a Yin, in isolation. This shows the potential of each level of space, and is in effect a description of a triangle, since the three lines of a trigram make up the three edges of a triangle. This triangle is only fully realized later, beginning with trigram 13, which is the result of the world of Creation.
The next world is Yetzirah, the Formative World. The name for this world is Formation, which equals 105, the same as the word night-stars. The Formative World contains all twelve trigrams attributed to the Zodiac constellations. While Briah has brought something (the Elements), out of Nothing (the Archetype), now Yetzirah brings something (the Zodiac), out of something else, (the Elements). This is shown by the fact that these twelve trigrams are all created by the combination of two Elemental trigrams. These are the trigrams that form the connections between the vertexes of the octahedron, and they derive their existence from the forms that constitute the Creative World.
The last of the Four Worlds is Assiah, the material world, or the World of Making. This corresponds to our normal physical universe. The idea of Making is the completion of the creative process, and the word Making has the value of 78, which is an important number in the Trigrammaton Qabalah, being a multiple of 13 and the antigram of 39. The Material World of Trigrammaton begins with trigram 13, and as Crowley puts it, this trigram symbolizes that material illusion begins.
The first of the Worlds is then inhabited by only one entity, the Archetype. The next three worlds are the architecture of the possible Universe; (that is, possible to human consciousness). These three are called Creation - 77, Formation - 105, and Making - 78. The total of these three names is 260, which is a multiple of 26, and as such it reflects the fact that there are 26 trigrams that inhabit these three Worlds. The reversed hexagram of 260 is 676, which equals 26 x 26.
Liber XXVII is at once both simple and complex, an equation of far-reaching proportions. One could never hope to exhaust its possibilities in a brief commentary.
But the journey of a thousand hexagrams begins by casting the first line.
Here is Nothing under its three forms. It is not yet informeth all things.
The Tao-Path is not the All-Tao. The Name is not the Thing
named.
The first trigram is the null set. It is nearly what is
called the 'qabalistic zero', except that it contains all the potential energy
of the Universe. For the purposes of theoretical qabalah, it has 3 forms. These
forms will either remain empty, and contain a Tao, or they will contain the
Yang and the Yin.
The Chinese scholars presumed that the levels of a trigram
represented Heaven above, Humanity in the middle, and Earth at the bottom. Thus
a trigram is approached from the bottom, with a sense of humility and
connectedness to nature. This is the
philosophical perspective.
From the mathematical perspective, the three forms represent the values of 1, 3, and 9, or to be more precise, 3 to the zero power, 3 to the first power, and 3 to the second power, for it is with exponential numbers that all graphing of quantities takes place. These should not be confused with the actual numbers 1, 3, and 9. They are only in potentia. When a Yang or Yin is present in them, then these potentials will become realized.
The pure Tao existed aloof and transcendent, except insofar as it had nothing to transcend. It is exactly equivalent to the old qabalistic notion of Atzilut, the World of Emanation, or Nobility.
Now cometh the glory of the Single One, as an
imperfection and stain.
As by tradition, the initial change occurs at the bottom.
This verse states that its trigram has the value of 1, verifying that the
trigrams are numbers expressed in Base 3.
This one is a 'stain', insofar as it creates a ripple in
the uniform fabric of the Universe, and the absolute continuity of Zero has
been abolished. The leap from nothing to something is inexplicable. The ARI
attempted to describe it as the Creator withdrawing from its plenitude, leaving
enough space for the universe to manifest within. The physicists describe it as
a great singularity, which existed before time and space, and simply exploded
in the Big Bang. But none of them have explained how, let alone why, this
happened.
In the progress to the number 1, the cosmos has expanded
(or contracted, as the case may be), into the next 'world', Briah the World
of Creation, the world where something comes from nothing. Now there is a
definite entity in existence, so that the ontology of Trigrammaton begins here.
It would be true to say that the One is only slightly less inscrutable than the Nought, and all that can be said of it is based on what happens afterwards.
But by the Weak One the Mother was it
equilibrated.
Yin must immediately complement Yang, for without balance
the Universe would not be stable. The concept of the antigram is thus
engendered immediately, for the function of the Mother is to 'equilibrate' the
imperfection of the Single One.
The capital
letters of this verse spell the word WOMB, for the Yin is the feminine.
Also the purity was divided by Strength, the
force of the Demiurge.
The purity is the undifferentiated Tao. It is divided in
the second position by a Yang line called Strength. This Yang manifests the
latent value of the number 3, and so this trigram is the foundation of the entire
Book.
The Demiurge is the Creator, mediating between the Divine
Absolute and the manifested world of experience. As the Tao Teh Ching has said,
the Three created the ten thousand things.
And the Cross was formulated in the Universe that as yet was not.
By the process of equilibration that has already been
established, this trigram must come next. It is the number 6, the antigram of
3. The chain of linear progress has been broken, and 4 does not follow 3.
Instead it is the number 6. The process must now be understood as non-linear.
The cosmos is not built up by simply adding singularity upon singularity. The
consequences of such addition soon reach out in all directions is what is known
as a 'geometric' acceleration.
But now the Imperfection became manifest,
presiding over the fading of perfection
The imperfection of the Single One is now capitalized, for it has reached into the very sphere of Heaven, and has realized the latent potential of the number 9. This trigram rises out of the plane created by the central Zero and the four corners of 1, 2, 3, & 6. Thus "the Pillar is 'stablished in the Void."
Also the Woman arose, and veiled
the Upper Heaven with her body of stars
Again the equilibrium is maintained by the appearance of
another antigram, the 18 as counterpoise to the 9. But this 18 has another
virtue: all of the previous trigrams can subdivide it into each other; they are
the divisors of the 18. This trigram completes the set of the Elemental glyphs
of Liber XXVII; and the sum of this group is 39, which in itself will subdivide
the two worlds that follow upon it.
The trigrams manifested so far represent all that is necessary to construct the fundamental polyhedra, the solids of Plato that are the building blocks of the cosmos. And they appear in their correct relationship to one another, for one may simply oppose 1 & 2, 3 & 6, 9 & 18, on opposite sides of a cube, and the corners and edges will have values that are sums of two or three of these most fundamental trigrams, until all the trigrams of this Holy Book are exhausted in their fullness, creating the Cube of Space.
A new realm is now entered into, the World of Yetzirah, or Foundation. All the trigrams that follow will fill in the gaps between the Elemental six.
Now then a giant arose, of terrible strength;
and asserted the Spirit in a secret rite.
The giant that arises is the number 4, and this number is
of terrible strength indeed, for it is the four elements, the four directions,
the four dimensions, the four letters of the ineffable name, and the four sides
of the pyramid. And the Spirit it asserts is hidden within it, the
Quintessence, the fifth who is invisible.
Likewise did the Chinese create a square diagram of the
universe and place their moving agent of Spirit in the middle of it, and so too
did the Christians insist that their Messiah had come like the letter of
Spirit, Shin, into the fourfold name of Yod He Vav He.
And the Master of the Temple balancing all
things arose;
his stature was above the Heaven and below Earth and Hell.
In the number five is the balance of all things found, as the Chinese understood, with their five notes, five phases, five planets, five directions, and five of almost everything. The strength of the giant cannot be immediately balanced by its antigram. Before this occurs, the fifth who is invisible must appear. Thus no longer will the antigrams occur side by side in the sequence of this Book.
The Master has balanced all things, for he is the first to contain within himself the Tao, Yang, and Yin, in the correct order of the hierarchy. And the proper place of the Tao is in Heaven, and the proper place of the One is within every Star, and the proper place of the Dyad is in the experiences of Earth.
Against him the Brothers of the Left-hand Path,
confusing the symbols.
They concealed their horror (in this symbol);
for in truth they were
But there are those who will attempt to go their own way,
insisting that the Dyad is in the heart of a star, and that the Earth is the
One. They will no more succeed in this than the mystic number 7 will succeed in
subdividing the circle. For the star of our Lady Nuit with its five points,
touches upon the circle of the infinite with her soft feet and lovely hands,
secret centre, heart & tongue. But the seven points of the star can never
resolve into a rational number, for they spin on and on into eternity with no
resolution of their conflict.
Truly they confused the
symbols, placing them in an order that is not balanced, and in doing so they
had shown themselves to be the opposite of the Magister Templi. But they
concealed their horror by claiming, Lo! We have set up the Tao as our divine
guide; while in truth they had set themselves over the Tao as if they had
transcended it.
The master flamed forth as a star and set a
guard of Water in every Abyss.
The Master, seeing this horror, set up a guard in the Abyss, so that the Brothers could not pass. In so doing, he equilibrated the giant of terrible strength, whose Fiery nature demanded Water as a counterpoise. Thus were all the Bigrams completed, which represent the numbers from 0 to 8.
Also certain secret ones concealed the Light of
Purity
in themselves, protecting it from the Persecutions.
For ages past, in the number 10, has the light of purity
been hidden. It is only in this Book that the concealment has been partially
unveiled, as the following trigram will tell us.
Here in the 10 the Tao is hidden in the center for the first time, just as the Pythagoreans knew that the first hiding of a central point is found in the Tetractys.
Likewise also did certain sons and daughters
of Hermes and of Aphrodite, more openly
But what they once called Virgin (to hide her adultery), all can now see is a divine whore with her legs spread open, ready to receive the seed and to produce the fruit of the Womb. Her number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us.
But the Enemy confused them. They pretended to conceal that Light
that they might betray it and profane it.
But again the Black Brothers insist on displacing the symbols, shutting up the Scarlet Woman with lies and falsehoods about the number 19, as if to insist that Allah insists that women are not the equal of men. But in this they were sadly mistaken. They pretended to keep the wisdom intact, but they continued to set up the Dyad over the Tao.
The Enemy was once again foiled by the wiles of woman, who understands that the spice must flow, that the word of Sin is restriction, and that the secret can be hidden in the open, as if there were no secret at all. These holy nuns are the whores that ride upon the Beast, and in their love-chant To Me, the flame of the hearts of all is called forth.
Now did the Horror of Time pervert all things,
hiding the Purity
with a loathsome Thing, a thing unnameable.
But the Tao can still not withstand the onslaught, and is dragged down into the sphere of the Earth. Where once it reigned, and then was concealed, now it is degraded, slowly, to the point of extinction.
In the 12 is the horror of Time found, its expression in the signs of the Zodiac, in the double hours of the day, in the years of the Chinese calendar. And all of these represent as a whole the group of 12 trigrams wherein the Tao is slowly extinguished, but in this one most of all is this horror expressed, for when the stars showed men how to mark time, inevitably demands were piled on them, one over another, until civilization had made them forget the nature of the Tao altogether.
Yea, and there arose sensualists upon the firmament,
as a foul stain of storm upon the sky.
But some were content to merely please the flesh, and pass their days in leisure. Instead of the Tao as their divine light, in balance, as the Magister had done, they chose to trample the Tao underfoot, and drink of the bitter wine they created. But these at least understood that no harm can come from mere sensual indulgence. It was only their ignorance of the Tao that stunted their development. But they did possess the virtue of not veiling their vices in virtuous words, as did the brothers of their antigram:
And the Black Brothers raised their heads; yea,
they unveiled themselves without shame or fear.
And at last the Black Brothers openly recognize their own nature. They have perverted the work of the Magister by turning it upside- down. They set up duality as supreme, refusing to let go of themselves, and instead subjugating the Tao to their will. For this is the 21, but the Brothers saw it as all things being part of them, yet they forgot the 18, and did not include themselves in the equation, and for this they will be forgotten.
Also there rose up a soul of filth and of
weakness,
and it corrupted a the rule of the Tao.
And thus was the final corruption of the Tao accomplished. For now it has reached its catastrophe. Yet from this turning point, the end of the world of Yetzirah, it will begin its rebirth, hidden behind an eightfold veil
Then only was Heaven established
to bear sway;
for only in the lowest corruption is form manifest.
And so the world of Assiah, the material world, is finally
created, by the agency of the eight Ba Gua of the I Ching. The purity of the Tao has been obliterated,
or, as a monk might say, it has gone into hiding when there is no need of it.
The pictograms of the natural processes follow, all of
which the sages of old have told you, time and again. Each generation pays
homage to their forefathers, yet understands anew the trigrams of the ancients.
The first of these trigrams, once called Heaven, is also
the brightest of them all:
Three shining lines of Yang. And thus it is the Sun, lord of the heavens.
Also did Heaven manifest in
violent light,
Ouranos, (whose name means Heaven) brought forth Cronus, the planet Saturn.
And in soft light.
And the solar-phallic Mercury was the one clinging to the Sun.
Then were the waters gathered
together from the heaven.
By Jove, the cloud-gatherer, grandson of Heaven.
And a crust of earth concealed
the core of flame.
The body of Nuit bends upon us, and her star is the pentagram of Venus.
Around the globe gathered the
wide air,
The atmosphere coalesces around the globe of Spaceship Earth.
And men began to light fires
upon the earth.
Arousing Mars, the lord of fire, who blasted the House of God.
Therefore was the end of it sorrow; yet in that
sorrow a sixfold star
of glory whereby they might see to return unto
the stainless Abode;
yea, unto the Stainless Abode.
The darkest of all trigrams is the pure feminine. Three
shadowy lines of Yin for the triple goddess of the Moon.
The 27th trigram is the final Lunar mansion, and by her reflected light may we see to return to the Stainless Abode of the Zero.