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777
and Other
Qabalistic Writings
of
Aleister Crowley
Including
Gematria
& Sepher Sephiroth
777 Revised
vel
prolegomena symbolica ad systemam
sceptico-mysticae viae explicandae,
fundamentum hieroglyphicum sanc-
tissimorum scientiae summae
A Reprint
of 777 with Much Additional
Matter by the Late
Editorial Preface
777
is a qabalistic dictionary of ceremonial magic, oriental mysticism,
comparative religion and symbology. It is also a handbook for
ceremonial invocation and for checking the validity of dreams and
visions. It is indispensable to those who wish to correlate these
apparently diverse studies. It was published privately by Aleister
Crowley in 1909, has long been out of print and is now practically
unprocurable.
Crowley, who had a
phenomenal memory, wrote it at Bournemouth in a week without reference
books--or so he claimed in an unpublished section of his "Confessions."
It is not, however, entirely original. Ninety per cent of the Hebrew,
the four colour scales, and the order and attribution of the Tarot trumps
are as taught in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn with its inner circle
of the Rose of Ruby and the Cross of Gold (R.R. et A.C.).
This Order is still in existence, though it has
changed its name and is dormant, for it no longer accepts
probationers. It was the fountain head from which Crowley and W. B.
Yeats drank in their twenties. In this school they learned the
traditional Western symbolism which coloured so much of their poetry and
their thought. In it they were taught ceremonial magic, how to skry,
and the technique for exploring the subtler realms of the mind on the
so-called "astral plane."
Crowley, however,
was not content with the traditional qabalistic
teaching of this Western Hermetic Order with its stress on magic and
demonology. He travelled eastwards, becoming a fair Arabic scholar and
studying the Mahommedan secret tradition under a qualified teacher in
Cairo. Going on to India he learned the elements of Shaivite Yoga at
the feet of Sri Parananda, who was Solicitor-General of Ceylon before he
became a sadhu. In Southern India he studied Vedanta and Raja Yoga
with "the Mahatma Jnana Guru Yogi Sabhapaty Swami." He was
thus qualified to equate the Hindu and Qabalistic
systems.
Allan Bennett, his friend and teacher in the Golden
Dawn, had become the Burmese Buddhist bhikkhu Ananda Metteya. Crowley
studied under him both in Ceylon and Burmah, and so was able to add the
Hinayana Buddhist columns to 777.
Although he walked eastwards into China he never found a qualified teacher
of Taoism or the Yi King. His attributions of the trigrams to the Tree
of Life and his explanation of the hexagrams in Appendix I to 777
were based on Legge's translation.
Crowley was only 32
when he wrote 777. Later as his
knowledge and experience widened he became increasingly dissatisfied with
it. He planned an enlarged edition which would correct a few errors,
incorporate much new material, and bring the whole into line with The
Book of the Law. He worked on this in the nineteen twenties, but
never completed it. What he did finish is published here--most of it
for the first time. The task of editing has been restricted for the
most part to the omission of incomplete notes.
The new material, which is marked with an asterisk
in the Table of Contents, consists of an
essay on the magical alphabet, a short note on Qabalah
and a new theory on number. Then the more important columns in Table I
are explained. These explanations include a few corrections and a
number of important additions to the original Table. Those who wish to
work with these Tables (pp. 2-36) should extract the additions from the
text, and add them to the appropriate lines of the columns concerned.
Finally, some new columns and "arrangements" have been included
partly from The Book of Thoth, and partly from holograph notes in Crowley's
own 777. The editor has assumed that
Crowley intended to incorporate these in the
new edition. For the few interested in Gematria the numerical values
of the Greek and Arabic alphabets have been added.
Crowley never
completed 777 Revised, but he left enough
material to justify its posthumous publication.
N .·.