The Divine Geometry

©2004 by Ian Axir. All rights reserved.

This is the process by which an idea takes on manifestation from the formless into the physical world.  An idea starts with nothing, continues on to reflection, measure.  An idea may be conceptualized as a three dimensional symbol.  An idea may also be imagined as any physical object in the material world.  Every object in the material world is composed of 3 dimensions.   Therefore the immediate benefit of understanding the process involves the concept of balance and structuralization of the formless into form.  To exist in the physical world the idea must be equilibrated by opposites (the two pillars Jachin and Boaz associated with the Tree of Life) at each level as it progressed down sephiroth on the Tree of Life into physical manifestation.  At each sephira it gathers the qualities necessary to exist in the physical world.  Every object has a three dimensional shape, color, texture (associated with the sense of sight), a sound (hearing), texture (touch), taste, and smell that is associated with it.

    A magick ritual is simply a means of concentrating on ideas associated with a particular object.  Some objects or ideas are actually tied to philosophical concepts (so it is possible to relate philosophical concepts to colors - example the female is represented by the black side of the yin/yang because she is space, a dark womb, her qualities are receptivity whereas the male sperm is white, his nature is out-going the concepts of male/female can be further related to existential principles (Chokmah/Binah; Jachin/Boaz; Nuit/Hadit; Isis/Osiris, etc.) as I have demonstrated) concepts in fact there is a way to categorize any in existence in one of the sephira. At the simplest level the exercise of geometric shapes confers the practitioner with greater powers of concentration. 

    Because all objects in the universe are in affect shapes it enables him to visualize his desires with greater precision.  In fact the use of color (robe, elemental tools, flashing colors); shape (geometric shapes), sound, texture, scent (incense, perfume, tobacco, etc.), taste (cakes of light, sacrament, etc.) can be used to plant an idea into the subconscious mind by keeping the magician focused on the object of his desire throughout the visualization (a spell; you are simply 'spelling' thoughts which are words in one sense).  The diverse elements that go to make up the ritual correspond to a particular idea, quality or philosophical concept associated with a sephira or path on the Tree of Life.

    To put it simply one banishes all distractions and ideas that have nothing to do with the goal (Lesser Banishing ritual for negative distractions; Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram for Positive, planetary disturbances) and creates and environment where one can devote all one's attention to the object at hand.  Any color or shape that helps the magician (like a self hypnotic trigger) to re-focus his attention on the goal will serve (anything that will cause him to loose focus should be banished).  We all know that there are particular colors and scents that remind us of a particular time or place, person, or idea.  Wearing a pair of jeans can make us feel different than when we feel when we wear a three piece suit (robe).  Objects that we associate with specific ideas can be used to reawaken the same ideas anew with considerably less effort because, each time one uses the technique one re-enforces the idea in the unconscious mind.  If nurtured properly, it will in due season, grow to bear fruit (and perhaps take on a life of it's own independent of it's creator much like a child, or a robot, or even an artificial intelligence program (an agent or artificial programmer)).  The unconscious tends to be most receptive and fertile to abstract symbols and mathematics so that it is most effective to incorporate geometric symbols for this reason (remember we are planting an idea; see The Formula of the Invisible Sun, Duality, Ego and "The Devil" and Metaphysica). Abstract geometry can also be used for mystical, rather than magickal, creative ends, in order to help one to transcend Duality.  Also, be aware if you haven't already guessed that the idea is a moon child. By bringing the idea through all the planes on the tree of life equilibrating the idea on each side by male and female polarities.  Anotherwords, you are embodying an idea giving it a body and bringing it into life on each of the planes - Spiritual (Atziloot), Mental (B'ri-yah), Astral (Yetzirah), and finally Physical (Ahssiah).   Notice that there is are three sephira on each of the planes to harmonize, or balance the idea (with the exception of the Physical plane were the idea manifests. This is the reason that an idea must travel down the Middle Pillar being balanced on both sides by the Pillars of Severity and Mercy as it comes to life on each of planes of existence.

    As I have demonstrated certain concepts, archetypes have become a part of the collective unconscious of the human race and these are often used as correspondences in magick ritual because they have proven to be affective for a great many people.  Particularly, because many of them are patterned on mathematics (a universal language), science and common sense.  However each magician will also have a few of his own personal correspondences (that apply to only himself; and perhaps a few to his soulmate) in his magical arsenal. 

    By analogy a computer programmer reuses code written written as object or function written by other programmers as building blocks for his own program, or application.  This is similar to the carpenter that gets his board, nails, ready made doors, windows, etc. from the factory rather than making them himself which would not be practical.  Each object can be described in terms of properties for instance a common button in a windows computer program has a particular size property which is composed of the sub-properties height and width, in addition the button has a color property, and perhaps a caption property (a caption can be any message in the button such as "Ok", "Cancel", "Yes", etc.) so that every time a programmer needs a button in his program he simply creates an instance of the button from a blue print of the object called a class rather than making it from scratch himself which is similar would be similar to the carpenter casting his own nails, cutting his own trees, making his own glass for the windows, etc.

    A class describes the objects properties and methods - what an object can do, events - how the object informs the programmer that something has happened to it).  The class is similar to the cookie cutter that shapes or limits the dough into the particularly shaped cookie (remember in this case we are structuring, limiting, the limitless (formless) into a particular form (shape).  It's that simple! (YES I AM A PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER PROGRAMMER - Asm, C/C++/C#, VB, JAVA, BASIC...).  The class has methods which are simply what the object can do.  A button can be pushed, resized, etc.  When something happens to the object the programmer needs to respond to the "event" in code.

    An event is something that happens to the object that the programmer needs to know about.  For instance if you press a button the program gets redirected to a piece of code called a function.   A function can be one that you write yourself or that you re-use.  An object can contain many functions or methods.  For instance the user presses a button, this generates the click event, the code sees the event and responds to it.  The programmer writes instructions so that the computer pops up a message in a window when the user presses the button.  The code could also change the color property of the button for instance using a method called change color which simply sets the buttons color property equal to a number that represents a specific shade of color (how much RGB, RED, GREEN, BLUE,  on a scale of 0 to 255). What I am saying here is that qabalistic magick, or magick in general offers a means of programming the universe in much the same manner that we program computers (if you doubt it read a book on object oriented programming).  Remember everything in a computer program ultimately breaks down to machine language which is simply composed of one's and zero's (1111000011010101010111010101 etc.). 

    The Taoist have a system that is very similar in nature to binary.  Because the intrinsic qualities of yin/yang, 0/1 are fundamental to all creation, they are the building blocks of the universe. The I Ching is an ancient oracle based on the dualistic forces in the universe - Yin/Yang, Male/Female, Light/Dark whose interaction produce life, experience and conscious awareness to put it briefly the combination of line ___ the Male and __   __   broken line representing the Female is a depiction of how things arise in time and space.It is for this reason that the I Ching or "Book of Changes" may be use not only for divinatory purposes but, to in affect program the universe using a system of binary.  Note how this corresponds to the cross (see The Formula of the Sun).

    In qabalistic magick the Tarot is implemented in the same fashion.  The card the The Fool is numbered Zero, while the card The Magician is numbered as One, represents the One implementing it's consciousness in a Zero, Circle, Space.   (Remember The One is a Point of View in Space, the Observer, in the Midst of the Observed, Zero expressing itself in the Form of Two, Duality)

   Binary numbers work by turning bits on or off.  Each bit has a value that is an exponent of 2^X (2 to the power of X).  Reading right to left bits 7 - 0 have the following values 2^7 = 128, 2^6 = 64, 2^5 = 32, 2^4 = 16, 2^3 = 8, 2^2 = 4, 2^1 = 2, 2^0 = 1.  Notice that two to the power of zero is equal to one (and there is the equation 2 = 0 again).  By adding up the bits that are on we can get any value from 0 to 255. Example - 10000001 = 129 (Bits 7 and 0 are one so we add the value of bit 7 (2^7 = 128) and bit 0 (2^0 = 1) to get 129; 128 + 1 = 129.  Example two - 10000011 = bit 7 (2^7 = 128), bit 1 (2^1 = 2), and bit 0 (2^0) = 1; 128 + 2 + 1 = 131.

    Now lets look at the I Ching again taking triagrams (symbols with three lines) the numbers right to left as bits, the rightmost bit being the top line in the trigram we get the following values (simply rotate the trigram clockwise:

Dragon   = 111 = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7
Earth     =  000 = 0 + 0 + 0 = 0
Lake      = 110  = 4 + 2 + 0 = 6
Fire        =  101 = 4 + 0 + 1 = 5
Thunder  =  100 = 4 + 0 + 0 = 4
Wind      =  011 = 0 + 2 + 1 = 3
Water     =   010 = 0 + 2 + 0 = 2
Mountain =  001 = 0 + 0 + 1 = 1

or we can flip the triagram counterclockwise for:

Dragon   = 111 = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7
Earth     =  000 = 0 + 0 + 0 = 0
Lake      =  011  = 0 + 2 + 1 = 3
Fire        =  101 = 4 + 0 + 1 = 5
Thunder  =   001 = 0 + 0 + 1 = 1
Wind      =  110  = 4 + 2 + 0 = 6
Water     =   010 = 0 + 2 + 0 = 2
Mountain =  100 = 4 + 0 + 0 = 4

The following is based on the Naples Arrangement from Crowley's - 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley (39):

0) No-thing, space, Nuit

1) A point in space, Hadit, Sun (Kether)

2) Extension of a point into a line (Wand, Phallus).   One reflects itself upon the mirror of the mind.  1 reflecting 1 is 11 or 1+1 = 2 (Chokmah)

3) A third point allows for the measurement of distance between two points creating a two-dimensional plane or triangle, Vagina, Saturn (Binah)

NOTE: That the conjunction between 2 and 3 is 9 in that it represent the Moon reflecting the Sun in Kether.

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The Abyss: between Ideal and Actual (Da'ath)

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4) A fourth point brings the shape into the third dimension as a solid, matter, a pyramid, Jupiter (Chesed)

5) Motion, Pentagram, Mars (Geburah)

6) Consciousness, Phallus, Hexagram, Sun(Tipharet)

7) Points Idea of Bliss, Love, Venus (Netzach)

8) Points Idea of Knowledge (Hod)

9) Points Idea of Being - Mirror, Mind. The Sun, consciousness reflects on Being in the mirror of the mind the Moon (Yesod)

10) Points Idea of Itself fulfilled in its compliments 7,8, and 9, Earth (Malkuth)

Sight	Sound	Touch	Taste	Scent

Bibliography

Crowley, Aleister. 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley.York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1997.