Abrahadabra

This article is about the magic word. For the album by Dimmu Borgir, see Abrahadabra (album).

Abrahadabra is a word that first appeared in The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. Its author, Aleister Crowley, described it as "the Word of the Aeon, which signifieth The Great Work accomplished." This is in reference to his belief that the writing of Liber Legis (another name for "The Book of the Law") heralded a new Aeon for mankind that was ruled by the god Ra-Hoor-Khuit (a form of Horus). Abrahadabra is, therefore, the supreme magical formula of this new age. It is not to be confused with the Word of the Law of the Aeon, which is Thelema, meaning "Will".

Description

Crowley replaced the 'C' in "Abracadabra" with an 'H', which the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in their Neophyte ritual linked with Breath and Life as well as with the god Horus. Aleister Crowley had taken the place of Horus or the Hierus officer in the Golden Dawn's Neophyte ritual, which means that he personally gave the response explaining the meaning of the letter 'H'.

Crowley explains in his essay "Gematria" that he changed the magick word to include 'H' because of qabalistic methods. He appears to say that this happened before his January 1901 meeting with Oscar Eckenstein, one of his teachers. At this meeting, Eckenstein ordered Crowley to put aside magick for the moment, and to practice meditation or concentration. In "Gematria", Crowley says he took great interest in Abrahadabra, and its qabalistic number 418. In the Book of Thoth, Crowley refers to Abrahadabra as a 'cypher' of the Great Work.

The word "Abrahadabra" appears repeatedly in the 1904 invocation of Horus that preceded the writing of Liber Legis and led to the founding of Thelema. It also appears in a May 1901 diary that Crowley published in The Equinox.

The essay "Gematria" gives Hindu, Christian, and "Unsectarian" versions of the problem that Crowley intended this magick word to answer. He also gives a qabalistic equivalent for each phrasing, and a brief symbolic answer for each. The unsectarian version reads, "I am the finite square; I wish to be one with the infinite circle." Its equivalent refers to "the Cross of Extension" and "the infinite Rose." Crowley's numerological explanation of "Abrahadabra" focuses mainly on this last formulation and the answer to it.

"Abrahadabra" is also referred to as the "Word of Double Power". More specifically, it represents the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm—represented by the pentagram and the hexagram, the rose and the cross, the circle and the square, the 5 and the 6 (etc.), as also called the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of one's Holy Guardian Angel. In "Commentaries" (1996), Crowley says that the word is a symbol of the "establishment of the pillar or phallus of the Macrocosm...in the void of the Microcosm."

Mystical interpretations

Gematria

As with most things found in the mystical works of Aleister Crowley, the word "Abrahadabra" can be examined using the qabalistic method of gematria, which is a form of numerology, whereby correspondences are made based on numerical values.

• ABRAHADABRA = 418
• ABRAHADABRA has 11 letters
• ABRAHADABRA = 1+2+2+1+5+1+4+1+2+2+1 = 22
• The five letters in the word are: A, the Crown; B, the Wand; D, the Cup; H, the Sword; R, the Rosy Cross; and refer further to Amoun the Father, Thoth His messenger, and Isis, Osiris, Horus, the divine-human triad.
• Also 418 = ATh IAV, the Essence of IAO, translated from Hebrew as “Thou art IAO”
• 418 = BVLShKIN, or Boleskine
• 418 = RA HVVR, or Ra Hoor
• 418 = הרו-רא-הא‎, a Hebrew spelling of Heru-Ra-Ha
• 418 = ΑΙϜΑΣΣ, a Greek spelling of Aiwass
• 418 = The sum of all integers between 13 and 31 inclusive.
• Abrahadabra is from Abraxas, Father Sun, which = 365
• 418 = 22 x 19 Manifestation

Other

• "ABRAHADABRA is 'The key of the rituals' because it expresses the Magical Formulae of uniting various complementary ideas; especially the Five of the Microcosm with the Six of the Macrocosm."
• "Abrahadabra is the glyph of the blending of the 5 and the 6, the Rose and the Cross."

See also

• Aleister Crowley bibliography

References

Works cited

Primary sources

• Crowley, Aleister (Autumn 1910). "The Temple of Solomon the King". The Equinox. I (4). London: Privately printed – via Sacred-texts.com.
• Crowley, Aleister (1974). Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law. Montreal: 93 Publishing.
• Crowley, Aleister (1991). The Equinox of the Gods. New Falcon Publications. ISBN 978-1-56184-028-1.
• Crowley, Aleister (1996). The Law is for All. Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Publications. ISBN 1-56184-090-4.
• Crowley, Aleister (1996b). "Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers". The Equinox. IV (1). York Beach, Maine: S. Weiser.
• Crowley, Aleister (1997). Magick: Liber ABA, Book 4, Parts I-IV (2nd rev. ed.). Boston: Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-919-0.

Secondary sources

• Regardie, Israel (1989). The original account of the teachings, rites and ceremonies of The Golden Dawn (6th ed.). Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
• Sutin, Lawrence (2002). Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0312252434.

Other sources

• Thelemapedia. (2004). Abrahadabra. Retrieved April 16, 2006.

Further reading

• Crowley, Aleister (1973). 777 and other Qabalistic writings of Aleister Crowley. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-222-6.