Ordo Templi Orientis

A Note on Genesis

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This is an esoteric essay in the Western occult tradition, specifically Hebrew Qabalah (Kabbalah), presented with an editorial preface likely by Aleister Crowley, who frames it as the posthumous work of a revered teacher. The essay's central project is a numerological and Qabalistic analysis of Genesis 1:1 — the seven Hebrew words of "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" — arguing that the verse encodes hidden divine, magical, and cosmological formulae beyond its surface meaning. The author proceeds by treating Number as the supreme science, through which hidden meanings are extracted: 0 represents the Ain Soph (infinite nothingness before creation), 1 the All-Father, 2 the dual feminine principle, 3 the creative Trinity, and 4 the point of material manifestation — with each number cross-referenced across Hebrew, Greek, Hindu, and Zoroastrian traditions to demonstrate their universal equivalence. A distinctive feature is the author's confident synthesis of multiple symbolic systems — Tarot, geometry, the Tetragrammaton, Pythagorean mathematics, and comparative mythology — treating these as mutually confirming rather than competing. The essay is explicitly pedagogical in aim, claiming that mastering these "ratiocinative methods" of Qabalistic number-science can elevate consciousness from ordinary intellect (Ruach) to a higher intuitive faculty (Neschamah). Readers interested in the intersection of biblical hermeneutics, Western esotericism, and numerological mysticism will find it a dense but characteristic example of late-Victorian occult scholarship.

A Note on Genesis

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