54

EAVES-DROPPINGS

Five and forty apprentice masons out of work!

Fifteen fellow-craftsmen out of work!

Three Master Masons out of work!

All these sat on their haunches waiting The Report of the Sojourners; for THE WORD was lost.

This is the Report of the Sojourners: THE WORD was LOVE;²³ and its number is An Hundred and Eleven.

Then said each AMO;²⁴ for its number is An Hundred and Eleven.

Each took the Trowel from his LAP,²⁵ whose number is An Hundred and Eleven.

Each called moreover on the Goddess NINA;²⁶ for Her number is An Hundred and Eleven.

Yet with all this went The Work awry; for THE WORD OF THE LAW IS ΘΕΛΕΜΑ

COMMENTARY (ΝΔ)

The title of this chapter refers to the duty of the Tyler in a blue lodge of Freemasons.

The numbers in paragraphs 1 to 3 are significant; each Master-Mason is attended by 5 Fellow-Crafts, and each Fellow-Craft by 3 apprentices, as if the Masters were sitting in pentagrams, and the Fellow-Craftsmen in Triangles. This may refer to the number of manual signs in each of these degrees.

The moral of the chapter is apparently that the mother-letter א is an inadequate solution of the Great Problem. א is identified with the Yoni, for all the symbols connected with it in this place are feminine, but א is also a number of Samadhi and mysticism, and the doctrine is therefore that Magick, in that highest sense explained in the Book of the Law, is the truer key.

NOTES

(23) L = 30, O = 70, V = 6, E = 5 = 111.

(24) A = 1, M = 40, O = 70 = 111.

(25) The trowel is shaped like a diamond or Yoni.
L = 30, A = 1, P = 80 = 111.

(26) N = 50, I = 10, N = 50, A = 1 = 111.