Unlocking The Secrets Of Hadit
Now let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light devour men and eat
them up with blindness! For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and
one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.
I am The Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven. Liber al vel Legis 2:14-16
The first line in this set of three verses is difficult to understand. Crowley's explanation parallels
my own thoughts, however. Hadit is simply changing the subject.
"Enough has been said of the nature of Hadit; now let a riddle of L.V.X. be propounded," Crowley
wrote. "Hadit will give an exordium upon Himself in the next two verses. Then He will propound an ethical doctrine so terrible
and strange that men will be 'devoured and eaten up with blindness' because of it."
We now plunge into yet another set of the numerical puzzles confronting us. It begins: "For I am
perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for
I am none indeed."
Among the clues; Had reminds us that he is both "Not" and "none," because he exists as invisible
energy within Nuit. Thus he links to the Cabalistic numbers 31 for Not, and 61 for nothing.
The 31st path on the Tree of Life is between Hod and Malkuth and corresponds to Shin and Fire. Shin,
the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also links to the Tarot Trump XX for Judgment. The card portrays the body of Nuit
surrounding the globe of fire which is her mate, Hadit. In the middle sits their child, Horus, the incarnation of the New
Aeon. The left hand of the child is shown extended and empty, reminding us that the God has destroyed the old Universe, but
is still too young for form its successor.
The number 61 leads us to the word Ain, representing the highest state of negative existence above
Kether.
Armed with this information, we have a limited understanding of the proclamation: "I am perfect,
being Not."
The verse continues: "my number is nine by the fools . . ."
The Fool Tarot card has no number so it is the zero card. It represents Air or Vacuum. The figure
on the card holds the male element of fire, the female element of water, the sword of air and the disc of Earth.
The Ninth Path in the Tree of Life is the Sephirah Yesod, representing Foundation. The ninth letter
of the Hebrew alphabet is Teth. The Tarot is The Hermit, linked to the Hebrew letter Yod. Its symbolism is of the Creator
of Life.
Hadit continues: "with the just I am eight, and one in eight . . . "
The Eighth Tarot is the Justice Card. It depicts a woman with scales, on which she weighs the universe;
Alpha, the first, is balanced against Omega, the last.
One represents Kether, the highest of the Sephirah. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
The first card on the Tarot deck, however, is The Fool. His number is zero. "Which is vital, for I am none indeed."
In Verse 16 Hadit continues his numeric maze: "The Empress and the King are not of me; for there
is a further secret. I am The Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven."
The Tarot numbers for the Empress and the Emperor (or King) are three and four, respectfully. They
add to seven. But Hadit says they are not of Him, for there is a further secret.
I suggest that Hadit used the name King instead of Emperor so that the letters in Empress and King
would add to 11.
The last part of this puzzle: "I am the Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is
eleven."
At first this does not seem to make sense, since the fifth card, Hierophant, and third card, Empress,
add only to eight. But the eighth Tarot is Justice. But how do we use this information to arrive at 11?
Crowley believed the number 11 represented magick; also the word Abrahadabra. This word has 11 letters.
Abrahadabra, a word from the first line of the Third Chapter of the Book of the Law, is given the
Cabala number 418. The number also represents the Word of the Aeon, the Beast, and Ra Hoor, the Egyptian god Horus.
Crowley pulls us through Hadit's final maze. He said the Eighth number in the Hebrew alphabet is
Cheth. That character spelled in Hebrew script also means 418.
"Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven."
Nuit said in Chapter One, Verse 60: "My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us."
If Crowley regarded these verses as a simple "introduction" to Hadit, then it is somewhat understandable
why the ethical doctrine to follow threatens to devour and eat us up with blindness.
Copyright - James Donahue
