The Literal Qabalah - Notariquon

The Literal Qabalah - Notariquon

There are two forms of practical Notariquon. The first is considered legitimate or inspired, and the second which meets with some ridicule, amounts to an art form and a process of creation which makes it distinct from other forms of mostly analytical Qabalah.

Essentially a cousin to anagram constructs, Notariquon consists of matching a word to a phrase in which the first letter of each word of that phrase, when combined, spells the word. A famous Hebraic example of this is found by taking the initials of the phrase mhmymçh wnl hlwy ym Mi Iaulah Leno Ha−Shamayima,Who shall go up for us to heaven?” found in Deuteronomy, 30. 12. These form mem-yod-lamed-heh or Milah, the Hebrew word for circumcision. Taking the final letters we get IHVH, the Tetragrammaton. Notariquon enthusiasts would use this to imply that Jehovah had ordained circumcision as a requirement for entrance to Heaven.

The second method is the reverse process of the first. Here the practitioner constructs the phrase from the word or Formula by taking each letter in that word as the first letter (sometimes the last, or any other position that panders to the practitioner’s goals) in the corresponding Word.

A modern example would be FIAT which is taken as Fiatus, Ignis, Aqua, Terra equating the creative Word of Jehovah with the synthesis of the Elements. However, FIAT might equally imply Femina Imperium Auctoritas Terrae20 which the Hebrew patriarchs certainly would not have liked.

Due to the multiplicity of possibilities, Notariquon is attacked for its empirical reliability and its results are decried as creative fantasies lacking any scientific method. This remains a legitimate criticism and a justifiable position to take on the question.

However, the utility of notariquon lies not in the analytic or exegetic study of Nature, but in the creative or constructive Qabalah, as in the application of the Qabalah to generate Formulae, Words of Power or even Sigils and thus deals primarily with matters of Magick and effecting Change upon Nature in accordance with one’s Will—a subject outside the scope of this study.