Liber 777: Crowley's Tables of Qabalistic Correspondence

Liber 777 is a book of tables published anonymously by Aleister Crowley in 1909 that arranges the symbols of many religions and magical systems according to the ten sefirot and twenty-two paths of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Each row of the tables corresponds to a sphere or path, and each column lists one category of symbol, such as gods, colours, planets, animals, plants, stones, perfumes or tarot cards. It became the standard reference work of Western ceremonial magic in the twentieth century and remains in print.

What Liber 777 Is§

The full Latin title of the 1909 edition presents the book as symbolic prolegomena to a "sceptical-mystical" path, a characteristic Crowley phrase for his attempt to combine scientific method with mystical experience. Its number has several meanings in Crowley's qabalah; one is the value of the Hebrew phrase for the "world of shells," the realm of the qliphoth, which adds up to 777 in gematria.

At its heart the book is a reference grid. Read across a row and one finds everything that "corresponds" to a given point on the Tree of Life: for the fourth sefirah, Chesed, for example, the planet Jupiter, the colour blue, the number four, gods of rulership and benevolence such as Zeus and Amoun, and appropriate stones and plants. Read down a column and one sees how a single category of symbol is distributed over the whole Tree. The principle behind the system, inherited from Renaissance magic and set out in Correspondences, is that things sharing a number or quality share a hidden sympathy that the magician can use.

Origins: The Golden Dawn, Allan Bennett and Agrippa's Scales§

Tables of correspondence long predate Crowley. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's De occulta philosophia (1533) contained "scales" of numbers listing the planets, angels, animals, stones and members of the body associated with each number from one to twelve, and Francis Barrett adapted this material in The Magus (1801). Athanasius Kircher and other early modern writers arranged the symbols of many nations in parallel columns as evidence of a universal ancient wisdom. Agrippa's work is discussed in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy and can be read in the library as Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

The immediate source of 777 was the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, whose teaching documents attributed Hebrew letters, tarot trumps, astrological signs, colours and divine names to the paths of the Tree. Crowley learned this system as a member from 1898 and through private study with his mentor Allan Bennett, a fellow initiate who later became a Buddhist monk. Crowley later said that he had compiled 777 quickly, in about a week and largely from memory, and he presented it partly as a public release of material the Golden Dawn had kept secret. Students of the order's papers, including Israel Regardie, have noted how much of its content derives from Golden Dawn manuscripts and from Bennett's notes; Crowley's contribution lay in expanding, systematising and publishing it.

How the Tables Are Organised§

The tables have rows numbered according to the "key scale" of the Tree of Life. Rows 1 to 10 are the ten sefirot, from Kether to Malkuth (see The Tree of Life and the Ten Sefirot). Rows 11 to 32 are the twenty-two paths joining them, each associated with a Hebrew letter. Additional rows cover the "negative veils" beyond Kether and two elements, Spirit and Earth, that share paths with planets in the Golden Dawn system. This yields a grid of a little over thirty rows.

The columns, numbered in Roman numerals and running to well over a hundred, are grouped roughly by subject:

• Hebrew and Kabbalistic material: names of the sefirot and letters, divine names, archangels, angelic choirs, the planetary spheres and the qliphoth.
• Gods of many pantheons: Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Hindu, Scandinavian and others, matched to the rows by function or attribute.
• Astrology and the elements: planets, signs, elements and their symbols.
• Colour scales: four series of colours for each row, linked to the four Kabbalistic worlds and used in Golden Dawn and Thelemic ritual art.
• The natural world: animals, plants, precious stones, perfumes and drugs, the last listed only as traditional attributions.
• Magical tools and tarot: the weapons and instruments of ceremonial magic and the tarot trumps attributed to each path, with notes on the court cards and minor arcana.

Some columns are short and derived from a single source; others are compiled from several traditions. Crowley also included columns on Buddhist meditations, alphabets such as Greek, Arabic and Coptic, and the "Lineal Figures" of geometry, reflecting his ambition to map every symbolic system onto one framework.

Using 777: Ritual, Meditation and the Testing of Visions§

Crowley and his students used 777 in three main ways. The first was ritual design. To prepare an invocation of a planetary force, a magician could look along the relevant row and choose colours for the robes and temple, a perfume for the incense, a metal for the talisman and appropriate divine names and god-forms, so that every sense pointed toward the same idea. This is the logic behind the planetary seals and magic squares described in Magic Squares, Kameas and Planetary Seals.

The second was meditation and memorisation. The A∴A∴ curriculum required students to learn the main correspondences thoroughly, so that the Tree of Life became a mental filing system in which any idea could be placed. Crowley compared this to learning the alphabet of a new language.

The third, and most characteristic of Crowley, was the testing of visionary experience. If a magician exploring a path saw symbols inconsistent with its correspondences, the vision could be suspected of being illusion or self-deception; if unexpected symbols agreed with the tables, the experience was taken as more likely genuine. Crowley's records in The Vision and the Voice show him applying this method. The approach expresses his "scientific illuminism," the claim that mystical experience could be checked against an agreed standard.

Editions: 1909, 777 Revised and the Weiser Collection§

The first edition appeared in London in 1909, printed by the Walter Scott Publishing Company without Crowley's name. It sold slowly. In his later years Crowley prepared revisions and explanatory notes, and these were published after his death as 777 Revised (1955), which added an essay on the nature of the Qabalah and short explanations of the reasoning behind many attributions. The revision also reflects changes Crowley made after 1909, such as the exchange of the tarot trumps attributed to the letters Heh and Tzaddi that he adopted on the authority of The Book of the Law (see Tarot and Qabalah in Thelema).

In 1973 Samuel Weiser published 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley, edited by Israel Regardie, which combined 777 Revised with Crowley's essay on gematria and the Hebrew numerical dictionary Sepher Sephiroth. This volume has been reprinted many times and is the form in which most readers now know the book.

Influence and Criticism§

777 shaped the practice of almost every Western magical current of the twentieth century. Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah (1935) and Regardie's popular books drew on the same Golden Dawn system, and later compilers expanded the tables further, from David Godwin's Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia to Stephen Skinner's The Complete Magician's Tables. Modern witches, chaos magicians and tarot readers use its attributions, often without knowing their source.

Critics raise three objections. Historians of Jewish mysticism point out that the system is a modern Christian and occultist construction with only partial roots in the Jewish Kabbalah. Scholars of religion note that its equations between gods of different cultures follow the comparative mythology of the late nineteenth century and flatten real differences between traditions. And practitioners themselves disagree over particular attributions, since Golden Dawn, Thelemic and other systems assign some symbols differently. Defenders reply that the tables were never meant as history but as a working language, a symbolic map useful for the practitioner whether or not its equations are historically true.

Frequently asked questions§

What is Liber 777 used for?§

It is a reference book of correspondences used to design rituals, choose colours, perfumes and divine names for invocations, memorise the symbolism of the Tree of Life and test the consistency of visionary experiences against an agreed standard.

Did Crowley write 777 himself?§

Crowley compiled and published it, but much of the material came from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and from his mentor Allan Bennett. His contribution was to expand, organise and publish the system as a single reference.

What is the difference between 777 and 777 Revised?§

The 1909 edition consisted mainly of tables. 777 Revised, published in 1955, added Crowley's explanatory notes, an essay on the Qabalah and changes he had adopted after 1909.

Is 777 still in print?§

Yes. It is usually read in 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley, first published by Samuel Weiser in 1973 and frequently reprinted.

Sources and further reading§

• 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings — Aleister Crowley, ed. Israel Regardie, 1973
• Sepher Sephiroth — Aleister Crowley, 1912
• Three Books of Occult Philosophy — Henry Cornelius Agrippa, 1533
• The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer — Francis Barrett, 1801
• The Golden Dawn — Israel Regardie, 1937
• Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia — David Godwin, 1979
• The Complete Magician's Tables — Stephen Skinner, 2006