Nursery Rhymes and the Occult

While researching (I am always researching something) the depths to which the Illuminatus Observor has bored into the Occult community, I found myself being linked into some really obscure work by Aleister Crowley. Consequently, it occurred to me that perhaps a clever way to shed more light on the Construct would be to compare and contrast what a leading Occultist as Aleister Crowley was saying compared to the more modern and "contemporary" knowledge culled from an acute understanding of Osirian based Freemasonry.

What better way to go about this task than to highlight early 1900 thoughts regarding "nursery rhymes" as presented by the Setianist Crowley, and compare that to what is Osirian here at the Illuminatus Observor.

The Totality of the Construct

One widely held belief, and I have seen this rationalized in many ways, is that the totality of "creation" holds "adumbrations" of "the truth" - or the Construct. One way this is rationalized goes something like this: since "the God" is all things, then "all things" must in some reflect the vestiges of the truth, or a semblance of "the God". Another way this concept may viewed, and I tend to understand how such might be so, is that within "the Construct", especially that one which is dominated by English, is the reality that Occult force imposed itself on the language and thus ensured that "the Truth" would forever remain for any willing to work and peer into the nature of these "things" and discern for oneself.

Plutarch hints at the former idea when he says that,

"But he who was appointed from the military class was at once made one of the priests and a participant in their philosophy, which, for the most part, is veiled in myths and in words containing dim reflexions and adumbrations of the truth, as they themselves intimate beyond question by appropriately placing sphinxes before their shrines to indicate that their religious teaching has in it an enigmatical sort of wisdom."

The latter, that of a "constructed reality" that reflects "the truth", we find in conversations regarding Sir Francis Bacon.

Says Mrs. Henry Pott, who wrote in "Francis Bacon and His Secret Societies",

"The organization or method of transmission he (Bacon) established was such as to ensure that never again so long as the world endured, should the lamp of tradition, the light of truth, be darkened or extinguished"

As such, you are free to believe what you wish - a peculiar "sychronicity" to the development of language, or a peculiar rational construction to the language, or a blend of something in between. Regardless, it is difficult to dismiss the esoteric underpinnings of the language. Even Crowley would recognize this when he stated in "Book 4", which Crowley wrote with Mary d'Estes Sturges,

"Every nursery rime contains profound magical secrets which are open to every one who has made a study of the correspondences of the Holy Qabalah. To puzzle out an imaginary meaning for this "nonsense" sets one thinking of the Mysteries; one enters into deep contemplation of holy things and God Himself leads the soul to a real illumination. Hence also the necessity of Incarnation; the soul must descend into all falsity in order to attain All-Truth."

Old Mother Hubbard

A peculiarity regarding Western nursery rhymes is that they are tinged with melancholy. Whether Jack fell down and broke his crown, the baby falls from the tree top, two of the pigs get devoured, or if the sky is falling, it is hard to miss the seeming tragic themes that underly the tails first taught to children.

Even the greatest of animals, the dinosaurs, tell children at an early age to "die" and "do not soar". So much can be inferred that one has to wonder if there is not a planned set of puns embed in the language, puns that do not begin to come to life until one has begun an immersion into the Occult, and in particular, the craft of the letters, aka, "Qaballa" in its various forms and tinctures.

Nursery rhymes would provide a very clever and yet diabolical (or genius) method upon which to transmit knowledge, nursery rhymes themselves steeped in allegory and words that provide symbolic and dim "reflexions".

Old Mother Hubbard, who goes to the cupboard to get her dog a bone is perhaps one of those tales. Says Crowley,

"Who is this ancient and venerable mother of whom it is spoken? Verily she is no other than Binah, as is evident in the use of the holy letter H with which her name begins.

"Nor is she the sterile Mother Ama -- but the fertile Aima; for within he she bears Vau, the son, for the second letter of her name, and R, the penultimate, is the Sun, Tiphareth, the Son.

"The other three letters of her name, B, A, and D, are the three paths which join the supernals.

"To what cupboard did she go? Even to the most secret caverns of the Universe. And who is this dog? Is it not the name of God spelt Qabalistically backwards? And what is this bone? The bone is the Wand, the holy Lingam!

"The complete interpretation of the rune is now open. This rime is the legend of the murder of Osiris by Typhon.

"The limbs of Osiris were scattered in the Nile.

"Isis sought them in every corner of the Universe, and she found all
except his sacred lingam..."

Talk about a tortured analysis!

The Letter H is B is??? And B, A, and D are the 3 paths that join the supernals? Umm. No. Leave the Jewish Tree as defined to the Jews and not affix English and subjugate the letters and language to this foreign absurdity.

However, to Crowley's credit, he did get the core of the analysis correct. Old Mother Hubbard is referencing back to the tales of Isis and Osiris.

Of course, you could not have achieved Crowley's proclaimed levels without having a reasonable comprehension of how this was all so.

The Construct is based on the tale of Isis and Osiris and so "Old Mother Hubbard" could more rationally be broken down as follows:

Isis is SPEECH.

SPEECH = 19+16+5+5+3+8 = 56 = 9+19+9+19 = ISIS

If you are going to have SPEECH, then the past tense of SPEECH is SPOKEN, and you cannot have SPOKEN without a SPOKE, and when you have a SPOKE you have in effect a HUB.

The HUB BARD, therefore, is of course, ISIS, for ISIS is SPEECH is the SPOKEN WORD, wherein the SPOKE (aNd) Word reveals the Diameter and PI, for the Spoke is the Radius and thus implies the Diameter, and hence "the Word" must be Pi.

Little Bo Peep

Crowley describes Little Bo Peep as follows:

"Bo" is the root meaning Light, form which spring forth such words as Bo-Tree, Bodhisattva, and Buddha.

"And "Peep" is Apep, the serpent Apophis. THis poem therefore contains the same symbol as that in the Egyptian and Hebrew Bibles."

"The snake is the serpent of Initiation, as the Lamb is the Saviour.

"This ancient one, the Wisdom of Eternity, sits in its old anguish awaiting the Redeemer. And this holy verse triumphantly assures us that there is no need for anxiety. The Saviours will come after the other, at their own good pleasure, and as they may be needed, and drag their tails, that is to say those who follow out their holy commandment, to the ultimate goal."

Huh? Little Bo Peep is Feminine, but Crowley links "Little Bo Peep" to "Light" and "Apep", but Apep is the "demon" that is in opposition to Ma'at. How a demon that is opposition to Ma'at could even begin to conceivably become linked to "savior" mythology and symbolism defies all rationalism and logic, unless one is versed in more esoteric Freemasonry. Hence there remains a more logical analysis that hints at where Crowley was going, but keeps the energetical channels closer to the truth.

It goes something like this:

There is a held belief in FreeMasonry, albeit not universal (to my knowledge) that that which is known as "the Demiurge" takes on the properties of Jehovah as a redeemer god. It works like this: the longer one immerses oneself into suffering (material existence), the sooner one begins for the longing to escape from the suffering of the material existence and hence "seek the light".

When one realizes that Jehovah makes you suffer so as to "raise you up", you then realize how beneficial Jehovah as a "redeemer god" has always been, and so you give your energy and soul over to the deity. Essentially, the concept rationalizes masochistic/sadistic deity/mortal relationships.

However, I prefer to view this from a purely Osirian mindset, and hence see a more "pun"-ish nature to the tale.

Little Bo Peep is Isis, and Isis, of course, has long ago "lost her sheep". However, there remains the vestiges of Isis within the Secret Societies and as such, the "sheep", or humanity, will not go seeking after Jehovah as a "the Demiurge" turned "benevolent savior" - an oxymoron. Rather, with time, "the Truth" marches forward regardless and mankind has no choice but to return to the Goddess "with their tails behind them".

Hickory Dickory Dock

Says Crowley regarding this rhyme,

"Here we are on higher ground at once. The clock symbolizes the spinal column, or if you prefer it, Time, chosen as one of the conditions of normal consciousness. The mouse is the Ego; "Mus", a mouse, being only "Sum", "I am", spelt Qabalistically backwards.

"This Ego or Prana or Kundalini force being driven up the spine, the clock strikes one, that is, the duality of consciousness is abolished. And the force again subsides to its original level.

"Hickory, dickory, dock!" is perhaps the mantra which was used by the adept who constructed this rime, thereby hoping to fix it in the minds of men; so that they might attain to Samadhi by the same method. Others attribute to it a more profound significance -- which is impossible to go into at this moment..."

Here Crowley is just fitting the rhyme to his philosophy. Of course, you may accuse me of doing same, but I suspect that my analysis is far closer to reality. For a comprehensive analysis of Hickory Dickory Dock, see my article "The Clock and the Circle", here at the Illuminatus Observor

Humpty Dumpty

This is, indeed, one of those rhymes that is so ingenious as to be beautiful. Says Crowley,

"This is so simple as hardly to require explanation. Humpty Dumpty is of course the Egg of Spirit, and the wall is the Abyss -- his "fall" is therefore the descent of spirit into matter; and it is only too painfully familiar to us that all the king's horses and all his men cannot restore us to the height.

"Only the King Himself can do that!

"But one can hardly comment upon a theme which has been so fruitfully treated by Ludovicus Carolus, that most holy illuminated man of God. His masterly treatment of the identity of the three reciprocating paths of Daleth, Teth, and Pe, is one of the most wonderful passages in the Holy Qabalah."


Crowley was right. This one is so simple as to hardly require explanation. As was hinted at in Alice in Wonderland,

"When I chose a word, it means exactly what I choose it to mean, nothing more and nothing less." This can be interpreted many ways, but as Humpty Dumpty represents the fallen philosophy of the Sun which as been broken and scattered, the use of words as Occult constructs trend to being precise, and then mean precisely what they are intended to mean, and nothing less.

The flowery obfuscations of Crowley, falling back on the Rabbinical Kabballah, hardly shows a regard for the absolutes of the Craft.

Based as it is on Pi, Humpty Dumpty is so simple and ingenious that it means precisely what it says.

For an analysis of the Esoteric Code of Humpty Dumpty, I leave you with this video that shows precisely how the Code of Humpty Dumpty works. If you have seen this already, a revisit might be a good refresher.

Regardless, for those of you interested in peering deeper into the Mysteries, as this article shows, even something as innocuous as "nursery rhymes" can be shown to embed that mystical component which we refer to as "an adumbration of the Truth".