Cult of Tarot Forum

A writer friend of mine recently died in India; he was 86. throughout his life he was interested in Gematria, the hermetic method of assigning numerical value to words, used by ancient writers to infuse their myths and stories with another layer of meaning. my friend left behind pages of notes on the topic, and i am the executor and sole inheritor, but they are no use to me. the copious notes are in English, but the handwriting is difficult to read.
I am writing this in case there is anyone out there interested in Gematria, investigating this form of numerology, or if anyone knows of anyone interested - perhaps writing a book on the subject? if so, I would gladly send them these notes at my expense for them to have and hopefully use.
if anyone is so interested, please PM me.
thanks

Sorry to hear of your loss chiscotheque. This is a very generous offer. I'm sure there will be someone interested in this. Might I suggest you keep the originals and give copies if you can - it would be sad to think of these getting lost by someone else if you do give them away. I had a little interest in this subject in my younger days, I'm sure they are quite fascinating.

I'm interested in Hebrew Gematria and work quite a lot with it. Since in Hebrew, letters are used as numbers in everyday life, it feels very natural. Knowing the letter means knowing the number so it's all very transparent - until you start playing with it.

I'd love to see the manuscript, at least some pages, to see what kind of gematria your friend used and/or developed. I didn't know it's possible to do Gematria in other languages.

Nemia, my friend - Roger Maybank - worked on it for years, so the nature of the notes vary as to topic. i can't say for sure, but having spoken with him over the years, his interest was essentially in myth, especially Greek and Celtic religion & story telling. he believed gematria was a known and commonly used discipline, so the names of Greek gods for instance had a correspondingly meaningful numerical value. he claimed that when the translators were working on the King James Bible, they were aware of gematria and applied it to their English. an example he talked of a couple times was "the handmaid of the Lord" for Mary, a phrase he claimed had gematric meaning - the odd phrasing of it as translated from Greek hinting at the way English was manipulated to impart the numeric meaning.
the next time i am at his locker, i will grab the notes and scan a couple pages, to give you an idea - both of their content and their legibility. as i mentioned above, his handwriting is eccentric and he used a quilled ink pen which aggravated the problem. i'm really hoping to find a good home for them, so if anyone is interested at all they are welcome to have them.
by the way, here is a website of his works if anyone is interested:
https://rogermaybank.wordpress.com/

I just had a look at the webpage.
Your friend was an amazing man.

The photographs are beautiful.

Dear Chiscotheque, what a wonderful person he must have been. I'd love to have a look at the notes - I don't know Greek but I can easily imagine the Greeks drawing parallels between the names of their gods and the numerical values of their names and other words.

I'm very interested, even fascinated by the topic, and I'd feel honoured if you would send me a scan or two. Then let's think together what would be the proper way to let others participate in your friend's wisdom and insights.

Roger spoke Greek and French as well as English. He lived like a monk and spent the last dozen years in India. There, he paid for the schooling of 5 children. he befriended a family and helped the father set up a small business grinding nuts, cereal, and spices. from the 50s to the 80s he lived with his partner, Marios Loizides [a Cypriot painter] on the Greek island Hydra, where fellow-Canadian Leonard Cohen also lived.
i have been trying to upload some scans, without success.

Have you been trying to upload them here? Please let me help. PM me. We'l figure it out.