The All-in-One Gematria (this article has appeared in various zines in slightly edited versions)
by Howler

All-in-One Gematria (or A-I-O in short) is a system of gematria used to study the works of the author H.P Lovecraft. The system has been explored in an online discussion group dedicated to explore what Lovecraft called Yog-Sothothery (nowadays mostly is referred to as Cthulhu Mythos). The main purpose with this system of gematria is to search for interesting patters that can be used in magical explorations.

There are a few ways one can approach a system like this depending on how one view the findings. Let me just list two of them to give you some ideas:

First of all one can take the approach that reality is something illusionary and floating and ultimately depends on your view of it. An interesting way to bring forth changes to the current reality set-up with this view in mind is to do this is by obsessing over the found patterns (and select the found patterns one find meaningful) and do this to the degree that it breaks the subjective set-up and allows one to reconfigure, or even break through, the matrix according to ones will.
Magical obsession is usually done by obsessing over pictures but it can be done with numbers as the base too with great results. The numerical patterns found can for example be used as the basis for various magic workings and rituals, dream work or art etc..

Another way is to look at found patters as traces of esoteric knowledge and to separate them from the mere literary constructions that Lovecraft used to get the stories floating. A good reason for this view is the well known fact that Lovecraft got many of the ideas from his dreams, like the name Nyarlathotep to give an example, and receiving secret knowledge through dreaming is far from a new idea. This isn't just the case for Lovecraft's 'Dream Cycle' but run like a thread through all of his works. Lovecraft was an experienced dreamer and used elements from his dreams as inspiration for his stories.
In the east the method of receiving esoteric knowledge through dreaming has been known for ages. In Buddhism there is this thing called 'termas' which means 'treasures' and the term is used to describe hidden things that can be either physical object such texts buried in the ground/cave etc. or hidden encoded within the elements/ether and so on. When the time is right someone will find this treasure or receive this knowledge and thus it can be passed along to other humans. There exist a 'Dream Yoga' tradition in Buddhism and many religious scriptures and practices are said to have been received though this tradition. This is the sort of occult knowledge that might be hidden in Lovecraft's works. So with this take on it the A-I-O gematria system is used to search for and separate dream termas from his literary constructions. The findings can then be used further in practical occult work or in related areas too and I gave some suggestions in the section about magical obsession.


Let's move on to why the system is called  'All-in-One', a name known to Lovecraft fans as a title for the entity called Yog-Sothoth. To answer this we have to talk about how the system came into being. It started by a dream about fractals and spirals that I had during a time when I experimented with various gematria set-ups for the English language. The dream inspired me to try to base a new system on a sequence of numbers that are closely connected to fractals and the chaos theory, namely the Fibonacci sequence. After applying that to the English alphabet by dividing it into 8 groups (the trick to get 26 to 24 characters is that v&wand c&k is bundled together) I tried it out and the system was found interesting, but I put it aside while working on other projects. Later talk about applying gematria to Lovecraft's works came up so I dusted it off and it has been found highly suitable for this work. It was first simply called 'Fibonacci Gematria' but since 'Fibonacci' and the phrase 'All-in-One' was found to have the same gematrical value the name change came natural. It has later been found that it would also have been equally natural to in fact call the system 'Cthulhu Gematria' but more about that when we go into practical calculations. One can't help reflecting on how the Yog-Sothoth title 'All-in-One' is a very suitably name for a system built upon the Fibonacci numbers as those numbers seems to be everywhere in nature, from the number of pedals on a flower to the shape of sea shells, and it's in fact so common that it's sometimes referred to a 'Law of Nature'. The Fibonacci sequence is the sequence of numbers where each value is obtained from the sum of the two preceding after two starting values. The higher a number is in the sequence the closer to the Golden Ratio it gets. On top of that there are many other area were these numbers are present and one example is how the now widely discussed Mayan calendar actually has the number 13 (both a Fibonacci number and a Prime number) as its base number (in the case of A-I-O in fact the eight group used by the system).

Before we go into how the system works and get into some examples let us first summarize the above. A-I-O is based upon the first eight values from the famous Fibonacci sequence and it is used to through the author H.P Lovecraft's works in search after interesting patterns.

Okay with that done let's take our first look on the system.

The first eight values in the sequence are:
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13
And by using eight values it's easy to divide the English alphabet in three parts (8 * 3 = 24 and as c&k and v&w can be said to be connected to each other and thus bundled together) and assign it the sequence like this:


All-in-One Gematria:

a b c&k d e f g h
i j l m n o p q
r s t uv&w x y z
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13

a,i,r = 0
b,c,j,k,l,s,t =1
d,m,u = 2
e,n,v,w = 3
f,o,x = 5
g,p,y = 8
h,q,z =13

An example: Let's say we want to calculate the number of the word: 'magic'. We then look each letter up in the list above and add them up together in this way:
'magic':
(2)m+ (0)a + (8)g + (0)i + (1)c= 2 + 0 + 8 + 0 + 1 = 11

Let's goon with some more examples but within a more Lovecraftian context.The beginning examples mainly concentrate around the name Yog-Sothoth but the same type of findings can be found about many other deities, areas and phrases in his work. Anyway here we go:

First let us go back to the question about why this system is called All-in-One gematria instead of the previous name. Well as its primary use is to calculate works from Lovecraft changing the name reflecting this was tempting and it was found that
'Fibonacci':
(5)F +(0)i + (1)b + (5)o + (3)n + (0)a + (1)c + (1)c + (0)i = 16
has the same value as
'All-in-One':
(0)A + (1)l + (1)l - (0)i+ (3)n - (5)O + (3)n + (3)e = 16

Also Yog-Sothoth as the 'All-in-One' is also referred to as the 'One-in-All' with combined
(16)'All-in-One' + (16)'One-in-All' = 32 which is the number of paths + sephirah on the tree of life (22paths + 10 sephirah).

There is another intriguing connection to Lovecraft's Yog-Sothothery in general and the deity Cthulhu specifically. This is the why it also could have been 'Cthulhu Gematria' or something similar. Let's check out the number of
'Cthulhu':
(1)C + (1)t + (13)h + (2)u + (1)l +(13)h +(2)u = 33
That is in itself is an interesting number but I got surprised when I decided to add up the 8 first numbers from the sequence A-I-O is created upon:
0 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 8 + 13 =33!
Yes, it adds up to the number of Cthulhu! And on top of this we could write the 'All-in-One' as a title:
'The All-in-One' and that also have the value 33.

Let us also explore the word 'Yog-Sothothery' which is the word Lovecraft himself used to describe the stuff that later came to be known as the 'Cthulhu Mythos' (the later phrase was invented by August Derleth).
'Yog-Sothothery':
(8)Y +(5)o + (8)g + (1)S + (5)o + (1)t + (13)h + (5)o + (1)t + (13)h + (3)e+ (0)r + (8)y = 71

Now the number of  'Yog-Sothoth' happens to be 60
(8)Y + (5)o + (8)g + (1)S + (5)o + (1)t + (13)h +(5)o + (1)t + (13)h =60
And as we previously calculated 'magic'= 11, so 'Yog-Sothoth' + 'Magic' =71, so Yog-Sothothery can be interpreted as Yog-Sothoth Magic!

If we also allow ourselves to play around with reduced numbers (as in numerology) and can't help reflect upon the fact that:
'Yog-Sothoth'= 60 is reduced to 6 (6 + 0 = 6) and that the same number as the reduced values for 'key' = 12 =>3(1 + 2 = 3) + 'gate'=12 =>3(1 + 2 = 3) added together (remember how Yog-Sothoth is referred to as the key and the gate in the works of Lovecraft).

Also as a last example with Yog-Sothoth we can't resist to comment on how many people draws parallels between Yog-Sothoth and Choronzon even if this is taking it a bit away from the Lovecraftian paradigm. Choronzon, the Dweller in the Abyss & Demon of Dispersion etc., is said to have the number 333 attributed to it.

333 in can be written as 3 3 3 or 'three three three'
'three' gives us the value:
(1)t + (13)h + (0)r + (3)e + (3)e = 20
So 'three three three' = 60, the number of Yog-Sothoth!

Some other examples:

The last paragraph of 'The Hound' begins with 'Madness rides the star wind...'
'Madness rides the star wind...”
(12)Madness + (6)rides + (17)the +(2)star + (8)wind = 45 and that happens to be the same name as 'Yuggoth'.

How is Yuggoth described in Lovecraft's work? Let's look at an example:
'Yuggoth... is a strange dark orb at the very rim of our solar system... There are mighty cities on Yuggoth-great tiers of terraced towers built of black stone... The sun shines there no brighter than a star, but the beings need no light. They have other subtler senses, and put no windows in their great houses and temples... The black rivers of pitch that flow under those mysterious cyclopean bridges-things built by some elder race extinct and forgotten before the beings came to Yuggoth from the ultimate voids-ought to be enough to make any man a Dante or Poe if he can keep sane long enough to tell what he has seen...' - From H. P. Lovecraft's 'The Whisperer in Darkness'

So it looks like the phrase 'Madness rides the star wind' could in fact be a hidden reference to Yuggoth! It even looks and feels right in writing:
Yuggoth - Madness [that] rides the star wind.

There is many more like this. For example one can't help reflecting on the fact that the value for the phrase:

'The Call of Cthulhu'= 63

And that happens to also be the value for phrases suchas:

'Cthulhu Fhtagn'

'A dead fleshless monstrosity' (keep in mind how the great old ones are described...is this what 'fleshless' is about: 'they had shape -for did not this star-fashioned image prove it? - but that shape was not made of matter.' [Quote from 'The Call of Cthulhu']

'Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming'

'A ring of worshippers'(A reference to the Cthulhu Cult hearing the call?)

'Call the slow sailing stars by name' (Might have to do with: 'When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky' [Quote from 'The Call of Cthulhu']. Actually 'The stars are right' seems to also have a connection to the phrase we discussed above, 'Madness rides the star wind' as this seems to describe well what will happen when the Great Old Ones jump between worlds, and interestingly the two phrases both have the same gematrical value and let me just briefly mention that some other phrases with this value are 'A strange and titanic mausoleum','Madness from the Sea' and 'Cthulhu still lives'..)

'Certain special formulae and incantations' (the chanting done by the Cult? How about interpreting the last phrase with this one as a key to understanding it: 'Call the slow sailing stars by name' = 'Certain special formulae and incantations' might hint on a hidden formula of some sort.)

'Unnumbered aeon-dead antiquities'(this might be a reference to the Great Old Ones too.)

I hope you by now can see how various findings can give you material and ideas that you can use in your exploration of Lovecraftian occultism.

On top of this there exists a new exiting way that one can work with this system on a more intuitive level (and that one can use without having to get into the gematria at all). A deck of cards, called The Temple of Abzu Deck, has been created for this purpose. It is based on the 99 first values of phrases and words calculated with the All-In-One gematria. The main idea behind the deck is to use various phrases, that somehow stands out and represent a specific value, in combination with art to create something in the spirit of the Rorschach inkblot test and thus evokes inner pictures for the practitioner. Work with the deck has shown that the cards canbe used as gateways or links to certain astral experiences and forces. The idea of combining phrases and art and work with that intuitive has by experience been proven to bring one real close to the forces of Yog-Sothothery that was the source of inspiration for Lovecraft in his dreaming.

For more info about the Temple of Abzu deck (the TOA deck) check out [THIS] page or [THIS] article. You might also want to explore the main site more. Click [HERE] if that is the case.