Beta (Β, β) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet, a direct descendant of the Phoenician letter beth (meaning 'house'). Its name, 'beta,' is a Greek adaptation that preserves the Semitic root. In the classical Attic and Ionic alphabets, beta represented the voiced bilabial stop /b/. Its numeric value in the Greek isopsephy system is 2. The letter's form evolved from a pictographic house shape through the archaic Greek 'Ϝ' (digamma) and later settled into the familiar capital Β and lowercase β.

Position on the Tree of Life

Beta occupies the 12th position on the Tree of Life, corresponding to the 12th Path. This path is the sphere of the letter Beth in the Hebrew alphabet, which is attributed to the planet Mercury. In the 777 schema, this placement links the Greek letter directly to the Mercurial current of communication, commerce, and alchemical transmutation.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

Through its Hebrew counterpart Beth, Beta is tied to the planet Mercury (Hermes). This correspondence governs the letter's symbolic domain: intellect, eloquence, trickery, and the swift movement of ideas. In Greek magical papyri and later Hermetic texts, beta often appears in invocations for mental clarity, persuasive speech, and the binding or loosing of spiritual forces.

Historical context

Beta's history is intertwined with the development of the Greek alphabet from the Phoenician script. The Phoenician beth (𐤁) was a simple house shape; the Greeks adopted it around the 8th century BCE, rotating and simplifying the form. The earliest Greek inscriptions, such as the Dipylon inscription, show a beta with a rounded or angular shape. By the classical period, the letter had standardized into the forms we recognize today.

In the Greco-Roman world, beta was used as a numeral (βʹ = 2) and as an abbreviation for various terms, including 'basileus' (king) and 'biblion' (book). In the context of the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM), beta is often employed in the construction of voces magicae—nonsense syllables believed to hold power. For example, the sequence 'βαβ' appears in the 'Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist' as part of a formula to invoke the god Osiris.

In the Hebrew Qabalah, the letter Beth (ב) is the first letter of the Torah and symbolizes the duality of creation—the house that contains all things. This duality is reflected in beta's numeric value of 2, representing the initial division of the One into the Many. The 12th Path, which beta governs, is the 'Intelligence of Transparency' in the 32 Paths of Wisdom, a channel through which the light of the Divine flows into the lower worlds.

Closing

In Liber 777, Beta (Β, β) appears at the 12th step of the Greek Alphabet table, directly corresponding to the Hebrew letter Beth and the Mercurial sphere of Hod. Its presence here anchors the Greek letter to the intellectual and communicative currents of the Tree of Life, serving as a glyph for the house of wisdom and the swift messenger of the gods.