IHVH. See TETRAGRAMMATON

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from IHVH, hayah, to be or ihoah, self-existent)

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Chokmah (Heb) Wisdom; the second of the ten Sephiroth, and the second of the supernal Triad. A masculine potency corresponding to the Yod (I) of the Tetragrammaton IHVH, and to Ab, the Father.

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Tetragrammaton. The four-lettered name of God, its Greek title: the four letters are in Hebrew  " yod, hé vau, hé " ,or in English capitals, IHVH.

The true ancient pronunciation is now unknown; the sincere Hebrew considered this name too sacred for speech, and in reading the sacred writings he substituted the title " Adonai ", meaning Lord. In the Kabbalah, I is associated with Chokmah, H with Binah, V with Tiphereth, and H final with Malkuth. Christians in general call IHVH Jehovah, and many modern Biblical scholars write it Yahveh. In the Secret Doctrine, the name Jehovah is assigned to Sephira Binah alone, but this attribution is not recognised by the Rosicrucian school of Kabbalists, nor by Mathers in his translation of Knorr Von Rbsenroth’s Kabbalah Denudata: certain Kabbalistic authorities have referred Binah alone to IHVH, but only in reference to the Jehovah of the exoteric Judaism. The IHVH of the Kabbalah has but a faint resemblance to the God of the Old Testament.

The Kabbalah of Knorr von Rosenroth is no authority to the Eastern Kabbalists; because it is well known that in writing his Kabbalah Denudata he followed the modern rather than the ancient (Chaldean) MSS.; and it is equally well known that those MSS. and writings of the Zohar that are classified as "ancient", mention, and some even use, the Hebrew vowel or Massoretic points. This alone would make these would-be Zoharic books spurious, as there are no direct traces of the Massorah scheme before the tenth century of our era, nor any remote trace of it before the seventh. (See " Tetraktys ".)

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Adonai (Hebrew, Jewish). The same as Adonis. Commonly translated "Lord". Astronomically - the Sun. When a Hebrew in reading came to the name IHVH, which is called Jehovah, he paused and substituted the word "Adonai", (Adni); but when written with the points of Alhim, he called it "Elohim".

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Malkuth (Hebrew, Jewish). The Kingdom, the tenth Sephira, corresponding to the final H (hé) of the Tetragrammaton or IHVH. It is the Inferior Mother, the Bride of the Microprosopus (q.v.); also called the "Queen" It is, in one sense, the Shekinah.

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Tiphereth (Hebrew, Jewish). Beauty; the sixth of the ten Sephiroth, a masculine active potency, corresponding to the Vau, V, of the Tetragrammaton IHVH; also called Melekh or King; and the Son. It is the central Sephira of the six which compose Zauir Anpin, the Microprosopus, or Lesser Countenance. It is translated " Beauty" and "Mildness".

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Binah (Hebrew, Jewish). Understanding. The third of the 10 Sephiroth, the third of the Supernal Triad; a female potency, corresponding to the letter hé of the Tetragrammaton IHVH. Binah is called AIMA, the Supernal Mother, and "the great Sea".

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Vau waw (Hebrew) Sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, , variously rendered as vav, waw, etc.; third letter of IHVH, referred to as the Tetragrammaton. With vowel points, most often used as a prefix conjunction meaning "and," "also." As a noun, a nail, hook. Its numerical value is 6.

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Yod, Yodh (Hebrew) The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet representing the number 10. A great deal has been written about this Hebrew character by Jewish Qabbalists because it is the first character in the name of the Hebrew God (IHVH) transliterated as Jehovah or Yahweh. The pronunciation of this name for ages past has been lost, and the Jews, when coming upon it in the Bible, have either mentally or aloud substituted the word 'Adonai (my Lords).

The Jewish IHVH was but the ancient Hebrew form of the deity equally recognized, although with far less reverence, by other ancient nations of the Near East, called Yaho among the Phoenicians, Iao among the Gnostics, etc. It was an androgynous deity, recognized as existing in nature, and mystically having an intimate magnetic connection with the planet Saturn.

The influence of this cosmic bipolar force is known everywhere, expressing itself as positive and negative or in human beings as male and female. This deity is by no means one of the highest or most spiritual in the solar system, being one of the manifested cosmic powers rather than one of the unmanifest spiritualities. In fact the four-lettered name, IHVH or Tetragrammaton, from one view is as Blavatsky remarks, "pre-eminently phallic." Ancient Jewish initiates equally with initiates of other countries turned to their 'eyn soph as the loftiest encompassing universal life-wisdom, very much as the ancient Hindus turned to parabrahman for the same reasons.

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AHIH (Hebrew) A Qabbalistic form of the tetragrammaton, representing the Macroprosopus, in contradistinction to IHVH (Jehovah), representing Microprosopus. It is connected exoterically with `eyeh (absolute Be-ness) and with "I am the I am." (BCW 8:142, 147)

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V - Letter V. - The twenty-second letter of the Latin alphabet. Numerically it stands for 5; hence the Roman V (with a dash) stands for 5,000. The Western Kabbalists have connected it with the divine Hebrew name IHVH. The Hebrew Vau, however, being number 6, it is only by being identical with the W, that it can ever become a proper symbol for the male-female, and spirit-matter. The equivalent for the Hebrew Vau is YO, and in numerals 6.

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He', Heh, Hei (Hebrew) The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, , supposed to be a window or opening. Blavatsky suggests that its meaning in the Tetragrammaton (IHVH) is that of a womb. The numerical value is 5.

It holds an intermediate position in pronunciation between the soft aleph and the harsher heth and consequently both in pronunciation and writing it is occasionally interchanged with these two other characters.

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He', Heh, Hei (Hebrew) The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, , supposed to be a window or opening. Blavatsky suggests that its meaning in the Tetragrammaton (IHVH) is that of a womb. The numerical value is 5.

It holds an intermediate position in pronunciation between the soft aleph and the harsher heth and consequently both in pronunciation and writing it is occasionally interchanged with these two other characters.

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Ineffable Name With the Jews, applied to the word Jehovah; with the Qabbalists, associated with the Tetragrammaton (JHVH, YHVH, or IHVH). The Ineffable Name is the secret of secrets, IHVH (or Jehovah) being used as a screen.

The power of the Ineffable Name is the power or force of the natural harmony in nature, which the ancient Greek mystical philosophers called music or the cosmic harmony. The name used by the Western Qabbalists is not to be pronounced, rather than ineffable, for the " 'Ineffable Name' of the true Occultist, is no name at all, least of all is it that of Jehovah. The latter implies, even in its Kabbalistical, esoteric meaning, an androgynous nature, YHVH, or one of a male and female nature.

 It is simply Adam and Eve, or man and woman blended in one, and as now written and pronounced, is itself a substitute. But the Rabbins do not care to remember the Zoharic admission that YHVH means 'not as I Am written, Am I read" (Zohar, fol. III., 230a). One has to know how to divide the Tetragrammaton ad infinitum before one arrives at the sound of the truly unpronounceable name of the Jewish mystery-god" (TG 155-6).

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TETRAMORPH

Chayoth Ha-Qadesh: "Animals of the Sacred Place." The four-beasted figure surrounding the Wheel of Fortune (Man, Bull, Lion and Eagle), standing for the four Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton (IHVH) and mimicked by Xtianity in its attributions of these animals to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The tetramorph symbolizes the quaternity running through everything in both the manifest and unmanifest worlds.

The four principles of which the world consists are the four elements of alchemy, the four sacred words, the beasts of the Apocalypse and the four animals contained in the sphinx:

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TEMURAH

Hebrew for "substitution." Another method of gematria. The order of the alphabet is displaced in order to obtain new words:

kaph yod teth cheth zayin vav heh daled gimel beth aleph. lamed mem nun  samek ayin peh tzaddi qoph resh shin tav.

Thus: IHVH>M-TZ-P-(TZ) "watchtower."

TMURAH>EIF-G-(TZ) "where doth it rise?"

As in other forms of gematria, it works much better in Hebrew than in English.

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Elohim (Hebrew, Jewish). Also Alhim, the word being variously spelled. Godfrey Higgins, who has written much upon its meaning, always spells it Aleim. The Hebrew letters are aleph, lamed, hé,yod, mem, and are numerically 1, 30, 5, 10, 40 = 86. It seems to be the plural of the feminine noun Eloah, ALH, formed by adding the common plural form IM, a masculine ending; and hence the whole seems to imply the emitted active and passive essences. As a title it is referred to "Binah" the Supernal Mother, as is also the fuller title IHVH ALHIM, Jehovah Elohim. As Binah leads on to seven succeedent Emanations, so " Elohim" has been said to represent a sevenfold power of godhead. [ w.w. w.]

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Sacred Name Most names are labels, and according to ancient occult theory to disclose the real name of a being is to evoke the presence of that being, a knowledge which is made use of in magical evocations.

To name the Deity would be an initiation, a revelation, fit only for ears prepared to receive it. Supreme deities are said to be ineffable -- their names cannot or may not be spoken -- as was the case with the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, IHVH, often written Jehovah, Jahveh, etc., but whose real pronunciation was secret and sacred.

Qabbalists, in order to screen the real mystery-name of 'eyn soph (the boundless), substituted the name of one of the personal creative 'elohim, the hermaphrodite Jah-Eve; and the name was made sacred in order to conceal the deception (SD 2:126).

As a substitute for Jehovah the name 'Adonai (my Lords), was afterwards used when reading the ancient Hebrew scriptures aloud for and instead of the, which appeared written on the manuscript, because YHVH was considered too holy for utterance.

(See also: Sacred Name, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Hochmah (Hebrew) Also transliterated as Chochmah, Hhokhmah, Chokmah, etc. Wisdom; the second Sephirah, regarded in the Qabbalah as the first emanation from the first Sephirah, Kether. Wisdom is considered as a masculine active potency, and is therefore called 'Ab, the Father, to whom Binah, the Mother and third of the Sephiroth, is united.

It is the head of one of the three pillars in the Sephirothal Tree, called the Column of Benignity, Mercy, or Grace, placed on the right side. Its Divine Name is Yah (a substitute for the mystery-name Iao), whereas the Divine Name for the third Sephirah is the so-called four-lettered name or Tetragrammaton IHVH -- Jehovah. Among the angelic hosts it is represented by the 'ophanim, the wheels of Ezekiel's vision. In its human application, Hochmah is represented as infilling the skull and brain, and less accurately as corresponding to the right shoulder.

"Wisdom generates all things. By means of the 32 paths, Wisdom is spread throughout the universe, it gives to everything form and measure" (Zohar iii, 290a).

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