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About the tetragrammaton or shem hamephorash

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Nemia
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About the tetragrammaton or shem hamephorash

Post by Nemia »

Doesn't it sound terribly impressive? The tetragrammaton means "four letters". Which four letters? Well, simply the four Hebrew letters that make up the Divine name. In Hebrew, it's called shem hamephorash.

Let's take a look at the meaning of the expression shem hamephorash. Again, it sounds a bit frightening but is easy to understand. Shem שם means "name" in Hebrew, and mephorash מפורש means "explicit".

The explicit name of the creator and divine force is יהוה , in Greek tetragrammaton because it's made of four letters. Yud - heh - vav - heh. Nobody knows how to pronounce the name since in Hebrew, we don't write vowels, only consonants. It could be yahava, yeheve... many possibilities.

How is it possible to read a text without vowels?

For example, the name Joseph is written יוסף in Hebrew, yud - vav - samech - peh, YVSP. If you know Hebrew, you simply add in your head the vowels you need, and you understand that the vav might stand for U or O.

Miriam is written מרים, mem - resh - yud - mem, MRYM. You just add the rest, just like you do when you read wysisyg or LotR or Gwtw etc. Actually, also when you read etc... it's really not difficult to read Hebrew and to add the missing letters.

Evn n nglsh txt cn b ndrstnd qt wll wtht vwls.

But wouldn't it be useful to know how to pronounce the divine name, just like Yosef or Miriam?

Nobody needs to know how the divine name of the four letters is pronounced anyway. It's too private, too powerful to be used by humans speaking to their creator. Like you wouldn't call a revered master by a nickname. Out of respect of the divine power and might, Jews don't use that name.

Christians who didn't know how forbidden it is to say the name added the vowels of the word adonai, Lord, to the tetragrammaton, and the result was Yahova or Yehova, a word no Jew would say. The name Jehova is a simple misunderstanding of the Jewish custom to say Adonai instead of the explicit name.

So Jews don't say the divine name, they will always say adonai, the Lord, or ha-shem, the name. That's why YHVH is called shem ha-mephorash, the explicit name - your'e not allowed to use the explicit name. All kinds of mystical variations of the divine name developed over time, some by Jewish mystics (in the book Sefer Raziel, "secret of G-d") and most by Christian writers who adopted and adapted Jewish mysticism/kabbalah.

The other 72 names, you're allowed to say, but not the One, yud he vav he. Jews won't even put it in writing and they'll write G-d.

The names of the angels etc are on the cards of the Hermetic Kabbalah, a good learning deck, and some decks like the Hermetic mention them.

If you look at the angels' names, they're all variations of divine qualities. They end either on -el or -iah, both endings that mean "of G-d". Just like the name Mi-cha-el means "who is like G-d?" and Yedidiya means "friend of G-d". (I write it here the Jewish way because you're allowed to say these syllables, but not the shem ha-mephorash, because these syllables are not explicit).

It's obvious that anything based on the number Four, like the tetragrammaton/explicit name, is associated with the four elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth), the four worlds of the kabbalah (Aziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, Assiah), the four suits and the four court cards.

These are the basic Golden Dawn kabbalistic correspondences for the Thoth, and in hidden form, also RWS:

Fire - Aziluth - the first letter yud י - Thoth Knights/RWS Kings - Kether - the Aces.

Water - Briah - the second letter ה, first heh - Queens - Binah - the Threes.

Air - Yetzirah - the third letter vav ו - Thoth Princes/RWS Knights - Tif'eret - the Sixes.

Earth - Assiah - the fourth letter, second heh ה - Princesses - Malkut - the Tens.


There is an ongoing discussion about these associations of the court cards of RWS and Thoth, and an alternative association is proposed for example on this blog.

Tarotists use a version of the kabbalah which is an alchemical mixture ;-) of Jewish and Christian mysticism with Neo-Platonism and some astrology. A Jewish kabbalah scholar wouldn't recognize much of what is counted as kabbalah in tarot circles :-) Nevertheless, it's good to know where the names and concepts come from. I try to explain them in an accessible way, and if you have questions, I hope I'll know enough to be able to answer!
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Amoroso
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Re: About the tetragrammaton or shem hamephorash

Post by Amoroso »

Regarding the 72 Shemhamphorash Angels, I remember that Mathers' Book T, which is the basis of the Golden Dawn system of Tarot, assigned 2 of them to each pip excluding the Aces. Actually, each pip corresponds to a decan (e.g. 2 of Wands is the 1st decan of Aries, 3 of Wands reflects the 2nd, etc), and it's the half-decans/quinances that correspond to one angel. Curiously though, the quinance-angel pairings used by the Golden Dawn is very different from that used by traditional occultists, since the former begins their cycle with Leo while the latter starts with Aries.

Crowley actually extended this concept in his Liber 777, so that each pip not only has 2 Shemhamphorash Angels, but 2 Goetic Demons too. Dr. Paul Rudd has developed a system that correlates each of the 72 Demons of the Lesser Key of Solomon to 72 Angels that bind them, but Crowley didn't follow this.
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Nemia
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Re: About the tetragrammaton or shem hamephorash

Post by Nemia »

The names of these angels can be found on the Hermetic Tarot and the Hermetic Kabbalah Tarot, and there are many websites listing them.

How do you use them in your tarot practice?
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Amoroso
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Re: About the tetragrammaton or shem hamephorash

Post by Amoroso »

The names of the Angels (using Latin and not Hebrew letters) and the seals of the Demons were also included in the Tarot of Ceremonial Magick by DuQuette. It's OOP though, so I took a look at the Hermetic that you suggested. I like it.

I haven't incorporated them in my readings yet. I just found them interesting.
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Jo⭐️
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Re: About the tetragrammaton or shem hamephorash

Post by Jo⭐️ »

Interesting post!- Nemia

Particularly the vowel points of Adonai being used to protect the Divine name of God. For some reason that has fascinated me. The carefulness and subtle way of protection without changing the text.
The personal name of the [El] of the Israelites …The Masoretes, Jewish biblical scholars of the Middle Ages, replaced the vowel signs that had appeared above or beneath the consonants of YHWH with the vowel signs of Adonai or of Elohim. Thus the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being”
https://yrm.org/yehovah-deception/

The use of the vowels from Elohim seem to make more sense for the ‘e’ in Jehovah though apparently, there is a Hebrew grammar issue to explain it from Adonai. Another source suggested that the vowel points from Elohim were used if Adonai came after YHVH in the text.


(Perhaps the 72 Angels of the tarot combine to give all the aspects of the divine name, therefore invocation of them would be protective but also powerful. At least with the notion of knowing something’s name gives power,commonly reflected in fairy tales such as rumpelstiltskin).


Sorry! Just noticed the diddly bits for quoting in reply
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Ailsaek
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Re: About the tetragrammaton or shem hamephorash

Post by Ailsaek »

Nemia wrote: 26 Oct 2018, 16:49 Tarotists use a version of the kabbalah which is an alchemical mixture ;-) of Jewish and Christian mysticism with Neo-Platonism and some astrology. A Jewish kabbalah scholar wouldn't recognize much of what is counted as kabbalah in tarot circles.
Which makes trying to learn Kabbalah rather difficult if you are a Jewish tarot enthusiast wanting to learn Jewish Kabbalah. I’m doing research into authors before I can even start on Kabbalah.
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