The Tarot of the Bohemians
Papus
Chapter 2
The Sacred Word Yod-He-Vau-He
The Kabbalah and the Sacred Word - The Yod - The He - The Vau - The second He - Synthesis of the Sacred Word.
According to the ancient oral tradition of the Hebrews, or Kabbalah1, a sacred word exists, which gives to he mortal who can discover the correct way of pronouncing it, the key to all the sciences, divine and human. This word, which the Israelites never uttered, and which the High Priest pronounced once a year, admidst the shouts of the laity, is found at the head of every initiative ritual, it radiates from the center of the flaming triangle at the 33rd degree of Freemasonry of Scotland, it is displayed above the gateways of our old cathedrals, is formed of four Hebrew letters, and reads thus, Yod-He-Vau-He.
It is used in the Sepher Bereschit, or Genesis of Moses, to designate the divinity, and its grammatical construction recalls even by its formation2 the attributes of which men have always delighted to ascribe to God. Now we shall see that the powers attributed to this word are real up to a certain point, for with its aid to the symbolical gate of the arch, which contains the explanation of the whole doctrine of ancient science, is easily opened. It is therefore necessary to enter into some detail respecting it.
The word is formed of four letters, Yod, He, Vau, He. The last letter he is repeated twice.
A number is attributed to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We must look at those which relate to the letters we are now considering.
- Yod = 10
- he = 5
- vau = 6
The total numerical value of the word yod-he-vau-he is therefor
10 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 26
Let us now study each letter separately.
1. "It appears, according to the most famous rabbis, that Moses himself, foreseeing the fate which awaited his book, and the false interpretations which would be given to it in the course of time, resorted to an oral law, which he delivered verbally to reliable men, whose fidelity he had tested, and whom he charged to transmit it to others in the secret of the sanctuary, who in their turn, transmitting it from age to age, secured its preservation even for the most distant posterity. This oral law, which modern Jews still flatter themselves that they possess, is called the Kabbalah, from a Hebrew word which signifies that which is received, that which comes from elsewhere, that which passes from hand to hand." - Fabre d’Olivet, La Langue Hebraique Restituee, p.29
2. "This name presents first the sign which indicates life, repeated twice, and thus forming the essentially living root EE. This root is never used as a noun, and is the only one which enjoys this prerogative. It is from its formation not only a verb, but a unique verb, EVE, to be, being. Here, as we can see, and as I have carefully explained in my grammar, the sign of intelligble light V is placed in the midst of the root of life. Moses, when using this unique verb to form the proper name of the Being of Beings, added to it the sign of potential manifestation and of eternity, I; he thus obtained IEVE, in which the faculative Being is placed between a past tense without origin, and a future without limit. This admirable word thus exactly signifies the being who is, who was, and who will be. " - Fabre d’Olivet, La Langue Hebraique Restituee