The Tarot of the Bohemians
Papus
Chapter 2
The He1
But the Ego cannot be realized except through its opposition to the Non-Ego. The assertion of the Ego is scarcely established, when we must instantly realize a reaction of the Ego, Absolute, upon itself, from which the conception of its existence will be drawn, by a kind of division of the Unity. This is the origin of duality, of opposition, of the Binary, the image of femininity, even as the Unity is the image of the masculine. Ten, divided by itself, in opposition to itself, then equals 10/2 = 5, five, the exact number of the letter He, the second letter of the great sacred name.
The He therefore represents the passive in relation to the Yod, which symbolizes the active; the Non-Ego in relation to the Ego, the woman relatively to the man; the substance relatively to the essence; life in its relation to the soul, &c.,&c.
The Vau2
But the opposition of the Ego and the Non-Ego immediately gives rise to another fator;; this is the Affinity existing between this Ego and this Non-Ego.
Now the Vau, the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, produced by 10 (yod) + 5 (he) = 15 = 6 (or 1 + 5), signifies link or analogy. It is the link which, uniting antagonisms in the whole of nature, constitutes the third word of this mysterious Trinity.
Ego - Non-Ego.
Affinity of the Ego with the Non-Ego.
The 2nd He.
Nothing can exist beyond this Trinity, considered as a law.
The Trinity is the synthetic and absolute formula to which all the sciences coverage; and this formula, forgotten with regard to its scientific value, has been transmitted to us integrally, by all the geligions of the world, the unconscious depositaries of the Science Wisdom of primitive civilizations3.
Thus the great sacred name is formed of three letters only. The fourth term of the name is formed by the repetition of the second letter, the He.
This repetition indicates the passage of the Trinitarian law into a new application; that is to speak corretly, a transition from the metaphysical to the physical world, or generaly, of any world whatever to the world that immeadiately follows it4.
The knowledge of the property of the second He is the key to the whole divine name, in every application of which it is susceptible. We shall see the proof of this statement.
1. See Eliphas Levi, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie; la Clef des Grands Mysteres;- Lacuria, op. cit.
2. See Fabre d’Olivet, La Langue Hebraique Restituee.
3. See Louis Lucas, Le Roman alchemique.
"Praeter haec tria numera non est alia magnitudo, quod tria sunt omnia, et ter undecunque, ut pythagorici dictunt; omne eet omnia tribus determinata sunt." - Aristotle. (Quoted by Ostrowski, page 24 of his Mathese.)
4. Ostrowski has seen this clearly. "The passage of 3 in 4 corresponds to that of the Trimurtiin Maia, and as the latter opens the second ternary of the pregenestic decade, so the figure 4 opens that of the second ternary of our genesetic decimal." - Mathese, p.25.