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CHAPTER II
The great name of the God of Israel occurs more than five thousand times in the Bible. Qabalists call it the Tetragrammaton, or quadrilateral name. Other divine names, such as ADNI, AHIH, and AGLA, also contain four letters, but there is only one Tetragrammaton. It is spelt Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh- in English letters, I-H-V-H.
The Bible ascribes peculiar power to this name; and tradition says that to pronounce it is to possess. a key to all wisdom? In the occult sense, to pronounce the name is to -rasp its inner meaning. It is really a cipher, which conceals the profoundest mysteries of Qabalistic doctrine.
The Tarot of the Bohemians gives a brief interpretation of this name and shows how the four letters correspond to the occult meaning of numbers. To it I am indebted for my first knowledge of these matters; but in considering how Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh unlocks the mysteries of the Tarot, I hope to bring to light facts that have not been published before.
My object is neither to prove the accuracy of the Qabalistic interpretation of the Tetragrammaton, nor to defend the doctrines that have been deduced there from. I merely seek to show how the inventors of the Tarot used Qabalistic ideas as the basis for their alphabet of symbols.
The student should understand that the implicits of each letter of the name in the various lists that follow are connected by links of association present in every human mind. The knitting together of apparently unrelated ideas which results from diligent search for, and prolonged meditation upon, these hidden connections, will be found to be one of the principle benefits of this study. In this work a dictionary and a thesaurus will be found useful; but the indispensable feature must be attentive examination of the cards. One might as well try to learn music without singing or playing as to understand to interpret the Tarot without using the pack itself.
As a beginning, let the student trace the connecting links in the following lists of ideas represented by each letter of the name:
Yod
A hand; creation, executive, realization; Mexican, Hindu, Persian, and Christian symbol of God. In the Zohar, divine royalty, typified by the rod of Moses (Eliphas Levi); the active principle of all things (Papus) ; Spirit, Ruach, Prana, or Pneuma, the "life-breath"; inmost principle of man, the Ego, termed Purusha by Hindus.
Heh
A window; suggests (1) admission of light and air into a building, and (2) a means of outlook, which' enables those within to see what happens outside. The first implicit represents movement from a circumference to a center, or involution; the second stands for motion from within outward, or evolution. Qabalists call Heh "the Mother," and say creation took place therewith. It is a sign of instrumentality, of the universal passive principle, the Non-Ego, which is the Prakriti or Great Mother, of the Hindus.
Vau
A nail, or hook; fastening, junction, binding, suspension. In the Tetragrammaton, that which joins Yod to Heh. The link between Essence (Purusha) and Substance (Prakriti) i.e, Motion or Force. According to Papus, Vau denotes the universal, passive-active, formative power.
Heh
In the Tetragrammaton the second Heh represents the second implicit of the letter-name. It is a sign of evolution, of transmission from one cycle, or plane, of activity to another. Papus compares it to a grain of wheat relatively to the ear, and calls it a Yod in germ-a synthesis of the first three letters, a concentration of their potentialities. It is a sign of Form, which combines Essence, Substance, and Activity.
After digesting the foregoing interpretation of the letters the student will have no trouble to understand the following table:
| Yod | Heh | Vau | Heh |
| Spirit | Soul | Astral body | Physical body |
| Archetypal | Creative | Formative | Material |
| Fire | Water | Air | Earth |
| Lion | Eagle | Man | Bull |
| Leo | Scorpio | Aquarius | Taurus |
The implicits of the letters of the name are analogous to the implicits of the first four integers. Y od, as a symbol for the active principle of all things which must be a perfect unity, corresponds to 1. Heh denotes the universal passive principle; that which reflects the One and seems also to antagonize and oppose it. This principle has long been identified with the number 2. Vau, sign of the union of Yod and Heh (Yod = 10, Heh = 5; Yod + Heh = 10 + 5 = 15 = 1 + 5 = 6, the numerical value of Vau), is analogous to 3, which is the sum of 1 and 2. Finally, as the second Heh is a Y od in germ, so is 4 a potential 1; for by that process of occult mathematics called "theosophic extension" 4=1+2+3+4=10, and by reduction 10--1+0--1.
As a potential 1, the number 4 may be thought of as beginning a second group of integers-4, 5, 6, and 7. In this quaternary, 7 is the second Heh. Thus it is also a Yod in germ. It returns to unity just as 4 does, for it extends to 28=2+8--10. Hence occultists take it as the initial figure of \ a third quaternary-7, 8, 9, 10. 10 is like 4 and 7. It returns to unity at once, by reduction, and its extension is 5'3=5+5=10--1+0=1.
Perhaps these correspondences cannot be justified by ordinary rules of logic; but, logical or not, they form a recognized part of occult doctrine. As such they are important clues to the meaning of the Tarot.
They give us, in fact, a key to the general plan of the whole pack. In the minor trumps the correspondences are so obvious that they hardly need to be tabulated; but they are not any more certain than those in the major trumps, though the latter are not so likely to be noticed by a casual observer.
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