(Tree of the Sephiroth, from the 1995 work Tetragrammaton by Donald Tyson)
E-mail questions from a visitor to Supernatural World --
In the diagram of the Tree of the Sephiroth, shown on page 9 of your book Tetragrammaton, Path 25
[Tiphareth-Yesod] is over Path 27 [Netzach-Hod], and path 13 [Kether-Tiphareth] is over both Path 19 [Chesed-Geburah] and Path 14 [Chokmah-Binah]. What is the reason?On page 270 of your book, where the order of the Banners of Tetragrammaton is shown, it seems to me that HVIH 2314 would come before HVHI 2341, because 14 is before 41. It seems to me that VIHH 3124 is before VHIH 3412 - the number 3124 comes before 3412. Is this right?
None of my books has elicited more serious questions from readers than Tetragrammaton. The two questions above were contained in a single letter, and since I answered them together for the benefit of the reader who posed them, I thought it appropriate to also present my responses together on this Web page. I am sure that from time to time others have had the same questions in their minds, since these are not unreasonable issues to raise.
Those who study Western occultism in the Golden Dawn tradition, and who usually have no idea that they are studying the Golden Dawn system, are accustomed to seeing the graphic representation of the Tree of the Sephiroth in a specific form. The magical system of the Golden Dawn has spread so widely through the writings and teachings of influential members such as Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie, that the Golden Dawn way of doing things is often regarded as the only true and correct way. This is not the case. There is very little dogma in the actual practice of magic, but alas, far too much dogma in the teachings of self-appointed experts. The more shallow the knowledge of a teacher, the more likely he is to declare emphatically that his way of doing things is the only way. I am sure that many new students of the occult have been taught that there is one way to draw the diagram of the Tree, and only one way.
Discerning visitors to Supernatural World will have noticed that in my diagram of the Golden Dawn Tree of the Sephiroth Path 25 between Tiphareth and Yesod crosses above Path 27 between Netzach and Hod. This was done for pragmatic reasons - when Path 27 crosses over the top of Path 25, there is no room on Path 25 to write the name of the corresponding Tarot trump, Temperance. No deeper meaning should be construed.
The confusion over the numerical pattern connected with the sequence of the twelve Banners (permutations) of the divine name of God IHVH could only arise in the mind of someone who did not understand the reason why I presented this numerical pattern. But who is to blame for this misunderstanding? I choose to think that I am to blame, since it is my task as a writer to present my material so clearly than no one can mistake its meaning. Of course this is impossible, but it is a goal to strive after. I don't blame the reader for becoming confused about the pattern of numbers presented with the Banners - unless it is understood, it is bound to be misleading. Some human beings recognize graphic and numerical patterns and perceive inherent balance in systems more easily than others. I hope that by making clear that this series of numbers associated by me with the Banners has no occult significance, but is merely intended to help reveal their inherent pattern, that I have dispelled a bit of the mystery surrounding it.
By way of reference for those who have not read my book Tetragrammaton, the correct order of the twelve Banners of the Fourfold Hebrew name of God (transliterated into English letters) is shown below in the left column. If the places of the letters of the first Banner I-H-V-H are located by the numbers 1-2-3-4, then each Banner can be transformed into a different permutation of these numbers based upon the ordering of the four letters in that Banner. These sets of numbers are shown in the column on the right. I had thought it unnecessary to explain in the book that these sets of numbers are made up of separate, individual digits - 1, 2, 3, 4, not one thousand, two hundred thirty-four - but perhaps it was not self-evident to all readers.
IHVH . . . . 1234
IHHV . . . . 1243
IVHH . . . . 1342
HVHI . . . . 2341
HVIH . . . . 2314
HHIV . . . . 2413
VHIH . . . . 3412
VHHI . . . . 3421
VIHH . . . . 3124
HIHV . . . . 4123
HIVH . . . . 4132
HHVI . . . . 4231
By examining this column of numbers it is easy to see a repeating pattern in the vertical lines of digits. This pattern exists in the sequence of the Banners itself, but is not so easy to discern due to the fact that the second and fourth letter in IHVH are the same letter. It is because the second and fourth letter are identical that there are only twelve distinct permutations of the Name rather than twenty-four. Without some way of distinguishing the initial Hebrew letter Heh (H) from the final letter Heh, there would be no way to tell, for example, that HIHV (4123) was any different from HIHV (2143). Of course, there is no Banner 2143 in the traditional twelve Banners of the name, but in my book Tetragrammaton I use the number sequence to postulate a lunar partner for each solar Banner in which the positions of the initial and final Heh are reversed.
Because this sequence of the Banners has so seldom been clearly understood, it has often been presented incorrectly. The most notable occasion, with regard to modern Western magic and the magical Kabbalah, was in the Introduction to S. L. MacGregor Mathers' 1887 book The Kabbalah Unveiled (see page 31 of that work). Mathers was the leader of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the human source for most of its magical teachings. His book had a great influence on the studies of members of the original Golden Dawn, who in turn passed that influence on to their numerous disciples.
Thank you for writing about my book Tetragrammaton. It is always gratifying to hear from serious readers.
In response to your first question about the paths or channels on the Tree of the Sephiroth, there is no hard and fast rule concerning which path overlaps which other path on the diagram of the Tree. Where two paths cross, as they do below Tiphareth, for example, sometimes one is shown on top, and sometimes the other.
If you look at the serpent diagram of the Tree that appears in Israel Regardie's book The Golden Dawn (6th edition, page 62), you will see that the paths are made to merge and open into one another where they intersect - none is shown on top of any other. This was an old practice of Jewish Kabbalists who drew representations of the channels between the Sephiroth, and it is perhaps the best way, since it does not suggest that one path has supremacy or dominance over another.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn probably based this diagram of the Tree of the Sephiroth, often called the Tree of Life, on the diagram included in Athanasius Kircher's book Oedipus Aegyptiacus, published in 1652. In Kircher's diagram, just as in the Golden Dawn diagram cited, the intersecting paths do not overlap, but merge into one another.
By contrast, the color diagram of the Tree in Regardie's Golden Dawn (6th edition, color plate facing page 119) shows the horizontal paths crossing on top of the vertical and diagonal paths. It is probably the influence of this diagram that has caused this particular form of the Tree of the Sephiroth to become so popular today.
In the diagrams of the Tree used by Aleister Crowley in his Book of Thoth (see pages 266, 268, 270 of that work) the horizontal paths between Chokmah-Binah, Chesed-Geburah, and Netzach-Hod are shown crossing on top of the vertical paths between Kether-Tiphareth and Tiphareth-Yesod, and the diagonal paths between Chokmah-Tiphareth and Binah-Tiphareth. The same is true of the diagram of the Tree in Regardie's book The Tree of Life (1932) which was heavily influenced by Aleister Crowley's teachings (see Tree of Life, page 54), so this appears to have been Crowley's standard practice, and since Crowley learned all his magic from the Golden Dawn, it may very well have been the usual Golden Dawn practice as well, despite the first diagram I have cited from Regardie's Golden Dawn.
On the other hand, Dion Fortune was also a member of the Golden Dawn during the period in which it was headed by the wife of MacGregor Mathers, and in Fortune's book The Mystical Qabalah (1935), the horizontal paths are shown crossing under the vertical and diagonal paths - just the opposite of Crowley's practice (see the Mystical Qabalah, page 311).
I could multiply examples. In Gareth Knight's book A Practical Guide To Qabalistic Symbolism, the vertical and diagonal paths are shown on top of the horizontal paths (see page 25 of that work); contrarily, in William G. Gray's book The Ladder of Lights the horizontal paths cross on top of the vertical and diagonal paths (see the frontispiece of that work).
So, is Aleister Crowley correct, or is Dion Fortune? Is Gareth Knight right, or is William Gray? The answer is, both and neither. Which path is shown on top of which has no didactic significance, simply because the diagram of the Tree has been drawn so often in three ways -- with the horizontal paths on top, with the horizontal paths on the bottom, and with horizontal, vertical and diagonal paths merged so that none is on the top or bottom -- that no single way can be said to be right and the others wrong.
In my opinion, the last of the three ways mentioned is the most correct from a purely symbolic point of view, and appears to be the oldest, since in many old diagrams the paths are either shown as simple lines that cross, or as open channels that merge together. Symbolically speaking, no path should be suggested by a graphic diagram to have dominance over any other path. However, since it is the usual custom to show the paths crossing over each other, I followed this practice in my book Tetragrammaton. For no particular reason, other than that I consider it more aesthetically pleasing, I chose to present the same pattern as that chosen by Dion Fortune, Gareth Knight, and many other authorities on the magical Kabbalah. But you may feel free to employ the pattern preferred by Aleister Crowley, William Gray, Israel Regardie, and many others, since it is equally valid - or equally invalid.
Concerning your second question, the numbers attached to the individual Hebrew letters in the twelve distinct forms of the Fourfold Name (shown on page 270 of my book Tetragrammaton), you should realize that I used these numbers purely to distinguish between the initial and final Heh in each form of the Name. The numbers have no other significance - they are merely place keepers, useful to reveal the pattern of the letters in the twelve Banners. Since the base form of the Name is IHVH, and since this form invariably begins the series of the twelve Banners, I numbered the letters 1-2-3-4, but these numbers refer only to the location of the letters in this particular form of the Name. By following the movements of the numbers, it is possible to clearly track the changing placements of the Hebrew letters without getting mixed up about the two identical letters in each Banner. I might just as easily have made the final Heh in each Banner larger than the initial Heh, or distinguished it with some mark, or made it bolder, although these options would not have resulted in as clear a pattern as the number lists that result from identifying the placements of the four letters in IHVH numerically.
You suggest, based on the number sequence alone, that HVIH (2314) should come before HVHI (2341), because the number 14 comes before the number 41. This, however, would break the pattern of the Banners. That pattern cannot be denied. Not only does it appear in the authoritative 1561 work Sha'are Orah (Gates of Light) by Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla (HarperCollins, 1994, page 233), but its application to my graphic diagram, the tetragram (see Tetragrammaton, page 33) demonstrates beyond any question that it is correct. The twelve Banners fall into four groups, each group based on the similar initial Hebrew letter in its three members. The three forms of the Name in each group create three graphic patterns on the tetragram, and these three patterns are repeated, in the same order, for all four groups.
If you still find this list of numbers confusing, do not spend too much time worrying about it. The number sets have no occult power or Kabbalistic significance in themselves, they are merely used to illuminate the ancient sequence of the Banners of Tetragrammaton, which has so often been presented out of order in modern esoteric texts.
Donald Tyson