(animation showing the tetragrams of the twelve Banners of IHVH)

Tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters of the unspeakable Name of God (Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh), has for millennia been the supreme word of power in Western magic. Its ancient pronunciation was closely guarded by the priests in the Temple at Jerusalem, and over time was forgotten and lost, but modern scholars believe that it was vocalized as Yahweh. For many centuries devout Jews have refused to speak it as a sign of respect and awe -- when they encounter IHVH while reading the Torah they substitute the lesser divine name Adonai (Lord), or sometimes the name Elohim (God) where this proves necessary to avoid awkwardness. According to the Jewish sage Moses Maimonides (born 1135) IHVH is the only proper name of God, whereas all other divine names are merely titles or attributions of the Highest.

The supreme importance of the Name is attested to by the frequency with which it appears in its Hebrew form in medieval grimoires, the writings of Renaissance mystics, and alchemical emblems. During the Renaissance, Christian Kabbalists attempted to assume to themselves its authority by merging the Fourfold Name with the Hebrew letter Shin (esoterically the letter representing the fire of the spirit), thereby creating a Fivefold Name of Jesus (Yod-Heh-Shin-Vav-Heh). This was an acknowledgement by Christian esoteric philosophers of the power and significance of Tetragrammaton -- something known for countless centuries to Jewish mystics, who used the Name as the central machine of their magic. For this reason they were known as Masters of the Name (ba'alei shem).

Each letter of Tetragrammaton is associated with one of the four ancient elements, which are most familiar to us through the writings of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. The first letter, Yod, stands for elemental Fire. The second letter, Heh, stands for elemental Water. The third letter, Vav, stands for elemental Air. The fourth letter, another Heh, stands for elemental Earth.

The Yod also represents masculine force, the heavenly Father (sometimes called Abba). The initial Heh stands for feminine force, and the heavenly Mother (sometimes called Aima). The Vav stands for masculine power in the form of the divine Son (Microprosopus), the product of the union between the Yod and the initial Heh. The final Heh represents feminine energy in the form of the Daughter (Bride of Microprosopus). This family group is dynamic. The Son ascends to become the Father, the Daughter replaces the Mother, and their offspring in turn become the Son and Daughter of the next cycle.

Tetragrammaton is not merely a word, it is a living model of creation. Its letters and their numerous interactions express forces in the universe both subtle and powerful. Jewish Kabbalists meditate upon IHVH to understand the nature of reality itself, and vocalize or write the Fourfold Name in various occult ways to use its potencies for their own purposes.

The most powerful mutations of IHVH are its twelve distinct forms. Because the second and fourth letters are the same, there are twelve permutations of the Name, rather than twenty-four (although it is possible to distinguish between the initial and final Heh, and thereby achieve twenty-four forms -- but this cannot be done visually without marking the letters). The permutations of Tetragrammaton are usually called the Banners. They are assigned by traditional Kabbalists in order counterclockwise around the signs of the zodiac, beginning with Aries. Each Banner represents the power of its associated sign of the zodiac, and partakes of all the occult associations linked with that sign.

(four Hebrew letters of Tetragrammaton, from a seal in Barrett's The Magus, 1801)

One of the weaknesses of Tetragrammaton as a tool of magic, from a practical standpoint, was the lack of a graphic symbol that could be projected upon the air in different ways to represent the twelve Banners of the Name. Jewish Kabbalists had always employed the shapes of the four Hebrew letters themselves in meditation and magic. Occasionally the letters of IHVH were drawn symbolically, for example to represent the divine body of the heavenly or spiritual Adam, but there was no system for projecting the Banners graphically, as there is in Western magic for projecting the powers of the elements by using different forms of the pentagram.

This led me to create a method for projecting the Banners of Tetragrammaton using the framework of a simple diamond pattern that I have termed the tetragram. Not only does this method allow the projection of the power of the Banners during rituals of ceremonial magic, by tracing the tetragrams of the Banners upon the air or inscribing them upon talismans and charms, but it also acts as a meditation upon the twelve Banners, and as a mnemonic aid in remembering the order of the Banners and their association with the signs of the zodiac.

I regard the traditional assignment of the Banners counterclockwise in order around the zodiac beginning with Aries as simplistic and incorrect. It is my conviction that the Banners must be divided into four groups of three. Each group begins with a different letter of IHVH, and this initial letter determines the elemental association for the Banners in the group. There are three zodiac signs for each element, and also three Banners of Tetragrammaton for each element. Banners of a group may be assigned to the signs of an element in the order Cardinal-Mutable-Fixed.

IHVH -- Aries (Cardinal-Fire)
IHHV -- Sagittarius (Mutable-Fire)
IVHH -- Leo (Fixed-Fire)

HVHI -- Cancer (Cardinal-Water)
HVIH -- Pisces (Mutable-Water)
HHIV -- Scorpio (Fixed-Water)

VHIH -- Libra (Cardinal-Air)
VHHI -- Gemini (Mutable-Air)
VIHH -- Aquarius (Fixed-Air)

HIHV -- Capricorn (Cardinal-Earth)
HIVH -- Virgo (Mutable-Earth)
HHVI -- Taurus (Fixed-Earth)

The animation at the top of this page illustrates the way of projecting the tetragram of each Banner of Tetragrammaton upon the air during rituals, and highlights the sign of the zodiac associated with each Banner in my own system of correspondences. It is best to project the tetragram of a Banner in the direction associated with its corresponding sign of the zodiac. In the animation, I have shown the zodiac in its familiar pattern, with the first sign, Aries, to the left and the signs arranged in their traditional order counterclockwise.

In my own system of magic, fully explained in my book New Millennium Magic, the zodiac is reflected for purposes of ritual upon the ground and oriented clockwise in this way: Leo (south), Virgo (south south-west), Libra (west south-west), Scorpio (west), Sagittarius (west north-west), Capricorn (north north-west), Aquarius (north), Pisces (north north-east), Aries (east north-east), Taurus (east), Gemini (east south-east), Cancer (south south-east).

In my system, elemental Air is placed in the north, and elemental Earth in the east, with Fire in its usual place in the south and Water in its usual place in the west. You must be aware of this difference to avoid confusion with the more common Golden Dawn system of elemental association (Fire-south, Water-west, Earth-north, Air-east). In general, my magic is based upon that of the Golden Dawn, but I have found it necessary to make some minor changes to the Golden Dawn occult correspondences.

For purposes of meditation and ritual, it can be helpful to draw the zodiac signs on file cards or slips of paper, and lay them on the floor around your feet in a circle six feet in diameter in the order indicated above. This will help you to remember the direction for each sign.

As you stand in the middle of this circle, each Banner should be drawn large upon the air in front of you with the right index finger, beginning at its cross and ending at its arrowhead -- the animation illustrates the direction of motion. The cross and the arrowhead are only necessary when writing the tetragrams of the Banners, to show their direction of motion. When you inscribe them actively upon the air, the direction is indicated by the movement of your hand, and the cross and arrowhead should be omitted. As you draw each tetragram, mentally project it to the boundary of the circle you have defined around yourself, and continue to visualize it standing upright and flaming with astral fire. It is best to always rotate your body clockwise, or sunwise, when moving from one tetragram to the next.

As you project the tetragram of each Banner upon the air, you should voice under your breath the individual Hebrew letters of the Banner. For example, the letters "Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh" should be vibrated upon the breath as you inscribe the tetragram of the Banner of Aries (IHVH) toward the east north-east; the letters "Yod-Heh-Heh-Vav" should be vibrated as you project upon the air the tetragram of the Banner of Sagittarius (IHHV) towards the west north-west; and so on.

As an alternative, sit upon a mat or cushion on the floor with your eyes closed, facing south, and mentally project the Banners in their order to the twelve directions of space around you while verbally or mentally vibrating the Hebrew letters of the Banners. Visualize yourself turning sunwise to each direction and drawing the tetragram of each Banner on the air with your right index finger.

This meditation upon the tetragram will teach you the forms and sequence of the Banners, the tetragrams associated with them, and their zodiac signs. It is surprisingly easy to remember all these things once you have performed this meditation a dozen times or so, and have understood its structure.

It is impossible to even begin to examine the meaning and magical uses for the Banners of Tetragrammaton in this little essay. This subject is covered in great detail in my book Tetragrammaton, which was written for just that purpose. In Tetragrammaton I describe the ritual functions of the tetragram in detail, and show how it can be used to invoke and banish a hierarchy of angels that I have named the Wings of the Winds.

Using IHVH as an occult key, and guided by a veiled clue in Dr. John Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad (published in 1564), I was able to extract this hierarchy of angels by traditional Kabbalistic means from a verse in the Hebrew version of the biblical Book of Revelation. The Wings of the Winds are the angels associated with the four Kerubic beasts seated around the Throne of Heaven (see Revelation 4:8). They also figure prominently in the Enochian Keys of John Dee, where the phrase "wings of the winds" appears -- hence my use of this name.

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this method of graphically projecting the Banners of Tetragrammaton for purposes of invocation and banishing during ritual magic. It will prove of immense value to Kabbalists, both during meditation upon the Name, and when using the Name in practical occult work. I strongly urge anyone with a serious interest in the Kabbalah or in Enochian magic to study my book Tetragrammaton, since it contains valuable material not to be found elsewhere.