The Ineffable Name.
Another important symbol is the Ineffable Name, with which the series of
ritualistic symbols will be concluded.
The Tetragrammaton,[122] or Ineffable Word,--the Incommunicable Name,--is
a symbol--for rightly-considered it is nothing more than a symbol--that
has more than any other (except, perhaps, the symbols connected with
sun-worship), pervaded the rites of antiquity. I know, indeed, of no
system of ancient initiation in which it has not some prominent form and
place.
But as it was, perhaps, the earliest symbol which was corrupted by the
spurious Freemasonry of the pagans, in their secession from the primitive
system of the patriarchs and ancient priesthood, it will be most expedient
for the thorough discussion of the subject which is proposed in the
present paper, that we should begin the investigation with an inquiry into
the nature of the symbol among the Israelites.
That name of God, which we, at a venture, pronounce Jehovah,--although
whether this is, or is not, the true pronunciation can now never be
authoritatively settled,--was ever held by the Jews in the most profound
veneration. They derived its origin from the immediate inspiration of the
Almighty, who communicated it to Moses as his especial appellation, to be
used only by his chosen people; and this communication was made at the
Burning Bush, when he said to him, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel: Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this [Jehovah] is
my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." [123] And
at a subsequent period he still more emphatically declared this to be his
peculiar name: "I am _Jehovah_; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac,
and unto Jacob, by the name of _El Shaddai_; but by my name _Jehovah_ was
I not known unto them." [124]
It will be perceived that I have not here followed precisely the somewhat
unsatisfactory version of King James's Bible, which, by translating or
anglicizing one name, and not the other, leaves the whole passage less
intelligible and impressive than it should be. I have retained the
original Hebrew for both names. El Shaddai, "the Almighty One," was the
name by which he had been heretofore known to the preceding patriarchs; in
its meaning it was analogous to Elohim, who is described in the first
chapter of Genesis as creating the world. But his name of Jehovah was now
for the first time to be communicated to his people.
Ushered to their notice with all the solemnity and religious consecration
of these scenes and events, this name of God became invested among the
Israelites with the profoundest veneration and awe. To add to this
mysticism, the Cabalists, by the change of a single letter, read the
passage, "This is my name forever," or, as it is in the original, _Zeh
shemi l'olam_, םלעל ימש הז as if written _Zeh shemi l'alam_,
םלאל ימש הז that is to say, "This is my name to be concealed."
This interpretation, although founded on a blunder, and in all probability
an intentional one, soon became a precept, and has been strictly obeyed to
this day.[125] The word _Jehovah_ is never pronounced by a pious Jew,
who, whenever he meets with it in Scripture, substitutes for it the word
_Adonai_ or _Lord_--a practice which has been followed by the translators
of the common English version of the Bible with almost Jewish
scrupulosity, the word "Jehovah" in the original being invariably
translated by the word "Lord." [126] The pronunciation of the word, being
thus abandoned, became ultimately lost, as, by the peculiar construction
of the Hebrew language, which is entirely without vowels, the letters,
being all consonants, can give no possible indication, to one who has not
heard it before, of the true pronunciation of any given word.
To make this subject plainer to the reader who is unacquainted with the
Hebrew, I will venture to furnish an explanation which will, perhaps, be
intelligible.
The Hebrew alphabet consists entirely of consonants, the vowel sounds
having always been inserted orally, and never marked in writing until the
"vowel points," as they are called, were invented by the Masorites, some
six centuries after the Christian era. As the vowel sounds were originally
supplied by the reader, while reading, from a knowledge which he had
previously received, by means of oral instruction, of the proper
pronunciation of the word, he was necessarily unable to pronounce any word
which had never before been uttered in his presence. As we know that _Dr._
is to be pronounced _Doctor_, and _Mr. Mister_, because we have always
heard those peculiar combinations of letters thus enunciated, and not
because the letters themselves give any such sound; so the Jew knew from
instruction and constant practice, and not from the power of the letters,
how the consonants in the different words in daily use were to be
vocalized. But as the four letters which compose the word _Jehovah_, as we
now call it, were never pronounced in his presence, but were made to
represent another word, _Adonai_, which was substituted for it, and as the
combination of these four consonants would give no more indication for any
sort of enunciation than the combinations _Dr._ or _Mr._ give in our
language, the Jew, being ignorant of what vocal sounds were to be
supplied, was unable to pronounce the word, so that its true pronunciation
was in time lost to the masses of the people.
There was one person, however, who, it is said, was in possession of the
proper sound of the letters and the true pronunciation of the word. This
was the high priest, who, receiving it from his predecessor, preserved the
recollection of the sound by pronouncing it three times, once a year, on
the day of the atonement, when he entered the holy of holies of the
tabernacle or the temple.
If the traditions of Masonry on this subject are correct, the kings, after
the establishment of the monarchy, must have participated in this
privilege; for Solomon is said to have been in possession of the word, and
to have communicated it to his two colleagues at the building of the
temple.
This is the word which, from the number of its letters, was called the
"tetragrammaton," or four-lettered name, and, from its sacred
inviolability, the "ineffable" or unutterable name.
The Cabalists and Talmudists have enveloped it in a host of mystical
superstitions, most of which are as absurd as they are incredible, but all
of them tending to show the great veneration that has always been paid to
it.[127] Thus they say that it is possessed of unlimited powers, and that
he who pronounces it shakes heaven and earth, and inspires the very angels
with terror and astonishment.
The Rabbins called it "shem hamphorash," that is to say, "the name that is
declaratory," and they say that David found it engraved on a stone while
digging into the earth.
From the sacredness with which the name was venerated, it was seldom, if
ever, written in full, and, consequently, a great many symbols, or
hieroglyphics, were invented to express it. One of these was the letter
י or _Yod_, equivalent nearly to the English I, or J, or Y,
which was the initial of the word, and it was often inscribed within an
equilateral triangle, thus:
/ \
/ \
/ י \
/ \
---------
the triangle itself being a symbol of Deity.
This symbol of the name of God is peculiarly worthy of our attention,
since not only is the triangle to be found in many of the ancient
religions occupying the same position, but the whole symbol itself is
undoubtedly the origin of that hieroglyphic exhibited in the second degree
of Masonry, where, the explanation of the symbolism being the same, the
form of it, as far as it respects the letter, has only been anglicized by
modern innovators. In my own opinion, the letter _G_, which is used in the
Fellow Craft's degree, should never have been permitted to intrude into
Masonry; it presents an instance of absurd anachronism, which would never
have occurred if the original Hebrew symbol had been retained. But being
there now, without the possibility of removal, we have only to remember
that it is in fact but the symbol of a symbol.[128]
Widely spread, as I have already said, was this reverence for the name of
God; and, consequently, its symbolism, in some peculiar form, is to be
found in all the ancient rites.
Thus the Ineffable Name itself, of which we have been discoursing, is said
to have been preserved in its true pronunciation by the Essenes, who, in
their secret rites, communicated it to each other only in a whisper, and
in such form, that while its component parts were known, they were so
separated as to make the whole word a mystery.
Among the Egyptians, whose connection with the Hebrews was more immediate
than that of any other people, and where, consequently, there was a
greater similarity of rites, the same sacred name is said to have been
used as a password, for the purpose of gaining admission to their
Mysteries.
In the Brahminic Mysteries of Hindostan the ceremony of initiation was
terminated by intrusting the aspirant with the sacred, triliteral name,
which was AUM, the three letters of which were symbolic of the creative,
preservative, and destructive principles of the Supreme Deity, personified
in the three manifestations of Bramah, Siva, and Vishnu. This word was
forbidden to be pronounced aloud. It was to be the subject of silent
meditation to the pious Hindoo.
In the rites of Persia an ineffable name was also communicated to the
candidate after his initiation.[129] Mithras, the principal divinity in
these rites, who took the place of the Hebrew Jehovah, and represented the
sun, had this peculiarity in his name--that the numeral value of the
letters of which it was composed amounted to precisely 365, the number of
days which constitute a revolution of the earth around the sun, or, as
they then supposed, of the sun around the earth.
In the Mysteries introduced by Pythagoras into Greece we again find the
ineffable name of the Hebrews, obtained doubtless by the Samian Sage
during his visit to Babylon.[130] The symbol adopted by him to express it
was, however, somewhat different, being ten points distributed in the
form of a triangle, each side containing four points, as in the annexed
figure.
.
. .
. . .
. . . .
The apex of the triangle was consequently a single point then followed
below two others, then three; and lastly, the base consisted of four.
These points were, by the number in each rank, intended, according to the
Pythagorean system, to denote respectively the _monad_, or active
principle of nature; the _duad_, or passive principle; the _triad_, or
world emanating from their union; and the _quaterniad_, or intellectual
science; the whole number of points amounting to ten, the symbol of
perfection and consummation. This figure was called by Pythagoras the
_tetractys_--a word equivalent in signification to the _tetragrammaton_;
and it was deemed so sacred that on it the oath of secrecy and fidelity
was administered to the aspirants in the Pythagorean rites.[131]
Among the Scandinavians, as among the Jewish Cabalists, the Supreme God
who was made known in their mysteries had twelve names, of which the
principal and most sacred one was _Alfader_, the Universal Father.
Among the Druids, the sacred name of God was _Hu_[132]--a name which,
although it is supposed, by Bryant, to have been intended by them for
Noah, will be recognized as one of the modifications of the Hebrew
tetragrammaton. It is, in fact, the masculine pronoun in Hebrew, and may
be considered as the symbolization of the male or generative principle in
nature--a sort of modification of the system of Phallic worship.
This sacred name among the Druids reminds me of what is the latest, and
undoubtedly the most philosophical, speculation on the true meaning, as
well as pronunciation, of the ineffable tetragrammaton. It is from the
ingenious mind of the celebrated Lanci; and I have already, in another
work, given it to the public as I received it from his pupil, and my
friend, Mr. Gliddon, the distinguished archaeologist. But the results are
too curious to be omitted whenever the tetragrammaton is discussed.
Elsewhere I have very fully alluded to the prevailing sentiment among the
ancients, that the Supreme Deity was bisexual, or hermaphrodite, including
in the essence of his being the male and female principles, the generative
and prolific powers of nature. This was the universal doctrine in all the
ancient religions, and was very naturally developed in the symbol of the
_phallus_ and _cteis_ among the Greeks, and in the corresponding one of
the _lingam_ and _yoni_ among the Orientalists; from which symbols the
masonic _point within a circle_ is a legitimate derivation. They all
taught that God, the Creator, was both male and female.
Now, this theory is undoubtedly unobjectionable on the score of orthodoxy,
if we view it in the spiritual sense, in which its first propounders must
necessarily have intended it to be presented to the mind, and not in the
gross, sensual meaning in which it was subsequently received. For, taking
the word _sex_, not in its ordinary and colloquial signification, as
denoting the indication of a particular physical organization, but in that
purely philosophical one which alone can be used in such a connection, and
which simply signifies the mere manifestation of a power, it is not to be
denied that the Supreme Being must possess in himself, and in himself
alone, both a generative and a prolific power. This idea, which was so
extensively prevalent among all the nations of antiquity,[133] has also
been traced in the tetragrammaton, or name of Jehovah, with singular
ingenuity, by Lanci; and, what is almost equally as interesting, he has,
by this discovery, been enabled to demonstrate what was, in all
probability, the true pronunciation of the word.
In giving the details of this philological discovery, I will endeavor to
make it as comprehensible as it can be made to those who are not
critically acquainted with the construction of the Hebrew language; those
who are will at once appreciate its peculiar character, and will excuse
the explanatory details, of course unnecessary to them.
The ineffable name, the tetragrammaton, the shem hamphorash,--for it is
known by all these appellations,--consists of four letters, _yod, heh,
vau_, and _heh_, forming the word הוהי. This word, of course, in
accordance with the genius of the Hebrew language, is read, as we would
say, backward, or from right to left, beginning with _yod_ [י], and ending
with _heh_ [ה].
Of these letters, the first, _yod_ [י], is equivalent to the English _i_
pronounced as _e_ in the word _machine_.
The second and fourth letter, _heh_ [ה], is an aspirate, and has here the
sound of the English _h_.
And the third letter, _vau_ [ו], has the sound of open _o_.
Now, reading these four letters, י, or I, ה, or H, ו, or O, and ה, or H,
as the Hebrew requires, from right to left, we have the word הוהי,
equivalent in English to IH-OH, which is really as near to the
pronunciation as we can well come, notwithstanding it forms neither of the
seven ways in which the word is said to have been pronounced, at different
times, by the patriarchs.[134]
But, thus pronounced, the word gives us no meaning, for there is no such
word in Hebrew as _ihoh_; and, as all the Hebrew names were significative
of something, it is but fair to conclude that this was not the original
pronunciation, and that we must look for another which will give a
meaning to the word. Now, Lanci proceeds to the discovery of this true
pronunciation, as follows:--
In the Cabala, a hidden meaning is often deduced from a word by
transposing or reversing its letters, and it was in this way that the
Cabalists concealed many of their mysteries.
Now, to reverse a word in English is to read its letters from _right to
left_, because our normal mode of reading is from _left to right_. But in
Hebrew the contrary rule takes place, for there the normal mode of reading
is from _right to left_; and therefore, to reverse the reading of a word,
is to read it from _left to right_.
Lanci applied this cabalistic mode to the tetragrammaton, when he found
that IH-OH, being read reversely, makes the word HO-HI.[135]
But in Hebrew, _ho_ is the masculine pronoun, equivalent to the English
_he_; and _hi_ is the feminine pronoun, equivalent to _she_; and therefore
the word HO-HI, literally translated, is equivalent to the English
compound HE-SHE; that is to say, the Ineffable Name of God in Hebrew,
being read cabalistically, includes within itself the male and female
principle, the generative and prolific energy of creation; and here we
have, again, the widely-spread symbolism of the phallus and the cteis, the
lingam and the yoni, or their equivalent, the point within a circle, and
another pregnant proof of the connection between Freemasonry and the
ancient Mysteries.
And here, perhaps, we may begin to find some meaning for the hitherto
incomprehensible passage in Genesis (i. 27): "So God created man _in his
own image; in the image of God_ created he him; _male and female_ created
he them." They could not have been "in the image" of IHOH, if they had not
been "male and female."
The Cabalists have exhausted their ingenuity and imagination in
speculations on this sacred name, and some of their fancies are really
sufficiently interesting to repay an investigation. Sufficient, however,
has been here said to account for the important position that it occupies
in the masonic system, and to enable us to appreciate the symbols by which
it has been represented.
The great reverence, or indeed the superstitious veneration, entertained
by the ancients for the name of the Supreme Being, led them to express it
rather in symbols or hieroglyphics than in any word at length.
We know, for instance, from the recent researches of the archaeologists,
that in all the documents of the ancient Egyptians, written in the demotic
or common character of the country, the names of the gods were invariably
denoted by symbols; and I have already alluded to the different modes by
which the Jews expressed the tetragrammaton. A similar practice prevailed
among the other nations of antiquity. Freemasonry has adopted the same
expedient, and the Grand Architect of the Universe, whom it is the usage,
even in ordinary writing, to designate by the initials G.A.O.T.U., is
accordingly presented to us in a variety of symbols, three of which
particularly require attention. These are the letter _G_, the equilateral
triangle, and the All-Seeing Eye.
Of the letter _G_ I have already spoken. A letter of the English alphabet
can scarcely be considered an appropriate symbol of an institution which
dates its organization and refers its primitive history to a period long
anterior to the origin of that language. Such a symbol is deficient in the
two elements of antiquity and universality which should characterize every
masonic symbol. There can, therefore, be no doubt that, in its present
form, it is a corruption of the old Hebrew symbol, the letter _yod_, by
which the sacred name was often expressed. This letter is the initial of
the word _Jehovah_, or _Ihoh_, as I have already stated, and is constantly
to be met with in Hebrew writings as the symbol or abbreviature of
_Jehovah_, which word, it will be remembered, is never written at length.
But because _G_ is, in like manner, the initial of _God_, the equivalent
of _Jehovah_, this letter has been incorrectly, and, I cannot refrain from
again saying, most injudiciously, selected to supply, in modern lodges,
the place of the Hebrew symbol.
Having, then, the same meaning and force as the Hebrew _yod_, the letter
_G_ must be considered, like its prototype, as the symbol of the
life-giving and life-sustaining power of God, as manifested in the meaning
of the word Jehovah, or Ihoh, the generative and prolific energy of the
Creator.
The _All-Seeing Eye_ is another, and a still more important, symbol of the
same great Being. Both the Hebrews and the Egyptians appear to have
derived its use from that natural inclination of figurative minds to
select an organ as the symbol of the function which it is intended
peculiarly to discharge. Thus the foot was often adopted as the symbol of
swiftness, the arm of strength, and the hand of fidelity. On the same
principle, the open eye was selected as the symbol of watchfulness, and
the eye of God as the symbol of divine watchfulness and care of the
universe. The use of the symbol in this sense is repeatedly to be found in
the Hebrew writers. Thus the Psalmist says (Ps. xxxiv. 15), "The eyes of
the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry,"
which explains a subsequent passage (Ps. cxxi. 4), in which it is said,
"Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." [136]
On the same principle, the Egyptians represented Osiris, their chief
deity, by the symbol of an open eye, and placed this hieroglyphic of him
in all their temples. His symbolic name, on the monuments, was represented
by the eye accompanying a throne, to which was sometimes added an
abbreviated figure of the god, and sometimes what has been called a
hatchet, but which, I consider, may as correctly be supposed to be a
representation of a square.
The All-Seeing Eye may, then, be considered as a symbol of God manifested
in his omnipresence--his guardian and preserving character--to which
Solomon alludes in the Book of Proverbs (xv. 3), when he says, "The eyes
of Jehovah are in every place, beholding (or as it might be more
faithfully translated, watching) the evil and the good." It is a symbol of
the Omnipresent Deity.
The _triangle_ is another symbol which is entitled to our consideration.
There is, in fact, no other symbol which is more various in its
application or more generally diffused throughout the whole system of both
the Spurious and the Pure Freemasonry.
The equilateral triangle appears to have been adopted by nearly all the
nations of antiquity as a symbol of the Deity.
Among the Hebrews, it has already been stated that this figure, with a
_yod_ in the centre, was used to represent the tetragrammaton, or
ineffable name of God.
The Egyptians considered the equilateral triangle as the most perfect of
figures, and a representative of the great principle of animated
existence, each of its sides referring to one of the three departments of
creation--the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral.
The symbol of universal nature among the Egyptians was the right-angled
triangle, of which the perpendicular side represented Osiris, or the male
principle; the base, Isis, or the female principle; and the hypothenuse,
their offspring, Horus, or the world emanating from the union of both
principles.
All this, of course, is nothing more nor less than the phallus and cteis,
or lingam and yoni, under a different form.
The symbol of the right-angled triangle was afterwards adopted by
Pythagoras when he visited the banks of the Nile; and the discovery which
he is said to have made in relation to the properties of this figure, but
which he really learned from the Egyptian priests, is commemorated in
Masonry by the introduction of the forty-seventh problem of Euclid's First
Book among the symbols of the third degree. Here the same mystical
application is supplied as in the Egyptian figure, namely, that the union
of the male and female, or active and passive principles of nature, has
produced the world. For the geometrical proposition being that the squares
of the perpendicular and base are equal to the square of the hypothenuse,
they may be said to produce it in the same way as Osiris and Isis are
equal to, or produce, the world.
Thus the perpendicular--Osiris, or the active, male principle--being
represented by a line whose measurement is 3; and the base--Isis, or the
passive, female principle--by a line whose measurement is 4; then their
union, or the addition of the squares of these numbers, will produce a
square whose root will be the hypothenuse, or a line whose measurement
must be 5. For the square of 3 is 9, and the square of 4 is 16, and the
square of 5 is 25; but 9 added to 16 is equal to 25; and thus, out of the
addition, or coming together, of the squares of the perpendicular and
base, arises the square of the hypothenuse, just as, out of the coming
together, in the Egyptian system, of the active and passive principles,
arises, or is generated, the world.
In the mediaeval history of the Christian church, the great ignorance of
the people, and their inclination to a sort of materialism, led them to
abandon the symbolic representations of the Deity, and to depict the
Father with the form and lineaments of an aged man, many of which
irreverent paintings, as far back as the twelfth century, are to be found
in the religious books and edifices of Europe.[137] But, after the period
of the renaissance, a better spirit and a purer taste began to pervade the
artists of the church, and thenceforth the Supreme Being was represented
only by his name--the tetragrammaton--inscribed within an equilateral
triangle, and placed within a circle of rays. Didron, in his invaluable
work on Christian Iconography, gives one of these symbols, which was
carved on wood in the seventeenth century, of which I annex a copy.
[Illustration: tetragrammaton inscribed with an equilateral triangle and
placed within a circle of rays]
But even in the earliest ages, when the Deity was painted or sculptured as
a personage, the nimbus, or glory, which surrounded the head of the
Father, was often made to assume a triangular form. Didron says on this
subject, "A nimbus, of a triangular form, is thus seen to be the exclusive
attribute of the Deity, and most frequently restricted to the Father
Eternal. The other persons of the trinity sometimes wear the triangle, but
only in representations of the trinity, and because the Father is with
them. Still, even then, beside the Father, who has a triangle, the Son
and the Holy Ghost are often drawn with a circular nimbus only." [138]
The triangle has, in all ages and in all religions, been deemed a symbol
of Deity.
The Egyptians, the Greeks, and the other nations of antiquity, considered
this figure, with its three sides, as a symbol of the creative energy
displayed in the active and passive, or male and female, principles, and
their product, the world; the Christians referred it to their dogma of the
trinity as a manifestation of the Supreme God; and the Jews and the
primitive masons to the three periods of existence included in the
signification of the tetragrammaton--the past, the present, and the
future.
In the higher degrees of Masonry, the triangle is the most important of
all symbols, and most generally assumes the name of the _Delta_, in
allusion to the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, which is of the same
form and bears that appellation.
The Delta, or mystical triangle, is generally surrounded by a circle of
rays, called a "glory." When this glory is distinct from the figure, and
surrounds it in the form of a circle (as in the example just given from
Didron), it is then an emblem of God's eternal glory. When, as is most
usual in the masonic symbol, the rays emanate from the centre of the
triangle, and, as it were, enshroud it in their brilliancy, it is symbolic
of the Divine Light. The perverted ideas of the pagans referred these rays
of light to their Sun-god and their Sabian worship.
But the true masonic idea of this glory is, that it symbolizes that
Eternal Light of Wisdom which surrounds the Supreme Architect as with a
sea of glory, and from him, as a common centre, emanates to the universe
of his creation, and to which the prophet Ezekiel alludes in his eloquent
description of Jehovah: "And I saw as the color of amber, as the
appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins
even upward, and from his loins even downward, I saw, as it were, the
appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about." (Chap. 1,
ver. 27.)