"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law, Love under Will."


Monday, January 4, 2010

YHVH

The Divine Name (YHVH), the Elements, the Qabalistic Worlds, Parts of the Soul and the Four Tarot Suits

The universe is divided into four parts which is represented by a single deity with a four Hebrew letter name, YHVH (Yod Heh Vav Heh) pronounced 'Jehovah' and is the God of creation in the sense of what we humans consider reality. This creator-God doesn't know where it came from, what created it, or that it was even created by something greater than it, and is what the Greeks refer to as Demiourgos or the demiurge. Zeus was a demiurge and another name for him is Jove which in Hebrew is very similar in spelling to Jehovah (YHVH). "It might even refer to itself as a jealous god and forbid the worship of any other competing deity." -Duquette, Thoth Tarot, 47. I think that Duquette is referring here to the 'God' worshiped by orthodox Christianity.

YHVH divides the macrocosm into four descending worlds (Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, Assiah), the microcosm into four descending levels (Chiah, Neshamah, Ruach, Nephesh), and metaphorically as the four elements Fire, Water, Air and Earth, represented in the tarot by the four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Disks:

Yod - Atziluth, Chiah, Fire, Wands suit

Heh - Briah, Neshamah, Water, Cups suit

Vav - Yetzirah, Ruach, Air, Swords suit

Heh (final) - Assiah, Nephesh, Earth, Disks suit

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