Section 18

Widely spread, as we have already said, was this reverence for the name of God. 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
*The gamma, r,or Greek letter "G," is said to have been sacred among the Pythagoreans as the initial of TeojiierpLa or Geometry.
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true pronunciation by the Essenes. In their secret rites, they communicated it to each other only in a whisper, and in such form, that while its component parts were known, these 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 cere- mony 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 com- municated to the candidate after his initiation.^ Mith- ras, 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.
* Oliver, "History of Initiation," p. 68, note.
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Jamblichus says that Pythagoras passed over from Miletus to Sidon, thinking that he could thence go more easily into Egypt, and that while there he caused himself to be initiated into all the mysteries of Byblos and Tyre, and those which were practised in many parts of Syria, not because he was under the influence of any superstitious motives, but from the fear that if he were not to avail himself of these opportunities, he might neglect to acquire some knowledge in those rites which was worthy of observation.
But as these mysteries were originally received by the Phoenicians from Egypt, he passed over into that country, where he remained twenty-two years, occupy- ing himself in the study of geometry, astronomy, and all the initiations of the gods (Tracras deihv TeXeTas)^ until he was carried a captive into Babylon by the soldiers of Cambyses, and that twelve years after- wards he returned to Samos at the age of sixty years. ^
The symbol adopted by him to express God was, how- ever, somewhat different, being ten points distributed in the form of a triangle, each side containing four points, as in the annexed figure.
• The ^pex of the triangle was conse-
• • quently a single point then followed below
two others, then three; and lastly, the
Pythagorean Symbol baSC COUsistcd of f OUr. ThcSC poiuts WCrC
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 prin- ciple; 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 per- fection and consummation. This figure was called by •Jamblichus, "Vit. Pythag.," cap. iii., iv.
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Pythagoras the *'Tetractys" — a word equivalent in sig- nification 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. ** The sacred words were intrusted to him, of which the Ineffable Tetractys, or name of God, was the chief. "^
Among the Scandinavians, as among the Jewish Cabahsts, 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" — 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 pro- noun in Hebrew, and may be considered as the symbol- ization of the male or generative principle in nature — a sort of modification of the system of Phallic worship.
*'Hu, the mighty, whose history as a patriarch is precisely that of Noah, was promoted to the rank of the principal demon-god among the Britons; and, as his chariot was composed of rays of the sun, it may be presumed that he was worshipped in conjunction with that luminary, and to the same superstition we may refer what is said of his light and swift course. "^
This sacred name among the Druids reminds us of what is the latest, and undoubtedly the most philo- sophical, speculation on the true meaning, as well as pronunciation, of the ineffable tetragrammaton. It is from the ingenious mind of the celebrated Lanci.
Elsewhere we have very fully alluded to the pre- vailing sentiment among the ancients, that the Supreme
» Oliver, "History of Initiation," p. 109.
* Davies, "Mythology and Rites of the British Druids," p. 110.
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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 Orientahsts. From these 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 subse- quently 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 de- nied that the Supreme Being must possess in Himself, and in Himself alone, both a generative and a prolific power.
"All the male gods (of the ancients) may be reduced to one, the generative energy, and all the female to one, the prolific principle. In fact, they may all be included in the one great Hermaphrodite, the appevodrjXvs, who combines in his nature all the elements of produc- tion, and who continues to support the vast creation which originally proceeded from his will."^
1 Russell, "Connection," i. p. 402.
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This idea, which was so extensively prevalent among all the nations of antiquity, 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, we 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 un- necessary to them.
The Ineffable Name, the Tetragrammaton, the Shem Hamphorash — for it is known by all these appel- lations— consists of four letters, yod, hay, vow, and hay, forming the word niiT'. 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 [^1, and ending with hay M.
Of these letters, the first, yod [''], is equivalent to the English i pronounced as e in the word machine.
The second and fourth letter, hay [Hi, is an aspirate, and has here the sound of the English h.
And the third letter, vow h], has the sound of open o.
Now, reading these four letters, ^j or I, tl, or H, 1, or 0, and tl, or H, as the Hebrew requires, from right to left, we have the word niiT', equivalent in English to EH-OH, which is really as near to the pro- nunciation as we can well come, notwithstanding it forms neither of the seven ways in which the word is
188 Symbolism of Freemasonry
said to have been pronounced, at different times, by the patriarchs.^
But thus pronounced, the word gives us no meaning, for there is no such word in Hebrew as ehoh; 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 let- ters from right to left, because our normal mode of read- ing 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 read- ing of a word, is to read it from left to right.
Lanci applied this cabalistic mode to the tetragram- maton, when he found that EH-OH, being read re- versely, makes the word HO-HE.^
But in Hebrew, ho is the masculine pronoun, equiva- lent 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 com- pound HE-SHE. That is to say, the Ineffable Name of
* There is a tradition that it was pronounced in the following seven different ways by the patriarchs, from Methuselah to David, viz.: Juha, Jeva, Jova, Jevo, Jeven, Johe, and Jehovah. In all these words the j is to be pronounced as y, the a as ah, the e as a, and the V as w.
2 The i is to be pronounced as e, and the whole word as if spelled in English ho-he.
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God in Hebrew, being read cabalistically, includes within itself the male and female principle, the genera- tive and prolific energy of creation. 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.
Here, perhaps, we may begin to find some mean- ing 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 EHOH, 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 we have already alluded to the different modes by which the Jews ex- pressed the tetragrammaton. A similar practice pre- vailed among the other nations of antiquity.
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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 sjnnbols, three of which particularly require attention. There are the letter ''G," the equilateral triangle, and the "All-Seeing Eye."
Of the letter "G" we 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 an- tiquity 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 ex- pressed. This letter is the initial of the word "Jehovah," or "Ehoh," as we 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 in- correctly, and, Bro. Mackey could not 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 "Ehoh," the generative and prolific energy of the Creator.
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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 pye 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 (Psalm xxxiv. 15), ''The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry," which explains a subsequent passage (Psalm cxxi. 4), in which it is said, "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."
In the apocryphal Book of the Conversation of God with Moses on Mount Sinai, translated by the Rev. W. Cureton from an Arabic MS. of the fifteenth cen- tury, and published by the Philobiblon Society of London, the idea of the eternal watchfulness of God is thus beautifully allegorized: —
''Then Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, dost thou sleep or not? The Lord said unto Moses, I never sleep: but take a cup and fill it with water. Then Moses took a cup and filled it with water, as the Lord com- manded him. Then the Lord cast into the heart of Moses the breath of slumber; so he slept, and the cup fell from his hand, and the water which was therein was spilled. Then Moses awoke from his sleep. Then said God to Moses, I declare by my power, and by my glory, that if I were to withdraw my providence from
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the heavens and the earth for no longer a space of time than thou hast slept, they would at once fall to ruin and confusion, like as the cup fell from thy hand."
On the same principle as was followed by the He- brews, 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 sym- bolic name, on the monuments, was represented by the eye accompanying a throne, to which was some- times added an abbreviated figure of the god, and sometimes by what has been called a hatchet, but which, we 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 Omni- present 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 gener- ally diffused throughout the whole system of both the Spurious and the Pure Freemasonry.