CHAPTER IV.

ANALOGY BETWEEN THE SACRED WORD AND NUMBERS.

The Kabbalistic Word and the Series of Numbers — Explanation of
the Tetractys of Pythagoras — Figuration of the General Law.

Numbers and the Kabbalistic Word.

This sequence of numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, representing the
active, the passive, the neuter, and a second active principle,
corresponds in all points with the series of the letters of
the sacred name, so that the latter may be thus written —

Yod — He — Vau
2nd He = Yod, etc.,

which demonstrates analogically that —

1 represents Yod

2 — He

3 — Vau

4 — The 2nd He

We can prove the truth of these analogies by the
identity of the action of the number 4, which becomes a
unity (4 = 10 = 1), and of the second He, which represents
the Yod of the following sequence.

THE SACRED WORD AND NUMBERS.-

33

In comparing the two identical series we obtain the
following figures —

Kabballstic sequence
Yod

Sequence of numbers
1

lie

2nd he

vau

Identity of the two sequences

1
Yod

2 he H

H 2nd he 4

1

vau
3

We can now understand why Pythagoras, initiated in
Egypt into the mysteries of the sacred word Yod-he-vau-
he, replaced this word in his esoteric teachings by the
sequence of the 4 first numbers or tetractys.

This sequence of the numbers is, in all points, identical
with the sequence of the letters of the sacred name, and
the tetractys of Pythagoras, 1, 2, 3, 4, equals and absolutely
represents the word Yod-he-vau-he.

The sequence of the numbers, or the sequence of the
letters, therefore, resolves itself definitely into the following
data —

D

34 THE TAROT.

1 Term positive and generator.
The Yod or the 1.

1 Term negative or générant.

The He or the 2.

1 Term neuter or generated proceeding from the two
preceding.

The Vau or the 3.

1 Term of transition individualizing itself in the following-
sequence.

The 2nd He or the 4.

Provided with these preliminary data, which are abso-
lutely indispensable, let us now take our pack of cards, or
Tarot, and see if we cannot find the universal law in it —

yod

he

2nd he

vau

symbolized through antiquity by the Cross.