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Middle Pillar/ YHVH/ Yahweh/ Jehovah

  
 
Joetheneophyte
08:28 / 08.11.04
I'm currently re reading the Middle Pillar by Israel Regardie (the updated Cicero version by Llewellyn) and I have a question or more accurately want to throw something in the air that has bothered me for sometime. I am probably talking utter shite but here goes and I welcome your comments though please note I do know I am talking way out of my depth or knowledge base here:

In the Book Regardie states categorically that the powers called up in the Middle Pillar exercise do not have anything to do with Judaism or Christianity and he is basically trying to teach the aspirant to try and commune with the 'Godhead' or realise their oneness with all

All well and good up to now

Personally, I must have missed this point on first reading and abandoned my practice of the Middle pillar exercise and the LBRP due to the use of terminology that I confused with Old Testament like Deities. I couldn't differentitate between YHVH/Yahweh and Jehovah

I confused YHVH with Yahweh or Jehovah and felt uncomfortable calling upon (or even being involved with) an entity that to my admittedly very limited knowledge.....encouraged it's followers to smite non-believers and acted by my reckoning like a vindictive child. NO OFFENCE INTENDED OH TRUE BELIEVERS, PURELY JUST MY OWN OPINION

Now my own Christian upbringing was hardly devout and I admit I hardly listened when Religious education was on the syllabus. Never attended church and took little interest in Bible matters.....probably helping me confuse the two names (or three if we include Jehovah)

in fact to further confuse the issue, I am not even sure whether Yahweh is the same entity as Jehovah or whether yet another mix up may have occurred.


So basically, have any others on here been confused as to the identity or use of the correct terminology? An author called Tom DeLiso explained that in his opinion, all these names were mixed up as Jews took on Babylonian aspects into their own teachings and that in his opinion, YHVH and Yahway are entirely seperate entities (Gnostics might even say that Yahweh is a demiurge, consciously or unconsciously usurping the mantle of Ultimate creator)

Mr DeLiso continued that IAO would be a more accurate name or title to call the ineffable or what we might call the Godhead. The term YHVH he said had suffered from corruption or misunderstanding and as such was often confused in many western forms of Hermeticism and ergo Judaism and Christianity

For my part...I haven't a clue....I am just as lost as ever. I now feel more comfortable calling upon YHVH as I am happy this does not refer to Yahweh or the Old Testament 'God'. This was something I felt very uncomfortable doing, owing to my aforementioned concerns over his smiting and vengeful nature........something I couldn't reconcile with the Godhead or purity.

Hope that even if I am talking bollocks that made some kind of sense. It is not my intention to offend any Christian or Jew who subscribes to the OT....these are just my thoughts and I would be interested in any other comments others may have over this issue of the differences in the various names/positions etc

Sorry if I have talked crap or worse offended anybodies sensibilities or beliefs.........
 
 
Sean the frumious Bandersnatch
11:11 / 08.11.04
I think I understand what you're getting at, and I think I can help a bit. Keep in mind, though, I'm pretty biased towards Judaism.

In the Book Regardie states categorically that the powers called up in the Middle Pillar exercise do not have anything to do with Judaism or Christianity and he is basically trying to teach the aspirant to try and commune with the 'Godhead' or realise their oneness with all

I looked this practice up, and it seems pretty jewish to me. The excercise is about empowering your body's sepheroth in order to strengthen your balance and analytical ability.

Yod-Hevoh (YHVH) seems the best name to invoke if you're dealing with the sepheroth, as the name is heavily intwined with the different sepherahs (or, more accuratly, vice versa). The Y (for Yod) and the H (He) represent father and mother, words and voice, active and passive. Yod is chokmah, He is Binah. Vau (the V), meaning unity, is represented in the yesod sepherah. The last letter, the H (He), is the son, the product of the union of Yod and He. This is represented by Malkuth.

I couldn't differentitate between YHVH/Yahweh and Jehovah...I am not even sure whether Yahweh is the same entity as Jehovah

While different judeo-christian religions have different attributes and personas for god, both Yahweh and Jehovah are "translations" of Yod-hevoh (the name means "God Is") made by christian sects do "de-jew" god. The fact is that old hebrew has no sounds for the j in jehovah or the w in yahweh.

I now feel more comfortable calling upon YHVH as I am happy this does not refer to Yahweh or the Old Testament 'God'. This was something I felt very uncomfortable doing, owing to my aforementioned concerns over his smiting and vengeful nature........something I couldn't reconcile with the Godhead or purity.

Well, the fact is that YHVH is referred to in the old testment. As I said earlier, it's a matter of translation, with different bibles using Yahweh or "the LORD".

Gnostics might even say that Yahweh is a demiurge, consciously or unconsciously usurping the mantle of Ultimate creator

Yeah, you're right on there. The gnostic demiurge Jaldabaoth represents the smiteful god of the jews.

Mr DeLiso continued that IAO would be a more accurate name or title to call the ineffable or what we might call the Godhead.

Perhaps, but I would reccomend using a hebrew name for god when dealing with the sepheroth (by the way, IAO is just a gnostic greek translation of YHVH). If you're still uncomfortable using YHVH the supreme god, try just Yod (the "God" in "God is"), Adonai (hebrew for "lord") or any of the names in the Shemhamphorae (the 72 names of God).

This was the only site I could find with a list of the names of god (scroll down about a quarter of the way), but you should be able to find a better list in any number of occult books.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
11:27 / 08.11.04
Gah! I think you take a far too intellectualised approach to interacting with all this magic bollocks, mate.

This is how I frame it myself:

YHVH is God. It is an unpronounceable name, perhaps because it is not really the name of a specific anthropmorphised entity but a formula that describes a process. This process is the universe. Therefore, in terms of Quabbala, the universe and "God" could be considered the same object.

"Jehovah" and "Yahweh" are attempts at a phonetic interpretation of the word YHVH. One possibility is that somewhere along the line a personality formed around this name, or was attributed to it, or it got syncretised and conflated with a vengeful Near Eastern desert God, or any number of possibilities. I don't know, I doubt very many people do.

My own perspective on "religion" is both Monotheistic and Polytheistic. I have relationships with many Gods and Goddesses that represent and personify specific aspects of reality, these could be approached as the Saints, the Lwa, the Orixa, the Norse Gods, the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, or whichever working model you prefer.

I also worship one GOD that is above everything else because it IS everything else. God, as I personally choose to understand the concept, is a word that describes everything. It's our reality, the universe, everything there is, all of us, all of our ancestors, all of the Gods and Goddesses, Spirits and Demons, Monkeys and Monsters, Pirates and Ninjas, the whole system, the entirity of the Tree of Life from Malkuth to Kether and beyond. There is no part of us that is not of God. Everything that is, is divine.

It makes no sense to me to have a monotheistic God that isnt, by definition, the sum total of everything there is. And I don't find that position incompatible with polytheism. I can't really think of YHVH as a God in the same way that, say, Odin is a God. I think of YHVH as the sum total of everything expressed as a simple formula. Vengeful Old Testament smiting aside, I choose not to engage with the concept in those terms. It's falling into the trap of a literal interpretation of the mysteries contained within the Bible, and I prefer not to operate from a magical worldview that resembles Garth Ennis's run on Hellblazer. I don't attribute any personality or moral compass to the concept of YHVH. I think of it as a formula. An equation.

This is what it means: Yod He Vau He.

Go off and study what each of those words mean, and specifically what they mean in sequence. Look at the correspondences attributed to them, the animals, numbers, tarot card attributions, and so on. This will give you an understanding of YHVH as a concept, and how it is a formula, or model, for trying to gain an understanding of the universe and its processes. Learn everything you can about the formula YHVH. Meditate on it deeply. If the formula "Yod He Vau He" is "the name of God", what do you understand from that? Vibrate the words in your own body using methods such as the LBRP, the Middle Pillar, and the excercises in the Regardie book (feel free to ignore the cheesy cash-in Chic and Tabatha Cicero stuff). Feel the formula in your own body. Treat it as a living communion with the universe, with the divine essence of reality, with, for want of a better word, God. If you want to understand the mysteries of YHVH you have to work it, engage with it, put the hours in, make it come alive for you. Go off and do that, and report your results and experiences here.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
11:30 / 08.11.04
Gah! I think you take a far too intellectualised approach to interacting with all this magic bollocks, mate.

I was addressing Joe here, by the way, not Sean king the sin eater who posted, with the stealth of a tiger, in the interim.
 
 
Sean the frumious Bandersnatch
11:58 / 08.11.04
That's me, stealth of a tiger.

Grraar!
 
 
LVX23
19:17 / 08.11.04
As it relates to Crowley's formulation of the Middle Pillar, YHVH is a process not a thing. This process is referred to as Tetragrammaton and reflects the materialisation of form out of the godhead, as illustrated in the emanation of the 10 Sephiroth from the three-fold Ain. As noted, Yod - father, He - Mother, Vau - Son, He Final - Daughter, but this is, of course, a great simplification. Crowley relates the formula to the alchemical wedding and the completion of the Great Work.

Visually this process is represented quite nicely in the Thoth tarot and Lon Milo DuQuette has a great synopsis of it all in "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot". It is also well worth comparing YHVH to the mystery of the Rosy Cross.
 
 
cusm
23:14 / 10.11.04
Just noting in case it was not clear that He and He-final (the form of He when it appears at the end of a word) are considered two different letters as far as their esoteric representations. Hence, He is Mother as He-F is Daughter.

Otherwise, a simplier way to repeat was Gypsy said is that YHVH is just a key to energy. Understand the concepts of each letter. Connect with their meaning, not the diety that stands before it. The middle pillar calls upon this energy, not the god that takes its name. Reduce it to math, own it, and you loose the uncomfortable connections with religion that might be holding you back from experienceing this rite in as full a sense as you wish.

Good luck
 
 
Joetheneophyte
08:47 / 11.11.04
Wow

thanks as always

great answers from you all . I get that YHVH is a pseudonym for an ineffable source......my only concern was that I might be someway calling upon or devoting myself to the OT God and my unease with associating with what I consider a lesser entity
(by that I mean more like Gypsey's interpretation of Odin....to me anyway.......I consider the vengeful aspect mentioned in the OT more like a god with a little g rather than GOD the universe/creation etc AGAIN NO OFFENCE IS MEANT TO ANYBODY WHO WORSHIPS THIS GOD.......JUST MY PERSONAL AND ADMITTEDLY UN-INFORMED OPINION)

Your posts all made sense and have reassured me (Gypsey you are correct...I do tie myself up in knots over this stuff)

Thanks....your answers were above and beyond what I could have asked for in length and the content contained therein

Cheers


Joe
 
 
macrophage
12:09 / 11.11.04
There are different permutations of the so called sacred tetragramtom - and they relate to different values and metaphors. I can't explain myself here do you have a copy of the "Sepher Sephirof"? There's alot of cabala involved in relation to cabala, gnostic christianity, etc.. you have to research deeply stuff like this! I myself use the Rosy Cross as an effective Banishing Rite, and in alot of the different Pentagram banishings involved there are different permutations of the vibrations of the words of power it's like the guardians of the watchtower - you know Air, Earth, Fire and Water. Course Spirit/Ether can relate to Above/Below. It's like vowel song mantrums to move internal energy about or to centralise. From my experience its difficult to juggle different rituals like these colours can clash above all the rest. In a sense there are permutations of godnames. The more you pracise the more you can grok them. On a pragmatic level there are words to anchor ourselves into. It's like the multiple selves of god but numerically and within the power of the word. I must admit I am slightly biased myself to certain things - when you spend most your life subscribing to atheism bordering on the quilloph bordering to destroying the sacred bordering on the transgressive it's a bit of a paradigm shift in itself! It's like IAO it took me ages to come to a gnosis about change and rebirth. As I say different faces of a shining sappire I suppose!!
 
  
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