Intoning/Vibrating the Divine Names
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Why? "Fourfold" means there are four parts. There are four words in Atah Gibor Le-Olahm Adonai.
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@Avshalom Binyamin said
"Why? "Fourfold" means there are four parts. There are four words in Atah Gibor Le-Olahm Adonai."
Then four four-lettered names.
It seems, to me, that the full sentence breaks the harmony of the ritual, so I use to vibrate AGLA, although keeping in mind the full significance. -
I think the idea of four four-fold Names is an interpretation that might not be inherent in the ritual. It's nice, symmetrical, cool-seeming - but that might not be the most important thing.
(It IS there, as Av said, in the sense that the notariqon refers to two words.)
There is a more important point: These four Names all relate, by their numeration, to the inherent geometry of the Pentagram (which is all based on the Fibonacci series of numbers, the basic geometric formula for the actual structure of things in nature). As Heh-final (relating circumferentially to the Vav at the center), the pentagram is particularly a formula of nature (and its relationship to other levels). I leave as a puzzle for you to solve the numeric relationship of each nmame (it's not too hard if you understand the basic arithemtic of the Fibonacci series, and the geometry of a pentagram) - but Attah Gibbor le-Olam Adonai (= 858) is the punchline!
Every line, every stroke, of making a correctly proportioned pentagram is a declaration that "the lesser is to the greater as the greater is to the whole." Every tracing similarly affirms the identity and reality of the Holy Guardian Angel, anchored by those four Hebrew Names.
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You're welcome to do it as you like, and yes, there is a superficial harmony to 4, 4-lettered names. However, when it comes to the deeper harmony of the ritual, 858 is much more harmonious than 35...
(EDIT: redundant cross-post; for some reason it didn't show Jim's post before I posted mine.)
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To say the LBRP is un-Thelemic is akin to saying the Great Work is un-Thelemic.
Another distinction I like to make:
They are not Hebrew God-Names.
They are names of God written in Hebrew.One must recall the notion that while you may be saying "X" you should be thinking, visualizing "X" as the principle you hold in the highest.
Thus I would advise you not get hung up on the word,
A word is the key to the gate of its meaning. -
@Dar es Allrah said
"When I use hebrew then I use a tongue that is strongly ... there is no stronger... a tongue of patriarchy: therefore - old aeonic. I doubt the jews mind too much though."
In recent centuries, yes. But I'm not at all convinced that it's inherently so.
There was a strong matrilinear thread through the earliest Hebrew - just as there is a compelling matrilineal thread through Hebrew culture. Hebrew was as subjectedf to an invasive patriarchy as the rest of Asia. Its scriptures still show the whole of creation being accomplished by the supreme female aspect of god, Elohim.
Now, I can totally understand that Hebrew strikes you as the strongest of the patriarchal languages, and I respect how you feel about it. I'm only disputing that it's either originally or inherently so. There's deep sexual polarity in the Hebrew language and scriptures, just as sexual polarity is at the root of the deep Hebrew mysteries of the tabernacle and of the most persistent and cherished customs of worship in Judaism today. (The joining of husband and wife sexually is the greatest grace of the sabbath observance.)
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Shekinah has always been explicitly feminine.
Elohim is recognized as the Mother as far back as the Zohar, and can be found attributed to Binah for about 1,00-1,300 years before that (that I can trace).
There are others, but those are the big ones.
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To do it without any at all, you'd have to rewrite the ritual. To do it with a mix of gender names, there are more options.
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Eheyeh for Kether/Air. Y.H.V.H. (or Yah) for Chokmah/Fire. Elohim for Binah/Water. Shekiynah for Malkuth/Earth. This plays off the "roots" of each element.
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Per the Zohar (in contrast to Hermetic Qabalah), Biynah is Fire and Hakhmah Water. By some assessments, Shekiynah refers to the entire middle pillar. So (only giving myself 30 seconds to think of an answer: Elohiym Fire, Yah Water, Shekiynah Air, Adonai Earth.
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@Dar es Allrah said
"But what about if I want to address my HGA with names that are Fire & Air = Feminine and Water & Earth = Masculine?"
with the warning that i am no expert on hebrew, and also in the knowledge that this shall pale into insignificance in comparison with james' genius of supernal attribution just there
in the supreme ritual of the pentagram, the water and earth names are indeed masculine ("el" and "adonai"), while that of fire is "elohim", and air is yhvh, and perhaps an argument can be made for that being 50/50 (father/mother/son/daughter).
some further (and very possibly incorrect) thoughts, the divine name attributed to venus (and venus is related to the element of fire), is yhvh tzabaoth. the ending -oth is a plural for feminine words, i think. likewise, another divine name "eloah" is in a feminine form (this one is interestingly attributed to the sun and even more surprisingly to mars)...
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you are most welcome! certainly gender inequality - manifesting as all forms of sexism and chauvinism in every area of life from the most conventionally sacred to the mundane - is absolutely old-aeon garbage which needs desperately to be thrown out... we, humanity, still are a bit of distance off true equality, and both women AND men still need to fight for women's rights. as vivekananda said, "the bird of humanity cannot fly with one wing."
maybe we can even evenually reach the point where we aren't constrained by gender roles and traits which aren't actually biological in basis (despite the consensus opinions of most), but are just inherited junk from socio/political/religious control systems.the qabalastic model is actually quite useful in many ways (though it may not seem that way at first), fire relates to venus, and both "elohim" and "eloah" can be attributed to mars. as far as i can tell, the energies of these spheres can often transcend the gender of the individual, and the magician, regardless of their gender, can find the way to work with them both. it's rather like how emotional traits, or specific strengths and weaknesses of personality, are often considered to be gender specific, but they are not at all in reality (e.g. i have encountered both women who are aggressive or coldly logical and men who are overly romantic or irrational - those traits have nothing to do with gender in reality but for some reason a great number of people still buy into the illusion that they there are almost biologically hardwired)
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I'm not at all sure that grammatical gender translates into deity gender.
The most obvious example us the feminine form Yhvh (Y'hovah, or whatever).
And eloah (either ALVH of ALH) means "god," and despite its feminine grammatic form is masculine, whereas the identically spelled, but differently pointed, elah (ALH) is feminine both in grammatic gender and is feminine in meaning, i.e., "goddess."
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interesting stuff, another evening for me spent googling god names and looking at hebrew spellings in four different books (not that i'm complaining! beats watching the ads on tv anyhow)
just to offer my thoughts on something brought up earlier in the thread, the star ruby. in my own experience, if it is intended as a replacement for the lesser ritual of pentagram, then it's a pretty poor one. i have found it to both a bit too general and a bit too limited, in comparison with the pentagram ritual. it has worked for me for banishing, but in a more "blasting" and crude way compared with the lesser banishing pentagram ritual, which feels a lot cleaner and more elegant. the star sapphire, on the other hand, is a totally different story, i find that to be a beautiful and powerful ritual to perform (the whole feel of performing it is so different to the star ruby that it leads me to conclude that there is no relation between the two other than the similarity of the titles).
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@Jim Eshelman said
"These four Names all relate, by their numeration, to the inherent geometry of the Pentagram (which is all based on the Fibonacci series of numbers, the basic geometric formula for the actual structure of things in nature)."
I had no idea. Living and learning. I will try to solve the puzzle, if my math skills allow me.
Edit: found explanation: .scribd.com/doc/19167032/The-Stone-of-the-Wise
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@Dar eas allrah said
"You're not bi-lingual I surmise.
In WW2 - if you heard a German tongue it was a safe bet to assume they were a Nazi, or a Japanese tongue - an imperialist. The tongue you use carries with it the unspoken language of the culture it came from and the shape of thoughts is different in that tongue also. For instance - the word 'dar' may mean all sorts of different things depending upon the context of the Spanish sentence it's used in. When I use hebrew then I use a tongue that is strongly ... there is no stronger... a tongue of patriarchy: therefore - old aeonic. I doubt the jews mind too much though.
I have no intention of addressing my angel in the tongue of patriarchy. I am it's chosen vessel and I'm female. It would be like calling it a cross dresser to go balling at it in Hebrew with the 'Adonai's!'
"The context is magical, not WWII.
Meaning, magical rituals are created outside the conversational use of language.Continuing...
When I see the word 'masculine' in a magical context, I think "Spirit"
When I see the word 'feminine' in a magical context, I think "Form"
Without any connection to gender.I surrender to the Beloved, not a man or a woman.
Let go of your pride.
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I've found the LBRP and the Star Ruby to be equally useful. For my students, I tell them to try both, and stick with the one that resonates better to them, while keeping in mind that this choice might change sometime in the future. I certainly don't think that the LBRP has something wrong with it.
93!
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Oh, and thank you for the lengthy comment.
It clears up a few things
Though, I ask : Have you performed the LBRP as is on a regular basis, at some point?
I would be interested in hearing how changing the God-Names effects the ritual.On a side note: I am good friends with a number of female magicians following the Thelemic path. As far as my knowledge goes they have no problems with the ritual. Which is why my default reaction is "Well it is YOU that has a problem with the ritual." That may be nothing more than an experiential bias.
So, if you do construct an adapted ritual and are not interested in the above experiment, pass it along to me. I might have some willing participants
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@bdc said
"interesting stuff, another evening for me spent googling god names and looking at hebrew spellings in four different books (not that i'm complaining! beats watching the ads on tv anyhow)"
To parody something I often see on bumper stickers when I drive to the more rural parts of Pennsylvania, a bad night of Qabalah beats a good night of television.