The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)

32. Then are the letters inverted, and become one. (Ifr namely, in the word YIHI, Vayelii , the letters I, Yod , and H, He, be placed in front so that it may read IHYI, Yalicvi, it maketh one Tetragrammaton, which exhausteth the whole Divinity. But since these belong to the mother, from whom arise the judgments, hence this tetragrammaton is here written in retrograde order, which mode of writing is referred byqabalists to the judgments, on account of the nature of averse things ; whence this

THE BOOK OF CONCEALED MYSTERY.

ought to be written in this way : IHVI, Yahevi , IHV, Yeho, IH, Yah , I, Yod. But since in the path of understanding those judgments themselves do not exist, but only their roots, while in itself this path is only pure mercy ; hence the retrograde order is inverted, in order that it may be posited entire in this manner as at first) : I, Yod, IH, Yah, IHY, Yeho, IHVI, Yahevi. (But it is not written in the usual manner, IHYH, Yod, He, Vau, He; because the word is derived from VIHI, Vayehi , whose metathesis is here discussed. And nevertheless the letter) which is last (namely, I, Yod, which is put in the place of the last H, He, in the ordinary form of the Tetragrammaton, denoteth), the Schechinah (or the queenly presence) which is below (that is, a path of the kingdom, namely, MLKVTh, Malkuth , the tenth and last Sephira) ; like as (in the other instance) the letter H, He, is found to be the Schechinah.

[The reader will be utterly unable to follow the reasoning in this section, unless he reads carefully what I have said in the Introduction concerning the Literal Qabalah under the heads of ISTotariqon and Temurah, to which therefore I refer him. Any four-lettered name is of course a tetragrammaton, but this term is especially applied to the word of four letters called by biblical translators Jehovah. It must be remembered that the natural course of writing Hebrew and Chaldee is from right to left , and that when it is written from left to right , it is said to be written “ backwards,” “in retrograde order,” or “averse.” By the “path of understanding ” is meant Binah, the third Sephira. Schechinah is of course the Divine Presence manifested in the path of Malkuth. I* have explained in the Introduction the meaning of the term “ path * as employed in the Zohar.]

3 3 . But in one balance are they equiponderated. (The balance denoteth the male and the female ; and the meaning is, that the letters I, Yod, and H, He — of which the former is masculine and referreth to the path of the foundation ; and the latter is feminine, pertaining to the queen — are interchangeable ; since whilst the equilibrium existeth there is an intercommunication between them,

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and they are joined together as one. Add to this that the queen is also called ADNI, Adonoii , wherein the letter I, Yod, bringeth up the rearguard of the army, as it were ; because also it is accustomed to be called the Lesser Wisdom.) And the living creatures rush forth and return. (This is what is said in Ezek. i. 1 4 concerning the living creatures, which is accustomed to be said concerning those letters of the Tetragrammaton, which sometimes hold the last place and sometimes the first ; as when I, Yod , rusheth forth unto the last place, and when it returneth unto the beginning again ; and so also the letter H, He. Likewise, then, also the living creatures are said to rush forth, when the Tetragrammaton is written with the final H, He, because then the whole system of emanatives is exhausted. But they are said to return when the Tetragrammaton is written with the final I, Yod , so that the sense may be collected in such a manner as to return from the last path of the queen into the penultimate of the foundation, which is designated by this letter I, Yod.