4. The Tetragrama

GEBURAH CHESED PORTA LIBRARUM ELEMENTA IN Nature there are two forces producing equilibrium, and these three constitute a single law. Here, then, is the triad resumed in unity, and by adding the conception of unity to that of the triad we are bought to the tetrad, the first square and perfect number, the source of all numerical combinations and the principle of all forms. Affirmation, negation, discussion, solution: such are the four philosophical operations of the human mind. Discussion conciliates negation with affirmation by rendering them necessary to each other. In the same way, the philosophical triad, emanating from the antagonism of the duad, is completed by the tetrad, the four-square basis of all truth. According to consecrated dogma, there are Three Persons in God, and these Three constitute one only Deity. Three and one provide the conception of four, because unity is required to explain the three. Hence, in almost all languages, the name of God consists of four letters, and in Hebrew these four are really three, one of them being repeated twice, that which expresses the Word and the creation of the Word. Two affirmations make two corresponding denials either possible or necessary. The fact of being is affirmed, and that of nothingness is denied. Affirmation as Word produces affirmation as realization or incarnation of the Word, and each of these affirmations corresponds to the denial of its opposite. Thus, in the opinion of the Kabalists, the name of the demon or of evil is composed of the same letters as the Name of God or goodness, but spelt backwards. This evil is the lost reflection or imperfect mirage of light in shadow. But all which exists, whether of good or evil, of light or darkness, exists and manifests by the tetrad. The affirmation of unity supposes the number four, unless it turns in unity itself as in a vicious circle. So also the triad, as we have observed already, is explained by the duad and resolved by the tetrad, which is the squared unity of even numbers and the quadrangular base of the cube, regarded as unity of construction, solidity and measure. The Kabalistic Tetragram, JODHEVA, expresses God in humanity and humanity in God. The four astronomical cardinal points are, relatively to us, the yea and the nay of light - East and West - and the yea and nay of warmth - South and North. As we have said already, according to the sole dogma of the Kabalah, that which is in visible Nature reveals that which is in the domain of invisible Nature, or secondary causes are in strict proportion and analogous to the manifestations of the First Cause. So is this First Cause revealed invariably by the Cross - that unity made up of two, divided one by the other in order to produce four; that key to the mysteries of India and Egypt, The Tau of the patriarchs, the divine sign of Osiris, the Stauros of the Gnostics, the keystone of the temple, the symbol of Occult Masonry; the Cross, central point of the junction of the right angles of two infinite triangles; the Cross, which in the French language seems to be the first root and fundamental substantive of the verb to believe and the verb to grow, thus combining the conceptions of science, religion and progress. The Great Magical Agent manifests by four kinds of phenomena, and has been subjected to the experiments of profane science under four names - caloric, light, electricity, magnetism. It has received also the names of TETRAGRAM, INRI, AZOTH, ETHER, Od, Magnetic Fluid, Soul of the Earth, Lucifer, etc.