72-fold Name of God

By Uri Raz

An opening comment - this article was originally written in Hebrew for Hebrew speakers. Hence all verse numbers refer to the bible in Hebrew, and not to any translation of the bible to Hebrew. Where I saw fit, I quoted the KJV translation of the appropriate verses for the benefit of the many English speakers who do not know Hebrew.

Some of the materials I've used for this article were written in English, I brought those materials in the article, or provided links to on-line versions of them.

Yet, in some places I had no reasonable choice to a Hebrew font. I've written the original article with the MS-Windows font most people use in Israel, and which I figure most surfers could easily install as well.

The 72 names are derived from Exodus 14:19-21, which in the original Hebrew have 72 letters each. The original Hebrew text is -

 יט וַיִּסַּע מַלְאַךְ הָאֱלֹהִים, הַהֹלֵךְ לִפְנֵי מַחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַיֵּלֶךְ, מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶם; וַיִּסַּע עַמּוּד הֶעָנָן, מִפְּנֵיהֶם, וַיַּעֲמֹד, מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶם
 כ וַיָּבֹא בֵּין מַחֲנֵה מִצְרַיִם, וּבֵין מַחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַיְהִי הֶעָנָן וְהַחֹשֶׁךְ, וַיָּאֶר אֶת-הַלָּיְלָה; וְלֹא-קָרַב זֶה אֶל-זֶה, כָּל-הַלָּיְלָה
 כא וַיֵּט מֹשֶׁה אֶת-יָדוֹ, עַל-הַיָּם, וַיּוֹלֶךְ יְהוָה אֶת-הַיָּם בְּרוּחַ קָדִים עַזָּה כָּל-הַלַּיְלָה, וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת-הַיָּם לֶחָרָבָה; וַיִּבָּקְעוּ, הַמָּיִם

And the KJV version is as following -

19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: 20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. 21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

The names are derived by writing the letters of the three verses one above the other, with no vowel points, spaces, or punctuation marks, the first from right to left, the second from left to right, and the third from right to left. The names are then read top down.

Rabbi Abraham Abulafia describes in his book "Chayey Ha'Olam Ha'Bah" a Qabalistic method of meditating on the 72 names. I will not include the details in this article, but only the method of marking the names with vowel points the letters.

Each Hebrew letter has a name, as do the letters of other languages. In Hebrew, the name of each letter's name starts with that letter, that is Aleph's name starts with an Aleph, Bet's name starts with a Bet, etc. The letters in the 72 fold name of God are given the same vowel points as they are given in the letters' names. As the Aleph in Aleph's name is marked with a Kamatz, all the Alephs in the 72 fold name of God are marked with a Kamatz, etc. The result is given in the following table -

In Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus there's a table of the 72 names and an appropriate verse from the book of Psalms for each of them, except for the 70th name, which is given the first verse from Genesis.

The logic behind the match is as following - each name is given a verse which contains the 4 letters name of God (YHVH) as well as the three letters of the name itself. If the name contains Yod, Heh, or Vau, they must appear somewhere beside the 4 letter name.

The 70th name is given the first verse from Genesis, which does not contain the 4 letters name of God, but does contain the three letters of the 70th name. Two other names are given verses which in the Hebrew bible (at least the one I have) do not contain the 4 letters name of God, so I brought the version from Oedipus Aegyptiacus as well. The 36th name is given a verse which does not contain the 4 letters name in either the Hebrew bible or the version brought in Oedipus Aegyptiacus.

A translation of the verse to English is available in Mather's article, which appears in in various places, e.g. Zalewski's book given in the bibiliography.

The attribution is based on Chaldean astrology and a simple running order.

The minor arcana cards (2-10 in each of the four suits) are matched thus - the numbers in the range of 2-10 are matched to 9 consecutive decans starting with the 1st decan of aries, and then repeat themselves 3 more times, and the suit is taken from the decan's sign's elements. Thus the 1st decan of Libra, the cardinal air sign, is assigned 2 of Swords, and the 2th decan of Cancer, 5 decans down the way in a watery sign, is assigned 6 of Cups.

The 72 names are assigned consecutively to 5 degrees of the zodiac, but now starting with Leo, rather than Aries, which is where rosicrucian have the zodiac start. Thus each decan has 2 names assigned to it.

Decan rulers are assigned in a similar fashion - the seven planets are ordered according to their apparent velocity across the fixed stars, and then assigned according to this order in a cyclic order to the decans, starting with the 1st decan of Aries. As there are 7 planets and 36 decans, each planet is assigned to five decans, with Mars assigned to the last remaining decan.

Eliphas Levi has used a different attribution, as in the following table -

Papus, in his book The Tarot of the Bohemains, attributed the minors to the decans, ordering the cards as in the above table and starting with Aries' 1st decan & Ace of Wands and ending with Pisces' 3rd decan & 9 of Pentacles, using the same decan rulers as the Golden Dawn. Combining the two tables would create a French school alternative to the Golden Dawn table.

The Seals of the 72 Names

וָהֵוָיָה	יֹלָיֹאֵל
סָיֹטֵאֵל	עָלָמֵיָה
מֵהֵשִיָה	לָלָהֵאֵל
אָכָאָיָה	כָהֵתָאֵל
הֵזָיֹאֵל	אָלָדַיָה
לָאָוָיָה	הֵהֵעָיָה
יֹזָלָאֵל	מֵבֵהֵאֵל
הֵרֵיֹאֵל	הֵקֹמֵיָה
לָאָוָיָה	כָלָיֹאֵל
לָוָוָיָה	פֵהֵלָיָה
נֻלָכָאֵל	יֹיֹיֹאֵל
מֵלָהֵאֵל	חֵהֵוָיָה
נֻתָהֵיָה	הֵאָאָיָה
יֹרֵתָאֵל	שִאָהֵיָה
רֵיֹיֹאֵל	אָוָמֵאֵל
לָכָבֵאֵל	וָשִרֵיָה
יֹחֵוָיָה	לָהֵחֵיָה
כָוָקֹיָה	מֵנֻדַאֵל
אָנֻיֹאֵל	חֵעָמֵיָה
רֵהֵעָאֵל	יֹיֹזָאֵל
הֵהֵהֵאֵל	מֵיֹכָאֵל
וָוָלָיָה	יֹלָהֵיָה
סָאָלָיָה	עָרֵיֹאֵל
עָשִלָיָה	מֵיֹהֵאֵל
וָהֵוָאֵל	דַנֻיֹאֵל
הֵחֵשִיָה	עָמֵמֵיָה
נֻנֻאָאֵל	נֻיֹתָאֵל
מֵבֵהֵיָה	פֵוָיֹאֵל
נֻמֵמֵיָה	יֹיֹלָאֵל
הֵרֵחֵאֵל	מֵצָרֵאֵל
וָמֵבֵאֵל	יֹהֵהֵאֵל
עָנֻוָאֵל	מֵחֵיֹאֵל
דַמֵבֵיָה	מֵנֻקֹאֵל
אָיֹעָאֵל	חֵבֵוָיָה
רֵאָהֵאֵל	יֹבֵמֵיָה
הֵיֹיֹאֵל	מֵוָמֵיָה

As far as I can tell, those seals were all taken from a manuscript attributed to Blaise de Vigenere. I know not the logic used to create those seals. Robert Ambelain warns in his book that, based on his personal experience, those seals represent the mirror images of the angel's powers, and thus of evil powers. I brought the seals for completeness' sake, with a warning to those who intend to put the seals to use.

• The Bible, in Hebrew.
• The KJV Bible.
• Oedipus Aegyptiacus - chapter VI (pages 267-281), by Athanasius Kircher.
• Kabbalah of the Golden Dawn, by Patrick Zalewski.
• Meditation and Kabbalah, by Aryeh Kaplan.
• Book T, by S. L. Mathers.
• Aaron Leitch's lecture on the Shem ha-Mephoresh.
• The Practical Kabbalah (part 1, part 2), by Robert Ambelain, translated by Piers A. Vaughan.

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