The Seven Names of God, which are the names of seven Cosmic Principles or aspects of Godhead, are:
Two separate deific Principles are shown in this fist. One is represented in the names derived from EL, meaning God, the other from the sacred Four Letters or Tetragrammaton, JHVH or YHWH. Above these seven Names are the three Names of the primordial Deity: Eheieh (I Am That), pure Being; Yahweh (standing alone), representing Yah-Hawwah, Father-Mother God; and Yahweh-Elohim, in combination, meaning Lord-God. The latter combination is also given as YaEl (Joel or Jael), translated Lord-God. The same Root Name becomes the Allah of the Arabs, for Arabic is also a language related to Hebrew.
In the English Bible the word Elohim. is usually translated God or the gods, while the Tetragrammaton is translated Lord which is the meaning of the word Adonai, seventh in the above list. In oral readings from Scripture the Hebrews always substituted the name Adonai for the sacred Names, and the scholars who translated the Bible into English extended the practice, translating both Elohim and Jahveh or Yahweh as "Lord" in some instances. Generally, however, when we read the word God in our English Bibles, this is a translation of Elohim, while Lord is the translation of Yahweh. Scholars say that the word Jehovah was not known in ancient times, but the name Jahveh or Yahweh has been found by archeologists inscribed on potsherds and stones and in some ancient texts. The name Jehovah was created by translators who used the vowel-points of Adonai together with the Four Letters. It was unknown to Jesus and the Apostles.
The Sacred Name was spoken by the High Priest in the Temple and chanted by the choir, but it was also known to the King and to his "Architect"; but this Name is no more Yahweh than it was Jehovah. It is a "great" or "secret" Name, not a "small" or "public" name. Dr. William Albright, the noted biblical archeologist, suggests that the letters of this Name are really the initial letters of a secret liturgical sentence or group of words. The original Name was lost; but in the Christian Mysteries it was "found" once more, restored to mankind in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Living Word. The same is true of "Everyman," in whose figure the Four Letters are revealed, from Jod (Yod) in the head, He in the breast and arms, Vau in the torso, and He repeated in the pelvis and legs. Hence the esoteric mantram of Exodus, "I AM THAT I AM," the Name-Sound of God Transcendant and also Immanent, whose Voice is Seven Thunders.
The "Lost Word" consists of the primordial Thunder Sounds shaped by the Sacred Four Consonants into syllables of meaning. Their mystery is revealed in Hiram Abiff in the Old Testament and in Lazarus, St. John and the Christ in the New. Yet to our day the Word remains unspoken in the world at large, for as Philo said, "The Four Letters may be mentioned or heard only by holy men whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom, and by no others in any place whatever." The Four Letters sound the Name of Father-Mother God: J (Jah or Yah) and H-V-H (Heva or Eve, He-Vau-He), with Man as Image and Likeness.
The mysterious word "Amen" which appears repeatedly in Scripture and which is taken to mean "So be it," or to express thanksgiving to God at the end of a prayer or invocation, is said by kabbalists to consist of the initial letters of four Hebrew words, "Ateh gibur leolam Adonai," which mean "The Lord ever powerful." Kabbalists also interpret the sacred Four Letters as related to four words; but the name Yahwe or Yahweh, or Jah, found on inscriptions by archeologists, may also be interpreted in the same way. As we have mentioned previously, the vowels were kept as a sacred mystery in the Temple, and chanted in a certain way were thought to bring down the mighty powers of the heavens. These vowels were the magic chant, but when associated with consonants they formed a Name or Word that could be written and spoken. The sentence for which the letters of the name Jehovah, or Yahweh, stood, has been lost, but it is significant that the sacred forty-two letter name really consisted of several names which were written together. These names were Aheie Asher Aheie (I Am That I Am), Jah, Jehuiah, Al, Elohim, Jehovah, Tzabaoth, Al Chai and Adonai. (Aheie: see also Eheieh below.)
Concerning the name Elohim, Max Heindel writes in Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, "The first part of the word is Eloh, which is a feminine noun, the letter h indicating the gender. If a single feminine Being were meant, the word Eloh would have been used. The feminine plural is oth, so if the intention had been to indicate a number of gods of the feminine gender, the correct word to use would have been Elooth. Instead of either of these forms, however, we find the masculine plural ending im added to the feminine noun Eloh, indicating a host of male-female, double-sexed Beings, expressions of the dual, positive-negative creative energy."
The addition of the word Tsabbath to Jahveh denotes Jahveh (or Yahweh) as "Lord" of the hosts of heaven, the angelic Hierarchies, and its addition to Elohim denotes "God" or "King" of the hosts of stars and elemental forces in Nature. The two titles refer to two aspects of the One Supreme Being and His reflection in the stars, Sun, Moon, planets and forces inherent in matter and their spiritual counterparts.
The word Shaddai is most often used in the term El Shaddai, translated The Almighty or Almighty God, which Egyptologists say has an equivalent letter for letter in Egyptian. Adonai, as we have said, is used as a substitute word for both Jahveh and Elohim. Since the word Adoni means "master, lord or prince," the Hebrew sacred word Adonai is translated into English also as "Lord." Adonai was a name most especially associated with the glorious Sun and with its representative to the Hebrew nation, Michael the Archangel.
God as Trinity is expressed in the Names denoting the divine consciousness in the World of Emanations, the kabbalistic Archetypal World, which is the World of Pure Spirit or World of God, where Metatron stands alone. Their Names have been given as I AM THAT I AM (Eheieh, from which the Four Letters also derive), YAHWEH (Lord), and YAHWEH ELOHIM (Lord God). It is these.who direct the Seven. Together we have then the Ten Elobim corresponding to the ten spheres of the Ptolemaic universe, which is the basis of the kabbalistic system and all other ancient astronomical theosophies. Kabbalism is thought to be of medieval origin (c. 1000 A. D.), but scholars forget that the Hebrew mystics were in touch with Greek learning not only in the early centuries of our era but before it. The medieval kabbalists were perhaps not the first of their kind to call Aristotle a Prophet of God.
In addition to these primary Names and Titles, there were other Names which were elaborated by the kabbalists of lesser sanctity, consisting of combinations of letters representing certain concepts, principles and powers; these divine Names were also "Paths."
The term Shem-Ha-Mephorash is properly ascribed to but one sacred name, Maimonides. Said he, "We have one divine name only, which is not derived from His attributes, viz., the Tetragrammaton, for which reason it is called Shem-Ha-Mephorash. Believe nothing else, and give no credence to the nonsense of the writers of charms and amulets ... about the divine names which they invent without any sense, calling them appellations of the Deity and affirming that they require holiness and purity and perform miracles. All these things are fables; a sensible man will not listen to them, much less believe in them."
Some kabbalists call the sacred name of forty-two letters the Shem-Ha-Mephorash, some give that title to the seventy-two letter name. It is pointed out by scholars that the forty-two letter name consists of the names of the Ten Sephiroth run together, with the Vav conjunctive inserted before the name of the last Sephira.
However, the kabbalistic use of verses 19, 20 and 21 of Exodus XIV is of interest to every student, by which the "Ladder of Jacob," consisting of seventy-two names of angels, is found. The method seems fanciful, yet the results can scarcely be the result of coincidence. The letters of verse 19 were first taken (in the Hebrew) and written down separately, as letters, not words. Verse 20 was then taken as letters and written in reverse order directly under verse 19; after this verse 21 was taken, again in separated letters, and written under verse 20, but in direct order like verse 19. Read from above this yielded seventy-two names, each having three letters. The kabbalist next added AL and TH to these names, and the names of seventy-two angels stood revealed. These names, collectively, are God. So, also, the names of the Sephiroth collectively are God.
These three verses of Exodus undoubtedly contain some very ancient cipher or code in this arrangement of letters. We have seen that there were perhaps seventy-two divisions of the Hebrew astronomical system, instead of the thirty-six decans used today, and that there were as many "princes" or leaders of the twelve tribes, six to each tribe, who came together for the national councils. To the seventy-two Elders Moses also gave the secret Teaching, which he had received from God on Mount Sinai, and which was the source of the kabbalistic tradition for the new Hebrew nation. The names cannot be attributed to Abraham in this case, except that the prophecy of God to him was that his seed should be "as the stars of heaven," and the tribes are organized on an astronomical pattern after the time of Jacob, from whom came the Twelve Patriarchs who are founders of the Twelve Tribes.
In Bible theosophy certain Archangels are mentioned who are called "Princes of the People." These Archangels are race spirits who work under the God of all races, termed Jehovah-God. They are stragglers from their own life wave, who are regaining their lost status by serving the humanity of the planet Earth. They come from the Sun, and their work is described in their names. Each of these "Princes" is the focus of one of the solar and planetary rays or forces. In modem astronomy we do not call the Moon a planet, but the ancients did so; hence Gabriel, the lunar Prince, is also called an Archangel with the others, although the Moon is really the ruler of the lower, angelic, life wave.
The Planetary Spirits or Logoi are called Archangels, but they are not race spirits. They are the living Intelligence which indwells the planets of our solar system. The Earth Spirit is not named in the lists of Planetary Archangels, for the Moon is given in its place. The Earth Spirit is a great mystery, concerned with the very deepest aspect of the Christ Work for our solar system. Kabbalistically it is the sphere of Malkuth, whose Archangel is Sandalphon.
Each of the Seven Planetary Spirits, working in the three lower planes of Nature, has power over one of the seven days of the week; that is, one day each week is marked strongly by a particular archangelic Ray or power. We note that the names of the Archangels all end in "El," meaning God, while the rest of the archangelic Name describes his nature and function.
Sunday ... Michael, the Sun, "Who is like God?" — a statement, not a question. Sometimes called the Splendor of God, Michael is fittingly representative of the solar orb. The race spirit Michael, who is the tutelary deity of the Hebrew nation, stands to them in the place of God, and so do the other race gods stand in the place of God to their people.
Monday ... Gabriel, the Moon. There is both an Angel and an Archangel of the Moon. The Angel Gabriel is called the Revealer. His name means "The Man of God." It is he who announced to Mary the coming of the Christ Child. The lunar angels have charge of all generation and birth under the aegis of Jehovah-God, the God of all races. Gabriel is the giver of the man-child.
Tuesday ... Samael, the planet Mars. His name means "Venom of God," or "Severity of God," indicating his function as angel of purgatory and bringer of death, as Gabriel is bringer of birth. Khamael is sometimes given as the name of the Mars Archangel, a name which refers to the heat or fire supposedly characteristic of that planet in human horoscopes.
Wednesday ... Raphael, the planet Mercury, called the Friend of Man. His name means "God Healeth." The root of this name is the same as that of Orpheus. Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, and with Apollo is the god of healing. Mercury crosses the face of the Sun about every eighth year. It was Raphael who accompanied Tobias to Nineveh, in the apocryphal Book of Tobit, and who was thought to be a man of flesh and blood, showing the Hebrew belief that an Archangel could appear on earth as a man among men.
Thursday ... Zachariel or Tzadkiel, the planet Jupiter. Zachariel signifies "Remembrance of God." His name points to the benevolence and mercy and magnificence of God. Jupiter is preeminently the star of Princes of the Church and of Judges. Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn sometimes show revolutionary trends in both Church and State. Tzadkiel means "the Justice of God."
Friday ... Aniel or Haniel, the planet Venus, Son of Heaven and Star of the Morning; the Resurrection Star, which is born in the east before dawn after dying in the west at twilight. It signifies that whereof Paul sang, "O grave, where is thy victory?" It is the Love which is stronger than death, the Grace, the Graciousness and the Mercy of God.
Saturday ... Kassiel, the planet Saturn. The archangelic name suggests the nature of Saturn, strong, righteous and Star of the Sabbath. Sometimes Sabbathiel is applied to Jupiter, but this title belongs to whichever planet rules any Sabbath, and in Israel this was Saturday. Tzaphkiel is also assigned to Saturn; the name signifies Contemplation of God!
Differences in names and titles come from the many changes in calendar throughout the history of all peoples. The Essenes claimed that theirs was the true calendar, and some scholars believe that the Essenes made Wednesday their Sabbath; but if Man, Mercury or Thoth-Hennes was created on the sixth day, and this was Mercury's Day, then Thursday would have been the Sabbath Day on which God rested, while Sabbath Eve would then have been Wednesday evening. This would explain why Jupiter is termed Sabbathiel, for Jupiter rules Thursday.
Four great Archangels are very ancient. They go back to the time of Abraham in Canaan: Raphael, Michael, Gabriel and Uriel. Uriel means "God is my Light." These names relate to the Taurean Age when, as shown in Ezekiel's vision, the four fixed signs were on equinoxes and solstices. Astrology arose, however, in the Geminian Age under common signs, ruled by only two planets, Mercury and Jupiter. Reminiscent, perhaps, of this is the Hebrew calendar with its two seasons, of which spring and summer constituted one, and fall and winter the other; but astrologically there were always four seasons as marked out by the stars, and this was known to the priests and wise men.
The other names and titles show the influence of later Babylonia and Persia, from the Exilic Period, when Aramaic became the official speech in Palestine as in other areas under Persian dominance.
If the Essene calendar points back to a time when Wednesday was the Sabbath, this explains why many kabbalists still insist that Michael, the Archangel of the Hebrew nation, represents the planet Mercury, rather than the Sun or Saturn. Others say that Gabriel is the Archangel of Mercury. Again, calendar changes account for the contradictions.
The ancient Babylonians also had sabbaths, but these did not fall regularly on one day of each week but rotated so that every planet would have its Sabbath in the course of a fixed cycle. The Hebrew Sabbath, however, was set for Saturday in historic times, for Saturday was not only Saturn's day, sacred to Abraham, but completed one quarter of the Moon's cycle.
Ancient Babylonian symbols for the days of the week have been found engraved on stones as follows: Sunday, pointed star (Sun); Monday, crescent (Moon); Tuesday, spearhead (Mars); Wednesday, erect serpent beside bent horns (Mercury); Thursday, bent horns in pyramid shape (Jupiter); Friday, wedge-shaped object (Venus) and Saturday, head and neck (Saturn).
When the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were discovered in modern times, astrologers sought out archangelic names for them. Ithuriel was assigned to Uranus, which means "God is my Superiority." There are many lists of angels and archangels in kabbalistic literature from which names can be taken according to the influence of the newly discovered bodies when that has been determined.
— Corinne Heline
