The Tetragrammaton, the four-letter Name of God (יהוה), is subject to twelve permutations, each corresponding to a different arrangement of its letters. The permutation הוהי (HWHY) is one of these twelve, and in the system of Liber 777, it is assigned to the first Sephirah, Keter. This specific arrangement, vocalized as Heh-Vav-Heh-Yod, is understood as the Name in its most primordial and undifferentiated state, representing the pure, unmanifest potential of the Divine before any creative act or emanation. The letters themselves—Heh (ה), Vav (ו), Heh (ה), Yod (י)—are the same as the standard Tetragrammaton, but their sequence is altered to reflect a different divine aspect or phase of creation.

Position on the Tree of Life

This permutation of the Tetragrammaton is placed at Keter (the Crown), the first Sephirah on the Tree of Life. Keter is the highest and most concealed Sephirah, representing the primal point of creation, the divine will, and the source of all other Sephiroth. As the Name at Keter, HWHY signifies the absolute unity and undifferentiated consciousness that precedes all division, including the division into the four worlds or the four letters of the Name itself. It is the Name in its most abstract and transcendent form, the "Revolutions of HWHY in Yetzirah" beginning at this point of pure potential.

Historical Context

The concept of the permutations of the Tetragrammaton is deeply rooted in Jewish Kabbalistic tradition, particularly within the meditative and ecstatic practices of the Merkabah and Heikhalot literature, and later systematized in the works of Abraham Abulafia in the 13th century. Abulafia’s prophetic Kabbalah focused on the manipulation and combination of divine letters and names (Tzeruf) as a means to achieve mystical union. The twelve permutations of the Tetragrammaton are a key part of this practice, each one representing a different divine attribute or gate of understanding. In the later Hermetic Qabalah, as codified by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and subsequently by Aleister Crowley in Liber 777, these permutations were mapped onto the Tree of Life. The assignment of HWHY to Keter reflects the Golden Dawn's understanding that the Name at the highest level is not the familiar YHVH, but a more primordial form that contains the potential for all others. This specific arrangement is seen as the first movement or "revolution" of the Name, the initial impulse of the divine will that sets the entire process of creation in motion.

In the table of Liber 777, the subject הוהי (HWHY) appears at scale step 1 (Keter) within the row titled "The Revolutions of HWHY in Yetzirah." It is the first and most fundamental permutation, the seed from which the other eleven permutations, corresponding to the remaining Sephiroth, are derived.