The Tetragrammaton IHVH (יהוה) is the unpronounceable four-letter Name of God in the Hebrew Bible, often rendered as Yahweh or Jehovah. Its letters—Yod, He, Vav, He—encode the primal creative formula: Yod as the seed, He as the womb, Vav as the son, and the final He as the daughter, forming a cycle of emanation, manifestation, and return. In the context of Liber 777, IHVH appears as the magical formula for the fourth Sephirah, Chesed, the sphere of Mercy and expansive love.

Position on the Tree of Life

IHVH corresponds to the fourth Sephirah, Chesed, on the Tree of Life. Chesed represents the first outpouring of divine love and structure after the abyss, and the Tetragrammaton here functions as the formula that brings order from chaos. In the scale of 1–10, this is step 4, aligning with Jupiter and the element of Water in its beneficent aspect.

Historical context

The Tetragrammaton is the central name of God in Jewish mysticism, first appearing in the Torah and later elaborated in the Sefer Yetzirah and Zohar. In Kabbalistic tradition, it is the name that sustains all creation, and its four letters correspond to the four worlds (Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah, Assiah). Christian Kabbalists like Johannes Reuchlin and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa adopted it as a formula for invoking divine power. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, IHVH was used as a divine name for ritual work, especially in the grade of 4=7 (Chesed). Aleister Crowley, in Liber 777, places IHVH at Chesed, contrasting it with other formulas like ABRAHADABRA (Tiphereth) or AGLA (Geburah). The formula IHVH is seen as the static, paternal aspect of divinity, the lawgiver and sustainer, as opposed to the dynamic, transformative formulas of lower Sephiroth.

In the table, IHVH appears as the magical formula for Chesed, step 4, in column XLI. It is flanked by VIAOV (Chokmah) and BABALON·VITRIOL (Binah) above, and by AGLA·ALHIM (Geburah) below. This placement underscores its role as the formula of merciful governance, the name that establishes the boundaries of creation through love and law.