Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

Many people wonder why the various names used in the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram were chosen over other alternatives, particularly when it comes to a name like AGLA, a notariqon of Atah Gibor leh-Olam Adonai ("Thou art mighty forever, O Lord."), which appears to have largely been selected because it has four letters. It is not difficult to understand the idea that since there are four directions, and thus there must be four names, that this motif would be continued in the formation of the names themselves. It is, after all, a continuation of the mystery of YHVH, the first name employed. But there is another reason that these must be four-letter names. If we look at the Hebrew names for the four directions, we have the following: Mazrach (מזרח) for East, Darom (דרום) for South, Ma'arav (מערב) for West, and Tzaphon (צפון) for North. The astute student will immediately notice that these are all four-letter names. Thus the most resonant names for the four...

For the first part of my LRP analysis, see here . Next we have the four four-letter names of God, used in the four quarters to charge the pentagrams. Firstly, this is an obvious reference to the four directions, the four winds, the four elements, and the four ancient figurative pillars of the world/universe (and their counterparts within the aura of the magician). It also hints at the four-fold nature of Malkuth, and thus represents the physical world. It has been pointed out before in many articles on this ritual that the Lesser Pentagram utilised in the traditional LRP is designed to invoke energy into or banish energy from the the four sub-quarters of Malkuth (represented by the four colours of this Sephirah: citrine = air, olive = water, russet = fire, black = earth), and thus the four four-letter names of God affirm this role. However, it also hints at stability, since the geometic figure of four is the square, the most solid of them all. This solidity and stability is thus a...