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The Formulae of H.H.H. and I.A.O.



“There are three contemplations as it were breaths in the human mind, that is the Abyss of Hell: the first is called Νεκρος, the second Πυραμις, and the third Φαλλος. These are the watery reflexions of the three enthusiasms; those of Apollo, Dionysus, and Aphrodite.
    The whole star is Nechesh and Messiach, the name אהיה joined with יהוה."
    This image depicts the unification of the God Names אהיה and יהוה, as אהיהוה. (For an analysis of these two God Names, see “Symbolism of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram”). When transliterated into English letters, and read from the top point counter clockwise, it makes AHIHOH. This name adds to 32, the number of Spheres and Paths on the Tree of Life, which symbolizes the entirety of the magical process — the Lightning Flash of the 10 Spheres, and the climbing Serpent of the 22 Paths. When split into the two independent triangles, it makes I.A.O. and H.H.H. These three Hs are concealing the “Mother Letters” of the Hebrew alphabet, א, Aleph, מ, Mem, and ש, Shin. When replaced within the Name, you get אשיאום, AShIAOM, which adds to 358, the number of both Messiah, משיח, and Nechesh, נחש, “the Serpent that initiated Eve.”* (See Liber D, Sepher Sephiroth). This Messiah is often interpreted as Jesus Christ, who calls himself “the Alpha and the Omega”* (Revelations, 22:13), and whose initials in Greek are IX, (Ιήσους Χριστός). These intials are also the Roman numeral for the number 9, whose Tarot card is The Hermit.  
    The H is linked to the “Mother” letters due to its attribution in the name יהוה, where the first Heh is the Mother (while Yod is the Father, Vav is the Prince, and Heh final is the Daughter.)*  Another way in which Heh is linked to I.A.O. is through the Tarot Trump “The Star”. Since the reception of Liber AL, The Star is attributed to the letter Heh, (See “The He/Tzaddi Switch”)* and is labeled as Key XVII, 17. I.A.O., transliterated into Hebrew, יאו, adds to 17.* It’s also worth noting that in Greek, ΙΑΩ contains both Alpha and Omega, and is the Gnostic name of Jesus, who died on the Cross, Χ. The Star has also been traditionally associated with the Messiah through that star which the Magi followed on their way to the newly born Jesus Christ.* One of the oldest Tarot cards, that of Bembo, depicts this star. (See here.) Its shape, that of the 8-pointed star, is used in Alchemy to represent Sal Armonicum, q, the Salt of Harmony.* This association is also made in The Vision and The Voice, in the 6th Aethyr, “...above me appears the starry heaven of night, and one star greater than all the other stars. It is a star of eight rays. I recognize it as the star in the seventeenth key of the Tarot, as the Star of Mercury.”* In The Paris Working, Crowley associates the Messiah of Jesus with Mercury: 

“In the beginning was the Word, the logos, who is Mercury, and is therefore to be identified with Christ. Both are messengers;... The Crucifixion represents the Caduceus... compare Christ’s descent into hell with the function of Hermes as guide of the dead....”
-Crowley, The Paris Working, Opus II. The Equinox, IV:2, pg. 359
   
     As mentioned above, the Greek initials of Jesus match the Roman numeral for 9, IX. Crowley writes in the Book of Thoth when describing the card The Lovers, “The hooded figure which occupies the centre of the Card is another form of The Hermit, who is further explained in Atu IX. He is himself a form of the god Mercury”. And later when describing The Hermit card itself,

“Virgo represents the lowest, most receptive, most feminine form of earth, and forms the crust over Hades. Yet not only is Virgo ruled by Mercury, but Mercury is exalted therein. Compare the Ten of Disks, and the general doctrine that the climax of the Descent into Matter is the signal for the reintegration by Spirit. It is the Formula of the Princess, the mode of fulfilment of the Great Work.
    This card recalls the Legend of Persephone, and herein is a dogma. Concealed within Mercury is a light which pervades all parts of the Universe equally; one of his titles is Psychopompos, the guide of the soul through the lower regions. These symbols are indicated by his Serpent Wand...”(*)
-Crowley, The Book of Thoth, Ch __, pg __. 
 

    As Crowley points out, Virgo is ruled by Mercury, and Mercury is exalted. But beyond that, Virgo is a Mutable astrological sign, whose symbol is Mercury. This makes a trisagion, “thrice-great,” an epithet of Hermes Trismegistus, the patron God of magic, and a synthesis of Hermes, Mercury, and Thoth.(*) 
    Initiates of the Neophyte grade of A∴A∴ are also identified with a Heh, but that of the Daughter, relating to Malkuth, and Earth (to which Virgo is also related).* There are a two other Tarot cards which link to this symbolism, The Princess of Disks, and the 10 of Disks:


    (Explain how the Princess of Disks represents a priestess of Demeter and the 52nd Hexagram of the I Ching, and how the 10 of Disks is linked to Mercury.) 
    Our late Brother J. Daniel Gunther includes this image as the frontispiece in his first book, Initiation in the Aeon of the Child.  Note that it contains משיח, Messiah, q, the Salt of Harmony, and נחש, the Serpent in the center: 
 

    The attributions of the Hehs in this version are reversed from that of Crowley’s image in Liber H.H.H., where I.A.O. is attributed to the downward facing triangle, the Heart of Blood, shown on the Robe of the Neophyte. Notice too that in the Paris Working quote above, Mercury is the Logos. In Brother Gunther’s image, alchemical Mercury, C, is just below ΛΟΓΟΣ, Logos. Crowley also writes in the Book of Thoth regarding The Hermit, “...he is the highest form of Mercury, and the Logos, the Creator of all worlds.”(*)  Brother Gunther identifies this with the East, while ΝΕΚΡΟΣ, Necros, Death, is opposite in the West. Initiates of the Neophyte degree should take note of this detail. Gunther notes while discussing Spell 17 of the Egyptian Book fo the Dead:
 
“Osiris the dead man, ΝΕΚΡΟΣ, is “yesterday” for the Neophyte — that state of existence which is past. (The state of “yesterday” is, “to slumber”.) “Tomorrow” is symbolized by Ra, the sun dawning in the East, signaling a new day, the new life to which the Initiate aspires.”
-Gunther, Initiation in the Aeon of the Child, pg 67.

    This dual horizon, that of Life and Death, is further referenced in the name of the Lord of the Aeon, Ra-Hoor-Khuit. In modern Egyptological orthography, Ra-Horakhty is translated as “Ra, who is Horus of the Two Horizons”(*). It’s also worth noting that the two Godnames discussed at the beginning of this analysis, יהוה and אהיה, are used in the Ritual of the Pentagram in the East and West respectively.* 
    Neophytes should also note that when Crowley presents the Caduceus of Mercury in the Book of Thoth, he includes the three Mother Letters of Hebrew along with it*:
 
     Another way in which Mercury is linked to “the Alpha and the Omega” is through the Alchemical concept of “AZΩת", Azoth. Not only does this contain the Alpha and Omega, but also A and Z, and Aleph and Tau, the first and last letters of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. These letters may be interpreted as the dual horizons of language. Alchemists would represent this concept with the Caduceus. A painting from Basil Valentine’s alchemical collection titled “Azoth”, from 1613, is reminiscent of this Caduceus: 

 
   
    Further in the Paris Working, following the quote above, Crowley expounds on the Caduceus:
“The Caduceus contains a complete symbol of the Gnosis; the winged Sun or phallus represents the joy of life on all planes from the lowest to the highest. The Serpents (besides being Active and Passive, Horus and Osiris, and all their other well-known attributions) are those qualities of Eagle and Lion respectively, of which we know, but do not speak. It is the symbol which unites the Microcosm and the Macrocosm, the symbol of the Magical Operation which accomplishes this. The Caduceus is Life itself, and is of universal application. It is the universal solvent. It is quite easy to turn quicksilver into gold on the physical plane, and this will soon be done. New life will flow through the world in consequence.”
-Crowley, The Paris Working, Opus II. The Equinox, IV:2, pg. 360

    In Brother Gunther’s Frontispiece, these Three Mothers are concealed in the ascending triangle, which he describes in page 286 of The Angel & The Abyss, “The ascending Blue Triangle is the effulgent flame of prayer, the burning aspiration of the Candidate unto the Holy One.”* We aspire physically from Life, ΒΙΟΣ, to Death, ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ, to this Mercurial ΛΟΓΟΣ. Or in another perspective, we are spiritually raised out of the land of the Dead into a new Life guided by this Logos. As Crowley writes in Book IV, Part III: “It is wrong to say triumphantly, ‘Mors janua vitæ’, unless you add with equal triumph, ‘Vita janua mortis.’”* Death is the gate of life, and Life is the gate of death. 

(Gate: ThORA/TARO, ADNI in full
Pyramis/Phallos (18th Aethyr, pg 110.) Liber 671)