JACHIN and BOAZ
"These pillars symbolize the heart and mind, the positive and the negative poles of life. Those who would enter the temple must pass BETWEEN the pillars. Every extreme is dangerous. It is the point between all poles that is safe to stand upon. You cannot enter the temple by the development of either the heart or mind alone, but only by the equal development of both." [Manly Palmer Hall]
Eliphas Levi
"The Chariot of Hermes has attached to its car a white and also a black Sphynx; each of these symbolic animals propounds an enigma to the neophyte. The word of the White Sphynx is Jachin. The word of the Black Sphynx is Boaz.
Hermes, seated in the Chariot, touches the Black Sphynx with the point of a sword of steel, but the White Sphynx with a sceptre of gold.
It is after the type founded by the Thrice Great Hermes that the Magus learns how to use the Magical Wand and the Sword to control good and evil powers and beings." [The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum by Eliphas Levi]
JACHIN AND BOAZ were the two pillars of Solomon’s Temple. Their names themselves carry a deep symbolic meaning. Jachin means “He establishes” or “He makes firm,” while Boaz means “In him is strength” or “In His strength.”
Two columns, symbolizing the two extremes within us that must be brought into balance, severity and compassion, control and openness. These pillars evoke the traditional initiatory columns (associated with Jachin and Boaz, ָכִין וּבֹעַז), representing not only psychological dualities but cosmic polarity, active and passive, force and form, judgment and mercy. The letters on them further reinforce their hidden and structural meaning, indicating that they are not just symbols of opposites, but foundational principles of reality itself.
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The Divine name
The radiant sun with face, filled with divine light and the Divine name of God can be seen, symbolizes a higher consciousness or divine order. The name יהוה (YHWH), known as the Tetragrammaton (Yud Hei Vav Hei) in latin. This name is a linguistic structure whose letters can form different variations. “haya” (past), “hove” (present), and “yihiye” (future).
The name is also connected to natural forces, sound vibrations, or even the cycle of breathing (“Yah” as inhalation and “weh” as exhalation), thereby linking the divine presence to the fundamental process of life…
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“Unitas per ternarium et quaternarium duodenarium generans, ad unitatem reditur.”
“Unity, through the ternary and the quaternary, generates the twelve and returns to unity.” [Portal Ibis on FB]
See Also