DOCSLIB.ORG

Millenarian Moderns: a Study of Utopian Desire

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Millenarian Moderns: a Study of Utopian Desire University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2013-09-13 Millenarian Moderns: A Study of Utopian Desire Brisbois, Michael Brisbois, M. (2013). Millenarian Moderns: A Study of Utopian Desire (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26918 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/975 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Millenarian Moderns: A Study of Utopian Desire By Michael J. Brisbois A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2013 © Michael J. Brisbois 2013 Abstract This dissertation examines the influence of millenarian and utopian thought in Modernist poetry. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework of literary studies, history, anthropology, and political science, I argue that the violence of the early twentieth century necessitated a movement towards millenarian thought in order to express a positive image of future. By focusing on the poems and essays of W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, and W. H. Auden, Modernism is shown to express a millenarian conception of the future in response to the socio-cultural pressures of modernity. These poets create a historical period ranging from 1885-1973 which permits a chronological approach and allows my argument to trace the shifts and developments how the period and its poets represent the future. Modernism’s turn towards experimental forms and an increased exploration of subjectivity reflect an attempt to construct a radical, utopian idea of the world to come. ii Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the support of a number of important mentors and organizations. My supervisor, Pamela McCallum provided necessary guidance in shaping the rabble of my writing into better shape. The advice of Harry Vandervlist and Michael T. Clarke was useful in expanding my understanding of literary studies. Susan Bennett, Jon Kertzer, Jim Ellis, and Jeanne Perreault each offered their support and advice at key times and for this I am grateful. This project was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship (2008-2010) and by further funding from the University of Calgary and the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. iii Dedication I have searched in several communities to find some form of wisdom more enduring than the present. I have found glimpses of truth, but rarely beyond the joy of family. My son, Christopher—and the future he will face—was a constant motivation and distraction during the writing of this study and so this is a work best dedicated to him. iv Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Dedication ........................................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................. v List of Figures .................................................................................................................................. vi Epigraph .......................................................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1 A. Defining Millenarianism ................................................................................................. 1 Millenarianism and Modernism ............................................................................................ 3 The Origins of Millenarianism ............................................................................................. 11 The Spectrum of the Future .................................................................................................. 15 The Academic Study of Millenarianism ............................................................................. 21 B. Millenarian Narratives ...................................................................................................... 36 Burridge’s Anthropological Model ...................................................................................... 42 Overview of this Study .......................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER ONE: THE FIN DE SIÈCLE, 1885-1900 .................................................................... 49 The Occult Orders of W. B. Yeats ............................................................................................. 52 The Irish Poet .............................................................................................................................. 68 CHAPTER TWO: PROGRESS TO CRISIS, 1900-1920 ............................................................... 81 Yeats: Theatre, Politics, and Revolution.................................................................................. 84 T. S. Eliot: Tradition, History, and Faith ............................................................................... 105 CHAPTER THREE: HIGH MODERNISM, 1921-1930 ............................................................ 124 Eliot’s Trivium: The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, and Ash Wednesday ............................. 129 Yeats’s Byzantium .................................................................................................................... 162 CHAPTER FOUR: UTOPIAN IDEOLOGIES, 1931-1937 ........................................................ 172 Yeats’s Vision ............................................................................................................................ 174 Eliot and the Heresy of Heterodoxy ...................................................................................... 184 Auden in England .................................................................................................................... 188 CHAPTER FIVE: UTOPIAN CONFLICTS, 1937-1946 ............................................................ 206 The Loss of a Visionary ........................................................................................................... 209 The Utopia of Continuity ........................................................................................................ 221 A New Homeland .................................................................................................................... 242 CHAPTER SIX: THE CHANGING CENTURY, 1946-1973 .................................................... 265 The Age of Anxiety .................................................................................................................. 267 Meditating on the Pre-Millennium ........................................................................................ 285 A Utopia in Language ............................................................................................................. 304 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 320 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................................. 328 v List of Figures Figure 1: The Historical Cones of Yeats’s A Vision………………………………………….181 vi Epigraph Accordingly, the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities. — Aristotle, Poetics, XXIV.10 vii Brisbois 1 INTRODUCTION Since we continue to ‘prescribe laws to nature’—Kant’s phrase, and we do—we shall continue to have a relation with the paradigms, but we shall change them to make them go on working. If we cannot break free of them, we must make sense of them. — Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending, 24. A. Defining Millenarianism Studying millenarianism is like opening Pandora’s Box; once opened, millenarianism unleashes its attended terms upon the reader: apocalypse and utopia, nihilism and dystopia, the Fall and the Golden Age. It takes very little effort to find these forces at work in our modern culture, whether popular or elite, religious or secular. As in the myth of Pandora, millenarianism’s final gift is always the hope at the bottom of the box, for the millenarian impulse imagines a better world (however much the clause of “better” may be partisan to the needs of the dreamer). No matter how far back in written history one looks, traces of millenarian thought can be found. As early as The Epic of Gilgamesh, the world is a fallen place and perhaps, just perhaps, the titular hero of the world’s oldest recorded story might be able to overcome death if he can uncover the secrets of the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Read PDF ~ Hermetic Qabalah Initiation Workbook (Paperback
    ZEKT3JTRG8EI \ eBook // Hermetic Qabalah Initiation Workbook (Paperback) Hermetic Qabalah Initiation W orkbook (Paperback) Filesize: 1.21 MB Reviews A top quality publication and also the font employed was interesting to learn. It is really simplistic but excitement within the fifty percent from the book. Its been designed in an remarkably basic way in fact it is only following i finished reading this pdf where in fact changed me, modify the way i believe. (Rachel Stiedemann) DISCLAIMER | DMCA YXBSIM1CHDWS # Book « Hermetic Qabalah Initiation Workbook (Paperback) HERMETIC QABALAH INITIATION WORKBOOK (PAPERBACK) To save Hermetic Qabalah Initiation Workbook (Paperback) PDF, make sure you click the hyperlink below and save the document or have accessibility to additional information which might be relevant to HERMETIC QABALAH INITIATION WORKBOOK (PAPERBACK) ebook. Ordo Astri, 2017. Paperback. Condition: New. Language: English . Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****.This is the companion volume to Hermetic Qabalah - A Foundation in the Art of Magick, and is a complete course of practical instruction in magick. The practical work in this book is based upon systematic meditations upon the paths of the Hermetic Tree of Life following the downward course of the Lightning Flash from Kether to Malkuth. Through a one-year course of practical instruction the student learns how to create an astral double as a medium for forging the inner plane contacts that alone make real Initiation a possibility. The preliminary work includes the Wisdom of Breath, Ritual Sonics, the Assumption of the Godform and a powerful, modern variation of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, as suitable for the New Aeon.
    [Show full text]
  • Hermes Trismegistus - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    הרמס טריסמגיסטוס http://freemasons-info.blogspot.com/ هيرمس تريسماجستوس http://www.ayamina.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3454&start=220 هرمس تريسمگيستوس http://ketabeshear.com/Tazeh/winter2015/parsiTranslation.html Hermes Trismegistus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hermes Trismegistus (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος , "thrice-greatest Hermes"; Latin: Mercurius ter Maximus ) is the purported author of the Hermetic Corpus , a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism. Contents 1 Origin and identity 2 Thrice Great 3 Hermetic writings 4 Hermetic revival 5 In Islamic tradition 6 In the Bahá'í writings 7 New Age revival 8 In popular culture 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Origin and identity Hermes Trismegistus may be a representation of the syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.[1] In Hellenistic Egypt, the Greeks recognised the congruence of their god Hermes with Thoth.[2] Subsequently the two gods were worshipped as one in what had been the Temple of Thoth in Khemnu, which the Greeks called Hermopolis.[3] Both Thoth and Hermes were gods of writing and of magic in their respective cultures. Thus, the Greek god of interpretive communication was combined with the Egyptian god of wisdom as a patron of astrology and alchemy. In addition, both gods were psychopomps, guiding souls to the afterlife. The Egyptian Priest and Polymath Imhotep had been deified long after his death and therefore assimilated to Thoth in the classical and Hellenistic period.
    [Show full text]
  • Divine Femininity and Everyday Womanhood in the Work of Dion Fortune Georgia Van Raalte
    Pomegranates and Crescent Honey-Cakes: Divine Femininity and Everyday Womanhood in the Work of Dion Fortune Georgia van Raalte Dion Fortune was born Violet Mary Firth on December 6th, 1890 in Llan- dudno, Wales. She attended Studley Agricultural College from 1911 until 1913, when she left after suffering a severe mental breakdown. As a result of this ex- perience Fortune grew interested in occultism, and after the First World War ended she became involved with the occultist Theodor Moriarty. In 1919 she was initiated into Alpha et Omega, one of the splinter groups of the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In the early 1920s Fortune established the Fraternity of the Inner Light,1 originally as an ‘outer court’ of the Golden Dawn, intended to attract new members to the group. In 1925 Fortune’s Society purchased headquarters at 3 Queensborough Terrace in London and Fortune began to publish occult work under the name Dion Fortune. In 1927 Fortune was expelled from Alpha et Omega, ostensibly because “certain symbols had not appeared in my aura – a perfectly unanswerable charge.”2 In the same year she married Dr. Penry Evans (1892-1956), who was both a practicing physician and a member of her Society. Throughout the 1930s Fortune saw to the development of her Society and its work. She delivered public lectures, initiated new members and published an array of occult essays, books and novels.3 During the Second World War Fortune suspended her publishing and led her Society in an attempt to assist the war effort through group meditation.
    [Show full text]
  • Thelemic Qabalah Volume II
    Thelemic Qabalah Volume II Publication in Class C by Frater Apollonius 4°=7□ ATAT Preface The first volume of this set addressed the theoretical approach to qabalistic practice. The very study of qabalistic theory in itself is not only absorbing, but all by itself can lead to an exultant state of consciousness. And of course, qabalistic theory is so much more than was presented in this first volume. From a Thelemic perspective, we have covered this topic in a wider sense in works like: Scientific Illuminism The Starry Gnosis: An American Revelation Liber Loagaeth: Leaf 1A And though these tomes expand the theoretical corpus, they still barely hold a skeletal representation of the enormity of the Greater and Lesser Mysteries that together make the Holy Qabalah…the holy and antient study that still then, must lead us to the present volume; that of praxis. Again, the study itself, that should that be all one ever does with the Qabalah in this life, can provide its own exultation of the Soul; that even then, a more intimate connection with one’s own life on this planet is deepened to a wondrous and wholesome degree. But in praxis, the soul takes yet a stronger step towards the congealing (discussed in Congealing the Soul in Volume I) that is the perfection of the self. Praxis is both the practice and the approach to practice and it does not occur in a vacuum. Every master needs his or her apprentice…why? Because as we explained in the first volume, the energy of the creator flows to the individualized ends that we are and then must extend from us in imitation of the creative force…we are essentially, re-creative creatures.
    [Show full text]
  • The Gavel Montezuma Lodge No
    The gavel monTezuma lodge no. 1 af & am 431 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501-1958 Just west of the Scottish Rite Temple Phone: 505-982-0971 - Email: [email protected] Volume 20 Issue 11 “The Oldest Masonic Lodge in the Rockies“ Organized May 8, 1851 November 2020 From the East… Dear Brethren of Montezuma Lodge No.1, Greetings to you. Congratulations to the 2021 officers who have been elected and appointed. The mail-in balloting process went smoothly with no issues and we had very high participation with a total of 49 ballots received and counted out of 138. Thank you all for your participation. The installation is scheduled to be held at the next regular communication on December 7 at 7pm via Zoom. I hope to see you all there. The 2021 year is expected to be a vast improvement in conditions with respect to COVID-19 as we all eagerly await the distribution of vaccines starting as early as December. Thus, we may finally be able to return to in-person lodge meetings and hold degree conferral again in the Spring. While we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the situation is likely to get worst before they get better. Please continue to be safe and take all precautions during the holidays and we will indeed see each other again. Sincerely and Fraternally, Jee W. Hwang Worshipful Master 2021 DUES Brethren: Please take note that 2021 dues are now due and payable. They are now $130.00 ( $75 + Grand Lodge per-capita).
    [Show full text]
  • A Qabalistic Examination of Symbolist Poetry and the Music of Claude Debussy
    The Muse of Secrecy: A Qabalistic Examination of Symbolist Poetry and the Music of Claude Debussy Author Churchill, Christina Published 2020-06-03 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Hum, Lang & Soc Sc DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/1355 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/394685 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au The Muse of Secrecy: A Qabalistic Examination of Symbolist Poetry and the Music of Claude Debussy Christina Churchill MMus Perf Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy August 2019 School of Humanities Griffith University i Abstract The Qabalah played an important role to a number of esoteric and cultural groups in Paris from the 1840s through to the end of the 19th century. This Qabalistic brand of esotericism was spearheaded by Eliphas Lévi who combined facets of the Cabala of the Renaissance that held a Christian view of ancient Jewish Kabbalah, with Gnostic, Hermetic, Pythagorean, and Neoplatonic sources. Initiates sought the hidden and cryptographic meaning of Qabalistic texts and were attracted to the concept of a Divine language and its evocatory potential. This thesis shows how esoteric ideas were circulated though networks and clubs, including Le Chat Noir, Librairie de l'Art indépendant, and Mallarmé’s Tuesday salons. It argues that the Qabalah was especially important in these circles through the influence of Lévi, Gérard Encausse (Papus), and Joséphin Péladan. Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Verlaine, and Debussy, along with other Symbolist poets and composers such as Villiers de l’Isle Adam, J.-K.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded Their Wisdom from the Ancient Sunken Library of the Atlantians
    CHAPTER 13 THE BRIGHT DARKNESS-PERSO AL INSIGHTS INTO THE ENTHEOGENIC USE OF KETAMINE Julian Vayne My entheogenic explorations with the substance known as ketamine began when I was four years old. At that age, I suffered from an astigmatism af- fecting my left eye. This led to a planned admission to the hospital and an operation to correct the problem. The anesthetic used on me was ketamine, a drug commonly employed for surgery on children and the elderly (Couper et al., 2013). Ketamine is a very safe, reliable medicine (Jansen, 2004, p. 267) and also a medicine that can provoke strange visions, distortions of space and time, and even, 1 later discovered, open the door to peak spiritual experiences (Jansen, 2004<,p. 267). For years after this operation, two things haunted me: The first was a vision, a nightmare. Something that I'd see in dreams when under stress (1 was something of a worrisome child), during fevers, and sometimes in the hypnagogic or hypnopompic states. The vision was of an egg. Not a realistic object but a stylized black-and-white ovoid shape in a 2D space that filled my entire visual field. Bisected at the widest part of the figure, this egg would appear on a background of black and white. As the top of the egg shape was filled with black, so the field behind that part of the shape would switch to white, and vice versa, for the bottom of the egg. Then the picture would shift, the monochromatic shades switching around, faster and faster until the black seemed white and the white dark.
    [Show full text]
  • Cults and Societies in Fin De Siècle Literature
    SUMMARY Summary of Thesis submitted for Ph.D. degree by Sarah Jane Berry on Seeking God by Strange Ways: Cults and Societies in fin de siècle literature The general consensus regarding the role of Christianity at the fin de siècle is that while it did not cease to exist, technological and scientific advances had eroded the faith of many educated Victorians. Here, the term “seeking” suggests a spiritual journey with the aim of attaining a true understanding of the universe, which in occult circles is called esoteric knowledge or “gnosis”. One of the purposes of this thesis is to demonstrate how “seeking God by strange ways” in fin de siècle literature is a spiritual rite of passage to locate God in man and involves “lifting the veil” between this world and the spiritual realm. The late nineteenth century traveller seeking God enters a “period of margin” or transitional phase between two fixed states. As liminality is characterized by transformation or a process of “becoming”, some liminal beings live outside their normal environment and raise questions concerning their self, the existing social order and “the new hedonism”. The novels and authors featured here have been chosen to illustrate this thesis because they describe alternative religious cults and societies and spiritual rites of passage, while exploring social and cultural transitions. This exploration often brings with it abjection, marginalization and alienation. In addition to raising questions of “gender inversion”, sexual equality with notions of the “equalization of women and men” and “psychic androgyny”, the occult and mystical revival laid great stress on individual evolution and perfection.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study on Religion
    A Study on Religion Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives. While theology attempts to understand the nature of transcendent or supernatural forces (such as deities), religious studies tries to study religious behavior and belief from outside any particular religious viewpoint. Religious studies draws upon multiple disciplines and their methodologies including anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history of religion. Religious studies originated in the nineteenth century, when scholarly and historical analysis of the Bible had flourished, and Hindu and Buddhist texts were first being translated into European languages. Early influential scholars included Friedrich Max Müller, in England, and Cornelius P. Tiele, in the Netherlands. Today religious studies is practiced by scholars worldwide. In its early years, it was known as Comparative Religion or the Science of Religion and, in the USA, there are those who today also know the field as the History of religion (associated with methodological traditions traced to the University of Chicago in general, and in particular Mircea Eliade, from the late 1950s through to the late 1980s). The field is known as Religionswissenschaft in Germany and Sciences de la religion in the French-speaking world. The term "religion" originated from the Latin noun "religio", that was nominalized from one of three verbs: "relegere" (to turn to constantly/observe conscientiously); "religare" (to bind oneself [back]); and "reeligare" (to choose again).[1] Because of these three different meanings, an etymological analysis alone does not resolve the ambiguity of defining religion, since each verb points to a different understanding of what religion is.[2] During the Medieval Period, the term "religious" was used as a noun to describe someone who had joined a monastic order (a "religious").
    [Show full text]
  • Hermes, Hermeticism, and Related Eight Wikipedia Articles
    Hermes, Hermeticism, and Related Eight Wikipedia Articles PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Wed, 11 May 2011 01:25:11 UTC Contents Articles Hermes 1 Hermes Trismegistus 13 Thoth 18 Hermeticism 24 Hermetica 33 Hermetic Qabalah 37 Emerald Tablet 41 Kybalion 45 References Article Sources and Contributors 50 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 52 Article Licenses License 53 Hermes 1 Hermes Hermes So-called “Logios Hermes” (Hermes,Orator). Marble, Roman copy from the late 1st century CE - early 2nd century CE after a Greek original of the 5th century BCE. Messenger of the gods God of commerce, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, and border crossings, guide to the Underworld Abode Mount Olympus Symbol Caduceus, Talaria, Tortoise, Lyre, Rooster, Consort Merope, Aphrodite, Dryope, Peitho Parents Zeus and Maia Roman equivalent Mercury Hermes ( /ˈhɜrmiːz/; Greek Ἑρμῆς) is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves,[1] of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics and sports, of weights and measures, of invention, and of commerce in general.[2] His symbols include the tortoise, the rooster, the winged sandals, the winged hat, and the caduceus. In the Roman adaptation of the Greek religion (see interpretatio romana), Hermes was identified with the Roman god Mercury, who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics, such as being the patron of commerce.
    [Show full text]
  • Kabbalah by Phillip Arnn
    Kabbalah by Phillip Arnn Founder: French Jewish aristocrats Place: Provence, France Date: cir. 1175 AD Publications: Hekhaloth; Sefer Yetzirah (book of Creation); Sefer ha-Bahir (Book of Clear Light); Zohar (Book Of Splendour). Unique Terms: Sefiroth (tree of Life); Gematria; abracadabra (“I create as I speak”); Tikkun Olam (being a partner with God in mending the world). HISTORY As King Solomon once remarked, “There is nothing new under the sun.” This is certainly true of man’s search for spiritual fulfillment. One esoteric path with deep roots is the Jewish practice of Kabbalah. It has recently gained new popularity as a trendy, boutique spirituality in part because of its celebrity adherents. Many Hollywood notables are or have been students. The roster includes; Roseanne, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Sandra Bernhard, Diane Ladd and Laura Dern to name a few.1 The earliest form of Jewish shamanic practice was “Merkabah mysticism.” It was a meditative system that aspired to bring the devotee before the throne of God. It aspired to emulate the experience of Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot of the Lord. The primary source for research of these early beliefs and practices are preserved in the Hekhalot (Divine Palaces/Heavens) literature. This literature developed from the second to about the eleventh centuries. Davila explains: The documents… describe the self-induced spiritual experiences of the “descenders to the chariot” that permitted these men to view Ezekiel’s chariot vision (the Merkevah) for themselves, as well as to gain control of angels and a perfect mastery of Torah through theurgy…. Hekhalot documents claim to detail actual practices used to reach trance states, gain revelations, and interact with divine mediators.2 The next development helping to lay the foundation of the Kabbalah was a second or third century document called the Sefer (Sepher) Yetzirah (book of Formation or Creation).
    [Show full text]
  • Shemhamphorasch 1 Shemhamphorasch
    http://guideangel.com/54.html Shemhamphorasch 1 Shemhamphorasch The Shemhamphorasch is a corruption of the Hebrew term Shem the explicit Name [of God]", that is, the") (שם המפורש) HaMephorash full and proper name, and not a filler term or cipher, which are used in conversation and prayer), which was used in tannaitic times to refer to the Tetragrammaton. In early Kabbalah, the term was used to designate sometimes a 72-letter name for God, and sometimes a 42-letter name. Rashi said Shem ha-Mephorash was used for a 42-letter name, but Maimonides thought Shem ha-Mephorash was used only for the four letter Tetragrammaton. A 216-letter name for God is found in Jewish Kabbalistic sources (mentioned by Tosafot as well as by the Kabbalists) as well as in Christian Kabbalah and in Hermetic Qabalah, derived from the 72 groups of three letters, each of these triplets being the name of an angel or intelligence. Spelling variants include Shemhamforash, Shemhamphorae, Shemhamphorash, Shemahamphorasch, Shemhamphoresh, Shem ha-Mephoresh, Shem ha-Mephorash, The Seventy-Two Names of God, a Christian diagram; the IHS is a monogram for "Jesus". (in Shemhamphoresch, shem hamitfaresh. the Oedipus Aegyptiacus) History and derivation Part of a series on Kabbalah • v • t [1] • e Shemhamphorasch is a corruption of Shem ha-Mephorash (Hebrew: "the explicit name", can also be translated as "interpreted name"). In Jewish texts, however, its primary use is in reference to the Tetragrammaton, the 4-letter name of God which should not be pronounced, or said "explicitly". The name itself is derived from Exodus 14:19-21, three verses each composed of 72 letters; by writing these out in boustrophedon form so that the second line is reversed, and grouping the letters in columns of threes (see table below), the names of 72 angels or intelligences or 72 Names of God are formed.
    [Show full text]