The Quest for the "Lost Word"

As we search for the Lost Word, may we keep in mind the admonitions and observations of Plutarch in "On Isis and Osiris":


But those who relate that Typhon's flight from the battle was made on the back of an ass and lasted for seven days, and that after he made his escape, he became the father of sns, Heirosolymus and Judaeus, are manifestly, as the very names show, attempting to drag Jewish traditions into the legend.

Let us first explore some of the history and properties of the Lost Word.

From Whence the Lost Word?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through HIM, and without HIM nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." - John 1:1-5

Of all the enduring legends within Western esoteric traditions, few hold such pre-eminence as "the Lost Word". Whether popularized by mass religion such as Christianity, or within esoteric studies as Speculative Freemasonry, "the Word" remains a "key" to Western esotericic philosophical constructions.

Bro. Arthur C. Parker, in writing for "The Builder Magazine in 1923, referenced,

UPON a clay tablet found amid the ruins of an ancient city upon the Euphrates was the words of a hymn - a hymn of a Word. The song is old, five thousand years old, and perhaps twenty-five centuries older than the Hebrew scripture, and, in any event, it antedates teh final development of those writings. Shall we pause to listen?

The Word that causes the heavens on high to tremble,

The Word that makes the world below to quake,

The Word that bringeth destruction to the Annunakis,

The Word is beyond the diviner, beyond the seer!

His Word is a tempest without rival.

Ultimately, the "Word" being referenced above related to a "Word of Enlil" and so, by definition, could not be construed as "the Lost Word" for which so many have sought, but the hymn reminds us of the antiquity of a reverence for particular "Words", or "the Word".

In the case of "the Omnific Word", or "the Lost Word", it is important to remember that "transpositions and modifications" were employed in the development of "sacred nomenclatures" as they passed from race to race. Hence what is called by one name in one system or culture might yet be called yet another in another, while yet a third in a third.

Aside from the verbalized changes to words, there remains sub-surface an even more important philosophical construction. The "core truth", however, remains. Its presence and meaning depends quite literally on "which side of the coin you viewing".

For example, it is said of Ma'at of the Egyptians that Ma'at was the reason why "order" existed. Without Ma'at, chaos would reign. Nothing, really, could exist without Ma'at. Ma'at, was, therefore, perhaps the most important of deities. Without Ma'at, Nun, the waters of chaos, would return to reclaim the Universe.

With the rise of Greek philosophy, the principles of Ma'at, already fused further to the properties of Ma'at's husband, Thoth, would be incorporated into the Logos of the Greeks. "Logos" was a Greek word employed by Plato to mean, philosophically, "the Word". The Greeks gave to the Word the rational principle which was said to govern all things.

In this manner, Ma'at and "the Logos" are directly equivalent - transposition and modifcations of a concept that is passed from one race to another so as to employ local cultural significances.

At around the same time as Plato was expounding upon the philosophical of "the Logos" or "the Word", another work is said to have begun to evolve orally within Jewish philosophicalk constructions. In this work, considered to be "pseudographia" and known as "The First Book of Adam and Eve, we find that "the Word" plays a central role in the story,

And because when they were in the garden they were filled with the grace of a bright nature, and they had not hearts turned toward earthly things.

Therefore, God had pity on them; and when He saw them fallen before the gate of the garden, he sent His Word to our father, Adam and Eve, and raised them from their fallen state.

By the time of the writing of the Gospel of John some 350-400 years after Plato, the heavily influenced Jewish religious elite would incorporate the Greek concept of the Logos into Jewish (Christian) constructions via the oft quoted passage from the Gospel of John.

The attempt to fuse Jewish traditions to the larger Philosophical construction had begun.

In the beginning was the Logos (Word), and the Logos (Word) was with God and the Logos was God.

Properties of "the Lost Word"

Before we are able to "recover" the "Lost Word", it is helpful to ascertain just what precisely are the properties of this "Word". In order to do so, we need to keep in mind the idea of "transpositions and modifications" as they pass from one race to another.

For instance, in Christianity, it is said that "in the beginning was the Word", yet in the beginning as it is applied to Egyptian mythology refers to "Ma'at" who was responsible for ordering the Universe from the primal chaos. This same ordering principle became "the Logos" of the Greeks, and so "the Word" as it is caste into Christianity is but a transposition of "Ma'at" via the philosophical concept known as "the Logos" of the Greeks.

Indeed, the English speaking Western world has been disconnected from its history.

In what is arguably one of the greatest epics ever written in English, John Milton released a work called "Paradise Lost" in 1674. The tale revolves around the mythical fall of Adam and Eve from "the Garden of Eden" and hence, "Paradise Lost".

The "Lost Word", or "the Omnific Word" as coined by Milton, is hardly mentioned at all in current academic curriculum below specialized higher education. Consequently, few within such countries as the United States, Canada, or England are really aware of of "the Word's" importance to the development of the philosophical structures that would be woven into fraternal movements as "Freemasonry".

Writes Milton, in Paradise Lost,

Silence, ye troubl’d waves, and thou Deep, peace,

Said then th’ Omnific Word, your discord end:

Here, "the Word" is given the properties of bringing an end to "discord", or chaos.

Farr into Chaos, and the World unborn;

For Chaos heard his voice: him all his Traine

Follow’d in bright procession to behold

Creation, and the wonders of his might.

Here, Milton can be seen as providing to "the Word" properties traditionally associated with the Egyptian Goddess Ma'at. The Word Ma'at literally means "truth", and within the larger construction of Ma'at are embodied such ideals as "cosmic order", "balance", and a reality based on a rational and logical order. The sun would set and again would rise, the tides would ebb and flow, the seasons would each have their predictable time, all of which were attributable to Ma'at.

Thus Ma'at (the literal word), being a pre-cursor to the "Mythological Word" of Western esoteric constructions, would become integrally woven into into these same said Western esoteric constructions under a different name.

Within Freemasonry, the "Word" plays a central theme and role, while the attributes affixed to the Word provide for the adumbrations upon which one may come to ascertain and recover this same said "Word".

From "The Symbolism of Freemasonry", written by Albert Mackay, we find in chapter XXXI (31=3.1), The Lost Word

"The mythical history of Freemasonry informs us that there once existed a WORD of surpassing value, and claiming a profound veneration; that this Word was known to but few; that it was at length lost; and that a temporary substitute for it was adopted. But as the very philosophy of Masonry teaches us that there can be no death without a resurrection,--no decay without a subsequent restoration,--on the same principle it follows that the loss of the Word must suppose its eventual recovery."

He continues on,

The WORD, therefore, I conceive to be the symbol of Divine Truth; and all its modifications--the loss, the substitution, and the recovery--are but component parts of the mythical symbol which represents a search after truth.

"Divine Truth" is Ma'at, and the modifications, substitutions, and transpositions which become known as "the Logos" or "the Word", are but reflections of this earlier concept known as Ma'at.

Jehovah and the Tetragrammaton

Much confusion exists within the fields of Western esoteric studies precisely because there has been a sustained and largely successful campaign to fuse Jewish traditions to that of Western Paganism. Far too often, Jewish esoteric constructions are provided "pre-eminent status" regardless of the rational and historical underpinnings which would wash away what is, in hindsight, pillars which have been caste into sand.

The search for "the Lost Word" has fallen prey to this very methodical and aeon attempt to fuse Jewish mysticism to the larger Construct.

Says Mackay, in his epic work from 1913, "The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry", argued that there were two generally accepted terms for this the Lost Word was attributed.  These attributes were directly linked to two different degrees within the Freemasonic schools, namely "the American system" and "the English Royal Arch".  In the English Royal Arch system, Mackay states that the English system had attributed to the Lost Word a three word attribute,

Not withstanding this explicit and unmistakable declaration of the founder of the English Royal Arch, that the Tetragrammaton is the omnific word, the present system in England has rejected it, and substituted into its place three other words, the second of which is wholly unmeaning."

Mackay argues that the American system of 1913, was of the opinion that "JEHOVAH" was the "omnific" or Lost Word.

"In the American system, as revised by Thomas Smith Webb, there can be no doubt that the Tetragrammaton was recognized as the omnific word.  In the Freemason's Monitor, prepared by him for monitorial instruction, he has inserted, among the passages of Scripture to be read during an exaltation, the following from Exodus, which is the last in order, and which anyone at all acquainted with the ritual will at once see is appropriated to the time of the eurisis or discovery of the Word.

"And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, "I am the Lord, and I appeared unto Abraham, and unto Isaac and to Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not know to them."

Of course, Mackay could have written that this sky god appeared to Bernanke, and Netanyahu, and Golda Meir, and little Tommy, and baby Suzy, for all it matters, for he then draws the conclusion from the above that lord of all lords Jehovah must be the name.  Santa Claus is really real.  Really. Continues Mackay,

From this we can conclude that Webb recognized the name JEHOVAH and not the three other words.

OK.  That is pretty heavy.  Mystical even.  I must say, such words are absolutely mesmerizing, until one realizes the political overtones of the whole exercise.  Continues Mackay,

To call anything but this four letter name an omnific word - an all creating and all-performing word - either in Masonry or in Hebrew symbolism, whence Masonry derived it, is to oppose all the doctrines of the Talmudists and Kabballists, and the Gnostics and to repudiate the teachings of every Hebrew scholar from Buxtorf to Gesenius. To fight the battle against such odds is to secure defeat. It shows more of boldness than of discretion. And hence the General Grand Chapter of the United States has very wisely restored the word Jehovah to its proper place. It is only in the York and in the American Rites that this error has ever existed. In every other Rite the Tetragrammaton is recognized as the True Word. 

Ah. The smell of an Agenda! Mackay, thoroughly inebriated in his love affair with Jewish mysticism, could not see that his life work revolved around an agenda of fusing of Jewish mysticism to the larger Philosophical construction! To not accept the "teachings" of the Kabballists, a concept met with contempt by earlier Philosopher's as Agrippa, was tantamount to a simplistic act of "repudiation" - an obvious presumption - and such a recognition that "the True Word" lay somewhere beyond the confining and simplistic teachings of Jewish mysticism was nothing more than "boldness" rather than "discretion".

Some 70 years later, this same dogmatic presumption of "truth" as exhibited by Mackay, and along with it same, his desire to perpetuate a falsehood under a banner of a "total truth", would be mirrored by the Temple of Set and the psychological warfare pamphlet known as "MindWar".

...and so it must be axiomatic of MindWar that it always speaks the truth. Its power lies in its ability to focus recipient's attention on the truth of the future as well as that of the present. MindWar thus involves the stated promise of the truth that the United States has resolved if it is not already so."

It is better to argue that the stated "truths" of Mackay and MindWar, of a presumed truth wholly centered on Jewish mysticism, is itself the primary example of boldness rather than discretion.

A Jewish centered "tetragrammaton" as "the True Word" is about as much a realistic truth as the truth of 9-11, the truth of a magical silver bullet and the JFK assassination story, and on and on.

The Truth needs not an "agenda" to "make it so".

It is. Its self evidency stands as a testament unto itself.

"JEHOVAH", "JAH BUL ON", the "tetragrammaton" - all fail to present themselves with a self evidency.

"The Nature of the Quest"

Fortunately, through the ages, men and women of vision, stamina, and creativity, have contributed to the preservation and eventual recovery of this lost, "True Word". Through the use of symbols, art, song, word, architecture, to name but a few, Philosophers of old have etched their knowledge into the fabric and web of esoteric philosophical constructions.

To say that "JEHOVAH" or "the tetragrammaton" is a complete restoration and representation of the totality of the "Word" would be akin to stopping at the shores of the sea and proclaiming that one has just swam from one side of a great ocean to the other. There is a level of audacity and absurdity to the proclamation. The gullible, or those overly desirous, might listen and fall prey to the tale, but the serious seeker and student scoffs and continues seeking.

How can a concept as JEHOVAH and a system designed to be destructive "magically" also be the same source upon which a recovery of a previous lost concept be reconstructed?

Plutarch provides the clearest example of such an absurd reach of the imagination.

For Isis is a Greek word, and so also is Typhon, her enemy, who is conceited, as his name implies,6 because of his ignorance and self-deception. He tears to pieces and scatters to the winds the sacred writings, which the goddess collects and puts together and gives into the keeping of those that are initiated into the holy rites,

It is intellectual insanity to presume that the same god (JEHOVAH TYPHON SETH) who tears the sacred constructions to pieces to be scattered to the winds is in and of "itself" the "True Word". You could bleed scratching your head trying to make sense of that one. Or you could bang your head against a wall and proclaim the act "divinic" and "spiritual".

Ours is not a world of such simplistic "pleasures". Ours is a world of recognizing the Construction exists, recognizing that the Construction by virtue of material separation must then too be scattered and hence, in order to re-construct, must be gathered and put back into its rightful conceptual construction.

This is the nature of the quest, be it the "Holy Grail", or whatever other name one wishes to attribute to same.

The "tearing to pieces" is the losing of the Construction, and, through a rational reconstruction of the philosophical deconstruction, we gather up the pieces so that the philosophical construction may be pieced back together.  Ultimately, this leads to a recovery of "the Lost Word".  The end result and aim is to acquire an absolute (to the degree possible) vision and understanding of "the Lost Word".

If we can hold the concept in our mind long enough, we may even be fortunate to glimpse the Word with clarity, lucidity, free of superstitions and without error.

To begin, we listen to the words of many authors and philosophers.  We study and meditate on the symbols woven into literature and architecture.  We seek to find a common message and them within sacred architecture.  In doing so, we must adhere to strict regimens of logic and reason fore the mind is wont to see what it wishes to see, believe what it wishes to believe.

We must be willing to abandon convention and seek outside of "stated truths", for something concealed and yet to be revealed requires a search into sacred objects and nomenclatures across a full spectrum of human endeavor and seek out the underlying, common, and hence universal theme and narrative.

Adumbrations of Pi

One of the first hints linking Pi to higher spiritual evolution may be found in the Rishis of India in a hymn to Lord Krishna. As advanced by Jagadguru Swami Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja, author of Vedic Mathematics. Jagadguru put forward the idea that ancient Sanskrit, like later Greek, Rune, and Hebrew (among others) was too fused to number. In this way, through the art of Gematria, esoteric knowledge could be preserved through encoding numerical concepts in the language. Ancient Sanskrit was encoded such that syllables were fused to number.

In this hymn to Lord Krishna (a parallel to Osiris) it begins with the word/phrase "Gopibhagyamadhuvrata..." When the first 32 syllables are converted back to number, the phrase is Pi, to 32 digits, leading some to ponder where the decimal digits of Pi are nothing short of a sonic code for dedications to Krishna.

When we return back to Western esoteric constructions, we find that the number 32 plays a prominent role in such works as "Kabballah", as well as in more cryptic symbols found in "Freemasonry", where the number "32" or "33" is oft set in a triangle resting atop the double headed eagle of the Scottish Rite.

Sacred Architecture also plays an integral role into the preservation of a more ancient and universal philosophical system. The Great Pyramids of Egypt and the Pyramid of the Sun as constructed by the Mayans each intricately wove Pi into their design. The distance of the base of the Pyramid of the Sun has a ratio of 4 times Pi, while the Pyramid at Giza, as so aptly stated at Gizapyramid.com,

If we equate the height of the pyramid to the radius of a circle, than the distance around the pyramid is equal to the circumference of that circle.

The Arts, to include Mythology, also is replete with hints and references to Pi and Phi. Leonardo Da Vinci's work has been de-constructed to reveal a large dependency on encoding Phi, while such tales as "The Epic of Gilgamesh", when constructed into English, reveals that he who came to understand the secrets of the gods was named "UTNAPISHTIM", a word that not so cryptically, reversed, reveals the sound set MITHS PI ANT U, or "Myths, Pi, and You".

More academic oriented books from Freemasonry also hint more directly (and accurately) at the importance of Pi to the larger philosophical construction. Says Higgins in "Hermetic Masonry",

In all manner of observation, the hidden key and underlying theme is a dedication to Pi, and its sister constant Phi. It is here we must look, and it is here where the answer must lie.

The Alphabet as the Lost Word

In Victor Hugo's occult laced work, "Notre Dame de Paris", as prefaced in "Hermetic Masonry" by Frank Higgins, we find the following,

Ultimately, "the Word" references back to an Alphabet. It is from this Alphabet that "God creates the Universe and makes all things", a form of definition and instruction that is largely Qaballistic in nature. We must then fuse this Alphabet to the more real "True Word", which is not a word at all, but rather a number.

It is not some absurd word as JEHOVAH, a name that means "that which is against life" and for which its adherents have destroyed so much through time immemorial. It is not "Yud He Vav He", a very simplistic transposition for which the key is in English. It is not the Jewish "tetragrammaton", a concept that at its ultimate expression adds up to only 72, or 1/5 of a circle. The Muslim call to prayer, being 5 times per day, is too but 1/5 of the circle.

Although it is true that 5, as representative of 72 degrees, or 1/5 of a circle, does indeed add up to a Pi component, 72 in and of itself is not representative of Pi.

That "secret number" from which has no beginning and no end (as set against its sacred form, the circle) is the transcendent constant known as Pi. And if "the Lost Word" is "Pi", to what decimal is the Word carried, and how to we go about its recovery?

We must, above all else, listen to Plutarch and search using logic and reason.

First, the "Word" was never "lost". It has always been known, a guarded secret among "the Builders" for whom such a number would be instrumental and critically important to their Craft. To the Priests of the Letters, their efforts would be to encode this Word into the very core of the Alphabet and languages within which they were working.

In English, or the 26 digit sequence which has come to be known as "The English Alphabet", this occult Art reached its zenith, with both a philosophy and physical design perfections that revealed "the Word" in lucid clarity.

What we know is that "the Word" is set against a 32 digit sequence. This is hinted at across the spectrum of Occult formulae, be it the Hymn to Lord Krishna, "Jewish Kabballah", or Freemasonry, to name but a few.

Pi, to 32 digits, appears as follows:

Again, applying logic and reason, we note that the first 32 digits of Pi has a number of repeating 2 digit numbers, the first of which is the number 26. Centered on the second 26 is another 3 pairs of digits, the numbers 79, 32, and 38, as shown here:

The repeating two digit numbers of 79, 38, and 32 represent 6 digits. In the English Alphabet, we note in the design that we have symmetrical and asymmetrical letters. They are as follows:

Symmetrical - AHIMOTUVWXY
Asymmetrical - BCDEFGJKLNPQRSZ

Within each of these designs, we find identical 6 digits sequences -

BCDEFG - TUVWXY

We can surmise that this sequence is mirroring the two pairs of 6 digit pairings found in Pi. It is just a matter of how to locate them along the decimal sequence. More to the point. The asymmetrical sequence reveals a clear decimal design of Pi. JKL N PQRS Z BCDEFG shows pairings of 3 letters, 1 letter, 4 letters, 1 letter, and 6 letters.

3.1416

PI.

Clearly the Alphabet is exhibiting absolute design parallels of the Word, which is Pi.

The way the Alphabet lines up against Pi in totality is as follows:

If Pi is "the Lost Word", then it becomes apparent that a highly advanced initiated Elite encoded their ideals and philosophy, indeed - the Word itself, into the very fabric of the English Alphabet and language.

The qaballistic secrets of the language await to revealed to all who have a desire to seek and learn.