A Vowel Avowal: Why Were the Ancients Obsessed with the Vowels?

In antiquity the shapes of letters were considered significant. Today we barely think on it and thus miss a significant amount of actual knowledge the ancients possessed, since we rarely believe in their inspiration.[1] But if we are to understand their views, then we ought to think like they thought, at least take what they say seriously and see if then their literature begins to make some kind of sense. I have found doing this actually has helped me grasp what they mean. Take this Greek Magical Papyri image for instance.

We have a stylized Eye of Horus from Egyptian theology with two flanking triangles of vowels and pairs of vowels under each of the three groups of icons. Well, it kind of looks cool, but so what? (I drew this and added the colors and the blue box around it). One cannot escape the ever repeating and fascination the ancients had with magical spells and the invoking of vowels and number symbolism to establish the power of their magic either in favor of a person, or to harm the person.[2] The idea is to say out loud the "holy names" and pronounce the sounds the vowels make as well. But notice the geometric configuration the vowels were deliberately formed into. On the other hand, this interesting "charm to restrain" shows the different gods, such as Io and Seth were written on and around the body of a figure perhaps giving the person the charm is for the strength of the gods, since he does want a parent to know he is now "uninhibited," i.e., has gained power.

In the magical papyri we see patterns of the enormous importance of the symbolism of the number 7, and the geometric influence of triangles. More than any other geometric figure the triangle is displayed by an arrangement of alphabetic letters, most often the vowels alone and in sometimes quit long strings which were to be sung or pronounced when the spell was being invoked.

We see the same thing in the Books of Jeu where the various geometric diagrams have vowels, many times in a triple chain, the number 3 being important in virtually all ancient esoteric traditions. In this particular Jeu geometric figure, there are, once again, twelve heads in the place of the treasury, and others "sing praises to my Father so that he gives light-power to them."[3] Singing brings in the musical harmonies and ratios, which connect and integrate into the geometric ratios and proportions of the geometry they are drawing, as well as invoking the astronomical, Cosmological aspects we are given hints concerning with the twelve heads (Zodiac). Notice especially in this figure the dot encircled with many circles and the vowels to either side of it in fractions, thus giving ratios! Geometry, sound/music, numerology, astronomy, it's all hinted at here. Fideler has shown whether in the ancient Egyptians teachings or the early Christian Gnostics centuries later, the same themes and ideas are at play. There is a divine spark in man, a "seed" which they taught is our immortal essence. We won't know our true identity until we nurture that seed and get it growing. (a nifty metaphor for learning knowledge). In fact, he describes the Greek word initiation (telos) as "completion, realization, bearing fruit in due season, and ripening to perfection."[4] This was done through the study of the Quadrivium, the four standard areas of knowledge that tied humanity to the cosmos. The actual dimensions of their temples were built up with the harmonies of the musical octaves which numerically equaled the gods names and the geometric figures the numbers gave as they were drawn in ratio to one another![5]

One reason the vowels were so important to the ancients' mysticism is their correspondence to the 7 planets. And the correspondences just piled on, with the 7 metals, 7 days of the weeks, 7 strings of the lyre, the 7 musical notes, the 7 stars of the Big Dipper, the sages of Greece, and Thebes, etc.[6] Chanting the vowels, singing them, whatever they did invoking their sounds, whether their own voices or through musical instruments, the ancients connected the heavenly realms with their earthly one, the heavenly bodies with their own, being included and part and parcel of the Cosmos ourselves. This theme was the entire point of the mysteries. Philo, the Jewish philosopher in Christ's day was literally obsessed with the symbolic aspects of the #7, as John Michell, Kieren Barry, and others have shown the Greeks were also. Symbolism vibrates in our human soul, and so it was elaborated on in tremendous philosophical, mathematical and religious intent, but of course.

Iamblichus described the musical reason why 7 was so important, it being the "number of the primary concord, the fourth (4:3), and of geometric proportion (1, 2, 4)... everything is found in sevens. There are seven vowels and seven alterations of voice."[7] This leads us directly into Leonora Leet's discussion of how the three primary vowel sounds lead into creation. And they are arranged in a triangular form.[8] What is most surprising on her analysis is how the three letters that are used in Hebrew as vowels as well as consonants, are the letters of the Tetragrammaton, the sacred four letter name in Hebrew, YHWH. These three letters, when chanted or droned by the initiate, imbue his soul with vibration which in turn gives him power. This is the idea, and why the secret names were sacred and not to be profaned. It's why we see the invocation of the vowels in long strings of pure useless linguistic data (from our point of view I hasten to remind us) in the Greek Magical Papyri, the Gnostic materials, and other ancient Greek writings. The psychological point is to tune us into the Cosmos, considered a living thing because it was created by the letters of the alphabet through the sound of God's voice singing the creation into place. Now this may appear at first reading to be utterly silly, I will be the first to admit. However, the science of Cymatics, sound being put onto a cloud of gas shock us when the vibrations of various frequencies make the gas form into triangles, circles, squares, other rather complicated figures as the hexagon, which I have artistically rendered on my home page. Leonora Leet shows this in her research as well. This is one of the things that made me quit being such a self-righteous prig against the superstitious ancients and begin to realize there is so much I don't know, that they may very well might have. Here are some sources that might just amaze you on this. https://www.google.com/search?q=Cymatics&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS707US710&oq=Cymatics&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2980j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

So, we can honestly see the truth that matter does, in point of fact, form through different tones of sound, which is, simply vibration! This is for real. Now, so far as I understand it has worked only with gaseous material, not rocks, solid wood, etc. But we don't know it all yet either, and what we know, we can now positively say sound does form interesting figures in actual matter, physical 3-D material. And, as we all know, utterly down to our very core, sound absolutely moves matter, just listen to some music and try telling me vibration doesn't affect matter, even when it is highly organized into us....

Endnotes

1. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, "Figure of Speech or Thought?" in The Door in the Sky, Commaraswamy on Myth and Meaning, Princeton University Press, 1997: 131-132.

2. This figure is found in Hans Dieter Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, University of CHicago Press, Paperback, 1996: 102 (PGM V. 70-95).

3. Violet MacDermot, The Books of Jeu, E. J. Brill, 1978: 36-37.

4. David Fideler, Jesus Christ, Sun of God, Quest Books, 1993: 254-255.

5. John Michell, The Dimensions of Paradise, Sacred Geometry, Ancient Science, and the Heavenly Order on Earth, Inner Traditions, updated, 2008; and David Fideler, Jesus Christ, Sun of God, Quest Books, 1993, especially, pp. 214-227, are only two such books extensively documenting this phenomena.

6. Kieren Barry, The Greek Qabalah, Samuel Weiser, 1999: 45.

7. Iamblichus, The Theology of Arithmetic, translated by Robin Waterford, Phanes Press, 1988: 87.

8. Leonora Leet, The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah, Inner Traditions, 1999: 151.