Shem ha-Mephorash: The 72 Names and the Angels of Later Tradition

Shem ha-Mephorash, "the explicit" or "distinguished Name", is a term from Jewish tradition for the ineffable name of God. In Jewish mysticism it also refers to a name made of seventy-two parts, derived from three verses of the Book of Exodus. Centuries later, Christian and occult writers turned those seventy-two names into a system of angels.

A name from Exodus

The three verses of Exodus 14:19–21, which describe the angel of God moving between the Egyptians and the Israelites before the parting of the Red Sea, each contain seventy-two Hebrew letters. As the Jewish Encyclopedia explains, Jewish mystical tradition combined the letters of the three verses to form seventy-two names of three letters each.

In Jewish mysticism

In Jewish tradition the divine name was treated with great reverence, and the seventy-two-fold name belongs to the esoteric study of the names of God in Kabbalah. It is a subject approached with care, not a set of decorative symbols.

Christian Kabbalah and the 72 angels

From the Renaissance onwards, Christian scholars who studied Kabbalah, beginning with figures such as Johannes Reuchlin in the early sixteenth century, linked the seventy-two names to angels. Later Western occult systems, including the nineteenth-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, assigned the angels to divisions of the zodiac. These are Christian and occult developments, distinct from the Jewish tradition they drew on.

Three layers

It helps to keep three layers apart: the biblical verses; the Jewish mystical name; and the later Christian and occult angel systems. Designs inspired by the 72 angels belong to the third layer.

The Shem ha-Mephorash in jewellery

Any design drawing on the divine name should be approached with respect for its origins in Jewish tradition. AURYN's esoteric designs can be found in the charms collection, and our story on the High Priestess explores another corner of the Western esoteric tradition.