The 1 Letters: A, J, SJ
No. 10
YOD IOTA
* J JjJjSound: y as in yes Sound: i as in ill
HEBREW PHOENICIAN GREEK ROMAN PRESENT-DAY
J – 10
Yod (pronounced yode) is the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and
corresponds to the letters J, I, and Y, of which J is the 10th letter of the
English alphabet.
Yod is the sixth of the 12 simple letters and its main influence is in
work. Yod means “hand,” and the symbol itself has been described as “a
finger pointing heavenward.”
With his hands, man is able to work and to fashion things. Yod refers to
the hands of God originating all there is (The Key to the Universe, 356).
God, the 0, creates man and his world. Man comes from the center of
the 0, and stands beside it in 10 as a creator in his own right, using the
tools God has provided. With his hands, man fashions his own lesser
creations through diligence in work.
All the Hebrew letters were made up of these Yods, for every letter
was considered as a creative force. And just as the number 1 is in all
numbers, Yod is a portion of the Creative Light Force of God that exists
within all of God’s creation.
When the Greeks borrowed the Yod, they changed the name to Iota
and used it for the vowel I. In Hebrew, of course, there were no letters for
vowels, so the Yod corresponds to the consonant forms of J and Y in
English.
At one time the I, J, and Y were interchangeable, J being pronounced
as a Y, as in Jesu (Yesu). Sometimes the word Yod was spelled “Jod.” In
the 19th century the use of these letters was finally made distinct and Y
became the diphthong ee-ah, except when it took the place of a vowel. I
then became the ninth letter, J the 10th, and Y the 25th. Since J is the 10th
Aleph stands for the hidden seed of the Godhead and is representative
of the secret God Power that manifests in man. This makes it clear why the
First Commandment is “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.”