most secret degree. The ritual of "the eminent Order of the Knights of
the Black Eagle or Sovereigns of the Rose-Croix," a secret and
unpublished document of the eighteenth century, which differs entirely
from the published rituals, explains that no one can attain to knowledge
of the higher sciences without the "Clavicules de Salomon," of which
the real secrets were never committed to print and which is said to
contain the whole of Cabalistic science.[430] The catechism of this same
degree deals mainly with the transmutation of metals, the Philosopher's
Stone, etc.

In the Rite of Perfection as worked in France and America this
Cabalistic influence is shown in those degrees known under the name of
the "Ineffable Degrees," derived from the Jewish belief in the mystery
that surrounds the Ineflable Name of God. According to the custom of the
Jews, the sacred name Jehovah or Jah-ve, composed of the four letters
yod, he, vau, he, which formed the Tetragrammaton, was never to be
pronounced by the profane, who were obliged to substitute for it the
word "Adonai." The Tetragrammaton might only be uttered once a year on
the Day of Atonement by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies amid the
sound of trumpets and cymbals, which prevented the people from hearing
it. It is said that in consequence of the people thus refraining from
its utterance, the true pronunciation of the name was at last lost. The
Jews further believed that the Tetragrammaton was possessed of unbounded
powers. "He who pronounces it shakes heaven and earth and inspires the
very angels with astonishment and terror."[431] The Ineffable Name thus
conferred miraculous gifts; it was engraved on the rod of Moses and
enabled him to perform wonders, just as, according to the Toledot Yeshu,
it conferred the same powers on Christ.

This superstition was clearly a part of Rosicrucian tradition, for the
symbol of the Tetragrammaton within a triangle, adopted by the masonic
lodges, figures in Fludd's Cabalistic system.[432] In the "Ineffable
degrees" it was invested with all the mystic awe by which it is
surrounded in Jewish theology, and, according to early American working:
"Brothers and Companions of these degrees received the name of God as it
was revealed to Enoch and were sworn to pronounce it but once in their
lives."

In the alchemical version of the Rose-Croix degree referred to above the
Ineffable Name is actually invested with magical powers as in the
Jewish C