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The number 10 is an all-embracing number; outside of it none other exists, for what is beyond 10 returns again to units. — Kabbalah
When the Concealed of the Concealed wanted
to reveal Himself, He first made a point which
shaped into a sacred form and covered it with a
rich and splendid garment which is the world.
— The Zohar
The above quotation from the Zohar well describes the productive element which is embodied in the number 10, the number that completes all numbers. Ten is formed of the pillar and the circle (10), the masculine and feminine, or the Father-Mother God principles respectively, by which all things are created. It represents the productive powers active in the Garden of Eden and which were expressed by Adam (man) and Eve (woman) before whom all created things were brought and by whom they were named. The words male and female digit 10.
The names assigned to created things bear a profound occult significance in relation to numbers. Every name vibrates to a certain number. That number is, therefore, the very soul of the name. Herein lies the secret power of the spoken word, for when the syllables of a name are sounded, the corresponding powers of its number are released and may be used by one who has the wisdom to manipulate this subtle force. In this connection, meditate on thy promise: "Whatsoever ye ask in my name, shall be done unto you."
Modern man has much to learn from the ancients in regard to the power of the spoken word. "Words are spirit and they are life," said Christ Jesus.
It was also the Master who declared: "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." How much more this means than current orthodox interpretations ascribe to it! Words possess tone, color and form. They are active powers for good or ill. Speech therefore, is a sacred creative thing.
Words keyed to the rhythm of 10 are creative in a special sense; they are productive; they have the power of attraction or acquisition. These qualities characterize a 10 person. Such an individual is a center of force whose influence is wide and pronounced. He responded decisively to whatever karmic reactions he experiences in life. It may be for either good or ill depending on whether he uses his powers wisely in accordance with the dictates of the spirit or if he yields to personal inclinations regardless of the promptings of the Higher Self. But on whatever plane a 10 expresses himself, he is a person of power.
Ten is the number from which all things have come and into which all must return. It represents both the divine Outbreathing (masculine) and Inbreathing (feminine); it is the power of the dual process of involution and evolution.
Unconditioned unity may be ascribed to the First Great Cause. Oneness of Being preceded differentiated manifestation. As differentiation proceeded, 10 principles became active. These are represented biblically by 10 of Jacob's 12 sons.
Numbers are the divine hieroglyphics of the Supreme Being. Inharmonious relationships in the body and life of man, and in nature around us, are a direct result of the wrong or negative application of one or more of these principles. All numbers beyond 10 are but different combinations of the fundamental 10.
Pythagoras called 10 the tetractys and so arranged it.
This figure is formed of the Hebrew letter yod, the tenth in the alphabet of 22, and is considered the most occult of all the Hebrew letters. The Kabbalah refers to the letter yod as the Workman of Deity.
Yod correlates to the tenth sign of the zodiac, Capricorn. Among the ancients this sign was represented by the Makara or great beast, and in later times a creature half goat and half fish. A person attuned to ten is like one coming under the sign Capricorn in that he does not know his latent capabilities until he is spiritually awakened. Incidentally, the constellation Capricorn numbers 29 stars, thus coming under the numerical emanation of 10.
Pythagoras illustrates the influence of 10 by the following allegory: "A man was seen bent and aged from the burden of his load. On being asked of what it was constituted, he declared it was the letter yod.
Yod embodies both the masculine and feminine potencies and the symbol is incorporated in some form in each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
If there be a single word by which the nature and the quality of yod can best be described, that word is life.
Ten is the fundamental and formative number of the Old Testament. The patriarchs from Adam to Noah are 10 in number. The cosmic principles given to Moses in the forty-day vision on the Mount when he stood face to face with God as with a friend, and which constitute the basis of the present post-Atlantean, Fifth Epoch civilization, were set to the rhythms of 10. This was in conformity with the masculine-feminine composition of the race which in its dual aspect comes under the dual-symboled figure 10 as previously noted.
St. Martin gives us the following mystical interpretations of the decad:
By the union of the spiritual septenary to the temporal ternary we have the famous denary ever present to our thoughts. As the image of the Divinity Itself, It accomplishes the reconciliation of all beings by causing them to return into unity. The temperal denary is composed of two numbers, 7 and 3; but its type connects with unity and is not subject to any division.
So long as numbers are united with the decad, none of them present the image of deformity or corruption, these characteristics manifesting only the separation period. Among the numbers thus specialized, some are absolutely sad, such as 2 and 5, which alone divide the denary. Others suffer in active operation, as 3, 6, and 9. Nothing of this is seen in the complete decad, for in that supreme order there is no deformity, illusion or suffering.
Ten intones the powers of the unmanifested Universe whence all things proceed. Seven inscribes the forces of the universe in manifestation. This creation or appearance is brought about through the threefold operation of the Trinity, the 3 in 1. The Supreme Being responds to the completion of the decad; the God of the Solar System to the harmony of the ternary; and the planetary Spirits to the building powers of the septenary. This at least suggests the 10 or unity, which is the Tonic in the cosmic chord; the three-powered Godhead intones the ternary which becomes the Dominant; and the planetary Gods are the building forces of the septenary in their processes of creation which becomes the Sub-Dominant in the celestial music.
Ten is the pure white light of One. It synthesizes all the colors of the spectrum. It blends and harmonizes the tones of all the 7 planes of being into a single rhythmic unity. The Kabbalistic symbol of 10 is the Tree of Life with its 10 gleaming sephireth or centers of life and power.
The advanced individual who has 10 as his destiny number fulfills his life most fruitfully by coordinating and interpreting the manifold movements and aspirations making for peace, fellowship and amity among the nations and races of the world. He speaks the universal language that brings the divergent peoples of the earth into a harmonious human unit. His word is power and his presence peace.
In discussing the numerical path of unity, Agrippa observes that "By passing the number seven into the number ten there may be a progress to the supreme unity upon which all virtue and wonderful operations depend."
The Kabbalah refers to this same power of Cosmic Numerology in the legend of the Ten Wise Men who enter the secret mystery chambers of the Yod, 7 of whom return to their work in the outer world, and 3 of whom remain to operate in secrecy and invisibility.
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous; wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for the forty's sake.
And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there, And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.
And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said. I will not destroy it for ten's sake.
And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned unto his place.
Abraham did not go below the number 10 in his effort to save Sodom and Gomorrah. In 10 wholeness or salvation was possible. In 10 the masculine (1) and the feminine (0) stand together in equality. It was not so in Sodom and Gomorrah. The feminine or love principle had been desecrated. It is the fall of the emotional nature that is symbolized by the fiery destruction of the two wicked cities. If 10, the power of the feminine in regeneration, could have been uplifted and brought into equilibrium with the masculine or will principle, the cause for the destruction of the cities would have been removed and its inhabitants saved.
Gomorrah is a nine-powered name; Sodom is three-powered. These values indicate the path of redemption and a return to unity. Israel is a three-powered word; its forces become the keynote of Jacob's life after he had wrestled with the angel.
And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
The syllable 'is' is feminine and comes from the name of the Egyptian goddess; 'Isis' 'ra' is masculine and is the name of the Egyptian sun god; 'el' joins the two into a harmonious unity which no external conditions can ever disturb. Such a one is Israel.
Such is the ideal attainment for the 10 individual. His key word was given by the angel to Jacob: "Thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."
The First and Second Books of Chronicles are keyed to 10. They are chronicles of the spirit in search of its own inner completion and unity. They begin with the line of Noah, representative of the Fifth Root Race peoples and outline their history up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, which marked the failure of humanity in general to attain to the high state of consciousness which had been set before it as a possibility.
The way of this high attainment has been open always for the few. This is indicated in Chronicles in the account of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, the wisdom king. The Books of Chronicles point the way of the 10 as the masses know it. This is the way of struggle and conflict, inharmony and unbalance between man and woman. It is the way that leads to the destruction of Jerusalem. The Books also reveal the secret way of 10, the veritable highway of the king, which leads to harmony, balance, unity and completion within the individual himself This is the state that will ultimately culminate in that inner peace that passeth understanding, and outwardly in the restoration of Jerusalem, the city of peace. The way is indicated by which the spirit will be restored to its original state of completeness within.
The growth and the development of the cosmos, and man's relation thereto, are revealed in the esoteric study of numbers. It is for this reason the masonic candidate is admonished to study mathematics and the science of the stars. As previously stated, the numbers 3, 7 and 10 compose the comer stone of our planetary cosmogony. Concerning the 10 in this connection Hermes writes:
Ten is the mother of the Soul, for life and light are therein united. For the number one is born from Spirit and the number ten from matter (chaos, feminine); the Unity has made the ten and the ten the Unity.
The word decad means esoterically, that all has been accomplished. Ten reaches the supreme heights in numbers; in order to exceed 10 we must begin another series by returning to the monad.
The kabbalistic Tree is formed of the Ten Sephiroth, or points of Light, through which the entire process of creation is given numerically.
One is God, and in the Zohar, or Book of Light, is described thus:
The Infinite was entirely unknown and diffused no light i42, before the luminous point broke through into vision.
Nine is man. Nine and I together reveal God in man. Five is man apart from God in individualization. Nine is man returned to God. When this is understood and accomplished, the work of 10 is undertaken.
Ten is the recipient of all numbers; and hence, in the words of a writer on the subject, "It is the recipient of all heaven which was ordained to receive all men; also eternity, which is infinite life; because it contains every number within itself, and number is infinite."
The most ancient and at the same time the most complete of all symbols given by the Wise Ones for the edification of man is the circle with a dot in its center. An elongation of the central dot gives the symbol of the number 10. This symbol represents totality, completeness; it is the sumum bonum of all creation; it is God in manifestation through His manifold creations.
As previously stated, numbers are focii of great spiritual power emanating from the Elohim who are guarding the destiny of earth.
The number with which man is most closely attuned is the one which holds the conditions and powers through which the soul learns its chief lesson in a particular incarnation. Each spirit inherently is made in the image and likeness of God, and even though this truth is shut away from him by veils of intense materialism, the experiences of each life cycle are destined to bring him nearer to the time when his soul will be bared to the glorious revelation of his innate divinity. It is the unfoldment of this latent godhood that constitutes the supreme purpose and goal of existence. To know God, or all good, is the goal of all mankind.
This consummation is represented by the number 10. Thus this number has been rightly termed the end of the Divine Series, "the image of potential manifestation and of spiritual duration."
Yod, the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, denotes spiritual perfection. This significance of 10 suggests the statement of the Ancient Wisdom that the "Ten made manifest are also Seven, and these are the Elohim. These Seven bring forth ten again."
One of the most significant biblical words which carries the emanations of 10 is the word 'stone'. A study of its repeated use in biblical lore will give additional understanding as to the inner meaning and power of 10.
In Matthew 16:18 we read: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." The name Peter is from the Greek word 'Petros', meaning rock, and the word stone is frequently used in the Bible in a sense similar to that above. It is a twice 10-powered word, its numerical value being 20. The following lines from the Book of Tokens by Paul Case are to be found in this connection:
In the Book of Revelation we learn that those who have made themselves worthy to know the Christ at His second coming are those who have the tenfold power written upon their foreheads. (Rev. 2:17, 22:4).
The Tarot symbol depicting the power of 10 is the wheel of fortune surmounted by a sphinx with a drawn sword ready to cut the threads of fate whenever the signal is given by the four Recording Angels who stand on guard about the wheel.
These Angels are the four Elohim pictorially represented by a lion, an eagle, an ox and a man. Leo and Scorpio are five-powered words (half of 10). Taurus is a 10 word and Aquarius an 8. The keynote of 8 is Polarity which is the keyword of the New Aquarian Age. The 10 plagues of Bible history symbolize earth experiences that lead to the high spiritual revealings of 10. They represent the various impacts of the Wheel of Fortune during the cycle of earth lives by which we are aroused to action and attainment. A 10 individual is always an old soul, one who has known many lives of both high and low degree and who has learned how transitory are things of earth alone.
The tenth Sephira is Malkuth, the foundation, or the Virgin Kingdom. It is man-woman, head-heart, spirit-soul, united and redeemed. "One (1) is my inmost being; 2 is my self-utterance."
"The Ten signifies purification; for to the number Seven which embraces all created things, is added the Trinity of Creation."
In the Book of Genesis we read: "The waters decreased continually until the tenth month; on the first day of that month were the tops of the mountains seen."
— Corinne Heline
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