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Pythagoras spoke truly when he said, "All the world is made by number." Number is the basis of all formation, the root of all creative manifestation. The numerals from 1 to 10 comprise the sound and power hieroglyphs of every world origin or genesis. The similarity in formation of these glyphs as used by all the people of Earth proves a universal understanding of their occult meaning and purpose.
The spiritual tendency of numbers is to raise all that comes under their influence above mundane limitations. This being true, a study of their inner significance is not confining or limiting, but revealing and expansive. But there is an essential difference between numbers and figures. By numbers is meant the force or power emanations that operate on the highest spiritual planes. Figures are but concrete hieroglyphics of these spiritual powers — shadow-forms cast by the all-permeating Principle upon the objective consciousness of men. The Ten Principles (numbers), therefore, upon which the universe is founded are expressions of powerful cosmic forces; they are intermediaries between the unmanifest and the manifest creation; they are pure ideas, emanations from Divine Mind. These ten emanations are symbolized in the kabbalistic Tree of Life — one of the most profound and far-reaching of all ancient glyphs — with its ten Sephiroth or glittering centers of light. These centers correspond to the ten Elohim, and each one is a different vibratory rhythm. Every name, being sound, is also vibration, and expresses the power of one of the Sephiroth which are expressions of the "Word." Upon this truth is based the philosophy of numbers. "Number veileth the power of the Elohim," early sages declared.
Vibration is Unity in manifestation. The Monad or 1 is the First Great Cause. From it, by various processes of differentiation, are formed the Ten Principles or Sephiroth. Evolution begins with 1. Evolution also closes with 1, at the completion of the long cycle when all created things are again united in the divine. This truth is represented by the ancient symbol of a snake with its tail in its mouth — a symbol of 1 and also of immortal life.
Two (2) represents the descent of spirit into matter. It has been deemed the principle of misfortune, since it represents the beginnings of detachment from 1, or All-Good. Two is the Secretive, Occult, mysterious power of sacrifice and beauty Which lies back of and beneath all evolutionary activity.
The Monad and Duad form the two columns of all world Mystery Temples. They are the columns of Wind and Fire fashioned by Hiram Abiff, a chief adornment of the Temple of Melkarth at Tyre.
One (1) projects from itself 2, and from 1 and 2, 3 is formed. Spirit, Soul and body is the Triad or Holy Trinity. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." (I John 5:7,8)
Four (4) was termed by Pythagoras the "Sacred Quaternary" and the "universal number of perfection." It embraces the powers of the four Lords of Destiny symbolized by the fixed cross of the zodiac. These are the powers also that govern the four primal elements in nature. Mastery of these elements by man gives the ability to perform miracles such as those described in both the Old and New Testaments. The Gnostics declared that 3 is God and 4 is God-in-man.
Five (5) is the number of the Ego, or 1 resurrected from the tomb of matter. The Process of resurrection always brings the sorrow associated with this number, for sorrow necessarily accompanies karmic readjustments. Daniel writes: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days (2+3+00=5); then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." This sanctuary is the human body, and its cleansing is the work of regeneration or resurrection. When the twelve tribes were numbered in the plains of Moab after the plague, the priestly tribe of Levi (which included Moses and Aaron) numbered 20 and 3000, or 5. Christian esotericists held that 5 refers to the five sacred wounds in the body of Christ — the wounds made for the sake of the sins of man.
The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 represent the human series. The cosmic principles indicated by these numerals are those under which man has attained to his present state of consciousness. The numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 point the way toward complete emancipation and final at-one-ment with Divinity. This consummation is realized in 10, or Unity, which marks the end of the numerical series and the conclusion of the present cycle of manifestation.
Six (6) is a working, building number. The Earth was created under the vibratory impacts of 6. Genesis is a 6-power word. Six pertains to interrelationship of the human and the divine, in which the divine does not descend to the human as in the case of 1, but the human ascends to the divine. Six furthers the processes of purification operative under 5. From the sixth to the ninth hours the face of Earth was darkened as the Master agonized on the cross.
When fallen in man, the feminine potency of 6 is sex; but when lifted it is pure spiritual power which transforms. It is symbolized by grain. Corn, like Genesis, is a 6-power word. Six is thus correlated with the divinity of Cosmic Motherhood, whose symbol is a 6-petalled lily, and whose sign is Virgo, sixth in the Zodiac.
The vibratory rhythms of 7 lift into a higher and more perfect order. Seven does not enter into the turmoil of experiences at their inception but becomes operative when the time is ripe to establish new and higher conditions. Seven, at its highest, is the victor, the conqueror, the spiritual master who has gained control over self and thus proved his mastership over all else. The many sevenfold incidents in the Bible all refer to this place of self-conquest.
Madame Blavatsky notes that so important is the number seven that its meanings are inscribed upon almost every page of that mystic scroll known as the Book of Genesis. In the Grecian Mysteries a successful candidate chanted the seven vowels on completing a certain degree. One of the Egyptian Schools of Initiation was divided into seven Degrees. The First, Second and Third Degrees dealt with the development of the consciousness that transcends death. The Fourth and Fifth Degrees were concerned with the mysteries of vibration. The Sixth included a study of celestial rhythms, the music of the spheres. The Seventh and final Degree enabled an Initiate to receive powers from the "Seven-Rayed God"; these gave ability to use the powers of seven.
Figure (8) is the number of the Female Serpent, the Double Feminine the Feminine in Exaltation as the Kabbalists express it. Eight is a cosmic number and like 5 is a number of resurrection. It represents the 8 points of the Perfect Cube formed out of the rough ashlar; also the forces of the soul, the intuitive inner messenger whose precept is never false. The soul voice of 8 speaks unutterable things of vast spaces and cosmic vistas. Keywords of 8 are freedom, expansion, progression, transfiguration.
Nine (9) is the serpentine force of 8 expressing through the highest powers of mind, which when lifted up becomes The Key Power to Paradise. These mental powers when degenerate in men and nations become the evil beast represented by 666 (6+6+6=18=9) in Revelation. Transmuted, they set the cross of light upon the heads of the 144,000 (1+4+4+000=9) of the same book. Hence 9 is the number of man in both spirit and materiality; therefore it is the number of Initiation. Pythagoras dedicated his Temple to "the Nine" meaning that the vibratory rhythms of 9 were the forces under which he worked. He so ordered his life that he finished this Earth experience at the age of 9x9, or 81, which is again 9(8+1). Six is Nine inverted (6-9). He that ascends is the same as he that descends. The serpent and the cross bar the gates of Eden to exiled man. Through the powers of 9, the serpent and the two vertical columns unbar the gates to the New Jerusalem.
Ten (10) is formed of the masculine (1) and the feminine (0). The first astral hieroglyph given to man is a dot within a circle. This is representative of God in creation. The elongation of the dot within the circle represents God-man in manifestation, or 10. "One is my inmost being—one is my self-utterance."
The key-note of 1: God said, Let there be light.
The key-note of 10: And it was so: the light was manifest in man. This return to the Father's House — re-absorption into the forces of 10 or 1 — represents the end of an Earth Day of manifestation. This is the "divine event to which the whole of creation moves," as Tennyson sings. The Decad, therefore, signifies accomplishment, completion, reunion. Ten intones the power of the Unmanifest. Ten cosmic laws, upon which the evolution of humanity rests, were revealed to Moses upon his Mount of Transfiguration — they sound the keynote of Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
Throughout our biblical interpretations, particularly those on the Book of Numbers, we have need of the numerological analysis of names. For the benefit of students we append, therefore, the following table which gives the letters of the English alphabet and their number value. By the use of this table and our definitions of the spiritual meaning of each numeral, the student can arrive at something of the esoteric meaning of every name in the Bible.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I |
| J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R |
| S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Consonants represent the personality, vowels the Spirit or Ego; the suni of both, the Ego working through the personality. Example of operation: JESUS
(1) Consonants: 1+1+1=3. The Triune Godhead manifest in the flesh.
(2) Vowels: 5+3=8. The Exalted Feminine, the redeemed serpent "and 1, if I be lifted up ... will draw all men unto me" — which has much the same significance as the lifting up of the Brazen Serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:8-9).
(3) Sum of both: 11. Number of polarity, adeptship, the perfected Initiate.
The powers and significance of the number eleven (11) are given profound expression in the following words from the Thorah. Man was created in the form and likeness of God. Hitherto there was but one Such creature; I have now added to him another who was taken from him. They shall both be in our form and likeness; there shall be no inan without a woman, and no woman without a man, and no man and woman together without God."
— Corinne Heline
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