THE MYSTERY OF NUMBERS By Ralph M, Lewis, Imperator Rosicrueian Order, AMORC When the phenomenon of thinking in terms of numbers ectuslly began will possibly never be known. How it began, however, is not difficult to conjecture. In fact, there are many evidences which confirm the following speculation on how man conceived a number system. The natural observations of primitive men were in all probability as keen as our own. Further, the intelligence which, for example, the late Stone-Age man applied to such observations was perhaps equal to or not much less than the intelligence had by the everage man today. If we strip the average modern man of his fount of accumulated knowledge and confront him with the causes of the concept of numbers, he would probably arrive at the idea by the same method as did his encient progenitors. Thus, by such a means, we can at least speculate on the origin of number systems. So let us begin with the simple facts of experience. Sequence, or the multiplicity of things and events, compels man to devise a system for comprehending them, or at least to put in order his experiences of them. Things and events not only are, that is, have reality, but we also realize that they occur in time and space as vell. There is, for example, not just a man but men in a certain given area. We may fix in our mind what any one of the men looks like, by observing carefully his physical appearance, size, coloring, and so on. So, too, we like to have equally comprehensible the idea of the quantity of such Objects or men vithin the space or erea that they are observed: Simply put, how many men there are whom we see is as important to our under- standing as what one man looks like. In separateness there is confusion. The mind always seeks to synthe size, to tic together its experiences for simplicity of understanding. Es for events, they are experiences existing in a period of human con- seiousness. A period of humsn consciousness may be from the time one avakens in the morning until he closes his eyes in sleep at night. Each event that occurs during such e period may be quite clear in it~ self to the mind. At night before losing consciousness in sleep, we are quite avare that many such events occurred during the conscious period, or the day. The mind struggles to know just how many there were. In other words, it seeks to group them into a whole or an order of quantity, which we call numerical. The mind also seeks to find some symbol of this unity as a guide, that 1s, something which appears as a whole but actually consists of the grouping of separate things. The hand is such a symbol. It contains five fingers grouped into a unity. The first attempt at counting, therefore, must have been on the fingers, just as children do todey. Quantity was determined by comparison to these ten fingers. Things or events, if they exceeded the total fingr, or ten, were determined as twice two hands or three times two hands, and so on. Similar methods of counting sre prevalent among aborigines in various parts of the world today. The ectual history of mathematics begins with the Ionian Greeks about the Fifth Century B.C. However, the Greeks undoubtedly inherited much of mathematics from the investigations of their venerable pre- decessors, the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians. In fact, Greek tradi- tion pays homage to the Egyptians for the rudiments of geometry. AlsoPage 2 the science of numbers was declared by them to be an attainment of the Egyptians, For centuries, the only indication of this inheritance of the science of numbers by the Greeks was the references to it by the ancient Greek and later historians. Herodotus, Father of History, relates how the Heliopolitan priests told him they were the first dis- coverers of the solar (sun) year, and that they divided this year into a mathematical arrengement of twelve parts or months, each month having thirty days. To each year they added five days, so that the seasons would uniformly repeat themselves. The Egyptians accomplished this feat of the calender approximately 4000 B.C.! Then Strebo, Greek historian of the First Century B.C., says in his geography of Egypt: "And here it was, they say, that the science of geometry originated, just as ac- counting and arithmetic originated with the Phoenicians, because of their commerce," ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT FOUND During the early part of the present Twentieth Century, the first dix rect information on Egyptian knowledge of mathematics came to light. In the British Museum a hieratic (abbreviated hieroglyphs) papyrus, part of the Rhind collection of antiquities, was translated. It was dis- closed that it was written by e Scribe known as Ahmes, approximately 1000 years B.C. This pepyrus was an emendation of a text still 8 thou- sand years earlier, The title of this papyrus 1s "Direction for Know- ing All Dark Things." It is a discourse on arithmetic and geometry. It contains a series of questions and their answers, or problems and their solutions. It appears that at this time the Egyptians vere hav- ing some little difficulty with fractions. Scribes could only operate with fractions having one as a numerator, the only exception being 2/3rds. Multiplication was accomplished by multiplying a given number by two, for example, and then doubling that total and continuing in this manner until the required sum was hed. Strange symbolical signs were used in their caloulations. A figure of a person walking forward in- dicated addition--backward indicated subtraction. A flight of arrows also denoted subtraction. The Egyptians applied geometry to practical needs. ‘There is little direct evidence thet they vere much concerned with abstract geometry, as wore the Greeks. For example, the Egyptians used the science of geometry for determining the contents of circuler granaries, vhich they did with great accuracy. The ground plan of the Great Pyramid, that 1s, its square base, was accomplished with wonderful skill. Also the orientation of it according to the cardinal points of the compass dis- played amazing mathematical exactitude, comparing favorably with cal- culations made by instruments today. How were the signs of the numerals decided upon? Why do we calculate in unites of ten, each decade beginning again and progressing through a next higher series of nine? Is it an accidental arrangement, or is there more then s mathematical meaning underlying such e system? Our. present numerical symbols are known as the Gobar Arabic, and were evolv- ed by the Arabs from much earlier forms. One theory is that the numer- als 5, 6,.7, and 9 were derived from the first letters of Indo-BactrianPage 3 words corresponding to them. The Bactrians were an ancient Iranian people who came into India and were undoubtedly of the original Aryans and brought their language with them. For example, the symbol for 5 is said to be the first letter of the Bactrian word for five. The sym- bols for 1, 2, and 3, respectively, are said to be derived from "paral- lel pen strokes, cursively connected." From the point of view of this theory, the numeral 2 was written like the Z of the alphabet. The upper and lower parallel lines denoted 2, The oblique vertical line was the cursive or written manner of connecting the two parallel ones. The originel figure 3 consisted of two horizontal parallel lines, and then one vertical stroke directly beneath. These were connected togetter by little loops similar to the way in which the numeral appears today. It is seid that in some languages the names for the entire first ten digits are from the fingers used to denote them, In fact, it is related Gat tbe, Wendi tees, emi ERMA, in woqindengnnene, ace derivet ire Ge same root. The Roman numeral X is seid to be composed of two V's, with apex to apex; in other words, one V standing upon the point of the other, OU oe Zine hel ia Lape Ancien ee The symbols above form the basis of a metaphysical theory of the origin of our present numbers. The author of the theory relates that "we shall find numbers to be the anguler value of the circle. . ." For example, the circle is meant to depict the cosmos, the unity of all, which of course is a true ancient symbol of this meaning. The horizon- tal line or numeral 1, according to this theory, begins an extension or emanation from the God source symbolized by the circle. The Z symbol alludes to the figure 2, It is said to represent "the cross of the two equinoxes and the two solstices placed within the figure of earth's path." For each of the other symbols, other mystical and metaphysical reasons are presented. According to the Rosicrucian conception, the circle represents the periodicity of nature's phenomena or is a symbol of the cycles in nature. The circle, the Rosicrucians say, is numerically expressed by the numersl nine, the square of three, or the equileteral triangle. Consequently, in any expression of nature or cycle, we edvance from 1 to 9, The second period begins with 1 again. The zero after the num- eral 1, or the figure 10, means the beginning of the second period--20, for example, means the beginning of the third period; 30 the beginning of the fourth and so on. Pythagorean Number System With the Greeks and ancient Hebrews, numbers had more than a utili- tarian value. They became symbols for philosophical abstractions and mystical and occult principles. The numbers were esoteric keys to truths and laws of nature. In some instances these symbols of laws were thought to have a secret latent efficacy in themselves. In fact, it was often believed that they exerted influence on all who wore them or who used them in a certain manner.Page 4 To Pythagoras goes much of the credit for the esoteric meaning of numbers. He was born on the Island of Samos about 569 B.C. He traveled to Egypt to study there with the learned priesthood of the Myste: Schools. Stanley, in his clessical biographies of the Miter says of Pythagoras! studies in Egypt: "Coming to (Pharaoh) Amosis, Amosis gave him letters to the priests, and first going to those of Heliopolis, they sent him to the priests of Memphis, as the most ancient. From Memphis, upon the same pretense, he was sent to Thebes +.» « They enjoined him very hard precepts, wholly different from the institutions of Greece, which he readily performed, to their great admiration, that they gave him power to sacrifice to the gods, and to acquaint himself with all of their studies which was never known to have been granted to any foreigner besides.” About 529 B.C., Pythagoras moved to Crotona, a colony in the South of Italy. He opened schools which were crowded with enthusiastic students. His teachings were expounded to two groups of students-- probationers and Pythagoreans. The latter received his most profound philosophical views and vere bound by oath into a brotherhood. Though Pythagoras inherited his fundamental ideas in geometry from Egypt, he exceedingly elaborated upon them and evolved them into a philosophy. ‘The impact of Pythagores upon Greek philosophy was tremendous. The dis- coveries accredited to him, which are indubitably his, constituted a great contribution to human knowledge. Even the very words mathematics and philosophy are said to have been originated by him. Pythagoras divided numbers into odd and even. The odd numbers he termed gnomons. The harmony of nature had greatly impressed itself upon him, He discovered that the division of a musical string corre- sponded to the octaves of misic; namely, the sound coming from a vibrating string, depends upon its length, He finally conceived thet all manifestations in nature are according to number or mathematical proportion. He believed that 1f one knew the numerical essence, the mathematical harmony of substance, he could control it at will. In fact, he believed that certain numbers corresponded to properties or substances in nature, Plutarch says in his essay on Pythagoreen arithmetic, "For Pythagoras thought number the greatest power and re- duced everything to numbers--both the motions of stars and the creation of living beings, and he established two supreme principles--one finite, united, and the other infinite, duality. The one, the principle of good, the other evil. For the nature of unity being innate in what surrounds the whole creation, gives order to it, to souls virtue, to bodies health, to cities and dwellings praise and harmony, for every Good thing is conversant with concord, . . . So he demonstrates of all of the successive numbers that the even are imperfect and barren--but that the odd are full and complete--because joining to the even they preserve their own character. Nor in this way is the odd number super, Dut also added to itself it generates an even number. For it is creative, it keeps the original force and does not allow a division, since per se the mind is superior, But even added to itself, neither products the other, nor is indivisible." Pythagoras also assigned moral qualities to numbers. These meanings were not understood by the uninitiated, and, taken literally or withoutPage 5 further qualification, they often seemed ludicrous. That the Pythago- reens hed a more extensive and lucid meaning is known only to those schools of esotericism as the Rosicrucians, who are traditional affilic ates of the ancient Pythagorean School at Crotona. Pythagoras regarded the numeral one es the source of all mumerels. It wes the point of peginning, the self-contained, the sbsolute. It likewise, therefore, depicted the reason, the mind cause. Two stood for opinion, Four represented justice and stability of character. Five represented marriage, because it consisted of the unity of the odd, and even numbers two and three. Five was also held to be the key to the laws of color. The sphere was completion, that without beginning or end. Perfect numbers were those whose division add up to the number itself. For example, six is divided by one, two, and three, and these all add up to six. The animism of numbers--nemely, that they were inbued with spirit-- is attributed elso to Pythagoras. However, scholars are tnolthed to disclaim that Pythagoras ever taught anything which now goes under the guise of animistic numerology. In antiquity, when the development of symbols to represent numbers was in its formative stege, letters of the alphabet were often used for such a purpose. Consequently the letters of words would add up to certain sums. Words or names having greater sums were thought to possess more of the efficacy believed inherent in numbers. Since numbers had sex--that is, were male or female, or odd and even--certain words acquired a masculinity or femininity, because of their numerical total. Omens were ascribed to words having certain numerical value, just as 13 is considered unlucky by the superstitious today. To the true occultist and the mystic, however, such words were but mere keys for numerical values, word symbols for numbers. The Kabbale Number Philosophy With the Kabbala, we enter the real realm of the mystical meaning of numbers. Upon the subject of the Kabbala thousands of books hsve been written containing extensive delineations; some are worthy, others are worthless. Here we can but touch upon the origin of the Kabbala and its significance, The original Hebraic meaning of the word Kabbala is "to receive" or "tradition," namely, "receiving traditions." The Kabbala came to comprise a system of esoteric mysticism and cosmology, attempting to jointly explain the nature of God and his relationship to the world. The age of this system is unknown, but it is recognized to be of great antiquity. It may have had its origin in the obscure philosophy of Hermes Trismegistus. The Kabbala consists, first, in a Permutation of letters of the Hebrew alphabet for numbers, This system of exchange of letters as symbols for numbers was also called gematria. The Kebtela affirms that God ts all in all--nothing ever existed of came into existence apart from Him. It is the out-pourings from the godhead, this all-in-211, as emanations, which caused 211 things to come into existence. One view is that these emanations consist, first, of three primal elements, namely, water, eir, and fire, These, in turn, produce three other emanations--darkness, light, and wisdom. The com- bined six produce the world. Light, on the other hand, is often refer- red to as @ direct emanation from God. Of principsl importance to us here is the doctrine of the ten Sepheroth. They numerically explainPage 6 the emanations from God; in other words, give creation a numerical development. The word Sephira, in the broadest sense, means numerical emanations of light, The oldest book of the Kabbala is called the Sepher Yetzirsh, or Book of Creation. In the Sepher Yetgirah, it is explained that God created the universe by threo sephorin (emanations), and these are numbers, letters, and speech. The numbers are ten, ‘The letters of the alphabet are tventy: two. In the numeral one the other nine Sepheroth, or numerals, exist, for one is the indivisible. It is the complete, the whole. However, one has a two-fold nature--negative and positive qualities. It oscil- lates or vibrates between these two qualities of its nature. By this motion a reflection of itself is produced. This reflection of one causes a duad or two to come into existence. Thus God manifests him- self in the powers of speech and number, one complementing the other as developments or emanations from the central source. The Rosicrucians and certain other of the traditional esoteric orders in antiquity, in accordance with the eclectic trend in the past, borrowed from the Kabbala many of its principles. In particular, they employed its symbolic number system to explain their cosmological meta- physical, and mystical conceptions. Esoteric Meaning of Numbers From out of these origins have come an abundance of meanings attri- ‘puted to numbers, Some are obviously mystical and philosophical al- legories. Others are but rank superstitions which have been super- imposed on the pristine meanings. The following few may prove interesting. THE MONAD or 1: The point of beginning, the indivisible, the prime cause, the absolute--God--the first of a11 things. DUAD or 2: The contraries or opposites in nature, by which realities are generated, It slludes to such universal diversities as positive and negative, rest and motion, good and evil. The extremities be- tween which the creative force in the universe operates. THE TRIAD or 3: The first odd number, therefore, the first rfect number. The point of unity or equilibrium of those onpoateel Which the duad represents. The key to the laws of material creation, ss expressed in the sciences; the symbol of the Rosicrucian law of the trisngle. re THE TETRAD or 4: The fountain of nature. The symbol of permanency or stability in nature, It also represents the four primal elements-- air, earth, fire, and water. Further, 1t depicts the four cardinal virtues--prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. THE PENTAD or 5: It is called the spherical number, because at every multiplication it restores itself or terminates the number and begins @ new cycle, as, for example: 5X5=25; 9X5=45; or 5x2=10; or 5x! #80. This repetition or cyclical function causes it to become a symbol for the external motion of light through the cosmos. It is also a symbolPage 7 for the unity of positive and negative qualities, because it unites the first even number, 2 and the first odd number, 3. Consequently, it was referred to es the "sign of Marriage." To the alchemist, it depicted the quintessence, because it was derived from the other four elements. THE HEXAD or 6: It is often celled the perfection of parts. This appellation was given it because when it is multiplied into itself it always itself appears in the unit place. Thus, for example: 6, 36, 216, etc. This is supposed to be reflected in the tradition that the world was created in six periods or days. Man is likewise said to have been created on the sixth day. Jesus died on the cross on the sixth day of the week. The Hexad or 6 elso represents the double triangle, or Hexagram, One apex or point up, and one with the point down, the combination being a symbol of the spiritual and material forces of the Cosmos united in harmony. THE HEPTAD or 7: Signifies abundance; it combines the four boundaries of matter--point, line, superfices, and solid, with the three inter- vals: length, breadth, and depth. It is also related to the various cycles and periods of human development; in other words, the ages of man, the verious stages through which he passes are said to be seven in number. The body has seven obvious points--head, chest, abdomen, two legs, and two arms. Dr. Lewis, in his book Self Mastery and Fate With the Cycles of Life says: ". . . the human life cycle is Sivided intos crogression cf periods, each period lasting sp- proximately seven complete sun years, or seven years of approximately 365 days each. . ." THE OGDOAD or 8: It is a mystical symbol of regeneration. 688 is the special number of Jesus Christ, as "He who is the resurrection and the life," and Jesus is the opposite of 566, the number of the beast. The Ogdoad also is a symbol of justice, because it consists of "even evenly numbers," and on account of its equal divisions. THE ENNEAD or 9: It is said to be like the horizon "because all of the other numbers are bounded by it." It is also celled perfect, because fe te genereted from the ried, ‘1ikevise called perfest. Tt vas often held to be the symbol of the indestructibility of matter, the reason being that 9 multiplied by any number always reproduces itse® For example: 9X2=18, and 8+1=9. THE DECADE or 10: It is the apex of numbers. It is "the full accomplish ment of numbers." To increase the sum, one must retrograde from the decade to the monad; in other words, back to one again, and begin over, It is likewise called the cosmos or the universe, the self- contained, of which all numbers are but expressions or manifestations The ten Sepheroth of the Hebrew Kabbala are said to be the prototype, the essence of all things, spiritual and material, which emanate from the godhead. A few of the meanings and uses of the vast host of larger numbers are: 40 The flood lasted 40 days; for 40 days Goliath challenged David; the Jews were 40 days in the wilderness; for 40 days Moses fasted; and so forth.Page 8 608 Represents the sun. "His holy name is of 3 letters, the numbers of which are 608." 1614 Is the year in which the "Fama Fraternitatis Rosee Crucis” wes printed. 6000 Is the number of years the world was intended to last, according to the early theologians. It was based on 6 periods of 1000 years each. It mist be evident to every intelligent person thet man, to a great extent in antiquity, began to fit numbers to phenomena which he per ceived, or truths he realized. By this means and by the use of mathe- matical precepts, he has come to understand them better. Therefore, though some may dispute the following, I declare that mathematics has not discovered any lew or phenomenon in nature. It merely extends and makes more perspicuous and demonstrable that vhich has already been realized, although at times to our minds it may have had an emorphous appearance. Let us realize that psychologically, we cannot escape the notion of unity. As John Locke put it: ". , . the idea of unity is suggested by whatever we consider as one thing. . ." Therefore, any single thing or object, or e line may become a symbol of unity. Unity and dis- junction are tremendous factors in our experience. How they interchange or replace one nother is a phenomenon in nature which has ever awed man. Consequently, it 1s natural, in primitive reasoning, to believe that by a kind of contagious magic, there are imparted to the symbols of unity and diversity or numbers which man has designed, the forces and powers which they represent. However, it must be further realized that one could work just as effectively with the mathematical and philosophical explanations of cosmic phenomena, by abandoning the present symbols of numbers and substituting something else having the same numerical validity. In other words, something else could just as well represent, for example, the number values of 3, 5, and 9. This would then prove that symbols of numbers do not have innate powers, ami we would thus once and for all dispel the ancient superstition of the animistic power of numbers, Meny of the early superficial dabblers in alchemy fell into the same rut of primitive reasoning. They conferred upon the symbols of the chemical elements such as mercury, sulphur, and so on, supernatural powers which they believed could be imparted to any wearer of them, Let us not forget, a number is an instrument. Its power consists in its application, not in its form or physical appear- ance. 3-113-447