Mysteries and Secrets of Numerology. Patricia Fanthorpe

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      The great world tree Yggdrasil has 3 roots and joins 9 worlds together. There are 3 holy wells under Yggdrasil’s roots. The dreaded wolf, Fenrir (or Fenris), was secured with 3 chains, but only the final one held. Gullveig is killed 3 times and reborn 3 times. Ragnarok is heralded by the crowing of 3 cockerels: 1 for the gods, 1 for the dead, and 1 for the giants. The rainbow bridge, known as Bifrost, has 3 colours and 3 names. Nine magical charms were given to Svipdag by his mother, the enchantress Groa, and 9 beautiful maidens sit at the knees of Menglod. It is also significant that Aegir has 9 daughters. There are 9 locks securing the chest that belongs to Laegjarn. In another piece of Norse mythology, one of the magical fires can be lit only if 9 different types of wood are used. Thrivaldi was a giant with 9 heads.

      The ancient Egyptians had a profound influence on the history of numerology. The Egyptian goddess Seshat had 2 major attributes. She was revered firstly as the inspirer of writings, and seen from this perspective as a sort of divine archivist. She was also honoured as a kind of instructor-goddess of building and construction. Numbers were another vital part of her work, which led to her being given the title of “the Enumerator.”

      To get inside ancient Egyptian thought, it is necessary to look at everything in the universe from the point of view that it is alive and animated. Objective twenty-first-century science has the underlying assumption that when we work in a laboratory with sulphur, lithium, magnesium, bromine, and chlorine, we are working with something dead or inanimate. Egyptian thinkers did not look at their environment that way 5,000 years ago. They might not have been familiar with the term animism, as such, but they still subscribed to the idea that everything in their environment was impregnated with living forces, and that such forces energized it and gave it its characteristics.

      On this basic concept of an animated universe, the Egyptians based their numerology — their magical and mysterious ideas about numbers. For them, numbers were not mere quantities, or units of fruit, vegetables, and meat. Numbers were more than the length of a line or the area of a pyramid’s base. Numbers were more than measurements of the volume of corn stored in a granary (thanks to Joseph’s inspiration and prudence). Numbers were expressions of the world around them and the animated spirit that it contained. If a waterfall was seen as alive and powerful, numbers expressed its power in terms of the volume of water that roared down it. The plunging of a war-horse; the spinning wheels of a chariot; the great block of stone being dragged by sweating slaves: these were all alive. These were animated. Numbers could clothe objects and events and make them more comprehensible. Numbers — in the hands of a skilled numerologist — could actually control the environment.

      For the ancient Egyptians, numbers had personalities. They were as alive and as powerful as the objects they measured and quantified. They were male and female, not neutral.

      Plutarch (45–120 AD) had very interesting comments to make on this idea of gender in the natural and mathematical universes. Born at Chaeronea in Boeotia, in the centre of Greece, he studied in Athens and then moved to Rome as a teacher of philosophy. Both Trajan and Hadrian liked and admired him. In his work, Moralia: Volume Five, Plutarch referred to the genders of the parts of a 90-degree triangle. The “3, 4, 5” triangle was an essential part of Egyptian design and measurement. Plutarch said that the base of a right-angled triangle was female; the upright that formed the 90-degree angle against the female base was masculine, and the hypotenuse — greater than either of its parents — was the son or daughter of the 2 shorter sides. Plutarch incorporated the Egyptian legend of Isis, Osiris, and their son, Horus, into his 90-degree triangle thinking. Isis was the horizontal base of the triangle, Osiris was its upright. Their great son, Horus, the hypotenuse, avenged his noble father’s death by destroying the evil god, Set.

      One famous old Egyptian numerological papyrus, dating from nearly 4,000 years ago, declares that it contains methods for inquiring into “everything that exists: all mysteries and all secrets.” This passage sums up the amount of faith the ancient Egyptians had in the power of numbers. The Leiden Papyrus was procured by the Leiden Museum of Antiquities in 1829 from J. d’Anastasy. It confirms the major importance of numbers and numerology for the Egyptians of its time. The 27 stanzas within this papyrus are numbered from 1–9 as units, then from 10–90, and finally from 100–900. The 3 groups of 9 thus cover all 27 stanzas.

      The Norse Valknut symbol

      The designs of Egyptian temples and pyramids were all dependent on the Egyptian numbering system and, most importantly to the ancient Egyptians, on the numbers “3,” “9,” and “27.” In accordance with the numerological elements of the early Egyptian belief systems, each number had a magical power or mystical significance.

      Just as “3,” “9,” and “27” were milestones in the history of numerology as far the ancient Egyptians were concerned, “7” was of more significance to the ancient peoples of the Middle East. “Seven” is frequently encountered in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, which is modern-day Iraq, and according to some of the ancient chronicles such as the Sumerian King List, he reigned there for more than a century. His father was a semi-deified king named Lugalbanda; his mother was the goddess Rimat Ninsun. Such ancestry gave Gilgamesh tremendous physical strength and qualified him as a demigod. In Gilgamesh’s story there is a gate with 7 bolts, and 7 mountains have to be climbed on the way to the Cedar Forest. Gilgamesh then cuts down 7 of the great cedars to reach the lair of their guardian, the fearsome giant Humbaba, whom he tricks with 7 gifts (including his sisters, as wife and concubine) before decapitating the giant. Gilgamesh also meets the wise old sage, Utnapishtim, the Babylonian equivalent of Noah, and stays with him for 7 nights. In the account of the flood that Utnapishtim survived, the waters subsided on the seventh day.

      There are scholars who would argue that the ancient Chaldean systems of numerology are, in fact, the oldest of all. Its extreme is disguised to some extent by the comparative secrecy in which it was kept for millennia. Chaldean numerology assigned meanings to the various numbers, beginning with “0.” To them, the “0” represented nothing and everything because in their mystical thinking everything began from nothing. It is the symbol of all potential things.

      Ancient Middle Eastern winged figure

      For the Chaldean experts, the number “1” was masculine. It stood for independence, individuality, aggression, and dominance. There were also aspects of creativity and originality associated with “1.” “Two” represents the female aspect: cooperation, adaptability, understanding, tact, gentleness, and caution. “Three” represents expansion and development. It is the number of communication and diversification. The number “4” in the Chaldean system represents the 4 seasons and the virtues of control and self-discipline. “Four” is stable and enduring. “Five,” by complete contrast, stands for adventure, travel, freedom, and versatility. “Five” means change. “Six” is an excellent number. It is associated with teaching, counselling, healing, and loving. The number “7” is philosophical and metaphysical. It looks for the deep eternal answers to the great questions of the universe. “Eight” is an authoritarian symbol: it quests for power and control over the environment and other people. In the Chaldean system, “9” is regarded as the ruler of all the other numbers except for the originating “0.” “Nine” is the symbol of patience, tolerance, universality, and compassion. The number “11” was of great importance in the old Chaldean system of numerology. Does that mean that the Basques, who also have the highest regard for “11,” may have come from the ancient Chaldean peoples? In the Chaldean system, “11” was thought of as the number of light. It is the number of wisdom and the wise. “Eleven” represents altruism, inventiveness, and tremendous strength of both mind and СКАЧАТЬ