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I guess we have all heard the expression "I've got your number." That means that one is saying that he knows all about the other person. This has a deeper meaning than just a casual expression. Each number has its own peculiar vibration and rhythm.
Answer for yourself: Did we not just see that in the concept of the Logos-Word, that finds its origin in Egypt, that was was meant behind this "Word" was vibration as well?
It is these vibrations that resulted from the Big Bang that set in motion other sequence or processes that Egypt understood equally well as expressed in numbers. Each number symbolized and represented a function or process or force or principle. Each number incorporated all combinations of functions leading to it. The interplay of numbers resulted in the phenomena of the physical world or physical experience.
As a resonance to the cosmic rhythms, people and traits of character, periods of time, places, items of food, and everything that exists, can be described in numberical terms, i.e., everything is a number, and as such, all things are numbers.
Egyptians manifested their knowlege of number mysticism and harmonical proportions in their art and architecture. One only has to look at the Pyramids and their numberical proportions in relation to not only their own geometry but their correspondence to meansurements of the Heavens to be absolutely blown away by what you discover. The circumstantial evidence that Egypt possessed this knowledge is not only commanding but breathtaking.
All the design elements, in Egyptian architecture and temples (dimensions, proportions, numbers, ...etc.), were based on the Egyptian number symbolism.
The ancient name for the largest temple in Egypt, namely the Karnak Temple comples, is Apet-eut, which means Enumerator of the Places. The temple's name speaks for itself. This temple started in the Middle Kingdom (2040-1783 B.C.E.) and was added to continuously for the next 2000 + years. The design and enumberation, in this temple, are consistent with the number symbolism of the physical creation of the universe.
The Hypostyle Hall of the Karnack temple consists of seven rows of nine columns each, on either side of the double row of the six higher columns in the center. This theme of six, seven, and nine is only found at the Karnak temple. The Hypostyle Hall is a representation of the papyrus thicket of creation. Seven, the number of process and growth, multiplied by 9. Nine, the Ennead, is a reiterated theme of ancient Egypt.
It is important for us to understand that the use of numbers, in ancient Egypt, was always based upon an implicit and consistent symbolism. If this knowledge were ever written in books, it may have been stole or destroyed by the ignorant invaders of Egypt.
Tje Egyptian concept of number symbolism was subsequently popularized in the Western Hemisphere by and through the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras.
Phythagoras (580-500 B.C.E.) is known for many things and possibly the most important is Numerical Mysticism. This is the theory that numbers have instinctive meaning and harmonical proportion. It is a known fact that Pythagoras studied for several years in Egypt, soon after Egypt was open to Greek exploration and immigration (7th century B.C.E.).
Pythagoras left nothing of his own writing. The details of his life and of his various doctrines, religious as well as non religion, are known only through his followers and commentators. As such, biographies of Pythagoras were all fragmentry, secondhand and therefore unreliable.
What is today called Pythagorean number mysticism is actually Egyptian in origin, and corresponds to the underlying philosphy behind all the art and sciences of Egypt.
Phythagoras learned in Egypt that ALL is Number. Pythagoras saw numbers as Divine Concepts, ideas of the God who created a Universe of infinite variety, and satisfying order, to a numerical pattern. The same principles were stated centuries earlier in the heading of the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus, which promises rules for enquiring into nature and for knowing all that exists, every mystery, every secret. Also, the Leyden Papyrus confirms that number symbolism had been practiced in Egypt, at least since the Old Kingdom. The Leyden Papyrus consists of an extended composition, describing the principle aspects of the ancient creation myths. The system of numeration, in the Papyrus, identifies the principle/aspect of creation and matches each one with its implicit symbolic number.
Plato and Phythagoras derived what they knew of both number and wisdom from ancient Egypt. Plato, especially in the Timaeus, showed himself to be Pythagorean, as were the Neoplatonists of Alexandria in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries A.D.
Some of the numbers and their symbolic significance are briefly described, as follows:
One is not a number, but the essence of the underlying principle of number, all other numbers being made ofit. One represents Unity: the Absolute as unpolarized energy. It was said that the number One is neither odd nor even but both, because if added to an odd number it makes it even, and vice versa. So it combined the opposites of odd and even, and all the other opposites in the universe. Unity is a perfect, eternal, undifferentiated consciousness.
Unity, becoming conscious of itself, creates polarized energy: two new elements, each of which share in the natureof the ONE and of the OTHER. Two is the One in polarized state. Polarity is fundamental to all phenomena without exception. The existence of pairs of opposites is an important characteristic of the Universe's construction. Among these noticeable pairs are:
Each pair represents a different aspect of the same, fundamental principle of polarity. And each aspect partakes of the nature of unity and of the nature of duality. Each pair of opposites are contained and unified as the tides are in the sea. Opposites melt into unity. Duality disappears into the One.
The dual, polar nature of creation is manifested in the many physical phenomena which follows asn alternative rhythum within a cyclical pattern. Inhale, exhale; wake, sleep; day, night; life death.
The complete understanding by Egyptians of the nature of duality in the Universe was reflected in many ways in Egyptian texts and arts, such as:
The Egyptian drawing of Horus and Set joined in one double-headed body, in a perfect example of the nature of duality
Set is the natural opposition to Horus. Horus personifies the lofty spirit of aspiration. Set is what drags it down, or tries to oppose it. Set personifies the unevolved desire, while Horus represents teh evolving desire. Both are constantly battline each other. It is the battle of the unevolved energies, against the forces that are learning and controlling. This continued conflict will ultimately be reconciled, after the death of the divine man.
Egypt was called The Two Lands for symbolic and not geographic or political reasons. The frontier between Upper and Lower Egypt has never been precisely determined. The eternal opposites Seth and Horus are assigned equal roles in representation of symbolic rites, relating to the ceremony of the Uniting The Two Lands, which is protrayed on the limestone reliefs in Lisht, near Memphis. Both are shown trying the symbolic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt to the Egyptian sign, which connotes unity. The symbolism is powerful, for the two opposites are the One, in a polarized state.
Ra and Osiris are the two neteroo (gods) who personify the cycle of life and death. Ra, who is the cosmic principle of energy, moves toward death, and Osiris, the dead neter (god), represents the process of rebirth. The dead person in death is Oriris, but he will come to life again, and be identified with Ra. The creation is continuous: it is a flow of life progressing towards death. But out of death, a new Ra is to be born, spouting new life.
In an Egyptian text, a deceased soul declares:
I was yesterday, and I know the morrow.
Yesterday is the name of Osiris and the morrow is the name of Ra. The hieroglyphs read:
This is Osiris when he has come to rest in Ra
This is Ra when he has come to rest in Osiris
It is a continuous cycle of day and night, life and death.
Double burial is another representation of duality in Ancient Egypt. Early dynastic kings have had two tombs: one in the north at Saqqara, and another in the south at Abydos. What is even odder, is that in many of them, no actual evidence of burial has been found in either one! Some scholars have explained this "double burial" custom as a political move, designed to maintain unity between the north and the south, by having the king burield in both. Other scholars, however, believe that the division into north and south was SPIRITUALLY SYMBOLIC, and not political. These separate tombs were intended to represent the Solar Principle in the north and the Lunar Principle in the south
The Pharaoh was always referred to as the King of Upper Egypt and the King of Lower Egypt. The Pharaoh wore two crowns: the Crown of the North and the Crown of the South. These symbols indicated his rule over both parts of Egypt, but they probably had a deeper significance, for they form a perfect example of the union of the dual principles, the masculine/femine, solar/lunar, Horus/Seth, ...etc.
Three is the abstract or SPIRITUAL relationship between two opposites. As an example, male/female is not a relationship. Love or desire must exist, for there to be a relationship. The establishment of a relationship is, in itself, that third force. Reconciliation, between two opposites, is the third force in the Universe.
The metaphysical role of Three is recognized in trinities, where are present in ancient Egypt and other mythologies of the world (the Christian trinity is an example).
FOUR
Notice how Egypt wrote the number four as IIII. Four is the number signifying solidity of matter, i.e., its composition and construction. A solid matter or substance is both a composite of its constituent units, and an new unity in itself. The First Cause (God) was identified with the number four (IIII), for he is also both a unity and the composite of all constituent units (creation).
Egyptians used the four simple phenomena (fire, air, earth, and water) to describe the functional roles of the four elements necessary to matter.
Water is also a substance over and above them.
In Egypt, this understanding of the number four was applied in symbolism:
The number five in ancient Egypt was written as two (II) above three (III), or as a star. There were powerful underlying reasons for such choices. Five incorporates the principles of polarity (II) and reconciliation (III). All phenomena without exception, are polar in nature, treble in principle. Therefore five is the key to the understanding of the manifested universe.
The relationship of two to three, in harmonical proportion, gives a tone which was not a likeness of one, but a tone which presents a new and powerful relationship to one. As such, five is called the first universal number.
This unique two to three relationship is the reason for the reverence in which five has been held in so many cultures. In ancient Egypt, the symbol for a star was drawn with five points. The Star was the Egyptian symbol for both destiny and the number five. The ideal of the realized man was to become a star, and to become one of the company of Ra.
The five-pointed stars were the homes of departed souls, as confirmed in the Unas Funerary Texts (known as the Pyramid Texts):
Lines 886-9
I am a soul ... I (am) a star of gold... and Here I am, O Ra, I am your son, I am a soul ... a star of gold...
Line 904
be a soul as a living star...
Heru (Horus) is the personification of the goal of all initiated teachings, and therefore associated with the number five.
Five was the sacred number of the Pythagoreans, and members of the brotherhood were sworn to secrecy on pain of death. We know the secrets existed, only because they were leaked out by the Pythagoreans, mostly because they were not their secrets to keep, they were the Egyptians'. The ancient Egyptians who originated number symbolism, revealed them subtly in their texts, art and architecture.
Six is the cosmic number of the material world and therefore is the number chosen by the Egyptians to symbolize both time and space. Scientists now agree that there is a very close connection between space and time - so close you can't have one without the other. Time and space are two sides of the same coin:
The Egyptian temple was designed as a model of the universe, at its creation, which is the cube. The contiguous planes of this cubical environment were carefully defined as separate entities, and are to be found in the fully developed Egyptian temple.
In ancient Egypt, seven signified the union of spirit (Three III) and matter (Four IIII), and was accordingly written in such format. One of the forms that traditionally expresses the meaning of seven is the pyramid, which combines the square base symbolizing the four elements, and the triangular sides symbolizing the three modes of spirit.
Seven is the number of process, growth, and the underlying cyclical aspects of the universe. Very often we find that seven or multiples of seven are needed to account for the principle and sequence of growth. Menstruation in women, on which all human life depends, occurs in a cycle of 4 x 7 days. Seven of something frequently makes a complete set - the 7 days of the week, 7 colors of the spectrum, 7 notes of the musical scale, etc.
Asar (Osiris) is associated with the number seven and its multitudes. Asar represents the generative aspect of the cyclical and renewing power of life. Seven represents the cyclical, universal Asarian (Osirian) nature of existence. There are seven chapels in the Temple Asar at Abydos.
In Egypt, the Absolute declares:
I am One, who becomes Two, who becomes Four, who becomes Eight, and then I am One again.
Eight is the number of the four pairs of primordial powers or forces, which were given the names Night, Obscurity, Secret and Eternity. So the One contains the eight (four pairs) elements.
Tehuti - Thoth (Hermes to the Greeks, Mercury to the Romans) is called the Master of the City of Eight. The neter (god), Tehuti (Thoth), personified the divine intellect. He was the messenger of the neteroo (gods), of writing, of language, of knowledge. Tehuti gave man access to the mysteries of the manifested world, which were symbolized by the number Eight.
A human child is normally conceived, formed and born in nine months, a fact which has a good deal to do with the role and importance attached to the number nine in ancient Egypt. Correspondingly, the Company of Neteroo formed an Ennead, or group of nine, which caused the creation of man on earth. Number nine marks the end of gestation and the end of each series of numbers. If multiplied by any other number, it always reproduces itself (3 x 9 = 27 and 2 + 7 = 9,or 6x9 = 54 and 5 + 4 = 9, and so on).
Nine marks the transition from one scale (the numbers from ito 9) to a higher scale (starting with 10), and so it is the number of initiation, which is again similar to the birth of a baby after nine months.
The Absolute became both One and Ten, since the Egyptian Great Ennead emerged from him.
In ancient Egypt, the number 10 symbolized completion and perfection, because it completed the series of the essential numbers and brought them back to unity.
In Egyptian mythology, the process was symbolized by Heru (Horus), the Divine Son who avenged the murder of his father, Asar (Osiris), at the hand of Set (Seth). As the son of Aset (Isis) and Asar (Osiris), Heru (Horus) was the tenth neter (god) of Heliopolis. Ten is the highest number of the original unity. At ten, Horus is a new One. He was the return to the source.
There are ten chapels at the Heru Temple of Edfu, representing his association with this sacred number.
The classic Egyptian grid upon which all reliefs and human figures are laid out, was based on nineteen squares. Nineteen had a complex role in all questions of manifestation in time and space.