Symbolism Of Numbers

1922

By Frederick J. Haskin

Washington, D. C. — This is about numbers — but most of the numbers will be small, and nobody will be asked to do any figuring.

In the high and far off times, as Kipling would say, dignified men in turbans and robes took a figure such as seven or nine and regarded it as mystic and tried to understand the meanings it might have in relation to life. Today men in tweed suits are still pondering on the same subject. They point out that through the centuries, through widely separated civilizations, a symbolism of numbers has persisted. They also talk learnedly of number vibrations, harmonies, the signs of the zodiac, of living up to the plane of a number, and of the science of numbers. This is a field erudite, but some of the simpler facts are interesting whether you regard a number as purely meaningless in itself, as a sign to conjure with, or a clue to the understanding of the universe.

According to Matthew Dawson, one of the modern students of numbers, there is practically always an ancient precedent for our current allusions to numbers.

When twenty-three was popular slang only a few years ago how many Americans realized that they were harking back to old Egypt and the mysteries of the priests? Yet Mr. Dawson explains that the origin of the expression can be found there. It seems that the Egyptian priesthood used a pack of seventy-eight cards known as tarots for divination. These tarots were the forerunners of our modern playing card pack. Some of their symbols can still be found on playing cards. But the tarots were more than our deck of cards. They were like a book of occult philosophy, with each card a page of symbols and principles.

The public of Egypt was interested in the lore of the tarots no less than the priests. But, said the priests, if the laity can study all our sources of knowledge they may divine events as well as we. So, to protect their secrets, twenty-two of the highest cards were withdrawn from the sight of the public. The fifty-six less important cards, beginning with the twenty-third card of the deck, were available for anyone's use.

From this situation in Egypt, Mr. Dawson says, twenty-three came to suggest something outside of the sacred mystery, and hence not of any importance, or readily dispensed with.

Origin of Thirteen

Egypt may or may not be originally responsible for the idea of thirteen being unlucky. But on the thirteenth tarot of the pack was the picture of a skeleton with the number thirteen below it. This was the number of death, regeneration, and change. Later thirteen was associated with the tragic story of the Last Supper, where Christ and the twelve disciples sat down together.

Mr. Dawson, who believes that individuals vibrate to numbers, says that thirteen is not unlucky if you can live up to its high plane, but that it is "difficult to vibrate to thirteen." This may lift a weight from some of the superstitiously inclined who regard thirteen as inevitably fatal.

Four has always been taken to suggest the material, while three is the number of divinity, according to number lore. Some of the best examples of this symbolism are found in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. All through this book numbers are used in code fashion. "Four corners of the earth" take in everything in the material world. The four living creatures around the throne represent the entire world of living things. Three suggests the Trinity and when three and four are multiplied you have twelve.

Speaking of the number twelve in his study of the Book of the Revelation, P. W. Wilson says: "Here you arrive at the idea of a creation into which God has entered. You have something that has been secular but has become spiritual. Thus you have tribes of a chosen Israel, the twelve chosen apostles, the twelve stars around the head of the eternal woman, the twelve gates of the city, which being holy is 12,000 furlongs every way, and twelve by twelve cubits high, while the number of the redeemed are twelve by 12,000 led by twice twelve elders."

Number Three

The idea of spiritual things being connected with the number three has been applied to fairy stories by Dr. Dawson. "Study of the Arabian Nights and the old fairy lore will reveal a great deal of intended symbolism," he says. "There are always three sons in the fairy tale. The youngest son is always the smartest. He outwits the other two and they never understand how. These three sons can be replaced symbolically by the body, mind, and spirit. The youngest son represents the spiritual which is the last side of the man to develop."

The hour of midnight is always the critical time in the stories, and this idea, Mr. Dawson says, is held because midnight ends the cycle of day and night. After that comes the change brought by a new day.

These are only two of the examples of number symbolism which Mr. Dawson finds in fairy tales. In everyday life, too, the symbolism of numbers bobs up to intrigue the student.

What could be more familiar to us in modern business affairs than the decimal system? Wilson, studying the Revelation, finds evidence that even centuries ago ten was a peculiarly secular digit:

"The tribes that broke away from Jerusalem were ten," he points out. "A beast with ten horns is dependent on secular forces. And an army of 200 thousand is, again, an unconsecrated army quite different from the redeemed who are reckoned by twelves. The raising of tens into millions indicates how immense was the army."

Material-minded folk would say that different numbers were used symbolically in certain ways at first by choice, and that they came to stand for definite ideas. The occultist says that there is a law of numbers, the secret of which is in themselves.

It is a deep and mysterious subject. These random glimpses only show vaguely how modern experience is built up on an enormous network of allusions and ideas out of the dim past. Whether the symbolism of numbers is outworn or whether it is more vital than ever, it persists to perplex and fascinate the descendants of the magi.