Understanding the
History Of Numbers
 

In the Middle Ages, these calculations required long hours. Everything became easy the day the decimal system was accepted, and people became aware of zero. For the moment, let us agree with the official notion that: we owe the discovery of zero to India (around the 5th century). We will see in time and place that the concept of zero was integrated long before that, in ancient cultures.

History books tell us that the Arabs spread the Hindu numbers we use from 1 to 9, hence they are called Arabic numbers. It is said as well, that it was the monk Gerber d’Aurillac, who later became Pope Sylvester II, who introduced them in France in 999. It is indeed true that he improved the abacus system by imposing tokens ranging from 1 to 9, but it didn’t change the calculating methods of the ancestors. We had to wait for the Renaissance and the invention of the printing machine by Gutenberg in 1434, for these numbers to become commonly used. In fact, it is the printer that united and generalized the 9 numbers plus 0.

The conclusion is obvious: today’s numerology has nothing to do with that of the Ancients who by corollary used the numbers for reasons other than ours.  We must be careful to claim ours as based on their method.

Beyond the method of calculation used for an accounting of the things in daily life, the science of numbers was first a science of the sacred: it allowed understanding of divinity. Each civilization developed its own system. We will limit ourselves here to the one, which influenced modern numerology: the alphabetic numeration.

This consists of using the letters of an alphabet for a number.  Here are two examples with the Greek and Hebrew alphabets:

Greek alphabet contains 24 letters

* • Greek letters not used anymore in the Greek language.

The Hebrew alphabet composed of 22 letters

* Hebrew end letters which change form when they are at the end of a word

With this type of alphabet, a letter is a number and a number equals a letter, allowing codification of each word and a measurement of its power.

In the Hebrew language, the name of God Y H V H is worth : 10+5+6+5 = 26. All the words and expressions where the numeration is a multiple or sub-multiple of 26 would have something to do with God.

On another level, since each number is a letter, then each letter is a symbol.  This symbol must reflect reality, or at least part of it, which we can grasp.  It is not necessary to be highly educated to realize that all in nature is composed of penetrating and penetrated elements.  The penetrating element is naturally symbolized by number 1, and the one being penetrated by number 0 in the image of human sexuality, 1 representing the masculine and 0 the feminine.

In the creation of numerology, the binary system prevails and today’s technology seems only a strange return to this source!

Historians of numbers, such as George Ifrah (Universal History of Numbers) are interested in the strictly mathematical aspect. They silence the fact that the ancient science of numbers was first and foremost a science of the Sacred. Before being a sign, a number is first a vision of the perception of the world. It is a concept exposing the divine plan. When we say plan, we automatically understand divine geometry. We are far away from integrals invented by the Arab Al-Khwarizmi in the 11th century. The relation between numbers is not a function of a mathematical formula but a function of their reciprocal properties.

The Egyptians knew of a sacred triangle, the triangle 3, 4,and 5. This triangle was very useful because it allowed them to draw right angles.

They took a rope and knotted it in 13 places, giving 12 spaces. After the first 3 spaces, they anchored the rope at (point b). They then counted 4 more spaces and fixed the rope again at (point c). All they had to do then was to join both ends (points a and d). They immediately got a right angle at point b. This is confirmed by Pythagoras’s theorem, which says that the sides:

(ab)² + (bc)² = (ac)²  = 3² + 4² = 5² = 9 + 16 = 25

We could, like George Ifrah, stop here, except that we would be missing a very essential point. The triangle 3, 4, 5, still used to this day by master craftsmen, contains a great symbol.

We have seen that number 3 represents the mind and 4, matter, so number 5 can only symbolize the one who bridges the two together, Man. The 5 becomes the link that connects God to his representative, man.

It is easy to note that the  pentagram, with its 5 branches depicts Man. It is hence natural that the 5 in the tarot be symbolized by the Pope. He indeed represents the one who is the link between God and Man.

This symbolic geometry also exists in the Greek tradition. The Tetraktys of Pythagoras reminds us of that. Pythagoras’s disciples swore by this figure, saying:

I swear by the one who revealed to our soul the Tetratkys, which has in itself the source and the root of eternal nature.
 

These few comments suffice to show the sacred numbers of the Ancient was based on 10 numbers and not 9, as indicated by the modern numerology of 9 numbers, developed by Kevin Quinn Avery. For those who would doubt this, let us mention a passage of the Sepher Yetzirah:

Ten are the numbers to come out of nothingness and not nine, nor eleven. Behold this great wisdom and enter this knowledge. Use your mind, in these ten, search, note, think, imagine, make them obvious and lead the Creator to his throne.

For the Hebrew and the Greeks who use the numeral alphabet, if a number is a letter, this letter is also the expression of the creating word of God. Each word has in itself the power of its own expression. With the sound, we can create phenomena of vibrations that have physical incidences like breaking glass, or psychical phenomena like mantras.

That modern numerology uses names, stems from a good thing… unfortunately, for the ancient alphabet, including Hebrew, each letter is first and foremost a sound, while in today’s alphabet, apart from the vowels, to make a sound, we must combine a vowel with a consonant !

Honestly, if we take a machine to measure the amplitude of sound, and if we pronounce the word “Nathalie” do you think that by modifying the letters to “Nataly”, it would change the vibration amplitude of the name ? Of course it wouldn’t !

If a science of sounds exists today, it is obvious to see that it is not a credible numeral science of sound, valid and verifiable...

These many views on the Ancient’s numerology do not mean to destroy the numerology of Kevin Quinn Avery. The latter was able to create a new science, just like the Chinese did with the Yin-King, which is numerology on the basis of 8. By establishing the facts, we bring forth the criticism on the letters of nobility that modern numerologists take, by basing themselves on Greek or Hebrew numerologies. We saw earlier that the Ancient’s numerologies are composed of 10 and not 9 elements, and we cannot ignore the fact that today’s alphabet relies on 26 letters, while the Greek one (hence Pythagoras’s) has 24. We remain perplexed on the legitimacy of Pythagoras’s wheel, which would give a numeral value to our alphabet.

One of the principles that underlies Kris Hadar’s thought is : 

Believe nothing without knowing !
Everything must be demonstrated, explained, verified and understood.

If St. Thomas could touch to see, we are also entitled to exert this same privilege!

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