The Sacred Art of Numbers

Numbers at Play

Numbers are a special group of symbols. They were created in the Beginning as all symbols were but numbers serve a unique function.

The meaning of many symbols has become encrypted with cultural and other protocols so they are obscured to all but the initiated. Number, however, do have a more universal quality about them that allows them to cross cultural and temporal barriers.

Numbers have a special place in our history and in our spirit. The Bible contributes and entire section, The Book of Numbers, to the subject of numbers. It is filled with a plethora of Holy formulas, relationship, and accountings all expressed in numbers.

The Hebrew tradition is greatly indebted to the study and application of numbers. The Hebrew alphabet is concurrently an expression of letters and numbers that are at times used in tandem and at other times used separately.

In one form or another numbers have been used as long as we can understand the history of people. But for our purposes perhaps the greatest philosopher of numbers was the Greek scholar Pythagoras. Likely born on the island of Samos near Ionia in about 570 B.C. (the exact date is not known) he lived and taught for about 70 years. He is considered the father of number theory.

Joscelyn Godwin writes, “Pythagoras...in his emphasis on Number...revealed the secret without which modern technology would have been impossible. It is applied mathematics, after all, that has led to the so-called conquest of Nature. But at the same time, and much more importantly, Pythagoras taught the metaphysical and sacred aspect of Number as reflecting the One and its emanations.”

It is the metaphysical aspects of numbers that are the basis for numerology and cartomancy which is the study of how numbers relate to humans and their condition. This study of numbers was know in Biblical times and before. The work of Pythagoras helped us to understand the cosmic aspects of numbers as they relate to heaven and nature.

Modern man rudely uses numbers only in their counting function or as a shorthand language to express concepts. David Fideler writes of Pythagoras, “What we do know is that a metaphysical philosophy of Number lay at the heart of his thought and teaching permeating...even the domains of psychology, ethics and political philosophy.” He continues, “Pythagorean understanding of Number is quite different from the predominately quantitative understanding of today. For the Pythagorean, Number is a living, qualitative reality which must be approached in an experiential manner. Whereas the typical modern usage of number is as a sign, to denote a specific quantity or amount, the Pythagorean usage is not, in a sense, even a usage at all: Number is not something to be used; rather, its nature is to be discovered.”

These days we have stripped numbers down to their barest utilitarian elements causing these symbols to be viewed as a token that stands in for something we are counting. This minimalist “counting function” pervades the thinking of nearly everyone and deprives people of the vastly larger carrying capacity that numbers have for storing data.

If we can understand that all thing come from the One which is the unity, while Two opens up duality and conflict but the possibility of knowledge then we can begin to comprehend a larger role for numbers particularly those from 1 to 10. The data stored in number symbols is enormous. However, it takes a mind open to metaphor and allegory to peek inside and view the secrets that numbers hold.

Quotations from:

“Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library”, David Fideler editor, 1987

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Illustration: "Numbers at Play", 4"x4", Ink on paper, A Ann Reif, 2013

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 The Other Road

This road is about travel however it is not a straight line Interstate Highway where you can get somewhere very fast but not see anything interesting. Nope. It is an elliptical narrative like driving a country road with many twists, turns, side trips, and roadside attractions of hidden knowledge, ancient wisdom, and magic. It will build your spirit one daily stop at a time.

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The Symbol as Superluminal Potentia

Circles

Symbols are ubiquitous. They are the dynamic relationship between the way we organize thoughts and Creation. If there is a seen and unseen world existing together the function of symbols is to inform us about our world and mediate the interface between the two worlds.

There would be no understanding of the unseen world of Creation without the use of symbols from the seen world. This principle is elucidated by Paul in Romans 1:20 but is admittedly an older if not universal rule of the ancients.

Concurrently there would be no understanding of the seen world without the same tools, albeit, applied in different ways. Symbols can stand alone only in potentia which permits them to move seamlessly between material and non-material forms.

Symbols are the lattice work of thought-forms which give us an understanding of the material world and a glimpse into the workings of the unseen world. The “symbol” in its unpolished form is without meaning unless it is attached to (or corresponds to) some aspect of Creation.

The “symbol” then has an extremely high harmonic potential that is designed to carry meaning back and forth between the non-material world, the visible world, and the human mind. It is a malleable instrument that can be shaded to obtain the proper level of resonance for the recipient. This scalable property is what accounts for the individual understanding of similar phenomena in different ways.

Yet in the same manner the “symbol” must be filtered (or defined) and ultimately be “collapsed” by each individual in order for that person to have a usable bit of information. The filtration process is supplied by culture, memory, and history.

While a new target phenomenon may be external to the individual it will be quickly wrapped with immediate resonating symbolism until such time has elapsed when a more useful or specific set of symbols can be acquired. Ultimately this process should lead to an adequate constellation of meaning to satisfy the individual and his needs while the essential dynamic nature of the symbol remains in tact awaiting a harmonic change.

In the example of a simple circle or O we know that it implies many sets of meaning. A zero indicating “nothing”, a circle meaning the “whole”, a void, a numerical place-hold, or a round thing that rolls like a automobile tire. A symbol can carry an enormous amount of data that can be accessed and refined by the human mind into a specific meaning set.

But the transferability of meaning is nearly fantastic in nature. Not only can a symbol carry great amounts of data but it can switch meaning sets instantaneously. The symbolic circle being utilized by an individual in Nebraska as a zero can at the same time be used as a disk by a person in Azerbaijan and then switched from one to another or modified instantaneously. This superluminal property of the symbol is in continuous use and must be seen as intrinsic to consciousness.

If we view the “symbol” as a superluminal potentia capable of carrying vast amounts of data over unknown distances then the controversy over symbols as cultural construction versus psychological phenomena is eased. For instance, if this universe began with a divine movement combined with the voice of God calling energy into existence, then we are understanding these actions with symbols embedded in our consciousness that came from the beginning or before and are still carrying information now. Therefore, the interval between then and now is nil as an instantaneous transfer of data continues through the dynamic symbol set understood as Creation.

This may not completely open the door to a resolution of parallelism but I think it does crack open a portal. It may not solve certain theological issues but may be valuable in areas from theurgy to quantum computing.

Symbols as Superluminal Potentia

David S Reif
On this day of Epiphany 2013

Illustration: "Circles", ink on paper, 4"x4", A. Ann Reif

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Perennialism Today

 

The Ebullio of Meister Eckhart

Thinking outside the box?

When most people say we should think outside the box they don't really mean it. I believe they are saying, “Think about how we can make a bigger, better box.” Conventional opinion makers do not want the box to go away. It is the box that contains them and their comfortable world. Thinking a little bit at the edges of the box might help reinforce the box but they really don't want a different box. Employing people to examine the box will help find potential weaknesses in the box so it can be strengthened.

The box is the materialistic worldview. Few in authority really want to go to a place that contemplates anything except this cozy and predictable box. Even though there may be ominous signs of danger, growing evidence that the box is crumbling, abandoning the box is unthinkable.

 

Ancient Rivers

On the other hand when considering the perennial wisdom we speak of rivers not boxes. Great rivers of history, philosophy, and politics flowing into the valley of human consciousness. Twenty five years ago a handful of us working in the Institute for Perennial Studies asked the question; what went wrong some two centuries or so past, with the western world to bring us to the brink of nuclear destruction, social deterioration, and the corruption of our natural world? We went to the rivers for answers.

The ancient rivers of thought are always in motion. Not rushing mountain steams but turbid outflows, braided across a vast delta slowly cutting one channel into another, co-opting the flow of one then in turn being replaced by its neighbor. There seems to be no beginning or end to the flow but it is alive with probabilities.

Lately the study of the philosophia perennis is akin to panning for gold in those rivers. Looking for a glinting timeless nugget in the immense muck of human history. Sloshing back and forth through the murky goo of ideas your pan filled with mud, eyes riveted on the froth hoping for some color to show. Mining the past looking for answers, the tiny nugget of thought that will bring all the jumble of information together. Colliding one school of thought into another in an binge of eclecticism, searching for a “unified field theory” or the Philosopher's Stone we become particle physicists of history.

Although an interesting process we should not mistake the method for the answer. There really is little new under the sun. Our search for a perennial wisdom may find us using novel tools that are resident to our times but if our assumptions are correct about the nature of a perennial wisdom then finding it's message should not be so difficult.

Yet the elucidation of the obvious is sometimes challenging. If it is the amalgam of a materialist worldview and the allied cultural appendage of modernism that is our problem, then the antidote should become evident.

Beyond Schrodinger's Cat

I have fallen victim to some of these distractions and perceived paradoxes. Examining first this position then another trying to balance myself in the course of the last 25 years. Through all of that two things stand out. One is my new appreciation of quantum theory that may be the climax of materialist science. The second proposition is a line from “The Herald ofPerennialism” we wrote in 1987; that there is an eternal and “...deep relationship between God, people, and values”. This is the message of the perennialist but the basis of this message was not stated at the time. I want to fill in that gap.

Perennialism is a theistic system that believes in eternal renewal. The statement “God was here at the beginning, He is here now, and He will always be here” supplies a workable transcendent foundation. The perennial wisdom then is the struggle of people to apply this timeless truth onto the playing field of common reality.

A hazy outline of God has been seen forever. Throughout all of human culture there has been an attempt to understand the substance of a vision that the shamans would see. We tried to make sense of fuzzy pictures and uncertain outlines detected by sincere mystics. When we gave those abstractions names like Osiris, Avalokitasvara, or Quetzalcoatl we were seeing Lord Christ who in a thus far unique event briefly appeared to us in human form. The fact that we have called God by various names is neither disrespect nor evil it is only an incomplete interpretation of the nature the visions our shamans, scholars, and others were having of this complex trinitarian non-locality.

The role of perennialism is twofold. To understand the dynamic process of revelation God gives us and secondly support cultural activities that will influence the potential form of perennial restoration.

 

Illustration: "Trinity", 4"x6", gouche, D S Reif, 2010 

"One of the Trees in the Garden"

This watercolor was used in an exhibit in 1989 to illustrate the nature of the work done within the Institute for Perennial Studies. Entitled "One of the Trees in the Garden" an allusion to Genesis and the various trees in Eden. There were names written on the branches of different authors, prophets, and religious figures we were studying; the trunk was scripted with 'The Perennial Wisdom'.

What is evident today is the alchemical nature of the graphic although that may not have been consciously intentional at the time. It is highly mystical but not in the Eastern sense of a struggle towards "oneness". The feeling is instead a pluralistic mood that displaced truth into an organic collage of understanding that is a product of the human mind instead of a divine revelation.

Noting that all the ends terminated in buds rather than flowers it is up to the viewer to determine whether there is some conclusion to each terminus or not. Nothing has been decided in this milieu.

However, in toto it is far from nihilistic or even uncertain. The force of the proposition draws one into inquiry instead of conclusion. Yet there is a definite point of view which is non-material. The whole picture floats in a cosmic location with sun and moon setting the stage in a universe filled with knowledge. The roots caressing both direct and indirect light feeding off of both but not relying on any earthly attachment.

This is a world beyond materialism which is the home of wisdom. Although data can be found by measuring; ultimately data is ephemeral. Here wisdom is obtainable but not by direct sensory means. It is a world of symbol and metaphor which exists in an eternal place beyond the reach of data and material facts.

Perennis Continues

In the 1980's a small group of independent scholars started a study group called the Institute for Perennial Studies. Grounding our work in the philosophia perennis we would apply those principles to our task; hence the name. We published the journal Perennis for a couple years before the core of the study group went in separate directions and we cease to publish.

The Institute for Perennial Studies had a question as its mission statement. The question was, "After thousands of years of sustained human habitation what factors have brought us to the place where mass annihilation was possible?" This question seemed so fundamental, so obvious, so natural to ask. Yet virtually no one was asking this question.

I know now that the reason no one was asking this question was because, well, why would anyone ask such a thing. The United States was soaring, Europe was rebuilt and shaking off the effects of WW II, and the "Third World" was under control. The future seemed bright for most people so why would anyone ask a dumb question like the one we posed.

Since then I have taken what we learned in our studies back in the 1980's and attempted to apply them to the real world. I put our critique up against the best contemporary thinking testing our findings to see if they held up under the rigors of time.

As my schedule allows I will post vignettes of what I have learned from 20 years of observations that have arisen from the original insights given to us through our studies of the effects of modernism and its allied beliefs and how this cluster of ideas impacts culture.