Thomas Mann 1875 - 1955

In the evening, on the stroke of ten, they gathered privily, and in whispers mustered the apparatus Hermine had provided, consisting of a medium-sized round table without a cloth, placed in the centre of the room, with a wine glass upside-down upon it, the foot in the air. "Round the edge of the table, at regular intervals, were placed twenty-six little bone counters, each with a letter of the alphabet written on it in pen and ink."

"ROUND THE EDGE OF THE TABLE, AT REGULAR INTERVALS, WERE PLACED TWENTY-SIX LITTLE BONE COUNTERS. EACH WITH A LETTER OF THE ALPHABET WRITTEN ON IT IN PEN AND INK."

LIGHT AND LIFE

Lars Olof Bjorn 1976

"BY WRITING THE 26 LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET IN A CERTAIN ORDER

ONE MAY PUT DOWN ALMOST ANY MESSAGE"

1 000 000 000 'LETTERS'."

 AND DNA AND DNA AND DNA  AND DNA AND DNA AND DNA  AND DNA AND DNA AND DNA

Page 109

"At the root of our traditional units of measurement is the ancient, mystical science of numbers, to which Plato makes an obscure reference towards the end of Epinomis, here quoted from Lamb's translation.

The most important and first (study) is of numbers in themselves: not of those which are corporeal, but of the whole origin of the odd and the even and the greatness of their influence on the nature of reality. When he has learnt these things, there comes next what they call by the very ridiculous name of geometry, when it proves to be a manifest likening of numbers not like one another by nature in respect of the province of planes; and this will be clearly seen by him who is able to understand it to be a marvel, not of human but of divine origin. And then, after that, the numbers thrice increased and like to the solid nature, and those again which have been made unlike, he likens by another art, namely that which its adepts call stereometry.'

The text is probably corrupt, the expressions are unfamiliar and it is hard to follow Plato's meaning. But the reference, both here and in another passage in Laws, is to some method of relating different classes of phenomena to one numerical system, by which the adept may come to understand the unifying principle in nature. Of this knowledge Plato declares that it is the greatest of all blessings both to him who possessed it and to his community, but if it can not be acquired, the best substitute is simple faith in God since, on the / Page 110 / word of an initiate, matters are far better arranged than we can possibly conceive. He continues,'Every diagram and system of number and every combination of harmony and the agreement of the revolution of the stars must be made manifest as one in all to him who learns in the proper way, and will be made manifest if a man learns aright by keeping his eyes on unity; for it will be manifest to us as we reflect, that there is one bond naturally uniting all these things.'

The number 666 in metrology

The number which above all others acts as a bond between the various units of measurement is the perfect number of Chaldean mathematics, 666. For example, 666 feet = 150 cubits + 150 MY while 666 square feet = 90 square MY. Also 6660 square yards = 902 square MY and 66,600 square feet = 1502 square cubits. The Babylonians had a decimal system, but they also reckoned in units of 6, 60 and 600 and a curious survival of this system is found in the letters which the Romans used as numerals, for the sum of I, V, X, L, C and D is 666. "

THE DEATH OF GODS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Jane B. Sellars 1992

Page 204

"The overwhelming awe that accompanies the realization, of the measurable orderliness of the universe strikes modern man as well. Admiral Weiland E. Byrd, alone In the Antarctic for five months of polar darkness, wrote these phrases of intense feeling:

Here were the imponderable processes and forces of the cosmos, harmonious and soundless. Harmony, that was it! I could feel no doubt of oneness with the universe. The conviction came that the rhythm was too orderly. too harmonious, too perfect to be a product of blind chance - that, therefore there must be purpose in the whole and that man was part of that whole and not an accidental offshoot. It was a feeling that transcended reason; that went to the heart of man's despair and found it groundless. The universe was a cosmos, not a chaos; man was as rightfully a part of that cosmos as were the day and night.10

Returning to the account of the story of Osiris, son of Cronos god of' Measurable Time, Plutarch takes, pains to remind the reader of the original Egyptian year consisting of 360 days.

Phrases are used that prompt simple mental. calculations and an attention to numbers, for example, the 360-day year is described as being '12 months of 30 days each'. Then we are told that, Osiris leaves on a long journey, during which Seth, his evil brother, plots with 72 companions to slay Osiris: He also secretly obtained the measure of Osiris and made ready a chest in which to entrap him.

The, interesting thing about this part of the-account is that nowhere in the original texts of the Egyptians are we told that Seth, has 72 companions. We have already been encouraged to equate Osiris with the concept of measured time; his father being Cronos. It is also an observable fact that Cronos-Saturn has the longest sidereal period of the known planets at that time, an orbit. of 30 years. Saturn is absent from a specific constellation for that length of time.

A simple mathematical fact has been revealed to any that are even remotely sensitive to numbers: if you multiply 72 by 30, the years of Saturn's absence (and the mention of Osiris's absence prompts one to recall this other), the resulting product is 2,160: the number of years required, for one 30° shift, or a shift: through one complete sign of the zodiac. This number multplied by the / Page205 / 12 signs also gives 25,920. (And Plutarch has reminded us of 12)

If you multiply the unusual number 72 by 360, a number that Plutarch mentions several times, the product will be 25,920, again the number of years symbolizing the ultimate rebirth.

This 'Eternal Return' is the return of, say, Taurus to the position of marking the vernal equinox by 'riding in the solar bark with. Re' after having relinquished this honoured position to Aries, and subsequently to the to other zodiacal constellations.

Such a return after 25,920 years is indeed a revisit to a Golden Age, golden not only because of a remarkable symmetry In the heavens, but golden because it existed before the Egyptians experienced heaven's changeability.

But now to inform the reader of a fact he or she may already know. Hipparaus did: not really have the exact figures: he was a trifle off in his observations and calculations. In his published work, On the Displacement of the Solstitial and Equinoctial Signs, he gave figures of 45" to 46" a year, while the truer precessional lag along the ecliptic is about 50 seconds. The exact measurement for the lag, based on the correct annual lag of 50'274" is 1° in 71.6 years, or 360° in 25,776 years, only 144 years less than the figure of 25,920.

With Hipparchus's incorrect figures a 'Great Year' takes from 28,173.9 to 28,800 years, incorrect by a difference of from 2,397.9 years to 3,024.

Since Nicholas Copernicus (AD 1473-1543) has always been credited with giving the correct numbers (although Arabic astronomer Nasir al-Din Tusi,11 born AD 1201, is known to have fixed the Precession at 50°), we may correctly ask, and with justifiable astonishment 'Just whose information was Plutarch transmitting'

AN IMPORTANT POSTSCRIPT

Of course, using our own notational system, all the important numbers have digits that reduce to that amazing number 9 a number that has always delighted budding mathematician.

Page 206

Somewhere along the way, according to Robert Graves, 9 became the number of lunar wisdom.12

This number is found often in the mythologies of the world. the Viking god Odin hung for nine days and nights on the World Tree in order to acquire the secret of the runes, those magic symbols out of which writing and numbers grew. Only a terrible sacrifice would give away this secret, which conveyed upon its owner power and dominion over all, so Odin hung from his neck those long 9 days and nights over the 'bottomless abyss'. In the tree were 9 worlds, and another god was said to have been born of 9 mothers.

Robert Graves, in his White Goddess, Is intrigued by the seemingly recurring quality of the number 72 in early myth and ritual. Graves tells his reader that 72 is always connected with the number 5, which reflects, among other things, the five Celtic dialects that he was investigating. Of course, 5 x 72= 360, 360 x 72= 25,920. Five is also the number of the planets known to the ancient world, that is, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus Mercury.

Graves suggests a religious mystery bound up with two ancient Celtic 'Tree Alphabets' or cipher alphabets, which as genuine articles of Druidism were orally preserved and transmitted for centuries. He argues convincingly that the ancient poetry of Europe was ultimately based on what its composers believed to be magical principles, the rudiments of which formed a close religious secret for centuries. In time these were-garbled, discredited and forgotten.

Among the many signs of the transmission of special numbers he points out that the aggregate number of letter strokes for the complete 22-letter Ogham alphabet that he is studying is 72 and that this number is the multiple of 9, 'the number of lunar wisdom'. . . . he then mentions something about 'the seventy day season during which Venus moves successively from. maximum eastern elongation 'to inferior conjunction and maximum western elongation'.13

Page 207

"...Feniusa Farsa, Graves equates this hero with Dionysus. Farsa has 72 assistants who helped him master the 72 languages created at the confusion of Babel, the tower of which is said to be built of 9 different materials

We are also reminded of the miraculous translation into Greek of the Five Books of Moses that was done by 72 scholars working for 72 days, Although the symbol for the Septuagint is LXX, legend, according to the fictional letter of Aristeas, records 72. The translation was done for Ptolemy Philadelphus (c.250 BC), by Hellenistic Jews, possibly from Alexandra.14

Graves did not know why this number was necessary, but he points out that he understands Frazer's Golden Bough to be a book hinting that 'the secret involves the truth that the Christian dogma, and rituals, are the refinement of a great body of primitive beliefs, and that the only original element in Christianity- is the personality of Christ.15

Frances A. Yates, historian of Renaissance hermetisma tells, us the cabala had 72 angels through which the sephiroth (the powers of God) are believed to be approached, and further, she supplies the information that although the Cabala supplied a set of 48 conclusions purporting to confirm the Christian religion from the foundation of ancient wisdom, Pico Della Mirandola, a Renaissance magus, introduced instead 72, which were his 'own opinion' of the correct number. Yates writes, 'It is no accident there are seventy-two of Pico's Cabalist conclusions, for the conclusion shows that he knew something of the mystery of the Name of God with seventy-two letters.'16

In Hamlet's Mill de Santillana adds the facts that 432,000 is the number of syllables in the Rig-Veda, which when multiplied by the soss (60) gives 25,920" (The reader is forgiven for a bit of laughter at this point)

The Bible has not escaped his pursuit. A prominent Assyriologist of the last century insisted that the total of the years recounted mounted in Genesis for the lifetimes of patriarchs from the Flood also contained the needed secret numbers. (He showed that in the 1,656 years recounted in the Bible there are 86,400 7 day weeks, and dividing this number yields / Page 208 / 43,200.) In Indian yogic schools it is held that all living beings exhale and inhale 21,600 times a day, multiply this by 2 and again we have the necessary 432 digits.

Joseph Campbell discerns the secret in the date set for the coming of Patrick to Ireland. Myth-gives this date-as-the interesting number of AD.432.18

Whatever one may think-of some of these number coincidences, it becomes difficult to escape the suspicion that many signs (number and otherwise) - indicate that early man observed the results of the movement of Precession and that the - transmission of this information was considered of prime importance.

With the awareness of the phenomenon, observers would certainly have tried for its measure, and such an endeavour would have constituted the construction-of a 'Unified Field Theory' for nothing less than Creation itself. Once determined, it would have been information worthy of secrecy and worthy of the passing on to future adepts.

But one last word about mankind's romance with number coincidences.The antagonist in John Updike's novel, Roger's Version, is a computer hacker, who, convinced, that scientific evidence of God's existence is accumulating, endeavours to prove it by feeding -all the available scientific information. into a comuter. In his search for God 'breaking, through', he has become fascinated by certain numbers that have continually been cropping up. He explains them excitedly as 'the terms of Creation':

"...after a while I noticed that all over the sheet there seemed to hit these twenty-fours Jumping out at me. Two four; two, four. Planck time, for instance, divided by the radiation constant yields a figure near eight times ten again to the negative twenty-fourth, and the permittivity of free space, or electric constant, into the Bohr radius ekla almost exactly six times ten to the negative twenty-fourth. On positive side, the electromagnetic line-structure constant times Hubble radius - that is, the size of the universe as we now perceive it gives us something quite close to ten to the twenty-fourth, and the strong-force constant times the charge on the proton produces two point four times ten to the negative eighteenth, for another I began to circle twenty-four wherever it appeared on the Printout here' - he held it up his piece of stripped and striped wallpaper, decorated / Page 209 / with a number of scarlet circles - 'you can see it's more than random.'19
This inhabitant of the twentieth century is convinced that the striking occurrences of 2 and 4 reveal the sacred numbers by which God is speaking to us.

So much for any scorn directed to ancient man's fascination with number coincidences. That fascination is alive and well, Just a bit more incomprehensible"

THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN