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Numbers

Fourteen: the Higher Helpers

When we get to the higher numbers, we often can gain insight into their meanings by looking at the divisors (in this case, 2 and 7). Two is feminine, primarily about balance or tension between opposites, while 7 is one of the powerfully magical numbers. Fourteen takes those qualities and shifts them into an even [...]

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Thirteen: Death or Rebirth?

Number thirteen is the sixth prime number, and many cultures find it portentous, if not unfortunate. Its negative associations can be seen as far back as Babylonia and ancient China, when an extra 13th month had to be added every now and again to keep the seasons in line with the solar year. In China [...]

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Twelve: The Sacred Gates

Twelve: 4×3; 6×2; 7+5, 10+2. We should now be able to intuit why the number is so potent when we look at the combinations of these numbers. Twelve is a culmination of the first part of the journey through the Major Arcana: a gateway between the physical world and the unknown. The Hanged Man is [...]

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TEN – Completion and the start of a new cycle

The number ten must have signified the limits of our counting for millennia – our ten fingers. Ten contains all natural numbers – 1+2+3+4 = 10, and is represented by an equilateral triangle. Ten serves as the basis for the now ubiquitous decimal system (as opposed to fractions), simplifying mathematics and allowing the formulation of [...]

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Eight: the auspicious number

Eight has been considered an auspicious number from antiquity. It was thought that beyond the seven planets, there was an eighth sphere – that of the stars. As early as Babylonian times, the number was seen as connected to the gods (the god was said to reside on the 8th floor of the ziggurats). In [...]

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Nine: the cosmic number

Well, we’re nearly at the Decad (10). Nine has always seemed like a magical number to me – a powerful magical number, though some old writers – particularly Christian – identify it with sorrow and pain, as Christ died at the 9th hour (3pm), and the 9th Psalm apparently contains a prediction of the Antichrist. [...]

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Numerology meaning: Seven

Seven – the heptad – has long been considered a powerfully magical number – the seventh child of the seventh child, the seven-year itch; or the seven ages of man, for example. Arabic philosophers also considered that human development could be seen in 7 years stages, while medieval hermeneutics referred repeatedly to the interaction/union of [...]

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Numerology Meaning: Six

Six was seen by the Neoplatonists as the perfect number, as it has a wonderful symmetry. It is formed by either adding or multiplying 1, 2 and 3; the product of the first male and female numbers (3 and 2), and contains all geometric figures – point, line and triangle. In biblical terms God was [...]

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Numerology Meaning: Five

According to Schiller, Five is the human soul. Certainly it reflects our bodies: head, arms and legs within the circle of soul, as pictured in Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic image of Vitruvian Man… Five has long been associated with human life and with the five senses. In that way it is, perhaps, apt that the [...]

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Numerology Meaning: Four

Four is the number of order, particularly material order. The structure, comprising of two triangles, symbolises the ultimate in stability. Since ancient times the number four has been seen as separating humanity from the beasts, humans upright on two legs, with the beasts on four. Later observations showed mankind how to calculate time, based on [...]

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