The Meaning of Numbers

Numbers appear randomly in our day to day lives, we pass them on the street, in our offices, and around the house. We often don't think anything about them, but if we look closely numbers truly have deep meaning. We find mostly in religion the significance of certain numbers but they also appear in strange patterns that cannot be explained, so next time you see a set of random numbers remember, they may not really be all that random. Here are a few examples of the deeper meanings of numbers

The number one represents the beginning of all things; it is considered a primordial number. In almost all religions through out the world the number one means God, our Lord, the creator. It also means isolation and loneliness. In Chinese one means Yang, or a male figure in the famous symbol Yen Yang.

Two of course brings to mind unity and being together. It shows love and duality. The bonding of male and female represented as Yen and Yang in the Chinese culture. Here the number two represents Yen, a female figure ever destined to be intertwined with its counter part Yang. In the Christian religion two represents trust, The disciples were sent out by two's (Mark 6:7) Two witnesses are required to establish truth (Deu 17:6, John 8:17, 2 Cor 13:1) Examples in Revelation are the beast out of the earth who has two horns like a lamb but spoke like a dragon (13:11). He is the false prophet. However the two witnesses are the true prophets of God (11:3).

Three is a crowd right? Well not according to some. Three is complete, it is a trinity number representing fullness or that something has come full circle. Family is shown by uniting Mother, father and child, the basis of Geometry comes from the number three, and three is the dimension in which we live. There are three phases of the moon, and in ancient cultures lunar animals are depicted with only three legs. The superstition of walking under a ladder comes from the idea that if you broke the triangle formed by the ladder you would attract bad luck for disrespect.

Three has deep roots in all cultures, many symbols are drawn with only three sides, interlinking three circles, and even some ancient buildings, such as the pyramids, were designed around this all important number. One God, One Truth, One Point of Freedom. Chaos or death, liberty in humanity, and felicity of Heaven. All these ideas are derived from the number three, and lest we forget, when Jesus Christ was crucified, there were two others along side him, making three crosses on the hill.

Time is considered an illusion and survives only in the 4th dimension. Four is the number of foundation, of stability and order. There are four directions, North, South, East and West, Four great Oceans, and Seasons. Four Rivers lead to paradise, four celestial guardians and four arms of the cross. Four is thought of as a logical number, measurement, Earth and geometrical.

The Human form drawn by Leonardo Devin chi as the perfect man, has five points, a pentagram. Five is the human number representing us as beings, our head, arms and legs. It's also a number of mystery and power, many mystic symbols have five points, a five pointed star represents individuality, and our senses. The number five is a middle mark to ten and so was the number by which all counting began; any and all numerical systems were developed by starting with the number five.

Six is a number associated with evil. Movies like the Oman the number six hundred and sixty six is the mark of the beast and a symbol of terror and evil. Six is truly the number of man. We were created on the sixth day, and were God's most perfect creation, so truly six is a number of perfection, harmony and completeness. 1+2+3=6 and so we find balance in this number.

Seven is most likely the most used lucky number in the world. It's an omen meaning good fortune and divine perfection. On the Seventh day God rested and so it's a holy an religious day for most faiths. There are seven ancient wonders of the world, seven ages of man, seven hells, seven pillars of wisdom and seven cosmic stages. There are to too many integers that have such a vast array of use quite like this all important number.

Eight shows infinity, rebirth regeneration and new beginnings. Other then this most religions differ on its meaning. Buddhist tradition: eight is completion, all possibilities. There are eight symbols of good augury, Christian: Eight is regeneration and rebirth. The font is usually octagonal as symbolizing the place of regeneration. There are eight beatitudes, Islamic: The throne which encompasses the world is supported by eight angels, corresponding to both the eight divisions of space and the groups of letters in the Arabic alphabet.
Nine is a multiplication of the all powerful three times itself. It is the number of the circumference, its division into 90 degrees and into 360 for the entire circumference. Nine is symbolized by the two triangles which are a symbol of male, fire, mountain and female, water, cave principles. In Christianity nine is one of the numbers that appears scantly in Christian symbolism. There are the triple triads of choirs of angels and nine spheres and nine rings around hell. Nine is a mostly religious number and has little meaning otherwise.
Finally we arrive at the number ten. It shows the completion of a journey, then end of the road and shows all things come full circle. Ten is an even number and used in the metric system for precise and easy measurements. Odysseus wandered for nine years and returned on the tenth. Troy was besieged for nine years and fell on the tenth. Ten is the sum of the number nine of the circumference with the one of the center---being perfection. We see ten also being symbolized in rituals like the ritual of the Maypole - the one of the axis with the circle danced around. We see the number ten in Christianity as the Ten Commandments, ten parables, lambs and so on, and in Gnostic writings the ten Aeons become Sephiroth, emanating from the Pleroma.
So we can look at this and see how numbers can create imagery we may simply be unaware of. And of course more then just the numbers one through ten have significance. In each culture there are more in depth and meaningful explanations of many numbers. The Mayan culture devised our modern calendar, and with there number system predicted the end of time to be in the year 2012. The Celtics and druids of Europe built hundreds of structures based on lunar and seasonal calendars devised with their sacred number systems, the most famous being Stone Hinge.
For more information be sure to check books on numerology and the science of numbers, you may surprised how much in our day to day life actually derives from these simple and interesting facts. So next time you look up to the stars, walk under a ladder, draw a square or even just playing the lottery numbers control it all.