The meaning of the numbers
After the book of Benita
von Schröder: Das Mysterium von Chartres, published
at Verlag Urachhaus, Stuttgart, 1992.
In ancient times the numbers were thought
as spiritual qualities, in the early
Egypt even as divine essences, which were part of the
laws of the universe and brought order to it.
Each number is a closed essence,
which is differentiated through its nominal value, which
shows its quality by the different methods of calculation
or makes it visible in surface and space or
audible in music. The cipher is only
the outside.
|
Most
of us will know Pythagoras since
their school time. Above all probably his theorem:
a²+b²=c².
In Chartres he is
sitting under the Musica together with the seven
liberal arts in the right west portal. |
1 |
The number One represents
unity, the origin, the elementary, eternity and
is part of all numbers. It doesn't create neither
solid nor space. Its symbols are the sphere and
the circle. |
2 |
The Pythagoreans called
the Two the quarrel, from which
grows out action, which is shown in polarity, but
also in coexistence. As the polarity of life and
death belongs to the quality of the two, one called
it also the number of the revelation of the world. |
3 |
The Three is
shown most clearly in the triangle, the first earthly
limited surface. The triangle anew is the symbol
of the divine Trinity, which can be found behind
all revelations of the three, e.g. in the eternally
flowing time (past - present - future). |
4 |
The Four produces
the first earthly limited spatial solid, the tetrahedron,
formed by four triangles. The four was called the
world by the Pythagoreans, because it is the number
of the today's earth: It consists of four elements,
is enclosed by four directions, and animated by
four seasons. |
5 |
The Five is
the number of individuality and crisis: The number
of man. The first genuine figure of a star is formed
by the five: The pentagram, into which the human
form can be inscribed. |
6 |
The Six is
the number of the perfection. Its geometrical form
is the hexagon, which can be formed by the radius
of each circle, which fits itself six times in
the circumference. The star figure of the six is
the hexagram. |
7 |
The Seven is
the second perfect number, but in an other way.
The seven is as a prime number indivisible, it
is not to be shown as surface and spacial solid.
It is the number of the time in the space, it is
composed by the three and the four. |
8 |
The Eight stands
for vitality, healing power. In Christianity the
eight became the number of the new life after baptism.
The octagon is therefore the favoured form for
many baptismal fonts. |
9 |
It is not easy to look
through the Nine, like the seven.
It is the number of migration on earth, which contains
a crisis and its possible overcoming. |
10 |
The Ten is
the number of earthly perfection. It is the sum
of the first four numbers (1+2+3+4=10). Its checksum
is the one, which represents unity. Ten forms the
basis of the decimal system which makes it possible
to seize optimally all terrestrial things. |
11 |
The Eleven is
a number between 10 and 12. It is a number of the
inner fight and a number of transition and change. |
12 |
The Twelve is
the number of cosmic perfection. Its surface form,
the dodecagon, is nearly a circle. Its spatial
solid, the dodecahedron, is nearly a sphere. |
13 |
The Thirteen is
again a prime number. And a number of death, because
it trespasses the twelve. New life is born from
death. Therefore it has always been just so a number
of the Christ. The thirteen is also called the
ruler of the twelve. |
276 |
The 276 plays
a role as to be the sum of the white stones on
the way to the center of the labyrinth. The ethnologist
and publisher Wolfgang Creyaufmüller of Stuttgart
is making very interesting considerations about
it ... Link > (partial
in German). |
John James on his website about the numerology
of the labyrinth ... Link > < back
to Technical Data |