The Number Nine, perfection
The primitive Yod is supported by nine pillars.
These nine pillars are placed in the nine directions of the world. They are placed in right lines,
Three in each direction and one in the center.
These three points placed as a square make nine, which are in actual fact eight.
They are the thrones of the sacred Yod.
Book of Zohar II/180 |
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Nine is the number of forces that support the system of manifestation of any Form and their itinerary inside it, as it is shown by Archaic Cosmology. We can visualize this sacerdotal and scientific notion, which comes from the old times, with the Seal of Apollonius of Tyana, which we can see below.
The letters in the first image refer to the cardinal points which are the “9 directions of the world” mentioned in the Jewish book of Zohar; the numbers indicate the qualities and characteristics of those energies.
This represents the concept of the magic Square (4, the Form and its elements) which describes the way (the motion) to proceed in the Hermetic Work.
The Adept reaches the ability to move in his personal work on the great wave of Cycles-Cadences-Rhythms of the Planetary Systemic Force. I often facetiously say that the Initiate acquires the spirit of the Surfer; he manages to advance by fluctuating on the scary power of the oceanic wave of cycles, cadences and rhythms of Life.
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The magic Square we have just mentioned represents not only all the energies present in the 9 levels of the Form in manifestation (Spiritual, Animic, Mental, physical-concrete Matters and their attributes) but it allows the esotericist to calculate the interactions that he wants to generate in his work by using those energies. His work is different but not separated from the Order of Nature (see the Seal of the Cosmic Fire in the chapter about the number 6). Furthermore, if it is true that through the number man is able to concretize various forms of sound, it is also true that through that Square it is possible to decode the meanings of the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet and the Symbols that many esoteric scholars and researchers of the Kabbalah inserted creating a code that can pass on safely and away from indiscreet eyes the secrets of the Sacred tradition, which they unveiled after long and painstaking years of study and research. The results, then, of a life of initiatory activity.
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Not without challenge, with our reasoning we went back in front of the Door, still closed, of the Sound, in the hope that some of us, finding themselves in front of it again and again, feel like opening it and entering the Room of learning of the Greater Mysteries.
But since this choice is the result of a voluntary action of the free will of the Bro, I offer you the following Theorem again:
It is understandable how the Brother Mason, given the abilities and qualities expressed by certain hierarchic leaders who have detached themselves from the Precepts of the White Masonry, completely ignores esoteric, philosophical and initiatory topics and implications intrinsic in the thought, spirit and tradition of his own Institution.
Nevertheless, the example of low profile that is given to it by certain high degree brothers should not influence that Adept for long. If he has knocked at the Door of the Temple, after developing in himself those qualities that make his Masonism an aspiration to that freedom that is the result of an intellectual wholeness on the Path to Initiation, he should be able to find inside himself the instinct of orientation that makes him able to discriminate false and useless information from real and constructive ones.
Therefore through analogy and comparison we learn the coexistence of close relations among all those topics apparently unrelated and which sometimes, if not completely ignored, are considered “legendary” by those who are institutionally in charge of passing those teachings and supply answers implicit but not explicit in the traditional forms of the Order as well as the Rite.
Let’s see together, now, if what we learnt has a real meaning for present science; in this paragraph I have highlighted the motion of the energy in the Form and how the former was recognized in ancient traditions. Still following by analogy the relations among rationally studied topics, let’s consider other images and their meaning. We must not forget, though, that if our consideration for the moment might be enough to give a general picture, it will be up to the personal work of every Brother Mason to completely define the area and fill with knowledge those empty spaces highlighted by this common research.
Let’s start from the Level of: Form-Number-Motion-Sound- 3rd level
This ancient Chinese document, just like its Indian correspondent, which I have previously proposed to illustrate the position of the energetic ganglia called Chakras, should help us get an idea, not precise but at least defined, on how the ancient science of every people has always been aware of how the noble, ethereal and igneous energy moves inside the material Form of the microcosm Man vivifying it.
But be careful, like man turns to the greater (for him) considering it as a “macrocosm”, he sometimes forgets that himself is an “infinite macrocosm and universe” for all those multiple organic and energetic lives that live inside him. It is only for this reason that him, Man, is similar to God.
If we had to question the initiatory value of our arguments in the spirit of the Ars Pontificia, like we read in the short comment above, we’d open windows on infinite spaces; but this would not be wise if we hadn’t become aware, first, “of the life and motion in the matter that covers our being, metaphysical and eternal Entities’.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea, meanwhile, to start considering ourselves realistically a universe, for the many lives –not only organic ones - that dwell within us, of which we are not aware yet but whose evolution we are responsible for. Just like we are responsible, through our actions, words and thoughts, for the effects created not only on the physical plane of events, but also on the planes of those energies. Sound, thought and further up (in vibration, not height) the spiritual one, must be considered (inhabited) worlds by all means, which we have the power to influence with our actions, just like they do with us.
But this responsibility is premature, considering the level of initiation that we can generally express today.
Therefore let’s keep focusing our attention on the external aspect of the Initiatory Sciences, of Form and Symbol, in their esoteric interpretation of universal Archetype.
That’s why, considering the noble energies that vitalize us, we will keep dealing with those of the ethereal and mental planes (Air Element) and refrain, for the moment, from looking at those of our animic and monadic plane which, despite our ignorance (of the lower ego) about them, keep acting to achieve the goals they are designed to achieve; the evolution of the human Kingdom.
Physics gives us images of very eloquent concepts; if they are connected with the Indian and Chinese documents seen before, they supply by analogy a first bridge between science and esotericism in the similitude of how the energy of the cosmos vitalizes the Form of the Planet with the Form of Man. Perhaps we will be able to better understand why it is always hermetically stated that the Form (passive) of man is daughter of the Mother Earth (also passive) and like her a widow (every Form is such) searching in the Celestial Marriage (with the Spirit, the Monad-Father) for her lost identity, just like lost is the Word that illuminates it (Monad=Father=Sound, 1st Aspect – the Will, which appears in every Form at the last Initiation. In the previous Initiations there’s the work of the Light, the Son=Soul, 2nd Aspect Love and Wisdom. The Color is the Element where the Entity called Holy Spirit by the western Mystics or 3rd Trinitarian Aspect, the Intelligent Activity, works.
An example of intelligent motion of the energy in the matter is where we can find geometrical, mathematical and sonorous Principles all at the same time.
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In this image we have some “prototypes” of the languages that the energy uses to “interact” with the matter, which it penetrates and enlivens harmoniously through their own “intelligent” motion; the latter coordinates and geometrizes all levels of manifestation, even the most distant among them such as spiritual and physical plane.
The sonorous forms of these many languages are the matrixes of the Lambdoma, as defined by Pythagoras. It is a system used to calculate sounds and intervals. The matrixes of the Lambdoma are highlighted by science with the use of the spectrograph, as shown in the pictures above. The same interaction method between cosmic energy and matter can be naturally found both in Man and in the Planet. This is the first key of the initiatory precept “as above as below” enunciated by Hermes Trismegistus. |
If the previous image separates the many “particular languages” that energy uses to “interact” with the “various densities” of the matter where it needs to work, in the next two images, created by Professor Donald Beaman we will look at the “universal language” that the energy uses in its “dialogue” with the Planet Earth. In this instance the “sonorous form” is what we used to consider as the most advanced one, the spiral or helicoidal motion.
This is the form of motion, which we find in all the forms and at all levels (of vibration).
In the images above we have the two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional reality. The energetic grid that spreads on the surface of the Planet Earth is shown in the first image. In the Second picture the perspective is that of an observer on the vertical of the pole.
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On the left here we show a particular tile of the earthly grid.
Science today is able to calculate both the horizontal and the vertical motions of the energy of the planet.
This even allows the layman to consider the Earth not as an “object” by itself and detached in its own microcosm, but how the energy that supports it is a fluid concept with the same qualities – although with different characteristics – in the whole of the universe, which drags with it in its reflux spores of everything that it crossed.
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If the Bro wishes to develop this thought further, in recognition of ancient traditions, he might start his research from some simple considerations.
Let’s examine them.
Each Temple (or Cathedral) has always been erected at the center of an intersection of two positive currents (+).
Each Temple is always oriented in the same way; that is towards the Sun.
All Temples or groups of Temples are always perpendicular to a particular star or a group of them. Let’s take an example that is close to us. If we join in an ideal line the Templar Commendams in France, we will obtain the exact outline of the Constellation of the Cygnus above it.
The indications of this reality, form-energy, present in each representation of the Sacred, from the Symbol to every structure erected in its name, are constant and uncountable, with the same values of meaning and interpretation in all of man’s artefacts created to manifest the concept of infinite, above languages and popular uses.
In the west an example of this universal language is the Temple of Stonehenge; among the many scholars, the English researcher Alfred Watkins contributed with his work to make more explicit the symbolic meanings connected with the Sun hidden in its form.
Another English researcher, John Mitchell showed how in the mathematical plan of Stonehenge there is the New Jerusalem as described by St. John. We can see once again the Sun-Universal Spirit analogy. |
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We cannot, in this paragraph, go through the whole procedure of topographic survey and its translation into numbers used by those researchers, of which we see an extract in the image above. I can indeed report in all honesty the conclusion of that research, which ended with the finding of the magic number of the sun in: 36, 111, 74, 370 and 666 which anyone can develop independently.
To the brother who has been kind enough to follow me so far, I’d like to propose, before renewing the bridge that connects by analogy the concepts developed with the Number 9 and the images that express it, to follow me in the last effort in this paragraph.
Considering the Temple as Form, we could get closer to consider the constitution of an Eggregore (the Vortex) in the Body of the Order. Indeed, the men who experience that Form as if it was his Centers of energy and the relations between them like an invisible geometry can be compared to those centers and relations that we find in the human body as well as in the Planet.
If this was clear enough, the Brother should only, with the help of a master, learn to recognize the ratios of the right relations between Centers of those energies and their ritual activation in that place (Geometry-Energy-Motion-Sound) and, once able to do it in the Temple he would understand how to do it inside himself.
The tendency to the illumination of one’s own Form through the force of the Psyche, up to reaching the maximum activation of one’s own fields radiating energy. Fields or spheres of energy that enable life and the constitution of any Body of man, from the physical one to the animic one and beyond. To elevate the quality of those energies in those fields means as a consequence to elevate the quality of those Bodies; this is the basic meaning that needs to be given to the Law of Evolution applied on the Worlds of manifestation.
The Number 999, the perfect Initiation.
As I have stated before, esoteric science doesn’t consider the dense Body as a “Principle” by itself.
Therefore considering the maximum development at any level of the three Ternaries of Monadic Triad (the Spirit), Animic Triad (the Soul) and Physical Triad (Personality) the observer is able to see the structure of the perfect Initiate, which takes the numeric value of 9-9-9 in the geometrical expression shown in the previous image (9+9+9=27=9).
In the next work dedicated to the visitation in an esoteric key of the masonic Ceremonials we will also clearly unravel the meanings expressed in the three levels contained in the Monadic Body and the Animic Body.
I wonder why at this point of our journey we might not consider the analogy that connects this topic to the tradition of the Eastern Brothers.
The last energetic center (Chakra) to open up completely, once passed the Third Threshold of Initiation, is that of the head.
This Chakra or greater Receptor is supported by 7 lesser nucleuses that emanate in it the harmony of the 7 Aspect energies, expression of the 7 qualities of the Planetary Logoi. Now I can add that for the Eastern tradition the quality of any Logoi is connected through an interactive Bridge with one of the stars of the Ursa Major (the 7 Rishi of the Ursa Major).
We will deal with this concept in our future journey through the Starry Vault of the Temple. For the moment we will only note two analogies which I consider quite important.
At the third level of initiation, this Chakra receives the impulse for its maximum expansion and it fully develops the ability of its 999 (energetic) petals; it is indeed called with a simpler definition, the Chakra with a thousand petals.
The second clear analogy can be found in the Bridges that join the three (qualitative) levels of manifestation.
Keeping Western names for reference, we can define the eastern Sutratma as the (solar) Golden Bridge that allows the communication between Monad and the last of its manifest expressions, physical Form.
The illustration shows the Bridge of Antahkarana seen by the researcher C. Hills as a sonorous spiral.
The Western initiate considers the Antahkarana as the (lunar) Silver Bridge that is built to lead one’s own Personality, time after time, to integrate with the Light (the logic) of the Ego.
This leads to the Fusion of the first Three, Triad, Mind and Personality, in the Solar Path of the Greater Initiations up to transcending any concept of concrete Form in the Fusion of the Three remaining ones, Monad-Triad-Psyche.
All this occurs in the “vibrating” field of the Space that contains every manifestation.
The Number Nine and its development, the 9 9 9, are found in the geometry of the three triangles that support the Sephirotic Tree, whose study we are approaching.
This is how this passage of energy through the representation of the three triangles of: Matter, Thought, Spirit, that is Personal Triad (bioenergy), Animic Triad (sub-atomic), Monadic Triad (atomic), brings us, also through the scientific language, to that first Key of interpretation that is the introduction of the initiate to the universal use of the Caduceus of Hermes.
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This first image shows how science illustrates the motion of energy through a magnetic field. Note how the electromagnetic vectors represented by arrows advance and create with their motion crosses with vertical and horizontal arms similar to mystic symbols. |
This is once again an image where we can appreciate the sinusoidal form of the energy in motion. Note how the energetic ganglion is created by the intersection of three currents, two positive-negative dynamics and one magnetic, as it happens for a Chakra along the spine of man. Likewise is the “Sacred” interaction among the Three hidden Pillars on the Floor on the horizontal plane of the Masonic Temple.
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This last image synthesizes the meanings of the two previous ones as well as re-proposing the symbol of He who is crossed without any obstacles by the divine Energy. The Initiate at the Service of the humankind (see also the Sign of Hiram).
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For the greater cabalists of the past Malkuth doesn’t properly represent a Sephir in the integral value given to the others.
This statement of eminent Rabbis is fulfilled with what we have already considered; the dense body of man doesn’t represent a pure Principle, but an aggregation of Elemental Principles taken from the Kingdom subjected to him, the Animal, Vegetable and Mineral kingdoms.
The lesser Catechisms agree in the natural conviction that the Human Kingdom starts from the world of desire, the Astral Body (lower psychism) and it reaches, evolving through intuition (higher psychism) which represents the advanced counterpart of the human animal instinct, the boundary between intellectual synthesis and Ego.
The Ego will accomplish the last work of adumbration of the Personality, turning it from “fixed in the Light” to “a Point of Light” in the Major Initiation that awaits the Master Brother once overcome the Abyss of Da^ath, initiatory Transmutation.
Let’s now deal with the most occult part of the characteristics of the 9 and 9-9-9: Sound and the introduction to the Lost Word of Tradition.
There are three sounds that fill the space of manifestation; their “flowing” inside it are the Bridges so often mentioned in the Catechisms of the Lesser Mysteries.
In Eastern and Western traditions these Two sounds + motion from their product (3) are covered by the following words: from the radical Sound OM, the Sacred Syllable,, (1st and 2nd Aspect) is born from the symbolic articulation of AUM. It involves the Two fundamental sounds + Their Motion (a form that is illusory because it is variable), the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Aspect, which represent the Three Triads mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.
AUM in time became Amen and Eimen in Anglophone countries; it is expressed in the following diagram.
This Symbol taken from the Archaic Cosmogony has been recently absorbed by the new born western Church and transformed through an asymmetrical work of phonetic engineering into Ave O Maria (Hail Mary, Note of the Translator), a hymn to the name of the Mother of Master Jesus.
In actual fact AUM is a symbolic transposition of an occult teaching that in past eras was exclusive to the Initiates of the Temple, therefore the true occult name of the Initiate is made of three sounds (more precisely two sounds plus the vibratory motion that manifests them).
The first sound is the result of resonance of the 3rd Aspect in the Matter, the second of the sound of the animic essence and the third of the sound of the monadic essence.
With the simultaneous presence through the Bridge of the three essential sounds in the Initiate, he can reach the emission in the matter of His occult “Name” and by speaking that Name (emitting that sound) despite being still in the matter, He reaches the “attention” of the G.M. his creator, he carries out the alliances in the middle Planes and places His domain in the lower Planes.
I don’t think it is difficult for the Brother Mason to interpret this occult precept that veils the right meaning to give the Lost and then found Word. 
