Page156

1080 = the Holy Spirit,

= the spirit of the earth, ro

= fountain of wisdom,

== Tartaros, the abyss,

= Cocytos, a god of the abyss,

By the conventions of gematria, one digit, known as colel, may be added to or subtracted from a phrase without altering its meaning, and so to the above can be added:

1081 = the abyss,

Among other correspondences of the number 1080, which contribute' to revealing its characteristic meaning, are:

1080 = radius of the moon in miles

108 = atomic weight of silver

1080 = number of breaths drawn in one hour (traditional)

10800 = number of stanzas in the Rigveda

10800 = number of bricks in the Indian fire altar

108 = number of beads on the Hindu or Buddhist rosary

And so on. Throughout the world, in every traditional code of architectural proportion, computation of time and wherever else number is involved, 1080 is always prominent; and its reference universally is to the 'yin' side of nature, in contrast to the solar or 'yang' significance of the number 666.

The relation this bears to our present subject is that it reveals the esoteric meaning of the phrase, a grain of mustard seed; for the sum of the letter comprising that term is 1746, and 1746 is the sum of the numbers 666 and 1080. It is in fact the 'number of fusion', representing the fruitful union between the two opposite principles in nature. This same number, 1746, is given by many other sacred phrases, all referring to the product of that union, such as (1746), the Spirit of the World.

According to the alchemists, life is created out of the fusion of two, elements, mercury and sulphur, the first representing the receptive, 'female' principle in nature which is animated by the second, the positive 'male' force. The two numbers corresponding to these in the old numerical philosophy were 1080 and 666, and the sum of these, 1746, is represented by the 'grain of mustard seed' at the Pyramid's tip.

In this formula are expressed the nature and purpose of the forgotten science of which the Pyramid, like all temples and monuments in the ancient world, was designed as an instrument. The operations of the medieval alchemists were the last flickerings of a scientific tradition

/ Page 157 /

which flourished in prehistoric times, when the elements of sulphur and mercury were brought to fusion, not merely in an alchemist's retort, but on a far grander scale within the great retort or womb of the earth itself. The element of mercury in this operation was represented by the spirit of the earth, which was ceremonially 'wedded' at certain seasons with the sulphurous element, radiating from the sun.

The marriage of heaven and earth took place at the Pyramid as a union between the terrestrial current, accumulated in its rocky mass, and the divine spark of celestial fire distilled from the ether at the point of its gold and crystal apex. From this union was born the life essence, the vitalists' elan vital, formerly known by such phrases as the Spirit of the World whose number in the Greek cabala is 1746.

It is recognized by the Hebrew cabalists that a similar operation was performed within the Holy of Holies in the Temple at Jerusalem, where lay the Ark, the Israelites' source of power from the days when they were a nomadic people. The effect produced by that operation is described in the Old Testament phrase: 'The Glory of the Lord filled the House' - an effect of light and power, capable of striking dead any of the priestly operators unprepared for it, from a fusion of energies in the generation of the life spirit by which the whole country was made fertile. In the Greek scriptures this phenomenon is referred to as 'the Glory of the God of Israel' the -value by gematria of which phrase is 1746. Temple legends, as recounted by Raphael Patai in Man and Temple, tell of the underground streams and fissures leading from beneath it to all parts of the land, by which the vital spirit was universally dispersed. The chthonic mysteries of the earth goddess were celebrated in vaults below the Temple, into which ran metal rods, connected to golden spires on the temple's roof. By these the positive charge of atmospheric electricity was introduced into the veins of water and metal within the earth's crust. Thus in many various ways the temple formed an instrument offusion between the elements from above and those of the earth beneath.

One of the ways in which the number of fusion, 1746, relates to the Great Pyramid is illustrated in the diagram overleaf, (diagram omitted) in which the profile of the Pyramid is placed in association with that basic figure of sacred geometry and architecture known as the vesica pis cis or 'vessel of the fish'. The figure of the vesica is formed by the intersection of two equal circles, the circumference of each of which passes through the centre of the other. It is not merely a figure of abstract geometry, for it occurs in many of the patterns of nature. It represents a state of perfect equilibrium between two equal forces, and in the symbolic (Diagram omitted)

/ Page 159 /

vocabulary of the old geometers it was an image of the inter- penetrating worlds of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, and other such complementary elements. In this case, the height of the vesica being that of the Pyramid, some 481 ft., the diameter of each of the two circles forming it is equal to that number divided by half the square root of 3, or 555.5 ft., and the circumference of each circle is therefore 1746 ft.

These two circles of 1746 ft., intersecting at the Pyramid's tip and the centre of its base, take the form of a magnetic field, illustrating a feature of the Pyramid which belongs to it by tradition, supported by modern experience: its magnetic quality.

Of the many mystics and occultists who have been drawn to study the Great Pyramid, one of the earliest and most imaginative was Captain G.B. Caviglia, a Genoese mariner, who saw the Pyramid during a trip to Egypt early in the nineteenth century, and abandoned his ship and seafaring life in order to live within it and probe its mysteries. He took up residence in a small apartment above the King's Chamber, and began intensive searches for hidden rooms and other undiscovered features of the Pyramid's interior. At. the same time this sensitive man pursued studies of magnetism and the esoteric sciences 'to the very verge of what is permitted man to know', as he told a visitor, Lord Lindsay (who described the encounter in a book, Letters from Egypt). Lindsay described him as having become so integrated with his environment that he was 'tout a fait pyramidal'.

Caviglia has gone down in Pyramid history for his energetic clearing of rubble there and around the Sphinx, and for his discovery of some of its inner features. Of the weird experiences he underwent while dwelling in his Pyramid chamber he left no written record, but he"'" described some of them to his contemporaries, saying that at times he had been driven close to death, and added his impressions of the Pyramid's magnetic and occult qualities.

The possible nature of these experiences is indicated by the account of an adventure described in Paul Brunton's book, A Search in Secret Egypt. In the 1920S Mr Brunton received permission, harder to obtain than in Caviglia's time, to spend a night inside the Great Pyramid. Locked in at dusk by the Pyramid guard, he spent some time with an electric torch roaming the interior and finally entered the King's Chamber. Here began the adventures described in his book. An almost unbearable impression of evil reduced him to a state of terror that almost became panic until his senses, utterly distraught by grotesque and sinister visions, were relieved by the appearance of a white robed figure, banishing the horror to which he had been subjected.

 Page 160 /

The figure laid him inside the stone coffer that stands within the chamber, and Mr Brunton found himself in the process of leaving his body, enjoying the experience traditionally associated with the process of initiation. In this state he was led along the internal passages of the ,Pyramid, including several that ha venotyet been rediscovered. Although warned not to look about him, he was unable to resist the temptation to do so, and with this the experience ended.

Throughout its history the Pyramid has been the scene of strange events and apparitions. Like the, Sphinx, whose weird morning cry, similar to the twang of the bow string at the end of Chekhov's Cherry Orchard, has been heard on numerous occasions over the centuries, the Pyramid is said at times to vibrate with deep sound, a note which old fashioned guides used to reproduce for yisitors by rubbing with a stick the coffer in the King's Chamber. There is also a strange light which local Bedouins see at certain seasons hovering over its peak. Some years ago an American, William Groff, together with members of the Institut Egyptien, saw this light which appeared as a flame issuing from the Pyramid, and was unable to find any natural ex- planation for it. There are other reports of strange lights seen to stand in the air above the Pyramid. Whatever may be the nature of the energies that the Pyramid builders set outto control- and its construction undoubedly played an important part in the vast engineering program whose aim was the fertilization of the entire Nile valley - they are evidently still present, still capable of being reinvoked when their function is again recognized.

Mercury, known to the Greeks as Hermes and to the Egyptians as Thoth, was the deity of speech and communication, in which aspect he was the patron of travellers, of roads and paths and of the stone pillars marking their course. These were called by the Greeks 'Herms' or Hermes stones, and they pointed the way to the statue of Hermes in market places, later replaced by the market cross. The number of Hermes by gematria is 353, corresponding within the latitude

allowed by convention to the Greek New Testament word for 'the

way' These stones also bore phallic symbolism, not

merely because of their morphological resemblance to the male organ erect, but because of their function as instruments of the union between cosmic and terrestrial force by which the earth is made fertile. The same symbolism is apparent in the word (pyramid), of which the number in gematria is 831, this number being also obtained by the addition of the values of the letters in the word (phallus).

Mercury was also god of revelation and of the 'hermetic' mysteries which were held within a dark, buried chamber, similar to the King's

/ Page 161 /

chamber buried deep within the masonry of the Great Pyramid. The use of the Pyramid's inner chambers for rituals of initiation and rebirth is implied in Pyramid legend, in the impressions of modern mystics, and in the traditional dedication of the Pyramid to the principle .of Mercury.

On page 124 are displayed the magic squares relating to the various planets. These figures were highly regarded by the mathematicians of antiquity, who took them as paradigms of universal laws. Every ritual centre or temple was laid out according to one of the geometrical designs which are inherent in the structure of magic .squares. Thus the ancient world was laid out to a cosmological pattern within which smaller patterns were formed, all radiating from certain points on the earth's surface, the natural centres of terrestrial current. Each of these centres, and each individual group and cluster of groups, was known by an astrological symbol and related to a magic square, expressing the influence to which it was found most susceptible.

The Seven Wonders of the ancient world formed an astrological system, each of the sites representing a centre of the influence for which they were famous. The buildings themselves, instruments for the control of a particular a~pect of cosmic energy, were constructed according to the pattern of the magic squares to which that. energy responds. Below is the list of the Wonders, according to Eliphas Levi, and the squares that rule them:

The Colossus at Rhodes Square of the Sun

The Temple of Diana at Ephesus Moon The Tomb of Mausolus Venus

The Pyramids of Egypt Mercury The Towers and Gardens of Babylon Mars

The Statue of Jupiter at Olympus Jupiter The Temple of Solomon Saturn

The association of the Pyramid with the magic square of Mercury links it also to the number 2080, which is the sum of all numbers from 1 to 64 and thus the sum of all the numbers within Mercury's magic square. 2080 is also the number of the first-born, an epithet of Christ (Revelation, i, 5), and the same number is produced by the Greek phrase which describes the 'fire' which Prometheus, a type of Mercury,

stole from the gods - the 'artificers' fire'2080. The combination of light also gives 2080. This number and 1080 appear to have similar meanings, 1080 representing

Mercury in the character of the earth spirit = 1080.

Symbolism in the ancient world was always related to function, and the symbolic numbers associated with or expressed in the dimensions

/ Page 162 /

of the Great Pyramid give clear indications of its general purpose: to bring about the fertile union of the two elements in nature referred to as sulphur, 666, and mercury, 1080. Their offspring was that spirit which the alchemists in their technical language referred to as the animated Mercurius, fertility-bearer, revealer of knowledge and guide between -life and death, representing in one aspect the spirit of the living earth, and in another the 'Mercury of the Philosophers' enshrined within the initiatory chambers of the Pyramid.

The Order of Art and Science Seen in a Flash

Questions which inevitably follow upon our recognition of the great universal civilization in deep prehistory, and the highly developed code of magic and science on which it was based, are those which ask its origin, how it spread across the earth and why it declined and vanished. Such questions have been asked in vain since at least the time of Plato, who attributed the origins of culture to the appearance of gods or god- like individuals, in other words, to the mysterious principle of revelation.

The existence of similar or identical features in the cosmologies, myths, names, ceremonies, artefacts and even units of measure of such widely separated countries as China, Egypt, Britain and America implies that their cultures were derived from a common source, from some greater tradition of which they each preserved certain relics. An academic fad of the last century was to try to locate that source in India, Babylon or some other matrix, Egypt being a popular favourite. It has, however, often been observed that the Great Pyramid is not apparently of native Egyptian construction. Like the earliest and most perfect temples of Mexico, it relates to world geography in a way which indicates that it belonged to some universal system in the forgotten past. Ever and again, studies of ancient civilizations trace them back from their declines to their high origins - beyond which the trail ends, with no trace of any previous period of cultural development. The great riddle in the quest for the origin of human culture is that civilizations appear suddenly, at their peak, as if ready-made. The version of history that constantly suggests itself is Plato's, given in his account of that long-vanished world which he called Atlantis. "

 Page704

REMEMBER now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, bwhen thou shalt

say, I have no pleasure in them;

2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not dark- ened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

3. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

5. Also when they shall be afraid, of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grass- hopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:

6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

7. Then shall the dust return. to the earth as it was: and the spirt shall return unto God who gave it.

8. Vanity of vanities, saith the :preacher; all is vanity.

9. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he, still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.

10. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.

11. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

2. And further,by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

14. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

"It is important to re.alize that as the cards fall in a spread, they are trymg to Impart mformation with a very limited vocabulary. As we know, there are 72 cards, which means that our vocabulary will be restricted to 72 key words. But if we combine cards, we can extend their effect and gain more detail, espe- cially between the Pylons and the Cubits. At this point it is necessary to point out that not all cards can be combined. The ones we have listed have proved their worth over a period of time and are therefore to be trusted. If it were possible to cross-reference every card, we would have more than 2000 interpretations!"

 http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/coloured%20site/fifth%20button/22.htm

Annuit Coeptis - Novus Ordo Seclorum - E Pluribus Unum

No amount of dissembling by Freemasons can hide the fact that the Great Seal of America, as printed on the dollar bill, is a Masonic emblem: the eye in the pyramid, the eagle and the inscriptions are replete with secret Masonic symbolism. In this context it is self-evident that the three mottos on the Seal will repay a close cabalistic analysis. What occult secrets of Freemasonry do they conceal?

Annuit Coeptis

The phrase 'Annuit Coeptis' is derived from Virgil and is usually translated as 'He favours our undertakings'. 'He' is presumed to be the monotheistic deity of Christianity. This interpretation is encouraged by the earlier motto, 'Deo Favente Perennis', meaning, 'God Favours us through the Ages'. However some believe there is also a reference to 'Nuit' or 'Nut' the sky goddess of ancient Egypt. This is supported by the way 'Annuit Coeptis' arches over the top of the pyramid (a phallic symbol) - a direct analogy to the Egyptian symbolism of Seb (or Geb) and Nut. Nut is usually shown as a tall woman whose body is bent in a great semi-circle to represent the sky; her consort Seb is lying flat like the earth with erect phallus. The raising up of Nut from the embrace of Seb represented the first act of creation. Nut gave birth to the Sun each day and then swallowed it at night.

The value of 'Annuit' is 390, which equates her appropriately enough with the words, 'Mother of God'. Her name seems to be a compound of Anna and Nuit, both of whom were goddesses who played this maternal role. 390 also gives us the value of the Hebrew word 'ShMIM' - 'heaven', and so supports the identification with Nut/Nuit.

However, the numerate Mason might point out that 390 also comprises the product of 15 and 26, which are the two Hebrew names of God - 'IH' (Jah) and 'IHVH' (Jaweh). These are numerically linked in the Cabala, because 26 divided by 15 yields the square root of three (1.732). This is a very important fraction for the sacred architect because it defines the proportions of the vesica piscis (among other things).

At 317, 'Coeptis' shares the value of the goddess 'Aphrodite'.

'Annuit Coeptis' has a value of 707. This is the value of another incarnation of the mother of God - Παρθενος Μαριαμ - The Virgin Mary (1). However this may not be as important as the fact that it also denotes Ο Θεος Ερμης - The god Hermes. Hermes is the patron of the esoteric science of Hermeticism underpinning Masonic philosophy. The great significance for the builders of 707 is that its digits denote a half of the square root of two (1.414). This fraction (1/rt2) is called 'the sacred cut' and has been used from Roman times, at least, in classical architecture. It also provides a means of constructing a regular octogon from a square by means of a compass and straight-edge (2).

Heliopolis
707 must also be significant as the value of 'AVN', a Hebrew word which means 'On' or 'Heliopolis', the Egyptian city of the sun (3). In this it is interesting to note that 390 - Annuit - is the value of Πολις ('Polis' means city in Greek); and 317 - Coeptis - is the value (+ 1) of Ηλιος - the Greek name of the sun. Therefore 'Annuit Coeptis' gives us 'Heliopolis' by two totally different numerical routes. It seems that the Great Seal designers were especially interested in invoking the Egyptian "City of the Sun" (4).

Why would they have been interested in this city? They may have been drawn to Campanella's Utopian vision of the future, Citta del Sole. Thomasso Campanella was a Hermetic magus who upset papal sensibilities and was tortured in the dungeons beneath the Vatican on several occasions. Citta del Sole, written in 1602, prefigured Francis Bacon's New Atlantis in emphasising the use of learning and science for the public good. The historian Frances Yates interpreted Campanella's book as aiming for a return to the Egyptian religion as predicted in the Asclepius of the Hermetica. She cited a particular passage from Asclepius that may have relevance to the seed germ of ideas behind the founding of America:

The gods who exercise their dominion over the earth will be
restored one day and installed in a City at the extreme limit of
Egypt, a City which will be founded towards the setting sun, and
into which hasten, by land and sea, the whole race of mortal men.

The Great Seal designers may well have believed themselves to be following an ancient blueprint involving a restoration of the harmonic philosophy that ensured the stability and contentment of ancient Egypt.

 

 

Novus Ordo Seclorum

The other motto on the reverse, 'Novus Ordo Seclorum', seems to have a solar connotation. Valued at 1742, it falls between Χρυσομαλλος - Chrysomallos - at 1741 and Γνωμων - Gnomon - at 1743. The first is the name of the ram that bore the golden fleece - this was a solar symbol and pointed to Aries, the first sign of the zodiac and the start of the sun's annual journey. The latter is the upright member of a sundial (or a builder's square). The pyramid and obelisk are both types of sundial and both may represent the upright member of the god Seb.

 

The Number of Fusion
1746 is an extremely important symbol of harmony for esoteric initiates, as it represents the fusion of the solar number 666 and the lunar number 1080 (5). On the Great Seal we find both components of this number united, because 'E Pluribus' has a value of 666 and 'Novus' 1080.

A Coincidence
'Ordo Seclorum' has a value of 1369. This is suspicious as it is also the value of the letters giving the date MDCCLXXVI (1776 when counted as Roman numerals). 1369 is an important number for it represents 37 squared - and 37 is the keystone of sacred geometry in the Bible (and elsewhere). The fact that we have a square number at the base of the pyramid seems very fitting - a solid foundation. The number 37 may also signify the Hebrew words 'AVL' and 'GDL'. 'AVL' means strength, or a powerful person. 'GDL' means power or majesty. Both of these words aptly describe the potent god Seb.

In Hebrew the number 1369 very importantly denotes the phrase VRVCh ALHIM MRChPhTh AaL PhNI HMIM - 'And the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters' (Gen. 1,2). This maintains the theme of divine creation.

1776 - Date
The overtly intended date of 1776 would certainly have been chosen for numerological reasons. It, too, is factored by 37, being the product of 37 and 48. It may be intended to represent 'Jesus of Nazerus' - who has this value in English gematria (and as 888 x 2 also signifies the doubling of his first name in Greek) and Jesus is an important figure to the Freemasons. In Greek we find that the phrase Ιησους εστι λογος - Jesus is the Logos - also has this value. We notice that in Ephesians 2,20 Jesus is described as the chief corner stone in the foundation of the temple of God. (6)

The Roman numerals of the date MDCCLXXVI also generate the solar number 666. This comes about through a pattern of three pairs: MDCCLXXVI - the first red pair giving 600, the second 60 and the last 6. The intentionality of this is further indicated by the fact that the remaining numbers - MCX - give us, in a regular pattern, 1110. This is a particularly important number in gematria and signifies harmony and completion. We can also see that 666 and 1110 lie in a 3:5 ratio and therefore can signify two sides of a 3-4-5 right-angled triangle. What is the length of the missing side? It is 888 - the number of the Gnostic Ιησοθς (Jesus) - the stone which the builders disallowed (i Peter 2, 7).

Christian enthusiasts, ignorant of cabalistic numerology, invariably interpret the number 666 to signify the devil. This is a mistaken assumption in many respects and shows a disregard of St John's injunction that the 'number of the beast' was counted only 'for him that hath understanding'. The cabalist with understanding knows that 666 refers as much to the 'Beast' as it does to Jesus Christ. The reason for this is that the words John used were, Και ο αριθμος αυτου Χξς΄ - 'And the number of his name is 666'. These critical words have a value of 2368: this number is unambiguous to the cabalist as the value of Ιησοθς Χριστος - Jesus Christ. Was St John predicting that the great Beast might usurp the name of Jesus Christ?

It is also true that 666, as an emblem of the creative solar power in the cosmos, only becomes destructive when it is not balanced by its feminine counterpart - in this case it leads to authoritarianism and tyranny.

As a curious aside, we can also note that the American national anthem, the 'Star-Spangled Banner' has a value of 666. This reinforces the view that the architects of the nation held this number in the highest regard.

The Lightbringer
The combined value of 'Annuit Coeptis' and 'Novus Ordo Seclorum' is 707 + 1742 = 2449. This is the precise value of the phrase Ιησοθς Χριστος Νικα - Jesus Christ Conquers. In addition, it is almost certainly intended to signify Ο Φωσφορος (2448) - The Lightbringer / The Morning Star. Pictorially, this is represented by the blazing triangle holding the eye in the pyramid. In scriptural terms it is highly unlikely that 'Lucifer' can be entirely evil for the Bible ends with these words of Jesus (Rev. 21,16):

I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Here too, we come across an original piece of Biblical gematria, because the Greek words for former part of the phrase, Η ριζα και το γενος του Δαβιδ are exactly equated (at a value of 1646) with an alternative name for the bright and morning star Φαεσφορος. (7)

 

E Pluribus Unum

When the expression is broken into its two components of 666 and 470, some very interesting symbolism emerges. For a start, the two numbers lie in the ratio of the square root of two - 666 divided by 470 is 1.417. More importantly, they signify the interplay of light and darkness.

666 is the number of the sun and points, for example, to to the Hebrew expressions ShMSh IHVH - Sun of God, or SVRTh - The spirit of the sun. 470 has the opposite symbolism because it denotes KMRIR - an eclipse. However, it also signifies light coming out of darkness because it is the value of the creative words of God, IHI AVR VIHI AVR - 'Let there be light, and there was light' (Gen 1,3). Therefore the complete phrase adds dramatic significance to the image it accompanies, because, according to the official guide, it shows 'a glory breaking through a cloud over the head of the eagle'. This means a burst of sunlight piercing the dark cloud. In Masonic terms we have the familiar motto 'Lux ex Tenebris'.

The fact that the eagle holds an olive branch in one claw and the arrows of war in the other further reinforces the idea of opposites reconciled. Out of the opposites of light and darkness, spirit and matter, male and female, comes life. Therefore it is appropriate that 470 and 666 generate 815, the number of Ζωη - Life, when set at right-angles to produce a hypotenuse with this length. The perimeter of the ensuing triangle is 470 + 666 + 815 = 1951. This number unites the Cabalistic man with the Cabalistic bride: ADM QDMVN (Adam Kadmon) and MLKVTh (Malkuth) - 1455 + 496 = 1951.

 

The Grand Total

The addition of all three mottos on the Seal gives us 3585. This measures a pentacle of side 717, enclosed in a 2368 circumference circle. 717 gives, 'BN IH' - 'Son of God'. 2368 gives Ιησοθς Χριστος - Jesus Christ. The Great Seal thus pays homage to the Gnostic and numerological Jesus Christ, secretly worshipped in Freemasonry.

 

All This And Shakespeare Too?

The Masonic symbolism of the Great Seal finds an interesting parallel in the esoteric symbolism underpinning the verse structure of Shakespeare's Sonnets. There are grounds for identifying a direct connection and thinking that Shakespeare may have been involved in the founding of the United States of America.

 

http://www.masoncode.com/The%20Great%20Seal.htm

Sacred Numbers in the New Testament: Part II

by Margaret L. Starbird

Graphic Provided by Abby Willowroot

[IMAGE]

Among the ancients, the feminine principle designed to off-set the solar/masculine was also expressed as a number, 1080, the "Yin" of the ancient world: the "shady side of the mountain." The gematria for the agia pneuma, the Holy Spirit in Greek, and its anagram, gaia pneuma, the Earth spirit, is 1080. This number represented feminine values, the "moist" or "lunar" principle of relatedness and intuition expressed in art, poetry, and dreams with their emotional rather than rational content. The Greek phrase phgh sophias, "fountain of wisdom" bears gematria of 1080. Peristera, "dove," a universal totem of the Goddess and of the Holy Spirit in Christian iconography, has gematria of 801, the anagram of 1080. These examples serve to illustrate the cross-referencing of the coded numbers and phrases by the authors of the New Testament.

When the sacred numbers representing the masculine and feminine, 666 and 1080, are added together, their sum is 1746, the number that Plato equates with "Fusion." This is the "sacred union" of the opposite energies, "wedded" or "fused" together in harmony, representing the "fertilized seed" or the "cosmic egg." And this same number occurs at the very heart of Christ's teaching. "The kingdom of God" said Jesus, "is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is planted grows into a large bush and the birds come and nest in its branches." This parable occurs in the three synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke and also in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas found in Nag Hammadi based on an earlier copy written in Greek. There is consensus that Christ used these exact words for his teaching about the reign of God. Homilies on this Gospel passage tend to focus on the bush with the birds nesting in it and so invariably miss the point of the teaching. Hidden for two thousand years is the gematria of the "grain of mustard seed"--1746. What Jesus really said to those who had "ears to hear" was that God's reign is like the harmonious balance of masculine and feminine principles expressed in the Sacred Union of 666 and 1080--the hieros gamos of the ancients.

Armed with this doctrine of the "Sacred Marriage" found at the very heart of the Christian message, I searched for other traces of the lost "partnership model" and the feminine. What I found, carefully encoded in the Gospels themselves, is truly astonishing. The epithet of the Gospel Mary known as h Madalhnh, "the Magdalene," indicates that she was the acknowledged partner of Christ, the archetypal Bride as he is Bridegroom of the New Testament.

The holy name of Jesus, at which, according to Saint Paul, every knee must bend, has gematria of 888. While a close study of the Hebrew Scriptures shows the importance of 7 for their faith community, the most revered number among Christians was 8. On the seventh day, the Creator rested. Fields lie fallow during the seventh year, the jubilee or 50th year follows the seventh cycle of seven years. Seven seems to be intimately connected with end of a time cycle. But Christians, the number is 8 has utmost symbolic content. Christ was laid in his tomb on Friday and remained there through the Sabbath, the seventh day. But on the dawn of the eighth day, Mary Magdalene and the other women who went to the tomb to mourn him were amazed to find that the tomb was empty. In the symbolic system of the ancients, 8 was the number for regeneration, rebirth, and resurrection. Among earlier believers, Christ was called the Ogdoad, the "fullness of eights," and his name was spelled Ihsous in the Greek texts precisely because that spelling adds up to 888, while any other phonetic rendering of the Hebrew Yeshua does not! Jesus was deliberately identified with the number eight to reinforce the importance and unique significance of his incarnation. He was the embodiment of the "resurrection." the "dawn of the new era," and "bearer of the new age." The age dawning at the precise time these documents were being formed was the Age of the Fishes--Pisces. Jesus was its Lord.

The architects of Christianity deliberately styled Jesus as the bearer of the Age of the Fishes. They developed the well-known acronym for Jesus: ICHTHYS, based on the rather contrived Greek epithet "Jesus, Son of God, Savior." The Fish is ubiquitous as a symbol for Christ and for Christians who have since forgotten why the FISH was used as the symbol for the Christian faith in its infancy. But the people who coined the phrase knew and consciously contrived the acronym so that the letters matched the symbolic numbers of their sacred canon and their cosmology.

But the Greek name for Jesus was not the only important name encoded by symbolic number in the Gospels. Hidden for millennia in the gematria of her epithet, we find encoded the tremendous significance of Mary Magdalene in the community of the earliest Christians. The Greek h Magdalhnh has gematria of 153, the exact number of the "fishes in the net" found in Chapter 21 of John's Gospel. We know from centuries of Church doctrine that the apostles of Jesus were "fishermen" and that they were to be "fishers of men." The "fish" they caught became the members of the community, the Church itself. Early Christians were known as the "little fishes" and their baptismal fonts were called "little fish ponds." So the miraculous catch of the 153 fishes represented the "catch" of converts to Christianity--the ekklesia. From the dawn of Christianity, the earliest exegetes of Scripture equated Mary Magdalene with the ekklesia, the Church that Christ loved so much, he gave his life for her (Eph. 5:25).

In their respective works, both John Michell and David Fideler discuss this "geometry word-problem." Both mention the extreme importance of the number "153" in the sacred canon of the ancients. This number was universally called the "matrix" (mother) of all geometry and represented the Vesica Piscis, the "almond" shape formed when two circles intersect. Among the ancients, this shape bore the meaning of "the materialization of spirit" and was known as the "gateway" or "portal" of life--the "door." Because of its obvious feminine connotations, it was sometimes referred to as the "vulva" and even "the holy of holies," the inner sanctum. This Vesica Piscis was often called the "153," known as "the measure of the fish" since the time of Archimedes. It was used to reference the ratio 265/153, the fraction in Greek which is the mathematical equivalent to our square root of 3. It was the most important of all geometric numbers, the "mother" (matrix) of all geometric shapes. The number, the "153," was known and honored throughout the known world--the Vesica Piscis representing the vessel of the sacred feminine par excellence.

Was THIS perhaps the reason that the Church fathers of the second century tried to discredit the use of gematria for the interpretation of Scripture. Were they trying to blot out the memory of Mary h Magdalhnh as the "Goddess in the Gospels"? Were they trying to "lose" the feminine counterpart of Jesus when they repudiated the analysis of the numbers encoded in the Gospel texts? There are other surprises in these symbolic numbers, the 8 identified with Jesus and the 153 of the Magdalene. When 153 is multiplied by 8 the result is 1224, the gematria for the Greek word diktuon, "the net," and also for ichthues, "fishes." Are these number accidental? Or was the Gospel of John deliberately encoding the formula for the "sacred marriage" of Jesus and the Magdalene in these significant numbers. Was he the Lord, was she the Lady of the Age to Come--The FISHES? The symbolic numbers encoded by gematria provide direct and irrefutable evidence for the "Sacred Marriage" at the heart of Christianity, evidence carefully hidden for nearly two millennia in the Gospels themselves. In restoring Magdalene to the paradigm of sacred union indigenous to Christian doctrine, we are restoring the feminine principle to a place of honor at all levels of existence. Together the archetypal Bride and Bridegroom stand at the threshold of the new millennium--MM.

Margaret Starbird holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Maryland where she concentrated on German, comparative literature and medieval studies, interests she pursued on a Fulbright Student grant at the Christian Albrechts Universitat in Kiel, Germany. She attended classes at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, TN, and has taught numerous classes in Scripture and spirituality. She has lived and traveled extensively in Europe including recent pilgrimages to Black Madonna and Mary Magdalene shrines and Cathar citadels in Provençe. She and her husband now reside in the Puget Sound area of Washington State where she teaches and gives seminars and retreats honoring the sacred union at the heart of Christianity. They have five grown children.

Margaret Starbird is the Author of Three Books:

 

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Was Jesus Married?

 

The Tarot Trumps and the Holy Grail: Great Secrets of the Middle Ages

 

The Goddess in the Gospels: A Quest for the Sacred Feminine in Christianity

 

 

 

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