Knight of the Sun, or Prince Adept | Chapter 28 Part 3

Ans∴ 8, because he who possesses it, is of the number of the plus and Sages.

Qu∴ Which is the most sublime number?

Ans∴ 9, because by it religion and nature are exalted.

Qu∴ Which is the most perfect number?

Ans∴ 10, because it includes unity, which created everything, and zero, symbol of matter and chaos, whence everything emerged.

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[paragraph continues] In its figures it comprehends the created and uncreated, the commencement and the end, power and force, life and annihilation. By the study of this number, we find the relations of all things; the power of the Creator, the faculties of the creature, the Alpha and Omega of divine knowledge.

Qu∴ Which is the most multiplying number?

Ans∴ 11, because with the possession of two units, we arrive at the multiplication of things.

Qu∴ Which is the most solid number?

Ans∴ 12, because it is the foundation of our spiritual and temporal happiness.

Qu∴ Which is the favorite number of religion and nature?

Ans∴ 4 times 10, because it enables us, rejecting everything impure, eternally to enjoy the number 6 times 12, term and summit of our felicity.

Qu∴ What is the meaning of the square?

Ans∴ It is the symbol of the four elements contained in the triangle, or the emblem of the three chemical principles: these things united form absolute unity in the primal matter.

Qu∴ What is the meaning of the centre of the circumference?

Ans∴ It signifies the universal spirit, vivifying centre of nature.

Qu∴ What do you mean by the quadrature of the circle?

Ans∴ The investigation of the quadrature of the circle indicates the knowledge of the four vulgar elements, which are themselves composed of elementary spirits or chief principles; as the circle, though round, is composed of lines, which escape the sight, and are seen only by the mind.

Qu∴ What is the profoundest meaning of the figure 3?

Ans∴ The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From the action of these three results the triangle within the square; and from the seven angles, the decade or perfect number.

Qu∴ Which is the most confused figure?

Ans∴ Zero,–the emblem of chaos, formless mixture of the elements.

Qu∴ What do the four devices of the Degree signify?

Ans∴ That we are to hear, see, be silent, and enjoy our happiness.

The unitis the symbol of identity, equality, existence, conservation, and general harmony; the Central Fire, the Point within the Circle.

p. 630 Two, or the duad, is the symbol of diversity, inequality, division, separation, and vicissitudes.

The figure 1 signifies the living man [a body standing upright]; man being the only living being possessed of this faculty. Adding to it a head, we have the letter P, the sign of Paternity, Creative

Power; and with a further addition, R, signifying man in motion, going, Iens, Iturus.

The Duad is the origin of contrasts. It is the imperfect condition into which, according to the Pythagoreans, a being falls, when he detaches himself from the Monad, or God. Spiritual beings,

emanating from God, are enveloped in the duad, and therefore receive only illusory impressions.

As formerly the number ONE designated harmony, order, or the Good Principle (the ONE and ONLY GOD, expressed in Latin by Solus, whence the words Sol, Soleil, symbol of this God), the number Two expressed the contrary idea. There commenced the fatal knowledge of good and evil. Everything double, false, opposed to the single and sole reality, was expressed by the Binary number. It expressed also that state of contrariety in which nature exists, where everything is double; night and day, light and darkness, cold and heat, wet and dry, health and sickness, error and truth, one and the other sex, etc. Hence the Romans dedicated the second month in the year to Pluto, the God of Hell, and the second day of that month to the manès of the dead.

The number One, with the Chinese, signified unity, harmony, order, the Good Principle, or God; Two, disorder, duplicity, false-hood. That people, in the earliest ages, based their whole philosophical system on the two primary figures or lines, one straight and unbroken, and the other broken or divided into two; doubling which, by placing one under the other, and trebling by placing three under each other, they made the four symbols and eight Koua; which referred to the natural elements, and the primary principles of all things, and served symbolically or scientifically to express them. Plato terms unity and duality the original elements of nature, and first principles of all existence: and the oldest sacred book of the Chinese says: “The Great First Principle has produced two equations and differences, or primary rules of existence; but the two primary rules or two oppositions, namely YN and YANG, or repose and motion, have produced four signs or