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by R. Bail | |
All things have a number, and it is this fact which enables them to be known. | |
| 1 | When a person in today's world thinks of numbers, she may think of accounting, balancing her checkbook, or phone numbers. To the modern person, numbers are abstract when taken alone and only have value to her when representing some sort of value-money, amounts of objects, or years of life. A number is only useful when representing a quantitive value-few numbers have qualitive value, except perhaps for the magic numbers that delineate the years of life when one is allowed to drive, vote, or drink alcohol. |
| 2 | However, numbers were not always seen this way-indeed, seeing numbers as purely quantitive is a relatively recent development. Even at the level of the most common person numbers had great meaning, and doing a task or repeating a phrase a specific number of times was thought to have magical properties. At the level of the very learned, numbers often had mystical qualities. Some numbers have a universal mystique, such as 0, 1, 3, 4, and 5. |
The Way begets one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures carry on their backs the Yin and embrace in their arms the Yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two. | |
| 3 | The Yin/Yang symbol is not only a symbol of generative forces, but also an example of a metaphorical representation of the numbers 0 and 1. Yin (the dark) represents 0, while Yang (the light) represents 1. Like the Yin/Yang, although the 0 and the 1 seem to be opposites (nothing and something), the seeming opposition creates a greater whole. |
| 4 | Like the Yin/Yang, our Arabic numbers are clear symbols of what they represent. The 0, a circle enclosing a blank space, clearly depicts nothing. While the 1, a single scratch mark in its simplest form, clearly depicts a single something. But these symbols have deeper meaning, and like the Yin/Yang, also represent generative forces. The 0, with its circular shape, is like an egg, an ovum, a womb, while the 1 is phallic. Like Yin represents the female and Yang the male, so do the 0 and the 1. |
| 5 | The 0 and the 1 also represent less obvious generative forces that has taken modern science to explain. For example, the 0 could be representative of a subatomic particle, while the 1 is its axis of spin. The 0 is the seed, while the 1 is the ray of sunlight. The 0 is off, while the 1 is on-and without this, we would not have computers. |
But it is impossible for two things alone to cohere together without the intervention of a third; for a certain collective bond is necessary in the middle of the two. And that is the most beautiful of bonds which renders both itself and the natures which are bound remarkably one. | |
| 6 | Three is a mystical number across cultures. Trinities figure largely in many cultures. For example, the Christians have their Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which make up their God. The Ancient Celts had the trinity of Maiden, Mother, and Crone, the three stages of life they felt women went through, which represented their main Goddess, Brigit. The Celts also saw that everything was made up of three parts-a beginning, middle, and end. |
| 7 | The number three also has special value in that the digits can be arranged in the form of an equilateral triangle. Three is also the number of things needed to make a mean, or three-term analogy-the triadic principle of the Pythagoreans. |
| 8 | Four is universally the number of the earth and earth-related things. To ancient peoples, four was not only the number of directions, but also the number of winds. The ancient Egyptians saw the cosmos as having a heavenly roof supported by four things at the cardinal points-pillars, mountains, or women. In the Pythagorean view the first solid produced is four. In Hebrew, the word for the first man-Adam-is also the symbol for the number four. These letters individually also stood for the four winds. Finally, the mean or three-term analogy of the Greeks has four forms in which in can be expressed. |
| 9 | Four is also of importance for the Tetraktys. This is an equilateral triangle formed by the numbers 1-10 aligned in four rows. Also, the first four numbers, added together, make the final number of the Tetratkys (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10). |
| 10 | The number five is sacred in a myriad of different cultures. It is in the center of the Native American medicine wheel, the fifth direction and fifth element in Native American, Mayan, Tibetan, Grecian, and European Pagan traditions. |
| 11 | Greek philosophers called the number five the Pentad, and to them it represented something above and beyond the first four numbers; the Monad, which is the point, the Dyad, which is the line, the Triad, which is a surface, and the Tetrad, which is volume. It represented space, time, and life itself. |
| 12 | Five is also an important number symbolically for how often it appears in nature-five-petaled flowers, five-edged leaves, five-pointed star seed patterns, five extensions in the body (head, arms, legs). Five is also an important part of the Golden Mean ((1 + sqrt{5}) / 2). |
| 13 | None of the numbers we use today came into being arbitrarily-they all came from some thing in nature and were meant to represent one or more of these things. Although many may find these meanings out of date in a modern world, they have resurfaced again via modern science or have been proven through mathematics. |
| 14 | I chose to research these five numbers because they are the ones that seem to be the most universal in importance and meaning. But why chose to research the meanings of numbers at all? Besides it being one of the few topics I could think of involving numbers that I could actually find information on, I find the subject fascinating. Too often are things in our modern world stripped of the meanings they used to have and reduced to purely utilitarian purposes. I believe we lose some inherent truths when we, as a culture, do that to anything. |
| 15 | So it is with numbers. True, many of the ancient views on numbers could be seen as superstitious nonsense, but many of the views give greater meaning to life-and all give greater meaning to mathematics, which can become abstract to the point of becoming completely disconnected from reality. |
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Nominated and Edited by Mark Yannotta, Mathematics Instructor
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