The Egyptian Oedipus, Volume II

CHAPTER II. 16 OEDIPUS AEGYPTIACI: THE HIEROGLYPHIC ACADEMY

All numbers are contained within the Ten.

Therefore, as we showed at length above, and also in our Musurgia original: "Musurgia Universalis," Kircher’s famous 1650 work on music theory and universal harmony volume 2, page 451, every number is contained within the denarius; the number ten; but every progression of numbers is completed by the quaternarius; the number four. For four times ten makes 40. Hence, in the cited passage of the Musurgia, we distributed the whole harmonic Diagram into 40 circles. In that distribution, we used the numbers 1, 3, 9, 27; this numerical sequence is highly mystical and was established by Plato in the Timaeus Plato’s dialogue concerning the nature of the physical world and cosmology as the symbol of the soul, as will be discussed shortly. For these numbers, when collected together, constitute 40, a number most fitting for our purpose.

Explanation of the mystical numbers.

For just as 1, 2, 3, 4 is the most orderly progression of all numbers (for if you multiply the binarius; number two by itself, you produce 4; and if you add 1 to 3, the same number four results), so there is no progression more orderly toward the "forty of the four" (that is, 40) than 1, 3, 9, 27. For just as the first simple numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, taken together make 10, and this multiplied by 4 makes 40; so 1, 3, 9, 27 joined together constitute 40.

Explanation of the figure.

According to these principles, we shape the preceding Diagram, in which simple Unity (by which we denote God) touches four circles: namely, the greatest circle of all nature, the highest circle of the World, the highest of the Order, and finally the highest of the Choir. From this Unity, they participate in light and being step by step; first the Universe, after this the highest Order, and in the fourth and last place the highest Choir. You see, consequently, that one Choir communicates light to the next Choir all the way to the very last. You also observe how that which is found in the Universe and in any World is also found in the Order. For the ten-fold unity signifying Intelligence; divine or angelic intellect, the hundred-fold signifying the Soul, and the thousand-fold (as has been said) signifying the Body, exists in one way in the highest World—according to that World’s sublime, simple, and noble nature—and in another way in the middle world, and in yet another way in the lowest, shadowed World. For you will perceive that the lowest part of a higher realm coincides in all things with the highest part of the lower realm; for the "sense" the capacity for perception of a higher World is simpler than the "intelligence" of the Middle World, and the "sense" of a higher Order is more perfect than the "intellect" of the one following it.

All things in all things.

You see, therefore, how aptly the whole Universe is distributed—with its triple series of Worlds, nine tens, nine hundreds, and as many thousands—with all of them encompassed by the smallest little circles. To these nine-fold triads, if you add the three units indicated by the three larger circles, you will finally find the thousand-fold unity within the simple unity, marked by the greatest circle which surrounds and folds everything together. You will see how in any World, everything else is contained, and how the law and constitution of mathematical progressions are the same in each series of Worlds. For if the first ten-fold of the superior World were as two, the second as three, and the third as four, you will have a perfect progression. The second World, marked by the tens, will observe the same law of progression, as follows: 200, 300, 400; for if you join these correctly, a mixture of the "ten" emerges in each.

Further explanation of the figure.

From these things it is clearly evident how the unity of the intelligence of the lower World, even if it is not of the same nature as the superior or middle world (since it is further removed from their simplicity), nevertheless touches their nature in a wonderful way according to a certain analogy, as appears in the degrees of being of the three Worlds. Look at the preceding archetypal Diagram, in which the lowest sphere...