The Power of Four, and other Number Art
It has becom clear to me that I need to take a step back and expand on an aspect of the Genesis Seal that I have neglected. In this post, I shall re-visit the Seal’s numerical attribute, taking the opportunity to identify more than one kind of symmetry. I shall show how this numerical dimension has contributed to concepts encapsulated in later biblical narratives. And we shall encounter indications that the architect of the Genesis Seal had an awareness of mathematical ideas that we normally assume are only relatively recent discoveries.
Table A is reproduced here, because it will be helpful for verifying much of what I shall write and disclose.
Let me start with an augmented numerical view of the G1 Square. Figure 22 differs from Figure 9 (see Post#446) by the addition of a triangular arrow in the bottom corner.
I can start by reviewing some features of this square that constitute an important foundation for what will follow.
First, there are exactly three, linear, triples of homogeneous digits present in this view, viz: a 666, a 111 and a 444. Together they draw attention to two alternative axes of bi-lateral symmetry of their square context. They also brace and support the central 2x2 cluster, which has its own roles to play, described later.
The only feature I have not previously mentioned is the triangular 6-1-4-6-1-4 sequence in the lower corner. This is undoubtedly the foundation for the vertical 666 and, of course, for the prominent Y-shape of which that is a part. The triangular sequence also echoes the way the square contains the linear triples: 666, 111 and 444. This particular emphasis seems to clash with the deeply-held view in Judaism that the Sinai Covenant consists of exactly 613 commandments. I shall come to a possible explanation for the implied extra commandment in a moment. In preparation, look at this mathematical relationship between the properties of the two upper triples and the lower, triangular sequence:
444 x 111 = 49284
and
61 x 46 x 14 = 39284
The two products, differing by exactly 10,000, are custom made to explain part of this enigmatic passage near the end of the Torah:
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their latter end?
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight,
Except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?(Deuteronomy 32:29-30)
If we take at face value a connection between the two cases of ‘ten thousand’, then the Rock to which verse 30 refers would be the 614
R triangle in which the headline Y image is embedded. But there is no need to take that connection at face value.
There is also, in that passage, the injunction to use wisdom in interpreting those verses. Then, at the other end of the Christian Bible, we see the invitation:
This calls for wisdom…, which is the link to another 666 at Revelation 13:18. In fact, the same number 666 is also associated with wisdom in the person of King Solomon at 1st Kings 10:14 and at 2nd Chronicles 9:13. There is only one other reference to the same number in the entire Bible. That is at Ezra 2:13, where it is attached to the name
Adonikam, the head of a clan consisting of 666 individuals. The name
Adonikam translates into English as ‘
My Lord is risen’. It does not call for much imagination (or wisdom) to see how all these details, including the G1 Square, could have inspired the New Testament story of a Messiah, crucified in a Y position on top of a rock, who then rises again after death. Therefore, the ‘Rock’ has not ‘sold them’, but just the opposite. The crucified man has redeemed his faithful followers. At least, that is how the Orthodox Gospel account came to be written.
Now we are in a position to understand why the Genesis Seal places great emphasis on the number 614, rather than the 613 commandments of the Sinai Covenant. In fact, there is not a single example of a 613 to be found in any view of the Genesis Seal. On the other hand, the 3x3 group of letters directly over the outstretched arms of the crucified man take Standard Values that total 614. That is an awesome burden for one man to carry on his shoulders, and is not repeated in this form, anywhere else in the Genesis Seal. So, what is this one new commandment? For it to match the image of the crucified man, it must be the one that exceeds the old ‘
Love your neighbour’, replacing it with the more onerous ‘
Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you’. This is the one that came to be exemplified in the Messiah’s dying words:
Forgive them, Father…
The letters of the operative 3x3 group may be seen in Figure 23. This illustration also shows the symbol of the new commandment to be the horizontal, emergent word
luach (a tablet) in the very centre of the G1 Square. Significantly, this word conveys a value of 38, which may be compared with its 76 continuation in the same horizontal diagonal. More significant still, Figure 23 shows the position of those two numbers to be separated by the vertical, emergent
luchot (tablets), which takes a gematria value of 444. This last observation could well be saying: ‘Watch this space’, as we now switch our attention to the G2 Square.
The G2 view of the Genesis Seal is a land in which bridesmaids become brides as the ‘veil’ (
alaph) – actually present in G1, overlapping letters of two consecutive words – is removed due to the removal of the sole letter
ayin. In its new position, the
ayin completes the word for ‘four’, thus generating some spectacular numerical properties that I shall examine later.
The most obvious sign of a new maturity in the G2 Square is the coming together of eight copies of the letter
vav, into the meandering sequence I have called a Lamed River. That, and the word for four are only the most immediate examples of several cases of a coming together. Figure 24 shows that the G2 Square contains not three, but four distinctive linear arrangements of identical digits.
Two of those digit groups that are especially impressive are a 5555 that has a potentially important mathematical role, and an 888 that this fivefold significance:
1 It incorporates every case of an ‘8’ digit to be present in the Genesis Seal.
2 It is well-known elsewhere for being the number associated with the Greek form of ‘Jesus’, who is the precursor of the Lamed River.
3 It now sits in the same position that was occupied by three letters of the word
luchot (tablets) in G1 (ie the very word that takes a gematria value of 444, in effect saying ‘Watch this space’).
4 It is at the heart of a five-digit sequence that will help to establish the Genesis Seal as the foundation of a greater edifice.
5 It participates in an additional rationale for the verses I quoted earlier, from Deuteronomy 32:
How should one chase a thousand…?
The last of those characteristics can only be understood in relation to the number 7221, which is a sequence of qatan values obtained from the newly-created word for ‘four’. This number must be compared with alternative sums of numbers that are now seen in the G2 Square as homogeneous, linear groups (ie 5555, 888, 666 and 111). Noting that the 5555 and 666 are the only ones to be bequeathed by letters that are also homogeneous, we may note their total, so:
5555 + 666 = 6221
This is, of course, exactly 1000 less than 7221. But, adding in the other two numbers, we obtain:
6221 + 888 + 111 = 7220
…which is exactly 1 less than 7221.
How
should one chase a thousand? Here is the answer, an explanation that is only available from the G2 aspect of the Genesis Seal. It was, of course, the G1 aspect that showed how
two may put ten thousand to flight.
The number 7221 has another role that is visible in Figure 24, also depending on the nominal value of the same source word (ie ‘four’), thus:
7221 x 4 = 28884
Clearly, this result is a visible 5-digit sequence in Figure 24, of which the 888 is a core component. Here, it is also appropriate that we recognise a relationship between the 611 gematria of the word ‘Torah’ and a sequence that exactly coincides with the place where G1 held the emergent word
luchot (tablets). So:
611 x 8 = 4888
This emphasis on Torah Law, and on the tablets of the Law goes even deeper than we have just seen. I can start with a purely mathematical allusion to the so-called Ten Commandments, remembering that they were inscribed on tablets of stone.
In the G1 Square, we recently noted a horizontal 3876 sequence, in which the 38 comes from the 2-letter word
luach (a tablet). The 76 extension, being twice 38, implies two tablets; and the two numbers were bisected by the emergent word for ‘tablets’. Now look at the G2 view in Figure 24, starting with the horizontal positions of the previous 3876 group, where there is now a 5136. Next, suppose that this number is a diagonal of a 4x4 zone; then the corresponding vertical diagonal is a 2888 group. This number has the immediate merit of being 4x722, where the larger factor is a digit sequence obtained from the very apt word
raba (a square). Developing the same theme, consider this function of those two 4-digit diagonals:
Note the additional role of a 4 as the index applied to the basic ratio. There could hardly be a more fitting explanation for why Ten Commandments came to be inscribed on tablets of stone. In fact, the mathematical angle might also explain why the commandments went through a process in which a second pair of tablets were required to replace two that Moses had destroyed.
Before I move onto a new phase, I just want to reveal one more attribute of the number 7221, drawing attention to its position at the heart of an arithmetical symmetry. So, first notice this relationship:
7221 - 6666 = 555
But notice this, too:
7776 - 7221 = 555
…the significance of which lies in the makeup of the larger number, since 7776 = 6 x 6 x 6 x 6 x 6. Taking the two relationships as a complementary pair, it is evident that 7221 sits at the balance point of a delightful symmetry within the set of Natural Numbers.
It will be clear from all that has gone before, that the word for ‘four’ has already played its part in multiple relationships. Yet its work is still far from complete. That is because its reverse digit sequence (ie 1227) also has a central place in the true nature of biblical Law. I can illustrate this immediately with the 613 commandments given to Moses during the period of the Exodus, and the more Christian emphasis on 614. These two numbers combine in this significant sum:
613 + 614 = 1227
Now observe the sum that we obtain from the 611 gematria of the word ‘Torah’ and the 616 gematria of the augmented ‘The Torah’:
611 + 616 = 1227
Undoubtedly,
Torah contains commandments, and in each of those additions, the larger number of each pair could be construed as representing completion of what the smaller partner had begun. Yet it still feels unsatisfactory that two numbers are missing from the otherwise perfect sequence: 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616. There is no need for concern, however, since the two missing numbers are provided by the active phase of the creation account; that is, the full extent of Genesis Chapter 1. You may recall from my Post #697 that I showed the 6-letter first word of Genesis to contain the shorter word
brit (a covenant). Or, to be more precise, the four letters of that
brit contain the shorter
esh (fire). Anyway, the four-letter
brit has a gematria value of 612, which is one of our two missing numbers. Then the very last word of Genesis 1 is the adjective
ha’shishiy (the sixth), which generates a gematria of 615. Naturally, these numbers also give a sum of 1227, and also fit an emerging pattern. The larger value obviously completes what the first one began. But, much more symbolically, the Torah contains covenants while covenants, in turn, contain commandments. The three matched pairs of numbers together represent a three-level (or -layer) Russian Doll structure. There is surely no doubting the huge scope of the significance of the word for ‘four’, which is a major effect of the G1 to G2 transformation.
Harking back to the arithmetically symmetrical position of 7221 in the set of Natural Numbers, there are two equivalent cases that have a direct biblical significance. One of them has a natural affinity with my Post #697, just mentioned above. This is because it links the names of YHWH and Abraham in a particularly kabbalistic way, so:
248 (gematria of Abraham)
111 -
137 (the age at death of Ishmael, Levi and Amram)
111 –
26 (gematria of YHWH)
Note for comparison that the overall difference in the previous example had been 7776 - 6666 = 1110. Also, 137 happens to be the gematria of ‘Kabbalah’ itself.
The other case takes in the full extent of the Hebrew Torah, all 304805 letters of it, so:
360360
55555 –
304805
55556 –
249249
The fact that the initial and final values comprise of identical left and right halves is rather appropriate. But the fact that 55555 + 55556 = 111111 looks interesting would be of no merit whatever unless the starting and finishing values themselves have some additional merit. So here are their respective provenances:
1.
249249 = 913 x 273
…where 913 is the gematria value of the Torah’s first word, and 273 is the gematria of arba, the word for ‘four’ that overlaps it in the G2 Square and later aspects.
2.
360360 = 11x12x13x14x15
…where the sequence of factors is defined by the Four-Letter Name YHWH. The total 26 gematria of YHWH, as written here, separates into a left half of 15 and a right half of 11.
It is surely only right that the word ‘four’ and the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) should work in harmony like this, to define the length of the Torah. And let it not go unnoticed that the word for ‘four’ has had active roles involving all four of its numerical attributes: (i) its nominal value, 4, (ii) its gematria, 273, (iii) its qatan sequence 1227 (reading in the direction of the Torah text), and (iv) its 7221 sequence in the direction the word itself is read. Indeed, each of those numbers has had multiple roles in these descriptions.
Let me now mop up a claim that I made earlier, that the linear 5555 group in the G2 Square might have a mathematical purpose. This comes from a uniquely arresting way of combining the four separate 5s, so:
5 ^.5 x. .5 + .5 = 1.618033988…
This result is better known as The Golden Ratio because of its ubiquitous presence in many aspects of the natural world. It has even been put forward as a reason for the relative dimensions (ie 3 and 5) of the Ark of the Covenant, when it tends to be known as the Divine Ratio. The ratio 5/3 gives a workable approximation for 1.618… because 3 and 5 are consecutive terms in the famous series of Fibonacci numbers.
Next, I want to draw attention to an amazing number we met in my Post #446. That was when I was describing the 7x4 matrix of qatan values obtained from just Genesis 1:1. While I am on the subject, I cannot fail to mention all the mathematical and geometrical attributes found in that matrix. They include circles and the value of Pi, triangles and triangular numbers, and the amazing hexagram (Star of David) number 35113. This particular Star may be constructed from 12 identical 2926 triangular numbers, surrounding a single, central component. The four corners of the 7x4 matrix bequeathed the digits of 2926, and there are 16 distinct ways to trace a 3-5-1-1-3 path within its close confines.
Significantly, the G2 Square also contains a distinctive 35113. Figure 25 is provided separately to give this number the prominence it undoubtedly deserves. The digits of 35113 are found in the central 2x2 cluster, showing that it cannot be seen all at once. To generate this 35113, it is necessary to read its digits cyclically, starting
and ending in the upper 3. If that sounds like a card-up-the-sleeve sleight of hand, I can promise that we shall be following a well sanctioned procedure. The most obvious corroboration is the highlighted, symmetrical 7-digit sequence, revealing the early decimal digits of Pi, and notably starting in the very 3 that serves in both first and last positions in 35113. What better way to deliver an instruction to read something cyclically. Of course, we are also following a well-trodden path, such as reading the 5-letter name of
Mitzraim (Egypt) cyclically, from a similar 2x2 group, because it too was the focus of eight digits of Pi. We also have read the early digits of Pi cyclically, from the Torah’s first and third words, supplementing other evidence that those words foresaw the Covenant of Circumcision.
It is worth recalling that, while 35113 is a Star of David (hexagram) number in its own right, the same is true of every one of its prime factors: 13, 37 and 73. What is more, while 35113 marks the centre of the G2 Square, the perimeter of this square confers a gematria grand total of the triangular 2701, which is 37x73 and another (more modest) star-of-stars. The verse that encloses the G2 Square says:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So, it is worth remembering that nearly all the material of the Earth has passed through the forge of many stars’ nuclear cores. The numerical dimension of the Genesis Seal merely reflects a fact of nature, that its deeper processes cannot be described without the tools of mathematics. But the Genesis Seal makes this point using the concept of number as an art form, on a canvas of the Torah and beyond.