Collecting numbers, a hobby?
Numbers as personal prophetic devices were part of the world in my novel Magic Aegis. Like folklore, myths and fairytales, the associations made in numbers for their symbolic values facinate me. No, I do not practice numerology, but I see numbers as part of the design in our collection of human eccentricities.
There is no doubt numbers are important. We depend upon them in commerce and science. Scientists seem to think they can describe the universe and it’s workings through numbers. All that higher math stuff I never understood. But through the millenia numbers have become tied to myth and magic. This is my fascination with numbers. Words and idioms are tied to numerical meanings. You don't understand a seventh inning stretch unless you've been to a baseball game, but at the end of a long meeting when someone says to take a seventh-inning stretch, you'll know what they mean. So I collect numbers and this is what I've gleaned from the time I was a youngster. If you know of some I've missed please send me an email.
Words About Numbers & Amounts:
Digits: from digitus or fingers, an early method of counting.
Numerosus: number, numerate.
Multus: multitude, multicultural, multicolored.
Paucus: meaning few, paultry, paucity.
Arabic Sifr: (French Chiffre, English Cipher) originally meaning 0, now to solve a problem through math.
Greek Poly: meaning many as in polygamy, polymer, polyester, polyethylene.
Greek Oligo: meaning few or scant like oligarchy, ruled by a few.
Roman Mille: millepede, millenium
Phi, or the Golden Mean, or the Golden Ratio or the Divine Proportion. It is a ratio or proportion defined by the number Phi = 1.618033988749895...
Early education by the numbers
Pythagoras taught his followers all things are numbers. Now science and technology may prove him right.
A liberal arts education for all well-educated Medieval boys included the
Trivium: ‘The three ways, or the three roads,’ – grammar, logic and rhetoric
Quadrivium: ‘The four ways, or the four roads,’ – arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy
Time Tied Up with Names and Numbers
1776 – Saw the writing of the Declaration of Independence, 1 &7 &7 &6 = 21 the ancient age at which a boy became a man or reached the age of reason or age of emancipation. A colony leaving the home country and reaching a state of reason. Interesting, huh?
60 seconds, 60 minutes are from the Babylon numbering system based on 6, as is half dozen and dozen. So when you think about a 24 hour day, you are thinking in terms the ancient Babylonians devised.
Greeks had no known week
The Roman’s week was eight days.
The First Month. January is named after the god Janus who could see both forward and backward. This is very symbolic, someone looking into the past and future at the same time. What can they learn? Insight. You must know the past to prevent the same mistake in the future. The Celts named the first month Wulf-Monath or wolf-month
The Second Month. February is named after a Roman purification ceremony of Februalia.
The Third Month. Before Julius Caesar the Roman calendar started with month of March. This was the season for waging wars and was dedicated to the god Mars. The Old English name was Hlyd-Monath or boisterous-month for the seasonal winds. Mad as a March hare might refer to this or it might be because this is rabbit breeding season.
The Forth Month. April was Aprillis and was based on Roman word Aperio which means open. Opening to summer?
The Fifth Month. May was named Maius for the old goddess of spring and new beginnings, Maia, mother of god Hermes
The Sixth Month. June is named after the queen of the goddesses, the goddess of marriage and home, Juno.
The Seventh Month. July is in honor of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.
The Eighth Month. August is after Augustus in honor of the achievements of Octavian, the First Roman Emperor who was a nephew of Julius Caesar.
The Ninth Month. September is Roman for seventh month but as Julius and Octavian had to insert their months, it became the ninth month. This displacement affected the following months. Charlemagne named this time Harfest-Monath
The Tenth Month. October is Roman for eighth month from octo meaning eight.
The Eleventh Month. November is Roman for ninth month, coming from the Roman novem for nine.
The Twelfth Month. December is Roman for tenth month, decem being the beginning of words like decimal, decade and decimeter, indicating ten.
One to get ready, two to get set, three to go.
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Sources Some information drawn from:
- The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin
- A Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray
- The Numerology Workbook by Julia Line
- The Dartmouth Number Symbolism in the Middle Ages site offers much info on Christianity.