One of the oldest and most exciting civilizations is the Egyptians. Rich religion, amazing engineering skills and unclear history have been an interest among ordinary people and archaeologists for centuries. The article you are reading will shed light on Egyptian numerology and the meaning of numbers in Egyptian culture.
Accurate dating of numerology is very difficult, it is only known that one of the first to use it was Babylonians and Egyptians. Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher living 500 years BC, had the greatest impact on the spread of modern numerology. It resulted from about 20 years of study in Egypt.
Unfortunately, no documents written by Pythagoras have survived to the present day. Scholars ascribed to the Greek scholar and his students faith in the fact that the numbers are given by God and constitute order by means of a formula. The numbers in their understanding were more practical and better described the world.
St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354–430), wrote: “Numbers are the Universal language offered by the deity to humans as confirmation of the truth.”
Like Pythagoras, he saw more in numbers that required discovery.
Numerology is one of the many methods of searching for hidden meaning in life. Patterns are sought and interpreted.
We already know that one of the greatest people of our world that they teach about in every school derived knowledge of numerology from the ancient Egyptians. The principles he believed in would be written down in the heading of the Egyptian’s Papyrus known as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus [1848–1801 BCE], which promises:
“Rules for inquiring into nature and for knowing all that exists, every mystery, every secret.”
The Egyptians attached great importance to numerology (then not so called). Egyptian buildings and art were based on the symbolism of numbers. It is worth mentioning here the largest temple in Egypt the Karnak Temple Complex which is Apet-sut, meaning Enumerator of the Places.
The Egyptians used mathematics at a basic level in understanding today’s world. However, as for ancient civilizations, it stood at a high level. It allowed to write numbers in activities such as addition, subtraction and multiplication. The evidence found shows that the system of notation was known up to the sign for 1,000,000.
In addition, the Rhind “Mathematical” papyrus indicates knowledge of multiplication of fractions, solving equations of the first and second degree, and the ability to calculate the fields of such figures as a circle or a trapezoid.
The biggest curiosity for fans of Egyptian mathematics may be the fact that the calculation of the slope of the pyramid [No. Rhind 56-60] uses the rules of the quadrangular triangle, which is called the Pythagorean theorem. Of course, it was hundreds of years before Pythagoras was born.
Egyptian numerology considered numbers 2,3,4,7 and their multiples and sums as sacred or magical. The numbers 2 and 3 deserved the most importance, they were thought to be the numbers from which all other numbers came.
For the Egyptians, every aspect of the universe was female or male. Isis is taken as the original female symbol, while Osiris is assigned the role of the male element.
Plutarch confirmed this Egyptian knowledge in Moralia Vol. V:
Three (Osiris) is the first perfect odd number: four is a square whose side is the even number two (Isis); but five (Horus) is in some ways like to its father, and in some ways like to its mother, being made up of three and two…
The significance of the two primary numbers 2 and 3 (as represented by Isis and Osiris was made very clear by Diodorus of Sicily [Book I, 11. 5]:
These two neteru (gods), they hold, regulate the entire universe, giving both nourishment and increase to all things…
The number 3 is the basic element for plurality for Egyptian numerology. The word “plurality” in hieroglyphics consisted of three vertical marks (| | |)
Examples
• The beer used to trick Sekhmet soaked three hands into the ground.
• The second god, Re, named three times to define the sun: dawn, noon, and evening.
• Thoth is described as the “thrice-great god of wisdom”.
• A doomed prince was doomed to three fates: to die by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog.
• Three groups of three attempts each (nine attempts) were required for a legendary peasant to recover his stolen goods.
• A boasting mage claimed to be able to cast a great darkness to last three days.
• After asking Thoth for help, a King of Ethiopia was brought to Thebes and publicly beaten three further times.
• An Ethiopian mage tried—and failed—three times to defeat the greatest mage of Egypt.
• An Egyptian mage, in an attempt to enter the land of the dead, threw a certain powder on a fire three times.
• There are twelve (three times four) sections of the Egyptian land of the dead. The dead disembark at the third.
• The Knot of Isis, representing life, has three loops.
The number 7 is a symbol of excellence in many cultures. In those days God created the earth, the Judaists tie it with the seven archangels and the Egyptians with perfection and completeness.
Examples
• Seven thousand barrels of red beer were used to trick Sekhmet out of killing.
• In her search for her husband’s pieces, the goddess Isis was guarded by seven scorpions.
• A legendary famine lasted seven years.
• The lowest amount that the Nile flooded to solve the famine was seven cubits. The highest was 28 cubits (four times seven).
• A doomed prince found a tower seventy (ten times seven) cubits high with seventy (ten times seven) windows.
• Set tore the god Osiris’ body into fourteen pieces: seven each for the two regions of Upper and Lower Egypt.
• The Pool symbol, representing water, contains seven zigzag lines.
• The Gold symbol has seven spines on its underside.
Many testimonies of Egyptian culture have not survived to our times. The number of documents containing information on Egyptian numerology and the meaning of numbers is limited.
Sources
egypt-tehuti.org/learned-ancient-egyptians/mathematics-and-numerology/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Egyptian_mythology