The Number 9

The number “9”

(Divine Will, Bearing of Fruit, Infinity)

Meaning and Symbolism

• This number is the last “simple number” and embodies many unique properties not afforded any other number. It is known as the “magic number” and represents of wisdom and initiation. It is regarded as a highly emotional and spiritual number and its properties are used accordingly in public architecture. Aside from its highly evolved status as a simple number at its root, it is associated with the welfare of humanity.
• This number is the symbol of the creation and life as a rhythm and development. It is the number of the one who accomplishes the divine will and according to the Cabal, it is the number of achievement.
• Freemasonry has deemed it “the eternal number of human immortality.” Nine was considered sacred in ancient Egypt and Greece and as you will see it engages others in very complex and meaningful ways. It is creative, serious and playful all at the same time and interacts with others in whatever way is most acceptable to them. Because of this, it is the perfect number to embed into public structures where one is attempting to harness emotional, intellectual or spiritual energy. It acts as a catalyst and collector of energy at the same time and appeals to everyone equally.
• I have found that occultists use this number primarily as a power generating number. It is used at the center of a project as its primary engine if you will. This number is so adaptable and playful, if it had a personality it would be like the rock star at the party who everyone wants to hang out with.
• Humanitarianism
  Compassion
  Philanthropy
  Human welfare
  Tolerance
• The number of the patience, the meditation.
• A number of the harmony, it represents the inspiration and the perfection of the ideas.
• It is the expression of “the power of the Holy Spirit”, according to Etchegoyen.
• Symbolize the plenitude of talents, the reward of the tests.
• Symbol of the creation and the life as a rhythm and development.
• As a product of 3 x 3, it is the expression of the perfection, the symbol of the virile power, in addition, to be associated with the couple.
• The Freemasons have made it the eternal number of human immortality.
• A favorable number, associate to the eternity.
• Being the last simple number, it is the number of finalization; it is, therefore, the most complex, that marks the full lighting up of the numerical series.
• The number of the man, as a numeral symbol of his gestation (nine months).
• Symbol of the multitude, and according to Parmenides, it concerns the absolute things and is the symbol of the totality of the human being.

Bible

• Nailed on the cross, Jesus Christ died at the ninth hour of the day. OR 3 pm.
• Jesus appears nine times to his disciples and apostles after his resurrection.
• The nine spiritual gifts of God enumerated by Saint Paul: wisdom, knowledge, faith, the gift of healing, to operate miracles, prophecy, distinguishing spirits, to speak in different kinds of tongues and the gift to interpret them. (1 Co 12,4-11) Saint Paul enumerates also nine fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Ga 5,22)
• Jesus Ben Sira says in the Ecclesiastic: There are nine things I can think of which strike me as happy, and a tenth which is now on my tongue. (Si 25,7)
• The bed of Og, king of Bashan, incarnation of the devil, had nine cubits long. (Dt 3,11)
• Hoshea, son of Elah, became king of Israel in Samaria and reigned for nine years. (2 K 17,1)
• Nine also represents the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit, which are Faithfulness, Gentleness, Goodness, Joy, Kindness, Long-suffering, Love, Peace and Self-control (Galatians 5:22 – 23).
• Hoshea, who was Israel’s last king before the kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 723 B.C., reigned for just 9 years (732 to 723 B.C.).
• The first battle mentioned in the Bible is between a confederation of 4 kings against another of 5 kings for a total of nine (Genesis 14:1 – 2)
• It was the 9th hour of the day when a Roman Centurion named Cornelius was told, in a vision, to contact the apostle, Peter. Cornelius would eventually be baptized and receive God’s spirit, becoming the first recorded Gentile convert to Christianity (Acts 10).
• There are nine people recorded as having leprosy (Moses, Miriam, Naaman, Gehazi, King Azariah and the four lepers of Samaria found in 2Kings 7:3.
• The act of executing a criminal through stoning is believed to have originated with the ancient Hebrews. The actual witnesses of the crime were required to cast the first stone at the law-breaker (John 8:7). The nine people recorded as being stoned are a Sabbath-breaker (Numbers 15:36), a blasphemer (Leviticus 24:14), Abimelech (Judges 9:53), Achan (Joshua 7:25), Zechariah (2Chronicles 24:21), Adoram (1Kings 12:18), Naboth (1Kings 21:10), Stephen, the first Christian martyr (Acts 7) and the apostle Paul (Acts 14:19).
• There were nine gates which separated the sacred enclosure (the holy of Holies) of some religious traditions, from the rest of the space, this one considered profane.

Occurrence

• The number 9 is used 50 times in the Bible.
• Numbers 150, 30000 and 100000 are used 9 times in the Bible.
• The number 9 is used three times in the Koran. (Koran XVII,103; XVIII,24 and XXVII,49)
• The verb to praise is used 9 times in the NT, including 7 times in the Gospel of Luke. By 9 times the Bible refers to the Law of the Lord as to a book in Chronicle Books. The word Master-of-all is used 9 times in the Bible.

Other Religions

• Nine is the number of the one who accomplishes the divine will. According to the Cabal, it is also the number of the achievement.
• In the Greeks mythology: the nine nights of love of Zeus; the nine days and nine nights that Leto suffers when she gives birth; the nine girls of Zeus and Mnemosyne, named Muses, who governed the liberal arts: Clio, Calliope, Melpomene, Thala, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Polymnia, and Urana; the nine days of anxiety of the Ceres-Demeter goddess who went around the world in search of her daughter Persephone kidnaped by Hephaistos, the dark god of Hells; the tradition wants that Minos, in his cavern, spent nine years to receive the Jupiter laws; a legend says also that Minos had, every nine years, a meeting with Jupiter, after what it was possible for him to prophesy.
• Every nine years Athens sent, on the island of Crete, seven young men and seven young girls to be sacrificed there to the Minotaur.
• There is nine “Dharmas”, books constituting the Nepal Bible.
• Orphism defines nine symbolic aspects of the universe divided into 3 triads: the night, the sky and the time; the ether, the light, and the stars; the sun, the moon, and nature.
• The 9 was the sacred monogram of the Moon goddess, “Bolon Tiku” of the Mayas.
• The “Jin-Hoang” of the “Kieou-teou” divide the earth into nine parts, and nine brothers of the same name share the empire of the world.
• In the Brahminism, Vichnou incarnates in nine avatars to sacrifice himself for the salvation of men.
• Number symbolizing the nocturnal and terrestrial things, for the Aztecs.
• Some peoples believed that the Sky was divided into nine celestial levels. It was the case for the Buddhists and also for the last worshippers of Mithra.
• The nine nodes of the bamboo for the Taoists.
• The nine notches of the birch-axis of the world at the Siberian tribes.
• The nine openings of the man for Islam.
• The nine stages that should traverse the souls of Aztecs to reach the eternal rest. They counted also nine underground worlds.
• The nine was the key number of teaching for the materialistic Hindu philosophers in the Vaiceshika school.
• The 9 girls of Belenos of the druidism: Ogia – virginity, Glania – purity, Karantia – charity, Uxellia – nobleness, Viriona – truth, Aventia – honesty, Dagia – goodness, Lania – plenitude, and Lovania – joy.
• Deucalion, the Greek Noah, sails for 9 days on the vessel which he has built on the command of the gods.
• For Hesiod, the Earth was separated from the Heaven by a distance of nine days and nine nights, and from the hell also by nine days and nights.
• The nine plains of the Chinese sky. The hall of the imperial throne was separated by nine gates from the rest of the palace and the book of Annals, named Chou-king, exposes the “Sublime Science” in nine rules. Also, the Chinese prostrated 9 times in front of their emperor.
• Nine was the name of the sacred mountain of the Sun, for the ancient Egyptians.
• The practice of the nine first Fridays and Saturdays of the month, asked by Jesus: the first one being to honor his Sacred Heart and the second as a veneration for his Mother. Saturday is indeed dedicated to the Virgin Mary to commemorate her sorrows and her pain, between the death of Jesus and his resurrection, painful moment which lasted the whole day without to have the vision of his Son.
• The nine Choruses of the Angels:
  1. Seraphs, angels of love and light;
  2. Cherubs, angels of wisdom and intelligence;
  3. Thrones, angels of force and life;
  4. Dominations, angels of liberty;
  5. Principalities, angels of eternity and memory;
  6. Powers, angels of holiness;
  7. Vertues, angels of humility;
  8. Archangels, having for attribute the justice;
  9. Ordinary angels, to which we attribute the innocence.
• This number was considered as sacred in Egypt and in Greece.
• Nine, as the highest single-digit number (in base ten), symbolizes completeness in the Bahá’í Faith. In addition, the word Bahá’ in the Abjad notation has a value of 9, and a 9-pointed star is used to symbolize the religion.
• The number 9 is revered in Hinduism and considered a complete, perfected and divine number because it represents the end of a cycle in the decimal system, which originated from the Indian subcontinent as early as 3000 BC.
• In Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, was believed to have nine virtues, which he was (1) Accomplished, (2) Perfectly Enlightened, (3) Endowed with knowledge and Conduct or Practice, (4) Well-gone or Well-spoken, (5) the Knower of worlds, (6) the Guide Unsurpassed of men to be tamed, (7) the Teacher of gods and men, (8) Enlightened, and (9) Blessed.
• Important Buddhist rituals usually involve nine monks.
• The first nine days of the Hebrew month of Av are collectively known as “The Nine Days” (Tisha HaYamim), and are a period of semi-mourning leading up to Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of Av on which both Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed.
• Nine is a significant number in Norse Mythology. Odin hung himself on an ash tree for nine days to learn the runes.
• The Fourth Way Enneagram is one system of knowledge which shows the correspondence between the 9 integers and the circle.
• In the Christian angelic hierarchy, there are 9 choirs of angels.
• Ramadan, the month of fasting and prayer, is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.
• Tian’s Trigram Number, of Feng Shui, in Taoism.

In Mathematics (These principles are used in ritual crafting)

• Using the digital root method one can not distinguish between 9 and 0.
  Example. 362 or 3+6+2. If one cancels out all numbers which equal 9, the end product of the sum remains the same. 3+6+2= 11. 1+1 = 2. OR 3+6+2. Cancel out 3 and 6 since together they equal 9 and you are left with 2. This renders the number 9 the same as the number 0 and works into infinity. Esoterically speaking it is “everything and nothing at the same time.”
• Take all number except the number 9 and add them together and you get 36, the sum of which is 9.
  1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 = 36. 3+6 = 9
  Once again we see that the number 9 exists within all the other numbers while not being there. It exists and doesn’t exist at the same time. This duality is what makes it so attractive to practitioners of higher magic and the occult.
• Take any number and add 9. The root number of the sum will always equal the original number or the original number’s root number you first added to 9.
  • Example 1. 6+9= 15. 1+5 = 6
  • Example 2. 62+9 = 71. Both 6+2 and 7+1 equal 8
• Take any number and subtract 9 and the sum of its self will always yield 9.
  • Example 1. 62. 6+2 = 8 62-8 = 54. 5+4= 9
  • Example 2. 15. 1+5 + 6. 15-6 = 9.
• There are 360 degrees in a circle, 3+6+0 = 9
  Half a circle is 180 degrees. 1+8+0 = 9
  Half that again and you get 90 degrees. 9+0 = 9
  Half again and you get 45 degrees. 4+5 = 9
  Half again and you get 22.5 degrees. 2+2+5 = 9
  Half again and you get 11.25 degrees. 1+1+2+5 = 9

You get the point. You can do this into infinity backward into the microcosm. It goes the other way too.

• If one were to add up equal degrees of a triangle within a circle you get
  60+60+60 = 180 = 1+8 = 9
• An equal square inside a circle produces angles 90+90+90+90 = 360 = 3+6 = 9
• draw a pentagon inside a circle produces angles 108+108+108+108+108 = 540 = 5+4+0 = 9
• draw a hexagram inside a circle produces angels 120+120+120+120+120+120 = 720 = 7+2+0 = 9

Once again it goes on and on forwards or expansively into the macrocosm and into infinity. So here we have a number which can move backward and forwards into infinity, existing and not existing simultaneously. Are you beginning to sense the gravity of this number? Wait, there’s more.

There are :
86400 seconds day. 8+6+4+0+0 = 18. 1+8 = 9
1440 minutes in a day. 1+4+4+0 = 9
10080 minutes in a week. 1+0+0+8+0 = 9
525600 minutes in a year. 5+2+5+6+0+0=18. 1+8 = 9
The sun is 864,000 miles across. 8+6+4+0+0+0 = 18. 1+8 = 9

• The magic square using the first nine numbers is associated to the planet Saturn and has for sum 15. Sometimes, it is also called the “square of Solomon”.

  4 9 2
                        3 5 7
                        8 1 6

  • R. Allendy speaks about the curious arithmetical properties of the nine which gives it a very particular character because of the use of our decimal notation system. In another numerical notation system they would cease to exist: the difference between an unspecified number and the number formed by the inversion of its digits is always a multiple of 9 – example: between 26 and 62, the difference is 36, multiple of 9; the multiples of 9 are always composed of digits where the sum (once reduced) is equal to 9; the product 123456789 x 9 gives 9 times the digit 1 in the answer (1111111101). Concerning this last property, Elisabeth Haich mentioned the next calculations:

               0 x 9 + 1 = 1
               1 x 9 + 2 = 11
               12 x 9 + 3 = 111
               123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
               1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
               12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
               123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
               1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
               12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
               123456789 x 9 + 10 = 1111111111
    
    

In General

• After the death of a Pope, we celebrate masses for the rest of his soul during nine days, with nine absolutions.
• The nine levels of the hell of Dante.
• nine salt grains means the bad fate.
• If someone wishes to marry in the year he/she jumps over the Saint John fire nine times.
• A legend holds that a drowned person returns to the surface of the water after nine days.
• In the biodynamic agriculture, the complete cycle for the preparation of the compost lasts nine months.
• The language includes, grammatically, nine parts: the verb, the noun, the adjective, the participle, the conjunction, the article, the pronoun, the preposition and the adverb – interjection apart.
• The nine planets discovered in our solar system, are in the order starting from Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Recently a tenth planet was discovered beyond Pluto.
• The Trojan War lasted for nine years.
• Nine-ball is the standard professional pocket billiards variant played in the United States.
• In baseball:
  • There are nine players on the field including the pitcher.
  • There are nine innings in a standard game.
  • 9 represents the right fielder’s position.
• Anniversary of marriage: weddings of pottery or crockery.

For More Studies on Numbers Please Visit the “Number Studies” page.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9

http://www.ridingthebeast.com/numbers/nu4.php

http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/4.html