as well as in All Her Numbers - particularly 9
In All Her Names
Explorations of the Feminine in Divinity
Ch 3 The Mystery Number of the Goddess
by Joseph Campbell
All Things Anew
p55
“As prophesied in The Poetic Edda,
Five hundred and forty doors there are,
I ween, in Valhall’s walls;
Eight hundred fighters through each door fare
When to war with the Wolf they go.
540 x 800 = 432, 000, which in the Hindu Puranas, or “Chronicles of Ancient Lore,” is the number of years reckoned to the Kali Yuga, the present cycle of time, which is to be the last and shortest of four cycles that together compose a “Great Cycle” or Mahayuga of 4, 320, 000 years, which is to end in a universal flood.
The Purinas date from ca. AD 400 to 1000; the Eddic verses from ca. AD 900 to 1100.”
p56-7
quoting the Bible, Book of Revelations 21:9-21
in particular
“The city [of Jerusalem] lies foursquare, its length the same as its breadth, and he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia; its length and breadth and height are equal.”
“12,000 x 12,000 x 12,000 stadia = 1,728 billion cubic stadia, which, when divided by 4, equals 432 billion. Moreover, in Rev. 13:18 it is declared that the number of the name of the “beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadms upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads” (Rev 13:1), is 666; whereas 6 x 6 x6 = 216, which is half of 432.”
p57
“The earliest known appearance of this number was in the writings of a Chaldean priest of the god Marduk, Berossos, who, ca. 280 BC composed in Greek a synopsis of Babylonian myth and history in which it was reported that, between the legendary date of the “descent of kingship” on the early Sumerian city of Kish and the coming of the mythological flood, ten kings ruled in Sumer through a period of 432,000 years. The universal flood there reported is the same as that of Genesis 6-7, of which the earliest known account has been found on a very greatly damaged cuneiform tablet from the ruins of Nippur, of a date ca. 2000BC. There the ancient tale is told of a pious king Ziusudra, last of the line of ten long-lived antediluvian monarchs f the city of Shuruppak, who, while standing by a wall, heard a voice advising him to build himself an ark.”
p58-9
“Returning to the Bible, we find that, in Genesis 5, ten antediluvian patriarchs are named from Adam to Noah; the first, of course, being Adam, who, as we read, “when he had lived 130 years became the father of a son… and named him Seth.” Continuing: “When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh…” And likewise: “When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenon…. When Kenon had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel,” and so on, to, “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he became the father of a son, and called his name Noah….” Following all of which, we learn from Gen. 7:6 that “Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.”
|
Berossos |
Genesis 5 and 7:6 |
| |
Antediluvian Kings |
Years of reign |
Antediluvian Patriarchs |
Years to begetting of sons |
| 1 |
Aloros |
36,000 |
Adam |
130 |
| 2 |
Alaparos |
10,800 |
Seth |
105 |
| 3 |
Amelon |
46,800 |
Enosh |
90 |
| 4 |
Ammenon |
43,200 |
Kenon |
70 |
| 5 |
Megalaros |
64,800 |
Mahalalel |
65 |
| 6 |
Daonos |
36,000 |
Jared |
162 |
| 7 |
Eudoraches |
64,800 |
Enoch |
65 |
| 8 |
Amempsinos |
36,000 |
Methuselah |
187 |
| 9 |
Opartes |
28,800 |
Lamech |
182 |
| 10 |
Xisuthros |
64,800 |
Noah, yrs to flood |
600 |
| |
| [=Ziusudra] |
432,000 |
|
1.656 |
Between the totals of Berossos and the compilers of Genesis 5-7, there is apparently an irreconcilable difference… both totals contain 72 as a factor, this being the number of years required in the precessin of the equinoxes for an advance of 1 degree along the zodiac. 432,000 divided by 72 = 6,000, while 1656 divided by 72 = 23. So that the relationship is of 6,000 to 23. but in the Jewish calendar, one year is reckoned as of 365 days, which number in 23 years, plus the 5 leap-year days of that period, amounts to 8,400 days, or 1,200 seven-day weeks; which last sum, multiplied by 72, to find the number of seven-day weeks in 23 x 72 = 1,656 years, yields 1,200 x 72 = 86,400, which is twice 43,200.
“So that in the Book of Genesis two distinct theologies have been now revealed. the first is that of the usually recognized, personal Creator-god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who saw that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth… and was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (Gen 6:5-7). Whereas the other, very different theology has been hidden all these years beneath the elaborately disguised number 86,400, which can only be a covert reference to the mathematically governed Gentile cosmology… of an unending series of cycles of world appearances and dissolutions, the latter following inevitably upon the former, not because of any god’s disappointment in his creation, but as night follows day.”
The Goddess Universe
p62
quoting Marija Gimbutas’ The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, 7000-3500 BC
“the Great Goddess of Life, Death and Regeneration in anthropomorphic form with a projection of her powers through insects and animals. As a supreme Creator who creates from her own substance, she is the primary goddss of the old European pantheon. Because her main function was to regenerate life forces, the goddess was flanked by male animals noted for their physical strength… The European Great Goddess, like the Sumerian Ninkhursag, gave life to the dead.”
p64
“In a celestial manifestation, the Goddess was known to the Sumerians in the person also of the pure and lovely Inanna, who from heaven descendd through seven gates to the netherworld to bring the dead to eternal life. In later Semitic myths, she is Ishtar, descending to the underworld to restore life to her beloved Tammuz, and in the Hellenized-Semitic Christian heritage her part is played by Christ in the episode, following the Crucifixion, of his “Harrowing of Hell,” when, shattering the infernal gates, he “descended into hell,” there to rescue the eternal life the prophets and justified of the Old Testament.”
p65
“… variants of the adventure represented in the… mythologies brought together… during the period immediately following the conquests of Alexander: Egyptian Isis searching to resurrect the remains of Osiris, her dismembered lord; Eleusinian Demter seeking to recover her abducted child, Persephone; Aphrodite and Adonis; Babbylonian Ishtar and Tammuz. In India, the model was the bride of Shiva, Sati (pronounced Suttee)…”
p66
“And the celestial sign of the efficacy of such “death following” was recognized, both in India and throughout the near East, in the celestial exemplar of the planet Venus, first as Evening, then as Morning Star: first, following her lord, the Sun, into night and then leading him forth to renewed day. As Venus, Ishtar, Sati, Isis, Inanna, and the rest, that is to say, the Goddess of Many Names, of the ancients, functioned and was revered universally as the source and being, not only of all temporal life, but also of life eternal. In Sumer, as Ninhursag, we see her in the first role and, as Inanna, in the second, while in daily life she was to be perceived in every woman.”
Maya-Sakti-Devi
p68
quoting Gimbutas again
“Female snake, bird, egg, and fish played parts in creation myths, and the female goddess was the creative principle. The Snake Goddess and Bird Goddess create the world, charge it with energy, and nourish the earth and its creatures with the life-giving element conceived as water. The waters of heaven and earth are under their control the Great Goddess emerges miraculously out of death, out of the sacrificial bull, and in her body the new life begins.
“Compare to the new Jeruslame, 4 x 432 billion cubic stadia in volume, like a radiant jewel coming down from God following the sacrifice of the Savior; the Eddic ‘earth anew from the waves again,’ following the immolation of 432,000 gods, or the periodic renewals, following the terrible dissolutions every 4,320,000 years, of the Indian Mahayuga; likewise, the glorious anodos of the Virgin, Kore, of the Greek mysteries, following the kathodos of her sorrowful descent into the netherworld, in the very way of Inanna, Ishtar, and celestial Venus, first as Evening then as Morning Star. Compare, also, the predictable reappearances of the vanished moon every 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds, following 3 nights of absence from a starlit sky.”
The Pulse of Being
p70
“… as a moment’s attention to a calculator will demonstrate, 60 x 60 x 60 x 2 = 432.\,000, while 60 x 60 x 60 x 60 x 2 = 25,920,000; 25,920 being the number of years required in the precession of the equinoxes for the completion of one full circuit of the Zodiac, since… the advance of the equinoctial points along the Zodiacal celestial way proceeds at the rate of 1 degree in 72 years. And 360 degrees x 72 years = 25,920 years, for one completion of a Zodiacal round, which period has for centuries been known as a Great or Platonic Year. Bt 25, 920 divided by 60 equals 432 . And so again this number appears, now, however, in exact relation to a scientifically verifiable cosmological eon or cycle of time.”
[a person] ” in perfect condition, at rest, has normally a heart rate of approximately 1 beat per second: 60 beats a minute; 3,600 beats an hour; in 12 hours 43,200 beats and in 24 hours 82,400. So we hold this measure in our hearts, as well as in the manufactured watches on our wrists.”
p71
“according to the Dhyanabindu and other related Upanishads, all living beings inhale an exhale 21,600 times a day, this being in evidence of their spiritual as well as physical identity in the nature of the universal maya-sakti-devi, the Great Goddess who in India is celebrated in a litany of her 108 names. 21,600 x 2 = 43,200. but 108 x 2 = 216, while 108 x 4 = 432, and 432 x 60 = 25, 920.”
p72
“All that can be confidently said is that by the sixth century BC a tth every latest, in the mathematically formulated speculations of the mystical, secretive brotherhood founded by the Samian sage Pythagoras (born on the island of Samos in the Aegean, ca 580 BC; died in Metapontum, Italy, ca 500 BC) - whose fundamental dictum, “all is number,” had opened the way to a systematic study of the mathematics of form and harmony which united, as of one transcendent science epitomized in music, the laws at once of outer space (cosmology), inner space (psychology), and the arts (aesthetics) - the two, apparently contrary approaches of the visionary and the empiricist were brought and held together as substantially in accord.”
p73
The idea… of sound (anskrit sabda) as generator of the perceived universe is fundamental to the Vedas and all later Hindu thought.”
quoting Alain Danielou
“The initiating point, desirous to manifest the thought which it holds of all things, vibrates, transformed into a primordial sound of the nature of a cry. It shouts out the universe, which is not distinct from itself. That is to say, it thinks it. hence the term, sabda, “word.” Meditation is the supreme “word”: it “sounds,” that is to say, “vibrates,” submitting all things to the fragmentation of life. This is how it is nada, “vibration.” This is what is meant by the saying: “Sound, which is of the nature of nada, resides in all living beings.”
further quoting of Danielou
“Music makes for common union. Rites make for difference and distinction. From common union comes mutual affection; from difference, mutual respect…. Music comes from within; rites act from without. Coming from within, music produces serenity of mind. Acting from without, rites produce the finished elegance of manner. Great music must be easy. Great rites must be simple. Let music achieve its full results, and there will be no resentments. Let rites achieve their full results, and there will be no contentions. The reason why bowings and courtesies could set the world in order is that there is music in those rites.”
p74
quoting Tung Chung-shu, second century BC Confucian scholar
“Tuned to the tone of Heaven and Earth, the vital spirits of man express all the tremors of heaven and Earth, exactly as several citharas, all tuned on Kung (the tonic), all vibrate when the note Kung resounds. The fact of the harmony between Heaven and Earth and Man does not come from a physical union, from a direct action, it comes from a tuning on the same note producing vibrations in unison… In the Universe there is no hazard, there is no spontaneity; all is influence and harmony, accord answering accord.”
Tetraktys, “triangle of fourness”
The tetraktys “can be viewed either as an equilateral triangle of 9 points composed around a single central point or as a pyramid of 10 points arranged in 3 expanding stages of descent, respectively of 2, 3 and 4 (=9) points, unfurling from a single point at the summit. The Pythagoreans, by all accounts, regarded even numbers (2, 4, 6 and so on) as female; uneven (3, 5 , 7 and so on), as male…”
“As nada, vibrating, transformed into primordial sound, this initiating impulse ’shouts out the universe, which is not distinct from itself’; that creative ’shout’ being in modern terms the Big Bang of creation, whence from a single point of inconceivable intensity this entire expanding universe exploded, flying into distances that are still receding.”
AUM
p74-5
“In Indian mystical utterance this universal Sound is announced as OM. In oriental model music it is represented in the tonic in relation to which the melody is heard. Adn in Pythagorean thought it was identified with Proslambanomene, the supporting ground tone, A, which thereby was considered to have 432 vibrations (whereas the pitch in modern tunings is raised to around 440)…
p75
quoting the Tao Te Ching
“The Tao produced One; One produce Two; Two produced Three; Three produced all things.”
In Pythagorean terms, three characteristics of universal polarization
1 the unlimited
2 the limiting
“3 harmony, fitting together of any beautiful order of things, whether as a macrocosm (the universe), microcosm (an individual), or mesocosm (ideal society or work of art). And the number representtative in that system of such a visible order is 4.”
“… counting the number of points of the Pythagorean tetraktys, from the base upward to the creative bindu (beyond number) at the top, the sum of their sequence, 4-3-2, os of course 9; as is that, also, of 2-1-6 (which is half of 432); as well as of 1-0-8 (half of 216); which last is the number of her names recited in worship of the Indian Great Goddess, Kali, Durga, Uma, Sita, Sati (pronounced Suttee), and Parvati (”Daughter of the Mountain”). Moreover, the total 9 is implicit, also, in the sum of years of the biblical 10 patriarchs, from the day of Adam’s creation to that of the end of the antediluvian age in Noah’s Flood, since 1 + 6 + 5 + 6 = 18, while 1 + 8 = 9. And finally, most remarkably, in the course of the precession of the equinoxes the number of years required for the completion of one circuit of the Zodiac at the rate of 1 degree in 72 years (noting that 7 + 2 = 9), is 2 + 5 + 9 + 2 + 0 = 18, where again, 1 + 8 = 9.
Creatress and Redemptress
The Muses Nine
p102
“By what coincidence of nature, however, can the numerology of the Paleolithic and Neolithic lunar reckoning of 3 + 3 + 3, as the visible body of the universal Great Goddess, have been carried on, only amplified in the Old Sumerian numerological reading of 4 + 3 + 2, to accord with an actual “Great,” or “Platonic” Zodiacal cycle f 25, 920 solar years, where 2 + 5 + 9 + 2 + 0 = 18, and 1 + 8 = 9, whose root… is a trinity?”
Of Harmony and Discord
p105
“And in the succeeding epoch of this biologically instructed, mother-goddess dominated tradition of mythological symbolization (that, namely, of the early Sumerian recognition, third millennium BC or so, of a mathematically controlled universal order of cyclings eons of 43,200 - 432,000 - or 4,320,000 years) the high concern was still to bring the now comparatively complex sociology of a constellation of agriculturally supported city-states into conformity with the order of the universe.”
Ragnarok
—
see also Mesopotamian Numberology
432 and the Aeon
books reference:
* Samuel Noah Kramer, The Sumerians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963)
* Marija Gimbutas’ The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, 7000-3500 BC, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974)
* Alain Danielou, Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales (London: India Society, 1943),
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