Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and metaphysician, who wrote some place that " The world is built upon the power of numbers." When we develop standards of measurement and value based upon digital variables, we set the groundwork for all of science and technology. Numbers are the primary basis for all that is called science and experimentation, postulation and theory that leads to new understanding. Magic exists only to those who do not understand. Probably more than 90% of what we accept today as technology would have been classified as magic a hundred years ago. All of this, from electronics, radio, television, atomic power, extra-terrestrial vehicles, and computers were only fantasies at the turn of the last century.

    Makes me think of a story I read once about an alien visitor from another world. This alien was getting ready to board his flying saucer to return home, carrying nothing but a metal rod, when an earthling stopped him to ask what he was taking back. The alien responded that the rod was all the knowledge, of all the books ever written, in all of time, in the recorded history of planet Earth. The earthling asked him, in total disbelief, how that could possibly be true. The alien showed him the rod, and pointed out that it had a tiny line around it near one end. The whole length of the rod was equal to one unit of measure. The line inscribed around it represented a fraction of the number 1. He then explained how All the books on the Earth would have taken up too much space to fit inside his saucer. Even if they were all put into digital magnetic information like a computer uses, the number of discs or length of magnetic tape would still be too much. In any form of information storage that he had access to on our planet, the amount of space and mass would have been too much for him to get his ship off the ground. Instead, he had simply fed all the books and pages into a machine that converted all of the information into numbers, like a binary processor. By using then a code for punctuation, and differentiation between books and subjects, the machine converted the whole sum of human knowledge into a single incredibly long number of millions of digits. This number was then converted into a fraction by putting a decimal point in front of it. All he did then was to inscribe the line as a fraction of 1 on the rod, since this would be much easier than trying to write the whole sequence of numbers down. A machine he had on his home planet would then measure the rod, measure the line describing the fraction, and convert the fraction back into the numbers that could then be deciphered into the written information they had once been.

    There are several logical problems that would prevent us from actually doing something of the nature that this imaginary alien did in our reality, but it is only the limitations of our current technology. The theory behind it is quite miraculously correct. The power of numbers, even a single number, is not to be underestimated. The digital alphabet is so much more precise and universally understood than any other method that could ever be used to store and convey information.

    To those seeking arcane wisdom, the numerical system represents an alphabet of sorts that is like the language of the creator. To introduce this system and show some of the special things about it is the purpose of this work. There are many books, many branches of occult study, and many individuals and groups that claim to have some secret arcane knowledge to offer. For as long as human beings have walked the planet with imagination there have been those also with the desire to know more about how it all came to be, how it operates, and what place and purpose they have in the vast scheme of things. I have been blessed (or cursed) with this curiosity. I have approached the subject with an attitude of discovery, but along provable scientific means. The cold, hard, unchanging, and infinitely expressive language of numbers offers to us all this opportunity.

    "Because someone else says so" has never meant very much at all to me. I have never been a person of any faith, or true belief, in GOD. Faith, to me, means "confidence and trust in a person or thing," to quote the first definition from Random House Webster’s Dictionary. Belief is likewise "confidence; faith; trust." To myself, these things must be tested and proven. I need to know that GOD is there like I know the Sun will come up tomorrow, by actual proof. Some say this is asking too much of GOD, but I don’t think so. I feel like those who claim blind faith lie to themselves, which is the worst type of lie. I do not think GOD will be so fooled. No amount of programming and brainwashing can convince the true self of a false reality. This is not to say that most of us are not indeed living in a reality of our own choosing, only that such a reality is not the ultimate. If GOD is real, then He/she must exist in that ultimate reality of truth, and will not be known to those who exist otherwise.

    The numerical system contains ten digits, from one to zero. (or zero to one, depending upon where it begins.) From ancient times this system has existed unchanged. It is universal on this planet Earth, known among all of the various peoples and cultures. This is the first way that it supercedes all other languages of all times. Conveniently, human beings are equipped with two hands that are endowed with ten fingers, or digits. Perhaps this is the whole basis of the numerical system in the first place. The system is referred to as the decimal system, which comes from the Latin word decem, meaning ten. This is very important for the primary use of numbers in the world, which is arithmetic. This is a name for the processes by which we have learned to manipulate numerical information. This is defined as "the method or process of computation with numerical figures." Virtually everything real in the world has an associated number, or set of numbers, with it. Facts are very much influenced by numbers and arithmetic, so why should belief and faith not also be?

    Arithmetic only involves the processes of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. This is the basis of what is known as Mathematics. The definition of this term is "the systematic treatment of magnitude, relationships between figures and forms, and relations between quantities expressed symbolically." To put it simply, arithmetic is the knowledge of the four basic processes that can be imposed upon numbers, mathematics is combining more than one, (and sometimes many,) of these processes to resolve more complicated problems. These four arithmetical functions are symbolic themselves.

    The focus of this work is on a higher form of mathematics that takes advantage of, and tries to explain, the more peculiar logic behind this system of numbers. The first lesson to understand is that there are really only nine numbers. The zero is simply a placeholder for powers of ten in arithmetical functions. Zero is a representative of space. (And it will also be used as such in this metaphysical study of numbers that we are beginning.)

    To understand the meaning of there being only nine numbers, realize that all numbers can be reduced to a single digit. If we count up from one, adding one each time, we progress through the first nine digits to the first double-digit number, which is ten. Ten is simply a one and a zero, or one and nothing. This starts the repeating cycle of the nine numbers over again. Eleven is one and one, or two. Twelve is one and two, or three. Thirteen reduces to four. Fourteen reduces to five, and so on. The cycle repeats in the order of one through nine to infinity. The sequence never changes, no matter how large or small the number, no matter how many digits the number has. This process is called base reduction, and will be one of the most important tools we will use. Some may already know of this process from the occult practice of numerology. However, be it known that there is far more to this science than any fortuneteller ever dreamed of before.

    To avoid any confusion between the science of numbers discussed in this work, and the traditional occult practice of numerology, this science shall be called Numerometry, being just as concerned with how the numbers relate to each other in process and geometry as with the theoretical meanings of the numbers themselves.

    The basis of this system is not the number ten, but the number nine. In most of the processes we will work with, the zero is not really involved at all. It serves no use except as the space holder for the system. Nine is the foundation. Nine is a perfect square. Three times three. It is in this way symbolic of a trinity of trinities. Nine as a number is interesting when it is used in the basic mathematical processes. It is very similar in function to the zero, as can be demonstrated by comparing the two numbers:

    The next level of understanding the numbers comes from the analyses of the addition itself. Taking the first number ONE, and adding it to itself equals TWO. The second real number is the product of doubling the first. Adding the two to the one results in the third number THREE. This is the one added to itself doubled. Adding the three together; that is the one, the two, and the three, results in SIX, which is also the three doubled. Adding the THREE to the SIX results in NINE. This is so done in these four steps: ONE + itself; ONE + TWO; THREE + TWO + ONE; SIX + THREE, (or SIX + TWO + ONE.) Another way to find the NINE is to continue with the doubling mode through TWO; which becomes FOUR. ONE + TWO + FOUR = SEVEN. SEVEN + TWO = NINE. Regardless of what digit the doubling rule begins, the result totals NINE. This same basic process is used to reveal the zero in the system. The way this is seen is to use the steps themselves as numbers. ONE + TWO + THREE + FOUR = TEN, or ONE + ZERO.

    Numerometry operates in much the same way as numerology. The way that any number can be added down to a single digit is called reduction. Any number of digits that represents a single value can be reduced to a single digit. Rather than mess with the numbers of birthdays and other dates in attempt to gain some mystical symbology out of them, numerometry digs into the basis of mathematics and science. Trying to get some meaning out of a date is ridiculous anyway. Dates and times are relative. Man created the calendars and clocks of the world. How can anyone expect to find some hidden meaning when the basis for the art is not divine at all? Letters can be converted into numerical equivalents, but that will be dealt with later. The system of numbers is divine in itself. Numbers are universal. The language of numbers is a universal standard of communication that can be understood by all. Numbers are the entire basis of science and mathematics. We may find and know of the divine by feeling it within ourselves, but this is intangible.

Copyright 2000 by J.S.Graham