“The study of the wisdom teachings should be a continuous process in which the teachings become the predominant factor of life.” — an Ancient Egyptian Proverb
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Discussion Forum
Mathematics and Numerology
For the Ancient Egyptians, the two primary numbers in the universe are 2 and 3. All phenomena, without exception, are polar in nature and treble in principle. As such, the numbers 2 and 3 are the only primary numbers from which other numbers are derived.
Two symbolizes the power of multiplicity—the female, mutable receptacle - while Three symbolizes the male. This was the music of the spheres—the universal harmonies played out between these two primal female and male universal symbols of Isis and Osiris, whose heavenly marriage produced the child Horus. 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..."
In the animated world of Ancient Egypt, numbers did not simply designate quantities but instead were considered to be concrete definitions of energetic formative principles of nature. The Egyptians called these energetic principles neteru (gods, goddesses).
To Egyptians, numbers were not just odd and even. These animated numbers in Ancient Egypt were referred to by Plutarch in Moralia, Vol. V, when he described the Egyptian 3-4-5 triangle:
"The upright, therefore, may be likened to the male, the base to the female, and the hypotenuse to the child of both, and so Osiris may be regarded as the origin, Isis as the recipient, and Horus as perfected result."
The vitality and the interactions between these numbers shows how they are male and female, active and passive, vertical and horizontal, etc. The divine significance of numbers is personified in Ancient Egyptian traditions by Seshat, The Enumerator. The netert (goddess) Seshat is also described as: Lady of Writing(s), Scribe, Head of the House of the Divine Books (Archives), and the Lady of Builders.
Seshat is closely associated with Thoth(Tehuti), and is considered to be his female counterpart.
The Egyptian concept of number symbolism was subsequently popularized in the West by and through Pythagoras [ca. 580–500 BCE]. It is a known fact that Pythagoras studied for about 20 years in Egypt, in the 6th century BCE.
Pythagoras and his immediate followers left nothing of their own writing. Yet, Western academia attributed an open-ended list of major achievements to him and the so-called Pythagoreans. They were issued a blank check by Western academia.
Pythagoras and his followers are said to view numbers as divine concepts; ideas of the God who created a universe of infinite variety and gave satisfying order to a numerical pattern. The same principles were stated more than 13 centuries before Pythagoras’ birth 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 intent is very clear: Ancient Egyptians believed in and set the rules for numbers and their interactions (so-called mathematics) as the basis for “all that exists”.
[Excerpt from Ancient Egyptian Culture Revealed and The Ancient Egyptian Metaphysical Architecture both by Moustafa Gadalla]
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