The Hidden Good of the Center
Hold up your 10 fingers. Put down your 5th finger. Four fingers remain raised on the left hand; five on the right. 4 and 5. Or, as they teach in elementary math when learning “the shortcut” for figuring multiples of nine – 45.
This is also the total value of all the numbers on the Lo Shu square. From nine raised fingers or from the numbers one to nine – the same value shows.
Looking through my ever-expanding personal journal on numbers and their associations, I saw that in Hebrew Gematria the name Adam has the normative value of 45. Jehovah (26) plus Eve (19) also has a value of 45. Eve, of course, was told of Knowledge, by the Serpent…
The 9th Letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet is Teth. It means “serpent.” I have drawn a basic form of the letter above by starting at five, and drawing through each of the 9 blocks.
Notice how this serpent is turning inward toward itself. Also notice that it makes 3 1/2 turns from the “tail” in the top-left corner just like the coiled Kundalini.
In the Zohar of Teth it is said, “the good is hidden within it.” The essence of the idea is the potential for actualization. Such as the fetus concealed in the womb (for 9 months!). The soul concealed within the body. The future hidden in the moment. The promise of eternity hidden inside the wheels of incarnation (the Phoenician origin of the letter means ‘wheel’). But maybe most similar to the revelation of the Lo Shu would be the idea of Divine Intelligence as the organizing-good veiled by matter…Heaven hidden within the elements of Nature.
In Hebrew there are nine words/concepts for Beauty with “Goodness” (according to Rabbi Ginsburgh) being the innermost form. This called to mind the Mason’s Square and Compass with the ‘G’ in the middle. The Square and Compass has been called the “Emblem of Beauty,” for they are the tools by which Beauty is formed and Beauty is to be found in their precise middle. (G for Good. G for God. G for Gnosis. Take your pick – they all work.)
The Square and Compass are sometimes rendered in black and white like the Yin Yang. Heaven encircling from Above. Earth measuring portions, below.
This also shows the inherent Peace, Balance and “Good” when the lower worlds are in union with the upper worlds. Or when the Fire of the Heavens (consciousness) circumscribes the Waters of earth (forms). Most importantly (to where I’m heading with this) for the Masons the Square and Compass shows “building toward God” from below, while God’s handiwork descends from Above.
Not surprisingly the interlocked Vs of the Square and Compass forms what once was called the Sigil of Saturn. I mentioned the Sigil of Saturn in my original post on the Lo Shu.
Saturn is the Lord of Time (or our experience-existence within time-space). His symbols are things like the skeleton-structure and the door called Death. He holds the sickle of reaping and can appear rather ominous and adversarial. BUT he’s gotten a bad rap in the modern world. Once upon a time he was associated to a Golden Age of peace and prosperity for Humanity. You can find references in the works of Virgil, Hesiod and Ovid, among others.
In the midst of the Saturn Sigil ‘G’ represents the inherent Beauty and Good expressed through the five elements, organized by and proportioned on Above. The Golden Greatness where material form and spiritual perfection collide.
The planet Saturn corresponds with both “higher and lower Lead” – or Lead as both a metal and a concept. Lead as an alchemical symbol reveals this concept, representing the lusterless Prima Materia or first matter from which the Universe of substance has come forth. That all things are derived of the One Thing and hold the potential to become something greater than they already are speaks of the Union and Peace central to the whole of Creation and implies the potential for transmutation from ordinary Humanity into something greater. Thus the ‘G’ at the center has also been said to represent the Great Work of alchemical transmutation from the dark, heavy of lead into the bright, light of Gold.
I’ve also heard tell that there’s some intriguing Masonic ciphers associated with the Saturn Sigil placed over the Lo Shu – but I’ll save that for another post.