From Zero to Twelve: The Sacred Numbers

Zero is the void and infinite potential, the empty ground from which every number arises. The atlas ties it to tarot card zero, The Fool, and to sunya, the emptiness that India refined into a concept before it reached the West.

One is the monad, which the Pythagoreans treated as the principle of number rather than a number among others, the point that precedes the line. In the Hebrew alphabet it is aleph, and in tarot it is The Magician.

Two is the dyad, the first division, where unity becomes self and other. The point of one becomes a line, and the pair of opposites, light and dark, active and receptive, makes exchange possible. Tarot gives it The High Priestess.

Three is the triad, valued by the Pythagoreans because it has a beginning, a middle and an end. It lifts the line into the first stable shape, the triangle, and recurs in trinities of gods and in past, present and future. Tarot gives it The Empress.

Four is the tetrad. The first four numbers arranged as the tetractys sum to ten, so the Pythagoreans held that four contains the whole. It grounds the four elements, directions and seasons, and tarot gives it The Emperor.

Five is the pentad, the Pythagorean marriage number, joining the first even number two with the first odd number three. Its emblem is the pentagram, mirrored in the five senses and the five fingers, and tarot gives it The Hierophant.

Six is the first perfect number in mathematics, equal to the sum of its own divisors one, two and three. Its figure is the hexagram of two interlocked triangles, and its tarot card is The Lovers.

Seven is the virgin number of the Pythagoreans, since within the decad it neither generates another number nor is generated by one. It orders the seven classical planets, the days of the week, the notes of the scale and the chakras, and tarot gives it The Chariot.

Eight is the octad. Turned on its side it becomes the lemniscate, the sign of infinity, and as the octave it begins the scale again on a higher pitch. Many traditions see it as regeneration after the completion of seven. Tarot gives it Strength, or Justice in some systems.

Nine is the ennead, the triple triad and the last single digit. Any number multiplied by nine reduces again to nine, and nine months measure gestation. It stands for completion on the threshold of renewal, and tarot gives it The Hermit.

Ten is the decad, the holiest number to the Pythagoreans because the tetractys of one, two, three and four sums to ten. It closes the single digits and returns to one on a higher octave. Tarot gives it The Wheel of Fortune.

Twelve is one of the most widespread sacred groupings: the zodiac signs, the months, the hours of day and night, and twelve gods, tribes and disciples in many traditions. The atlas notes it reduces to the root vibration three, and tarot gives it The Hanged Man.