The word ‘tell’ contains ‘count’ and that is the case in many languages. For example, think of ‘raconter-conter‘ and ‘erzählen-zählen‘.
In the Hebrew language, all letters have a numerical value. In that language,the world of words and the world of numbers are not separated. A book there is called ‘Sepher‘ and our word ‘cipher’ probably comes from that. The worlds of words and numbers are closer to each other than appears to be the case.
In the middle of the infinite divine primordial substance, or the golden egg, the Spirit of God created the hierarch of the coming universe: the macrocosmic Adam Kadmon, which is symbolized by a point in a circle.
From this macrocosmic Adam Kadmon, ten heavenly hierarchies emanated and created a universe that was one with the primordial divine substance. All this can be seen as the point in the center of the circle, since the circle is nothing but the enlarged point.
Sphere
The circle is the archetype of the two dimensions; from it the sphere and the platonic solids develop. The spherical shape is the archetype of three-dimensionality.
If we had to choose a shape for the Original Unity, it would be best to do so with a spherical shape.
In principle, the sphere is the absolute unity because, whether we stand inside the sphere or observe it from the outside, the same thing can be seen on all sides for everyone.
In this situation, the Original Unity represented by the sphere also proves that the above is equal to the below!
First manifestation
God wanted to share His love with an ally and created man in His Image.
In earlier cultures, the number 1 was seen as the representative of God himself and not as an ordinary number. He was holy and unspeakable; just like the Hebrew letter aleph. The principle from God cannot be expressed in words in physical nature: it is a mute letter.
Everything came from the number 1; it has no gender like all other numbers. The number 2 is the first feminine number and the 3 is the first masculine number. More about this later.
The symbol of the aleph is indicated by a jod above the wav and a jod below the wav. The aleph has two drops as the visible below: the earth, and the hidden: the heaven, above. They are, as it were, two tears or two drops of blood. It is heaven and earth in one image.
In this context, the aleph represents the divine universe because the upper jod reflects itself purely in the very beginning of creation, of the nature of Adam Kadmon. The jod above the wav is equal to the jod below the wav. Heaven and Earth, above and below, are one!
Physical world
On its journey through the physical world, the soul receives a small spark of the original nature. This primordial atom will remind him of his divine nature: it is the God who hides himself as the primordial atom in the heart.
Symmetry
Pythagoras and Plato called the Platonic forms ‘the perfect bodies’. They regarded them as the most elementary building blocks of our physical realitywhile, through their series of shapes, they reflect in a special way the human soul development in its passage through matter.
The five platonic solids all have perfect symmetry:
- All faces have the same size
- All ribs are the same length
- All vertices have the same dimension
- In a sphere all vertices are touched
Tetrahedron
The first platonic solid is the tetrahedron and it is formed by four regular triangles. Another leap in quality has now been made because the sphere has one face and the tetrahedron has four. The original world of the sphere relates to the physical world from that point of view as 1:4.
Matter is indicated by the number 4, because the tetrahedron is composed of 4 triangles and is the representative of the spiritual and the material, as the numbers 1 and 4. If the circle, or spherical shape, was the unity of the original world, the tetrahedron is the first body in the physical world and represents the human fall into it.
At least four faces are needed to create a spatial shape.
In principle, the tetrahedron repeats the trinity of the previous order, the closed sphere, now in an outward-facing form.
At that time the Divine Trinity lay within the form, the sphere, now we see Matter carries the number 4 and this 4 is the physical revelation of the spiritual, masculine 3.
In principle it is a new unity, but in another dimension: the material world. So, the 4 faces that make up the form are the foundation stone of the physical world. The number 4 is duality squared, the 22. Further development within our world is not possible. This would just be a repetition.
A simple example of this is:
Father, mother, child are 1, 2, 3 and the child starts a new cycle, which is the same as the first and is a repetition.
Magical Hebrew Language
The Hebrew word for father is ‘AB’, aleph and beth, numerical values 1 and 2. They belong in the closed Father world of the circle or the sphere. The word for Mother is ‘EM’, written as aleph and mem, numerical values 1 and 40. Contact with the Divine world is therefore indicated by the aleph, the 1, because she was the first divine manifestation.
Numerical values
AB = Father
Alef-beth as 1 and 2
EM = Mother
Alef-mem as 1 and 40
1 is the divine world
4 and 40 the material world
For example, the first man is called Adam and in Hebrew it is written aleph, daleth and mem 1-4-40. The number 1 indicates the Divine world and the numbers 4 and 40 indicate the physical world (the zeros are of secondary importance.)
Man is born out of God, but lives in the material world.
First man Adam
Alef-daleth-mem
1-4-40
Was connected to God
Another striking example is the word ‘truth’, alep-daleth-thaf, 1-4-400.
The Truth is born of God, because it carries the 1 within itself. However, if we omit the 1, it says ‘dead’, 4-400. After all, the lie kills the truth, because it breaks contact with the Divine unity!
Truth and Death
Alef-daleth-thaf
1-4-400
Death
Daleth-thaf
4-400
The lie kills the truth
Relationship between divine and material nature
When one connects the sphere, representative of the divine unity, with the number 1, the 4 symbolizes the physical world, since 4 faces are needed to form a body in space. You can’t do anything with 2 and 3 faces.
Hence the number 4, of the tetrahedron, is the absolute number of the material world.
Moreover, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is thaf, numerical value 400. Life in matter has reached its end here. There is no typeface for the 500: everything above 400 is again in the world of silence. Jan van Rijckenborgh says in the Alchemical Wedding that the number 40 (read 4) is the indication of the completeness of revelation in the light of eternity.
Plato connected each body to the basic elements, the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas and ether.).
The surface of the tetrahedron encompasses the smallest volume and is therefore the most mobile of all platonic solids. It is in step with the moving FIRE or LIGHT and in line with the first day of creation when God called the light into existence.
All symmetrical polyhedrons are, in principle, constructed from tetrahedrons and all, therefore, have this ‘fire inspiration’ inherent in them as the spiritual force that works through matter.
Cube
The six regular squares form the cube. The cube is connected to the feminine number 4. The 4 is the foundation of the mater materia, the physical world. The 3, the masculine number of the tetrahedron, preceded it as the spiritual principle. In the 4, the 3 becomes manifest as the concrete and plain, which is completely consistent with the tetrahedron (four triangles).
The essence of the number 3 pervades all matter as a spiritual force. After all, the cube can be formed by two tetrahedrons (in projection). The cube is the unambiguous symbol of matter, because the number 4 appears everywhere in matter. For example, there are 4 protein bases that, with their variants, are the builders of all living organisms. There are 4 aggregates and in the cosmos we find 4 cardinal directions.
The mineral world is the representative of matter par excellence. Many minerals crystallize in a tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, icosahedron (impure) or as a dodecahedron.
The basic element of the cube is very strikingly EARTH.
The feminine principle of the 4, like the cube, is receptive to the masculine principle of the 3. The cube is made up of 6 squares and in this form the 4 hooks to the 6 (6 is very strikingly sex in Latin). In the human body, the square of the cube reflects the four-leaf root chakra, from which reproduction originates.
The feminine principle of the 4 is capable of producing new life, but this is always accompanied by suffering: the laboring of childbirth.
On a spiritual level, we see the union between soul and spirit. Here, too, there is a certain suffering; without purification there is no liberation, without death there is no resurrection.
The tetrahedron and the cube form a new body: the octahedron.
Octahedron
The third platonic solid is the octahedron and can best be described as two pyramids joined together. This shape, like the cube, is made up of two (projected) tetrahedrons. Furthermore, we also find here a merger of the masculine and the feminine in the triangle and the square, respectively, located exactly in the middle. The square is where the two pyramids meet and where the triangles are located.
The octahedron has six vertices and through the six (sex in Latin) the masculine and feminine unite and a new life or consciousness arises.
The new dimension is expressed in the octahedron in both pyramid points. We go up to the top of the pyramid via the four raised lines. This point, the 5, expresses the potential new state of consciousness, the new soul state, which man himself realizes.
Or, in other words, on the square of construction (the center of the octahedron) the trigonum igneum is erected, through which the connection with the original kingdom can ultimately be realized at the top of the pyramid (as point 5). The number of 5 is realized through the transfiguration. This will be discussed further below.
The octahedron can rotate freely when we hold it by the two vertices and is mobile and movable. Its basic element is AIR or GAS.
Icosahedron
The fourth body in the series is the icosahedron and it has the largest number of faces. It is made up of 20 equilateral triangle and compared to the previous bodies, this is a special feature: this represents another threefold increase in quality.
Firstly, this shape has lost some of its angularity and leans slightly towards the original spherical shape.
Secondly, it is not formed by two tetrahedrons, as with the cube and the octahedron, but by four tetrahedrons. The number of tetrahedrons has therefore been squared.
Thirdly, we are confronted with the significant number 5. The icosahedron has 5 side views, while the tetrahedron, octahedron and cube have 3 and 4 sides respectively.
This threefold leap in quality indicates important developments.
Transfiguration precedes transmutation and this can also be observed in the regular bodies.
There is friction within the icosahedron because the four tetrahedrons inside cannot be called completely pure. Although the triangles are in harmony on the outside, the projected longitudinal axes are in tension with each other; there is too little space, it is too narrow and it appears that the limits have been reached.
In short, there is a tension within the icosahedron and the harmony is disturbed. Moreover, in the foregoing it was discussed that the number 4 is the ultimate limit of material nature. Further development is always a repetition.
If we now connect the condition of the icosahedron with human soul development, we can also observe this field of tension. When man is at the lowest point of matter, he also reaches the limit of his existence. Does man remain in the old situation, or does he break his cycle and enter a new state of consciousness?
The number 5, which shows the sides of the icosahedron, indicates that there may be a change in quality. Which of the two natures does man give priority in his system?
We can also see that there is a crisis situation based on the Platonic Solids. A merger took place between the male number 3 of the tetrahedron and the female number 4 of the cube. Then, after some time, a new phase arises, that of crisis, represented by the icosahedron with the number 5.
If we add the numbers of the sides of the tetrahedron, the cube and the icosahedron, the 3-4-5, we get the number 12 which is an extremely important number! This number implies a certain fullness: the time has come, and it is now or never. Do you dare to greet the 13th, the total New State of Consciousness, or do you remain in the 12th, in the old and known. The latter signifies a new cycle in the material world!
The 5 finds its exaltation in the number 12. As an example, we take the first miraculous feeding, a story from the Bible. Here 5 loaves of bread were increased to feed 5000 people and after the meal there appears to be 12 baskets of bread left over. The 5 expresses itself in every part of the 12.
The most striking example, however, is the dodecahedron with its 12 regular pentagons, which will be discussed in the next solid.
At this point, the Platonic solids show another special fact. One counts the faces of the tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron and the icosahedron together, then one obtains: 4+6+8+20= 38.
This number corresponds to the number of years a paralyzed person spent at the Bath of Bethesda. He lay there for 38 years waiting till someone would throw him into the water of the healing pool when an angel descended into it and offered healing. Here, we see a man who has reached the utmost limit of his existence on earth and is crippled in relation to the higher things. He needs healing.
Furthermore, the Bath of Bethesda had 5 colonnades, and this number is mentioned very explicitly. Well, on the outside of the icosahedron the 5 is visible in the number of side views.
It is as if redemption is present, but man, fixated on his own problems, cannot yet clearly perceive it.
When man encounters the Christ power at the pool of Bethesda, the Living Water washes over him from above and below. This crucial moment also shows the icosahedron through the two opposite pentagrams in the interior.
This is how we see the water principle in the icosahedron. It is linked to the element WATER.
Dodecahedron
The last regular solid consists of 12 pentagons.
Plato regarded the dodecahedron as something unique. To him, she was the symbol of Heavenly Matter.
The appropriate aggregate for this body is the invisible ETHER.
In the school of Pythagoras, it was strictly forbidden to speak to profanes about these bodies and especially about the dodecahedron.
When this did happen, it was accompanied by death, according to Neoplatonic scholar Iamblichus of Chaklis (ca. 250 – 330 AD) because the dodecahedron contains secrets for the future of man, for which profane man was not prepared.
The dodecahedron consisting of twelve faces, fits perfectly with the final phase of human soul development. In the foregoing, it was noted that the 12, the number of fullness, is awaiting the completely new revelation of the 13th. In addition, the number 5 is prominently present. The dodecahedron cannot only be built from 5 tetrahedrons, but it also has 12 pentagons on the outside. While the four tetrahedrons were still pinched in the icosahedron (reflecting the human crisis situation), there is no friction in the dodecahedron.
In the dodecahedron the crisis has been overcome and the 5 has emerged and is visible to everyone.
This body represents the clean and pure dimension of the pentagon, the pentagram. After all, the other solids carry triangles and squares.
We can therefore say that there has once again been a fundamental leap in quality.
The number 5 corresponds to the fifth vehicle of man. When the rose of the heart begins to blossom, the Manas, the thinking ‘son of the god’, comes into development.
The dodecahedron strongly inclines towards the spherical shape of the original father nature. It is the least angular, in contrast to the tetrahedron, the cube and the dodecahedron; less so in the case of the icosahedron, which is the predecessor of the dodecahedron. In the dodecahedron, the angularity is completely blunted and approaches the spherical shape most strongly.
Number 50
In view of the foregoing, the course of development of the spiritual man in the material world runs along the first four Platonic bodies, which have their origin in original nature. There, man lives as Adam Kadmon, in the Garden of Eden.
In the dodecahedron, the 5 is subtly present in the top and bottom vertices. In the icosahedron, these vertices have descended through purification and transformed into two opposite pentagons or pentagrams inside the shape itself. However, the 5 is fully expressed in the dodecahedron.
When man opens his heart to the Living Water, the healing Light forces flow into his being. He is immediately able to break free from his paralysis. He leaves behind the confines of the physical world and enters a new state of consciousness. In the dodecahedron, this condition is depicted by the fundamental quality jump, the 5 that we can clearly see on the outside.
Man’s path runs through the Garden of Eden, the garden of the gods, via his passage through the dust to the heavenly Jerusalem, that is a city.
Previously, man lived in unity with the divine nature but was unconscious. After his stay in the physical world, he now returns to the original field of consciousness; he has now become conscious and an autonomous entity, revealing the divine.
The element of the dodecahedron is the invisible ETHER.
In this context, the spherical shape is representative of the Garden of Eden. Man grinds his angular, rough stone into a sparkling gemstone, the dodecahedron. This shape is representative of the Grail Jewel, the New Jerusalem.
Through purification, man has transcended material nature, represented by the 38 faces of the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron and icosahedron. The image of the 12 faces of the dodecahedron is then added to the 38 faces, showing that 38+12=50, the mysterious number, the 7×7 stages, plus 1.
In Jewish theosophy, the number 49 indicates that man has fulfilled his task in the world. Now man has been liberated, this redemption is represented by the 50, that is the 8th day, the day of the outpouring of the holy spirit, the feast of Pentecost. Man has cut his rough, angular stone into the heavenly dodecahedron, which he carries into the heavenly city like a sparkling diamond.
Sources:
Rijckenborgh, J. van, De Egyptische Oergnosis en haar roep in het eeuwige nu [The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis and its call in the eternal present]
Rijckenborgh, J. van, De Alchemische Bruiloft van Christiaan Rozenkruis [The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross]
Weinreb, F., Letters van Het leven [Letters of The Live]
Stelzner, M., Die Weltformel der Unsterblichkeit [The World Formula of Immortality]
