Magic of Numbers (Bennett)

THE MAGIC OF NUMBERS by Edward T. Bennett With an Afterword by Romeman This two-part article was published in The Occult Review (also known at times as Rider's Review) in July and August, 1906. The author was Assistant Secretary (1882-1902) to the Society for Psychical Research. Romeman has shown, in the Gannstudygroup booklet on The Law of Vibration, that it is highly probable that W. D. Gann quoted more than once from this article in his 1909 interview with Richard D. Wyckoff in The Ticker and Investment Digest, the so-called Ticker Interview. (Nov. 15, 2013)

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Afterword by Romeman The New American Cyclopædia, ed. by G. Ripley and C.A. Dana, p. 518, published in 1859, states: "Arithmomancy depended upon the secret operation of numbers and magical squares, and the numerical value of letters; it was practised by the Chaldeans, and formed a part of the doctrine of the Pythagoreans, Neo-Platonists, and cabalists." http://books.google.com/books?id=1WIIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA518 The book entitled The Occult Sciences by the Rev. Edward Smedley, W. Cooke Taylor, the Rev. Henry Thompson, and Elihu Rich, published in 1855, elaborates on these points as follows: ARITHMOMANCY, To which head belongs the magical operation of numbers and magical squares, is derived from the doctrines of the Pythagoreans and Platonists. In estimating these doctrines, it must be remembered that all movement, proportion, time, and, in a word, all idea of quantity and harmony, may be represented by numbers: hence, whatever may be attributed to the latter, may also be expressed by numbers, as the signs of occult virtues and laws. It is known to philosophers that the movements of nature are rhythmical; physicians have observed this in the periodicity of diseases; and the appointment of the seventh day as a Sabbath, has added a religious obligation to this law of nature. The three, the ten, and the twelve are also members of well known import, and one is the most divine of all, as expressing the unity of God, and the comprehension of all things in perfect harmony. The use of numbers in divination has assumed many curious forms. It may suffice to mention here the Gematria, or first division of the Cabbala, which teaches how to cast up the letters of particular words as numerals, and to form conclusions from the proportion between the sum of one text and the sum of another. This method converts the Bible into a book written solely by numbers, and some curious results are obtained, probably as near the truth as the rabbinical astrology (see note to Geomancy). Some curious properties of perfect, amicable, and other numbers have been elucidated by the late Platonist, Thomas Taylor. The most valuable remains of antiquity connected with this subject are contained in the 'Chaldean Oracles' of Zoroaster. For the various arrangements of magic squares we may refer to a curious work entitled ' Qanvon-E-Islam [sic]; or, the Customs of the Moosulmans of India,' by Jaffur Sharreef. The Pythagorean doctrine is noticed by Ennemoser, who quotes some interesting passages from Plato on this subject. http://books.google.com/books?id=8DXXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA328 GEOMANCY. Geomancy, from two Greek words, ge, the earth, and manteia, divination, is an art connected with astrology, and is called by an old writer on the subject, "the daughter, and abbreviation thereof." An ancient method of practising it was by casting pebbles on the ground, from which conjectures were formed much the same as from the chance lines or dots made on paper; in later times, scratches made in the earth were found to answer the same purpose. The

Arabian Geomancy, said to have been first practised by Almadul, was more recondite, being founded on the effects of motion under the crust of the earth, the chinks thus produced, and the noises or thunderings heard; its foundation was the dogma of Aristotle, that "the moving of the heaven is everlasting, and is the beginning and cause of all inferior movings." The essential principle of geomancy, in whatever form practised, is the lot or chance; it is fully described by Cornelius Agrippa, and as it determines the scheme of the heavens without the necessity of astronomical observation, it may be considered a royal road to astrology. A famous professor of Geomancy, in the sixteenth century, was one 'Maister Christopher Cattan,' a translation of whose work was published by Sparry in 1591. In the following century the art is graced by the name of William Oughtred, a distinguished mathematician, and minister of the Church of England, who died in 1660. For a general idea of the method, we may refer to the well-known 'Book of Fate,' said to have been in the possession of Napoleon, and translated (the title-page avers), "from an ancient Egyptian MS. found in the year 1801 by M. Sonnini, in one of the royal tombs near Mount Lybicus, in Upper Egypt." The geomantic figures obtained by inspecting the chance lines or dots were supposed to represent a certain situation of the stars, and the diviner then proceeded as in astrology, as if the configuration of the stars really was such. Another mode of divination by stars, differing both with astrology and geomancy, was practised by the Cabalists. The stars vertical over a city or nation, were so united by lines, as to form resemblances of the Hebrew letters, and thus words which were deemed prophetic. This was the rabbinical astrology, and it was a very plausible adaptation of the occult meaning attributed to Hebrew characters and roots, united to the traditional belief that the stars were themselves gods, or the abodes of deceased heroes. The "star of your God" occurs in the prophet Amos, (v. 26), and Burder remarks that the rise of a new star, or the appearance of a comet, was thought to portend the birth of a great person; also, that the gods sent stars to point out the way to their favourites, as Virgil shows, and as Suetonius and Pliny actually relate in the case of Julius Caesar. As for the Hebrew letters, they constantly figure in schemes of magic, e. g. the potent which confers its spell on the magical knife, and on the shield of David. http://books.google.com/books?id=8DXXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA314

For Thomas Taylor's work on numbers, see his Theoretic Arithmetic, 1816 http://books.google.com/books? id=VuY3AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover Thomas Taylor was also the translator of The Chaldean Oracles. For these, see The Classical Journal, in which they were printed in three parts: Part I (December 1817) http://books.google.com/books?id=Voo_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA333 Part II (March 1818) http://books.google.com/books?id=TFY0dOZSWYoC&pg=PA128

Part III (June 1818) http://books.google.com/books?id=43g_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA243 Or see W. Wynn Wescott's version of The Chaldean Oracles, based on Taylor's translation http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/coz/index.htm . Qanoon-E-Islam: Or, The Customs of the Moosulmans of India by Jaffur Shurreef is available here http://books.google.com/books?id=l0Imdq2Cdk0C&printsec=frontcover or in a later translation entitled Qanoon-E-Islam, or The Customs of the Mussulmans of India by G. A. Herklots http://books.google.com/books? id=61AbAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover . Joseph Ennemoser's History of Magic is in two volumes, translated by William Howitt: Vol. I: http://books.google.com/books?id=1TtVAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover Vol. II: http://books.google.com/books?id=zgXuzN2ZRtoC&printsec=frontcover Geomancy is described in the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, which is attributed to Henry Cornelius Agrippa (whose Three Books of Occult Philosophy, issued in recent years in a modern edition by Donald Tyson with commentary, are on W. D. Gann's List of Books for Sale); the fourth book is online here: https://archive.org/details/cu31924006718757 Scans of The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan Gentleman are available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/24134718/The-Geomancie-of-Maister-Christopher-Cattan-Gentleman http://books.google.com/books?id=Et7mSaCuSJAC&printsec=frontcover The Oracle or Book of Fate by Hermann Kirchenhoffer is online at Google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=ir81AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover .

As regards sources mentioned in the two-part article by Edward T. Bennett above, the following are available online: L. B. Hellenbach's Die Magie der Zahlen, also mentioned by Bennett, is here in the original German at: http://books.google.com/books?id=3SkCAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover http://books.google.com/books?id=yn3_JDQ3n6kC&printsec=frontcover . W. F. Barrett's article on "Light and Sound" in The Quarterly Journal of Science, January, 1870, mentioned in the two-part article by Edward T. Bennett, is online here: http://books.google.com/books?id=u1EEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 . Maj. P. A. MacMahon's "Magic Squares and other Problems on a Chess-Board" was published in Vol. 17 of Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain http://books.google.com/books? id=e8cNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA50 . [Note to Reader: This file has been formatted in "landscape" view (with pages short up and down and long going across), rather than the traditional or "portrait" view in order to accommodate the format of the scanned images. The books linked above may be seen by readers in the United States, where they are in the public domain. Readers outside the United States may find that Google books blocks display of some scans, which is a policy they adopt to avoid possible copyright infringement in places where such books may still be in copyright.]