the meaning behind the number 8 (Ogdoad)
The number eight represents holding with the fate of its inevitable outcome, harmony, and the law of cause and effect, according to esoteric interpretation. Eight, according to occultist M. Debarrol, is a “global balance of things in a similar harmony of opposites.” According to Möbius representations, his divine aspect of eight conveyed “great metaphysical idea of balance weights” and serves as a depiction of the highest degree of polar compliance. In its most basic form, the number eight represents the law of cause and effect, whose transgression will inevitably result in the force of nature coming into balance. The eight represents in terms of human beings Themis principle also refers to the notion of inevitable retribution and punishment in the event

that the balance will be broken and the moral foundations would be swayed.

Eight is a graphical representation of the eight-pointed star, or so-called “Ezekiel’s Wheel”, which is a rotating circle, divided into eight parts. Eight-pointed star in the Russian spiritual tradition called the “star of the Virgin.”

Attributes and essence of Eight

As the number of Justice, eight contains Higher neutral force, which does not give preference to any one of two equal parts that make up the image.

Higher expression of this neutral force in the human realm is well documented Moebius:

“Four is opposed four, ie, the form – the form, the authority – authority; adaptation – adaptation. You insulted someone (form), you have to apologize (form), and you have created a revolutionary government (authority) – he oppose dictatorship (another authority) you manage to bypass or break the law – the police will fit something else to catch the perpetrators. This is a common form of karma, as well as human justice. In contrasting forms of magic prevails in politics – the opposition authority, in the economic area – the opposition adaptation (supply and demand). ”

Number eight is considered sacred before, first, because it was among the first cube has eight vertices, and second, because it has eight nodes and is an example of an even-even number close to the number 10.

Describing the secret meanings inherent in the semantic space of eight Manly Hall wrote:

“Eight is divided into two sets of four, each quartet is divided into two, and each is divided into two units, thus restoring the monad of keywords to the Ogdoad -” love “,” board “arrangement”, “law” and “agreement.”

Ogdoad was a mysterious number associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece and Kibirskimi Mysteries of Samothrace. It was called the small sacred number. It borrows its form from two intertwined snakes on the Caduceus of Hermes and partly from the winding motion of heavenly bodies, perhaps, from the movement of the moon. ”

Blavatsky gives information taken from the Eastern esotericism, according to which eight acts not only as a static symbol of balance, but also as the embodiment of the continuous motion of the universe. She writes:

“Ogdoad or Eight symbolizes the eternal and spiral motion of cycles 8 and, in turn, is symbolized by the caduceus. It shows the proper breathing cosmos, led eight Great Gods – seven from the Eternal Mother of the One and the Triad. ”

Similar idea holds Serbian occultist and numerologist Simovic. He believes that eight is a symbol of change, change, rotation, new. It serves him as a double square in which one four relates to the other.

Eight should also be considered as the beginning of a new space after the octave of seven notes, or cycles, the previous octave. Because it so often equated with the achievement of a high degree of dedication. Hence the eight steps of Raja Yoga, the royal eightfold path of the Buddha, an eight upward path in the Hermetic tradition, the concept of the eight chakras, which places eighth invisible center of the head of a man, that is already out of the body and spine.

X. E. Kerlot describes the properties of the numbers as follows:

“Eightfold relating to the two squares and octagons, is mediating between the square shape (or earthly order) and circle (the eternal order) and, therefore, a symbol of regeneration. Due to its shape, this figure is associated with two entwined snakes magic wand that mean the balance of opposing forces or equivalent authority of the spiritual and the natural, it also symbolizes the – again, because of its shape – an eternal heaven spiraling movement (represented by the double sigmoid line – the sign of infinity) . Due to its involvement in the regeneration, eight in the Middle Ages was the emblem of water baptism. Moreover, in the medieval mystic cosmogony it represents the fixed stars of the sky, means overcoming the planetary influence. ”

Eight is considered a sacred number in the Indian tradition, where it symbolizes the eight different aspects of the sacred syllable of the Absolute – OM. This is indicated by P. Sedir:

“And OM is composed of eight parts, because he has eight forms:” A “is the first letter” Y “- the second, IM” – the third, the “spiritual embryo” (Bindu) – Fourth, the “spiritual sound” (Nada) – Fifth, the “time” (Nala) – The sixth, “The fact that on the other side of time” – the seventh and “the fact that the other side of all of the above” – ​​the eighth. ”

We may recall the figure of Shiva, who, according to legend, “eight mouths to feed, or form: the five elements, the sun, the moon and the earth.”

I should say that the magic wand Caduceus, is a rod entwined by two serpents entwined (symbol Kundalini), is directly related to the symbolism of the eight.

The meaning of the numeral seven (heptad)

The triune nature always assumes a fourfold material form, according to a complete cycle process or phenomenon known as seven esoteric symbols. The sevenfold framework permeates all forms in the universe. Seven, in his divine aspect, is the idea of wholeness realised cycle with its perfect unity (trinity) and material (quaternary) aspects. Seven is the native among the “number of the Eternal” and represents the “number of the divine.” It conveys the notion that spirit predominates over form. This number will represent sevenfold representations of completion in its natural aspect. The idea of the seven victories over the triad’s top body by four lesser bodies is expressed in his human side, giving people a sense of

isolation. In a graphical representation of a seven semiluchevuyu star or pentacle, the lower part of which is a quadratic form, and the upper – triangular.

Attributes and essence of Seven
Symbolizing perfection Macrocosm connected to the microcosm, seven means wholeness, completeness, the highest symmetry, mystery, comprehensiveness, completeness.

Manly Hall writes about the Pythagorean perception sevens following:

“The Pythagoreans called the heptad, 7, worthy of worship. It is treated as a number of religion because man is controlled by seven celestial spirits which man makes offerings. She is often called the number of lives, because we believe that the birth of seven months after conception the person lives, but those who are born after eight months, often die. One author calls it a virgin without a mother, Minerva, because she was born from the head of the Father, the monad. Keywords of the heptad are “luck”, “chance”, “care”, “control”, “government”, “judgment”, “dreams”, “voice”, “sound” and what drives things to their end. Deity, whose attributes were expressed heptad – is Osiris, Mars, Clio (one of the Muses). ”

Universality of the number 7, it emphasized the universality of many researchers’ manifestations of numeric symbolism in different cultures. Since VN Axe wrote:
“The magical number seven” (according to J. Miller) describes the general idea of ​​the universe, a constant in the description of the world tree, the full composition of the pantheon, the number of fairy tale characters, the brothers (cf. “Seven Brothers,” “Seven Simeons’ and sisters and so n .), days of the week, days of the holidays, the number of colors of the spectrum of tones in the music, the main odor stereochemical theory, the constant that determines the amount of human memory. In some cultural and linguistic traditions exist septenary number system and / or the number 7 appears in general as the most frequently used number associated to the almost universally everything is calculated in mythopoetic space “.

According to Blavatsky the sacred significance of the number seven knew long before the Bible, where the topic was further developed – even Hesiod used the expression “the seventh day is the sacred”, The founder of the Theosophical Society gave her a detailed list of those areas of life where the number 7 shows its sacred nature:
“The use of the number seven has never been limited to one ethnic group. This is quite a show seven vases in the Temple of the Sun near the ruins Babiana in Upper Egypt, seven fires over the centuries, constantly burning before the altar of Mithras, seven sacred temples Arabs, seven peninsulas, the seven islands, seven seas and seven mountains and rivers of India and the Zohar; Jewish Sephiroth or Spirits, seven constellations mentioned by Homer and Hesiod, and all the endless septenary encountered Orientalists in each open their manuscript. ”

“Considered as a set consisting of 6 and 1, or sextuple and Unity, the number 7 was the invisible center, the Spirit of all, for there is no hexagonal body of the seventh of the property that is the central point, such as crystals and snowflakes in the so-called” inanimate “nature. In addition, the number seven, they say, has all the perfect unit – the number of numbers. For, as the absolute unity and indivisibility is not associated, therefore, does not have and the number and no number can not reproduce it, just the same, and the number seven, no unit, which consists in the decade, can not produce or reproduce it. And it gives the four arithmetic division between one and seven, because it exceeds the first by the same number [three], as it is itself exceeded by the family for four at the same numbers greater than one, as far as seven more than four. ”

As always capacious and a full description of all its attributes gives X. E. Kerlot:

“SEVEN symbolizes perfect order, the full period or cycle. Embodies the union of the Trinity and the Quaternary and thus endowed with exceptional value. It corresponds to the seven directions of space (ie, the six existing measurements plus center), the seven-pointed star, the reconciliation of the square with a triangle by applying the latter to the previous one (as the sky to the ground), or by inscribing one in another. This number forms the base for a series of musical notes, spectral scale, and planetary spheres, as well as for the gods, corresponding, as well as the main virtues and their opposite is deadly sins. It also corresponds to the cross, with its three dimensions, and in conclusion, it is a symbol of suffering. ”

Almost all authors (Guenon, Blavatsky, E. Levy), who wrote about the number 7 indicate its connection with the process of manifestation. The same was said of Manly Hall:
Seven is considered a virgin number, because, to quote ancient Armenian philosopher David Anhakht, unlike other numbers “seven did not generate any number in the top ten and is not generated by any number.” Because seven is a hidden center of the hexagon, or six-pointed star, which, as it does not touch any of the six corners, it belongs to another space and another reality. It is for this reason that such a center is the center of mystical power. Occultists assert that “the key is the seventh character of the sacred septenary, the royal power, the priesthood (Insider) vostorzhestvova of the true and achievements through struggle. This is the magical power in all its force, the true “Holy Kingdom.”

Kerlot also describes not only the number but also the septenary principle underlying the number seven:
“This is a procedure for preparation of (composition) of the seven elements. Ultimately septenary based on seven directions of space: two opposite directions for each dimension plus the center. This is a special order of the six moving and not moving one element is projected for the week as a model in the time over sevenfold. “Three” in many cultures is a number related to the sky (heaven) (since this number is a vertical order of the three-dimensional space of the cross), and number four is associated with the earth (because of the four sides of the two horizontal directions, comparable to the main items. Consequently, seven – a number that expresses the amount of the heavens and the earth (as twelve is the expression of the multiplication of their qualities.) In religion septenary expressed or implied in the triads (such as the three theological virtues), plus four basic virtues, as well as major sins sevenfold.

In the traditional theory of symbols, septenary is considered as a derivative or similar spiritual principles of the seven planets, or ancient mythological deities.

In heaven, “seven” is of particular shade of meaning in the formation of the constellation of the Pleiades – the daughters of Atlas (six of which are visible and one invisible). Number Seven with its characteristic quality synthetic seen as a symbol of transformation and interaction of all hierarchical orders in general. Hence the seven notes of the diatonic series, the seven colors of the rainbow, the seven planetary spheres, and seven terms. ”

Is an interesting correlation with the number seven astrological planets and general properties. You must see how the principle is sevenfold in correlation with the ideas of astrology. So according to Kerlota “septenary taken as divided by the number of two and five, and sometimes their connection (Sun, Moon – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) or the separation between” three “and” four “(and their connection) (Sun, Moon, Mercury – Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). ”

Agni Yoga septenary says quite a lot, claiming that it is the main principle of numerical symbolism.