We have already seen that the parts of 10 = 8 and commented that where 10 is the completion of the numerical series before a new scale begins, so 8 is the establishment in the material world of the First Cube. Both of these represent a degree of manifestation which is somehow entire. What began with 4 as the cross has extended to the third dimension in 8, and in doing so has drawn a distinction between the ideal (plane or intellectual) and the manifest worlds. 9 as the second square represents the first truly ‘mental’ realm. Fitting then, that it should be followed by 10 – completion.
So material extension is witnessed as carre-form, fourfold, extending in each direction of the plane, in each of the three planes of the vertical and horizontal. The cross extended up and down as well as outwards s a 6 branched cross.
When we look at the great cube we find that 9 lesser cubes show two faces, and 3 x 9 show a single face. But central to them all is the single cube which shows three faces. Here again we find 10 is equated with 8. This is fascinating to me.
There has long been a debate in Britain about decimalisation and the loss of subtlety it represents. Before the pound was decimalised there were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. The merchant needed to know his or her 12 times table and 20 times tables. To confuse things further there was a guinea which was twenty one shillings, though in my lifetime these were rarely used other than in horse racing.
Similarly with measurement there were 12 inches to a foot and 3 feet to the yard. These are all sacred measurements and go back, I understand, to Egyptian times and beyond. But they have all been lost now and as my generation dies out they will be lost forever other than in history books.
But so what? comes the cry. To answer this we need to reflect on what they each represent. In truth it is not so much the consideration of 20 or 3 we need to look at but 12.
When a circle is drawn it is contained by 6 circles of the same radius about itself. These each touch the circumference of the contained circle and one circle either side of themselves. This demonstrates that in the planar world of the circle the hexagonal form dominates.
However when we come to draw a sphere and contain it in a like manner we discover it is not 6 but 12 spheres of the same diameter which contain the innermost. Since the sphere is taken as the symbol of the celestial worlds, as the circle is of the soul, we find that the battle between 10 and 12 is a much more subtle one than at first appears. It is the struggle between the material world and the inspiriting world. Perhaps we should not lightly let go our past conventions when they contain such hidden wisdom.