The crane walks nine paces before it takes wing, and per­haps it was its foot­prints that inspired man to write. Nine is a pecu­li­ar num­ber, accord­ing to Pythagoras the limit of num­bers, the last of the first num­bers, after which the digits only repeat. If we mul­tiply it by any num­ber and then reduce the res­ult, we always get nine, for example 9 × 2 = 18 and 1 + 8 = 9. Moreover, every num­ber that reduces to nine is also divis­ible by nine.

Nine is a sac­red num­ber, the num­ber of ful­fil­ment and com­ple­tion, the sym­bol of wis­dom and of sound guid­ance. The magic square of the Moon is 9 × 9. In China it is the most aus­pi­cious num­ber, the ninth day being the birth­day of the Jade Emper­or, ruler of Earth and heav­en, and both the heav­ens and the under­world con­sist of nine spheres each. For the Jews it is the emblem of truth, its writ­ten char­ac­ter sig­ni­fies a hid­den bless­ing, and the numer­ic­al value of the let­ters in the word for truth is nine as well.

We get an inter­est­ing num­ber pyr­am­id if we write the stead­ily length­en­ing oper­a­tions one beneath the other, begin­ning with 1 × 8 + 1 = 9, then 12 × 8 + 2 = 98, 123 × 8 + 3 = 987 and so on, through nine steps in all. It is worth exper­i­ment­ing.

3 × 3 is a threefold trin­ity, the threefold power of cre­ation – ful­fil­ment and omni­po­tence. A triad, begin­ning and end, the heav­enly sphere, but the earthly para­dise too. The angels also num­ber nine, and Pseudo-Dionysi­us the Areo­pa­gite divides them into three times three groups: in the first choir are the cher­ubim, the ser­aph­im and the thrones, in the second the domin­ions, vir­tues and powers, while in the third choir are the prin­cip­al­it­ies, the archangels and the ordin­ary angels.

In Egypt the Heli­opol­it­an Nine (ennead) denotes the circle of gods formed by the cre­at­or god (Atum) and his des­cend­ants. Plotinus, per­haps the greatest Neo­pla­ton­ist philo­soph­er, summed up his teach­ings in groups of nine, the Enneads. From nine points sketched in the shape of an X one can con­struct the labyrinth from which man is sure to find the way out.

For man, what mat­ters most of all is the nine months of foet­al exist­ence. These do not make up a full yearly cycle, it is true, and man must ful­fil the remain­ing three months in spir­it, once he is born. Nine is the num­ber of exper­i­ence and self-aware­ness, hence also of self-exam­in­a­tion and reflec­tion, and it is a sym­bol of seek­ing coun­sel as well. Any­one with a nine in the date of birth is coun­ted a reli­able, stead­fast per­son. Nine is the num­ber of ascend­ing wis­dom, and it also embod­ies secret exist­ence, the unity of body-soul-spir­it. The human organ­ism – which is the instru­ment of self-per­fec­tion – also has nine gates: the open­ings of the body. At the level of per­fec­tion they are illumined by a spe­cial spir­itu­al light.

The Nine Unknown

A secret soci­ety at the court of Emper­or Ashoka, in ancient India. Delib­er­ately keep­ing aloof from reli­gious, social, polit­ic­al move­ments, in per­fect con­ceal­ment, the Nine Unknown embod­ied the wis­dom of high­er aware­ness. These nine sages, as lords of human fates, watch civil­isa­tions form, crumble, re-form. Never abus­ing their power, they exist in hid­den glory, in strict silence, which is itself the meas­ure of human great­ness. They fol­low the fate of the uni­verse not with indif­fer­ence but rather with for­bear­ance and good­will, always ready to help.

Ancient Indi­an astro­nomy knew nine plan­ets, to which nine gem­stones are assigned: Sun and ruby, Moon and pearl, Mars and coral, Mer­cury and emer­ald, Jupiter and topaz, Venus and dia­mond, Sat­urn and blue sap­phire, and the lunar nodes: Rahu – moon­stone or zir­con, and Ketu – sardonyx.