Sacred Numbers 6, 7, and 8 in Esoteric Christian Tradition

"the world lies in evil". Therefore one must be vigilant of the 6 that springs from $2+4$. The Archeosopher and Archeosophist are part of the number 6, but which comes from $3 \times 2$, and therefore you are not of the world if you operate with these numbers. The 6 is the individual at the crossroads between good and evil. The Hebrew letter of 6 is the waw, one of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton. In the work called Stromata there is the volume Stromata VI,140,3-4 where sacred numbers 6, 7 and 8 are discussed, which help Clement of Alexandria explain the transfiguration based on arithmology. The Holy Father, master of Origen, dwells especially on the number 6 as the number and sign of Christ numbered as man, hidden as God. The graphic sign does not always appear and for particular reasons. As a man who became faithful to the sign of distinction, he dies on the cross at the sixth hour, that is around noon (cf. Luke XXIII, v.44). Clement of Alexandria's reasoning on the Stromata requires careful examination also through books VI,138 v.1-5 and 141,4. There are most precious passages about God's inheritance related to the seventh and eighth days that Clement of Alexandria knew very well and deeply the gnosticism that someone wanted to destroy by misrepresenting and dispersing the writings of those who knew, and among these the sixth book of the Hypotyposes. The transmission or didascalia of the masters, of which some fragment has been saved, sounds like this: "The Lord, after his resurrection, gave gnosis to James the Just, to John and to Peter; these gave it to the other apostles; the other apostles gave it to the seventy among whom was Barnabas" (sixth book of the Hypotyposes). The 6 recalls the 6 stone jars of Cana (John: 2,6). The 6: being composed of three plus three, was called "loving union", "peace", as well as "cosmos". Symbol of the entire universe. It was also called "health" or even "panacea", as well as "harmony of the soul". Six is also the number of creation according to Judeo-Christian symbolism, being 6 the days of creation. It is the advanced man. Saint Augustine specifies that God creates in 6 days because the number 6 is perfect. Using the number 9 we generate the primary decompositions of 6: $$6 + 9 = 15 \rightarrow 6 = 1 + 5$$ $$15 + 9 = 24 \rightarrow 6 = 2 + 4$$ $$24 + 9 = 33 \rightarrow 6 = 3 + 3$$ $$33 + 9 = 42 \rightarrow 6 = 4 + 2$$ $$42 + 9 = 51 \rightarrow 6 = 5 + 1$$ $$51 + 9 = 60 \rightarrow 6 = 6$$ Therefore: $$6 = 1 + 5$$ $$6 = 2 + 4$$ $$6 = 3 + 3$$ $$6 = 4 + 2$$ $$6 = 5 + 1$$ The Zayin or z of the Hebrew alphabet corresponds to 7, the perfect number of the hermetic androgynous Man. The perfectly realized Man, symbol of eternal life and dynamic perfection. The Bible and John's Apocalypse make many references to the number seven. It is the symbol of totality: we speak of the 7-branched Candlestick; seven spirits resting on the root of Jesse; seven heavens where the angelic orders dwell; every seven years servants were freed from bondage and debtors were no longer such. Tradition says that the wise king Solomon built the Temple in 7 years. John's Apocalypse refers to 7 churches, 7 stars, seven spirits of God, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, seven thunders, 7 heads, 7 cups, 7 plagues. For Saint Augustine, 7 is the "biblical totality". The addition of the first seven numbers gives $1+2+3+4+5+6+7 = 28$ which is always 7. In fact, adding $2 + 8 = 7$, a completed cycle of positive renewal. The rainbow has seven fundamental colors and Pythagoras's and Christians' diatonic musical scale reveals a septenary that regulates vibrations. Musical scales proceed by 7s. The 7 has indisputable magical power. Moral life is regulated by the septenary which is revealed by adding the 3 theological virtues: faith, hope and charity, and the 4 cardinal virtues: prudence, temperance, justice and strength. The physician Hippocrates stated: "the number seven, through its hidden virtues, maintains all things in being; it dispenses life and movement; 7 influences even celestial beings". Zechariah 3:9 refers to the seven eyes of God. The 7: Hippocrates "the number 7 through its hidden virtues maintains all things in being, dispenses life and movement, 7 influences even celestial beings". It was called "he who brings to completion", as well as "opportune moment" or "destiny". The Pythagoreans affirmed that 7 was not like other numbers and required special veneration, they called it the virgin number and associated it with the goddess of Wisdom Athena. Iamblichus calls it "angel" and at the same time "guardian". It is the symbol of the Hermetic Androgynous Man. Using the number 9 we generate the primary decompositions of 7: $$7 + 9 = 16 \rightarrow 7 = 1 + 6$$ $$16 + 9 = 25 \rightarrow 7 = 2 + 5$$ $$25 + 9 = 34 \rightarrow 7 = 3 + 4$$ $$34 + 9 = 43 \rightarrow 7 = 4 + 3$$ $$43 + 9 = 52 \rightarrow 7 = 5 + 2$$ $$52 + 9 = 61 \rightarrow 7 = 6 + 1$$ $$61 + 9 = 70 \rightarrow 7 = 7$$ Therefore: $$7 = 1 + 6$$ $$7 = 2 + 5$$ $$7 = 3 + 4$$ $$7 = 4 + 3$$ $$7 = 5 + 2$$ $$7 = 6 + 1$$ The Number Eight in esoteric Tradition: when Christianity appeared in the world with the dramatic event of Golgotha, it already had a Mosaic and Pythagorean interpretation, but with the esoteric Fathers the new Revelation was added that expanded the meaning of Numbers and Geometric forms already enunciated by Solomon in Wisdom, XI,22: "But you have arranged all things by measure, number and weight." Eight is universally the number of cosmic equilibrium. In the Pythagorean and Gnostic ogdoad it is a symbol of central balance and justice; it is material perfection living all spirit and light. It represents the eighth day that follows the six days of creation and the sabbath; it is the announcement of the eternal future era. If the figure 7 is particularly the number of the pre-Christian world and the Old Testament, 8 announces the beatitude of the future century and corresponds to the New. From number 8 begins a new octave in the ascending musical scale. This figure is very significant and is remembered by a character of great initiatic preparation who in 1899 signed himself P.F.G. Lacuria in Les Harmonies de l'être – Paris. According to Lacuria, number 8 is the "kingdom of heaven". The Author adds other considerations in support of his thesis as a Christian and Initiate. Eight in the language of the ancient Christian Fathers indicates some fundamental aspects of the "Mystery of Baptism" indissolubly linked to the "Mystery of eternal life" or "Mystery of the ogdoad", or mystery of number eight. Jesus Christ rises from the dead on the day of Helios, the eighth day, which became for Christians like the first day of the creation of the world. In ancient Pythagoreanism, number eight is the image of peace, perfection, the Eternal. According to Clement of Alexandria there is the eschatological moment at the end of the world when the spirituals will all find themselves in the Octenary with Wisdom, surrounded by their psychic soul; and the psychics will also enter, progressively gathered in the Septenary near the Demiurge moving towards the Octenary. So says Clement A. in Excerpta ex Theodoto in extracts 63-65. Then the Alexandrian returns to the subject in Stromata VI,107, when referring to the progression of the hierarchy of the visible church (deacons, priests and bishops), he says it is an imitation of that progression made of evangelical perfection and motivation in the kingdom of heaven that the initiates have acquired walking on the example of the apostles. Here the Father, following the esoteric tradition of the apostles to the benefits of the Octenary to await contemplation on God's holy mountain, that is in the highest church where the true realizators gather who go beyond to grasp the inheritance of the Octenary, instead of stopping in the septenary of quietude. This esoteric speaking which is reaffirmed in Stromata IV,109,2-3 reveals the mystery of seven and eight, in the sense that gnosis has two times to realize itself, abstaining from evil and performing good works, taking care first of all of oneself.