EXPLORACIÓN DE LOS DATOS
3.3. ANÁLISIS GRÁFICO
Chapter 9
T
he mystical numbers of the Venus kamea are seven, forty-nine, 175, 1225. We have examined the Star of Venus in chapter four. The vault of Brother C. R., the legendary founder of the Rosicrucian Order, was said to have seven sides and seven corners—the ground plan of a heptagon (figure 9-A). The Rosicrucian manuscript Fama Fraternitatis says the sides of this vault (which concealed his incorruptible body) measured five by eight feet.In his True and Invisible Rosi-crucian Order, Case notes that these three numbers taken together (seven, five, eight) have the numeration of the word for copper, the metal of Venus (NChShTh).
The boundary of the ground plan for the vault was seven by four, and four is the number often attrib-uted to Venus as Daleth, since it is the fourth letter in the alphabet. In Rosicrucian symbolism, it signifies not only the door which gives entrance to the vault of Brother C. R., but is an image
Figure 9-A
Figure 9-B Figure 9-C
of the door to eternal life, Brother C. R. having conquered death. St. Paul once said that death was the last adversary, a motto Dr. Case was fond of quoting.
Seven multiplied by four is twenty-eight, the theosophic extension of seven, the planet Venus. The flower of Venus is the rose, and is the major symbol of both Rosicrucianism and the Golden Dawn. In the Islamic tradition, seven represented the planetary sphere of Venus as well as Universal Nature. Seven is a quarter division of the cycle of twenty-eight days and becomes the rhythm of a week. It is a particularly feminine planet in all cultures.
Magical squares were important to Islamic magicians, and Mulhammad himself once said, "Praise be God the Creator who has bestowed upon man the power to discover the significance of numbers. " In the book Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach, (1983) Keith Critchlow notes that:
Figure 9-D Figure 9-E
It is in the sense of finding the perfection of a "thing" that we might best understand both the pattern and effectiveness of a magic square... Far more significance than is normally realized outside Islam resides in the magical properties of the number pat-terns lying within the warp and weft of the great carpet tradition (p. 42).
Many of the elegant designs produced by these master weavers were determined by the symmetry of the numbers on the squares. For example, the Venus kamea in figure 9-B shows the arrangement of odd versus even numbers. It is interesting to note that the original design given by Agrippa fits quite well on this kamea, if the symmetry is repeated all around, and if the design is turned on its side. (Compare with figure 9-C. ) From this symmetrical pattern alone many beautiful designs can emerge.
The seal that is created when we trace the line through theosophic extension of the numbers is represented in figures 9-D and 9-E, which can be done in more than one flashing color tablet using green and red. In this magic square (see figure 9-F), the cells that are geometrically opposite always total fifty, one of the secret numbers of Mother Binah and also the value of the letter Nun. The middle cell, which reduces to seven, is twenty-five, or the square of five, which is the number of Mars, the mythological com-plement of Venus. The student will note they also have comcom-plementary colors.
We are including alternate kameas of Venus in figures 9-G and 9-H, if the student is interested in tracing their seals, figure 9-G produces an interesting but asymmetrical seal that conceals a five-pointed star enclosed within the heart of the design, which, in Qabalah is the symbol for Mars, showing again their playful complementarity. I discov-ered quite by accident a design in Waite's Book of Ceremonial Magic (p. 204) called "The Seal of Astaroth, " which looks remarkably like this seal (see figure 9-I). In fact, Astaroth, also called Astarte and Ashtoreth by the ancient Hebrews, was the same as the goddess Ishtar, the morning star, or Venus. She represented the spirit of sexuality and fertility.
Figure 9-F: Agrippa's Kamea Figure 9-G: Alternate Kamea
The keywords for seven are equilib-rium and mastery. On the Tree of Life, Net-zach means Victory. The pillars on the Tree, Jahkin-Boaz, which represent bal-anced equilibrium, have a value of 175, one of the magical numbers of the kamea, and the seventh card in most Tarot decks is the Chariot, or Victory (see figure 9-J). Fur-thermore, the sphinxs drawing the chariot, one black and the other white, symbolically point to the two pillars as well. The mytho-logical figure of Venus is often represented as riding a chariot drawn by doves.
The ancient Pythagoreans attributed the number seven to Athene, a warrior goddess who also ruled craftsmanship.
This number was thought to be important in the dynamic symmetry of art and in the actual structure of physical forms throughout the universe. One of the words that equals seven when the letters are added together is bahdah (BDA), which means to form, fashion, or produce something new.
Most students will know that Venus is most often associated with desire, often thought of in erotic terms. In Qabalah, the balance represented by the number seven is brought about by attaining mastery over the desire nature. This has nothing to do with
Figure 9-H: Alternate Kamea
Figure 9-1 Figure 9-J
repression. It simply means that we control it, it doesn't control us. This lower desire nature, which is always hun-gry for things, is the object of many sublimation tech-niques, especially in eastern yogas. In the western tradition, the emphasis is on polarity. Dion Fortune once said that we cannot understand sex until we understand the principle of polarity, which is really an interchange of magnetism.
To really comprehend the Sphere of Nogah, or Venus, is to be empowered by the spiritual experience called Vision of Beauty Triumphant. It combines the ideas of power (Mars) with beauty (Venus), and hints at their proper relationship. The virtue which naturally results from this proper relationship is Unselfishness.
As we said earlier, the rose is a symbol of Venus, and when it is pictured as centered on a cross of six squares, formed by opening out a cube, it reveals the true emblem of the Rose-Cross (see figure 9-K). It is a symbol of the perfect coordination of desires (the rose) with the basic pattern of creation (the cross). The rose in the center represents equilibrium and balance of all the forces of nature. An ancient Rosicrucain motto was:
"My victory is in the Rosy-Cross. "
The figure of Brother C. R., because he represented true adeptship, or one who had conquered death (which is represented by the letter Nun in the Death key of the Tarot [see figure 9-L]), was often referred to as the Lamb. In the Book of Revelations, the Lamb with seven horns had the power to open the Book of seven seals. There have been many interpretations of this passage, but the most obvious one points to the seven seals that are connected to the seven planetary deities, over which the
Figure 9-K
Lamb had authority.
The value in Latin for Lamb (agnus) is fifty-six, and this number is emphasized in Rosicrucian teaching as being the length, in feet, of the seven vertical lines bounding to the vault of Brother C. R. In the adaptation of the gematria to the German alphabet, often used in Rosicrucian texts, it stands for the word Alchimia, or.
Alchemy. In Latin gematria, the "gold of the philoso-phers" (aurum philosophorum) equals 231, which is the, number of gates connected to the Sephiroth. This num-ber also equals "dawn of the philosophers" (aurora philosophorum), a hidden reference to the true Golden Dawn. The 231 gates are all of the possible two-letter combinations of the Hebrew Letters, a hint that a prac-ticing Qabalistic philosopher should perhaps explore
these hidden gates. Figure 9-L
We have mentioned that there is an intimate relation-ship between Venus, or Daleth, the Door (represented in Tarot by the Empress [see figure 9-M]), and Nun, which in the Qabalistic scheme is connected to Scorpio (ruled by Mars). Here is clothed one of the greatest secrets of occultism. It has to do with transmutation of the life force at the throat center, ruled by Venus. This transformation is allegorically portrayed in Tarot by Nun, Death, which, since it is connected to Scorpio, rules the sexual organs. In the image developed by Dr. Case, the skeleton figure in this Tarot key has a crook in his neck to represent the change in energy flow at the Venus chakra. Dr. Case tells us this mystery is also connected to the number 700, thought to be very sacred in the Zohar. This joining of the forces of Mars and Venus is the true nature of the alchem-ical Great Work.
Figure 9-M
Figure 9-N: The Pillars
Figure 9-O: Agrippa's Kamea in Hebrew