sdi: Oil painting of the Heliconian Muse whispering inspiration to Hesiod. (0)
sdi ([personal profile] sdi) wrote 2021-10-16 10:10 pm (UTC)

Huh, turns out Agrippa himself lays out the correspondences of the numbers. My interpretation of what he says (since he goes on rather at length, and mostly makes large lists of things), is:
  1. Unity. The generative principle. Leadership. Fire. Sol.
  2. The receptive principle. Balance. Polarity. Equity. Charity. Love. Marriage. Friendship. Society. Discord. Confusion. Mischief. Strife. Misfortune. Luna is referenced obliquely, as She forms a pair with Sol.
  3. Completion. Wholeness. Mercury is referenced obliquely, as Hermes Trismegistus (e.g. “possessing knowledge of the three worlds,” that is to say, “complete knowledge”).
  4. Foundations. Solidity. The process of unfolding or of being generated. Extent in space (four directions) and time (four seasons). Law. Justice. Jupiter is obliquely referenced as the chiefest of gods, having a four-letter name (Zeus?) and four wings (representing the extent of His domain?).
  5. Centrality. Versatility. Capability. Fortune. Favor. Mercury.
  6. Perfection. Self-sufficiency. Harmony. (This is derived from six being a perfect number: 1*2*3=1+2+3.)
  7. Majesty. Heights. Spirituality (as the three-fold soul joined to the four-fold body). Indivisibility (hence “mystery,” as something our intellect cannot dissect). Time itself (seven planets).
  8. Fullness. Success. Safety. Conservation.
  9. Imperfection or incompleteness (as falling short of 10).
  10. Universality.

(He goes on with a few numbers above 10, but it's pretty clear that 1-10 are considered primary.)

It's clear that this is the source of at least some of these associations. It is interesting that Agrippa only explicitly assigns planets to 1 (Sol) and 5 (Mercury).

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
(will be screened if not on Access List)
(will be screened if not on Access List)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting