Numbers

I see the One,

Brahma,

The deus absconditus,

The aleph,

The Ain Sof;

I see the Two,

The I and Thou,

The systole and diastole,

Male and female,

The mysterium tremendum and the mysterium fascinans,

The Bismillah,

Yin and yang,

Ahura Mazda and Ahriman,

Yesod and Shekhinah,

Siva and Shakti,

The rain-making twins,

The vita contemplativa and the vita activa;

I see the Three,

The beginning, the middle and the end,

The three wishes,

The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,

Anu, Enlil and Ea,

Isis, Osiris and Horus,

The three worlds of Midgard, Asgard and Niflheim,

The three primary colours,

The three aspects of Hekate,

The three gods Brahma, Vishnu and Siva,

The three Moiras,

Tamas, rajas and sattva,

The three gates of the Temple of the Grail,

The three ways of Manichaeism,

Acids, bases and salts,

Mass, power and velocity,

Spirit, soul and body,

The three degrees of the Sufi soul,

The soul that incites to evil,

The blaming soul

And the soul at peace,

The three tunes Al-Farabi played on his lute,

Islam, iman and ihsan,

Haram, halal and mushabbih,

The tripartite sayings of the Sufis,

The Tripitaka,

Tres faciunt collegium,

The Englishman, the Irishman and the Scotsman,

The trident,

The triple thunderbolt,

The triptych,

The triangle,

The trivium,

Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo,

The three sons of Adam,

The three Magi,

The Third Reich,

The Third Rome,

The ternary histories of Joachim of Fiore and Ibn Khaldun,

The threefold blowing of the shofar,

The note that ascends to heaven,

The note that breaks it

And the note that cleaves it,

The lucky three-coloured cat,

Shanti shanti shanti,

Wallahi, billahi, tallahi,

The three lions on the England football shirt,

The three brothers in the fairy-tale,

The riddle posed three times,

The tintal rhythm of Indian music,

The waltz;

I see the Four,

The four phases of the moon,

The four cardinal points,

The cross,

The square,

The Tetragrammaton,

The four animals of Ezekiel’s vision,

The four arms of Shiva,

The four Gospels,

The four rivers of Paradise,

The four humours,

The four seasons,

The four Righteous Ones of Islam,

Shari’a, tariqa, haqiqa, m’arifa,

The four ages of the world,

Atsilut, beriah, yetsirah, asiyah,

Artha, kama, dharma, moksha,

The four Hindu castes,

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

On their steeds white, red, black and sallow;

I see the Five,

The five senses,

The pentagondodecahedron,

The starfish,

Ishtar,

Venus,

The pentagram,

The epagomeneia,

The lustrum,

The five Chinese elements,

The five Ancient Ones of China,

The five-headed Hanuman,

The five sacred objects of the Sikhs,

The Hand of Fatima,

The Pentateuch,

The quintets of the Persian poets,

The quinta essentia,

The five wounds of Christ,

The five Pillars of Islam,

The five archangels of the Ismailis,

A perfume called Chanel No.5;

I see the Six,

The six days of Creation,

The Crucifixion of Christ at the sixth hour of the sixth day,

The Amesha Spentas,

The hexagram,

The six-winged seraphim,

The hexagonal snowflake and beehive;

I see the Seven,

The seven days,

The seven seas,

The trivium and quadrivium,

The seven ages of man,

The seven storeys of the Babylonian ziggurat,

The seven veils of the statue of Mary

In the shrine of Venus Eryeina in Sicily

That are lifted but once a year,

The seven stars of the Pleiades,

The seven halls of the Ancient Egyptian netherworld,

The seven steps of Solomon’s Temple,

The menorah,

The Seventh Seal,

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit,

The seven deadly sins,

The seven sacraments,

The seven joys and seven sorrows of Mary,

The seven strings of Apollo’s lyre,

The seven tones in an octave,

The seven hills of Rome,

The septemviratus of ancient Rome,

The seven gates of the Mithraic mysteries,

The seven branches of the World Tree,

The seven circumambulations of the Kaaba,

The seven styles of Persian calligraphy,

The Seven Sleepers,

The seven chakras,

The seven lata’if,

The seven saints of Marrakech,

The seven voyages of Sindbad,

The seven imams of the Ismailis,

The seven flames of Agni,

The seven Seals of Solomon,

The seven distillations of alchemy,

The seven-headed hydra,

The seven birthplaces of Homer;

I see the Eight,

The eight paradises of Islam,

The eight-pointed star of Ishtar,

The day of circumcision,

The day of the Resurrection,

The eight-petalled lotus,

The eight Immortals of China,

The eight-legged steed of Odin, Sleipnir;

I see the Nine,

The nine years of the siege of Troy,

The ninth hour, when Christ died,

The nine orders of angels,

The nine-storeyed pagodas of China,

The nine skies of the Mongol shamans,

The nine Muses,

The nine steps leading to the Heavenly City,

The nine rivers of the Mayan underworld,

The nine days and nights Odin hung on the tree,

The nine Valkyries,

The nine meanders of the River Styx,

The feast of Apollo in Delphi every ninth year;

I see the Ten,

The tetraktys,

The Ten Commandments,

The ten books of the Rig Veda,

The ten sefirot of the Kabbalah,

The ten generations between Adam and Noah,

The ten archangels of the Ismailis,

The tenth of Muharram in Karbala;

I see the Eleven,

The men of the football team,

The Rhineland Carnival’s beginning;

I see the Twelve,

The signs of the zodiac,

The twelve apostles,

The twelve days of Christmas,

The twelve imams of the Shia;

I see the Thirteen,

The thirteenth disciple,

The thirteen infernal hierarchies,

The magic square of Mars,

The thirteen heavens of ancient Mexico;

I see the Fourteen,

The fourteen days to full moon,

The fourteen parts of the dismembered Osiris,

The fourteen innocent saints of the Shia,

The fourteen sun letters and fourteen moon letters of the Arabic alphabet,

I see the Fifteen,

The fifteen gates of Nineveh,

The fifteen priests of ancient Rome

Permitted to consult the Sibylline Books,

The fifteen mysteries of the Virgin Mary;

I see the Sixteen,

The sixteen signs of beauty in India,

The sixteen incantations when preparing soma,

The sixteen classical Arabic meters;

I see the Seventeen,

The seventeenth day of the seventh month

When Noah landed on Ararat,

The seventeen syllables of the hexameter,

The seventeen letters of the greatest name of Allah,

I see the Twenty-Two,

The letters of the Hebrew alphabet,

The twenty-two connections of the sefirot,

The arcane of the tarot,

The prayers of the Avesta;

I see the Thirty-two,

The cards in a pack of cards,

The pieces on a chessboard,

The paths of wisdom in the Kabbalah,

The points of the compass;

I see the Forty,

The forty days’ of the Pleiades’ disappearance,

The forty aspects of Saturn, star of Judah,

The years of the Israelites in the desert,

The days of Moses on Mount Sinai,

The hours of Christ in the tomb,

The years of the Mahdi on earth,

The number of the Prophet Muhammad,

The days of the Sufi’s retreat;

I see the Sixty-four,

The sixty-four arts of the Kamasutra,

The sixty-four pleasures of Shiva,

The squares of the chessboard,

The hexagrams of the I Ching;

I see the Seventy-two,

The seventy-two names of Yahweh,

The seventy-two disciples of Christ,

The seventy-two saints of China,

The seventy-two Cathar bishops,

The seventy-two Muslim sects,

The seventy-two chapels in the Temple of the Grail.