Jack T. Chakhesang
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t sometimes is a wonder that numbers have some significance or the other in our every day lives. For today it is the number 5. Five is the number of the harmony and balance. It is also the number of the divine grace.
SYMBOLISM
It is said that the number five is a characteristic of the man. First, according to the Cabal, it is the number of the perfect Man (who got rid of the animal side). According to the Bible, it is the symbol of the Man-God by the five wounds of the Christ on the cross—for this reason it is also considered as the number of grace.But number five is also to the man in general (2+3) having an instable of character of duality—2; in spite of his divinity—3. The 5 is also found on the human body. For example, the five fingers of the hand and toes of the foot; the five senses such as touch, taste, sense of smell, hearing and the sight; the five bones forming the metacarpus, the metatarsi and the brain-pan, etc.
Considered as the mediator between God and the universe, the number five is a symbol of the universe; as also symbol of the will’s divine. From this it follows that five symbolizes the force and limits of the man in his control of the universe.
For the Mayan culture, five has been the symbol of perfection. It is symbol of the incarnated conscience—4, Matter, + 1, Spirit.
According to Thibaut of Langres, a scholar and teacher who contributed his share to the Renaissance and renewal of the 12th century, the number 5 is attributed to the world for some reasons. First because the world is moved following a circular movement, just as the 5 when we multiply it by itself or by the other odd ones returns periodically. In this sense it is called “periodical.” Five years make a luster, from “lustrare” which means “to make the turn.”
On the other hand, 5 is attributed to the world due to the fact that it is composed of the first even and odd numbers, 2 and 3. The world indeed, that is to say the whole of things, increases by the male and the female—even is female and odd is male.
Being the sum or rather the union of the first female number and the first male number, it is the symbol of creative life and erotic love according to psychoanalyst Carl Jung. But this one interprets also this number as that of the revolt.
In China, five is the number of the Centre in addition to be considered as a male number amulet.
According to Aeppli, five is the number of life and the nature.
For the Etruscans and Romans it is a nuptial number because it is the first number resulting from the addition of the first female number and the first male number. For the same reason, Agrippa calls it the number of the marriage.
For H.P. Blavatsky, “5 is the spirit of life and human love.”
BIBLICAL LINKS
The five wounds of Jesus on the cross.
The five parts of clothing remaining of Jesus during his crucifixion after the soldiers had made four parts of his dress, plus his tunic which they did not tear (John 19:23).
Saint Paul declares that five times he received the 39 lashes from the Jews (Corinthians 11, 24).
The five mad and wise virgins of the parable of Jesus (Matthew 25:1)
The five kinds of animals that God asked Abraham to present to him to conclude with him an alliance: a heifer of three years old, a goat of three years old, a ram of three years old, a turtledove and a young dove (Genesis 12:5-18).
The five books of the Torah (Jewish Law) according to Judaism corresponds to the number of the first books of the Old Testament in the Bible, or Pentateuch, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The number also corresponds to the Koran. This is so because the three religions spring from the same Hebraic roots.
Pentecost is the Christian festival celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus, held on Whit Sunday. It is also a Jewish festival that takes place fifty (or 5x10) days after the second day of Passover.
Pentecostal relates to a group of Christian Churches that emphasizes baptism of the Holy Spirit, evidence of which includes speaking in different tongues and healing.
Interestingly, the book of Lamentations also contains five chapters.
GENERAL REFERENCES
According to the Koran, God sent five wounds to Egypt by the intermediary of Moses. These were the flood, grasshoppers, lice, frogs and blood.
The five paths leaving from Calvary and directing to the whole world, according to the visions of Ann-Catherine Emmerick. According to her visions, the forbidden fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of the good and the evil of the Garden of Eden hung by five bunches.
In the visions of Maria Valtorta, Jesus classifies the kinds of love in five categories, each one of a different power and which are in this order—the love of God, the paternal or maternal love, the conjugal love, the love of the neighbour, the love of the science and lastly, the work. The first three are of higher power while the last three are of lower power.
But these six divisions are reduced to five because the love of the neighbour and the conjugal love are of identical nature even if they have not been the same force, the conjugal love being indeed only a particular case of the love of the neighbour.
In the revelation received by Don Stefano Gobbi, of the Marian Movement of Priests, it is question of five famous mountains climbed by Jesus: (1) It is on the mountain that he promulgated the evangelical law of the Beatitudes; (2) It is on the Thabor mount that he lived the ecstasy of the transfiguration; (3) It is to Jerusalem, city located on the mountain, that he gathered one’s people for the Last Supper and that he passed painful hours of his internal agony; (4) It is on the mountain of the Calvary that he consumed his sacrifice; and (5) It is on the Mount of Olives that happened his definitive detachments of one’s people by his glorious ascension to heaven.
A rosary of the Virgin Mary has five mysteries meditated. The practice of the five first Saturdays of the month, asked initially by the Virgin Mary to Lucy of Fatima on October on October 10, 1925.
In Lanciano, Italy, there exists a reliquary, since the 13th century, where is found a devoted host. While celebrating the mass, a priest came to doubt the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. However, right under his eyes, the devoted host becomes a slice of flesh, and the wine, blood which coagulated in five clots. The analyses, was undertaken between November 18, 1970 and March 4, 1971, by professors Limoli and Bertelli, from the faculty of Siena, in Italy, After examination of the host and the blood preserved since the 13th century, they concluded that there had been no modification!
The flesh is a slice of human cardiac muscle, resulting from the myocardium. The blood corresponds to the blood of which it would have been taken out of a human being the same day of the examination. And the five clots of blood, of unequal size, weigh all the same weight each one separately; and all together, put in the same plate of the balance, the weight remains identical without variation.
The “Dogons” are a tribe inhabiting the central plateau of Mali, West Africa. Their mythology has some themes which are similar to beliefs of other religions. For example, the bad angel Ogo revolts over Lucifer after having killed his twin sister as Cain had killed his brother Abel. The good angel Nomo, twin brother of Ogo, is crucified to save men from sin, but he resuscitates five days later, period as sacred as the week of Easter for Christians, and became the week of five days which is still practiced nowadays by the “Dogons.”
Other sources quote Jesus as saying that there are “five trees in the paradise that do not move in neither Summer nor Winter. Those who know them will not die.”
The five fundamental virtues: wisdom, love, truth, goodness and justice.
The five commandments of the Church: (1) to sanctify the feast days; (2) to assist the mass on Sunday and the feast days; (3) to confess sins at least once a year; (4) to receive the communion at least during Easter; and (5) to pay tithe to the Church—instead of that other versions speak about the respect of the obligatory feast days.
The Church also recommends five acts to believers before the Communion—the act of faith, love, humility, desire and hope.
The visions of the saints are classified according to five categories: (1) beatific or intuitive vision; (2) “abstract” vision; (3) intellectual vision; (4) imaginary vision and (5) the corporal vision.
The trip of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, for the birth of Jesus, lasted five days. They arrived on a Saturday, around four o’clock in the evening, according to visions of Mary Agreda.
The Greek philosophers admitted five principles in the man. These are body, animal soul, psyche, intelligence and divine spirit.
The five cycles of the Chinese lunar calendar comprising twelve lunar years each of which is named after an animal to form the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese also have a theory regarding five elements which are water, fire, wood, metal and ground (mud, dust).
For the Tibetans, the five elements are connected to five geometrical forms. These are the cube to the ground, the sphere to the water, the cone to the fire, the half-circle to the air and the flame to the ether.
The Aztecs (of Mexico) believe in the five suns or eras.
There is a martial art aspect wherein the most lethal is the “five-finger palm” explosion to the heart.
The five pillars of Islam are “Chahada”—profession of faith; “Salat”—ritual prayers; “Zakat”—legal alms; “Sawm”—fast of the Ramadan; and “Haj”—the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Islamic religion also has five “Takbirs” or formula of prayer. The Muslims insist that the prayer is done five times every day. Mohammad was five years old when his Abdallah father died.
In Hebrew, the number 5 means “seizure, contraction like the five fingers.” It is the matter seized by the most material of the five senses.
There is in Quebec, Canada, five Archbishoprics.
The spacial representation of the number 5 is the pyramid (5 summits with 5 faces) and also the pentagram (5 sides) so the man would be included there. Pentagram is also a five-pointed star drawn using a continuous line, used as a mystic and magical symbol.
Pentagon is a plane figure with five straight lines and five angles. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the US Department of Defense in Washington D.C.
Pentameter is a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet; while pentatonic is music consisting of a scale of five notes.
Pentathlon is an athletic event comprising five different events for each competitor.
The five reigns are elemental, mineral, vegetable, animal and human.
The five oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic) with the five parts of the geographical world: Europe, Asia, Africa, and America and Oceania.
In the continuation of fundamental numbers of 1 to 9, 5 is in the centre, as it is in the centre of the magic square using the first 9 numbers.
Anniversary of marriage: wood’s wedding.
GEMATRIA
Numerical value of the Hebrew letter “He” (the Not-Me) represents the passive principle by excellence. This letter represents, according to Charot “a solar ray pouring on the earth its beneficial rain of life” and it symbolizes the universal life, the breath of the man, the air, the spirit, the soul, all what is stimulating and vivifying. For the cabalist Eleazar of Worm, the letter “He” symbolizes “the breath.”
The number 5 is used 253 times in the Bible. In the Bible, 12 numbers are used 5 times. These are the numbers 28, 35, 38, 41, 62, 90, 110, 148, 700, 800, 80000 and 185000.
The number 5 is used three times in the Koran (Koran XVIII, 21; LVIII, 8; LXXXI, 15).
The words pagan, Christian, Pentecost and the name of Eve are used 5 times in the Bible. By five times in the New Testament we see Jesus pronouncing himself his own name (John 17:3; Acts: 9:5, 22:8; and 26:15; Revelation 22:16). Curiously, the Antichrist is not written in the Revelation, where he plays nevertheless so great a role. The word appears in the Bible only 5 times in the epistles of St. John.
In his book “The Name of Glory,” desIris, 1922, John-Mary Matthew enumerates five personages of the Bible who have carried the name of Jesus. They are:
(1) Jesus the Christ, Son of Mary;
(2) Joshua who entered the land of Canaan at the head of the Hebrews. In the Hebraic language, the name of Joshua—“Yehoshua” (Hosea)—is a derivative of “Yeshoua”, that is to say, Jesus (Numbers 13:16; Acts 7:45);
(3) Jesus, son of Eliezer, is mentioned in the genealogy of the Gospel of Luke. This Jesus would be a descendant of King David and related to the family of the Virgin Mary (Luke 3:29).
(4) Jesus, called Justus, was a Jew converted to Christianity and a collaborator of Paul of Tarsus (Colossians 4:11).
(5) And finally, the brigand Jesus Barabbas, mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. In some variations, we can read, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Christ?”
