The Secret Science of Numerology\ Ogdoad //
Any group or set of 8 is called an Ogdoad. The Gnostics of old por-
trayed this by eight stars for it was sacred to them. To philosophers, the
Ogdoad is the first cube of energy having eight angles. The number 8 was
considered the only “evenly even” number between 1 and 10, meaning it
could be divided by any other lower number and not leave a remainder.
This was also true of 4 except that 4, unlike 8, could not make a three-
dimensional figure. And so 8 proved to them that idea produces form:
God “geometrizes”(The Pythagorean Triangle, 191).
The Ogdoad is like a double mirror that sees (understands) both
worlds, so it represents good judgment. It stood for justice because it
could be divided into equal parts. 8 on its side represented the scales: ∞,
a symbol that has always stood for man being equal under the law. “False
scales are an abomination to the Lord but just weights are his delight”
(Proverbs: 11:1).
The ∞ was also a pictorial symbol of the orbital movement of plan-
ets and their regular and constant serpentine paths in the Universe.
Because they were always perfect, it came to mean perfection (Morals
and Dogma, 635).
The 8 also referred to time because it depicts the hourglass, which the
ancients used to measure time.
Because the 8, like the O, can be written over and over without lifting
the pen from the page, it symbolizes divine power and material power; the
higher “As Above” flowing serpentine into the lower “So Below.” So 8 is
the symbol of all coiled, intertwining serpentine and scroll forms (Nu-
merology and the Divine Triangle, 146).
There is a discovery known as “The Law of Octaves” in modern
chemistry. John A. Newlands was making a list of the elements accord-
ing to their atomic weights and found that every eighth element had a
definite repetition of characteristics. (The Secret Teachings of All Ages,
LXXXII).
This is also true of colors and of sound; when one octave of music
ends and another begins, there are twice as many vibrations as there were
in the first octave and three times as many in the third. There are seven
notes in the scale, the eighth making the octave that vibrates at twice the
rate of the first and in distinct unity of pitch on a higher level.