NUMBERS ARE SYMBOLS, NOT CONCEPTS
Ode #34 - Trans)Scribed Poetic Dictation, pN(e)umera Ode
[June happened. What a month it was! Much of it was defined by my work around the talk/workshop I gave titled “Poetry of the Depths: Mystics, Transcribes, & Psychologues” on June 6th. Then followed a series of intensive weeks, culminating in a small book’s worth of post-program materials. I am excited to share those with you all here: Poetry of the Depths | Materials (2026). These five documents go in depth into the lineage of inspired poetic transcription — thousands of years of work in a same (or similar) vein as my own. For those of you who are interested in what Jung has to say, I’ve also put together a comprehensive collection of his views on poetry and mystic~poets, covering over 50 years of his publications (1905 to shortly before his death in 1961). The Polyphony is a chorus of 30 of my favorite poet ancestors in this field of work, which may be of particular interest to readers here. And lastly, a pdf of my slideshow. I also have a recording of the program which I am very happy to offer to anyone who would like it. These materials all went out last weekend, June 27th. So it comes as little surprise that, not too long after, Avalonia sings to me again. GREAT GODDESS held court for longer than any other ode or missive to date (which seems correct to me in many regards). A full month. Just long enough for me to recover after my possessive research&composition interlude.
Today Avalonia sang in something of a collaborative spirit, perhaps echoing my conscious~choral efforts these past few weeks. This 34th Ode feels like an appropriate one to follow what transpired in June and to re~set the tone of what is to come. I am very fond of numbers — have been as long as I can remember. Marie-Louise von Franz wrote one of the great works on the subject called Number and Time (1974), wherein numbers are archetypes of order becoming conscious. I hear some of her in this ode, and Jung too on symbols. It brings me back as well to an earlier post of mine, On Dimensions, which put forth some of the dimensional~numerological cosmaps in my orbit. It is fascinating to me how each number can be so dynamic, circumambulatory, in the ways it points. Labyrinthine meanings, always a bit beyond grasp. Of course that is the mechanism of a symbol. To tease us, generatively~ ] Received 7/2/2026 | 1:29-2:19am
Companion Missive #34 - THE THRESHOLD (1/29/2024) — coincidentally, THE THRESHOLD (or rather, the last part of it) is one of the four works of mine I recited in the above program~
Listen to the Recitation:
NUMBERS ARE SYMBOLS, NOT CONCEPTS Symbols point past themselves, the best expression Of something that can't be fully known The part of the number arithmetic can't touch Symbols participate; concepts denote — Threeness is a living quality Arithmology, gematria, arcana Carrying resonance across a threshold: One is the circle, the dot, the infinite sphere, The center without circumference The circumference without center Neither odd nor even (or both) hen to pan — "One, the All" Two is the tolma, "Audacity" The primal act of daring By which One departs from itself The second day is the only one not called good Because division entered the world that day And yet too, contemplation, definition, identity Three means "many" — three strikes, strokes Trismegistus: "great, great, great" the superlative Repetition as divinization The separate come together "One becomes Two, Two becomes Three, And out of the Third comes the One as the Fourth" Maria Prophetissa's alchemical riddle The four pillars, the four directions, the four stages The group becomes a nation; the words a language And the languages, a tower of babel — the pillars Must come down Five, the endless knot, five fives interlocked The marriage number, the embodiment itself The four get a fifth inserted: Pentagrammaton The bright shining star falls at his feet The village knows it is from Her and cannot be lifted On his own — only together 6 is not perfect because of the six days; creation Occurred in six days because six is perfect One plus Two plus Three; Bees, "by a certain geometrical forethought", chose The hexagon The Seven gates of Inanna's descent, each stripping An ornament from the body — the seven apkallu Fish-cloaked sages who brought civilization Before the flood — "the lost pleiad", explanation Why only 6 of the 7 sisters can be seen One of humanity's oldest stories Ascent past the seven planetary archons Into the Ogdoad, the sphere of liberation — Baptismal fonts are octagons: the "eighth day" Stands outside the week; resurrection time Beyond time "Nights all nine" Odin hangs on Yggdrasil — The nine herbs charm: cure poisons, sickness, Snakebites; Beatrice, herself, is a Nine "A miracle whose root is the trinity" The wink at nonsense-edge 10 — the Pythagorean oath swore "By the one who gave the tetraktys", Source and root of ever-flowing nature; The antichthon, invisible Counter-Earth Brings the celestial bodies to Ten Eleven, the transgression — overstepping ten While falling short of twelve "Eleven is sin" The intercalary "dead days" number to Twelve The smoke nights when ghosts ride and dead walk The twelfth Imam is not dead but in occultation The Zohar opens with a rose of 13 petals The Thirteen attributes of divine mercy Surrounded by thorns; Grimm's court owned Only twelve golden plates; the thirteenth wise woman's Exclusion is the engine of the story. Maya made thirteen a sacred count, 13 heavens; The true number of lunations in a solar year Osiris is torn into Fourteen pieces; Isis recovers Only 13 — the fourteenth is eaten by a fish The fourteen nights of the waxing moon refill the eye David's name is 14 — a number-symbol Governing a text's architecture "Beautiful, complete" as the Zero-marker in construction Leveling and bookkeeping — nothingness Written as beauty. Śūnya was first metaphysical Before it was given arithmetic rules, including The forbidden act of dividing it
This month I learned about the Mayan counting system that uses dots and lines to represent amounts, but Nik (zero, null) is represented through a pictograph of a shell, seed, flower, or face.