The significance of 10

BY MICHAEL THOMPSON Observer TEENage writer UWI

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

JANUARY 1 saw the dawn of a new year filled with new expectations for some and continuity for others. For you, our valued readers, TEENage has decided to give you a round-up of what the number 10 means and hope you can draw some inspiration from it.

Symbolism

1 Represents the Creator and the creation, 3 + 7, the Trinity resting in the expressed universe.

2 For Pythagoras, 10 was the symbol of the universe and it also expressed the whole of human knowledge.

3 Sum of 5+5, the number 10 represents the two opposite current directions of the conscience: involution and evolution.

4 Represents the first couple, the marriage: 1 = the man, 0 the egg fertilised by the 1. The 10 gives the indication of a spiritual regression since the marriage is a consequence of the fall of the man.

5 The number 10 is regarded as the most perfect of numbers, because it contains the Unit that did it all, and the zero, symbol of the matter and the Chaos, of which all came out; it then includes in its figure the created and the non-created, the beginning and the end, the power and the force, the life and the nothing.

Biblical

1 The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles 10 days after the Ascension of Jesus.

2 The 10 plagues of Egypt sent by God by the intermediary of Moses, according to the Bible: the water changed into blood, the frogs, the midges, the big flies, the plague on the animals, the epidemic of ulcer and tumours, the hail and the thunder, the grasshoppers, the three darkness days, finally the death of the firstborns in each Egyptian family. (Ex 7-11)

3 The Ten Commandments of God given to Moses. (Ex 20,1)

4 God moved back the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz of 10 degrees as a sign that He was going to deliver Hezekiah from his mortal sickness and the city where he was. (Is 38, 1-8)

5 The 10 horns of the Beast of the Revelation with the 10 diadems on each of the horns. (Rev 13, 1)

General

1 The man is the tenth hierarchy of the 'celestial chorus' that will replace, after the last judgement, the rebellious angels.

2 The payment or the tenth of Tithe would be originally an expression of divine right.

3 In the past, the Roman year had only 10 months, beginning in March and finishing in December. The Romans divided these lunar months into three parts which they called calends, nones and 'ides'.

4 There are 10 various regions of the universe corresponding to the 10 various psychic parts of the man.

5 Each of the 36 parts of the astrological Zodiacs is divided into 10 degrees.