Mark Swaney wrote:

> Okay, so I'm not getting any interesting e-mail . . .
>
> Hummmm .
>
> Let's see what can be done about that.
>
> 13, ok.
>
> Well, just why does the Tao Te Ching say that "there are
>
> 13 companions in life,
> 13 companions in death,
>
> and when a person passes from this life to the next,
> they are also accompanied by
>
> 13 companions?"
>
> Now, mind you, the question has two parts.
>
> First, what's the deal with the number 13? Mayans, Jewish Kabballists,
> and
> the Chinese seem to make religious/mathematical use of this number.
> And, a late
> addition to the brew is the traditional Tarot pack that has
>
> 13 as the number of the Death Card in the major arcana.
>
> Why should 13 be associated with life & death?
>
> Now, the second part to the question.
>
> The Tao Te Ching is not a novel that flows like stream of consciousness
> poetry.
> It is a definite, specific, discrete, numbered list of particular
> sayings.
> The TTC is an ancient and revered book of philosophy and belief.
>
> Is it too much to assume that the author had something specfic in mind
> when he/she
> wrote in his/her 50th "saying", 13 companions, etc, etc?
> 50 is an important number in the Chinese system.
> Evidence of this is found in the 50 yarrow stalks used in the E-ching
> oracle.
>
> Incidently, 1 of the yarrow stalks is traditionally put aside and not
> used, so that
> 49 yarrow stalks are actually divided and counted. Nevertheless, the
> total number
> of yarrow stalks is always 50, and 1 is always put aside. Compare with
> magic square
> formulas where the "magic number" is always a multiple of the base of
> X^2 + 1.
> Add to this the association, from over 3,000 years ago, of the 8 basic
> trigrams of the
> E-ching with the magic "Lo Shu" square of 3.
>
> It seems to me that the E-ching is based on an esoteric system of
> numerological
> belief, where numbers, and certain of their properties, were thought to
> provide
> insights into the fundamental truths of the universe. Magic squares
> seem to
> provide much of the inspiration of the system. Maybe they were on to
> something?
>
> Given the above observations,
>
> Why should 13 be associated with Life & Death?
>
> Murphy's Magicians

Seems to me it would have something to do with the cyclical nature of time.
There are twelve months to the year, 13 would be the starting place for a
new cycle, the death of the old and the birth of the new.

It doesn't seem to quite fit the 13 companions in life and 13 companions in
death saying though. Who are these companions?

The Lo Shu magic square represents the 8 directions -- 4 basic directions
and the 4 corners of the square, the intermdiate directions, SE, NW etc.
The ninth and middle square is also a direction, the center.

The directions are established by the movement of the sun from E to W. with
the help of the gnomon and the double vesica. So the directions are a
result of the cyclical nature of time, the alteration of day and night. We
have 2 12 hour cycles in our day, 13 would be the point of death for one and
birth for the other.

The association of the 8 trigrams with the 8 directions should tell you
which numbers in the Lo Shu magic square are related to which trigrams. Or
vice versa. Perhaps this would give you a clue to deciphering a lot of
Chinese number symbolism.

The vastu-purusha-mandala is a square of 81 subsquares with 9 subsquares on
each side. Take a Lo Sur magic sqaure of 3 and place a Lo Shu magic square
of 3 in each of its 9 subsquares and you have a 9 x 9 square of 81
subsquares. So the vastu-purusha-mandala is the Lo Shu square squared, or
seen in more detail.

Go, Mark, go.

And please post your results! Pretty please?


Dan W. and the magic lanterns.





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