Chapter xiii. Of the Number Ten, and the Scale thereof.

The number ten is called every number, or an universall number, compleat, signifying the full course of life: for beyond that we cannot number, but by replication; and it either implies all numbers within it self, or explains them by it self, and its own,

by multiplying them: wherefore it is accounted to be of a manifold Religion, and power, and is applyed to the purging of souls. Hence the Ancients called Ceremonies Denary, because they that were to be expiated, and to offer sacrifices, were to

abstain from some certain things for ten dayes. Whence amongst the Egyptians it was the custome for him that would sacrifice to Io, to fast ten dayes before, which Apuleius testifies of himself, saying, It was commanded that I should for the space of

ten dayes refrain all meat, and be fasting. There are ten sanguine parts of man, the Menstrues, the Sperm, the Plasmatick spirit, the Mass, the Humours, the Organicall body, the vegetative part the sensitive part, reason, and the mind. There are also ten

simple integrall parts constituting man, the bone, cartilage, nerve, fibre, ligament, artery, vein, membrane, flesh, skin. There are also ten parts of which a man consists intrinsecally; The spirit, the brain, the lungs, the heart, the liver, the gall, the spleen,

the kidnies [kidneys], the testicles, the Matrix. There were ten Curtains in the Temple, ten strings in the Psaltery; ten musicall instruments with which Psalms were sang, the names whereof were, Neza, on which their Odes were sang, Nablum, the

same as Organs, Mizmor, on which the Psalms, Sir, on which the Canticles; Tehila, on which Orations, Beracha, on which Benedictions, Halel, on which Praises: Hodaia, on which Thanks, Asre, on which the Felicity of any one, Hallelujah, on which

the praises of God only, and Contemplations. There were also ten singers of Psalms, viz. Adam, Abraham, Melchisedech, Moses, Asaph, David, Solomon, and three sons of Chora, there are also ten commandments; And the tenth day after the ascension

of Christ the Holy Ghost came down. This lastly is the number, in which Jacob wrestling with the Angel all night overcame, and at the rising of the Sun was blessed, and called by the name of Israel. In this number Joshua overcame thirty one Kings,

and David overcame Goliath, and the Philistines, and Daniel escaped the danger of the Lions. This number also is as circular as unity, because being heaped together, returns into a unity, from whence it had its beginning, and it is the end, and

perfection of all numbers, and the beginning of tens. As the number ten flows back into a unity, from whence it proceeded, so every thing that is flowing is returned back to that from which it had the beginning of its Flux. So water returns to the Sea,

from whence it had its beginning, the body returns to the Earth, from whence it was taken; time returns into Eternity, from whence it flowed, the spirit shall return to God that gave it; and lastly, every creature returns to nothing, from whence it was

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa: Occult Philosophy. Book II. (part 2)

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created, neither is it supported but by the word of God, in whom all things are hid; and all things with the number ten, and by the number ten, make a round, as saith Proclus, taking their beginning from God, and ending in him. God therefore that first

unity, or one thing, before he communicated himself to inferiours, diffused himself into the first of numbers, viz. The number three, then into the number ten, as into ten Ideas, and measures of making all numbers, and all things, which the Hebrews

call ten Attributes, and account ten divine names; For which cause there cannot be a further number. Hence all tens have some divine thing in them, and in the Law are required of God as his own, together with the first fruits, as the originall of things,

and beginning of numbers, and every tenth is as the end given to him, who is the beginning, and end of all things.

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