Have you noticed the forthcoming date of interest? A magickal mystical date of note? Well perhaps it is... we shall have to wait and see if it is... You've not noticed it? What date is it? It is the 10th of October 2010. What is so special about that you may wonder... well, OK.. I'll put it another way then..
10.10.10. See?
Now surely that does not happen very often does it? To answer my own question... nope...it does NOT and it will not do so again for a good many years hence.. long, long after we are all dead, our children are dead, even their grandchildren are dead. Scary thought isn't it... that is a L>O>N>G time. So, is this significant? Are we lucky to be living to see this?
Well, if you like numbers, or are spiritually inclined then you might be apt to thinking so. I remember thinking something similar on my birthday, 20th January 2001... I thought that I was lucky to be celebrating my big day on that date. 20.01.2001. It probably slipped by unnoticed by many other people though. However, 10.10.10 seems a biggie to me...although to others it will just be a number and nothing unusual.. just a quirk of fate.
What does a ten mean?
A tarot reader like me, would instantly say tens mean completion or the end of a cycle. A mathematician would say ten is one of just four 'perfect numbers' (3, 7, 10, 12) and that ten means the end of one series and the beginning of another..ie 11 and onwards. It is said to signify divine order and it creates decimals to build on.
More simply it is the stronghold of our lives.. there are ten main regions on our planet and the number ten creates our decades, centuries and even our millennia. It used to be that our year had only ten months until someone clever came along to give out more birthdays! :D We also celebrate our special anniversaries by the tens.
In the UK, the Prime Minister lives at number 10 Downing street. Did you know that the 10 used to be part of 3? Two perfect numbers! Yes, 10 Downing Street used to be three homes, but was knocked into one. (and still they moan it is tooooo small!!) Ok... I little off topic there, but it is still interesting! Ten is ever present, hey we even have ten fingers.. well, hopefully.. and those fingers complete tasks just like other tens.
Looking at the numbers themselves, the One is the perfect creation of matter being born and a Zero is seen as completion because it is drawn as a total circle, yet it is also the Void, from where all matter comes! It would seem to be a reverent number, would it not, a ten?
The Bible references amounts in ten quite frequently, the most obvious being the ten commandments, ten plagues, ten nations and the ten 'I am' statements of Jesus. Ten is a significant number.
Ten is also important in many other religions.. so many I will not go into them all.. but in Judaic traditions most notably there is the Ten days of repentance that run from the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah to Yom Kippur). Upon completion of those ten days, the priest will say the name of God ten times. Yom Kippur is the day when God finalizes his Rosh HaShana decisions about who shall live and who shall die, who shall suffer and who shall prosper, in the coming year. Again with the end of a cycle and completions. Yom Kippur itself is even on the 10th day of the month. What is it about ten?
In Chinese 'Ancestor Veneration' traditions, after ten mortuary rites are given in our living world, the dead then move through ten courts of judgement within the underworld before any possible arrival of salvation. The family of the deceased have to complete rituals to ensure that each 'stay' in each of the ten courts is not too long. Again a process and completion. Again ten!
The Kabbalist Tree of Life symbol has ten esoteric points upon it which represent the process by which the Universe came into existence. The Tree of Life is often referenced to show the lineage from our human subconscious, all the way to our higher self or spirit and the matrix between them. Again a process and completion.
Even clever old Greek Pythagoras believed that ten was the number of the universe and expressed the whole of human knowledge. (Deep!) The Tetractys has a mathematical, mystical, sacred geometrical, complex meaning. The design of which holds significance for followers of the Kabbalah and Pythagoras.
In its simplicity, the Tetractys is a triangle, comprised of ten points that range from a base level and rise up in four rows to reach a point. It is a symbol of earthly man rising up to Spirit. (In contrast, the upside down triangle is Spirit reaching down into man). Symbol of triangles like these are seen on Tarot cards, for example.. the upward triangle is shown clearly in the card of Temperance. (Look at the Angels chest)
In fact the Tetractys is just one of many possible tarot layouts, with ten cards in a four row pyramid. The top apex card is the significator.
1 What you can see
2 What you can't see
3 What you can change
4 What you cannot change
5 What you can expect
Two interesting Tarot links:
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/D-tet.html
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=66985
Back to 10.10.10.
Is it a time for us to aspire to spiritual or just overall growth or 'perfection' in ourselves? Are we going to be cast into a new time, a new cycle where everything is fresh and we learn from our past efforts? Is this a call for our own personal evolution? Is it nothing at all? it has been on my mind.. as you can tell!! (*Ten times over!*).
Several years ago, I lost a friend on the 10th of October. I remember saying to him at the funeral parlour, 'Ten, Ten till we meet again'. Every year on that date, he is especially remembered. It is a date that always calls out to me. So, what of this year? More than any other year perhaps?
So in conclusion... we have many types of tens... and many more I have not mentioned! What can it all mean that ten is used in so many ways and so profoundly? Does it indeed mean anything at all? I am left to wonder what 10.10.10 will mean for me, for you, for mankind, for the planet.
Let's see... let me know!
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