fp Turks and Caicos

Well, if you read poetry, Dante's poem, "Divine Comedies" - perhaps the greatest Christian poem ever written - has 9 levels, which for him was significant, both as a beginning and an end. If you are a historian of cultures, then the Aztecs thought there were 9 stages for the soul to pass, to arrive at eternal rest. If, as I am, you are a Taoist, (lord my poor Christian mother) then you know the 9 nodes of the bamboo. If you did your Greek in elementary school, you would know that the mathematical sum of the Greek alphabet is 3999. That is 3 and three 999 and of course 3 is the square root of 9. In Latin, 9 also has significance, as the Latin word for nine is novem or novus, which means 'new' or more accurately something akin to "potential". And if you just want to repeat ole wives tales you would say a cat has "9 lives".

As to that last point, it may appear meaningless. However, the phrase mean to show that 9 is completion and the stages at which luck and chances run out. 9 therefore has long been regarded at the point of forgiveness, change, transformation and advancement.

Notwithstanding the above, there are some mathematical miracles which 9 produces. For those who are numerate, you know well, there is no such number as "10." And that 10, as it were, is merely a representation of addition between "1" and "9". As such, there is no number beyond 9, that does not in some way reference 9, or some multiple of 9, or some rooted subtraction from 9.


For example, 9 is a resilient number. You get 9 as a result if you took the total sum of any two-digits resulting when multiplied by any single-digit. That is the result will always equal 9. That is, if 9x3=27, then the 2 and the 7 when added gives you 9. Let's try again. if 9x2=18, then 1+8 if you added those two resulting numbers equals 9. Got it?


Let's try another way: as we said, 9 is resilient and ever-emerging. So if you multiply it by any two, three or four digit number, the aggregate of those numbers will equal 9. So that 9x124 =1116. So then 1+1+1+6 =9

Think about this as well, as many of you will know from the third grade with Bishop Eldon at the Parish Hall primary in Eight Mile Rock: if you took all the actual numbers from 1 to 9 and added them: so: 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9=45. Now take 45 and say 4+5=9.

I found this excellent demonstration by Elisabeth Haich. It deals with the numbers formed by the inverse of their representative digits and an unspecified number taken in sequence. So then: the mathematical phrase: 123456789 x 9 gives 9 reveal the number "1" 9 times as result or 1111111101. Ms. Haich follows this logic to its conclusion in the basic number sequence we learn as children:

0 x 9 + 1 = 1
1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 + 10 = 1111111111

Of course, there are other significances. St. Paul gives special references to 9 when he listed the 9 fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-possession. (See: Galatians 5:v22) He also listed the spiritual gifts from God: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing spirits, speaking tongues and the power of interpretation. (See: 1 Co 12: v4-11)

I have always regarded 9 as personal and to be a "root" identifier for personality. 9+9 is the proper age of majority and 9+9+9=27 and 2+7=9 and so constitutes the first circle of a person's life and is the stage at which he should have come to understand himself; where few, if any excuses are acceptable.

Indeed as if it were a prophesy, the 9th lettre of the English alphabet is "I". As such the number 9, resilient, and end and a beginning, the last chance and the first step is a compelling reference point for the self.

Or you could have just enjoyed the 252nd day of the year (2+5+2=9) as you would any day; as if you had 9 lives.